Visit to Jax

Sheila, me and Lisa at Shane's wedding!

Sheila, me, Amanda (groom's mom), and Lisa

Amanda and me

Shane and Rachel leaving and getting pelted with birdseed

Eating lunch with all the gang at La Nopalera

More of the gang

The rest of the lunch gang

Grace and me, she is such a cutie!

Baby Connor enjoying a wheel

My hosts Amy, Chris and Baby Connor

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Jax! The main reason I went was to attend Shane and Rachel's wedding. It was so great to see everybody at the wedding. I got to catch up with a couple friends who were in the first squadron with Goldie when we lived in Jax. Amanda was a life saver during deployment and we have remained close friends even since we have moved to VA. It was fun to catch up. It is hard for me to believe that Shane is married. I think he was about 15 or 16 whenever I first met him.

Then on Sunday I went to church at Fruit Cove and it was like going home. It was wonderful to see a lot of our friends. After church we went to eat at La Nopalera (which was no surprise to anyone that I wanted to go there). It was so nice of everybody to attend. It was so great to find out what everybody is up to. It only made me long to move back more. We are hoping to get orders back to Jax. Then Amy and I drove around looking for prospective places to move. It was a great visit! Thank you to everybody who took time to hang out with me! Thank you to my hosts for letting me stay with you!

Kenan Turns Three

Kenan is so excited about his Lightning McQueen cake

Making the cake

The finished product

Woo hoo! A dinosaur!

This dinosaur is awesome

Sladen likes all the dinosaurs, too!

Ready to eat cake

Nana lighting the candles

YUM, cake!

Sunday was Kenan's birthday. For weeks he has been telling me that he wants a Lightning McQueen and Mater party. So we obliged. We didn't really do a party because his closest friends were out of town this month or moved. Plus we had some sickness in the house this week, too. However, Mrs. H and Brooke joined us for cake. Kenan loved the cake and I really had a good time decorating it. Kenan got some Zhu-zhu pets and dinosaurs. He has been playing with his new toys non-stop every since.

I cannot believe that he is three! Where has the time gone? I remember the day Kenan was born like yesterday. I remember vividly bringing him home from the hospital. He keeps me on my toes and challenges me every day. He is hilarious and keeps me laughing with the funny things he comes up with. He has quite an imagination. He is constantly deconstructing things and getting into stuff. He is definitely all boy. Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with Kenan. He is a joy to us!

Kenan's Pre-School Easter Party

Enjoying the goodies!

Sladen enjoying some goodies, too!

Yeah, I pretty much look good in anything that I eat!

Decorating the Easter basket

Bunny Ears

Hunting Eggs

Story Time

The class!

Kenan had his school party the Thursday before Easter. They had good treats to eat and got to decorate their own Easter baskets. Then they did an Easter egg hunt. The mom in charge originally told each child that he/she could ONLY pick up certain colored eggs (yeah right!). Then she changed it and said they could pick up whatever color but only a certain number of eggs. Kenan obviously got it in his head that he could only pick up a certain color egg. So off Kenan goes to find eggs. He would ONLY pick up the pink eggs. He would walk right pass eggs of any other color. He absolutely refused to pick up any other color. That started a whole downward spiral of his attitude. He moped and wouldn't participate in the other games they were doing. I'm not sure what the real issue was but I knew it was time for us to go. Oh how I love the terrible two's.

Easter

We celebrated Easter a little bit early this year because we decided to go to the Saturday evening service instead of the Sunday service at church. The boys enjoyed an Easter egg hunt in the front yard. Sladen liked playing with the eggs. Kenan was a little obsessed with getting all the eggs of one color. I think the boys enjoyed their Easter baskets that Nana gave them. She has always made the best Easter baskets. I have always looked forward to them throughout the years. They are one of my favorite things of the year.

More importantly it gave us the opportunity to share the real meaning a Easter and Jesus' sacrifice so that we may have eternal life. We look forward to the day that these sweet boys accept Jesus as their savior. That is our prayer every day for them. We were, also, blessed on Good Friday by my niece, Blair, asking Jesus into her heart! It truly was a great Easter. Thank you, Lord, for sending your son to die on the cross taking on our sins so that we may spend eternity with you!

Old Article

I had forgotten about this news story that was written upon Goldie's return in 2004. Good stuff!

http://www.gofbw.com/News.asp?ID=3597

Dubai U.A.E.

Yep, that is what it says, Dubai! My friend, Casey, and I made the long journey to Dubai for a little R&R. If you look at our pictures you will notice our company and the real reason we went. We had a fabulous time and the company was even better. I was very pleasantly surprised by Dubai. It was a very enjoyable trip.

We arrived late one evening and took the "lady" taxi to our resort. Our husbands had staked out the resort for us and we were impressed. We were a little jealous that they had been there without us before. While getting the details settled during check-in, we were sitting in the little tent that you will see below. They brought us refreshing cold towels (to wash our faces and hands), fresh squeezed orange juice, and dates. The concierge took us to our rooms where we were greeted with a personalized message on the tv and fresh fruit. We were blessed to get rooms on the ocean side of the resort. The resort had a phenomenal breakfast with everything you could imagine on it: omelets, eggs (all kinds), sushi, fruit, fruit smoothies, meats, pastries, cheeses, fresh orange and pineapple juices, waffles, french toast, pancakes, crepes, hash browns, salad, vegetables, etc. The resort also had three pools and direct beach access. They came around with cold moist towels, slushies, and water bottle spritzers to help keep you cool while you were out by the water. It was divine! The food was delicious everywhere that we ate.

However, none of that compared to the four days that we got to spend with our beloveds. We pretty well took it easy. We laid out by the pool and beach. We ate like kings and queens. We just soaked up each others company and enjoyed being together.

I was definitely surprised by how westernized Dubai is. They still ask that you respect their culture and wear modest clothing out in town. However, a lot of people were in westernized clothing everywhere we went. You definitely saw the typical middle eastern dress but not nearly as prominently as I had expected we would.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. It was accentuated by the great traveling buddy that I had along for the adventure, Casey. Thank you, mom, for watching the boys so I could enjoy this journey.

The Lovely Camels!The sitting area in the resort lobby

Breakfast at the resort. They had everything you could possibly think of and the fruit was phenomenal. Not to mention the crepes. It was fantastic!

Enjoying breakfast

The Burj Al Arab Hotel in the background

Casey and me on our last leg of the flights to Dubai

Exhausted after getting to the resort

The Le Meridien Royal - our resort

Waiting for our hubby's arrival - woo hoo!

The "lady" taxi - only ladies and small children can ride in these taxis and they all have lady drivers. They were great!

The indoor ski slope

Dinner at the Maya

Enjoying some dessert - yummy!

The Burj Al Arab

Dinner at the Meat Co.

Enjoying the evening out

A better view of the ski slope

The sunset from our window

A panoramic view from our window

Good morning

Panoramic view from the beach back at our resort and the city surrounding it.

I am loving me some camels

Goldie loving the camel... well, sort of

The camel handler, Goldie and the camels

Aw, come on, you can get a little closer!! She won't bite or spit!

Beautiful Camel!

Maybe she will bite! Not really, she was very docile!

I loved the camel

Off the camels go

Footprints in the sand. Camel footprints that is.

Camel prints in the sand

This was a brave bird. I was sitting within arms reach of this bird that stole one of my authentic french fries. It only got one because I was getting my camera so I could take a picture.

Madinat Jumeira Souk

Outside the Madinat Jumeira Souk

My love and me

The stand up toilet the Dubai airport