A Visit to Katy, TX

One of the highlights of our trip home was a trip to see our friends in Texas. Davey and I had been looking forward to it for a long time. We were graciously hosted by my friend and old neighbor, Mendy.

The flight from Cincinnati, though it was the shortest one we took all summer, seemed to take forever. It was strange. I guess when you expect something to go by quickly, it doesn't! The boys were occupied for a while by the flight safety instruction cards. They just love those things.

Figuring it all out

We arrived on a Saturday night so we were able to attend church and see so many of our friends. Davey just loved going Sunbeams with his old buddies. Charlie got a little teary in nursery but stayed the whole time. He was just old enough to go to nursery then so it was wonderful to get to attend Relief Society meeting.

Our first item of business Monday morning was a visit to our old pediatrician. Charlie was very late on his well-child check-ups since I was nervous to go to a doctor in Bahrain, especially about getting shots here. I had seen terrible infections on kids' arms (apparently they say its normal for whatever shot they give them - luckily that one isn't required for non-Bahrainis) and heard that the nurses are slow with the shots.

Also, Davey had had a bad cough for a while that we needed to get treated. And he ended up on a nebulizer treatment in the office. I was busy talking to the doctor about Charlie and looked over and Davey already had the machine going and these big, scared eyes. But he was a trooper and just sat there.

What is this thing, Mom?

While I was in Katy, I lined up our old babysitter to stay with Charlie at the house while he napped so I could go do things. The first day I made a huge shopping trip to Costco and Wal-Martof things to ship back to Bahrain. Mostly anti-bacterial wipes, Oatmeal Squares cereal and healthier on-the-go snacks for the kids that either just aren't available here or are way too expensive. Also included were vanilla extract, pecans and birthday party gifts (everything is so expensive here there are tons of bday parties to attend).

One of the afternoons we met up with our old friends, Fumie and Roberto. Davey had so much fun playing with Roberto.

Cute boys loving the heavy machinery

Our great friend, Amy, had a baby girl just a couple weeks before we went for a visit, so I really enjoyed getting to catch up with her and seeing her beautiful new baby. And Davey was in heaven playing with his buddy Lauren. They've always played so well together and he really missed her.

Sweet baby Julia

We also had the chance to attend our old playgroup and met up at the park and pools during the week. It was so nice that our friends made so much time for us. They were game for anything we wanted to do. We also had a girls' night out dinner at Lupe tortilla. Yum!

As if we didn't fit enough into the 5 days we were in Katy, we also had an early birthday party for Davey. We sent out the invite only 2 days before the party and everyone except one person came! It was so fun living in Katy because all of my friends had kids Davey's age so all of his friends' moms are my friends.

Kristin, Kim, Jamie, Amy and Alyssa

Fumie, Laetitia and Charlotte

It was crazy getting it all together so quickly and with rain all week, but it was really, really fun and the weather held out for us. We held it at the park and splash pad in our old neighborhood, Pine Mill Ranch.

The boys enjoying the water

Mackenzie had fun pal-ing around with Jace and Kai

Cool fountain

Avery and Lulu

Lauren and Jace

Roberto and Davey

Mendy was so nice to get the cake for him

Ready to sing and dig in!

Happy birthday to Davey!

Sammie, Avery, Lulu and Lauren

Davey's best buddies from Katy

Charlie enjoyed the cupcakes waaaay too much...

He grabbed two and dove in face-first.

Notice the sick, I-ate-too-much-sugar face.

Once we had the party and sang to him, Davey was sure that he was four years old. No matter how many times I told him that it was an early birthday party, he would not be convinced, with is defense being, "But I had a four candle!"

Now, months later, I've finally convinced him, but it is still a big enough deal to him that he loves to recount to adults he meets how, "when I had my birthday party in Katy, Texas, I thought I was four but I really wasn't." Along with telling them about how, "When I was in Ohio, I got mosquito bites."

The next morning we fit in a meetup with the Griffeths and Knies at Pump-it-Up and a quick visit with Dave's old boss Cliff's wife Betty and then it was off to the airport.

It was a wonderful whirlwind of a trip!

Cousins, Cousins, Cousins!

We spent three very fun days with Colter, Kelly and their boys. My boys were in heaven with all the cousins to play with!

One of our excursions was to the Cincinnati Children's Museum. The boys especially loved the water area...

