Amaariyah

Still playing catch up from the past few weeks. I got the opportunity to go out the Amaariyah, the country palace that is about 30 minutes outside of the city. It has date trees and greenhouses full of vegetables. Additionally, it has acres of land and we were able to ride bikes or golf carts all around. We did quite a bit of both.

It was incredible, the entire staff pack up food and housewares and all the rest and move out to this palace for 3-4 days. They set up a drinks booth with smoothies, water and soft drinks that was always available and then, in addition to meals, they had huge amounts of snacks around and hired in guys to cook different food items throughout the day.

My colleagues were invited to bring their children and all of the family children were there so it was quite a large and fun group.  The time was spent mostly relaxing and eating with games and fun things for the children. They hired bounce houses and a video game trailer one day and another they had a group come out to set up laser tag for us! Quite a bit of fun.

We ate dinner outside every evening under a huge moon and one night the host had beautifully wraps gifts for everyone. It was great fun.  Each box had a number and we all (staff, family, everyone) probably about 60 people, chose a number from a bowl. Then you found your corresponding box and got to open it.  She had incredible gifts such as a tv, guitar, iPad mini and money. Additionally, some of the boxes had silly things such as a box of tissue or a can of sardines. It made the whole thing quite an adventure as you had no idea what you may get. I got a laptop!

Golf cart touring

One of our security guys giving my colleague a little push!

The entryway...

Chairs on the lawn

Two of my colleagues walking up to the kid fun area

More kid fun. The round one on the left had a machine that made bubbles. The kids wore bathing suits and it filled with bubbles and looked like great fun. I haven't seen one of them before

The video game trailer. It had tv's on both sides and four more inside

One of my favorite places to be, lounging out of doors on the tent cushions. Notice the cooling unit...

Tough day at work

The other end of the lounge area. I liked the cushions much better than the chairs

Kids disaster! They had confetti poppers, it was pretty amusing as they used them directly after the bubble pool so the confetti stuck to them. Bedazzled kids

One of the men making Muttabaq. It is a stuffed bread that is delicious. They were making them stuffed with different fillings. Choices of chicken, vegetables or cheese and honey. I liked them all!

Kids getting their guns for laser tag

This was our dinner spot. It was beautiful

The table in the foreground was for the desserts, the one to the right with the warmers on it was the buffet

Trucks would arrive with fresh veggies

Oh, and dates! Until moving here I had no idea there were so many different varieties of dates. I have tried five that I know of. Possible more but I don't always know the names of the ones that I am eating

Insane amounts of snacks, all the time. I would be huge if I lived here long term! Sweets are always available

More snacks...and a pile of gifts!

Yippee!