Camping in the desert with our friends and family...

After spending a night in the desert in the Arabian Gulf, what could be better than waking up to a camel caravan traveling through..It was spectacular! Experiences like this just can't be described and really couldn't be better if we had planned them.

After a good night's sleep the kids woke up and found their own breakfast..Breakfast always tastes better when you're camping, doesn't it? Sam found his book and enjoyed the morning fire and the sunrise. The kids have become so easy going and adaptable to any situation. Especially this camping trip. It was harder on the adults than the kids.

Cairo relaxing by the campfire.

After a fun and busy day running up and down sand dunes, it didn't take long for the kids to crash..totally covered in sand from head to toe. They slept so well that night all snuggled in the tent with Brad and me.

Jack sliding down the dunes.

The kids had their own campfire. They loved not having to be with the parents.

Kim and Jacqui and Sam by the fire.

My cute friends..Liz,Molly and Dana

The group around the campfire.

Jack in a sequence of jumping off a dune.

Charlie and some of the other kids jumping and playing on the dunes.

Cairo on the dunes.

You just cannot beat the sunsets in the desert. Except with a darling boy like Charlie in the foreground!

Cook Family Photos on a giant sand dune.


All the kids had a great time running up and jumping down the giant dunes.

Brad setting up camp in the desert

The Cook/Shields campsite. It looked and felt like we were miles away from civilization. Beautiful!

Jack and Charlie's art work from school

Jack and Charlie have done so much great work at school. Much of their artwork is displayed as part of our Christmas decor around the house.
Because today, Tuesday, is the first day of Eid. Muslim holy holiday that is celebrated at the time of the haj, they did Christmas as well as Eid crafts.

The boys had a Christmas program at school. They sang Christmas songs and had choriography to go with each tune. It was so fun to look around the room full of parents and see women in abayas who were there watching their children perform Christmas music. Interestingly, Christmas performances at school are much less controversial here, in an islamic country, than in the US..

Totem ASRP

An ASRP is an after school recreation program. Sam and Cairo are both in one this time that Molly is running. They first talked about native american totem poles and how each individual carving on the pole had a meaning. Molly then gave the kids a hand out with several different animals listed on it along with each animal's characteristics. Each child chose the animal that best represented them. The rest of the education process was that of recycling. The children then had to use old cereal boxes, egg cartons, newspapers etc. to create their totem. I helped Molly with the last two sessions of the ASRP as the kids finished up their work. Now all the totems will be mounted together on a pole and displayed in the school. Each child's name will be displayed next to their animal, along with the characteristics represented.

Sam chose a cougar as his totem..No, not because of BYU's fantastic football season, but because of courage,leadership and foresight.

Cairo chose a dolphin as her totem..because of swimming.

We visit the Women's College

Monday the Abu Dhabi Women's College had a big festival. The parents were invited to come and see the campus and there were a lot of booths with things for sale, henna and other fun stuff.
I planned on going and since Dana, Molly and I trade off afternoons with the kids from Stepping Stones it was my day and I thought I'd take them to the campus too.
It turned out to be such a fun time. I think the students had the most fun seeing these young american children walking through campus with the director (Brad).
We couldn't walk more than a few steps without students stopping us and asking for a photo of the kids and usually they wanted a photo of the kids and Brad.
It was a scream. I honestly think there were over 30 pictures taken of these kids. The boys got a little tired of it but cute little Ali..the darling blonde girl, was the most popular due to her light hair and she really hammed it up for the cameras. She would smile and wave for every shot. Eventually it got to the point where it was just Brad and Ali in the pictures and she would just snuggle up to him and smile. Finally, Brad asked me..."who's Ali". It was so funny because by then he had posed with her for no less than 10 photos.

Charlie, Mark and a glimpse of Ali. I'm surprised with all the photos taken of her, I didn't manage to get one myself..

There was an exhibit that showed robots picking up balls and driving them around. The kids thought it was very cool.

Ali is another classmate of the boys and they talk about her constantly. Her mom, Christy, has said the boys are a constant topic at their house too. Ali's family moved in at the beginning of this school year and Christy is one of the Mom's we hang out with on the playground after ACS every afternoon. Ali will probably become one of the regulars in our afternoon playgroup from now on.

We Finally Can See a Tooth!!

She can still sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" because she has been missing 3 front teeth for over a month now. The one that is finally breaking through and making a grand and much anticipated entrance has been missing for almost a year! Cairo's teeth are a bit like she is...they like to grab the attention of the audience. We were concerned that before long we would have to surgically get this tooth moving but along it came.
She is cute as ever..and getting cuter all the time with a little tooth there in the front.

Blog update...busted!!

I have been trying to find time to update the blog with all the great photos I have taken over the past 3 weeks..Finally, I found time and the memory card in my camera has some sort of problem. I am ready to cry. Let this be a lesson to those of you who may put off blogging..or doing anything with digital photos. I am hoping I will be able to find someone in this city who can recover the data..It is a 2GB card that was nearly full and I cannot access any of it.
Fortunately, I do have this one photo of Brad and Jack by the campfire at our McGuffee farewell campout. I had it on the computer for some reason. Another bonus is that I used Liz' camera to take a bunch of photos so I will go to the other computer and check those out. Stay tuned...T