Back to Marion Jordan

After being back from vacation for week and adjusting to the time zone, Noah and Anna went back to school.  Noah started 5th grade with Mrs. Davis and Anna started 3rd grade with Mrs. Hootman.  We're off to a good start and are looking forward to an exciting year of growth and learning.

Reflections on Vacation

At the Dubai Airport about to fly home

If you have stuck with the blog this long, congratulations!  Getting to live out all of these amazing experiences is very different than slogging through someone's slide show.

In conversations with people, they have asked what my favorite part, or place or experience was in this almost 12 week adventure.  Maybe my answer is cliche or maybe it's unexpected, but my favorite parts of this summer have been the togetherness and the ability to celebrate.  After being such a fractured family while Jonah was in treatment, we jumped into a new rhythm once treatment was complete that provided for more togetherness but still left us running in different directions.  This summer that all stopped and for perhaps the first time every, we all always moved in the same direction as a family.  We were together, living life fully, often unrushed - we were healing hurts and disappointments, we were building and bonding.  Maybe 12 weeks of 24/7 with only your family seems overwhelming, but after our journey it was just what the doctor ordered.  My other favorite part was that this trip was all about celebration.  When we booked the trip we had a very real fear that we would be marking moments of a goodbye we didn't want to have.  Throughout the trip there were moments of pure gratitude that would wash over me and bring me to tears that God would allow us to be celebrating instead of sad.  These are my favorites parts of our vacation and the things that I will remember even more than the stuff.

After all of these experiences, there are some things that I hope the kids remember when they look back on this summer - things that are bigger than seeing moose, exploring cities, riding camels or anything else.  These are the things that I hope that they learned and will remember:

* Togetherness matters.  When you are part of a family, you are part of together.  You have a space to    
   be you, you have people who have your back, who love and accept you without explanation.
   Family matters and can and should be your safest place if you treat it well.  This is your place to
   grow and learn and explore with people who believe in you and love you.

* The world is bigger than our family, our town our country.  Just because people look different,
   practice a different religion, wear different clothes or have different traditions doesn't mean they're
   weird or different in any ways that matter.  If you are kind and interested in other people you will
   learn interesting stories and make diverse friends and your life will be better for it.  This lesson
   feels especially important in this day and age in our country.

This summer really was nothing short of amazing and everything we wanted and needed it to be.  We will re-enter real life filled up and ready to walk forward with a lifetime of memories wrapped into this summer.

Dubai

The final leg of our summer of grand adventure and celebration was a few days in Dubai.  We were flying Emirates home from Africa and had a stop over in Dubai, so we decided to extend it a few days.  If you plan a trip to Dubai, I don't recommend August as it was really hot (think temps of 113 that felt like 120), but it was certainly worth extending our stay to explore.

We stayed at the Jumeirah Dar Al Masya and the compound was giant.  The giant compound in combination with the heat made these golf carts our primary mode of transport all around.

One afternoon we braved the heat and did a desert safari and bedouin dinner experience.  Part of that meant preparing with appropriate headwear.

After the safari portion we watched a falcon show.  Falcons are migratory birds in Dubai that the bedouins used to help hunt.

 Julia danced her way across the world, but was never so inspired as when she watched someone else dance.  At our bedouin dinner they had traditional dancing.  Apparently this was a way for girls to show their talents to the community (and specifically the mothers) to find a husband.  For Julia, she just can't help but move to the music.

 The kids rode camels.  Julia was the bravest of all and rode a camel all by herself without any convincing and she loved it.

 The heat perhaps got to Anna, and the night of our bedouin experience she got sick in the bed that she and Noah were sharing.  Noah was so tired that he jumped out of bed and curled into this little bit of couch and fell right back asleep.

All of the Jumeirah property is apparently inspired by the royal palaces in the UAE.  Our hotel architecture was stunning, so I can only imagine the real deal.

 One of the lobbies with incredible tile work and flowers.

 We went to the Burj Khalifa to see the views.  Because of the sea haze we didn't get impressive vistas, but the closeness of the desert was clear and the growth of Dubai in the last 20-30 becomes all the more remarkable.

Our very nice hotel wasn't too far from the 7 star Burj Al Arab.  The architecture in all of Dubai is pretty cool with some very interesting looking buildings.

 Getting desert safari headwear started

Our desert safari vehicle - an old open Land Rover.  To be fair, we did the safari in a closed car with A/C and then after sunset we went into the open car.

This is the Arabian Orxy, the national animal of the UAE and basically the only animal we saw on our desert safari

 We did get to see some impressive dunes.  The dunes are red because there's lots of low quality iron in it.

 Julia couldn't manage her traditional head covering and quickly defaulted to her bucket hat.

Jonah got to hold a Peregrin Falcon, which is the national bird of the UAE

Henna tattoos at the bedouin dinner

More camel riders

Anna had to be talked into the camel ride but ended up loving it.  Who wouldn't trust a camel lead by Julia?

 In the Dubai mall we went to Candylicious, which is one of the world's largest candy stores.  We laughed that they were offering free samples of Garretts popcorn and had fun with some of the random items for sale.

Apparently to work at Candylicious, you have to be prepared to dance for the mall crowd to pop songs lead by a giant piece of candy.  Some workers were more into it than others, but we were thoroughly entertained.

