Spring Break!

After five days of fever, coughing, sleeping and three full days of not having got out of neither the house or my pyjama - it's finally departure day! We are going to NZ for Spring Break! Yay!

We are all so excited as it's been nearly 2 1/2 years since we were there last. It's actually the longest we've ever had between visits, so we are all craving all things "kiwi" really bad by now!

I still haven't quite packed though. Even though the fever is gone, my energy levels are not quite back to normal, and my brain still feels like a big fuzzy ball. Everything takes a lot longer than normal, but we'll get there! NZ here we come!

This girl is on fire

Yes, I'm on fire, but not in the fun way. I've been running a temperature since yesterday, blergh. Have been tucked up in bed, and on the sofa under double blankets most of yesterday and today, freezing like crazy. Took some Panodol and started sweating profusely instead. Argh. Such bad timing getting sick, I have so much to do before our trip!

I had to get to my hair appointment today though, it's all about priorities! Thanks to more Panodol I managed that too luckily so now I'm travel ready.
I just need to pack... But first another snooze...

Actionpacked last day

Since Nicole and Gemma were only here for a few days, we had to make sure we squeezed as much action as we could into their stay. The last day was no exception, it was full on from the morning already - I convinced both Nicole and Bron to come along to my Zumba class!

The kids finish school early on Tuesdays, so after picking them up we went straight to Yas Waterworld for the afternoon. The kids had a ball on the rides and slides, and us adults hung by the pool.

And then we went straight from Yas Waterworld to the Yas F1 Circuit for some Tuesday night fun! Nathan rode his bike, and the rest of us walked the 5,5 km loop on the track.

On Lucas' request, and because it was too late to organize anything else really, we took them to IKEA for dinner... Ha ha, I find it funny that IKEA always seems to become a sightseeing stop for visitors when they come here!

The Saaps, day 2

On their second day, I took Nicole and Gemma to the Yas Mall. Nicole did her shopping, and Gemma, well - she was actually very patient, and very well behaved, considering we were there basically all day until we had to pick up the kids from school.

After we had picked the kids up, us girls went to the Emirates Park Zoo. Believe it or not, but it was actually raining. What is it with visitors and rain?! Luckily it was just a few drops here and there, so it didn't disturb our visit.

The Emirates Park Zoo is situated about 15 minutes from us, on the way to Dubai. We hadn't been there yet, but it was a nice little zoo. You could buy food for the animals, to add an extra dimension to your visit. Unfortunately they were out of 'monkey nuts' (...) so we just got some grass.

The girls then had a great time walking around feeding the different animals, there were a lot of different goats, zebras, camels, monkeys and many more animals that wanted some grass:

One part of the park was filled with different birds, and parrots. Here we are doing a group selfie with the talking parrots!

Flamingos:

We also got to help feed the baby goats with milk, they were thirsty! And so cute!

Linnea and Gemma met a magician and got to see some magic tricks. They were mighty impressed when he made balls disappear in front of their eyes, and changed the colours of cards.

Nicole's favourite part was to feed this giraffe. It was so close we could touch it.

Linnea had a staring competition with an emu:

Our girls looking very trendy in some of the new clothes bought earlier that morning! How grown-up are they..!

In the evening we met with the boys at the roller coaster restaurant back at the mall. Another cool must when you visit here in Abu Dhabi.

What a great day!

Very special guests

Saturday was a busy day for us. Lucas went to the weekend session of his CrossFit, and straight after that in the morning we all went to Yas Mall for some necessary shopping and lunch. In the afternoon Linnea and I went to a park nearby for a 4th birthday party and then I took off to Dubai in the evening. I had a few jobs to do, and a very special pickup of some very special people - Nicole and Gemma.

They came to stay with us for a few days, and what busy days we've had!
Since the kids will be off school for an extra week after Spring Break, while we are in NZ, I couldn't keep them home any more at the moment, so unfortunately they had to go to school on Sunday. I took Nicole and Gemma to see the beautiful Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque:

Barefoot on the worlds biggest handwoven carpet:

After a lovely lunch and a trip to the supermarket (when you live in Brunei, that's exotic you know!), we picked the kids up and went home. We wanted them to have the chance to just reconnect, play and chill and have a relaxing afternoon. Bron and her clan came by for a little bit as well:

And in the evening it was time for girls night out. It wasn't as wild as it sounds, we just went out for dinner and a glass of wine. But we talked and talked for hours... So lovely to have my friend here.