Kuwait!

Hi everyone.  I want to catch you up on our trip to Kuwait a few weeks ago.

First, it was a process trying to get to Kuwait.  We planned on renting a Tahoe and driving up with our friends who don't have a car.  That didn't work out.  Avis didn't get the border paperwork done in time. We postponed for a couple of weeks and didn't get the paperwork again, so we went solo.  A 4am departure and a 4 hour drive to Kuwait City.  It was pretty cool driving through mostly open desert with the sun coming up.

Once we arrived we went to the Science Center!  Aden explored the aquarium, saw some cool boats, and played in the Discovery Center.  Now that he is old enough to know what is going on, he really likes aquariums.  I think his favorite part was watching the diver hand feed the sharks.

After the aquarium, we took a good nap in our hotel and headed out to see the Kuwait Towers.  they were impressive to look at, but are being renovated.  Later in the afternoon we found a huge mall to do some shopping.  The Avenues mall was very impressive.  It seems to be part of the modern Arab oil country culture to build huge malls.  We have seen this in Saudi, Bahrain, UAE, and now Kuwait.  Besides the mall, Kuwait City was a bit more traditional than a city like Dubai.  The invasion from Iraq in the First Gulf War is also still a fresh memory for Kuwaitis.  One guy told us about this great Dhow (boat) that had sailed around the world that the Iraqis burned when they invaded and how the Kuwaitis built another one in the same spot.  We didn't go into the museums since we were only there for a night and with Aden, but there is some rich history in the country.

The next morning we spent some time walking along the beach front.  Aden enjoyed watching the boats, birds, and people.  Then we grabbed a quick lunch and headed home.  One the way home there were camel, sheep, and goat herds all over!  A lot of the herds were accompanied by a Shepard.  Tara said it reminded her of what Bible times might have been like.  It was cool to see the very modern and very traditional Arab world so close together.  A lot of driving for a short trip, but we are glad we did it before leaving Saudi.

Enjoy the pics.  Hopefully some of a new baby are coming soon!

Daddy and Aden in front of a dhow

Checking out the huge snake!

Someone was a bit afraid to touch the turtle

Watching the penguins dive for food

Diver feeding the sharks and rays.

Kuwait Towers

Hanging out on the corniche

 

37 weeks pregnant (p.s. as of today we are 39 weeks +2 days)

Playing with baby sisters headbands and bows

Bahrain fun

Jamie has taken on a leadership class called Adaptive Schools.  It involves going to Bahrain 4 times this winter/spring for a day long training session.  Adaptive Schools is a huge buzz word in the international circuit and we are very excited for this opportunity.  The second session was in February and we decided to all go as a family and spend the weekend in Bahrain since it had been awhile since we'd visited (plus we had a hankering for some bacon!).  Jamie had to be in training all-day Thursday, which meant some serious mommy-Aden time.  I did some research into what would be fun to do with Aden in Bahrain and found out that there is a wildlife refuge center there.  It really is like a mini zoo with mostly local animals, but it was a blast.  I successfully drove Aden and I there all by myself.  I'll be honest, the last time I drove myself anywhere was probably this past summer and I've never driven while obviously pregnant.  I was quite proud of myself!  The refuge center was a big hit with Aden.  We walked around for about an hour looking at all the different animals, went into a petting area where he was so gentle with the animals, and took a bus ride to see the bigger animals.

 Checking out the flamingos and the huge pelican

 Loving the bus ride!

 The leopard went right up to the glass

 One of Aden's favorite exhibits, but he wouldn't take a picture by it.

 Being so sweet with the bunnies

 Camels, of course!

Look at all those eggs!

We ended our fun morning out with a fantastic Fuddruckers hotdog.  Aden was so wiped out that I had to wake him up after 2.25 hour nap!  Jamie finished up his training day and we were able to spend some quality time together, just the 3 of us.  

For those of you keeping an eye on the happenings in Bahrain, there are still protests, but mostly in certain areas that we just stay away from.  We did see some serious smoke from one area where we were told tires were being burned.  Burning tires and dumpsters is one of the protestors ways of expressing themselves.  We do hope that things can be resolved in this part of the world soon.

Tara

Turning Two!

This is a bit late, but on January 8th, our little boy turned two years old!  This also happened to be our last day in California, but Aden took it with stride.  His big present from us was a balance bike which we had given him before Christmas so he could enjoy it while we were on vacation.  For those who don't know, a balance bike is a bike that has no pedals.  The child's feet are supposed to hit the ground so he can push himself along and work on balancing the bike.  Aden has always been very physically active, plus we've seen a few of these bikes in action with our friends' kids, so we thought it would be a perfect fit.  We were right.  At first he was a bit timid about the bike, but he quickly caught on to the concept and had been improving everyday.  Now, he can pick up his feet and balance for about 10-15 seconds.  The goal here is to be able to skip training wheels and go straight to a pedal bike. 

Back to Aden's birthday, we had a very relaxing day of playing.  For lunch, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and Aden loved it.  He isn't usually much of a plain meat eater, but found that he really enjoyed dipping his naked tenders into the BBQ sauce.  After lunch was nap time, when Jamie and I finished all of our packing.  We flew out that evening and after 24 hours of traveling made it back to our house in Saudi. 


It really has been amazing how Aden has grown in the last year.  He is so much more independent.  He feeds himself completely, can buckle himself into his chair, tries to get dressed and put his shoes on himself, and is in a big boy bed.  His vocabulary is growing each day.  He loves to completely surprise us with a random new word.  His latest have been read, story, and avocado.  He likes to be helpful at home (as long as it is on his terms).  He loves to laugh and make others laugh.  His laugh is so contagious.  Jamie and I are very quickly finding out that parenting is a series of phases.  We may not like each phase, but we learn something from each one.  We know that the year of two will have some challenges, but will also be a lot of fun. 

