Snuggles, Hugs, and Kisses

31 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by Lesa Burgess in Family, Kids, Travel

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Saying goodbye is always hard.

Usually it’s just Chris saying goodbye to everyone else. This time I had to give one more goodbye hug and kiss than usual. After a lot of thought, discussion, and prayer, Chris and I decided it would be a great thing to have Beckham stay in Abu Dhabi with Chris. I know that a lot of people won’t understand this, and think I might be a bit crazy as a mom to do this… but that’s OK. We feel that this decision is what is best for our family right now and that’s what is important. During our month’s stay in December we worked out all the details for the help that Chris will need to take care of him while he is working. He will be attending a day care from 8:00-2:00 three days a week to give him some social time with other children and also give Chris some extra time to rest as well as get schoolwork done, etc. Even though I knew it would be hard to leave him there, I felt great about the day care and about the nanny and know that Jenn Florentin, my new great friend, will help make sure he is taken care of and give him lots of momma hugs. Beckham craves attention and he will get a lot being there with Chris. I’m excited for the father/son bonding time that will be available and know Chris will do a great job with him.

We left the Florentin’s house to go to the airport at 4:30 AM so we left him sleeping at the house with Jenn while Chris took the rest of us to the airport. Therefore, I gave my Becks goodbye snuggles and kisses the night before when I put him to bed. I held him extra long and didn’t want to let go. He eventually reached for the bed and wanted in, so I reluctantly let go and rubbed his back some more. I finally let go and left him knowing he was in good hands. So far I just keep feeling like I’m missing something. Because I am. I miss my chunky little monster so much already, but am so happy that he’s with his dad and so happy that Chris has the chance to be with him. It will be months before I see them both again and that’s hard to swallow, but I just know it’s right and that it’s good.

I will miss my little man so much. Chris will have to send me pics every day.

His little brother will be a lot bigger when he comes home

Beckham and his dad.. quite the pair

I love my big boys and can’t wait to see them again… whenever that may be.

Our trip home this time consisted of 2 legs. One was a flight from Dubai to Los Angeles which just happens to be #5 on the list of world’s longest flights, only 1 hour less than #1 on the list. It totaled 16.5 hours. It was LONG. Our flight from SLC to Dubai we flew East. Then this time, our flight from Dubai to LA we again flew East. So… in the last month we technically flew all the way around the world. We then had a long layover, which ended up being a good thing because one of our bags didn’t make it and it was 2 hours after we landed when we finally cleared customs and were headed to our next gate. We had to go through security again, which took it’s normal amount of forever. Then at the American Airlines desk there was an issue because of the whole changing of paper tickets on our way over, blah blah blah, what’s new. We made it on the flight which was only 1 hour 45 minutes and finally made it home 27 hours after leaving. Now to conquer jet lag once again. Love it. Hopefully tomorrow my lost bag shows up somewhere. Inshallah!

Friends Are Blessings

31 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by Lesa Burgess in Family, Travel

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Abu Dhabi, Florentin's

During our month long stay in Abu Dhabi visiting Chris, we stayed with some new friends Chris had met in church, the Florentin’s. They were so super sweet to invite us into their fabulous home since Chris just had 2 bedrooms and a living room in his apartment to fit 3 adults and 5 kids. We had so much fun with the Florentin’s. I didn’t get enough pics taken around the house while we were there but I did get a few…

Giving in to jet lag in the living room

Dallin (14) changed his first diaper, and put Zachary in his pajamas…

Collette loved snuggling Zachary…

Movie night…

Kelli Jo, Zoey, and Ava playing in their pool

Right in their backyard is a canal with a great sidewalk area. Grandma Zollinger took Beckham on a lot of walks along it. I only got a bad picture in the evening..

It was an awesome month and am so happy to have met and become great friends with such a great family. I feel so blessed to be part of their ‘family’ now. Thanks so much Florentin’s! We will miss you.

And Back Again

29 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by Lesa Burgess in Christmas, Travel

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Abu Dhabi, Christmas, Oman, UAE

The day after Christmas it was time to make the trip back to Abu Dhabi. We got everything packed up and loaded in the van and drove away from our little paradise. Nobody was looking forward to the trip, but all I could think was ‘at least it won’t be as bad as the way here’. I should have realized that very thought was just like the obvious foreshadowing that you see in scary movies.

