Rugby Sevens

We had a totally awesome day! We hired a limo and packed up some of our compound mates and headed for the desert to experience something new. The Rugby Sevens is a rugby tournament where there are 7 players on each team and each match is composed of two, seven minute halves. The tournament was for both men's and women's teams. The Australian women won and the Welsh men won.

The girls ran around on their own most of the day, playing on the bounce houses, playing in the grass, getting player autographs, and playing games to win prizes. The adults hung out in the stands drinking beer ALL day long. When we found out that Wales would be in the final match, we had to call the limo driver and ask him to come later. Our neighbor, Christine is from Wales, so hey, we HAD to stay. Next time we will stay even longer and catch the fireworks and concert.

We had so much fun!

Fun in the limo. Elle and Larry and then Tim (Larry's friend from work) and me.


Our sassy girls, Elle, Megan, Dani and Bethan. Megan and Bethan are the neighbor girls, they are about the same ages as Dani and Elle. They are like 4 sisters, which means they play great and sometimes fight too. :)


Ah the girls in the limo... our little ones and the big ones. Drinking champagne, ah the life!




A few shots of rugby.


Larry, Tim and Elle are new Wales fans!


Elle with a South African player.


Sunset in the desert at the "7s."


ONLY IN DUBAI... now you might doubt the statistics that the ratio of men to women here is 4 to 1. Well I have some hard core proof. This picture is a picture of the line for the MEN'S toilet. The women's like was like 5 people deep, the men's was HUGE! How great is that?? Elle witnessed a man dressed was wonder woman go into the women's restroom, but his mates dragged him out. Lots of people dress up to go to the Rugby Sevens. Next time we will get some pictures of that.


Dancing girls. And then the whole gang waiting on the final match to begin.


The limo ride home. The girls got a little crazy...



Christine celebrating the Wales victory on the ride home.

Dani's Trip to Turkey

Dani's school does something called Week Without Walls for the middle schoolers. Sixth grade got to choose between several local events including film making, desert camping, living in the UAE, .... and space camp in Turkey. Ten kids went to Turkey, 5 girls and 5 boys. It was an amazing experience for the kids!

February 27 - Day 1
The kids had to be at the school by 11:30 on Friday morning. They flew from Dubai to Istanbul and then Izmir. It was a long day of travel. They didn't get into space camp until late.





February 28 - Day 2
Here is the note from Dani's teacher - Its has been an action packed day. We built rockets, went on the zero G wall (simulates neutral bouyency in space), the 1/6 gravity machine which simulates what it is like to walk on the moon with only 1/6th the gravity of earth, used computers to build a space station, tried on space suits (fully decked out these weigh 150 kg) as well as played games and had challenges (the girls wanted me to let you know they won both of them so far).
Everyone is getting along really well and having a great time. Tomorrow there is more action with more space simulations, shuttle landings and depending on the weather, the observatory.
The internet here is a bit slow and patchy and takes forever to attach photos so will only attach a few a day.
Over and out from mission control



March 1 - Day 3
Dani's teacher sends a nice summary of the day each day - Housten we have a problem - in the boys dorm - I only just made it out alive I only hope your sons can survive the night. The stench of boys is unbelievable! Tomorrow morning it is mandatory for all astronauts to shower, use deodorant, wash their feet, wear socks, wash their feet again, and then again one more time. Between feet and the intersteller gas its getting pretty funky!!

Another busy day at the office for the kids with more astronaunt simulations, learning about life in the orbitor and international space station, team games on Mars, practicing for the big landing tomorrow and learning each of the roles to make a successful landing, star lab and badge making.

Tomorrow we will be firing our rockets, more simulations and hopefully bring the orbitor in for a safe landing.

Am sorry to say the students are not missing you but said to pass on their love!

The weather has been great, although have been spending most of our time inside. Tommorrow is our last day of space camp activities, on the Tuesday we head into Ephasis and hopefully that night, if it is clear open up the observatory to check out the constallations.