Charlie could barely reach the water "ball" but loved the feel of it

Michael turning the wheel

Davey, Peter and Joseph

Davey and Joseph filling up the dam

Colter & Kelly have a wonderful water park run by the city right around the corner from them. It was great fun!

The water park

Playing with Peter was a favorite of both boys, even two months after we've seen them, they still talk about him often

All of the boys enjoyed some good outdoor time but we ended up with major amounts of mosquito bites!

Joseph and Peter giving some great wagon rides

We also got to attend a fun pack meeting that Colter was in charge of. Joseph and his buddies did a really cute skit based on Goldilocks and it was fun to see him in that role. He did great!

Also, Charlie loved everything Kelly made, which is a huge feat! I need to get more of her recipes.

We love you guys and can't wait to see you again! Thanks for letting us crash your house! :)

Michigan Fun

It was so nice to see my parents and little brother Ben when we got to Michigan. And to be in a beautiful, green environment with fresh, fragrant air. The boys enjoyed lots of time outside and had lots of fun hanging out with Grandma Paulson...

There was lots of water fun

The boys loved playing with the neighbor's hose and their grandsons

Charlie was happy to do nothing but be the hose-holder

We played with Grandma at Great Lakes Crossing, stocked up on shoes at the Stride Rite outlet, and rode the carousel

We also really enjoyed hanging out with my good friend Amy and her girls...

Davey LOVED the water slide at the Troy Community Center

Ada, Lucy and Amy

Some good one-on-one with Grandma making marshmallow men!

A pony ride at Chuck-E-Cheese

As you can see, we had lots of fun just in the first week we were in Michigan. We all adjusted pretty quickly to the time change, with Charlie deciding to continue his usual 5am wake-up time. I had really hoped to adjust that later, as you can imagine.

By the end of the week, though, things got really hard for me as I miscarried our third baby. It happened at only 6.5 weeks, but as you can imagine, there is never a good time to lose a baby. Luckily only a few days later we were off to Cincinnati to see Colter and his family and then on Texas to see our friends and both provided good distraction for me.

USA Here We Come!

After our wonderful time in Germany, we were excited to go home to the USA! Our trip, however, had to begin with the 6 hour drive back to Amsterdam. The drive was smooth and the scenery beautiful as before and the boys were very well-behaved, but it made for an exhausting journey.

We stopped at a really nice rest area in Germany and the boys were so cute walking through the building holding hands, I had to take a picture.

I think this one is so cute with them both making the same face, not on purpose.

Davey showing off the matchbox cars I broke down and bought for them. They were so well-behaved I had to reward them!

Spending a little time at the park outside the rest stop (awesome, huh?) before getting back in the car.

It was a nine hour flight from Amsterdam to Detroit and while I didn't sleep at all (too worried that Charlie would roll off the seat) I did get to watch almost two full movies while the boys slept. I have never been able to relax and have any time for myself on a flight before when flying alone with children. Minus the very rude stewardesses (I'll let myself forget the details), it was great!

Charlie is 18 months

Well, I'm way behind in posting this, but wanted to remember some details of Charlie at 18 months old.

Charlie is a very picky eater - he asks all the time for "honey," which is a peanut butter & honey sandwich, and yogurt. Those are basically the only things I can get him to eat with any regularity. I try very hard to provide him with options that will give him the nutrition he needs, but I worry because he won't eat barely any of it!

Charlie LOVES choo-choos and can name the following engines: Henry, Gordon, Percy, Emily, Alfie, Cranky (okay a crane not engine), Thomas, Toby, Coach, and Edward

My housemaid and I were joking the other day how you can sum up Charlie in two words: Trains and Yogurt.

He has discovered the word "LOUD" and loves to scream it in the car. Ouch for the ears!

He loves to run around the house yelling, "fast!" He shares very well (I can hear him saying, "here, here, here" reaching something to another child) and is good at saying "please."

Charlie loves camels. Each time we pass the camel farm near our home (which is all the time), he is yelling and pointing, "Mamoos!"

I just love the 18 month old age. Every time I walk in the door from being out and have left him with our nanny/housemaid he yells, "Yea! Mama's here!"

He loves, loves, loves babies. We were at a birthday party recently where a child about 12 months old was sitting in a stroller being fed by her mother. Charlie stood by her side holding her hand for a full half hour, ignorning the festivities around him.

