This past month has been full of fun.

My parents have been talking about coming for a long time now. But it seems like one thing or another always come up. After my grandpa died in January my mom called and said she's ready to come. So with short notice, we hurried and bought a ticket before anything else came up. My dad said he was too busy to come right then, but hopefully could join my mom sometime during her month stay.

He called the next day to say he was ready to come.

So we got his ticket that day, but of course couldn't get them on the same flight. So my mom arrived one day, and my dad less than 48 hours later. We kept telling the kids that grandpa couldn't come, but maybe could make it later. He surprised them early one morning before school. We were all so excited to have them here! (Come back soon!!!!)

Their stay was wonderful. Things here a quite slow, so it wasn't jam packed with fun. But they had a wonderful local experience (more on that later), spent the day in Bahrain, and did some fun shopping locally.

Overall it was a great time. I had told my dad he was going to want to stay for longer than two weeks. (he disagreed) It takes ten days to adjust; by this I mean whether you fight jet lag, or have gotten sick on the flight over, or have to deal with the heat (not this time of year) - something will get you. And it did. So you spend so much time adjusting that it's hardly worth a short visit. Although he had a great time, he said he would stay longer next time. I also tried to convince my mom to stay longer, but she had to get back and go to my sisters in Missouri.

It was so fun to have family visit. One of the best things is that your loved ones now know what it's like here. They went to church, the commissary, in taxis and on buses, crossed borders, were caught in a sand storm, my mom had to wear an abaya. It's just fun to have someone from home know what I'm talking about when I talk about life here. I think they liked it more than I do - but they don't have to live here. :)

Althoughhhhhh. I am liking it much better this year.