Going Away Party from the Murjan Ladies

With less than a week left in Saudi, we have started saying our goodbyes.  The sweet Chevron Phillips ladies of Murjan Village threw a goodbye luncheon for me.  It was such a wonderful opportunity to gather together with the people that have made this place home for the last five years.  We enjoyed a fantastic time of fellowship, friendship, and food!

After eating, the ladies surprised me with some beautiful parting gifts that I will truly treasure for the rest of my life.  :)

Ladies, THANK YOU for all of the love you poured out over the past five years!  You have made life on Murjan a true joy.  YOU ARE WHAT I WILL MISS MOST!!!!  We love you all!

Look Who's Crawling!!

Look who's crawling now!!!!!!!  Olivia has been army crawling for weeks, but she figured things out on March 25th!  We laugh to ourselves and say that she couldn't leave Saudi without crawling around our hard tile floors.  :) Annnnd, she's off!  LOVE our girl and so proud of her!

Our Last Weekend Trip to Bahrain

Before we move back to the US, we really wanted to make one last trip over the causeway for a visit to Bahrain.  When we first moved to the Middle East, I wasn't allowed to move into Saudi because of security restrictions, so Bahrain was my home for the first month.  Living there was a wonderful experience and a great introduction into Eastern life, so naturally we enjoy going back there to visit. Our good friends, the Jones family, came with us which made the weekend an absolute blast!

We stayed at the Kempinski hotel which is attached to CityCentre Mall.  This was our first experience at this hotel and it didn't disappoint.  It was SOOOO nice and convenient to be able to leave our hotel room and mosey around the mall.  We didn't have big plans to venture out into the city, so finding things to do there was perfect, and hanging out with our friends was wonderful!

After getting checked in to the hotel we made a trip to the kids play area in the mall.  It is a HUGE and FANTASTIC wonderland of games and activities .  Needless to say, we spent quite a few hours there over the course of the weekend.  It's hard to say who had more fun, the kids or the dads.  :)

As I said earlier, the hotel was great!  After shopping that afternoon, Savannah was greeted by her favorite dinosaur which she thought was pretty spectacular!  I couldn't actually get a picture of her looking at the camera because she couldn't take her eyes off of Barney.

Our hotel had an awesome kids pool area that was just perfect for Jack and Savannah to play in!  Unfortunately it was windy, which made it chilly, so Olivia sat on the sidelines with me (I enjoyed the snuggles!).

That evening, we hired a babysitter and the adults had a fantastic dinner together!  It was wonderful, but I can't believe that I didn't get a picture of us all!!  We are so thankful for the Jones and the friendship we have formed.

The next day we woke up early and ate breakfast at I-HOP, and then headed for the play area.

Since this was our last trip to Bahrain, we got something special for Savannah and Olivia to remember at Build A Bear.

Of course we made sure to eat lunch at PF Changs before heading back to Saudi.  SOOOOO good!

We had a fantastic weekend with fabulous company, and are so thankful that we had one last hurrah in Bahrain.

Here are a few snapshots I got heading back to Saudi over the causeway.

Back in Jubail....