There are so many flies in Bahrain and Charlie has been joining in the fun of swatting at them. He thinks its so fun to do and funny to watch. In fact, flies are so much a part of his conciousness that when he counts to five, he says, "one, two, three, four, flies!" (he picked up the counting on his own, no teaching involved).

Happy 18 months to our happy, talkative little Charlie bear!

Exploring Hamburg

We arrived in Hamburg on Friday, so Saturday was a perfect day to explore the city and be able to enjoy Jeremy's company too, as well as have his help so the kids didn't out number us quite so much.


Our first stop - a beautifully treed walking district with great shopping.

Sarah, Jeremy and the gang of kids

Hamburg is a beautiful city with lots of waterways and beautiful buildings. Sarah and Jeremy were telling me how the city was never ruled by any of the kings that ruled the rest of Germany and surrounding areas, but it was built and developed by businessmen for their interests so it has more continuity than other cities.

Downtown Hamburg - Beautiful!

The weather was perfect for our day out - we were really enjoying it after the heat of Bahrain.

City Hall

The Nivea headquarters are in Hamburg, so we were able to explore all their coolest products in the company's flagship store.

Lunch at a very German restaurant - everything on the menu was made of potatoes! The kids had some potato pancakes and I had a very delicious turkey, cheese, potato souffle.


Dave loving his train ride and gelato

Part of the metro line includes a river boat with beautiful views of the city so we had to include that on our tour...

The huge dock owned and operated by the company my dad works for - Thyssen Krupp

Beautiful Hamburg shore

A more modern view

On the Baltic Sea, Hamburg is a shipping hub

It was a full and fun day. The kids were amazingly well-behaved for all we put them through that day. We did so much walking that (luckily right at the end) both Davey's and my shoes broke! (guess I shouldn't be cheap about shoe buying)

We unknowingly got the kids to bed past 9 o'clock because it was still so light out!

The following day we went to church with our friends and it was quite warm as no one there has air conditioning. The whole trip was hot and I had packed mostly cool weather clothes thinking that being that far north it must be bound to be cold (how quickly I'd forgotten my northern upbringing).

The cutest thing that day was that in church even though we couldn't understand what was being said (the service was in German of course) Davey decided he wanted to bear his testimony. It was hard to convince him that he couldn't since it wasn't fast and testimony meeting. He had never wanted to do this before so I was sad to have to tell him no. He had everything planned out how he was going to talk about how his Daddy and his Grandpa had been sick and he prays for them.

After church we drove through a little village to get more of a feel for the town.

Such a picturesque little spot

We had a delicious German dinner that night with bratwurst, saurkraut and grilled vegetables.

Charlie and Davey loved playing with the most darling twins, Henry and Isabella. Those little babies are just so adorable! They have such wonderful, calm, sweet personalities and they are just beautiful. Charlie wanted to be on Bella - literally touching - all the time (he didn't need any suggestions as in the video in the post below)...

(I'm having trouble with the video code... if anyone thinks they can help me fix it please let me know!)

Thank you Sarah and Jeremy for such wonderful hospitality. We all had so much fun exploring Hamburg with you and getting to spend some time together. We can't wait until we get to see you again!

Charlie & Bella Video

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Adventure Begins

For weeks before we left for our trip, Davey asked every day if it was July 8th (the day we were to leave). He just couldn't wait to go home and see all his family and friends, just like me. The day finally came and we boarded the plane just before midnight.

Smiling and ready for the adventure to begin.

Charlie loves to clean with wipes. He was happy for a good 20 minutes "cleaning" everything around him.

The kids settled in and fell asleep after a couple hours. I was able to relax but unfortunately wasn't able to fall asleep.

The flight monitor showing we were flying over Iraq! I was surprised to know commercial flights go through Iraqi airspace.

We arrived in Amsterdam after a smooth flight. I was so happy to have not struggled with the boys. Unfortunately we arrived early at 5am and the rental car agencies didn't open until 6:30 so we had to wait around the airport. It was quite a struggle just getting to the right location with a hugely loaded luggage cart that you had to hold a difficult handle down to move and pushing the kids stroller at the same time. I was amazed at the number of people that just watched me creep by (we were truly moving at a snail's pace), without even sympathetic smiles. Finally, a man offered to help us. While we waited for the Avis counter to open, however, Davey really needed to use the bathroom. We had to move at the same snail's pace to get there and my hands were killing me. No offers of help or kind looks. I was put off by the lack of response and I guess I have really gotten used to the friendliness of people in Bahrain. Welcome back to the Western World. I shouldn't have been surprised.

