Getting Out of the Hotel Room

Us Anderson girls, we know how to pass the time. We have good balance of days spent at home and out and about. Today was an out and about kind of day.

Anna and Emilee arrived in Dubai with literally a third of their toys from Calgary. Mom is strict and thrifty, so only now are we running out of  'toy surprises' for them. We bought a DVD player and have slowly amassed quite a Disney movie collection. Then there is the pool, the beach, and the shopping malls but even then, with all these great distractions things are starting to get a little

b o r i n g !!

So today we went to a trial gymnastics class, "Yay" said Anna " Did you know that I love gymnastics, it's my favorite thing, because I am a  cow girl, and cow girls love gymnastics" - she was a little excited. Sweet Emilee loves anything her sister loves and so she too was very excited. I was excited when the instructor said Anna could join Emilee's mom and tot class, chasing Emilee and keeping Anna seated would have been impossible. So here we are and we are having fun, run girls run.

 

 Emilee is so funny and dynamic, she cracks me up. Her energy and spirit are delightful, especially when she isn't sleepy, hungry or in any way grouchy, more on that later. Anna is such a wonderful kid, she loves to play. She knows how to have fun and you can tell when she likes something, and when she doesn't.

Both girls enjoyed the work on the floor mats very much and now it was time to venture on to the equipment...

So much fun to run and move, both girls were quite adventurous. We did forward rolls on an incline mat, barrel (they have a great six sided barrel, kids sized) and straddle. Emilee even did a back roll, with some assistance, of course.

The instructor is from the US and was good with the kids. I am not familiar with "The little gym" although a little surfing suggests it is quite a franchise. That might explain its mall location, this one is across from La Senza, I tried to keep the manikins out of the background. The poor guy had quite a singing voice, calling us all back to the mat with these great rhymes to 'row, row, row your boat.' Enough sass, more pictures.

The 'Grammys' might have to weigh in, sassy like Mom, Dad or both? Either way, she is a sassy little thing, and so cute.


The gym is in Ibn Battuta mall and is about 15 mins from our hotel. We took the somewhat scenic route to day but if this becomes a regular activity for our little 'Chiquita Bananas' then we will have to get a better route planned out. But we managed to arrive on time, loved using my new sit n stand stroller too.

Love the "I did it mom" expression

Emilee's class is drawing to a close. The girls burned some energy running from one piece of equipment to another. I had fun taking pictures as they did.  :)

So back to the mats for some bubbles.

 

So Emilee's class ended and we left the gym, then Anna's class began and Emilee couldn't go with her sister back into the gym, yikes. It was interesting and loud. My sweet little thing turns into a screaming, flop on the ground, did I mention screaming two year old mess, keep it together mom. Eventually she calmed down enough for me hear my self think. I was upset that she was upset and then got a little more upset because I didn't get a chance to take pictures of Anna as I had wanted too and now her first class of gymnastics was over.  :(

But then, things turned around as she let me take her picture and it made it all worth it, love you big girl.

We left "The little gym" happy campers and off to check out the mall, mostly the parts we hadn't seen before. We came across some great stuff, some useful stuff and some "wow we didn't expect that" kind of stuff. Case in point.

No, this is not a picture from North America, this is Ibn (pronounced 'E bin') Battuta Mall, Egypt Court, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. I thought it was photo worthy, love you Auntie T.

We had a great diner, burned all those calories so we got some back with Cinnabon for dessert. As we headed back to the car I thought I would get a picture of the details in the 'Persia Court' or center section of the mall, had my camera out anyway ...

 The tile work is incredible, that center light, is huge. And of course there is a Starbucks and a H&M near by. If my pictures don't do it justice, and they don't, then come see for yourself, we can sit and look up drinking Starbucks. Big hugs and lots of love ~the Andersons