2 Year Anniversary

Happy Two Year Anniversary to us.
I am very fortunate that two years ago today I married the girl of my dreams.  Since then life has been more wonderful than I could ever have imagined.. And it just keeps getting better.  I am constantly amazed by her selfless love and how hard she always strives to make me happy.  I do my best to reciprocate, and to me it feels like we have a perfect marriage.

She also planned a beautiful wedding.  Here is the highlights video:

Dubai Trip

Hi folks.   We went to Dubai.  Dubai has the biggest and the best.  The biggest building, biggest fountain show, better water parks, biggest indoor ski slopes, biggest mall.  City motto: Eat your heart out Texas.

Dubai also has the best hosts.  The Martins are awesome. 

Here we are getting ready to head to the airport.  So excited!!

Flight:

Our first flight left Las Vegas on Saturday, March 31^st at 11:35am.  We had a layover in Seattle, and then started our flight to Dubai around 5pm.  Our goal was to sleep early on the flight so we could stay awake once it was morning in Dubai.  I slept for about two hours, but Brian stayed awake the entire time.  We stayed busy watching movies (Brian watched 5 movies on the way there, and 5 on the way back).  They ran out of the better food choices, so we had to eat fish for dinner.  We landed around 7pm on Sunday April 1^st.  Remarkably we did not experience any Jet lag on the way there or on the way back.  Matt did give Brian some pills to help him sleep the first night and he just about passed out in the shower.

Here are some pictures of our wonderful nieces and nephew, Makenna, Isaac, and Jessica.

Day 1:

On Monday we went to the beach!  We were planning on going parasailing, but there was a storm coming in.  We had fun playing in the sand and water.  The water was so nice!  The kids buried Brian in the sand.  Brian and Isaac dug a nice deep hole to try to bury Jess standing up.  Brian got burned on his shoulders, which was probably totally my fault.  I was in charge of spraying his back with sunscreen, but I apparently didn’t do a very good job.   The beach has lots of shells that have not been picked over.  The theme of the trip was Brian constantly saying, “Mom would LOVE this”

After the beach we went to the Al Ijaza Cafeteria, which is a small café that has been a popular place in Dubai for many years.  The drinks there are amazing!  I had the drink called Avatar, which I was told had avocado in it, and I’m thinking kiwi, too.  It was delicious.  Brian chose the drink called Hello.  They also had really great food.

   While Karen and I were in the restroom, Brian and the kids had some fun with my camera. :)

That night, Karen and Matt took us to see The Hunger Games.  The theater in the Dubai Mall was very nice.  We really liked the movie.   This was the night the Martins first introduced us to Pappa Roti’s rolls.  Delicious!

Day 2:

We spent the day at Aquaventure on Tuesday.  Aquaventure is a large outdoor waterpark with lots of tube slides.  Most of the slides ended with an entrance to the rapids/lazy river.  The cool thing is that there were also entrances to some slides from the lazy river… there was a moving ramp that would pick up your tube and take you to the top of a slide.  So you didn’t even have to get out of your tube to go wait in line for slides.   

 

Aquaventure is part of the Atlantis resort

We didn't take our camera into the park so here are two pictures I found on the internet:

We ate at the Café at the water park.  It was my first time trying a shawarma (Lebanese dish).  It was very good. 

Later that evening we went karting.  I was nervous so Matt told us the story of getting knocked out when another driver ran him off the road.  This did not help.  But it was a lot of fun!  It was way more intense than you normally think of go-karting.  They have separate tracks for kids and adults.  Several of the people there had their own karts and suits.  I was the slowest one out there, but Brian did pretty well.  It was Isaac’s first time on the adult track, and he did awesome!

It was a pretty exhausting, fun-filled day.  I came out of the bathroom after getting ready for bed, and we found Isaac asleep on the floor. 

Day 3:

On Wednesday morning we went to the Souqs to do some shopping (Mom would love this!).  I got a cute skirt, and Brian got a nice tie for like 2 dollars.  We also got a magnet of Aladdin’s lamp.  We rode on a ferry to get to more shops. 

 Doesn't Brian look nice?

 

We went to the Mall of the Emirites for lunch.  I convinced Brian to try a shawarma, and he decided that the dish alone justifies Lebanon’s existence.   

 

There are french fries wrapped up inside.

 

We got to see the indoor ski slope!

 

That night we went on a desert safari.  It was amazing!!  Our tour guide picked us up from the Martin’s home in a Land Cruiser.   

We met up at the edge of the sand dunes with several other Land Cruisers.   

