Our last night in Bahrain ...

 What an amazing experience we have had here.  I never would have thought we would fall in love with the Middle East like we have.  The people here are so nice.  The weather is amazing. There are lots of fun things to do!  Who wouldn't love it here?  It has been such an incredible journey to be able to take our little family on.  It is bittersweet to see it coming to an end.  We have learned so many things, seen so many fun things and grown closer together as a family while being away.  Bahrain has showed us how amazing the world is and just how beautiful places can be.  The feeling here is totally different than Italy, but it has been something we really love!  I hope to return some day to beautiful Bahrain, Lydia even said when she is a Mom she is going to live in Bahrain :).  So thankful for the opportunity our Heavenly Father has given us during this chapter of our lives.  I hope we can write another amazing chapter some day!

The Seef Mall ...

 The malls here in Bahrain are HUGE with lots of designer shops in them, but the thing we've liked most is the food court and all the fun little activities the kids can do!  They had this fun ball pit and coloring pages that the kids wanted to play in so bad.  We first saw it when we went to pick up Jake's race packet but we didn't have time to stop so we told them we could go back.  We made it just yesterday and the kids had a great time!  We will miss the fun things Bahrain has to offer!

Oil ...

 While we were out on our dolphin ride we got to see the beautiful ocean and the amazingly blue colors!  It was so pretty.  Once again, these pictures do not do the actual views justice, but they will have to do.  Bahrain is one of the first places that oil was discovered here in the Arabian Peninsula and there are oil lines and rigs everywhere.  It was neat to see these ones and the HUGE oil rigs that shuttle the oil around.  It was a neat little side excursion to our dolphin boat ride!

Sunsets ...

 One of my favorite parts of Bahrain has been the amazing sun!  It seems so huge here and frequently we get to see it as a giant ball in the sky covered with sand so you can see and look at it better.  It is truly beautiful!  We went to the park a few days ago and we were rewarded with this beautiful sunset.  I will miss the huge and warm sun here.  Even the moon seems bigger here!  It is truly a beautiful world and we are glad we got to see it from the Middle East.

Dolphins ...

On they way to Bahrain we met a guy who told us about the dolphins around the island and since then we have all wanted to go see some.  The wind and weather finally cooperated enough that we could!  It was so fun.  The kids had a great time watching out for them and trying to be the one who spotted them first.  We went to the first place and got to watch 6 or 7 of the same ones play around and surface every once in a while.  A pair of them were even mother/baby duos.  Then we got to take a ride up to a different part of the island to try to spot them.  They were harder to find here but our boat driver was good about making enough waves for them to come out and play so we ended up getting to see them there too!  All in all a very fun adventures!

BBQ and swimming with friends ...

 Our lives have been enriched by so many people that we have met here in Bahrain and in Italy.  The chruch members here have instantly become friends and they have really helped us feel accepted and enriched our experience while in a foreign country.  Some of our friends, the Labrum's, invited us over for a BBQ and some swimming time!  We had a great time.  The kids were so excited to play with other children and to get another chance to swim...they've loved that here in Bahrain.  It was nice to chat with other adults and hear everyone's experiences on what brought them to the Middle East and their life stories.  It sure is a different life story out here in the great big world ;) than what we hear in Idaho!

Bahrain Museum ...

 I finally convinced Jake to take us to the Bahrain Museum...we MIGHT have gotten burnt out on museums in Italy.  But we are glad we did.  We'd like to go back and be able to read all about it and learn even more but we will take what we got.  It was interesting to read about some of their culture differences, like the birth of babies, childhood games, teachings and weddings.  They had a huge section about the Dilmun Civilization that was quite interesting too as I do not know much of anything about them.  It was between 2000 and 3000 BC and they have found quite a few things in the burial mounds around Bahrain.  The floor on the museum is a huge map of Bahrain so it was fun to see where the sites are that we went to see throughout our stay here.