Today we go home!

So today is the day! What an amazing time we have had! The past couple of days have been crazy...but fun! We went to the top of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, ate camel burgers, and packed, packed, packed!

Since our stuff is all packed up, I will add the final photos to this adventure once we touch ground in Utah.

Love,
Heather

Popped collars are back in style!

Popped collars caught in action! I wonder if National
Geographic is going to want a copy of this?
(click to view larger)

You are not going to believe this...but popped collars are totally back in style over here. For a month now, I have been trying to sneak a photo of some of the popped collars that are roaming around the mall. At last, I have finally captured this very exotic creature! As I am looking at the crisp lines of the collar and how it makes the men's heads look more pronounced, I realize...these guys are just like peacocks! Whenever we see a gentleman and sometimes an occasional gal with their collars popped, it is almost like they are saying, "Hey, look at me and how large my popped collar is!".  I cannot help but laugh out loud everytime I see one!

Henry and Big Buddy after eating dinner at a Noodle
company. They ran around the mall and were crazy
together! They have a lot of fun.

I hope to capture a photo of Mr. Big wearing his occasional popped collar. I think he also likes the look and feel of it! ;)

I am also trying to capture an Arab mullet, but have not had any success. It is like trying to get a snapshot of Big Foot around here. Each picture I take, seems to be to dark. Strange!

Five days till we fly home and we got to go to dinner with our new friends Pete and Johanna. Big Buddy loves playing with Henry pictured here. They are both a lot alike...boy all the way! They are loud, fast, and rough together! Here Henry is looking at the motorcycle that Big Buddy gave him. He was so happy to receive it! We hope that we will be able to see them one more time before we leave!

Six days left...friends, friends, friends!

Ruri and Big Buddy are best friends!

Since we are less than a week away till we leave to fly back to the United States, Big Buddy is spending as much time as he can with his best little friend Ruri. She is so cute and from Japan! We have really enjoyed playing with her and her mom! We will definitely miss them when we get back home.

Each night at about 5pm, we meet Ruri at the playground. Big Buddy and her play till it gets too dark to see. They love to play with their bouncy balls, blow bubbles, jump rope and run around crazy. It is still interesting to watch them

I just love this shot of them watching the bubbles floating in
the fountain.

interact even though Ruri only speaks a little bit of English. They seem to figure each other out.

Several times Big Buddy has gotten frustrated when Ruri didn't understand what he was telling her to do. After each of them pout for a few minutes, they both just smile and play something else. So cute!

Sometimes, our other friends come by and play also, they are Sophia and Ines. They are French

Ines, Sophia, Ruri and Big Buddy having fun!

and very cute! Big Buddy likes playing with Sophia, however, he thinks Ines is a baby, and he doesn't play with babies.


One thing they love to do is to hide their bouncy balls in their shirt and then pretend that they are hatching out a baby (thanks to cartoons!).


We still cannot believe that we are flying home in six days. Amazing! Looking forward to see my two cute little pugs. Oh, how we have missed them! A special thanks to our families for watching over them and taking good care of them while we were away!

Since the days are ticking, Big Buddy and Mr.

Mr. Big and Big Buddy relaxing in the pool!

Big are getting in all the swimming that they can! They swim at night for about 45 minutes to an hour. Big Buddy has gotten really used to the water and can even swim the length of the lap pool (with his floaties on of course). For each
lap he swims, Mr. Big gives him 5 dirhams which is about $1.25. He saves up his little moneys and buys himself little things from the stores here. Recently, he has been saving up for a large camel puppet. ;)

Cupcake from Bloomingdales! My mouth is watering while
typing this.

Today, we ran over to grab a few little gifts for friends and family, when we found these beautiful little cupcakes at Bloomingdales! Big Buddy loves cupcakes, so how could we resist! Can you say icing! They were so delicious! We could hardly even eat one though, they were so sugary (I just love the tower of frosting on top!).

At the end of our day, it was really fun to see Mr. Big getting ready to head out to a meeting with his fellow Arabs. He was all decked out in his dishdash and head piece (I am starting to wonder if I married an Arab...and didn't realize it!)

