Busy, Busy Town

Nate and I have really been trying to incorporate date night back into our lives, and often times we end up at school functions.  Last weekend was the high school production of Our Town, last night was the Genie Awards - the annual student talent show.  But a few weeks ago, we went big and spontaneous, and made last minute plans to go to the Dubai Tennis Open to see Serena Williams play.  We had dinner beforehand, and then as we were getting ready to head into the stadium, a woman and a couple of men walked right past us and I said to Nate, "I think that's her" - she was about 2 feet from us, but since it was almost time for the matches to start, and the woman wasn't in playing attire, I thought maybe I was mistaken.  Nope, turns out she was suffering from a back injury, and came out to apologize to the crowd for not being able to play:((.  But we got to watch some other women play doubles - one team was from India/US and I forget where the other team was from.  It was fun to see, but we were disappointed that we missed seeing Serena.  That date night kicked off a much needed 4 day weekend, so we took advantage of living in the busy, busy town and the great winter weather here.

 

Finley's latest - Stairs.  For awhile she would get up on the first stair and then need help getting down. Now she is a speed racer though, and can get all the way up the stairs on her own and we had to figure out a way to block them off because climbing them is her favorite pastime.  She thinks it's hilarious when I come running after her.  The only scary part is the corner where it's really narrow and there is no where for her little bottom to rest when she stops to see how far she's come.

Since our car arrived, we don't use the metro a whole lot, but occasionally Nate takes Will out on a train ride - conveniently, the dealership where we have to take our car for repairs is right near a metro station so that's often the motivator for a train adventure. 

Another adventure from the weekend was a trip to the fish market - Nate though Will would enjoy it more, but all the workers loved Will so much that they really invaded his personal space and freaked him out so he didn't want to stay long.  He is sweet and always invites me to come along when he and Daddy go out on one of their adventures, and says that "grills can come too."  

Dubai's Zoo is an animal right's activist's nightmare, but a parent's dream...  it's small, only costs 2 dirhams (about 50 cents) to get in and you can see everything in about 30 minutes.  The tiger was out pacing and the big daddy lion was awake too.  Will was happy to see the giraffes, snakes and turtles. 

We are all kind of relieved to have Nate's basketball season over with, but we found out how much Finley really loves ball.  She follows with her eyes up and down the court during the game, and occasionally puts her arms out requesting a turn with it.  And Will had fun playing with the big boys too - if you look closely, Nate had them get a shirt for Will that says Coach's Boy:)

It's really sad to say, but our trip to the beach was the first one we've taken all year!  When we first got back it was too hot and Finley was too little, then when the weather cooled off, Nate had basketball most weekends so it took until the end of February to get us out there.  As we turned off the main road and could see the water, Will started up a chorus of "Yeah beach, Yeah beach, Yeah beach!"  Finley was intrigued by the sand, and then the water too. 

 

Time flies when you are having fun, and somone started to get hungry and sleepy, but we couldn't leave until Daddy and Will finished making their sand turtle!  Someone had left a nice giant pile of sand that was just begging to be sculpted into something with four legs...  As we started packing up and said "time to go" , Will shared another one of my favorite sayings, "not me also."  I'm not sure where he got his use of the word also, but I think it's pretty cute.  We had a great long weekend together, and it was kind of nice to just be at home instead of having travel  plans.