An Asian Vacation

Our school had another week off this week, and we took advantage of the time to go on another vacation.  It has been quite a long time since we have been to Asia, so we decided to take a trip to India and Sri Lanka.

In India, we visited a friend that we knew in South Africa who now teaches at an international school in New Delhi.  We were only there for a weekend but had a great experience.  Our friend, Faze, took us to Old Delhi were we got a tour of the town by bicycle rickshaw.  There we saw crowded streets, cows in the city roads, and the infamous cables and wires clumped together across buildings.  The most memorable part of the tour was a stop at a local building where people sell chilli peppers.  Just walking in to the bottom floor of the building, we started coughing and tearing up at the powerful smell.  Once we walked up to the third floor, we finally saw the chillies - huge bags full of them.  This was also a wake-up call in to local poverty and culture.  There were very small stalls, one after another, that each contained a small platform with a blanket on top for a bed and many bags of chillies next to it.  This is where sellers of the chillies sleep and live.  It also happened to be Saturday - bathing day - where the people were able to wash up for the week.  Taelyn was surprised to see how they would bathe right in front of us.

The next day, we took a day trip to see the Taj Mahol.  We have seen numerous pictures of the palace, but the pictures do not give it justice!  The Taj was enormous and impressive.  Our guide pointed out all of the symmetry, and as we stood in various points on the property, we could look left and right to see exact mirrors images.  This was true of the palace, the guest buildings, the front entranceway, and the gardens.  It was amazing.  The girls also had a great time as mini celebrities.  We bought them Indian dresses the day before on our rickshaw tour, and they were eager to wear the dresses at the Taj. As they walked along, people came over every five minutes, asking to take pictures with the girls.  Then when they posed for pictures in front of the palace, they had a little paparazzi ready to take the pictures as well.  They didn't seem to notice too much, and Taelyn was really excited to take a picture where it looks like she is touching the top of the Taj Mahol.

The next stop on our journey was to Sri Lanka where we spent four nights at a beach resort with some friends from school.  They have three daughters, so our girls were more than happy to play together. We stayed in small cabanas made out of palm leaf weaving on the walls and thatched roofs.  Our bathroom actually outside the back of the cabana in a private, walled off palm leaf woven area, and the water for our shower ran through a piece of bamboo.

While on the beach, we got to see local fisherman bring in a huge round of fish 2-3 times per day by casting out a large net with boats and then pulling in the nets by hand.  The girls loved to be around when during the final stages of the process so they could see all of the fish get dragged in.  They got to pick up several fish on the beach, but we also had to be careful not to step on any of the mini swordfish.  They were only about 3-4 inches long but very pointy.

The biggest highlight of our time in Sri Lanka was a boat excursion to go dolphin watching.  The experiences was absolutely amazing.  After about 10 minutes to driving out at sea, we came across tons of dolphins.  They would literally swim past by the hundreds, leaping out of the water within feet from the boat, and occasionally jumping up to do a flip.  All five girls were ecstatic with the adventure, and the adults were not any less impressed.

Other fun activities included salsa lessons for the adults and palm leaf weaving for the kids.  There were also lots of places for the kids to explore - including a wooded area off the side of our cabanas and the many crooks and crannies of the resort where cats and kittens roamed.  During the rest of the time at the beach, we spent quality time swimming in the ocean and pool, playing in the sand, and just hanging out.  It was a great combination of adventure and relaxation.

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Character Day

Today at school, the elementary school had a character day where students could dress up like a character.  This is a big deal for our girls because they normally wear school uniforms, and they hate their uniforms.  In fact, on most mornings when Kaelia wakes up, she takes one look at her uniform and says, "Uh, I hate my uniform!"

Anyway, Kaelia decided to dress up as Sophia the First today, and Taelyn chose Taylor Swift (because her name is kind of like Taelyn).  She even constructed her own guitar out of a cereal box the night before as an accessory.

More Pool Tricks

Once again, the girls have been at the pool, thinking of new and exciting tricks.  Here are the latest two.

Christmas on New Year's Day

Now that we are back from Europe, we were very lucky to have a visit from Santa a week after Christmas.  We got back on New Year's Eve, and left some messages and cookies out for Santa that night, hoping for a complete Christmas on New Year's Day.  Santa, of course, did not disappoint us!  The girls got lots a great gifts; they will be busy for quite some time now!  Some of the highlights were Mousetrap, Mariokart for Wii, and princess costumes, and Legos.  Taelyn is especially excited about her new Ferby!  Here is a recap of the morning.

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Girls & Groceries

Our hosts at the B&B warned us that all of the shops in the area will close for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so we had to stock up beforehand to make sure we had enough food during those days.  When we walked in to the grocery store, Justin and I grabbed a cart while each girl got their own kid-sized carts too.  The girls knew we were on a mission to stock up, so they went off on their own to help out.  Here is what each of them came back with.

Taelyn:
apples
pears
yogurt

Kaelia:
oranges (which she doesn't like to eat!)
toothpicks
rubber bands

Taelyn actually came up with some fairly practical food.  On the other hand, who knows what Kaelia was thinking about!  At one point, I even heard her say "Ooooh" in a very excited voice as she grabbed an item and placed it in her basket.  When I checked to see what it was, I saw the rubber bands!  Apparently, she was very eager to buy those.

