Here is a video of Steve receiving his End of Tour Award in Bahrain during the Farewell Picnic his office had for us.

Moving...Again

It wouldn't be a typical military move without lots of last minute surprises and craziness. After waiting for about a month for our orders to arrive, they finally did with only 10 days for us to prepare for our move. Yikes!! We had to call and arrange for the movers to come, organize our stuff for them to pack, get rid of last minute stuff we didn't want to keep, have Tiara checked out at the vet so that we could arrange her flight home, get the Bahraini vet certificate for her to leave the country, set up a meeting with our property manager for our villa inspection, get Tyler's school record prepared, etc etc. It was an extremely busy 10 days. On top of that, I had to make preparations to close my cake business and do my last orders, including Steve's retirement cake (saved this for my very last order as I thought this was very appropriate way to end things in Bahrain). Amazingly enough we got it all done without too many hiccups in between, along with saying goodbye to our dear friends we were leaving behind.

Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day a day early because Sunday is a regular work/school day in the Middle East, so Saturday I woke up to a special breakfast made by Tyler and Steve. They both gave me beautiful cards. Tyler also made a cute craft that looked like myself and inside it it described how he loved the things I do for him. :) The rest of the day was spent getting prepared for our move from Bahrain. LOL life of a military mom.

Last Overseas Vacation

Our time here in Bahrain is coming to an end and so we had our last overseas vacation during the tail end of Tyler's Spring Break. Steve said we had to see Dubai before we leave Bahrain, so this was our only chance. We hopped on the 45 minute flight. When we arrived at the airport, we had to wait in the longest line ever for a taxi. It seriously took us over an hour and there must have been approximately 100 people ahead of us. The taxi ride took about 20 minutes to get to the Grand Millennium, our hotel. Steve had stayed there during one of his deployments. It was very posh. Once arriving to our hotel and dropping off our things, we headed down to the Metro which was just a 5 minute walk. We took the Metro to the Emirates Mall where we walked around, took photos and ate at the food court. Steve and I had delicious Japanese food and Tyler had KFC popcorn chicken which he LOVED. The mall had a ski slope and sledding and an area where you could pet penguins,  but unfortunately we never had time to do those things. We did grab some ice cream as a nighttime snack before heading back on the Metro and then to our hotel where we called it a night.

The next day we had a whole morning (after eating brunch at the hotel) and most of the afternoon before our friends from Bahrain, Khalid and Reham, arrived at our hotel to pick us up. They had drove the day before through Saudi Arabia to get there. Unfortunately we had no choice but fly because the military does not allow us in that country. So we used this time to check out the largest mall in the entire world, the Dubai Mall. However, because it was Friday the Metro wasn't running until the afternoon, so we had no choice but to get a taxi. It was so beautiful inside the mall. It even had a Tim Hortons (which by the way, are everywhere in Abu Dhabi). We walked over and got some photos of the tallest building in the world, the Buji Khalifa. They had tours of inside, but there was a wait and we just didn't have the time. We decided to take the double decker tour bus into the old part of Abu Dhabi. We got off at the souq which was so awesome to see and walk through. We bought an elephant pillow for our elephant themed living room. As we walked through, of course there were shopkeepers asking us to go in and check their stores. Two of them even put a scarf on Tyler's head to try to get us to buy it or something else in their shop. We got back on the bus and got off back at the mall to grab a taxi to the Emirates Mall to go to Dunkin Donuts. This had been the first tie in two years that we've been inside at Dunkin Donuts store. We ordered iced coffees and it was very disappointing as they put flavor shots in it. Steve couldn't even finish his. By this time, we got back on the Metro and waited at the hotel for our friends after we checked out.

They came by and we started our road trip to Al Ain, the town near the Oman border. We weren't long in the truck before we made our first stop, the Miracle Garden. This was like a floral themed park. Everything was covered by the most gorgeous flowers. They made all kinds of fun statues and houses. Of course, Steve and I were having the worst luck with our cameras and so Tyler's camera was the only one available to take some photos. 

