"Real" Roughing-it

We went camping last weekend. This should be followed by huge applause. Mostly, because the last time we attempted camping, about 4 years ago, we ended up packing up all of our stuff by light of the lantern at midnight, leaving our camping buddies a note in their cooler ("it's not you, it's us!") and driving home 3 hours to sleep in our own beds. So when our friends invited us to join them, we decided it was time to face our fears. Besides, we were probably just remembering the nights as worse than they actually were, right?

We left Abu Dhabi in the middle of a gross sand storm with muddy rain on the way, and drove for better weather. Our 3 hour road trip was stretched out a little due to bathroom stops. Owen and I waited in the car :)

This was only day 5 of being done with diapers for Hailey, so Ken took it upon himself to teach her about using the great outdoors.

Success! We can hit the road again.

Owen wishes I would let him ride in the front seat with me, but we haven't lived here long enough for that tradition to sink in.

Reaching our campsite. It was love at first sight. We headed off to almost the furthest west we could go and still be in the UAE. Where the Empty Quarter hits the Arabian Gulf. And there were NO people around, anywhere. And the weather was perfect.

One of the first things we noticed were the beautiful rocks (crystals?) scattered as far as the eye could see.

They seemed to be growing out of the rocks, all different colors and textures. There was no way we were going to run out of things to do here!

The kids immediately started exploring. And of course, they've already decided our friends Jessica and Dan are way cooler than us, so they followed them around constantly. Ken and I know they are cooler than us - anyone who can laugh and still be our friends after our sons announce that they designated "the bathroom" to be literally at the doorstep of J & D's tent (and have already attempted to bury it there) are pretty cool.

This spunky girl is growing so fast!

The kids had a fabulous time helping build our fire and roasting dinner. Hailey asked to go to bed, and we let the older boys stay up as long as they wanted. Owen stayed up as long as he wanted too, even though we told him he couldn't... But he finally went down, and we enjoyed the stars and absolute silence. Unfortunately at 3 a.m., Owen decided the lulling sound of ocean waves was not really his thing, and that the moon was way too bright, so why not wake up for the day. Ugh. Thank heavens for Ken, who took it as a moment to have some father/son bonding time :)

I love rocks. Ever since that one girl in my kindergarden class brought in these awesome rocks she put through her rock tumbler, I knew there was something magical about them. I'm so glad Jessica shared my enthusiasm, and that Ken pretended to be almost as excited :) So here are a few pictures of extra cool ones:

OK, this is coral, but shells are just as cool.

A cliff face

Our camp from a distance. So maybe this place will never make it into one of those fancy travel magazines, because there happens to be quite a bit of trash around, but it was beautiful. It's all on what you focus on :)

Sea turtle! (that was not alive... later, while we were swimming though, Hailey found a real one! It is hard to say who was more surprised, her or the little turtle)

Pre-breakfast exploratory walk 

seaweed - I thought it was a cool shape, and the kids thought it felt pretty cool

early morning Tyler

Will's "secret" cave that he wanted to show everyone

Now, to explore the cliffs from above!

Rocks, rocks everywhere!

Hailey loves sand (I'm sure I've mentioned this before). It's a good trait to have out here. She was quite proud of her sand ball, which she declared to be "just a good as a snowball Mom!" I made sure she didn't throw it at any of us.

The long walk back to breakfast

Owen was surprisingly content in here - for a few minutes anyways. Long enough for us to eat breakfast!

Proof that baby Jesper was really there! We spent the rest of the time rock hunting, playing in the water (or mud if you were the babies) and just generally having a good time.

On the way back, the only life we saw for the first while were random camels. 

I stopped and got out and tried to get close to them, but they were not interested at all, and calmly walked off to do their own camel business.

It's not a great picture, but you can kind of make out this modern day Bedouin's set up: the tent, camels and other livestock, with the obligatory white SUV, a satellite dish, and cell tower :) So the good news is, we've discovered we CAN camp with our family! As long as it is only one night. We can't wait to try again!