Sunday, April 5, 2020

April Awesomeness


April recap - we sure didn't stop moving, especially knowing these are our last few weeks in country!
April 5: a relaxing evening of an Indian food takeaway picnic with the Jesbears working on our balancing skills on the slack lines.





We also celebrated Bear's birthday!
April 11: another evening at the Dolphin Park, but this time, we were on a mission! You see, a couple days ago, the kids discovered a pirate's letter blowing around on the floor of our garage. It leads to various GPS points around the island, and at each spot it looks like we'll find a piece of the map, which when put all together leads to TREASURE! The first GPS point was in the dolphin fountain. Will to the rescue!
He didn't hesitate to strip down and get in that water. And let me tell you, everyone else did! The first piece of the map led us to a palm tree in the park.

This time Tyler climbed the tree and found some Australian candy, as well as the first section of the map...
The treasure hunting crew!
Look at this church I drove by the other day - its shaped like the Burj Khalifa!
Sometimes I find the toys doing the craziest things...
April 25: Take your child to work day at the Embassy! Tyler and Will got sworn in as junior officers, got to "attack/subdue" an intruder (a Marine), and got to take in all the cool Star Wars stuff that's around to advertise the upcoming movie, part of which was filmed here in the UAE!





April 28: Running after Hailey the Fairy is apparently a pretty awesome game :)


"Smile Colbs!"
April 29: Will is quite the architect with these magnetiles! He spelled out his name here.
April 30: Colby is just to cute during this haircut to not share some photographic evidence! Look at that grin :)


Big brothers rock!

"There is no charge for awesomeness"

May 1: (yep, I'm sneaking some of May in here too :) Hailey loves picking up the flowers that fall off the plants in our front yard. She was especially excited to take a picture when I pointed out how well this one match her outfit of the day!
May 18: Jess came over to make me a key lime pie, and I walked in on this adorable scene of Jesper and Hailey watching and "helping."


May 19: My little artists hard at work!
May 23: The time has come - we had the warehouse deliver the beautiful dining room table, chairs and shelf I bought in Sharjah months ago. Its ready for the movers to come pack out from our house!
May 29: Goodbye to our absolute FAVORITE date spot location. Kayaking with Ken will forever be one of my favorite Abu Dhabi memories. Yes, even the time we got super lost at 10 pm and saw glowing algae, (possible) criminals and took 3 hours to go nowhere... But seriously though, its gave us moments of sanity and calm, and was a fantastic way to enjoy the great outdoors. Goodbye kayaks. I still think we should take you to VA!

Farewell Fujairah


April 30: Fujairah has been one of our favorite day trips, and it was only fitting to squeeze in one more trip. In usual Hamblin fashion, things started going "not according to plan" almost right away... About an hour out from our usual spot, the kayak decided to start sliding off the car. Fortunately, our awesome neighbors were driving behind us and stopped to help us reattach the kayak! The kids and I explored the surroundings while Ken and Ryan re-secured the kayak.




The rocks here are SO cool!






Fortunately for us, Colby was out and missed our unplanned stop ... it made life that much easier!
We had to drive a lot slower to make sure we didn't lose the kayak again, but we eventually made it! Ken took a few of the kids out on the kayak right away. 

Something weird was going on in the water today - there were quite a few dead fish... Yeah, a little worrying but we tried not to think about it too hard! Will wanted to cook and eat this one. We told him that was probably not the best idea!

That, my friends, is pure Owen joy :)
No beach trip is complete unless you experience the sand with all of your senses - tasting it in your mouth and rolling around in it, just to name a couple!




That smile!


I'm so proud of his talents, he shows a lot of promise!
Hailey, Owen and Jesper were way into catching the teeny tiny jellyfish in their sand buckets and calling it an aquarium. 
Goodbye for now Fujairah, until we come back again!