Thanksgiving

We had two Thanksgivings.  I responded to an email almost a month ago about a bigger group getting together for the holiday.  After committing to a few dishes, I found out that it was scheduled for Friday after church because so many dads would be working on Thursday.  Oh.  I figured we would try and do a small version for ourselves with Matt on Thursday and then the kids and I would go to the Friday one also.

Then the week before, another friend decided to host a group dinner on Thursday evening, so we joined in that one so Matt could come.  I had a massive day of cooking Thursday to make stuff for that night and the next day.  I to have everything ready for Friday because there was early ward council, then the primary program which meant packing lots of big blankets to make it more cozy during sharing time while watching The Testament for a post program treat.  Then we had to race home to get our food to take over  for #2.  There was also a youth fireside that night, but Isaac ended up missing it. Matt ended up finding out on Wednesday that they scheduled the testing that usually happens one Saturday a month on Friday instead, so he got to come home early and joined us for #2 as well.  This is getting really stream of conscious.  Let me just switch to pictures.

The girls made hats in anticipation.  They took them along to #1, but they didn't stay on long.  

We did a mom shot.  Eugene (Philipeans), Toria (Oregon), me, Katelyn (US, but moved to Saudi last week), Tiffany (US, just came from Doha), Lashley (Eaglecrest High School grad class of 1993), Carolyn (Alpine, UT), Jana (Sri Lanka), April (Canada)

The girls made great friends with a few little people. 

Kid shot. Isaac was the oldest one in this group.  He was really happy when Nishane turned up a little late.  Two of the three deacons.  At Thanksgiving #2, he was joined by 4 of the YW.  Our junior primary is 4 times bigger than senior. 13 kids in CTR4/5.  I know we should split it, but we don't have another classroom.

Jana is my running buddy.  We used to run on the beach once a week before summer hit and are picking it up again.  

Scuba

Isaac, Makenna and I did our beach dives (open water dives 1 and 2) in Jebel Ali.  It was an early morning for us just because we were told we were starting at 8.  Turns out only a few of us showed up on time, despite it being local and we didn't actually get going for another hour.  So by the time equipment is gathered and assembled and we trudge down to the beach with all our heavy gear, it was almost 10.  Matt took the morning off to stay with Jess.

Al Boom Dive Center has sunk 11 catamaran boats within the large dive area.  During our two dives, Makenna and my group saw 3 of them.  It was a much more exciting and nerve wracking experience going down in the open water versus the pool.  We had to watch out for sea urchins.  We saw one huge grouper and lots of big angel fish and a dozen other species that I can't yet name.

The next week we were supposed to meet at 6am to catch a bus to Fujairah.  Fujairah is another Emirate, but on the other side of the "triangle" that is the UAE.  It lines along the Indian Ocean side.  The water is clearer.  I was talking with another scout mom who is getting her advanced certification and she told me about the time they saw 6 huge sea turtles diving there.  We were also told that if you are lucky you can see rays and barracudas   Wow?

Well, after compulsively packing the night before and jolting awake twice in the night to check the time, we missed the bus because I had set my alarm for 5 pm instead of am.  I ran to Isaac and Makenna and told them to be in the car in 5 minutes.  We were going to drive ourselves and hope to find the place before the boat left.  I had a tense 1 hour and 45 minute drive, with many phone calls with Matt who was trying to look up addresses and phone numbers for me.  We ended up beating the bus since they had left Dubai an hour late due to meeting place complications.

So after an hour of going through paperwork and taking ANOTHER test (over 200 multiple choice questions by this time!) We went out on the boat.  We learned how to properly fall back into the water.  We had to pass off a few more skills like using an underwater compass, taking off and replacing your mask underwater, and hovering above the bottom.  We went down to 11 meters this time.  That's deep enough to allow schools of fish to swim over your head and mess up the sunlight.  We saw a lot more fish, more sea stars, crabs, urchins, but no turtles.

Makenna: The urchins clogged up the crevices in the rocks and coral.  There was the opposite of a clown fish (black fish with white and orange stripes) hiding around anemones.  There was some fish that was about as long as a foot that was skinny as a pencil and shiny/see through.  Others were shaped like blue triangles.   

Isaac had equalization problems.  He had to stop dive 3, but fixed his ears in time to go down with us on dive 4.  He was grumpy going home having not passed off the course yet.  I took him to the site on Atlantis a few days later so he and another boy could have another try.  Success!  The water visibility was really crumby, but he is certified.  We just really hope they are more organized with all the scouts and their families paperwork so we get our official cards back soon.  We want to go back to Fujairah soon and get more practice.  These last pictures are of Isaac, the other scout and their instructor coming back to shore and then Isaac back on land.  We are on the end of the Palm (man made island) looking back towards Dubai Marina.