I also failed to mention that Chris had not been feeling well and woke with a fever. He felt dizzy when he tried to do anything but lay down. Therefore, I would be driving. Uugghh. He laid his seat back and practically squished Ava, but luckily after a few hours he would start to feel a bit better.

The highway in Oman was under a lot of construction which led to a lot of traffic and diversions. We stopped for gas before getting to the border so that we didn’t run into the same problem that we did before. We came to the Oman border control and for some reason had to go inside once again and do some paperwork with our passports, but after getting things stamped and receiving a magical little square piece of paper that said we were good to go, we made it through and were on our way to the UAE border control. Chris made the wise and obvious decision to take a different route… one that had nothing to do with Truck Road.

We finally made it to the Oman border control. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to get out of the van because after listening to Beckham scream the last few hours he had just fallen asleep. Little did I know we would be stuck there for 3 hours. To make a long story short, residence visas have to be canceled when you leave the country. 3 years ago when we lived in Dubai we all had residence visas. They were not canceled. That was the issue. So after some back and forth, and calling the airport, and once again waiting for papers to be made up, signed, faxed, etc. etc. etc. the issue was finally taken care of. Everyone was out of sorts and it was a VERY long 3 hours.

The buildings that Chris was in for a few hours trying to get us across the border.

Notice the barbed wire fence. It kind of felt like we were being held hostage for a bit.

The kids fought and whined but did find some things to do to pass the time… once again I was happy I was prepared with plenty of snacks.

My mom and I switched off with which boy we were in charge of

It felt like the moment would never come, but it finally did. Everything was cleared up and we were free to enter the country. Luckily the last couple hours of our trip were on fabulously open and empty freeways. After an even longer day than the first (9.5 hours), we were finally home in Abu Dhabi.

So in short, our Christmas vacation was 2 awesome days in paradise sandwiched in between 2 horrific days of travel. If I would have known what it was going to be like, I’m not sure if I would choose to do it again or not. Either way, it was a very memorable Christmas vacation, and is just one more story to add to our book of crazy adventures over seas. On the bright side, I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to have experiences like these and see all kinds of places across the globe.

Christmas in Oman

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by Lesa Burgess in Christmas, Travel

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camel, Christmas, Oman

We woke Christmas morning to some excited kids. They were filled with so much anticipation.

They saw that Santa had indeed made it to Oman and found us in the hotel….

but the pile of presents was quite small. They each had just an item or 2 to open. This made nobody happy, and we suddenly saw a lot of sour looking faces from the girls. After the few minutes it took to open the few presents that were there, I shared an e-mail with them that I had received from Santa…

and the picture that was attached..

At this moment, this appeased nobody. Christmas fail. Oh well.

There were a couple happy campers anyway..

We ate some breakfast and time seemed to ease the disappointment for Kelli Jo and Zoey. They started getting excited about the presents waiting for them in Bountiful and decided to just have a fun day in the sun again.

Zoey wanted to go in with the boys and take a little rest. Kelli Jo and Ava would be the only ones to take part in the most bizarre visit from Santa known. There was a chair made special for him on the pirate ship. The 2 resort turtle mascots were there and took part in everything.

As we were standing in line Santa came strolling in holding on for dear life on the back of a camel..

When camels lower themselves to sit, they drop to their knees and Santa nearly took a spill over the hump of the camel he was riding. As the extremely tan 5 foot 1 inch skinny Filipino Santa was lead to the pirate ship by the turtles, the helpers gave him the mic. He wanted nothing to do with it and let out a very half-hearted and quick “Ho Ho Ho” and quickly returned the mic. All of this was just too funny to ignore and we were both laughing out loud. Chris was doing a play by play in my ear which everyone around heard and laughed as well.

Santa’s ~~reindeer~~ camels..

Kelli Jo and Ava with Santa (whom Kelli Jo figured to be a fake) and…. a turtle of course.

After this, it was more playing in the sun. Ava was content most of the time in the kiddie pool.

Kelli Jo and Chris playing water polo

After the sun went down the girls played in the Kid’s Zone doing some Christmas crafts while the rest of us spent some time shopping at the Omani Heritage Village. We then ate dinner and watched The Santa Claus before hitting the hay after one of the most bizarre Christmas Days that will never be forgotten.

