First Lost Tooth!

My big girl was so very excited to have lost her first tooth!!!  When I went to pick her up from school on Mother's Day, she ran up to me and said, "I lost my tooth!!!  I swallowed it!".  Mike and I had both prepped her for that possibility.  We both knew that if that happened and she hadn't been prepped, she might be really upset about it. The tooth fairy sprinkled pixie dust all over her while she was here.  She was thrilled to go to school and show all of her friends the pixie dust.  She also loved that the tooth fairy paid in Dirhams.

Ice Skating

Olivia was invited to go ice skating with some of her friends.  She had never been.  ACS had teacher conference day, but Eliza had school that day--perfect day to try something Eliza can't really do yet.

 With her friend, Naya.

 One of my friends decided it would be fun for the girls to race.  Olivia raced her friend Naya.  It was just too funny to see how competitive my little mild mannered girl is.  This was right before she crashed into the finish line, risking life and limb to win!

All the girls

Mosque and Brunch

This mosque is truly amazing.  A trip to Abu Dhabi is not complete without a trip to the Grand Mosque.

 The guy in the bottom right was our Emirati tour guide.  He let us ask all kinds of really personal questions about the religion and culture.  Truly fascinating!  

 We went to yet another Friday brunch!  We love the Viceroy brunch, complete with a DJ!

 Aunt Murf in heaven with plate after plate of caviar!

 Ice cream!

 Ha!  Mike channeling his inner Eliza

 Still makes me giggle that we bring the DVD player to the 4 hour brunch :)

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This hotel is situated right in the middle of the Formula One track.  So very cool!  

The next day we went to Yas Water World, the amazing water park in town.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  We all had a total blast.  I didn't get any pictures, as my camera and phone where in the locker, but what a park.  So long Aunt Murf!!  We will miss you.  What a trip!  We had so much fun and can't wait for you to come back!!

High Tea

We went out to the St. Regis at Sadiyat Island for High Tea one afternoon.  I told the girls it was a very fancy special treat--it may have been a little early for the girls to do High Tea!  It didn't help that it was after school and they were tired.  It is just beautiful there!  I literally wanted to move into the hotel!

 Our view from our table

 Eliza looking thrilled!

 Yummy!

 After tea, we went and walked down to the gorgeous beach area.  Crystal blue water.

Beautiful pool!

"Local" Salmon

Mike suggested that we go to the fish market to pick up some fish for dinner.  Aunt Murf and I decided to go for it and brave the fish market.We walked into this place that smelled absolutely HORRENDOUS to pick out some fish.  We were looking around and did not recognize the name of one single fish we saw.  We kept going around to the different stalls and finally one guys asks us if we wanted some salmon.  Ohhh, that is something we like and recognize the name of!  Sure, we will take it.  We then took it down to the guys at the end to fillet it for us.  It wasn't until later that afternoon that it occurred to us that salmon is a cold water fish and that was NOT local fish!  Too funny!

 Negotiating with the guy fro our "local" salmon

 absolutely FOUL--blood and scales and guts everywhere!

 We were the blind leading the blind!  Thankfully Mike got home and Uncle Jimmy called us back with instructions :)

Ski Dubai

Every time we have ever gone to Dubai, we always comment about the indoor ski hill and laugh about how crazy it is.  We always thought it was just a hokey touristy thing and never tried it.  We were so wrong, it was a total hoot!  We all had so much fun and we learned that Olivia is a daredevil.  It goes against what you would think her personality would indicate, but she was fearless!  It was nuts to go from +30 Celsius into -2!  The warmth and the sunshine felt great when we were finished!

 Getting all suited up!  Your ticket purchase includes your snowsuit and boots.  It did not include a hat or gloves (we bought some gloves for the girls, but couldn't bring ourselves to buy any for us, considering we have TONS of winter gear at home!).

 All ready!

 This cracked me up!  This is what the Emirates were wearing.

 Tubing!

 This little tube went quickly down the hill!

 Fearless girl getting in the giant ball about to roll down the hill

 You aren't supposed to take pictures of the locals without permission, so I always pretend I am taking a picture of my family to get one in.  I just thought it was so funny that she is wearing her veil while playing in the snow.  She and Aunt Murf kept running into each other and chatting.

 Back in the huge ball!

 On the baby tube hill

 Going down quickly!

Just in case you need some money while in the snow???

The girls playing with the little sleds

 Miss Daredevil went down the luge over and over again.  I went once and that was enough for me!

 They have a penguin show!  You can pay extra to actually go and feed and pet them....maybe next time.  This was pretty cool as we were so close to them.

 Taking a hot chocolate break. We were all freezing!

 Then we took the lift up and back down again to check out the ski hill

 That is Aunt Murf and I behind Mike and the girls

Such a fun day!!