Then the roller coaster ride started as we rode up and down the sand dunes at pretty good speed.  It was crazy how we slid, and the sand would seem to get super close to the side windows at times.  I think the driver loved having Jess and Makenna cheering and screaming.   

 

We took a few breaks and got to get out and play in the sand.   

 

 

 

Here is a picture of Makenna's henna (temporary) tattoo.

 

We all ended up at a Bedouin tent for dinner and entertainment (Mom would love this!). 

 We got to ride a camel!!   

 

We could also try sand boarding.   

 

You can see us all dressed up in traditional Muslim outfits.  The dinner was a full buffet of native foods. 

 

  During dinner we watched a belly dancer (interesting) and a Tandoori spinner.   At least, I think they said that’s what it is called.   

 

 

I was curious when they said we were going to watch a guy spin for 15 minutes straight on stage, but it was actually incredibly cool.  He made it interesting with various props.  I was amazed that he could stay balanced the entire time, and didn’t pass out immediately after stopping. 

Day 4:

We drove up to Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning to go to the Grand Mosque.   

 

Karen and I needed to cover up before we could enter.   

When Brian and I were posing for a picture we were told we could not touch at all.  Oops. 

  

 

That was one interesting thing about the week.  The malls had signs warning that public displays of affection were off limits, so we had to be careful about touching, and even holding hands in certain places.  

 

The mosque was very cool.  We had our own tour guide who explained about how the Mosque was built.  She also answered all of our questions and told us more about the Muslim culture.  It was a great experience.  

We tried to stop at the palace, but we were told that it was closed to visitors that day.  But I was able to snap a picture from the car.

On our way back we stopped at another mall and ate at Fuddruckers (Brian’s favorite).    

That afternoon we played Scum with Karen and the kids.  Then we went and played some basketball. 

 

Later we went back to the Dubai Mall.  The Dubai Mall is the biggest mall in the world.  

 

 It really is huge!   

 

They have an aquarium, and lots of really interesting shops.  They also have all of the really high-end stores.  We got to see tons of super expensive cars in the valet parking area.   

We got a kick out of the gold vending machine.  You put your money in, and gold comes out.

We got to have one more Pappa Roti roll, and they were just as delicious the second time around.

We got to watch a few of the fountain shows.  Apparently, they brought people that worked on the Bellagio fountains to build this fountain… and they were told it needed to be bigger and better. 

We got a few pictures by the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  It is about twice as tall as the Empire State Building.  It doesn’t look that huge when you see it.  But when you compare it to the rest of the skyline, which is made up of many very tall buildings, you realize just how huge it is. 

 

 

Day 5:

On Friday we decided to go back to the beach to go parasailing.  We had planned on having Brian and I go together, but they said because of the winds that day that we would need to go individually.  We got pretty high up there!  It was cool to be able to see the Palm Islands.  I actually got to go twice because they thought Jess was my child, so I got to go with her. 

 After the beach, Brian and I went with Karen to the Antique Museum.  That name is a little misleading.  It is really the best souvenir shop you can imagine (Mom would never leave).   Its location is also misleading.  We felt like we parked and walked into the triad gang’s headquarters.  It is a large warehouse with narrow aisles full of items from all over that you can buy.  We bought a few camel figurines (cute Christmas decorations), a table runner, and a cushion cover.  But there were so many things to choose from. 

 That evening we went swimming at the pool in the Martin’s complex.  The water was nice and warm (even though Brian looks cold in this picture).

 Jessica did EIGHT flips in a row in the pool! 

Later we got to experience Dragon Mart.  Dragon Mart is like a mall, but different.  It reminded us of the Las Vegas Swap Meet… lots of individual vendors in semi-permanent stalls selling various items.  But, like most things in Dubai, it is huge!  

We got to go back to Al Ijaza Cafeteria to have their yummy drinks one more time.  I wish I could find a place here with drinks as good as there.  It’s really nice to know that there are very few places in Dubai that serve alcohol (and they are all hotels)… so it’s fun to go to a place like this and know you can order whatever drink and it won’t be alcoholic.

We had to wake up early on Saturday to go to the airport for our return flight.  It was sad to leave the Martins.  We had such an amazing trip!!  We love the Martins and we are so glad we got to spend a week with them in Dubai.

Here is a picture I took as we were flying over the North Pole on our way back to Vegas.  We did a great job staying awake on our flight from Dubai to Seattle, but we were pretty much passed out on our second flight.  The flight attendant said, "Aren't you supposed to be tired on your way back from Vegas?"  She'd be tired too if she had such an awesome trip!!