Doha, Qatar

At the end of April we decided to go to Qatar with our friends and neighbors.  They were kind enough to let us crash their weekend away and it was really fun to tag along with them and explore a really cool new place.  We drove the 5 hours to Doha and were VERY ready to arrive.  Road tripping with four kiddos is no joke.  We arrived late Thursday night and got dinner at the mall attached to our hotel then I put the ladies to bed while Glenn took the boys swimming to get out some energy.  The next morning we attended the group meetings and the girls were a MESS for an hour.  It was a VERY hard hour.  They were both so wiggly and loud and the boys couldn't sit still or be quiet either.  It was awful.  We got them loaded in the car and before we even pulled out of our parking spot they fell asleep.

 I was so ticked that I just had to take a picture.

 From there we drove to the Villagio mall.  Yep, it's basically copied after the Bellagio in Vegas.  It's supposed to look like Venice, all the facades of the shops dressed up like villas, bridges and even a canal with gondola rides.  It was hilarious.  We went to the mall hoping to hit up Shake Shack for lunch but when we arrived we found that they weren't going to open for another two hours.  Chels and I thought it might be a good time for the men to go to the golf store across town that they'd been wanting to scope out and she and I would wander the Villagio with the kids for a couple of hours.  We hoped that we'd be able to explore some stores and have a good time and maybe get some snacks for hungry kiddos and then the guys would be back in time to have lunch at Shake Shack right when they opened.  It seemed like a genius plan.  But what we didn't realize, until after they left, was that EVERYTHING in the mall was closed until 1pm.  It was Friday afternoon.  Nothing opened until after mid-day prayer.  So we wandered a completely closed down mall. Chelsie and I with 8 kids.  Having little races, pushing kids in strollers and shopping carts, dividing up snacks we had in our bags.  And finally finding one opened toy store to wander.  For two hours.  It felt long.  But the kids didn't seem to mind much at all.

 I found this great prayer puzzle in a toy store.  I kind of wish I had bought it, but I don't know what I would do with it, really.  So a picture will suffice.

 The guys got back just as Shake Shack was opening and the food and shakes were definitely worth the wait.  Seriously, SO good.

Our next stop after the mall was the Museum of Islamic Art.  It seemed like an appropriate Sabbath activity and it did not disappoint.  It would have been a bit of a different museum visit if it had been 4 adults instead of 4 adults and 8 kids, but we really enjoyed exploring together and our kids get along really well.  The building was so beautiful and the gift shop actually had a lot of really amazing finds too.  It's frustrating living in Saudi Arabia when I want to buy little souvenir type things from the region to bring home to friends and family and Saudi just doesn't do souvenirs because there are no tourists.  So it was really fun to find some cool little gifts in their shop.
Taryn was FASCINATED with the drop to the ground floor.  The fact that the "railing" was just a thick piece of glass made it especially enthralling.  It made me nervous but she couldn't get enough of squishing her little face against the glass and looking straight down.

 I was so impressed with the intricate detail on ALL of the work from the ancient Islamic culture.  Gorgeous, detailed carpets, carvings, jeweled inlays on anything you can imagine, mosaic tiles, so much beauty and art.  It was strange to think that the culture represented behind the glass is the ancestor of the culture I've come to associate with neglect and lack or pride in real quality work.

 I was so busy chasing our little ones that I didn't take many pictures, but Matt was kind enough to take this picture of our bunch outside after.

 We went non-stop that day and didn't even stop to change out of our dress clothes. We were very sweaty.  Very, very sweaty by the end of the day.  

Our next stop was a souq just across the street.  It was very unique.  We wandered down a couple of long streets that were lined with cages of almost any animal you could name.  Most everything you'd see in a pet store and then a few more.  Here are the boys petting bunnies.  

 Birds of every kind, turtles, cats, puppies, rodents

 It was very neat and very gross at the same time.  We explored the souq for a little longer, found a spot to stop for ice cream, and then let the kids play at a really cool park on our way out.  We were exhausted and sweaty but it was a really fun, busy day.
This is just a funny pedestrian sign that we saw where the pedestrian was wearing a thobe.  I thought that was so funny.

 The next morning we slept in, got some breakfast, and then hit the pool for a bit before it was time to drive home.

The drive was only 5 hours but across the flat, grey desert it seemed longer.  The occasional camel herd sighting broke up the monotony.  Or maybe it seemed extra long because the little ladies both decided to absolutely, inconsolably lose it for the last hour of the drive.  I was reminded, once again, that I do not care for long car rides.  I get all stir crazy, cabin fevery when I'm stuck in a car for hours.  I get the same way on airplanes but I have a few more hours in an airplane before I lose it.  All the kiddos were very done at the end of the 5 hours but it was still worth it.  It was a very fast but really fun and full weekend with wonderful friends.  And we checked off another country visited, which is always incredible!