Desert Fun

On Saturday we had a fantastic afternoon / evening in the Empty Quarters desert. I didn't know much about this desert until our Dune Bashing adventure. Our informative driver (2nd generation Emirati), Omar, filled us in on lots of things about Dubai and the surrounding area.

The Empty Quarters, we learned, is one of the largest deserts in the world. It is called the Empty Quarter because four countries' borders meet in the desert: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen.

Our driver picked us up in his very large Chevy Tahoe at 4pm to drive us out to the desert meeting point. There were 25 cars in total dune bashing on Saturday. 3 cars were filled with our group (see above photo).

Curt had been before and really thought it would be a fun outing for us to all do together. He especially thought the kids would love it and they did. It felt like a rollercoaster ride as Omar drove us quickly over the dunes - up and down, sliding left and right. Several times it felt as if we'd tip over. I was in the car with Mia and Ali and they screamed with delight and shouted, 'faster, faster'!!

During our ride (about 1 1/2 hrs total), we had several stops to stretch, have a drink and take a few snaps. Then, we ended at an area in the middle of the desert set up with a stage (for the belly dancer), dinner, shisha pipes, henna tattoo artists, camels, etc. The food was fantastic and the evening was wonderful out in the desert with friends and entertainment.

These were taken at one of our stops

Our fantastic driver Omar. He spoke about 4 or 5 languages and has been driving through the dunes for 4 years.

The kids with Carl (who is also moving his family out to Dubai) jumping down one of the big dunes.

Another group snap (above) and T's jeep (below)

Some white antelopes in the distance

CAMELS

Night time entertainment in our Bedu encampment

Dubai House Hunting

As some of you may know, we are uprooting our family of 5 and heading east. A move is something we have talked about for a while and now it is becoming a reality. In Aug / Sept 2010, our family will move to Dubai, UAE.

We are here in Dubai now on a 2 week visit. Our residence permits are all finished (3 years!) and now we are beginning to look for a home to settle into.

Finding a house has been very overwhelming. We are moving from a house that we have spent years turning into our home and we absolutely love it. Rentals are ... well, they are uncared for and usually very poorly constructed, decorated, etc. On top of finding a house, we have to figure out what neighborhood we'd like to be in during our Dubai assignment. This too is a daunting task as there are so many neighborhoods and the friends we have are scattered amongst them. It's not like Budapest where there are only 2 top neighborhoods to choose from if you have a family in tow. Here, there are at least 6 or 7 that seem more than reasonable.

Just to give you an idea of the style of houses we've been shown, here are 2 from the last couple of days. The first one is laid out almost exactly how I would want my home but the neighborhood is new and, therefore, still being built and very slowly filling up with tenants / new owners. It's lacking green (again, that will take time) and feels like a ghost town / construction site. However, most of the homes are on a golf course, which we would love, and surrounded by sport facilities (professional and recreational).

above. 6 bedroom in Sports City

below. 5 bedroom in Arabian Ranches

The above home is for rent (or sale) by owner and it's been lived in by the owner. This is a huge advantage as it's been really well looked after and not neglected by a renter. They have 2 pools (seriously!) - one for the adults and another for small children, a 1/2 court basketball court or tennis court and a sand pit with a playground. Even though I loved the garden, I didn't really like the feel of the home. The bathrooms were outdated (I cannot stand those short counters as Curt and I are too tall) and the kitchen was very dark (they love there dark cabinets and dark granite counters).

Curt and I have both pinpointed some traits that we would like in our new home:

1. a decent sized yard. I learned that the house-to-yard ratio in Dubai can be up to 60 / 40!! This is incredible as in Budapest we are only allowed to build on up to 30% of our land. As you can imagine, the homes are large and the gardens are tiny. I guess this is because there are 5 months of the year that it's just TOO hot to go outside. For ex., yesterday it got up to 40 degrees C

2. a swimming pool. We will have visitors non-stop so if they can lay out by a pool during the majority of their stay, then this will be ideal. Fortunately, many homes have pools here.

3. a bedroom for each of our kids plus a guest room. If we can get up to 6 bedrooms then we can make one an extra TV room for the kids. I've always wanted a second TV room upstairs for when we have dinner parties and / or when the kids have friends spend the night. This would make up for not having a basement as most are built without basements here.

4. a light colored modern kitchen. Preferably with a built-in island.

5. a mature garden with trees, bushes, flowers, grass. Not Oleander (they love that here as it grows well) or anything with sharp prickles (see a lot of these too).

6. and, we would prefer not having a lot of bling. I have seen some homes covered from floor to walls to ceiling with marble!!! And, they love their blingy chandeliers! One home had a gold, sparkly, over-the-top chandelier in all 7 (too many) bedrooms!!!

So, here we are still deciding and wondering, Where will the Clements reside in Dubai?? Only time will tell...

