Belated Video...

Just thought we'd share a fun video of the kids, swimming in November! Its just now starting to cool off in the mornings and evening... somewhere in the 60's... we love it! Although the people here seem to describe the weather as "freezing" but we know freezing; we lived in Illinois for 3 1/2 years! We are quite confident that when we come home to visit, we'll be the ones freezing since we're used to temperatures over 110 degrees 70% of the year. Enjoy the kids!

Goodbyes are so hard...

Our visit with Liz's family was so refreshing for us. We enjoyed our time with them, loved watching them love on Morgan and Micah and celebrated Thanksgiving with them as well. In between all of our visiting, we showed them around the Big City for a few days and explored new areas of the city we had never seen before.

The guys doing their "guy thing"... Randall had to introduce Liz's Dad and Brother to how the men wear their "hats"on this side of the world...(actually they were gearing up to go hiking with the hopes to keep the flies out of their faces/ears) but still makes for a good picture!

Liz's sister Meghan, brother Chris and Mom enjoying the beautiful view in the midst of the mountains

MiMi loving on the kids! And the kids enjoying their MiMi (hadn't seen each other in almost 1 and a half years)

On the way to the beach... of course we had to take them to the beach in November...surprise! Swimsuits in the Winter! (thanks to Joyce, sporting the Illini hat!) :)

Uncle Chris bonding with Micah and teaching him to play in the sand, not eat it!

And here we all are... on the shuttle, on the way to the airport...

And this about sums it up, their face says it all! Grrr... Goodbyes are so hard these days, but we are so thankful for having time with our loved ones and consider ourselves so blessed to have such a supportive family. Thank you for visiting us and loving on us! We love you Paw Paw, MiMi, Chris and Meghan and miss you already!

Fun, Laughter, and Hugs All Around!

The wait for family to arrive has been way over due... nearly 1 and a half years since we've seen Liz's family. And they are here now, visiting us. Here is an update of our reunion thus far with our family...

In the car, on the way to the Big City where Paw Paw, Mi Mi, Uncle Chris and Aunt Meghan arrived....

Notice both kids with an electronic device of some sort in hand... Hey! A 2 hr car ride can be long for 2 busy, anxious little ones...

And here's Morgan, awaiting their arrival at the airport...At this time it was after midnight, but she was running on pure adrenaline and excitement to see her Grandparents!

They made it, luggage and all and a happy reunion it was!

What troopers...less then 12 hours upon arriving, after sleeping 6-7 hrs, here we are exploring a mall in the Big city. Of course Morgan is thrilled to have her Mi Mi with her and loving all the attention she is getting!

What? An indoor ski park? Maybe because it doesn't snow in the Middle East. Either way, a cool experience for the family and a great way to celebrate Uncle Chris' 23rd Birthday!

A good attempt to "pretend" there is snow here and that its actually cold. Although we think Morgan would be happy with her Aunt Meghan anywhere, as long as they are together!

And last but not least, real skiing in the Middle East! As they say here, "Ski Dubai, the Coolest thing to do in Dubai!" (haha!) Randall, Paw Paw and Uncle Chris had a great time together, a day full of fun, lots of laughter and many hugs all around!

To Be Continued... Stay tuned for new pictures as we enjoy our time with our family!

Does Something Seem Odd About This???

Last night we got to go out on a date without the kids...Yeah! We have some new friends in our city who are pregnant with their first baby and offered to take care of Morgan and Micah for a few hours so we could enjoy some time alone. And of course we took them up on their offer!

After we ate dinner, we went to a local store to pick up a few groceries and to our surprise we saw some folding chairs which we have actually been wanting to buy because the weather has gotten cooler and its so nice to sit outside at night time. Anyways, when we went to check these chairs out, to our surprise we found out they are from Dick's Sporting Goods in the States!!!

And the other funny thing is that the Dick's price tag read $9.99 but the store price tag was

R.O. 2.5 which converts to $6.50!!! So we just laughed and laughed with the thought that we were buying 4 chairs from Dick's Sporting Goods in the Middle East and saving $3.5 per chair. Does this sound odd to anyone else???

Go Figure! Stay tuned for new stories and discoveries from our city! (And remember this is the same city that does not have 1 American eating place in it)