Kit Kat Factory = big disappointment, twice. I had all the dates and times in my mind. I knew Wednesday was going to be busy, but in a good way. We had a Willy Wonka-ish factory tour (9am), the girls were trying gymnastics(3pm), Isaac had kickboxing(4:30pm), Makenna had horseback riding (7:30pm) and Matt and I were going out for our date night. I had printed out the directions to the factory the night before. We normally sleep in on Matt's days off: a treat for him and I, as I don't get up early to run. The kids still wake up normal, but what's normal for them is later for us. Since we had to be at Kit Kat by 9, everyone had to get up early. We ate a quick breakfast and headed out the door by 8:15. We hit horrible traffic at one round about--15 minutes wasted and got there 5 minutes late. The guard didn't understand what group we were supposed to be with, he took our names, ID's, called inside, still didn't know. So I called another mom to see what name the tour was organized under and found out that ... we were a day early. Oh man.
Gymnastics ended up being postponed a week as well.
So no sleeping in the next day either. And to just rub salt into my wound of guilt, I realized that I had the date correct on my calendar in my phone, but my mind had tricked me. I need to always double check. And then the factory was a bummer. We were expecting to be down on the floor like at Frito Lay or In n' Out or Audi, but nope. There were brightly painted murals down a long hallway about the history of Kit Kat, flip boards about where they are exported to, a movie about how they are made and a few windows looking down at a couple parts of the assembly line. Bummer. The kids played some nutrition games at the end that Isaac thought were quite contradictory to their advertising goals. So they spent the last 15 minutes learning about healthy eating and then were sent home with goody bags containing 7 samples of their various products. Whatever. Now we know. Win some, loose some. One funny thing. One of the older kids took a picture through the window and the guide flipped out demanding he stop immediately and erase the pictures. I guess it's so top secret, we can only take glimpses from above, unlike Audi where we were mere feet away from giant robot welding arms.
Isaac DID go to kickboxing Wednesday and Makenna DID complete her third horseback riding lesson at the Polo Club. The grooms let go of the leads for a bit this time. Baby steps. The other stable was more fun, but we are still happy for the short drive and beautiful horses. One of her favorite parts is when they practice turning around in the saddle. Their teacher calls out "switch!" and they flip a leg around and around and are sitting facing backwards. Then they "switch!" back and go again. The horses are standing still for this part. It's just her and another boy in their group. He is Indian by birth, but was born in Dubai. His dad has been to Las Vegas 4 times. The parents are going on the pilgrimage to Mecca next month. It sounds very interesting. She (mom) is excited, but nervous about the physical difficulty.
Matt and I also managed to go out on a late date. We have had plenty of times over the years when regular date nights didn't happen for one reason or another--usually work schedules. And we adapted and had date lunches or movie nights at home. But it's so nice to have time together each week. Having a 13 year old certainly has its perks.
While we were at the factory on Thursday, I got a call from someone in the ward asking if Isaac could babysit that night. Matt Romney was in town and doing a dinner/speech. Isaac chose to skip kickboxing and go play with Noah, a happy, energetic 18 month old. We had a crash course in diaper changing and all the kids practiced on Jessica's monkeys. The girls were hoping Isaac would get plenty of real practice too, but were disappointed. He just had to provide lots of playtime. I heard at church that Noah was all smiles when they got home and they thought Isaac did a great job.
While Isaac was babysitting, we took the girls to a mall in search of French Onion Soup. Matt picked up the sore throat bug and thought that sounded good. We found some at PAUL's, a yummy French Cafe. Side story: I went down to The Walk on the Thursday I was visiting last summer because Matt told me the Sheiks often make their own parade Thursday nights driving their exotic cars down The Walk, or so he heard. If they do, they start later than I was there. I did find a quaint French cafe with lots of small tables and mismatched chairs. I sat at one tucked into a corner and slowly ate an open faced sandwich on amazing bread and read my big fat new translation of Les Miserables. I had created this rather fanciful/romantic picture in my head of that night, but it quickly burst after we moved here and I realized that PAUL is in every mall in town. Oh well. It's still really good, but I laugh at myself a little every time we pass by one. Jess and Matt both had French Onion soup. Makenna and I shared a sandwich with sliced steak, grilled onions and mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. We all saved room to share a few tasty desserts, mmmmm.
