We're all so sporty!

This week we celebrated Qatar's National Sports Day, a fabulous holiday we should implement in the US.  The premise is simple: everyone gets a day off to celebrate and engage in "sport" as a family.  Many companies, like the husband's throw parties for employees, as does the state, at venues all over the city.  Our celebration was held at the Hyatt Grand Hotel Beach and Gardens and involved, among other activities, yoga, beach volleyball, kayaking, paddle boarding, a bounce house and games for the kids, table tennis, and a huge lunch buffet.  The kids played in the ocean and bounced themselves silly before we all ate our fill of chicken tikka, steak, salads galore, potato dishes I have never seen before, tons of rice, and many, many, many desserts (after all that sport you deserve to eat, apparently).  After a full day at the beach, only one of us ended up with a sunburn (the husband escaped my vigilance) and only one of us had a meltdown (not me!).  It was great fun and a success, though we have a better plan of attack for next year's celebration so we can minimize down time and maximize fun.  And there was swag: we all walked away with t-shirts, the boys got wooden paddle ball games, and the husband picked up a hat, beach towel, and small knapsack.  What's not to love about all of that!

Here the husband and J are floating on some sort of inflatable climbing ball...structure...thingy.  It was actually great fun, as you can see from their expressions, though this picture was taken just before J got shot off the side and would have broken his neck but for the husband's lightening reflexes: he actually caught him before he hit the water!

There was face painting, very sporty, and J got his faced painted like the Qatari flag!

It was too cold in the water to do more than wade, but everyone enjoyed digging in the sand (and yet, that's a yogurt container doubling as a sand bucket, thank you.  Our shipping container STILL hasn't arrived!).

And E spent basically the whole day playing in the sand making castles and mud pies, much too busy to pose for pictures, Mom!