{Another} Georgia Girls Trip

It's evident in my travels that I have a love for Tbilisi - from our initial visit when trying to get visas for Baku, to a girl's road trip there on New Year's, to our family visit over Eid, to now a fourth visit to Tbilisi this month with friends - this city is one of my favorites in the world.

We snagged an amazing deal with the same sale that sent Madi and I to Baku and so we hatched the idea and had tickets booked in a record five hours (which is a lot when you have to convince husbands to let you go and also not have a panic attack booking tickets for another adult - what is your middle name, I have no middle name, what?!)

Finally the day arrived for our trip and you better bet I made matching shirts that they begrudgingly wore for 12 hours because they love me (and it was my birthday trip so they sort of felt obligated to agree, ha!)

As will be evidenced from the pictures there was not a lot of sight seeing done (I told the gals I would happily repeat anything they wanted to see, but both said they will be coming back again so they didn't mind a relaxed weekend of eating and enjoying our company.)

We kicked off the food weekend with lunch at G Vino and enjoyed a meal of khachapuri, soup, and wine.

We headed back to our hotel for a nap before making our way to meet a friend I knew in Baku at the most amazing (and new to me) hotel and restaurant in a renovated old Soviet printing press called Stamba. The food was great and we loved walking around the hotel afterwards.

The next morning we had breakfast and made a reservation for the Sulphur Baths. We spent the morning enjoying the experience and walking around the area.

We headed to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant I had visited with friends previously for the most delicious khinkali and clay pot beans. We slowly walked back towards our hotel stopping to shop along the way.

Late that evening we headed to my personal favorite restaurant in Tbilisi, Schuchmann's Wine Bar and Restaurant It's very foodie-esque with their plate presentation and glass tables. They also have my absolute favorite wine in the world - Schuchmann's Kindzmarauli.

Our final day in Tbilisi we walked the streets and bought our souvenirs (which included two carpets for me!) before enjoying our final meal at Organique Josper Grill Bar where we ordered three different pork entrees and made the waiter laugh and ask us if today was pork day. (It clearly was since we were returning to the Middle East that evening, haha.)

Thank you ladies for doing life with me and for being crazy enough to agree to go explore the world in moment's notice!

Oh and if you are worried about how the husbands did during their solo weekend? Those crazy guys opted to take all the kids camping, get stuck in the mud for hours, and have the most amazing time together while we were away. :-)

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School Photos!

The school took photos a couple weeks ago and I wouldn't wait to see them! The girls each had individual photos, class photos, and then we signed up for a sibling session. The pics turned out great and we were so excited to purchase a couple of them as keepsakes!

Olivia, age 4

International School of London Qatar 

2019-2020

EC2C

Evelyn, age 4

International School of London Qatar 

2019-2020

EC2A

Madison, age 6

International School of London Qatar 

2019-2020

Grade 1

And one more sibling one of these cuties! 😍 

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Surprise Baku Trip

When we left Baku in summer 2018 we hoped there'd be a chance to visit again. Madi constantly talks about the friends she misses there and we still had lots of people there we miss. So when we saw an amazing sale on weekend holiday packages (including airfare) cheaper for less than half the price of a single airfare ticket we jumped on them! We decided just Madi and I would go for a Mother-Daughter trip and we kept it a surprise to Madi and to her friends in Baku (but we told my friends, their parents of course, haha). 

It was such a sweet weekend. It was a very stressful time when we left Baku as Jason was already living in Doha and there were quite a few challenges happening simultaneously with travel logistics, health, etc. I hadn't realized it, but it sort of tainted my final impressions of Baku so going back and seeing everyone and focusing on the positives helped me tremendously to remember the good we had in the unique city we called home for two years. And of course Madi had the time of her life and you can see the joy in her face! 

My friend Kathleen surprised me with airport pickup and after dropping our stuff at the hotel we grabbed a coffee and then headed to school pickup to surprise Madi's best buds Cooper and Jaxon with her arrival. 

We headed back to the hotel for our amazing nanny Ms Meri to come over and play with Madi and take her to dinner while I headed out to meet some girlfriends!

The next morning I visited my beloved Bina shopping center with my good friend Emma followed by lunch with friends and then the rest of the afternoon hanging in our old compound letting the kids run around and play with one another for hours upon hours. 

Saturday was our last day in Baku and we started with a traditional Azeri breakfast in Old City with friends before walking around Fountain Square with our friends Aubrey and Joy. 

We headed back to the hotel to pack up and spend some time saying goodbye to my friend Mellissa and her daughter Amelia. 

We headed to Hard Rock Cafe for the remainder of the evening until it was time to head to the airport. We had friends come and go throughout and it was amazing to see so many friends and enjoy the time together. 

When we left it was a teary goodbye for sure as this girl misses her friends something fierce. We are so thankful for the chance to come back and see friends and can't wait until the next time we get to catch up in person!

Sweet flowers her friend Jaxy gave her and she hauled all the way back to Doha (despite airport security trying to confiscate them). We put them in the beautiful Baku vase we received as a going away gift from friends.

Here's a video of our entire trip with some additional pictures and video. :-)

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