A4 Update - February 2015

It snowed in London!  It was a laughable quantity, but the kids sure loved it.  

The family took a half-term trip to Dubai.  We've coined it as the holiday that really, really tried

Our landlord replaced our oven, which was very much appreciated.  The one we had took over forty minutes to preheat to 350.  The new one is ready in ten minutes.

Matt traveled half of the month with one of the trips back to 'Merica.

Oldest Kiddo started attending Saturday School at one of the local schools.  She gets to learn about a new topic each week.  So far she's learned about the solar system, German, the human body, Spanish, and Judaism.   

We did a kid swap with our friends so they could go out for a few hours without paying for a sitter.  We shall send our kiddos to them in a few weeks for our day out.  

Youngest Kiddo had a field trip to the Southbank & London Aquarium.  It was a culmination of their unit on buildings.  The kids loved seeing Parliament, The London Eye, Westminster Bridge, and riding the train into the city.

The days are starting to get longer, which is such a relief.  We can now make it home from school before the sun sets.  

Dubai - Touring Tuesday

We spent the February half-term break in Dubai.  Why Dubai?  Other than the Caribbean it was the only place that guaranteed us sunshine and warmth.  Dubai and the Caribbean are approximately the same distance from London via airplane, so we chose to visit somewhere new.

With only four full days to explore a completely different corner of the world, I created a big list of things for us to see.  However, things do not always go according to plan.  Here's why....

1.  The selection of flights to Dubai did not provide us convenient flying times.  We left London on a 12pm flight Monday, and we did not arrive to the front desk of our hotel until 4am Tuesday morning Dubai time, which is +4 hours from London, Tuesday morning.  Not a big deal - we knew this going into the holiday.  An interesting experience in passport control is something I'll never forget.... 

2.  To accommodate our late arrival Monday night/Tuesday morning, we planned for Tuesday to be a pool day.  The kiddos had not had a fun holiday with pools and beaches in a long time so we knew this would be well received by all four of us.  A little time at the pool and at the Gulf beach filled our day, along with a lot of sunscreen and sunshine.

3.  Tuesday night Youngest Kiddo's body decided that everything he ate that day needed an immediate jettison from his stomach.  So thankful both kids can make it to the bathroom in these situations.  He did not feel better until Wednesday night.    

4.  Oldest Kiddo and Matt spent Wednesday morning at the pool while I hung back to snuggle with a not 100% Youngest Kiddo.  We watched TV dubbed into Arabic and appreciated the sunshine from our 18th floor windows.    

5.  Wednesday night Matt's body took the same route as Youngest Kiddo the night before.  And I will spare you the details.  It was my turn to spend the afternoon at the pool with the kids.  

6.  Late Thursday afternoon Matt was feeling well enough to navigate the Dubai Metro to find dinner.  The bonus of our adventure was to see the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

7.  We had big hopes for Friday as it was our last day in Dubai, and the boys were feeling pretty good.  But we woke up to a dust storm.  At least we called it a dust storm, the locals might just call it dusty.  However, we knew it was bad when the hotel restaurant would not sit anyone outside.  So on Friday the family hung out in our hotel watching out the window hoping the sand would subside while we consumed the internet & watched movies from 2004 on the TV.  At least they were in English.

8.  We hoped that the storm would die down by dinnertime, but no such luck.  We had to call it a day around 7pm because our taxi was scheduled for a 4am Dubai time pick up to head back home.  

I still have my list of things to see and do in Dubai, and I hope to share that with you soon.  I hope that we can plan another trip if time allows while we are in London.  We've affectionately called this half-term trip - Dubai, the trip that really tried.