Summer Fun

It has been ages since I last wrote a post on my blog... and getting back in the routine of posting takes so much effort as my brain has stopped turning and maybe even rusted a little during this summer vacation. There is so much to tell and share about the summer holidays. My family and I went to Jordan for a few days as a stop off before we headed to Canada for four weeks and then back to Jordan we went before coming back home to Thailand.

I have to focus hard to remember what I have been up to all this time... but will write them in bullets along with some pictures for your entertainment and so it will not be too boring.

here they are in no particular order;

1. I have been thinking of my grandmother so much before we left to Amman and therefore I cherished the time my kids and I had with her. She taught them how to play Rummy, a game that I am looking forward to playing with my son.

We spent so much time with family and friends in Canada and Jordan and it was lovely to see all. We introduced the kids to new friends or ones they had not seen in ages and they got along so well. The kids certainly had a blast learning new things and discovering themselves in the process. Jad learned how to put from his Anna in Canada, went fishing with his grandpa, was taken to his Jido's clinic to learn about his profession and learned how to take care of flowers in his Bibi's garden.

2. We went camping in Algonquin for 5 nights and met our dear friends from Bangkok who had driven up from New York to meet us. It was great to spend some time in the wild together. We all had a blast together.

3. We bought our first canoe in Canada and paddled across the lake a few times... one time was at night and we were only guided by the light of the moon. 

 4. We all got in touch with nature and saw chipmunks :), squirrels and a deer. Our friends saw a moose and we are hoping that next year we will see one as well.

5. In Amman, I tried my had with rolled Fondant as I wanted to practice for my kids up-coming birthday parties. The result was not that bad thought I bet I did something wrong because it kept breaking and I had to revert to cutting out stars instead of covering the whole cake with it. What I tried to do was cover the cake in light blue fondant and then cover it with yellow stars.

6. For the first time, we attended a Tattoo of the Canadian army with my husbands parents. It was pretty impressive but I, unfortunately, could not stay for the whole ceremony because Mina was too tired and had to go back to the hotel to eat and sleep. We saw an old ship in the distance on the way to the fort. This was all to commemorate the war of 1812 between the Canadians and Americans.

7. One of the most exciting hours of the trip to Canada was when we exited the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris to visit the Tour Eiffel and the Arc de Triomphe. We were in transit to Toronto and I was not going to sit around at the airport for 8 hours waiting for our plane to arrive. I just had to go see it. We arrived way too early to climb to the top of the tower in the elevator but this did not take away from the excitement of it all. It was truly spectacular and a childhood dream of mine.

8. I was thrilled that Jad and Mina got to see what their Jido did for a living. They visited his clinic and he showed then how to a stethoscope, sphygmometer, the ultra sound and the knee- reflex hammer are used. They had a blast listening to heart beats and seeing their heart and gall bladder on the machines and Jad said that it was AWESOME! For me, it is a memory that would be etched in my mind and heart.

9. Jad had an experience of a life time. The ROM museum had a special exhibition of dinosaurs and boy oh boy did he have a blast. He later went fossil hunting with his dad and found loads of little trilobite fossils on a beach somewhere in the wild. While there we saw a true replica of the dinosaur they found in Malawi while were living there. Magnificent!

10. We also had a chance to visit a horse farm. The kids fed and pet the horses and their young and it was such a wonderful experience for them. Even though Jad had ridden horses in Jordan before, he had never met a foal. He was certainly brave. His little sister was content just to hold the bucket and bring it close to the horses.

11. The kids did some chores around the house in Amman; watering the plants, mopping the floors and picking the weeds. They did not forget to have some tummy sliding fun at the end of it of course.

12. One of the best parts of the summer was meeting my 2.5 month old nephew who filled my heart with such joy. Holding him in my arms was like heaven and I am so looking forward to seeing him again next year. I was very lucky to have had the chance to meet him as his residency card in Bahrain did not arrive until the day before they were planning to leave... if it had not arrive he would have had to stay in Bahrain with his mama while my brother brought his two gorgeous brothers for a visit.

13. And that last experience was something I would maybe write a post about... it was the fact that I had experienced some kind of a harassment while on the plane to Bangkok. The weird thing was that it was directed at me from a very old man who had back problems and was circling the cabin around and around because he was unable to sit down for long.

So you see now why I could not write any blog posts during the summer... there was so much to do and so little time to sit and write anything. I will be catching up with your blogs soon when the craziness of school settles down and I have more time to write at home.I have missed you all.