Burj Khalifa

The first friends we made in Dubai moved after just a few months.  The Princes. They came back to visit for the week of Thanksgiving to more properly say good-bye to people and places and let their girls have some closure.  Matt was working Tuesday, but we ditched school and went to Wild Wadi with them.  Yes, we went to an outdoor water park the week of Thanksgiving and the weather was glorious!

We went once before in the spring, but they now have a new slide.  The slide alone is not alarming, but the build up IS.  You climb up and up and up.  Finally you get to the top and watch people get locked into these clear tube chambers.  It's very like one of the launch things they have on Wipeout.  You stand upright with your arms and legs crossed.  You hear a voice count, "3, 2, 1" and then the floor drops out and you zoom down.  From the ground, it looks like we have been on steeper slides elsewhere, but none was quite as scary as this one.  Matt made Makenna promise to try it once.  I talked Jess into trying it once too.  Having the Prince girls there helped them follow through.  Before we left, we went once more.  Not quite as scary the second time.  Brian and Hilary definitely need to come back.  We all think Wild Wadi is more fun than Atlantis' Aquadventure.  I think they would also love the tube rides that shoot you UP ramps.  Very fun.

A lay out of the park, taken from the web.  Just to the left, you would see the Burj Al Arab, the sailboat building--my favorite.  

This is the end of Jessica's favorite ride.  She calls is Traffic because the first funnel is tilted out toward Beach Road and it feels like you could pop out and land in the traffic.  All these are taken from the web.  You don't really see that many guys wearing Dish Dash around the park.

Three in our family also took turns on the beginner Flow Rider.  The two life guards/instructors were very patient and helpful.  The line moves slower than the one at Lindon Pool, but only because they are giving each person longer to get a feel for it.  We all got much better.  Isaac was on one knee, one foot!  Makenna chose not to try, being worn out by then, but I will insist she try next time we go.  She picks up physical skills like this quickly.

We left the park as it started to get dark.  We drove back to our respective homes/hotels to change for church activities.  I was running the Activity Days for the girls, as I lost my leader to YW, recently.  Isaac and the rest of the youth (Prince girls too) were meeting at the church then going to Adventure HQ for the ropes course and rock climbing.  After it was all over, we packed 6 kids in our car and made two drop offs on the way home.  Fun, full day.

The next morning we woke up early to meet the Princes at the Dubai Mall.  We were going up the Burj Khalifa.  Our time slot was for 9:30 and you better not be late.  You have to buy tickets online several weeks in advance.  The elevator went up 124 floor in about a minute.  Our ears popped 4 times on the way up.

The girls are standing next to a model.  On the back wall you can the the height in comparison to other famous buildings.

Bulls eye on the tip top as seen from ground level.

Now we are near the top, looking down.  That's where the fountains perform each night.  

This is looking up from the observation deck.  We are obviously not at the top.  

We lost Isaac for a bit, he was wandering about with the Prince girls.  We took one family shot without him.  Pretty bright outside.  

There are the missing kids. 

This was a neat device.  You could move it around and use it to zoom in, like a telescope. Or you could select "past" and see what the area looked like 20 years ago. 

That square tan building is one of many HUGE A/C providers we could see from the top.  They provide cool air for a collection of buildings.    

If you can see past the reflection, you can see the former camel racecourse that is now a bike track.  If you know where to look, you can see the 4, 6, and 8km routes.  The lights have solar panels to recharge each day.   

Looking down at part of the fountain show. 

Matt said hello to some visiting Germans in the lobby.  They hunted him down again at the top to ask about best things to do, directions, US politics.... I think they really enjoyed finding someone with whom to sprecht.  

One of "The Address" buildings.  I thought it was a rather clever name, until I found out there were three in Dubai.  I think they need to change the definite article to an indefinite one.  

One of the Sheik neighborhoods.  

One of 3 Guinness plaques we have seen.  Two at the Khalifa, one at the aquarium in the mall.

Speaking of the mall, here it is from the top.  4 floors. 

This picture is not capturing the cool architecture like I wanted.  There are some neat buildings in this town.

Can you see the sailboat building to the left in the far distance?  It's about 13 miles away.  The Dubai marathon starts at the Burj Khalifa and goes almost to the Burj Al Arab and back.  

Kerri-Ann, Ashley, James, Brittany.  They have one son starting a mission in Ogden and one finishing in Japan.  We miss having piano lessons, carpooling, and hanging out with them!

The golden spaceship-ish thing in the middle is a metro stop.  It's the stop for the Dubai Mall, but it's another mile to actually get there.  So there is a looooong series of covered moving sidewalks connecting them.  Ha ha. 

Cool bench. 

We popped into Claire's for a minute and Jess found these glasses.

We have never been mall people.  We still don't think we are.  But isn't it beautiful?

Clam Dissection

Isaac has been studying biology for science this year.  The current unit has been breaking down the animal kingdom into phylums.  Along with tedious memorizing, there was a lab on the mollusks.  I knew the girls would want to participate too, so I bought 4 clams from Lu Lu's.  Isaac made copies of the lab so the girls could draw and label the clam parts, but after the mantle and foot, they became too focused on poking, prodding, and pulling to make notes with increasingly goopy hands.

