Santa Comes Early

Santa came a little early...bringing Savannah a new computer like toy, a few clothes and some puzzles. Chris and I both got ski stuff (pants, goggles, hats, gloves) for our upcoming ski trip to Austria! Savannah had a great morning playing with her new toys and trying on dad's ski stuff! After opening gifts, we headed to the beach one last time before Vickie and Kasey head to the airport. Chris was buried in the sand and Chris, Vickie and Kasey made up a game using a target and a ball, while Savannah and I hunted for seashells and played with sand toys.

As with any visit...it always seems to short and goes by way to fast. We had a great time visiting with Vickie and Kasey. Savannah is so lucky to have such a wonderful Grammie and Aunt. We look forward to their next visit and new adventures!

The Burj Khalifa

A great thing about people coming to visit us is that we can take advantage of the sight-seeing as well. Today we up in the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. (Although, Saudi Arabia just announced that they are building a tower that will replace the Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world.)

Tom Cruise was in town awhile ago shooting scenes from the up coming Mission Impossible movie. In the movie, Tom Cruise climbs and repels off of the massive building.)

The tower is 2,723 feet tall and the observation deck is on the 124 floor but there are over 200 floors in total. This was Chris and Kasey's first trip up, while Savannah, Vickie and I have been up once before but it is always amazing! Depending on how clear it is during the day, you see different things every time.

There is also a gold ATM machine at the top. That's right, you put in a large sum of money and it gives you a gold bar (the size is dependent on how much you spend and the cost is dependent on the daily price of gold). You can see in the picture, Savannah spent a long time trying to figure out what it did.

After our trip up we had lunch at an outdoor cafe overlooking the Dubai Fountain (like the fountains in Las Vegas...only bigger) and the Burj Khalifa. We also went on a walk through the Dubai Mall (the largest mall in the world) to check out some of the shops, fountains, aquarium and ice rink.

Aquaventure Water Park

Today we all headed back to the Atlantis to play at Aquaventure Water Park. The water park is 42 acres of slides, beach, rivers, rapids, pools and water rides. We spent most of the day in the Splasher's Children's Play area...but had lots of fun. There were small slides and toys that were perfect for Savannah. She loved the tubes that had a "seat" in them and seem to love that the water was shallow enough for her to walk through all by herself. We attempted to take her on the lazy river but like the last water park we went to the lifeguards wanted her to wear a life jacket...and again they were too big and she started to have a meltdown so we stayed in the kiddie area instead. While she took a small afternoon nap with Grammie; Chris, Kasey and I headed off to the rides. The "Leap of Faith" was by far the most fun and the most scary! (Picture of the view looking down and a picture of Vickie sliding down the slide.) After a go on most of the rides, I went back to relive Vickie so that she could test out the rides with Chris and Kasey.

All in all is was a great day at the water park and so much fun to see Savannah explore new things!

Thanksgiving Dinner

We decided to forgo the traditional Thanksgiving Feast and head to the Atlantis for dinner. We ate at the Kaleidoscope Restaurant which serves an international cuisine buffet...although on Thursdays it is Arabic night so there was extra Arabic cuisine available. There wasn't any turkey, stuffing or gravy but there was lots of yummy choices instead. The best part was...no dishes to clean up! Savannah ate an adult sized portion of fruit from the buffet and a blueberry muffin! It seems odd to not celebrate with turkey and pie but the important thing is that we able to celebrate the holiday with family. To end the holiday celebration we came home from dinner and skyped with my parents and Chris' grandparents.

Separated by an ocean and thousands of miles we truly are thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Thanksgiving at the Beach

You gotta love when you can spend Thanksgiving afternoon at the beach!