Dubai World Cup and Arabian Nights

This past weekend was filled with Dubai World Cup Festivities!  Thursday night we kicked off the weekend by taking the kids to Arabian Nights.  This is a special night in the desert full of arabic cultural heritage, horse shows and stunts, acrobats, yummy arabic cuisine and of course, fireworks! Dubai loves its fireworks!  They were amazing as always and my friend Elan and I laughed that they were maybe a little too close for our American standards!  It felt like you could touch them!  We ate our dinner in a beautiful arena with arabic style pillows and seating.  Sheikh Mohammad, the ruler of Dubai was there.  This was extra exciting for our kids who learn loads about him in school and see his picture all over town.  Deric and the kids ran down to where he was walking through the arena.  He stopped and chatted with some little girls and Deric got this picture!!  My children were starstruck!! hahahahaha  The rest of the night we ate and watched the horses perform...and of course there was some camel riding!  What is a desert outing without it?

HIS HIGHNESS, SHEIKH MOHAMMED-
BELOVED RULER OF DUBAI

LETS FIND OUR TABLE!

BEAUTIFUL ARENA WITH SEATING AROUND IT...

CHECKING OUT THE CAMELS....I THINK HE WANTED A KISS!

ITS AN ARABIAN PETTING ZOO!

AND YET AGAIN A CAMEL RIDE!  

THESE GUYS IN THE BACKGROUND ARE LINED UP READY FOR THE SHEIKH TO ARRIVE.

HEHEHEHEHEHE....JUST THOUGHT IT WOULD BE CUTE

TRYING AN ARABIC SWEET SIMILAR TO A DONUT

THOSE ARE HORSES IN THE MIDDLE ALL LIT UP!

After the show we had to find our cab driver and head home.  It was about a 45 minute drive home and the kids instantly passed out!  I was so glad they did because we saw a terrible terrible accident on the way home.  There were bodies on the highway..just a tragic scene.  It made me sick...Then our cab driver went on to tell us that he lives in a small room with 7 other cab drivers and he works 7 days a week from 3am to 3pm.  He was such a nice, intelligent man who spoke several languages.  This is the story of so many people in this country.  They have to leave their homeland to find decent work.  They send their earnings to their families and see them only once a year.  Why all the gloom and doom?  Just want to share the things we are experiencing here.  When we got home I felt so sad for the families of the people in the accident and our cab driver.  It's these moments that so make you appreciate what you have right in front of you!

Friday we celebrated the end of our baseball season.  Luke got his first t-ball trophy and we had a party with his team.  Luke made his first big catch at his last game!   My friend Cathy's dad Ron Cook was in town visiting.  Ron is a former Houston Astro!  He came to the party and signed pictures and balls for the team.  Awesome!  Luke loved playing t-ball and Deric really enjoyed coaching.  It was a great season with the Dubai Little League and we will for sure be back next year!

WORLD'S TALLEST BUILDING BEHIND
WORLD'S CUTEST T-BALLER!

LILLY LOVES THE BALLPARK!

MARLINS ARE THE BEST!

FORMER HOUSTON ASTRO RON COOK
WITH FUTURE HOUSTON ASTRO LUKE THE DUKE!

I will end this post with DUBAI WORLD CUP photos!  Deric and I ended our weekend at the Dubai World Cup, the world's "richest" horse race!  This meaning the payout to the winner is BIG! 10 million US dollars big!  Sheikh Mohammed (whom you saw in the picture) is a lover of horses. This race and the level it has grown to is one of his many dreams for Dubai coming true. Fun fact: The race's first winner in 1996 was an AMERICAN HORSE!  He is the United States Hall of Fame thoroughbred, Cigar, owned by Allen E. Paulson. Go USA!!!  


So I ask you, what is it really about?  The horses or the hats?  The week before the race my great friend Elan and I scoured the city looking for the perfect hat, or should I say "fascinator".   A fascinator is defined as a delicate, slightly-to-very frivolous head decoration.  Or, as a member of our group at the World Cup described it "a wrist-corsage you stick on your head".  HAHAHAHAHA!!!  The Dubai World Cup is all about the fascinators!  It is in my opinion a bit silly and somewhat out of my comfort zone.  Being the tall person that I am, I kept trying them on only to think I looked like an inhabitant of Who-Ville.  The hat vendors or should I say "milliners" set UP their booths in the malls weeks before the big race.  The hats are pricey!!!  I kept saying if only I had my glue gun and a hobby lobby.  I could whip these up!  Here is Miss Blake below trying on some of the hats.  Let's just say I had a hard time picking my hat!  She would have had no problem...

In the end this is the hat I chose.  It was Deric's favorite!    

LOTS OF ENTERTAINMENT BETWEEN THE RACES...
THIS DUDE LIT UP AND MOVED AROUND...