We finally got out onto the road in Amsterdam and it was wonderful! Everything was so green and beautiful. The weather was cool and the air was moist and fragrant. Such a nice change from dry, brown, dusty Bahrain!

I know the following picitures aren't much to look at, but I couldn't help trying to capture the beautiful scenes (holding my phone up blindly in front of my while I drove), even though I wasn't able to. The countryside in Holland and Germany was so beautiful and it was so fun just to be in Europe. There were beautifully cultivated fields and grazing animals with quaint villages each with their very Dutch looking windmill or church.

I had thought the drive would be closer to 4 hours, but it took six solid hours. I was TIRED after not having slept that night but didn't feel in danger of nodding off. The kids were great and slept for about 2 hours of the drive. I expected them to be really restless but maybe they were enjoying the beautiful scenery as well :)

When we got off the autobahn, this is what the rest of the drive to Sarah's house looked like. She has said that she is living out her childhood dream of living in a forest and she truly is. So beautiful and lush! I wish I had taken a picture of her townhome and the homes around it. Everything just looked so German. (Duh! right?)

In making all of our preparations for our two-month-long trip, I hadn't spent really any time thinking about our time in Germany and what we would see or do, other than to be so excited to spend time with my dear friend Sarah, her husband Jeremy, and to meet their darling one-year-old twins Isabella and Henry.

The three days we spent with them were so much fun! (Details in the next post.) Sarah greeted us with a great dinner of gnocci (German as well as Italian because of it being made of potato and dressed with gravy).

Sarah helpingDavey with his first German meal.
(Yes, I cringe when I see this picture. Davey loves to pretend to be a baby. Thank you, Sarah, for putting up with it! Though now as I write this six weeks later he is thankfully growing out of it/being pushed out of it mostly.)

The darling babies - Henry and Isabella!

Sarah also hid for them in their rooms a chocolate Kinder Egg.

They loved them!

A Big, Daunting Adventure

Part of living life overseas is taking our trips home. I was very excited to plan our first trip home, but every time I sat down to buy our tickets, I just couldn't do it. I was taking the kids home a month before Dave would join us, which meant travelling with them myself. The flight from Bahrain plus a layover plus another flight was more than I could think about trying to handle, especially with the journey beginning with a red-eye. Most of the itineraries involved 30+ hours of travelling.

Once I realized that the common layover points of Frankfurt and Amsterdam brought me close to my best friend from college, Sarah, who is living in Hamburg, I realized the wonderful solution - make a stopover and go see her and her husband and one-year-old twins!

So that we did and it was still tiring, but great!

Camel Farm

Its about time I blogged about the camel farm up the road from us. I was in Macy's with my friend, Amy, the other day and another shopper overheard us talking about Bahrain and mentioned how much she had liked the camel farm there when she stopped on a cruise. I mentioned that we live right down the road from there and Amy was surprised she hadn't yet heard about it, so, here's the post, Amy!

HRH the King of Bahrain owns a camel farm that is about a mile up the main road from our home and is a major landmark for my kids. When we first moved there we took a drive around the island and Davey, our little GPS-in-his-head boy, knew we were almost home when we passed the camel farm again in the dark at the end of the day. For a couple months before we left for the summer, Charlie pointed out the camel farm every time we passed, pointing and yelling what sounded like, "Mammals!" He now says it correctly (boo hoo, I hate when they lose the baby-talk) but still often thinks (or hopes) cows and horses are camels.

We stopped by the camel farm again the day before we left for our trip and took the pictures above. The camel farm is open during the day and you can just stop and pull in and walk around. This time one of the workers gave us a little tour and walked us to the back where the pregnant camels and the new babies live. We got to see a two week old camel right up close (the camel to Dave's left in the bottom right picture)... it was so cute! Charlie LOVES camels. You may notice in both pictures that he would not look away from them for the picture. I have started collecting little camel figurines and Charlie plays with them all the time.

We've been reading a little about camels with the kids and found it interesting to know that it is not water that camels store in their humps, but food. The water is distributed throughout thier bodies. Did you always think it was water in the hump too?