Dubai bye!

I am trying the Blogger mobile app for the first time so hopefully this post looks okay.

We are at the Dubai airport (which is AMAZING by the way) waiting to head to the Maldives for the second leg of our trip. Dubai is a very cool city - a cross between Vegas and Miami with a whole load of outrageous architecture thrown in. Everything here is huge and things are very spread out. We spent the first day taking in the views from the Burj Kalifa which is the tallest building in the world and checking out tourist hotspots like the Dubai Mall and fountain as well as some souks (shopping areas). Emiratis love to shop and it is very clear. They even sold duty free items on our flights via a little cart!

Day two was "old Dubai". We went to the old gold souk which sort of reminded me of Jewelry Row on Wabash except outside and with lots of shop owners trying to sell you gold. Then we walked around the creek and saw all the importers doing their thing. Then it was desert safari time. In random order, our safari experience:
-rode a camel
-watched a belly dancer
-got Indian henna on my foot
-smoked hookah
-Scott held a falcon
-watched a 10 minute falconry show
-had a middle eastern feast
-went "dune bashing"
-star gazed in the desert

It was touristy but in the best way. It was such a well done tour. I can't say we've ever experiences such a nice tour. Pictures and stories to come!

Yesterday we hit up a private beach club and laid out. We had a great lunch there. It was on The Palm Jumeriah which is the 8th Wonder of the World. It's this series of giant man made islands with hotels, apartments and luxury homes on it. Atlantis is at the very end of The Palm. As we were laying out, a huge boat came up and started shooting sand at one of the "fronds" of the palm where they are building some other amazing building. It is just crazy!!

Now we are off to our villa in the Indian Ocean. We tried to buy some duty free booze to ease the pain of what will surely be an expensive menu but they don't allow it! These islanders are smart and know the way to our wallet... :-)

That's all for now!

Getting Global

"Travel before you have kids."

We've heard this enough times that we're doing something about it. Taking advantage of it being just us, we're taking 2 weeks off of work and going on the trip of a lifetime. I'm quite sure we'll never make it back to these places because they are so far away. And, when we are old and gray, I'm sure we'll want to do some senior citizen cruises to new spots. :-)

In order, we're heading to Dubai, the Maldives (technically we're going to a little island called Hadahaa) and the finishing up in London. I'm sure we'll have a couple classic awkward American moments during our travels and navigating new cities will be a fun challenge. I'm excited to see the opulence of Dubai, our water villa in the Maldives and all of London's historic sites...um, and their pubs.

So, getting in the spirit of London, "Cheers"!!

Happy Half Birthday, Rocco!

Our little golden nugget is 6 months old this Friday. We're celebrating with a nice morning walk and then dropping him at my parents for 2 weeks of fun and playtime while we head around the world.

I'm so glad that Scott let us get a dog. He might not admit it, but he loves his "little buddy" and Rocco has certainly worked his way into both our hearts. From his weird morning wake up noises that are a cross between a groan, whine and yawn to his evening sweetness to his crazy hyperactivity, I love this little dog.

Let's take a look at how much he's grown. Here he is the day the first weekend we brought him home:

And, here he is now!

 

 For comparison sake, look at how much he's grown vs. his rope!

Happy half birthday to our furry baby! Love you, nuggie! :-)

Celebrating 1 Year

It's hard to believe that Scott and I have been married for over a year. The year after getting married went by MUCH more quickly than the year planning the wedding. I feel so lucky to have found him and love our little life together.

We are going on a big vacation in a few weeks as a slightly delayed one year anniversary trip but we wanted to mark the weekend with some celebration and fun. We went to an amazing steak dinner at The Capital Grille the weekend of our anniversary and they made us feel so special. From rose petals on the table to complimentary desserts, we were all smiles (maybe it was the free champagne, ha!) They even took a little commemorative picture of us. Cheesy, yes. But, cheesy is fine on your anniversary.

Our actual anniversary fell on a Monday thanks to the leap year. After work, we came home, made a simple dinner and broke out the champagne glasses and year-old cake. The champagne was delicious (Veuve always is!) but the cake...not so much. Despite careful packaging and storage, it was a bit dry. But it looked gorgeous and the frosting was still pretty tasty! Scott ate two pieces so it may have just been me being a little picky.

Then it was on to presents. We had decided beforehand not to spend much on anniversary presents because of the trip but we did want to do a small exchange. The traditional gift for the first anniversary is paper. I decided to have a little fun and presented Scott with this:

That's right. It was a pinata. A chili pepper pinata filled with candy and love notes. We had an awesome time smashing into it although Rocco was a little anxious! Scott got me this amazing book where we can chronicle each year's highlights and include a photo. I love it! After our gift exchange, we kicked back with the bottle of champpers and watched our wedding video. So fun to re-live that night; SO GLAD we got the video! Here's to many more happy anniversaries together!

Here Come The Lewlers!

Well, here we go!

After watching clever friends and family members blog for years, I'm finally in. I've never been an early adopter so this seems about right.

On this blog, I'll attempt to document the adventures of our little family and home. We've crossed the year mark of marriage, have been homeowners for nearly half that time and are proud puppy parents now. Hopefully we'll be able to look back on this blog in the future and smile at the memories from past posts. And for my readers, hopefully this blog will be entertaining, at the very least!