Over and out from Space Camp




March 2 - Day 4
The recap from Dani's teacher - Another fun day at the offıce - all astronauts reported for duty smelling like roses!!
A busy day, we launched our rockets whıch was a huge success, played team games, learnt more about lıfe ın space and ın space statıons, shopped at the store, played mını golf, launched, conducted experiments and landed the space orbıtor Dıscovery and the kıds are now havıng a quız nıght.
Kıds are doing well, tomorrow we have a bıg day out in Ephaseus which should be good, no doubt they wıll shop to they drop!
Over and out








March 3 - Day 5
We have had a great day today. Shopped, some site seeing, shopped, something to snack on, shopped, toılet break and shopped some more and just when you thınk you,re all shopped out, tıme for more. There´s a whole bunch of great presents comıng your way ıncludıng real stuff genuıne fake stuff and the fake fake stuff!!!! You,ll see what I mean!!! Remember they love you and thınk ıts really cool
We dıd have a fantastıc day, kıds were very well behaved and we took some great photos ıncludıng all of us goıng to the toılet together ın the ancıent cıty of ephaseus!
We had lunch at a beautıful lıttle vıllage, then onto the vırgın mary,s house followed by the ancıent cıty of ephaseus.
The kıds shopped tıll they dropped, pıcked up some bargıns learned how to barta (some better than others!) and walked around wıth huge smıles on theır faces eıther sayıng ''wow'' at the vıews, the hıstorıc monuments or the shops they went past wıth the thıngs they just had to have!! I was proud of them today - better than yesterday when they needed a talkıng too.
Unfortunatley agaın ınternet ıs paınfully slow so cant upload photos but I have a few crackers whıch we wıll all share ın the not to dıstant future.

On a sad note for the kıds, but happy for you and İ tomorrow ıs our last day. Many of your darlıngs dont want to go home but all good thıngs come to an end. I know how you feel about mıssıng your lıttle ratbags because I am havıng huge wıthdrawls from not seeıng my 2 lıttle ones! So tomorrow we have our graduatıon ceremony, followed by a fınal clean up and movıe before sayıng farewell to Space Camp and headıng home. It really has been a fantastıc trıp for all.

We looked at athe moon through the telescope tonıght whıch was cool, had a great vıew of the craters, and speakers of craters, 3 gırls danı. tyler and mıra have new ones ın theır mouths as they all lost a tooth durıng the movıe tonıght (ı,ll let you all play the tooth faıry when they get home)

Over and out














March 4 - Day 6
Today they toured Izmir and did some shopping at

Bone Head Move #93

While Dani was away we did some special things with Elle. One day we went ice skating, another to the movies, to the beach, etc. On Saturday we decided that we were going desert camping. This was the one thing that Elle REALLY wanted to do. Never mind a sand storm was brewing. We thought, hey we can handle it. So we head out with map in hand. We spend about 2 hours getting there and looking for a good site. We finally find one and start unloading our gear. Sand is going every where, in our ears, in our eyes, hair... just every where. We still push forward, but only for about another 5 minutes. We quickly decided after the tent stakes came flying out with the wind that this was NOT a good idea. Yup, bone head move #93 while living in Dubai.... NEVER, NEVER, NEVER try to camp during a sand storm. In the end we packed up and headed home. We stopped off at Chuck E Cheese (yes, they freakin' have them here, sigh). And also went to the Elle store and bought Elle a couple of shirts. Good times!

Oh, one other quick funny. While looking for a camp site 3 camels crossed the road in front of us while eating a box they got out of the trash bin. We haven't seen camels in the road or eating trash until then. It was a funny site.





Sand blowing across the road. Us driving around looking for a camp site - this was then it was still fun!

Dubai 100Dhs challenge

We were invited by the editor of Time Out Dubai Kids magazine to participate in a story for the March issue. The idea was to see what a family could do on only 100Dhs ($27US). Below is the story that we put together.


Dubai 100 Dirham Challenge
Red Team: Larry, Renee, Dani, and Elle Hartshorn

Itinerary:
• Visit the animals at Pets Habitat
• Explore Safa Park
• Lunch at a local restaurant
• Ride bikes to Umm Suqeim Beach and fly a kite

Stop #1 Pets Habitat
We started our morning off by going to Pets Habitat in Al Barsha. It was smaller than we expected but they still had a few animals – 5 cats and 5 dogs, hamsters, birds, snakes, even a hedgehog and a few other things. Dani and Elle would have liked to hold the Pug, but we were told no. We spent about 30 minutes in the store looking at the animals and sticking our fingers in the cages so the dogs could lick our fingers.

Elle “I loved the little pug licking my fingers.”
Dani “I liked playing with the grey kitty through the glass. He had such cute eyes.”

