Hanging out by the fire

We are trying to get just a little more time by the fire before it gets too hot. We made some homemade pizza for dinner then roasted marshmellows.

AWA Gala

Larry and I went to the AWA charity gala last night. It was fun. I wish that I would have remembered to take a few pictures. I donated a wine painting that sold for 2001Dhs which is about $545US. I was so happy about that!

Off Roading in the Desert

I am bummed that we don't have many pictures, some how they were deleted from the camera. We'll have to take some next time. Any how we went to Fossil Rock. We took both of our vehicles - Larry's Jeep and my Dodge Durango. We started on a trail that is about 40 minutes outside of Dubai and ended about 90 minutes away. Fossil Rock was basically at the end of the treck. We got stuck 3 times and had to dig out - I should correct, I got stuck in the Durango. I could make the excuse that the wheel base is longer, lower clearance, but mostly I was just chicken to go too fast. We were very sore the next day from all of the digging. The sand went from white to a beautiful orange/red. The white dunes are smaller where the orange ones can get very large. I wish that we would have gotten a picture of the last dune that we came down, it was huge!

Here are a few pictures from the day...




A big hurd of camels 3 adult camels and one baby - cool that they are all different colors






Getting stuck and unstuck - such fun.... well maybe not so much


Tomb of Maleha Dani blowing in the wind in the Jeep

Our little photographer

Elle took this picture of herself. We need to find a photography class for her! I might make this into a painting too.

Twinderella - the middle school play

Dani volunteered to work on the school play. She did costumes and props. Unfortunately we didn't take a picture of her, but below are several pictures that she took during the dress rehearsal. It was a great experience for her. The kids did a great job putting on the play.

The Shamal

A shamal is blowing over the UAE today. A shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over the gulf countries often strong. This weather effect occurs anywhere from once to several times a year. The resulting wind typically creates large sandstorms. During these storms, sand sneaks into the villa from all over the place (nothing is sealed well here), leaving a nice, thick film of dust EVERYWHERE.

Below is a picturethat Elle took of the sun. Looks like the moon, huh?

Dani in print!

Dani is the February issue of a local kids magazine called Time Out Dubai Kids. Check it out!

Taken from February 2009 Time Out Dubai Kids, ITP Consumer Publishing.

Painted master bedroom

While Larry was away on his annual ski trip I decided to do some redecorating. During the time that Larry lived in Dubai alone he had purchased some nice looking curtains for our bedroom but they didn't quite fit the sliding glass door and window nor were they black out. As you know by now, nothing is ever simple in Dubai. You can't just walk into Target and buy some good curtains that will fit YOUR windows. I really didn't want to go to an expensive place to have some made either. So I tried Ikea. I was pleasantly surprised that they had curtains that would fit the length. Because I was so excited I forgot to be sure they were black out - they were brown, that should have been good enough - right?! I got home, hung the curtains quickly before I had to dash off to get the girls from school. But I didn't like 'em. I pondered for a while then decided to try over lapping the curtains. While it's a little funny that the top layer is smaller than the bottom layer, they turned out kinda neat. Now we have black out full coverage curtains in our bedroom - hurray. Oh and I painted the walls a nice terra cotta color while I was at it.