Alone in Dhahran

Well, summer is here, Ramadan has begun, and Momma and Baby Gnome have returned to the States for the month of August. This is tough for Papa Gnome, but summers here are tough enough for the adults, but they REALLY weigh on the children. At the end of the school year, basically every expat with children sends them back to their motherlands for the summer... sounds glorious, but it is tough. Baby Gnome (who will probably demand to be called 'Big Girl Gnome' soon), outlasted the Academy children, the ARAMCO children, and the consulate kids and was quickly going stir crazy as the last blond hair, blue eyed child in the Eastern Province. So it is worth the grueling 24 hours of travel, not to mention all the family she gets to impress with her new vocabulary and ability to go to the big girl potty... well, most of the time.

Meanwhile, Papa Gnome gets to endure Ramadan... in Saudi Arabia... in August... alone. Miss you already Momma and Baby!

Baby Gnome turns 2!

Happy times for the Gnome Family in Saudi Arabia, s Baby Gnome turned 2 this week! She had a great birthday week (who wouldn't when the celebrations are spread across a week, instead of just a day?) ! It was great for Mama and Papa Gnome to see how much she has grown from her 1 year old birthday, which was essentially a playdate with her friends in Orlando, and Christmas where she was more interested in the unwrapping process than the gift giving/receiving part :).

Baby Gnome had a birthday party at Nursery, with all of her new friends, and learned how to emphasize that it was in fact 'my birthday!' When she came home that night we had our own little celebration for her, frusutrated by the lack of a working Vonage phone (i don't think that stupid phone is long for this world anymore), but opening all of her presents from around the world she was really excited!

When the weekend came Baby Gnome (with some help from Mama and Papa Gnome) hosted a pool party! Lots of her best friends came over and she smiled and had so much fun for hours on end.

The sad part of life in Saudi Arabia is that in the summer EVERYONE leaves, not that i blame any of them, but this also means that all of the Gnome family's friends are heading home soon. We are really going to miss them, especially the families that are moving on to bigger and better things next year. I guess its just part of the lifestyle, but we are definitely going to miss them!

Stay tuned for more updates soon!!!

Escape from Dhahran

We just spent four amazing days in Cyprus which made usnot want to go back. We really needed a get away from our little boring life in Dhahran. Don’t get us wrong it isn’t a bad life it just isn’t as active and entertaining as we need. Speaking of entertaining we stayed at a very nice family resort in Limissol which had an awesome playground, indoor pool, beach, great drink menu, and tons of crazy cats. Also, renting a car was a great idea because there is so much to see and do all over the island. However, driving on the left hand side of the road can be a bit tricky and Papa Gnome did awesome! Mama Gnome on the other hand was a little on the questionable side. The weather was perfect and the landscape was breathtaking. This time of year is there the low season which was great so we didn’t have to fight any crowds or make reservations. However, there isn’t any real good breakfast place open in the morning because they don’t open and serve fooduntil well after 1000. We did find a bakery that is open 24hrs a day and boy was it amazing! Baby Gnome’s favorite baked good was the hotdog wrapped in pastry, that’s our American girl.

Once we arrived in Cyprus you would have thought we could leave our worries behind, well that wasn’t true because the country we fly in and out of was and is going through civil unrest. We really didn’t think anything was going to happen big in Bahrain so we thought we were safe to make travel plans especially since our original travel plans to Egypt were impacted because of civil unrest. There is a running joke at the Consulate wherever the Gnome Family plans to visit or visits falls apart. It’s our secret powers but is it a secret if I just admitted to it?

One would think that you would never have to fight to get back to Dhahran but that was almost the case. Our RSO here kept us in formed and up to date on all the stuff going on in Bahrain and made us feel at ease with the stuff we were seeing on TV. He said the TV was a lot worse then what was really going on and that it was isolated to one area. He even came and collected us from the airport at 330am in an up armored vehicle. We made it safely home with just enough time to sleep for one and half hours and go to work.