To Oman…. Maybe

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by Lesa Burgess in Christmas, Travel

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Christmas Vacation, Oman, Shangri-La

We decided to take a trip to Muscat, Oman for Chris’s 4 days off and make our own ‘Christmas Vacation’. The drive from Abu Dhabi to Muscat was only supposed to take 5-6 hours. Google maps said 6, so Chris stated he would be able to make it in 5. For some odd reason I thought it was only going to take 4, which is why I agreed to the trip with all the littles. If I had only known.

We left and were off to a fine start. Nice open freeway, just cruising along.

Google then had us take a turn onto Truck Road. I guess we should have known by the name it was a bad idea. It was a road full of… well, trucks… duh. It had a speed bump (or speed hump as they are known here) every hundred yards, and a lot of these street signs…

and a lot of this….

When we first started on the road it was exciting to see the camels. We would get the kids attention and point to where they were. Some had men on them, some were just wild roaming the desert. After 20 minutes on this awful slow road and 1000 camels later it started to be a joke and we were all sick of them. Chris of course took advantage of this and pointed out every single camel and even Ava told him “enough of the camels dad.” To make things more fun we had been running very low on gas and there were no gas stations in sight. We finally found one just in the nick of time.

We finally got past Truck Road and came to the UAE border control. The van that we were driving to Oman was a rental. Little did we know that we would have to have permission from the rental company to take the vehicle across the border. We made some phone calls and there were some papers that had to be written and sent here and there and signed by this person and that person so that permission could be granted. An hour later we were still sitting there getting impatient. The boys were out of the car seats but there really was nowhere to go out of the van so we all just sat there. Chris was holding Zachary while I was doing something and he decided this was a grand time to explode out of his diaper… all over Chris. It was perfect for how we were all feeling. I laughed (because it was on Chris) and then changed my little mess of a baby while Chris wiped himself off. At this point we started talking about hotels in Dubai and started making some phone calls.

Becks got to take a turn in the driver seat

The police must have taken pity on us and finally just told us to go, but next time to make sure we got permission from the rental company. Chris swears it was the green stains on his shirt that got us the free pass. 90 minutes later, we got our exit visa from UAE and felt like we were finally getting somewhere. 20 minutes later we came to the Oman border control. To get entry visas we had to stop and go into a building. It took about a half hour, but we got it all done and really actually were on our way again.

We were pretty sick of the car at this point but had more than half way to go. Beckham hates his car seat and was not happy. Ava kept asking why it was so far and why it was taking so long. We answered her only to hear the same questions 5 minutes later again and again. Kelli Jo inherited my tiny bladder and had to go to the bathroom really bad so we had to make a quick pit stop… for this…

That’s the toilet that she had to use.. squat and pee.. and no toilet paper. You can guess what the blue buckets are used for. I don’t even want to know. I passed and decided I could hold it.

After what seemed like a drive that would never end, we started feeling close to our destination. The scenery changed and it was quite amazing… These pictures can’t even begin to capture the sights. The mountains are like pure rock and they seemed to glow in the slowly setting sun. It was awesome.

We got a bit off track the last few miles and went through some rough back streets but finally found our way again and made it to our destination… The Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa. Our home for the next 3 nights of our Christmas vacation. The resort is nestled away from the city of Muscat and feels like they must have carved a spot right out of the gorgeous rock mountains for this resort right on the beach.

The next morning this is what we were looking at from our balcony.

It was Christmas Eve and we spent the entire day in the sun. We had a blast swimming in the pools, floating time and time again down the lazy river, and playing on the beach.

Here is the splash pad with the resort in the background

They had giant checkers and chess boards and a mini bounce house

They even had a snowman

Grandma and Zachary

My ever selfless mother spent part of the day up in the room so the boys could take a nap. Thanks mom!

Kelli Jo and Zoey went on a camel ride down the beach

That evening there was a candle lighting ceremony by the tree outside. Some of the resort employees sang Christmas carols and then they had all the kids light candles and stand by the tree. It wasn’t our normal Christmas eve tradition, but was really nice.

We had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner at one of the restaurants. We figured we were meant to be here because in true Burgess Christmas tradition, there was a big red tree in the lobby…

We then headed back to our room for some of our normal traditions…. we read the story of the birth of Jesus and opened Christmas pajamas.