We soon got back on the road and what a beautiful drive it was. The sand was just like on television and in the movies, there were tons of camels out in the desert. This is how I pictured Bahrain before we came. The sand was an amazing orange color, not the dull grey like it is here. We got to the resort that we were staying at, Danat Al Ain, and dropped off our things before heading to the mall for dinner. The last time Reham and Khalid were there, they saw the Shake Shack but never had a chance to try it. So we ended up going there for dinner. The staff were super friendly and Khalid said we would be back the next day for milkshakes since we were full from our dinner. We then went back to the hotel, as it was getting late.

The next morning we all met for breakfast at the brunch downstairs. Then we got in the truck and headed for Oman. At the border we obtained our visas and then drove to the mountains for a fantastic caching experience. The mountains were beautiful and all of our caches were on the same road that went through them. Along the way we saw a beautiful oasis and one of the caches we neat tiny door someone had made in one of the mountains, probably used by farmers resting overnight. After we found our caches we went back to the Shake Shack, not only for shakes but also for lunch as we were starving by this time. We wanted just to have a light meal because we made plans to go to this nice restaurant on a nearby mountain to watch the sunset and eat at their buffet. We decided to go back to the resort to rest a bit before dinner and it was a good thing we did because Steve ended up getting sick. He got so sick that we decided not to join Khalid and Reham for dinner. He thinks he probably got food poisoning from something he ate at the brunch. Later on after he was feeling a little better, we went outside for some fresh air and to watch Tyler in the pool. Tyler made a friend there and enjoyed swimming at night.

Steve was feeling a little better the following morning, but we decided to play it safe by having a light breakfast at the hotel cafe instead of going to the brunch. After checking out of the hotel, we made our way back to Dubai. We took our time going back by finding a road in the desert loaded with caches. We all took turns going out and making the finds. Once our caching was completed, we carried on to the Ferrari World theme park. Tyler had a great time going on the go-carts and other attractions before we went to the airport to end our trip. It was a great little weekend get away, however it would have been a lot better if Steve didn't get sick. This was the first time in all our years traveling that any of us actually gotten sick.

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend celebration started off with an egg hunt, visit with the Easter Bunny and games on the base. The day before, the Easter Bunny had left Tyler a bunny bag to put his Easter candy in. He met up with his friend, Yanni, and they each collected up a bag full of goody filled eggs left on the field. Afterward, we headed over to the tent of games and a family photo with the Easter Bunny. We were thankful that it wasn't as hot as last's year's event.

The next day was Easter Sunday. Last year, it was a school day and Tyler actually had to go to school as the school mostly follows the Muslim holiday schedule, however this year it fell during the start of Spring Break. Tyler woke up very early as usual. We instructed him the night before to wait until the sunrise, at least, before waking us up. LOL We went downstairs together and the first thing Tyler found was a chocolate bunny. Then he discovered that the Easter Bunny left him a brand new bike, which was good because his old bike was getting way too small. When I first saw the bike I thought there would be noway that he would be able to ride it. It looked huge, but Dad assured me it wouldn't take him long at all to get the hang of it and he was exactly right. We took him across the street later in the day and after a few attempts, he mastered it perfectly!!
Getting back to the morning candy hunt, the Easter Bunny left him gummy fruit snacks along with the chocolate bunny and bike. Since it was Easter, I made us bunny pancakes for breakfast.

First Day of Spring Break

Not a great way to start our Spring Break, we woke up with a great big mess that the sandstorm left from the night before. While the strong winds continued outside, Tyler wanted to teach me how to play chess. Oye! There was a lot to remember, but he was a good teacher. Later on, I went outside to tackle sweeping off the front step so there wouldn't be so much sand inside the foyer. Tyler surprised me by coming out and grabbing another broom to help me. I was very thankful of his kindness. We just read that we are in for another sandstorm on Monday. Nooooo...we just finished cleaning up!! LOL

April Fool's Day

Tyler got us good by pulling a prank on us. He made signs that read "Breakfast" with arrows that pointed upstairs. They lend us three flights of stairs to the door that went to our roof top. Once we reached the door, there was another sign that read "What are you doing up here?". LOL