Vive la Paris and Brussels

For Spring Break this year, we traveled to Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium where we spent a week enjoying lots of great sites, food, and beer!

We started the trip in Paris while staying in a cute tiny apartment in the center of the city.  There was a crepe stand outside our front door that we went to each day, and the girls discovered how much they love the French cuisine!  One of our first stops in Paris was, of course, to the Eiffel Tower.  We got some nice family photos, and as Justin put Taelyn back on the ground after the photo, he unfortunately split his only pair of pants on the trip!  He also had to walk around in them for a few hours before we had a chance to go to a store!  

The girls were very excited to the Eiffel Tower.  They were thrilled to then find out that they were signed up to run a race there.  The race was affiliated with the Paris Marathon which Justin ran the very next day.  For the girls' race, they ran the farthest they have ever gone at 1.2 km (the distance of 3 times around a track).  Taelyn had an awesome run and was smiling the entire time.  Kaelia was excited to start but got a bit grumpy when she saw how chaotic it was with lots of other little kids.  She cheered up, though, once her daddy jumped in to run with her!  

The Girls Post-Race with Medals

We also got to watch Justin's race the next day.  There were a couple of access points to the course within walking distance of our apartment, and the girls had a nice time cheering him on.

Next, we hopped around to all of the major sites in Paris.  Since Justin and I have been to Paris before, we didn't go inside the places like we did the first time, but it was nice to see everything again. Justin and I set up a scavenger hunt again of time where we printed pictures of the places we wanted to go to.  When the girls found one of those places, they took a picture of it and checked it off in their scavenger hunt booklet.  They also kept travel journals where they drew pictures and wrote about their favorite moments of each day.  It was a great way to get them interested in the sites of the trip and help them remember their travels.

To top off Paris, we ended up at Disneyland.  The girls dressed up in princess dresses while we were highly entertained with rides, characters, and the overall ambiance.  One of the highlights was the Finding Nemo ride - a fast-paced roller coaster that the girls were tall enough to ride.  Then the girls got a chance to meet Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, and we got to see him again in a live show.  It was an interactive show where Stitch and the host called up various volunteers from the audience.  After interacting with a few kids, they came over the Justin (Stitch referred to him as Mr. Justin from USA) and tried to frame him for stealing a ship that Stitch actually took.  We all had a good laugh out of it all.

After Disneyland, we got on a train to Brussels where we spent the second half of our trip.  The scavenger hunt became even more critical here as Justin and I had quite a few places that we wanted to see and spend some time at.  So the girls searched around the city for us to spot out those places, and were excited each time they came across a great find.  One of their favorite stops was at a statue of a dog that is about to pee on the sidewalk (the Zeneke Pis).  They loved this dog and found it hilarious.  There are also two other statue fountains in the city of a male and female peeing.  

We all also loved the waffle stands.  They had dozens of Belgium waffles covered in various toppings such as chocolate, whipped cream, strawberries, bananas, and Nutella!  They were delicious and messy!

Another highlight in Brussels was the indoor water park.  There were several waterslides, a wave pool, hot tubs, and a kids water playground.  Surprisingly, the outdoor portion of the park was also open, so we got to go on a few more waterslides in the cold.  The girls rocked the slides, both inside and out.  Our family favorite was the canon ball where we slid down tubes and shot out in to the outdoor pool like a canon ball.  Taelyn also really enjoyed the wave pool and even climbed up a rope and dropped down in to the pool.  Kaelia loved all of the waterslides and then resorted to the hot tub after she got cold.

A trip to Belgium would not be complete without the beer, so Justin and I also visited quite a few pubs.  They had very unique atmospheres, and the girls were able to stay entertained.  One pub even had marionettes where they put on little shows for the kids while the parent enjoy the beer.  Unfortunately, the shows were not playing when we were there.

After the trip was over, the girls went over their scavenger hunt pictures and journals with us.  We can tell that they are proud of their pictures and work and that they really came away from the trip having learned a bit about both cities.  It's great to hear them tell us all about the sites that we saw and include the names of each place.  Here is some of their work!

And here are some more photos of the trip.

Create a scrapbooking design

Where's Taelyn?

