Father's Day and Life

We are wrapping things up around here for the summer.  Praise God we
made it through the sandstorms!  We had constant winds and sand for
over 2 weeks and off and on for 2 months before that.  It made
playing outside difficult and swimming wasn't fun because the pools
were too dirty!  There was a break in the weather and we can see the
clear blue sky now with no brown haze on the horizon.  It's soooo
nice!!!  
Thankfully, we are on the final countdown now with only 7 sleeps to
go and Isaiah keeps telling us how he wants to get on a plane and fly
to America and go to 'tucky (and Tennessee, Mimi. It's just too hard
for him to say still).  Ben and I are wholeheartedly agreeing with
him all 999 times a day that he says it.  
We are managing to finish much more strongly than I thought we would
this summer because we've had a "guest under the stairs" keeping us
entertained for the last week, the boys have had a summer program at
school, and the haze kept the temperatures down a little.  As for our
guest, we sent Natalie and the kids back to California but Dave had
to stay and finish up some stuff so he has been sleeping under our
stairs!  We are calling him the "guest under the stairs" or "Dave in
the Cave."  Having him here has sure helped this last week go
quickly!  It's too bad he is heading out tomorrow but I am glad we
still will have another family in country with us for the final
week. I am sure we'll be seeing a lot of them! In the previous
summers we've been 'left behind' in the great exodus in the summer
months. However, this summer has been different and we are soooo
thankful!
The pictures are:
1-Isaac 'belted' into a chair at a restaurant that had no high
chairs. He wasn't too pleased, as you can see.
2-Isaiah reading a book at the same restaurant. We rarely go to
restaurants without play areas or ones that don't give paper and
crayons upon entering. However, on Father's Day we tried a Malaysian
restaurant in the Souq and they apparently don't expect kids there at
all. However, the service was fast and the food was different so we
had an enjoyable time. It helped that we got fresh juice and ice
cream just across the sidewalk afterwards!
3-The last 3 pics are at Bennigan's outside playground. You can see
the sand floating in the air from all the haze and storms we had but
that didn't stop the kids (including Ben) that night. The
temperature was actually not bad b/c the haze kept it down a bit and
we were able to enjoy the playground before and after dinner. Aren't
Isaiah and Ana cute?
4-Dave in his cave!