Back to the Sand Box

After a 5 week hiatus for holiday in Ireland and a lovely trip home we are back in Doha safe and sound!  We had a short delay out of KC and a 2.5 hour delay out of Chicago, but we made it and with all our bags!  Yippee!!!  The heat and humidity welcomed us back with a whopping 114 degree temperatures at 9:00PM.  Thank goodness the AC was on when we got back to our villa.  Jet lag has been wreaking havoc on our bodies and as I type this it's almost midnight....I fell asleep at 6PM, shortly after dinner.  Will be glad once we get back on schedule!!!

A quick catch up on the last 5 weeks.....

Our holiday in Ireland was amazing.  It's even more beautiful than I ever imagined.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit I highly recommend it.  You will not be disappointed.  Pictures to come soon!!!

Our visit home was simply surreal.  It's a bit bizarre returning home and not actually having a home to call our own.  Kinda makes you feel like a visitor in your own country.  But thanks to numerous family members and friends we had a lovely stay.  It was also a bit of a culture shock with having all of these shopping opportunities, choices galore, pumping my own gas for the first time in 8 months, and getting used to slow, yet organized driving!  We tried to pack as much seeing and doing into 29 days as we could and I feel pretty accomplished with all we got done, however, if we were unable to see you please don't take it personal, and know that you are both thought of and missed!


We all thoroughly enjoyed soaking up the green grass and blue skies.  Our first weeks home the weather was amazing and we were outside as much as possible; playing at parks, swimming, scootering, or just playing in the backyard.  We enjoyed some yummy meals on my parents deck, ate ice cream outside at the DQ, and roasted s'mores on the firepit.  You truly don't realize how much you miss some of the simple things in life until they're gone.  Especially the rain!

I was overwhelmed with joy watching the kids reunite with our OLP friends, either at their homes, at the park, or at our visit to the school.  We are so truly blessed with some amazing friends in our lives.  The kids were so tickled to play with their buddies and I was thankful that they were not forgotten.  Our relationships at Presentation school and church are something that I miss on a daily basis.

I married my baby brother off!  We all got to participate in a beautiful ceremony uniting Chip and Anne in marriage.  We love them and wish them all the best!

Madison enjoyed being able to tap into her Bahr roots....playing cards, watching movies, and drinking sweet tea!

Kaiden enjoyed hanging out with Grandpa, flying the helicopter, seeing Max, and having some boy cousins around!

Kealy and Izzie really bonded and then became like sisters, fighting the last few days!  She got lots of Grammy snuggles in and play time with her bestie, Libby Morris!

At the same time, it has been really nice returning to what is our temporary "home" in Doha.  I feel oddly at ease amongst abayas and oud!  It has been fun reuniting with our neighbors and hearing about their summer adventures.  We bought new uniforms and some items for school (all the supplies are provided, which is awesome!) and the kids are looking forward to returning to Newton British next week.

We are truly enjoying this experience, trust me, if we weren't I would be back home by now!!!  It has afforded us some amazing opportunities.  Opportunities of a lifetime, and for that, we are very, very grateful.