Here are some fun pics of him through the last two years:

New Years in Seattle

After a wonderful Christmas in California, Tara, Aden, and I headed north to Seattle for some time with Nana Kim and Papa Don.  It was our first trip to Washington and we really enjoyed our time with family and exploring.

Our first few days were spent at Lakeshore Bible Camp on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.  Friends of the Gillaspie's from East Troy work at the camp and were able to put us up in a very nice three bedroom, two bathroom lodge.  Aden had a great time running around in the big open space when it was raining outside.  With that said, Aden also did enjoy some time running around outside in the rain . . . until he realized how cold he was and started crying.  Aden also had fun playing with some new friends.  The kids living at the camp really enjoyed getting to know Aden.  They came over for dinner one night and we went to their New Year's Eve party the next night.

On New Years day we headed into Seattle and checked out the REI flagship store and out to a seafood dinner with some of Don and Kim's friends that they have met through a church in Seattle.  The REI flagship store was awesome.  Aden had a great time playing in their kids jungle gym and Tara and I finally replaced our old leaky water bottles.

Up next . . . the Space Needle!  One of the USA's landmarks.  It was pretty cool to go up and check out the views of all of the mountains around Seattle, especially Mt. Rainier.

Unfortunately, that afternoon, I headed to the airport and was off to Wisconsin.  My uncle, Bill McGuire, died very suddenly the week earlier and I went back for the funeral.  The difficulty of supporting our families in hard times is something Tara and I think about more since living overseas.  Since we can't change what happened, I'll say I was thankful for being able to be there with my family while we grieved Bill, who was not just family, but a close friend also. I was thankful for how blessed Seth and I were with our flights.  Seth and I were able to fly in from different airports, land five minutes apart, and share a rental car in Madison.  I flew out the next evening so I could fly back to Santa Barbara with Tara and Aden.  Seth flew out the morning after and we landed an hour apart in Santa Barbara and drove back to Seth's house together.  The timing couldn't have been better.

Playing with the other kids at Lakeshore Bible Camp

Picnic time with Papa

The Needle

The scenery was breathtaking

Nana, Papa, and Aden sitting on an otter

Papa and Aden being silly

Touching ocean creatures!

Watching the otters

Aden made a new friend

I'll turn it over to Tara for the rest of the time in Seattle:

The next morning was all about Aden.  We went to the Seattle Aquarium and had a blast.  There was an area where you could touch sea stars, sea cucumbers, and other docile ocean creatures.  Aden loved putting his hand in the water and touching things.  The timing was perfect when we passed the otters because it was feeding time.  I was really impressed with how many hands-on activities they had at the aquarium and the range of ages it was for. 

The location of the aquarium was nice too because it was right behind the Pike Place Market.  We went there for lunch and ate some fantastic clam chowder (which is a family favorite).  My dad and I also stopped at the very first Starbucks for a special treat.  Most of our afternoons were spent taking a nap and relaxing after our busy mornings.  That night, Jamie came back, and we were off the next morning back to Santa Barbara. 

After a few more days with Seth and Kelly, we finally went back to Saudi.  We had an uneventful trip which is always good in our point of view.  School has started back up and we are working on getting into the swing of things again before our next big adventure: the arrival of baby girl!

Tara and Jamie

Christmas in California

This past August, Jamie's brother, Seth, and his wife, Kelly, moved just north of Los Angeles.  So, we decided to do a McGuire Christmas in California. Getting to CA was an interesting adventure.  Our flights themselves were great.  We only had one layover, which was in Istanbul.  However, Istanbul had snow!  This delayed our first flight and we had to race through the airport to make our second flight.  I'm sure we were a sight to behold.  Jamie carried Aden and rolled our bag behind himself as I tried desperately to keep up as we ran through the airport (by the way Istanbul is a large airport!).  

It was a bit tough getting over the jetlag, but Aden did a great job.  One day Seth and Kelly took us to Hollywood so we could see the sights.  We walked down the sidewalks of fame, but my favorite part was hand and foot prints outside the Chinese Theater.  It was so neat to see the variety of actors who were memorialized there, especially the older ones. 

We also went to Madame Tussauds wax museum.  We've heard of these museums during our travels, but never gone into one.  It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be.  It was so much fun to get close to the statues and they looked so real.  Below are a few of our favorites.

This one is for you Dad!

Jamie riding his favorite X-Men's bike

Brian and Wendy flew out a few days after us.  We spent some great time at the beach.  It was pretty windy, but the views were amazing.  Aden really enjoyed playing with Grandma and Grandpa.  

Christmas day was very low key and relaxing.  Aden enjoyed Christmas a lot more this year.  He actually opened presents and started to understand that they contained gifts for him.  He got some really neat cars, alphabet magnets, playdo, clothes, and some books.  These toys helped keep him entertained for the whole trip. 

One of our goals during out trip was to get a good family picture.  So, we headed back down to the beach.  The wind was not helping things, but the sun was so nice.  We had a lot of fun playing in the sand again and taking fun pictures.  Aden's favorite part was running up and down the sand dunes. 

26 weeks

Aden got an early birthday present, a balance bike.  It is super light and has no pedals.  What is so neat about it is that it really helps him work on his balance before upgrading to a big boy bike.  He is quickly getting the hang of the bike and will even pick up his feet and glide a bit. 

More winter break posts to come soon!

Tara