Written late Saturday afternoon: We just got back from picking Isaac up from the drop off for the stake youth activity. He said there were tons of kids there (around 80 RSVP ed according to the last email) and he had a lot of fun. I'm not getting too many details from him because he's half asleep. They all went to Dreamland Aquapark--the place Jess lost her teeth. Isaac couldn't find a blood stain.
I snapped a picture of Isaac setting up an experiment last week. He was testing how increasing levels of salinity affect plant germination. Quite an appropriate experiment for Dubai as we are constantly using desalinated water, which is supposedly more salty than fresh water, though you can't taste it. The results were largely as expected--the less salt, the longer the roots, though we were surprised that even a couple seeds in the saltiest solution sprouted. I should have taken an after picture, but this is all I have. On the cluttered counter you can see bug spray to combat the ants with which we have recently been at war; magnetic words that the girls use to write poems on the fridge; super glue, which we use for everything; the "dinosaur medicine" Jess got from the ER that we finished up during the kids' bouts with the cold bug that went through them all; and the hand vacuum that we use more than brooms.
Other Isaac news (it's now Monday), he just got back from being measured for a suit. We have to take him back for a fitting on Thursday. It won't be ready for church this week, so it'll have to wait for Fast Friday. He is being the Primary Pianist this week. The YW and YM, with help from the bishopric, will be running a combined sharing/singing time (combined with senior and junior) the third hour of church so all the sisters can attend the RS, VT conference. There has been lots of logistical planning for a few weeks and Isaac has been practicing a selection of 8 songs. He sounds great!
Makenna has cashed in her "extra work" for a sewing lesson. I have been making the girls weekly schedules for school (as we are not doing everything with k12 anymore). I have 5 circles at the bottom of each weekly plan for them to do something extra when they have extra time. Jess is working for a Kinder Egg. Makenna wanted to sew, on the sewing machine. She measured, marked and cut out fabric. We will start sewing tonight, perhaps. I cannot yet reveal what the finished project will be.
This is a picture I found of Jess while getting images off the camera. My first thought when seeing it was, "and we wonder why she is the one who has had stitches twice, a concussion and two knocked out teeth."
Our only other news is that Isaac, Makenna and I have started our online learning class for scuba diving. We have to get through chapter 3 before our first pool session. I have changed my tune from thinking this would be a casual, just for fun endeavor. This is serious stuff. I also better understand why 10 is the no-kidding minimum age. It's challenging material. We are having a whole lot of science and math packed into this real life learning experience. I have been getting a lot of "when am I ever going to use this in real life??" questions recently, mostly from the girls. Interesting how fractions, density, buoyancy, volume, pressure, and more now hold greater meaning and purpose.
Taken pre-"tour". Matt's visitor badge makes him look like a vicar in short sleeves. Can you tell it's bright? That's because it's daytime. Clouds are very rare.
Gymnastics ended up being postponed a week as well.
So no sleeping in the next day either. And to just rub salt into my wound of guilt, I realized that I had the date correct on my calendar in my phone, but my mind had tricked me. I need to always double check. And then the factory was a bummer. We were expecting to be down on the floor like at Frito Lay or In n' Out or Audi, but nope. There were brightly painted murals down a long hallway about the history of Kit Kat, flip boards about where they are exported to, a movie about how they are made and a few windows looking down at a couple parts of the assembly line. Bummer. The kids played some nutrition games at the end that Isaac thought were quite contradictory to their advertising goals. So they spent the last 15 minutes learning about healthy eating and then were sent home with goody bags containing 7 samples of their various products. Whatever. Now we know. Win some, loose some. One funny thing. One of the older kids took a picture through the window and the guide flipped out demanding he stop immediately and erase the pictures. I guess it's so top secret, we can only take glimpses from above, unlike Audi where we were mere feet away from giant robot welding arms.
Isaac DID go to kickboxing Wednesday and Makenna DID complete her third horseback riding lesson at the Polo Club. The grooms let go of the leads for a bit this time. Baby steps. The other stable was more fun, but we are still happy for the short drive and beautiful horses. One of her favorite parts is when they practice turning around in the saddle. Their teacher calls out "switch!" and they flip a leg around and around and are sitting facing backwards. Then they "switch!" back and go again. The horses are standing still for this part. It's just her and another boy in their group. He is Indian by birth, but was born in Dubai. His dad has been to Las Vegas 4 times. The parents are going on the pilgrimage to Mecca next month. It sounds very interesting. She (mom) is excited, but nervous about the physical difficulty.