Stop #2 Safa Park
After leaving the pet shop we headed down Sheikh Zayed Road to Safa Park. This was our first visit and we weren’t sure what to expect. Parking was easy, but that was probably because it was early on a Friday. We decided to explore as much of the park as we could. As we entered the park we saw a vendor selling cotton candy… a big family favorite. We were already loving this park! As we ate our cotton candy we explored the gardens and waterfalls in the middle and then headed towards the maze. Every year for Halloween we always went to a cornfield maze in Connecticut so we were excite to check out the maze here. We were a bit disappointed by this maze, but it was still fun running through it. After the maze the girls climbed on a very cool rope structure. From the top they could see a zip line in the distance. We all ran over to the zip line. It was so nice that the park wasn’t crowded. We must have spent an hour going back and forth on the zip line.

It was hard to leave the zip line, but we wanted to explore more of the park. We decided to head down to the other end, near Al Wasl Road. On the way the girls spotted an ice cream man. We bought some ice cream and continued on our walk. It was such a beautiful day. In the distance we could see bouncers. It was a dilemma… try out the boats on the pond or check out the bouncers. We flipped for it and the bouncers it was. There was a big slide, a climbing wall, an obstacle course type thing and a bounce house. Dani and Elle had a blast going up and down the slide and helping other kids get up to the top. They tried out the climbing wall too but it wasn’t as much fun. They jumped around for about an hour then decided to move on. We walked around the Ferris wheel and other attractions. We will have to come back in the evening sometime when those are running.

We loved Safa Park. It will definitely become a regular destination for us. The next time we will bring a blanket and a picnic lunch.

Elle “It was a long walk around the park, we kinda got lost. It was fun at the end going on the inflatables. Oh and I loved that my mom and dad went on the zip line too!”
Dani “I liked that we had such a nice day. It was awesome to see the ice cream man and cotton candy man.”





Having a blast on the zip line.


Elle in the maze. A nice view of some of the gardens in Safa park.


Eating cotton candy. It was so yummy.


Dani chilling out in the sun. A picture of the cityscape from the park - the tall building is Burj Dubai.

Stop #3 Lunch
After Safa Park we drove to a local restaurant just a block from our villa in Umm Suqeim 3. Unfortunately it wasn’t open. With no hours posted we weren’t sure if they would be open later or not, but we were planning to try again at dinnertime. We ended up going home for lunch and a rest before our next adventure.

Singing a Taylor Swift tune while driving around town. We were having a good time!

Stop #4 Umm Suqeim Beach
Around 5:00pm got on our bikes and set out for Umm Suqeim beach with our kite in a backpack. It took less then 10 minutes to get to the beach. We parked our bikes in the sand and unpacked our kite. The wind was perfect for kite flying. We hadn’t realized this was the first time that our girls had flown a kite. We had an amazing time! We all took turns holding the kite, making it flap in the wind and running up and down the beach with it. Dani and Elle couldn’t stop giggling. Who knew that kite flying could be such fun. We named the kite “Edward” from Twighlight.

Elle “It was windy and nice and beautiful. It was the funnest activity of the day and I liked it the most.”
Dani “I had never flown a kite before. I thought it was a LOT, a LOT, a LOT of fun and I can’t wait to do it again. The wind is so good at the beach that kite flying is a natural for it.




Stop #5 Dinner
We decided to try the local restaurant again. It was a bit un-nerving because only men were there – a ton of taxi drivers. We decided to be brave and walked up to the outside counter where we could see chicken on a vertical rotisserie. We asked for 4 of those as we pointed. When they were making the first one we noticed they added lettuce and tomatos so we changed our order to 1 with veggies and 3 without. The sandwiches were to DIE FOR! They were delicious. We will definitely make this a regular stop.

Elle “I wouldn’t try the sandwich, but everyone else really liked them.”
Dani “You gotta be brave to walk up to a restaurant like that and we were! The sandwiches were great but the sauce was a little spicy.”

Summary
We had such a great day. Doing this gave us an excuse to go out for a whole day and try new things. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and only go to the places that you know. It was also eye opening to pay attention to how much we were spending. I can’t believe that we had a whole day of fun on only 90Dhs.


And how much did our day cost?
Pets Habitat 0
Safa Park - entry free 12
cotton candy 10
ice cream 10
bouncers 40
Lunch 18
Beach 0
Total 90Dhs