 

Congrats to Japan on their winner Victoire Pisa!  Sheikh Mohammed was probably not that happy about it but hey, you and your people deserve it!  God Bless Japan! 


Cheers from Dubai!

Prayers for Pattie

It is so crazy how life can change in the blink of an eye.  I witnessed this happen to a friend of mine here in Dubai.  My sweet friend Pattie learned very very unexpectedly that her husband Andrew has cancer.  The doctors here in Dubai could not diagnose the exact cancer that it was so they had to very quickly leave Dubai with their 4 kids and get back to the US.  Andrew is now at Mayo Clinic in Michigan and what started as a terrible cough has now been diagnosed as a very rare lymphoma...t-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.  Andrew has a long road ahead of him and I ask for your prayers. (Here are Pattie and Andrew at Thanksgiving... they are the ones in the center back)

Pattie and I met one day in the ASD parking lot.  I saw her walking with 4 kids that looked around the same ages as mine.  Turns out that all 4 were the exact ages as mine!  The difference is she has 3 boys and 1 girl.  The girl being #3 where Luke is.  The next week we saw them at mass!  We have other things in common too like that we both lived in Pearland when we were first married and we both lived in Chicago!  Pattie and Andrew spent Thanksgiving with us and just February 14th they had me over for dinner since Deric was on his long trip home.  Andrew cooked us an amazing dinner and the kids played.  I still can't believe how much has changed since then.

The Veith and Bryant kids were starting to become special friends.  Blake and Bennett the two oldest had a play date planned to work on Bennett's very cool lego Taj Mahal.  Baby Lilly and Baby Karston loved to play on the ASD playground in the mornings after we dropped the big kids off.  It was so great having a friend with a baby Lilly's age...and with older kids too.  She felt my pain! hahahahaha-  Olivia and Calvin were those 2 crazy first graders chasing and taunting each other constantly on the playground!

Pattie needed a day to herself to pack and get things ready to go so Deric and I had the kids over for one last playdate.  Andrew sent over the lego Taj Mahal for Blake and Bennett to work on!  It was so sweet!  Those two worked on it all day. (with the help of Deric whom I could not pry away from the legos)  It was a special yet bittersweet for the kids knowing their friends were about to head home.

Once again please pray for Andrew.  His family needs him!!  Cherish each day and take nothing for granted.....weeks ago Pattie and I were chatting/laughing/whining about the stress of dragging 4 kids around this desert!  I know she would give anything to be doing that now........You can follow Andrew's progress at   http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/andrewveith

BLAKE AND BENNET STARTING THE LEGO TAJ MAHAL

BABY BUDDIES KARSTON AND LILLY

THE GANG

Moving to Villa 9

NOTE: I STARTED THIS POST 2 WEEKS AGO!  JUST GOT BACK TO IT TODAY!

Can you hear that?  Me too...silence.  A great sound to a mom- I am up before the kids sipping my coffee and saying hello to an old friend...SixintheSand.  So sorry I have neglected you!  The past two weeks have been a blur!  I successfully moved us in to Villa 9 with a 1 year old on my hip and a husband working hard in the states.  In two days our movers had us in the new villa and not a box was in sight!  They were amazing!  They even helped me watch Lilly...we were all a team!!!  Here is the little monkey the last day of our move....

HELPING THE MOVERS

MOVING OUT DUBAI STYLE...RUGS OUT THE WINDOW

FIRST DINNER AT VILLA 9....YES, ITS WENDY'S.
SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA EAT FAST FOOD!

The new villa is amazing.  It is light and bright and has the best front yard for the kids!  The kids are so happy and Luke has a little boy next door that he spends every afternoon playing with.  Very important for a little dude with three sisters!  This is our family room during the move.....always had to know her location!  As you can see..light and bright!

GIRLS HAVE A NICE BIG ROOM....

For almost 2 weeks Deric was in the states working...and doing a little fishing.  He and his college friends try to get a fishing trip in once a year and I am so glad he got to fit it in to this trip home. It is tradition for them to take this pic with their catch...I would say it was a good trip!

Two weeks was a long time for Deric and the kids to be apart!  They missed him tons!  He decided to get on an earlier flight and surprise them at school.  These pictures say it all!

MY FAVORITE..BLAKE RUNNING TOWARD HIM 

OLIVIA LOST HER FRONT TOOTH OUR FIRST
NIGHT IN THE NEW HOUSE WITH DADDY HOME...

FIRST DINNER ON THE NEW BACK PORCH...WITH DADDY HOME!
BURGERS AND CORN ON THE COB..NO WENDYS!

THIS IS HER "CHEESE" FACE!

GETTING IT COZY..MORE PICTURES TO COME!