Matt and I also managed to go out on a late date. We have had plenty of times over the years when regular date nights didn't happen for one reason or another--usually work schedules. And we adapted and had date lunches or movie nights at home. But it's so nice to have time together each week. Having a 13 year old certainly has its perks.
While we were at the factory on Thursday, I got a call from someone in the ward asking if Isaac could babysit that night. Matt Romney was in town and doing a dinner/speech. Isaac chose to skip kickboxing and go play with Noah, a happy, energetic 18 month old. We had a crash course in diaper changing and all the kids practiced on Jessica's monkeys. The girls were hoping Isaac would get plenty of real practice too, but were disappointed. He just had to provide lots of playtime. I heard at church that Noah was all smiles when they got home and they thought Isaac did a great job.
While Isaac was babysitting, we took the girls to a mall in search of French Onion Soup. Matt picked up the sore throat bug and thought that sounded good. We found some at PAUL's, a yummy French Cafe. Side story: I went down to The Walk on the Thursday I was visiting last summer because Matt told me the Sheiks often make their own parade Thursday nights driving their exotic cars down The Walk, or so he heard. If they do, they start later than I was there. I did find a quaint French cafe with lots of small tables and mismatched chairs. I sat at one tucked into a corner and slowly ate an open faced sandwich on amazing bread and read my big fat new translation of Les Miserables. I had created this rather fanciful/romantic picture in my head of that night, but it quickly burst after we moved here and I realized that PAUL is in every mall in town. Oh well. It's still really good, but I laugh at myself a little every time we pass by one. Jess and Matt both had French Onion soup. Makenna and I shared a sandwich with sliced steak, grilled onions and mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. We all saved room to share a few tasty desserts, mmmmm.
Written late Saturday afternoon: We just got back from picking Isaac up from the drop off for the stake youth activity. He said there were tons of kids there (around 80 RSVP ed according to the last email) and he had a lot of fun. I'm not getting too many details from him because he's half asleep. They all went to Dreamland Aquapark--the place Jess lost her teeth. Isaac couldn't find a blood stain.
I snapped a picture of Isaac setting up an experiment last week. He was testing how increasing levels of salinity affect plant germination. Quite an appropriate experiment for Dubai as we are constantly using desalinated water, which is supposedly more salty than fresh water, though you can't taste it. The results were largely as expected--the less salt, the longer the roots, though we were surprised that even a couple seeds in the saltiest solution sprouted. I should have taken an after picture, but this is all I have. On the cluttered counter you can see bug spray to combat the ants with which we have recently been at war; magnetic words that the girls use to write poems on the fridge; super glue, which we use for everything; the "dinosaur medicine" Jess got from the ER that we finished up during the kids' bouts with the cold bug that went through them all; and the hand vacuum that we use more than brooms.
Makenna has cashed in her "extra work" for a sewing lesson. I have been making the girls weekly schedules for school (as we are not doing everything with k12 anymore). I have 5 circles at the bottom of each weekly plan for them to do something extra when they have extra time. Jess is working for a Kinder Egg. Makenna wanted to sew, on the sewing machine. She measured, marked and cut out fabric. We will start sewing tonight, perhaps. I cannot yet reveal what the finished project will be.
This is a picture I found of Jess while getting images off the camera. My first thought when seeing it was, "and we wonder why she is the one who has had stitches twice, a concussion and two knocked out teeth."
Our only other news is that Isaac, Makenna and I have started our online learning class for scuba diving. We have to get through chapter 3 before our first pool session. I have changed my tune from thinking this would be a casual, just for fun endeavor. This is serious stuff. I also better understand why 10 is the no-kidding minimum age. It's challenging material. We are having a whole lot of science and math packed into this real life learning experience. I have been getting a lot of "when am I ever going to use this in real life??" questions recently, mostly from the girls. Interesting how fractions, density, buoyancy, volume, pressure, and more now hold greater meaning and purpose.
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