Mr. Big in his Arab getup!

One week and a day left!

So with only a week and one day left in the Middle East, we are very frantically trying to pack, get in the last minute sight seeing and also just survive!

It has been a very long trip and I think the three of us are ready to come home. ;)

As I am organizing everything, I will try and post some more of what we are doing as we are preparing to come home!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Big Buddy getting ready for the firework show!

Happy New Year from Mr. Big, Big Buddy, and I!

Here are a few snapshots of our totally and completely amazing New Years Eve in the Middle East! Let's just say, they sure know how to bring in the New Year! Definitely, an experience of a lifetime for the three of us!

At about 6 p.m. we noticed that the number of people around the mall and Old Town was definitely increasing quite rapidly. So the three of us decided that we would try and find some New Year's Eve dinner right around Old Town so that we would not loose our parking spot in the parking tower (this was definitely a good call!)

We decided to eat at the Meat Company. Steaks with mashed potatoes were pretty good! We were able to get in in the nick of time since we had no reservation and all. The place was crawling with happy people celebrating!

The fountain show begins and has fire. We see the reflection
on the exterior of the buildings.

After dinner we headed back to our apartment, so that Mr. Big and Big Buddy could swim (Big Buddy had a little nap during the day so he could stay up to see the New Year's celebration and seemed to have a ton of energy he needed to burn. Swimming usually takes care of this nicely!) Once the pool closed, we headed back, bathed Big Buddy and got ready for the celebration. Mr. Big scoped out a great place on the 9th floor where there was this tucked away common area where you could stand and see the Burj Khalifa perfectly from the roof tops. A few other people scoped out this same spot, however, I would say that there were less then 20 of us total.

Big Buddy, Mr. Big and myself anxiously waiting for the 
New Year!

We set Big Buddy up on the ledge (no, we are not Michael Jackson, dangling our child from the roof top ledge, the ledge was 5 feet deep so we were able to set him there with his daddy's arms as a seat belt while he leaned back on Mr. Big).

Unfortunately, we were not able to see the entire fountain show with water and fire, but we had the best view of the fireworks off the Burj Khalifa! Big Buddy was so excited! We got these funny paper hats to celebrate along with some horns to toot and a few clackers to bang!

Amazing fountain show begins. Breathtaking!

Not knowing how loud the fireworks would be and since we were so close, we decided to place headphones on Big Buddy's ears to protect them just in case. Turns out that the fireworks really weren't that loud, but we were ready!

The fountain show began first and we were able to see it when the water shot up really high. Very pretty! We were also able to see the reflection of the fire part of the show in the windows of the surrounding buildings. Very cool! However, when the actual firework show began, SHUT UP! We were totally blown away! Super beautiful and amazing!

The first fireworks shoot off the Burj Khalifa! Amazing!

Here are a few pictures of what we were able to capture. As you can see, fireworks shot out from all over the Burj Khalifa! Amazing!

Then fireworks also shot from the tops of surrounding buildings and also up from the fountain! It was definitely a show if we do say so ourselves!

Wow!

I just love the photo I was able to capture of the three of us watching all of this happen. Typical, Mr. Big totally in awe in the background, while I am taking the photo, and Big Buddy wondering what the heck is going on. Heehee!

The display lasted for quite awhile and Big Buddy even blew his horn and clacked the clacker a few times until we got dirty looks from the surrounding people. :)

Afterward, it was pretty neat to see the smoke surrounding the Burj Khalif. Wow, is all that we can say. This display of fireworks and people yelling "Happy New Year" was so much more amazing then what you see on TV at Times Square in New York! We feel so lucky!

When we got back to our apartment, it was evident that the parties had started! Loud music, sheesha, people yelling, "Happy New Year" and tons of laughing! It felt so amazing just hearing all of this and watching the millions of people walking by...like a parade (all of this lasted till long after 2:30 a.m. in the morning!)


What an amazing way to start out 2011!

Fireworks shoot up from the fountain and surrounding
buildings.

I just love the awe, joy, and wonder on Mr. Big's face here!