Another Clements' BBQ

We had the best weather yesterday in Budapest. It was a great thing as we had 8 adults and 9 kids for a bbq yesterday. It was a really fantastic mix of friends. One British family and one Norwegian family and our family. I did my Tequila Chicken that everyone enjoys and lots of side dishes...

The kids had sausages and lamb kebabs for their dinner. I always do food that they can eat on the run as they didn't sit still at all. They were on the trampoline, driving the jeeps, out on the street riding scooters, playing ping pong, then driving dune buggies with the adults. We ended the evening sitting around the outdoor fire and eating cake and sipping glasses of rose wine.

On the left is Terence and his new 'best friend' as they now refer to each other. His name is Helmer, he's Norwegian and attends the American school here. Helmer is about 3 weeks older then T.

Below are fotos of us all out in the field across the street while the moms and dads took turns giving the kids dune buggy rides.





Love the above left photo of Tom with his grandpa (visiting from Scotland) looking on...

Terence's Drawings

Since Terence enjoys drawing mostly with pencil, it's hard to scan clearly as his pencil strokes are quite light. I tried a few and am including them anyway so you can see what things he likes to draw.

Above is a giant space ship. On the top are lots of weapons. He's really into drawing scenes including war, aliens, monsters...

Below is a giant pyramid (on left) of stick people. I thought it was very cute and reminded me of a scene out of Dr. Seuss. On the right, however, is a giant monster eating chunks of the stick people...

Spring Break!!

Today I took the day off of work and worked this morning from home. Then, I had to hit the grocery store(s) for food / ingredients for a bbq that we are hosting at our home tomorrow. At 3pm, I picked up our trio from school. I love the days when I can get to school and pick them up! It's a treat for all of us!

They all came out of school excited as they now have a 2 week spring break! Woo hoo!!! We are all so excited about it!

When we arrived home they immediately went outside to play. It wasn't an overly warm day but it was comfortable. The 3 of them played so well together. I was thrilled to watch them and hear their creative games.

At one point, I looked out from the kitchen (my 2nd office) and saw them bouncing around our garden. They love watching all our flowers pop up. We've all worked on it together - choosing the plants, planting the bulbs, etc. It looks so unbelievably gorgeous now. And, so does my trio. I had to share...

Then, they decided to jump. I had to snap away. Look how adorable these turned out.

More close ups of our amazing spring blossoms....

Easter BBQ

I never got around to posting photos from our Easter BBQ fun. We had a great day. The house was filled with friends, laughter, kids and, in typical Clements' fashion, lots and lots of food! I took photos and shared some with one of our guests, Diane. She did such a great job of posting them all on her own blog that I'm going to take the easy route and just send you her link. Click here to view the photos from our Easter fun. Click here for a few more snaps.

And just a few extras:

Peter and Curt always have lots of laughs while on bbq duty. I must have about 20 photos of them standing side-by-side at the grill (like the one above).

The proved themselves well!

3 legs of lamb ready to be carved up. They were delish! Some leftovers and a leg bone for each of our 3 dogs. Everyone ended the day full.

My chalkboard door is how I stay organized while entertaining. I can make notes on both sides.

Whenever we have lots of kids, I always bake cupcakes! They are adored by all kids and so easy to eat on the run for kids like ours that cannot sit still. No idea why Ali and Molly are in their pjs but they always do funny things...


Some sweet couple shots...

My Little Tennis Pros

The kids were excited to head to tennis today as this was their first practice this year outdoors. They removed the tennis bubbles / covers early last week but since it rained on their tennis lesson day, they had to wait until this week to experience hitting in the sunshine. The tennis courts are just around the corner and they love walking over together.

Delicious Muffins

This evening I tried a new recipe which I found on one of my favorite blog sites. From the Pioneer Woman, I made these delicious cinnamon sugar covered muffins. They taste a bit like doughnuts and are delicious. Mia especially enjoyed helping me cover the muffins with the cinnamon sugar. Check her out in the short clip before. My focus was off so she's a bit blurred... Have to work on that.

A note from Mia

Mia is ALWAYS drawing. Actually, come to think of it, all our kids love to draw! I think this imaginative outlet is really curtailed at the French school. Especially from grade 1 (CP). So, they make up for it at home as we have crayons, pencils, markers and papers everywhere!! Terence has a couple sketch pads that he always has to have with him with a pencil and eraser. If he's not reading in the evening, he is sketching. These are his 2 favorite relaxation exercises...

Anyhow, when I put Mia upstairs in her bedroom for bedtime, she drew for a few minutes while I got her clothes ready for next day's school. She drew a few pictures and then quickly sketched this one up and asked me to take it down to pass to dad (she loves the secret note passing... already). I looked at it and smiled, knowing exactly it's meaning. I confirmed with her and was correct that it meant that Mia loved her Dada to the moon, stars, around another planet and back. She has such a BIG heart!!!