Quick trip to the UAE....Daddy as well!!!

John had a long week the end of October for the celebration of Eid but he had a test to take pretty much right in the middle of it which cut into our travel plans but we still wanted to get out and do something and after much discussion decided to go visit my sister and this time John was coming with us!

We flew out Thursday morning and it was so incredibly busy with everyone leaving due to the holiday weekend. We were nervous that we would miss our flight it was that crazy! We flew from Bahrain to Dubai and then drove straight to Abu Dhabi to meet up with my sister and have dinner together that night. John has never been to Dubai so I decided to do the drive through the city so he could look around. He loved it and all I kept hearing was "wow, look at that."

The kids were both so excited to see their Auntie and had fun running around her house, making pizza with her, playing with her dog and then going out for dinner with her and a friend. I love that when we go out to eat whenever we go there and we go around 6:00 PM that it considered incredibly early and typically we are the only ones there so that means that we can usually eat at nicer places than we normally would with two kids because we are not going to be bothering anyone at all. When we are done is when some people start showing up. It works out great that our kids are still on American bedtimes and not Middle East ones!

The next morning we decided to all head back to Dubai for the day. We took the kids to the Dubai Aquarium and did a behind the scenes fish feeding as well. Our favorite part by far was the underwater tunnel. It was amazing to see sharks swimming above you!

We wandered around the Dubai Mall some more, enjoyed PF Chang's for lunch! So delicious! After lunch we wandered around for a little bit to pass time before the fountain show. I had seen the fountains in March with both kids when we went to Dubai just the three of us but we sat more to the front of the fountains this time as opposed to a side view which made it even better than the last time!

The next morning we woke up a little late and so we hurried to pack everyone up and head back towards Dubai to go on a tour of the Burj Khalifa before we headed to the airport. We had reservations to go to the top at 9:00 AM and from what I have heard and the policy that was printed on our ticket, if you don't show up for your time then you forfeit your prepaid tickets and have to pay again. We were also on a tight time schedule to make sure we had enough time to get to the airport. Thankfully we arrived exactly at 9:00 AM and made our way to the top of the word's tallest building! Because we were running from the car I forgot my camera so we only have a couple of pictures from John's iPod. 

We then headed to the airport and back to Saudi. John had his Professional Engineering exam the next day so once he got us home and settled he drove closer to the test site and spent the night at a hotel there so he would be more rested and not have to worry about driving the next day. It was an incredibly quick but fun trip to Dubai/Abu Dhabi and we always love any chance we have to spend with our Auntie Ashley!