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Maybe some of you have noticed that the blog posts have slowed down. That is because most days, by 7 pm, this 6 months pregnant lady feels a lot like Hailey here after a grocery shopping expedition
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Totally wiped out :) Ready to sleep wherever I land :)
BUT, I am leaving for a summer trip to the U.S. soon and feel like I should wrap up with a few posts, no matter how old they are. So, without further ado, pictures from our April spring break trip to Oman!
Tyler had 2 weeks off of school, and we did all kinds of fun outings together, but the best by far was our 3 day quick stay in Oman. As I type those words, I vaguely remember Hailey having an awful stomach bug that meant she threw up every few hours through the whole 5 hour car trip. Including at the border, and how she demanded to be carried everywhere and didn't love most of the trip and how hot it was to carry her while Ken carried Owen. Hmm. Well, I guess there is a bonus to blogging 2 months later - most of that fades and I am left with all the happy parts!
We stayed at a cute little house in a tiny town in the middle of a banana plantation. My favorite part: 3 separate bedrooms and a badly needed washing machine, all for dirt cheap. The kids' favorite part: the fact that our house came with a pet cat. It learned to fear Owen's love...
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Exploring the paths next to our place
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We found a neat aqueduct.
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Which of course needed to be climbed.
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The kids learned how to build an arch ... or there was a lizard. Whatever the case, it was riveting for a moment.
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We'd be in the modern city, then BOOM, we'd find the old city right alongside it! Plenty of exploring to be done. And warning the boys not to step through rotting floor boards.
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Hailey and I took lots of breaks :)
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Walking down the street to our house. We were some of the only foreigners we saw, and got lots and lots of stares as we walked down our street every night to the one restaurant in town. It was good for our kids, since we could point out that the kids weren't laughing and pointing at us because they were being mean, but because really - we were dressed differently and there are quite a few of us trekking around!
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We spent a day in the mountains, taking in the sights and meeting/chasing lots of goats. We saw some amazing bronze age beehive tombs, as well as a spectacular wadi with beautiful blue-green water. Ken and the older kids dived off the cliffs into the water, while I watched with the others. My camera had died by that point and I tried to use Ken's phone to document it, but it died too! I just have to content myself with beautiful memories. Maybe we'll go back!
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We stopped at a smaller fort on our way to another sight
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We visited one of the souqs and looked at the pottery.
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And made some new friends! This guy was brave - Owen really needed a diaper change by this point.
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We toured a huge fort
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The kids, locked in the dungeon wearing old chains. They are trying to look sad...
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Tyler got it down :)
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And he's free!
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Taking a rest in the rest area of the fort
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Hailey is supposed to be pretending to be asleep, so that I wouldn't look quite as goofy as I do. Instead, she opted for cute.
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A fascinating discussion of some sort!
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After all that exploring, we needed some juice, and some air conditioning!
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Driving back to our place, the sun was just starting to set. Here was one of the old watch towers built throughout the city.
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We hurried to use the remaining light to see a huge section of the old city we came across one of our nightly walks.
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By this point, I was in charge of history, so I told them the city was abandoned because the goats took it over and ate all the people. This encouraged everyone to get excited enough to climb up the slippery mountainside and stare at the ruins, as well as the man-eating goats.
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There was a really pretty view at the top.
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But, pretty views don't fill an empty stomach, so we hiked down really fast!
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To eat at our favorite shwarma place! (OK, maybe one of the ONLY shwarma places close enough for us to walk to, but still...) We got this picture our last night there. After eating there for so many meals, we were just a teeny bit ready to head back home to good old Abu Dhabi, where almost every kind of fast food you want is available. Oman rocked!
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