Once everyone was packed, Stuart took the Vallillos to Dubai. Millie and I had a mama/Millie movie day, while I started the 8 loads of laundry I needed to do. We watched the new Dumbo. We also made some jewelry with her jewelry kit. It was such a delightful afternoon where Millie was so sweet and adorable. It was so nice seeing her that way. It warmed my heart.
Stuart got home around 6 pm and Cathy came over for dinner. We just had leftovers, nothing fancy. We watched the female remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, called The Hustle. It was so funny and clever. Cathy went home around 9 pm and I showered only to come back down and watch some trashy television. I am on holiday after all.
Monday morning Millie went with her friend Ella to the pool. I went to school to get our Emirates IDs that we’re finally ready, and then returned to take Jack to the pool to swim.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the club because the kids had training at 5 pm. Stuart came and joined us around 4 pm and then left around 5:30 to sort dinner. I ended up staying at the club until after 7 because Jack had his touch training after his contact training, even though he won’t be at the club Tuesday evening for his touch match.
We came home and ate, and then discovered that one of Jack’s team mates is actually playing in the wrong age group. This boy’s father is one of the coaches, so if he leaves then that leaves Jack’s team with one coach. Cathy had come for dinner and Brian and Lara had walked over for a chat. We talked about rugby club gossip and finally convinced Stuart he needed to help coach Jack’s team. Yahoo! He’s such a patient person and really knows how to teach the boys. It was the right decision. In turn I was volunteered to be the manager of Jack’s team. Jack would be thrilled his dad was going to be a coach, but not so sure he would be thrilled about me being around so much. With all that in mind, we called it a night around 11 pm.
Tuesday morning we were up and were supposed to be heading to Dubai to hang out with the Vallillos. Unfortunately, Stuart had a bit of a tummy bug so we decided to delay our trip. Initially we were going to try to go later in the day, but it turns out that Mike had a call he had to take at 8 pm that evening, so we delayed our trip until Thursday.
Stuart ended up doing some work for a couple of hours and then went to the club to speak to the Clubhouse Manager, who happens to have a son in Jack’s team, Louie, Jack’s bestie. They spoke about how Stuart can help as a coach. When he got back we all went to the club for Jack’s touch match. Stuart had made spaghetti cheese for dinner but we decided to wait until we got home to eat dinner. Cathy has joined us as well.
The Oreos.
The boy loves any sport.
When we got home from the club the kids showered and did their normal routine. Cath, Stuart and I ate and continued watching Star Wars, which we had decided we would start watching from Episode 1, as the 9th one is coming out in December. We watched the first one before touch rugby and the second one when we returned. I have never focused much and haven’t been able to follow the story lines in Episodes 1-3. We were hopeful that Stuart would be able to help us understand. Considering we fell asleep throughout Episode 2, I’m not sure we are any better off now than we were before watching the first two movies.
Wednesday morning I got up and finished up some laundry. We piddled around the house most of the day. I made brownies and pumpkin/cinnamon chip brownies while Stuart took his Jaguar to be inspected for its license renewal. He was worried it wouldn’t pass, but it did. He was thrilled.
Millie helped with the muffins, in her sweater. That kid cracks me up!
Around 4:30 we took Jack to rugby training while Millie, Stuart and myself went to the Raals’ for dinner. When I said we would come for dinner I totally forgot Jack would have rugby training. We arranged for Jack to go home with Louie after training. We didn’t stay terribly long at the Raals’ because they have three little girls, the youngest which is 2 years old. Just a few hours is a lot of stimulus for all of them, but ooooo are they cuties! We collected Jack on our way home. When we were at the Rouvis’ house I had to wait for Jack, Louie and Emy (Louie’s sister) to show me their tik tok. And don’t ask me what that is. I have no idea, but it’s funny.