Isaac's knife is pointing to the stomach.  He found gills, intestine, siphon and more.  They did not want clams for dinner. 

When I finished going over the lab with Isaac, I saw what Jess had studiously been working on: writing her name with clam guts.  

This is her whole plate.  

Halloween in Dubai

We decorated pumpkins.  Isaac carved one, but it rotted two days later.  I mean REALLY rotted.  We hung stretched out batting around our front door complete with plastic spiders and adjusted it each day as the wind messed it up.  We made other Halloween decorations.  We bought candy to hand out and looked forward to trick or treating.  We were joined by a couple other families excited to go around an ex-pat neighborhood.  But we really struck out in our neighborhood.  One house with all their lights on was answered by a British guy who obviously knew all about Halloween, but wasn't prepared.  We saw him go into his kitchen (the windows were all open) and scrounge around until he found 3 Twix bars and put them into 3 of the 6 kids' bags apologizing for not having more.  The parents (us) felt bad and made sure we didn't stop at any houses that weren't properly decorated after that.  We gave up after another 10 minutes in our neighborhood and drove a mile down to a different one.  Much more luck there.  Matt brought along most of our candy, leaving a couple handfuls with Isaac in case anyone came to the door (two groups did).  Every time we passed other groups of trick or treaters, Matt would pass out as much as possible on the street.  The kids got to knock on about 20 doors and enjoyed it very much.  They came home and dumped out their supply to sort.  Now that  it's been a couple weeks, they have completely lost interest in it.  Makenna even suggested taking it to church and donating it to the bishop to hand out to kids.  I rather like the idea.

The pioneer and the pirate

This house was obviously ready for trick or treaters.  

Full Saturday

Makenna, Isaac and I went on our first open water dive Saturday morning.  We had to get up early to get to the dive site by 8.  It shouldn't be a stretch, but for kids that go to bed around midnight and normally don't get up before 9, leaving shortly after 7 was a little painful.  It was a gorgeous day.  November in Dubai is practically perfect.

Isaac ended up diving with another group because of numbers, so I have to  report his specifics separately.  He reported seeing a 2 ft long spotted grouper fish, big clams opening and closing (they looked like rocks at first glance), angel fish, sea urchins, other unknown fish, and one sunken boat.  Makenna and I stayed together in the same group.   We saw many big angel fish, one big fish that might have been the same as Isaac's grouper, lots of other fish of various sizes, crabs, sea urchins, and three of the boats (catamarans).  There are supposedly 11 that they have sunk in the bay for divers to find and for wildlife to latch on and grow.  It's a more sandy bottom, so by adding some structures, they are encouraging coral to grow.

This morning we had a briefing, gathered and assembled gear, walked with all our gear (heavy!) to the beach, had a 20-30 minute fun dive--that's when we saw the fish and sunken ships--followed by some surface skills, then another 20 minute dive to practice 5 under water skills.  They were all skills we had learned in the pool, but now we had to try and demonstrate them in salt water.  Clearing your mask in salt water is much less pleasant.  And it's more freaky taking out your regulator (air supplier) with 16 feet of water over your head.

We all had some trouble equalizing, especially our left ears.  What is it about left ears??  Ouch, it hurts when you can't pop them going down!  It was a bit scary, but amazing.  We are looking forward to taking a trip to Fujairah (another Emirate 1 1/2 hours away) and trying a dive in the Indian Ocean.  It's apparently more rocky with great visibility and lots of marine life.  Another mom was telling me about the time she dove there and saw 6 giant turtles, right by them.  I think there are two more dives before we are officially certified.  We have spent many long hours online taking the book part and answering over 100 questions about dive safety, calculations, dangers, equipment.... The favorite term we picked up is Nitrogen Narcosis.  When anyone is being goofy, they get pointed at and told "You have nitrogen narcosis!  You need to ascend!"

Matt had arranged to go in to work late to stay with Jess, so when we got home we sent him off and tried to get a couple solid hours of school done.  Everyone did reasonably well, especially with the incentive of a late over.  We had previously planned to have the girls friends stay after our craft class to have dinner and watch a movie.  Isaac had been invited to a friend's house leaving us with a 6 girl house.

We started with craft time.  We did week 2 of beading.  They made at least two bracelets and/or necklaces each.  Makenna and Jess wanted to watch What's Up Doc.  I wasn't sure how it would go over, but it's so wonderfully silly that all the girls were laughing it up.  At around 6 we started the movie and ate pizza.  Maggie brought cookies and Rayyan's mom sent red velvet cupcakes and frosting (both from scratch) for the girls to enjoy.   After the movie, they went back to the table to finish up or start a new bead project.  Even though it lasted 5 1/2 hours, there was still some whining when the door bell rang.

Monkey girls

Makenna, Kate and Maggie

Jess and Rayyan