A beautiful weekend

If you pop by regularly you will notice this little blog has had a makeover.
I guess in some way this is like the 2013 version of 'nesting' - blog makeover, sorting out my data clouds and digital photography filing and storage are all on my to do list  - now I have finally started maternity leave!

I have had so much on at work that I wasn't really consciously aware of the toll it was taking on me until I stopped. The freedom and feeling of not heading off to work tomorrow is exhilarating and very welcome, a break and some time at home is exactly what I need right now at 38 weeks pregnant.

We have enjoyed a great weekend with lots of relaxing and fun with friends. A BBQ and drinks yesterday which turned into a highly competitive board game evening and this afternoon we met up with a couple of other families for a sunset swim and picnic dinner at the beach. How gorgeous is the pic of Piper with her friends - I cannot put into words how well this group of kids get along and play together.

Sri Lanka Again

While my parents were with us for the month of February we took a week off and flew to Sri Lanka for a family holiday.

It was just as perfect, relaxing and amazing as our first time. I highly recommend Sri Lanka for anybody looking for a Bali / Thailand type holiday minus all the commercialisation.

It can be a little hairy.... the lack of road infrastructure left my Dad gripping his seat on the 3 hour drive from Colombo to Bentota and some areas can be a little confronting, but this is a country only a few years out of civil war.

I won't bore you with repeat photographs from our last trip to Sri Lanka, you can find them here and here.

This weekend we are off on a camping trip with friends to the vast desert area known as The Empty Quarter. It is our last chance to spend a weekend outdoors before the heat takes over for the next 8 months.

Piper's snake addiction continues, we met this man on the beach and boy did he have surprises to show us!

As well as the python he had this monkey...

But when he opened the lid on this basket and revealed a cobra we bailed!

This elephant strolled along our hotel beach one day, he was part of a traditional wedding ceremony 100m up the beach

These boys were also part of the wedding celebration and kindly posed for me

Hectic streets of Bentota

Visitor fun!

This weekend we had the beautiful Lexi and BJ come stay with us on their way through to Europe.
It was an absolute blast to see some familiar faces and hang out together.
While it made us a little homesick, seeing it through the eyes of newbies also made us appreciate where we live and how lucky we are to be here in this amazing place.
FYI - I stole these photo's from Lexi's camera (thank you).

A drive out to the end of the Palm Islands to see the amazing Atlantis Hotel

Morning beach fun

Drinks at the Address Hotel, overlooking the dancing fountain, Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa - how gorgeous is Lexi!

Fab photo from the Address Hotel overlooking Old Town (Attareen Island) and the tower behind is our home!

Looking out from the Burj Khalifa (world's tallest building)

Lexi couldn't resist this shot from our car park. There is actually another Ferrari and Porsche usually parked next to these two. I am in such fear of wiping this row of cars out every time I drive in and out of our car park... ouch!



Love this photo! Taken at Burj Al Arab after attempting to Stand-up Paddle Board.... it was too windy and choppy apparently (Piper and I stayed home for afternoon nap).



On the last night Lexi and I snuck away and enjoyed Sangria's at the Palace Hotel pool bar. It is amazing, with fan cooled cabana's and day beds to lounge on and drink cocktails!

Snapshots from Sri Lanka #2

A couple of days ago we visited a turtle research project/sanctuary in Bentota. The sanctuary is not only a hospital and home for injured turtles but raises baby turtles for release to aid in saving the turtle population.
Sadly turtle eggs and turtle shells are still illegally sold in Sri Lanka. Local fisherman collect the newly laid eggs before poachers can get them and sell them to the sanctuary. These eggs are then buried in a caged hatchery on the beach until they are born and then housed in a safe tank until they are old enough to be released back into the sea.
Lucky for us on the day we visited the sanctuary we were invited bakc the following night to particpate in the next turtle release. It was an amazing moment on a beautiful Sri Lankan evening.

Tuk tuk ride to the turtle beach

Beating the heat... early morning beach walk fun

Weekend Camping Trip

Last weekend we embarked on a camping trip with friends. Originally we planned on heading to the Empty Quarter down near Saudi Arabia, however, on Friday we woke to one hell of a sand storm! So camping in the middle of the world's largest sand desert was certainly not going to be a good idea.
We revised our plan gathered up our passports and drove north accross the UAE to the northern most point of Oman and camped at a beach called Dibba. Thankfully Dibba is surrounded by mountains and cliff faces so we were quite sheltered, unfortunately a lot of people had the same plan so it was a busy little camping hole.
Dibba is small Omani town on a large bay, popular for it's beach and sand dune 4 wheel driving fun. As the crow flies it is only approximately 60 kms from Iran across the Strait of Hormuz (which goes somewhat to explaining the strange night sky activities, no heart attacks please Nanna's we were safe).

Naz and the boys had purchased a sand board in preparation for the Empty Quarter so they were more than happy to test it out at Dibba. We also kept ourselves amused with lots of swimming, sand castle building, beach cricket, mountain climbing (although the O'Briens only made it half way up the mountain..... it was difficult carrying Piper and then Lily decided she was going no further and dug her little paws in).
As much as Piper loved running around the beach and swimming nudie rudie for a weekend I think the happiest O'Brien of all was Lily! She swam, rolled in the sand and dug her little heart out.

Sunrise - 'thanks Piper for making sure we were awake early and did not miss it'

Piper, Lily and Laura

Mornng sand board and play in the dunes 'best friends'

Yes that is a streaker on the cricket pitch!

I think her favourite thing about camping was swimming and playing nudie rudie

Aargh still having camera issues. Mountain climbing.

Day at the beach in the middle of winter

We are just past half way through winter and I really cannot complain about the weather!
The past few weeks the weather has been averaging mid 20's with the occasional colder 22.
Today is the coldest day so far and I have clearly acclimatised.... I almost stopped dead in my tracks when I left for work this morning to discover it was a chilly 14 outside, of course it didn't last and a nice sunny afternoon is blossoming ahead!!
This weekend the weather was a nice warm 28 so we hit Jumeira Beach Park for a few hours on Friday! The irony of living in Dubai is by Summer it's too hot to go to the beach!

Our Christmas in Dubai

It was a very different Christmas this year and sadly it was all over far too quickly as the UAE is a muslim country we had to take annual leave for Christmas Day and Boxing day and now I am back at work.
But we made the most of our time and enjoyed good food, great company and lots of drinks... oops I mean laughs! Here are a few snaps of our Christmas fun!

Decorating our Christmas cookies and preparing for our Christmas Eve Party!

All partied out!

Christmas Morning....

Morning cricket match with friends to get the day underway, followed by lunch in the Burj Khalifa!

When in Rome.... I mean why not play cricket in a park at the foot of the world's tallest building!

Piper and Laura preparing to field



Playing with her new scooter from Santa

We finished our Christmas day off with a trip to the beach and some aggressive beach soccer



Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas with lots of laughs and fun like ours xo