Thursday morning we were up and out of the house at 9:30 am. We headed to Dubai to Jumeriah Beach Residence area. It’s a lovely area that we really haven’t explored. The Vallillos were staying at the Hilton apartments. They had a great pool and beach that we crashed. The kids played at the beach for a couple of hours, we had lunch on the beach, then visited the pool for a bit.
Ready for a day at the beach.
The kids found sea shells, built a sand structure and generally had a wonderful day at the beach.
Jack found two sea stars. He was so excited.
The water was amazing, not too warm and not too cold. Perfect!
After showering, we headed to the Glow Gardens of Dubai. It’s a bit like Zoo lights, but no real animals are in the park.
When we first went in there was a Dinosaur Park to our right so of course we went in. But before that we saw some sweet little dinos being hatched just outside the gate.
They looked a great deal like our kids.
Jack insisted he get into this thing's mouth.
Millie, Addison and Grayson ate their ice cream on this dinosaur bench.
Will Millie ever smile in a picture when asked? Probably not!
Inside the garden was the Ice Park. It was a building of ice sculptures. It was gorgeous.
Camels were a must for a picture.
Of course the girls had to go into the princess chariot.
The random lit displays were quite entertaining.
When we finished seeing the lights, we headed to see the fountain at night by the Burj Khalifa at the Dubai Mall. The song that played while we watched the fountains was Baby Shark. Why not? After we had seen the fountains and the Burj at night, which we had never done before, we went to eat at Stonehouse Grill. The food was good but it took a little too long to arrive. Millie started to loss the plot. She got upset with Jack and insisted she wasn’t going to eat at Jack’s table. It was awkward and irritating.
We made it through and then bid farewell to the Vallillos. They Ubered back to their hotel as it would have taken us an extra hour for us to get home. Mike had google mapped it and told us they were not going to let us drive them back. It was so considerate of them., but certainly not necessary.
We got home just before midnight and had to get up at 5 am for Jack’s tournament in Abu Dhabi. I ended up sleeping on the sofa all night and woke up to my alarm. I decided to ride the bus to the match with Jack, while Stuart and Millie drove behind us. They played hard but only won 2 of their 5 matches. Since they are playing a year up, some of the teams just had more experience than ours and they were a LOT bigger.
Jack was the captain for this match. He’s on the right talking to the ref. I didn’t get a good picture of the other kid but if you look closely you can tell how much taller he is than Jack, and Jack is huge for his age.
When the tournament was over we came home and showered as we all stunk. Stuart went to collect Jack from the club as he had ridden the team bus to and from the match. We invited Cathy and Carly over for dinner and then we forced Carly to watch Episode 4 of Star Wars. Carly is Sean’s daughter and we are kind of looking out for her while he is in Cambodia on a rugby tour. We ordered food in, but it was initially sent to Cathy’s house as she ordered it in her app. By the time she did get the delivery address changed and it was delivered, and hour and a half had passed. It was a debacle. Carly went home before the movie was over and Cathy decided to stay the night in our spare bedroom. Since she no longer lives across the street, coming to our house for an evening is a bit of trouble so we told her anytime she wanted to stay over, she could.
We got up on Saturday morning and did a food shop. Stuart made bacon and egg sandwiches. They were delightful. We went to the club at 11 for the rugby match between England and New Zealand. It was an exciting match, but there really wasn’t a threat in the All Blacks winning.
They are besties until it comes to their teams playing each other.
England won by a bit of a margin. The Rugby World Cup finals will be Saturday, November 2nd against either South Africa or Wales. It all depends on who wins Sunday, October 27th. We are hoping it’s South Africa.
After the match, we came home, dropping Carly at her house. She came over later for dinner, which we had put in the crock pot in the morning. Carly stayed for dinner and then left shortly after. We are probably a bit too old for her to hang out with. I’m sure she’ll be relieved when Sean is home. We watched Miss Congeniality and then called it a night.
For a week where we had few plans, we sure did fill up each day quite well. Only 7 more weeks until the December holidays. We can’t wait.
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