Catching Up

I'm going to offer you are few different scenarios on where I've been this past month since it's obvious I haven't been busy blogging.

Scenario One: I was asked by the Royal Family to help make the desserts for William and Kate's wedding. My Pineapple Cherry Dump Cake was such a huge hit that the Queen Mum, after only one bite, passed out from the deliciousness of it all and insisted that I bake for her Ladies Auxilary meeting the following week and I've been so busy in the kitchen, I haven't had time to blog.

Scenario Two: My love of all things desert has driven me to enter myself into the competitive world of camel racing and after training day and night for the past month, I've managed to diet myself down to a lean 97 pounds and raced my first camel last weekend to finish a respectable fourth place.

Scenario Three: Dubai is taking it's toll on me and I'm so homesick for the normalcy of the states that I've purposely not blogged because I'm worried that I might sound too negative. I had my big breakdown in the middle of the RTA (Road Transit Authority, think Dept of Motor Vehicles) while trying to register our car that we shipped to Dubai and stood crying in the middle of the lobby yelling at the Emirati man behind the counter, "You're not my friend!" Not my finest moment.

Despite these little breakdowns, we are plugging away and trying to find our way here in the Middle East and maintaining the usual traditions that we would do in the States. Both of our boys have now had their first Easter in a Muslim country and this year the boys went hunting for Easter eggs at one of my girlfriend's houses. It was so cute to watch Andrik learn to find the eggs and then discover all the good loot inside of the eggs.

I thought I'd take a cute picture of the boys in their Easter outfits before we headed out to the egg hunt.

Not bad, a little squinty so let's try for one more...

Andrik, back to mama!

And here's where we start to go off track...

But in the end, the photo opp turned out cute despite Andrik's persistent ear picking.

And they were rewarded for their patience with their Easter basket loot!

In April Randy's sister flew over the big pond to spend a week with us. Her visit came at a good time since we are new to Dubai and hadn't done any of the great "touristy" things that Dubai has to offer. One night we went on a desert safari tour where they drove us out to the sand dunes and took us on an incredible ride through the desert.

On the way to the safari we had to slow down for the camels crossing the road. Only in UAE do you find camels being herded by Mercedes Benz SUV's.

We ended up with Mohamed, the owner of the company, as our driver; an Emirati man that has been driving these dunes for years. What is second nature to him, driving straight up mountains of sand, was one of the most thrilling things I have ever done. This lousy picture of the sand dunes doesn't do the drive justice but the ride was so intense and scary that I couldn't hold onto my camera long enough to get a good picture. We drove straight up walls of red sand only to perch along the top long enough for me to think, "No way is he going to drive down this mountain of..." and then we were off, sliding down the sand sideways.

This boys could not get enough. Seriously, they screamed, "WEEEEE" the entire drive.

I was in the back seat sucking my thumb, trying to curl into the fetal position and find my 'happy place' when Mohamed asked how I was doing. I told him I wanted my mommy and he said, "No, no mommy, say 'I want more Mohamed'!" He had a great sense of humor and took good care of us on the ride.

Once at the campsite we rode camels...

Got up close and personal with a falcon...

Did a little sand boarding...

Watched some belly dancing...

Ate some delicious food and topped it off with some henna tattoos.


Awesome, awesome night! And if anyone else wants to come visit, you can stay in our lavishly furnished guestroom complete with a bed and dresser (oohh, ahhh) and we'll take you out to the desert for a safari trip. Any takers?