Our Villa

Our latest family picture was taken on the second story balcony as the sun
began to set over the purposed nature reserve a.k.a. where all the camels are.

Today was a great day, we were able to go into our villa for a good look around. We received the keys on Friday and had a quick peek that night but today we brought pizza and stayed all afternoon. It was great. We ate and checked everything out, planned where furniture would go. We counted the tiles to get a rough idea of room measurements, took lots of pictures and even met out neighbors to one side - it was very exciting.

Now there is some awful, and we mean awful, furniture still in the villa from previous Arab tenants, not to be rude but it is mind-boggling-tacky. The whole house is in need of a really good clean but we just couldn't wait to show some pictures. Enough of a preface? Here we go!

The front door and foyer.

Main floor half bath.

Main floor study/guest bedroom

Stairs to the second floor.

So as you walk in the front door, the study is on the left, then the bath with the stairs on the right and a hall way to the storage closet, laundry and eventually  the kitchen. If you walk through the foyer, down two stairs you are in the combo living and dining room, with the back wall of floor to ceiling windows and doors and a wonderful covered terrace.

A little peek at the great room, more to come when the furniture is gone. 

 

The girls are getting more accustomed to the house, our first visit was a little overwhelming. This time mom and dad have come more prepared, you should hear the way Anna tries to say "hand sanitizer" it makes me laugh still as I type, so funny.

It will be a toss up for my favorite room in the house, between the kitchen and my studio. The studio is still and picture in my head but here is the kitchen.

The traditional tiles and stainless steel are quite a match.

Not sure if the granite helps but "its just a rental, it's just a ..."

Shopping for bar stools now too, :)

The nook, looking toward the great room terrace.

More of the nook, looking to the back gate and the grass!

We were quite pleased with ourselves that we found a house with the landscaping and appliances included, even more when we came in to see the landscaping 'finished', it didn't look like this last week. We are hoping to take advantage of the weather and slowly put some lovely lounging furniture back there.

The girls are so much fun, they make us laugh, they teach us so much about them and ourselves and they can drive us a little crazy. Case in point.

Anna forcing a smile, not happy.

Pizza chin Emilee, happy.

Smiling Anna, happy.

Now Emilee is making faces, I give up.

 I could spend all night and every battery photographing the girls in this perfect light, sun sets here are something else. The upstairs draws me in and as the light fades, I need to do it quick.

The balcony off the family room is pretty cool. We loved watching the sunset.  More outside furniture needed. You can access this balcony from the master bedroom, family room and what will be the girls room. Thankfully they are still little and bought it when we said that the door was 'broken' and couldn't open, that and every door is locked and keyed, with its own key. Seriously a large zip-lock bag full of keys, all labeled, each one different . They don't do that in Canada.

As you come up the stairs, the studio is on the left, with ensuite.  Past that, as you turn right, you enter the family room with the back wall more floor to ceiling windows/doors. If you turn left in the family room you are in the girls room, a central bath and another guest bedroom. If you turn right while in the family room then you get to the master suite. Too cool, an ensuite!! More pictures.

Top of stairs and studio doorway.

Miss 'Vanna'  in her and sister's bathroom.

The princesses shall dwell ... this will be the girls room. Although, if nights here at the hotel are any indication, there will not be a lot of sleeping going on in this room. The closets are huge, floor to ceiling. The door opens to the balcony but will not be open. Emilee is screaming and Anna looks like she is about to cry, but that is their room. We found some great furniture for their room today, we think. More to come on that.

 The little hallway past the walk through closet and master bathroom. Anna and Emilee are helping us every step of the way. They are really very cute and just trying to be like mom and dad, it was adorable.

Counting tiles to get the room dimensions is easier when the tiles are not 'diamonds' so Anna is helping daddy by carrying the one, so helpful.

Walk through closet with the door to the bathroom on the right.

 It was so funny to listen to Anna, quite the tour guide by now. "Two sinks"

"Two tubs, well places to get wet."

Tub and stand alone shower, fancy. Especially if you knew our Calgary house.

And yes, finally the Anna bath tour is complete with the "two potties" comment. love it.

We leave the master bedroom and check out the studio, it faces the front of the house and is over the car port of a garage. It has a great balcony as well.

Looking straight down our street.

Looking left as the road continues.

 We are very excited and happy with our choice, it is a daunting task. We are eager to move in, although our shipping container was to leave port in Montreal today. Taking more than a month to arrive in Dubai, scheduled for December 20. So we wait. I hope to get to start furniture shopping soon but that takes a bank account which requires a residency permit - my head hurts. So focusing on the good, its a great house and we have the keys. We started packing up the pizza and putting things in the car...outside shot.

It gets dark here quick, looks like a few light bulbs to replace.

 Well thank you for reading all the way down to here, its a long post. We will continue to send pictures and updates as the relocation saga continues. This week is a holiday here, Eid. So we don't have any hopes of getting the elusive residency permit but we will do our best to enjoy what Dubai has to offer, mini road trip? We will see, thanks again for your support, we miss everyone very much. Big hugs and lots of love ~the Andersons.

Can't help myself, a sunset pic from the second floor balcony. Global Village in the background. We plan to take Anna, kind of like a Dubai stampede? There is a mid way and exhibits set up, I feel another blog post in the works :)

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