 At the Dubai Aquarium, because what mall doesn't need an aquarium?  It seemed only fitting that our trip started with aquariums in Alaska and ended with them in Dubai.

One morning we went out and did dune bashing and sand surfing.  If you want to hear the sound of pure joy, ask to see the video Simon took and you can just hear the delight in the kids.

 The hard part of sand surfing is walking back up the dune.  Jonah really loved sand surfing because someone else always carried him back up the dune.

Julia hasn't master sand surfing yet, but had fun.

Jonah on the way down - he loved it!

Even the grown ups got in on the action and actually didn't do too bad.  Noah ended with the most successful run, but my camera temporarily overheated so we don't have any pictures to prove it, but he did great.

Anna said that she still prefers water surfing in Hawaii to sand surfing in Dubai.

All around our hotel there were random decorate camels

At dinner our last night there was a belly dancer that came to perform at dinner.  As per my pervious comments on Julia and dancing, she was smitten.  She and the dancer talked about passes and arabesques and showed each other some of their best moves.

A cool lighting display at dinner

Our final hours of vacation.  We also spent some time in the pool and in the Persian Gulf.  The pool they could cool, the Persian Gulf, not so much, so it was about 88 degrees.  My dad served in the Persian Gulf Conflict in the mid-90s and there was something neat about being in that same region to help relate just a small bit to his experience. 

The Memories We'll Keep

Noah with a velvet monkey in the background

Although mosquitos were not really a problem while we were there because it was dry season, the kids thought the mosquito nets were fun anyway.

The kids really enjoyed making friends along the way and it was always sad to say goodbye

My little missing tooth 4 year old!

Boat safari ride

Julia is too cool for school.  She stole my sunglasses and spent some time checking out her reflection.

Anna will be doing rock climbing this fall and thought she'd get an early start climbing some vine trees

Safari time

Buffalo skull - it was just laying on the side of the road because although hyenas will eat animal bones, they rarely eat the skull so you often find skulls around.

If it can be climbed someone is going to try

This is the edge of our yard at Tintswalo - the dark post marks the edge of the fence.  You can see elephants right behind us at the watering hole - super cool!

Impala Lily

More safari time.  Everyone thinks Africa and thinks hot, but they have reverse seasons from us and it's decently chilly in the morning and evening, hence the hats and layers.

How most of the animal pictures happened

It was hard to get an action safari shot of all of us because one of the kids was always sitting in the front seat

Breakfast in the bush

Sometimes two kids rode in the front seat on safari

Erick really was a special guide for our family.  His love for our children was so obvious and even - usually you can tell that someone connects more with one of the children than the others, but not with Erick.  We learned on our last night together that right before our visit had started Erick's sister had suddenly died leaving behind two children without a father in the picture.  Because guides need special certifications, they weren't able to find a replacement guide on short notice so Erick had to delay his departure to time with ours.  Never once did that personal sorrow show.  Combining that love and professionalism with faith that Erick shared really did make him extra special to us.

Charlton let the kids drive the boat on our sunset safari

Morning coffee.  We were introduced to ranger coffee which is coffee, hot chocolate powder and amarula.  It's also a great way to start your morning!

Tracker Anna

Julia in the bush

Jonah in the bush

Soccer in the bush.  We had better luck with soccer in Gootbos as the clumpy African grass was an added element of ball direction to contend with, but the kids had fun playing with Charlton and Bulgoni.

Cats Claw 

We're in Botswana - the other side of the river is Namibia

Hippo carving!

Our first "small" plane

Our even smaller small plane

Anna in the front seat

Anna playing dentist on a hippo skull.   That's a hippo tooth in her hand.

Jonah in the front seat

At Tintswola we had a bar and Anna really worked on her bartending skills.  She's learning to make a nice gin & tonic and pour a generous amarula on ice.  Stay tuned in 13 years for how this works out for us.

Riddle shirt photo in Africa

Here's looking at you......

Safari snacks in the bush one evening

On any given continent, my kids love to roast marshmallows

Erick with Jonah and then Anna

Anna loves to pose for the camera.  She may sometimes act shy about it, but as you can see, she really does love it.

Bookend bonding (that's what we call these two as the biggest and littlest)

Noah is such a prolific reader, it would warm any librarian's heart.  We had a little undirected downtime and Noah grabbed his kindle and was engrossed in a book.

The littles enlist Granny to read them a story

Anna protecting "her" bar, which was called the Big 5 Bar after the big 5 animals that people hope to see on safari.

Julia loved the vantage point she had from being on Foster's shoulders

Pre-evening safari with Erick and Foster

More of tracker Anna.  We had a joke that Foster wasn't allowed to wear pants until he found a rhino so this is Anna's attempt at solidarity.

Jonah radioing back to the house to let them know we're almost home and ready for dinner.

Anna contemplating the zebra skin throw right behind her

Our last night on safari

Forster took the kids out and got them to do something I would have never thought - he got them to play the impala/giraffe poop spitting game.  That's right, they put poop in their mouths, between their teeth, and then tried to spit in onto a target.  Don't think that I have't already told them a few times that if they put poop in their mouths, they can certainly put broccoli in it.

As a souvenir that money can't buy, Erick and Foster helped the kids cast animal tracks in plaster to bring home.

Our Tintswalo home