Then it was time for bed so that Santa could make his visit…. little did we know that it would be one of the strangest Christmas’s we have ever had.

Emirates Palace

28 Friday Dec 2012

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Abu Dhabi, Emirates Palace

Emirates Palace is said to be a 7 star hotel. It cost billions to build and from end to end is 1.3 kilometers (or not quite a mile) along a white sandy beach. It’s insanely nice. Inside there is an ATM machine that you can put your credit card into, and instead of getting cash, you get tiny little gold bars or gold watches, depending of course what your choice and how much $ you feel like depositing. At Christmas time they have a huge tree that is filled with treasures and amounts to 11 million bucks! We visited one day and the tree wasn’t up. We were told it would be up 2 days later. We went back 4 days later and they were decorating the tree, so we didn’t see the finished product (we didn’t feel the need to go back a 3rd time). We took a few pics, but didn’t spend too much time there. I felt a bit out of my element in such a posh place with my 5 little rug rats.

Outside, by some fountains looking opposite the palace at the city

The main portion of the Palace

Inside the lobby area

In front of the palace

A Day in Dubai

21 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by Lesa Burgess in Family, Travel

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Dubai, Fountain, Global Village

Chris is playing in Abu Dhabi this season. It’s just a quick hour trip to Dubai… our stomping grounds a few years ago. Since Kelli Jo and Zoey were old enough to remember some things from when we lived in Dubai they had some requests of things to do while we are here. One of my favorite things to do while living in Dubai was to walk around the Dubai Mall and watch the Dubai Mall Fountain Shows. My girls loved it as much as I did. That was one of the things requested. I think I was as excited as they were to enjoy that again.

Waiting patiently for the show to begin..

It was worth the wait.. No pictures will do it justice. For me, it really is like instant meditation. It gives me a very zen feeling straight away. I think that’s why I watched it so much while living in Dubai. It will forever be one of my favorite things. The combination of music and water is so soothing.

All 7 of us in front of the world’s tallest tower. The Burj Khalifa

There is so much to do at the Dubai Mall. We did a couple of the favorites. Rode some rides at the Sonic Republic and watched the fish swim in the Dubai Aquarium.

When we were finished at the mall we skirted on over to Global Village. I got a few items from the Turkey portion of the village and the girls went on a couple rides.

One of the entrances…

Inside Global Village. Every time I have been there, it’s filled with people. Each of the different buildings is a different country and sales things from “home”.

Wild Mouse ride..

Ava isn’t a fan of scary things, so she opted for the little swings…

This time I remembered to take a picture of the best baby I have ever had. My sweet little Zachary who happily hung out in the stroller all day….

And once again, it wouldn’t be a normal day out and about without Chris getting some photo ops with random people….

We could have done a lot more, but with all the littles in tow it was a pretty successful day out. I heart Dubai.

Santa in Abu Dhabi

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Lesa Burgess in Christmas, Family, Travel

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Abu Dhabi, Christmas, Santa

Santa made it to the Middle East! We saw him at the Abu Dhabi Mall. Unlike the states, we had to pay $11 per kid to see him. However, also unlike the states, there was no line! Worth it. The girls thought he was “totally fake.” He didn’t say ‘Ho Ho Ho’, but he DID tell Zoey not to tease her little brother. Either way, it was great to get a pic with Santa and hear some Christmas music. The kids even got to go through Santa’s grotto afterward and choose a little gift. Merry Christmas from the Middle East.

Some of the nicest little elves I have met.

Beach Day

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

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Abut Dhabi, beach

We had a beach day with some other families. It’s kind of like fall weather here right now. Just really nice during the day and even kind of cool some evenings. There is just something about sand and water that keeps the kids busy for hours. It was windy so there were some people kite surfing which was fun to watch.

When I got home I realized that most of the pictures I had taken were of Beckham. I was just so impressed with how content he actually was the entire time. It was a breath of fresh air. Plus, how can you not want to take pictures of that squishy little body. Zachary who was not in any pictures could not have cooperated any better and slept the entire time we were there. Good boy.

Abu Dhabi Heritage Village

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

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Abu Dhabi, camel

The Abu Dhabi Heritage Village gives you a glimpse back at the past here in Abu Dhabi and other emirates. It was very educational and interesting. It helps you understand their culture and even why their traditional garb is what it is.