Snowy Christmas

For our Christmas vacation this year, we travelled back to Europe and spent some time in Munich, Germany before heading out to Austria for a snowy Christmas.  Germany is my favorite country that I have ever been to, so it was natural to want to visit again to see the country decorated for Christmas.  We were not disappointed.  While in Munich, we went to many Christmas markets, and each one is fairly different from the next.  Our favorite was a medieval themed market where mulled wine was served in goblets, and we saw a small parade full of medieval characters.  We also visited plenty of beer halls where the atmosphere was family-friendly and full of Christmas cheer.  To top off the experience, we finally decided to buy some traditional German clothing to wear during the numerous times that we celebrate Oktoberfest (you'd be surprised how many times we wish we had had this before!).  Justin bought some lederhosen (leather knickers with suspenders), I bought drindl (think of a dress from Hansel and Gretl), and even Kaelia got a kinderdrindl (kid's drindl); they were sadly out of Taelyn's size, so we will look online to order one for her.

A nice surprise in Munich that we did not expect was that we got a chance to meet up with some old friends that we used to work with.  We were all posting on Facebook that we were in Munich for the weekend, so we contacted each other and got together.  We taught with one couple in South Africa, and then met up with a family that we worked with and knew very well in China.  What a small world!

After a few days in Munich, we crossed the border in to Austria and drove a couple of hours to a small mountain town called Obertraun.  This was a very cute, quiet, beautiful town, equipped with lots of wintertime activities.  When we first got there, they had not been any snow yet, and we were all very excited to see snow.  Taelyn was just a baby when she last played in snow, and Kaelia has never done so.  Our host at the B&B told us we could find some snow at the top of the Alps if we took a cable car, so that was our first adventure.  We even brought a sled with us so the girls could try it out!  The view was absolutely gorgeous and was especially nice as we went on a little hike along a trail.  Justin pulled the kids along on the sled from time to time, and they all went sledding any time we came across a steeper hill.  By the end of the hike, the girls even mustered the courage to sled by themselves.  They loved it!

Here was the girls' first downhill sledding experience

On Christmas day, it just started to snow, but it was not enough to partake in any outdoor activities.  For the morning, we spent time indoors as the girls found stockings from Santa and they exchanged gifts with each other.  ironically, they happened to buy each other the same type of gift!  Taelyn got her sister a big-eyed stuffed animal dog, and Kaelia got Taelyn a big-eyed cat.  They both did a great job thinking about what the other would like, and it was a heartfelt moment when they opened their gifts.  The girls also know that Santa would visit our house in Qatar once we got back.  After a relaxing morning, though, we headed out to an indoor water park where we had the perfect family outing to celebrate Christmas together.  The water park had a few water slides, a wave pool, a lap pool with diving boards, and kids pool playground, many heated pools and hot tubs, and even a pool that led to the outside where the snow fell down on our faces.

After Christmas day, the snow kept coming and coming.  We got to do all of the snowy activities that we were hoping.  First, we made a little snowman that the girls named Frosty.  Then we went for a hike through some snowy trails.  I had a nice time taking pictures of the family during this hike; Kaelia noticed this as asked if she could take a picture of Daddy and Mommy together since we didn't have any pictures with the two us.  Surprisingly, she took a perfect picture of us!

On one of our last days in Austria, we finally headed to the slopes for a day of skiing.  The girls spent a couple of hours in ski school where they got to practice the basics of going downhill while Justin and I attempted to make it down the mountain before their class was over.  This would have been no problem for Justin, but it was not the case for me.  It has officially been confirmed that I should never ski again!  I am the worst skiier on Earth and eventually took my skiis off on the last hill so that I could walk the rest of the way.  Aside from spending most of my time on the ground, though, we had a nice time, and the girls asked if they could try out ski school again in the future.

Of all the winter activities that we did, the girls really enjoyed a simple game of snowball fighting.  They thought it was hilarious to get Justin or me; whenever we walked somewhere in the town, the girls spent most of their time off to the side of the side walk, collecting more snow for more snowballs.  Overall, the girls were just fascinated with the snow.  When Kaelia wasn't throwing snowballs, she would just walk down the street with her mouth open so she could eat the snow!

We are so glad to have finally found the snow for a Christmas vacation and to share that experience with the girls.  It really was a fantastic trip!

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A Visit with Santa

Tonight we attended a Christmas party that one of the teachers in our company put together.  The girls put on their fancy holiday dresses and eagerly met some of their friends from school at the party.  It was also full of kids' crafts, a stocking scavenger hunt, and a catered dinner.  The highlight of the evening, however, was a surprise visit from Santa.  The girls were so excited to actually meet him in person.  Kaelia's exact quote was, "This is the first time I ever met Santa!"  Santa brought each child a present; our girls were so excited to open up a Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel doll.  Here are a few videos of when the girls got their gifts.

Taelyn gets a gift from Santa.

Kaelia gets a gift from Santa

Everyone opens their presents!