On Monday night, we completed our bedtime routine with the girls as usual: gave them a bath, read stories, tucked them in to bed, and said good night.  An hour later, as usual, we then checked on the girls before heading off to bed ourselves.  Kaelia was fast asleep in her bed, but Taelyn's bed was all messed up.  As we looked closer, we realized that she wasn't there.  So we looked around the dark room and bathroom with no luck.  Then we checked the playroom, our room, and the entire upstairs.  Still no Taelyn!  Justin decided to look downstairs as I did a more thorough check of the upstairs.  Eventually, I turned on the lights in the girls' bathroom and finally found Taelyn.  Here is what I saw.

We asked Taelyn about the shower the next morning, and she simply said, "I like the shower!"  

On Tuesday night, we went through the exact same routine, and when it was time to check on the girls, Taelyn was missing from her bed yet again.  This time she was not in the shower or anywhere else in visible sight.  Justin then spotted the girls' shoe bins outside of their closet when it is normally inside.  Lo and behold, we opened up the closet to find her there!

The next morning we asked Taelyn what was going on and why she didn't want to sleep in her bed.  Apparently, she doesn't think her room is dark enough for sleeping.  I guess she found something more suitable for her needs!

Good-bye Braces!

After almost two years and orthodontists from three different countries, I finally got my braces off tonight!

Happy Easter!

Since we have to work on Sunday, we celebrated Easter today and had a great time.  Beforehand the girls and I made bunny and egg-shaped Rice Krispy treats.  Then we went to Kaelia's friend's birthday party where the girls got their faces painted into butterflies to honor spring time.  Next, they drew pictures for the Easter Bunny last night and woke up to find baskets and eggs scattered throughout our house and back yard.  Taelyn woke up first, went downstairs to see if the Easter Bunny had come, and then ran up to our room to tell us the good news.  Then the girls headed downstairs to find their Easter baskets hidden somewhere in the living room.  They were both excited to find their baskets full of candy, arts and craft supplies, a My Little Pony, and a big-eyed guy stuffed animal!  

Next, the girls emptied their baskets in preparation for the egg hunt.  Taelyn spent some time discussing where she already saw eggs and where she wanted to look next while Kaelia just started running around, grabbing all the eggs in sight.  Once Taelyn realized that Kaelia got the jump start, she followed suit until all of the eggs were found.

To top it all off, the girls also found a treat for Meeka from the Easter Bunny and a new Wii game (Mini Golf).  It was a great morning!

Dust Bowl 2015

Last night, we awoke on three separate occasions to fire alarms going off in our complex.  There was no fire, but something was going on.  As the night wore on, I could smell something in the air, but it wasn't smoke.  By the time I woke up at 4:30am to workout, I walked downstairs to find the entire house completely covered in dust, despite the fact that all of the windows and doors were closed.  As I looked outside, I found dust everywhere!  What appeared to be fog was really a tremendous amount of dust in the air, and the sky was completely orange.  Overnight the dust had actually seeped in through cracks around doors and windows.

Orange sky and dusty fog all around the complex

Dusty kitchen table

The back patio

I suffered through an indoor workout of Insanity, finding it very difficult to breathe through all of the dust in the house.  Shortly after, my neighbor came over to compare houses, and we got the message that we were in a severe dust storm and that school was cancelled.

The girls were thrilled to have a day off of school, but we soon realized that it would not be much fun.  We stayed in lock-down in the playroom where there was the least amount of dust and continued to struggle breathing throughout the day.  Finally, we decided to head to the mall, hoping that it wasn't as bad there.  During our drive, the girls pointed out the Torch building by the mall and how it looked like it was covered in mud.

Our View of the Torch

What the Torch Normally Looks Like

Once we got to the mall, we found that it had been hit by the dust inside as well.  No stores or restaurants were ready to open because they were cleaning up the dust.  We attempted to go watch a movie then, but so did everybody else in Doha that were trying to escape the dust.  We took one look at the long line and decided to leave.  Finally, we drove to another mall and were able to eat at Chili's.  Then we walked around the toy stores to kill time and breathe fresh air.

By time we got back home, the dust had settled, and the air was breathable again.  All that was left was a huge mess to clean up, but at least we survived our first Middle East dust storm!