The Stecherbush Abroad

We went for the waterfall at Wadi Arbaeen for the 4th time!  We had a really fun, supportive group. I think they may have doubted our claim that there was indeed a waterfall at the end of this hike, but they were good sports and kept coming and coming. It was warm and not too breezy but I still get chilly just looking at that water. There's something much more fulfilling about getting in the water when it's baking outside!  I was soooo glad Elijah was able to come. The boys always love having him along. He's a good addition no matter what we're doing. He has some pretty amazing parcour skills as well.   Sometimes people are willing to do anything not to get wet again. Sometimes they just want the challenge of a good traverse. And there it is, 3.5 hrs and 7.8 miles later, we came to a waterfall. Lest you think that 7.8 is the actual length, I leave you my screen shot. This guy could've done the wadi twice. It's his favorite wadi and he loved every minute of it. I...

Elise was SOOOOO nervous about doing soccer. She had lots of preconceived notions about it. I got some intel and found out many of her friends would be there! The other helpful piece of information was that there were no teams as of yet. She would just be playing soccer games and doing soccer drills to learn about soccer. She was much more confident knowing those things. Turns out she loved it. She is looking forward to it. All is well. Sennia is SUPER excited to be able to rehearse in person! She's the Mom in her Musical and she's been suffering through online rehearsals for 4 weeks so being back together with everyone has been amazing, even when they spend the entire rehearsal on scenes she's not in like they did a couple of times. These photos from this blogpost are all snipped out of the school newsletter so they're low resolution but still nice to have on record. She's the one on the far right in all of these pictures.  

We had a special day when Brigham was the only chap home. Well, that's not true. Alena was technically home but she was asleep. Brigham really wanted to go to Sidab again. I suggested we go by paddle board. We went to the Yacht Club. We paddled to this first, very dirty cove, and ate our pizza.  Brigham found some shells.  This is truly a beautiful trip. The shore is lined with cliffs and a few coves. We saw loads of turtles and when we got to the 2nd set of Sidab coves we saw a couple of sharks and this: I had never seen a jelly like this. I fished it out of the water to investigate. Little did I know it was the deadly Box-Jelly. I'm SO thankful nobody was stung. Speaking of boxes, Brigham took a chocolate box and arrange some special shells. He really does have an amazing collection. I took Brigham and Jay to the Natural History Museum. They browsed around and I asked Brigham if he wanted to look at the curator's shell collection in the upper office. We were able to see...

Sennia and Elise had a playdate with their friends Saniya and Sophia and it was especially sweet because they were able to feed their babies. They have baby birds, baby sugar gliders, baby ducks etc. Nothing could be more fun. The parakeets have to eat every 6 hrs.  The sugar gliders are she and so sweet. They get friendly with treats.  

TAISM has a lovely program called "Discover Oman" that takes the HSers on Omani Adventures. Kids submit their preferences for which trip they want to go on and then there's a selection based on different criteria. Alena only wanted one trip-the Fjords of Musandam. She was one of only 34 kids that got in. I really prayed she would love it and sure enough, she did. She had so much fun she didn't even want to come home. She socialized with a group of 12th graders. Apparently she led the pack in Orienteering, Fire building, Kayaking, and trash collection. HAHa. Way to represent miss Alena!!!  

One regular event is our Tuesday Spikeball night. Sometimes there's a great turnout, sometimes there are only a couple of nets. Sometimes I watch the girls in the ocean and go for walks with them, and sometimes they're splashing and playing with friends and I visit. No matter what, we watch a gorgeous sunset and leave happy that we ended the day on the beach. Cameron got a glow in the dark set. It's pretty "Lit"! This girl comes home from school not her best self. She loves it but something about it turns her into a demanding, difficult child. It's really a shame. I need to make sure I spend enough time with her.  The kids went to Wadi Hammam to do some bouldering. I feel like maybe I already blogged this. Either way, I'm so grateful for the friends my kids have.   Elise wanted to make a special 100 days of school picture. We went to the Qurum beach and started to find shells, then we decided to specialize in Tusk Shells. She created this lovely work of ar...