YYC to DXB

So Andy and I agreed to start this blog to let all our friends and family come on this journey with us. After months of talking, trying to be patient and a little effort we are on our way, we hope you enjoy.
Our relocation trip started with a night in the Delta airport hotel in Calgary, a one bedroom jacuzzi suite. Anna had never seen a tub that big, neither had I frankly.


Sassy and cute, our little girls are getting big.

We enjoyed a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant, I thought it was extra lovely because dad had turned in his company Blackberry earlier that day.



We finished dinner and headed back to our room for a bath, Emilee called it a pool. It took a couple of seconds to be okay with the noise and the bubbles but after that they became jacuzzi pros. We managed to get all our luggage into the room, thankfully the hotel stored both car seats and our sit and stand stroller. We are not the lightest travelers this trip, thank goodness for an eleventh hour idea and a quick trip to Mount Equipment Co-Op for some extra large duffel bags.


After an okay nights sleep we enjoyed our first room service breakfast, Anna must have enjoyed because she asked to do it again this morning. She loved eating pancakes and french toast in her pj's while watching Treehouse, lucky girl.





Anna really liked the bath tub she is still pretending to be a mermaid in the morning.



Emilee is such a cutie, talk's your leg off but cute.



My stomach hurts from the nerves, but we've come this far. We were extremely blessed to have a very kind and thoughtful concierge help us with our luggage across the street to the check in desk at the airport, he was amazing. He brought all four suit cases, duffel bags, carry on bags, had to make an additional trip for the car seats and stroller. Let us get in line as he put our bags to the side and started bagging our car seats. Then the Air Canada lady had him weigh each bag and record its weight. We/I shuffled one bag to another to avoid overweight charges and then decided it was too much work. He brought each bag to the desk and gave me a little wink a few times, those bags were heavy but no over weight charges. Then he loaded them again and took them to the conveyor belt for us, we didn't touch them once. The girls were great and we walked through security just as easy. We played for a minute, boarded the plane early and are off to Toronto.

 

Our flight is going well, Emilee slept through the take off and we are enjoying the entertainment system. "Who knew you could watch cartoons in and air plane" , guess the author

 The landing was a little rough on our ears but mom was prepared with some suckers and so we were all ok. We spotted our plane as we taxied into the terminal and experienced only minor headaches as we attempted to get to our connector. The Emirates boarding passes can only be issued by Emirates and so you have to leave the secure area, go the the ticket counter and get them, which we thought might cause significant issues but they also have their own pre flight screening areas so no worries. Here is our plane, we never saw the top level, one day, maybe.

 The flight from Toronto to Dubai was scheduled to be 12 hours and 55 mins. The Emirates pilot came on to say that it would be on 12 hours so we would arrive on time in Dubai. I know it was over 12 hours but to shave an hour off, wished that happen on every flight. We enjoyed a beautiful meal and learned you had to book your kids meals in advance, they found some extras for us. The  the lights were dimmed , Emilee found it the hardest and basically slept in my arms for about four or five hours of the eight total "night" hours. Which was ok but I didn't sleep and we didn't get to play with ALL the great toys I brought thinking it was going to be hours and hours of light with nothing to do, oh well. Live and learn and now I have tons of good behavior toys for future need.So with only about two hours left the lights came back up and we had a little breakfast. Anna asked several times during the flight of we had already landed, "are we still flying" is how she phrased it. Apparently she didn't feel the plane moving and thought we were on the ground, not 35, 000 feet up. So as we began to descend she was wise and wanted another sucker.

That's right, there is my newly four year old with headphones and the third showing of Sleeping Beauty eating candy AND a cookie while wearing her pj's and its 5:00pm Dubai time, crazy girl.

 

Emilee wanted in on this candy thing, it was a temporary hit but honestly both were sucking on suckers as we landed in Dubai.
 

Dad get one last face wash before we land. We are a little nervous as we prepare to collect our bags and clear emigration, not as tourists this time but Andy's work visa hasn't arrived and so now what to do. We asked an few questions and received a few different answers, total Dubai thing. We cleared emigration without any problems, there is a true respect for children, we were always shown to the shortest line etc. It was truly a blessing and made the whole trip easier on us all.

After an interesting cab ride from the airport, so much baggage, car seats and stroller, oh my, we arrived at the Holiday Inn Al Barsha. Our one bedroom room is lovely but missing the pull out sofa for the girls to sleep on. It only took a few phone calls and so now we have a little baby bed and a full sized single bed for our two princesses, all is well. We are exhausted and looking for a little rest but need to eat so we take on last photo as we head off to dinner. Sorry for the super sized post but things are happening fast here and I really wanted to finish the details of our trip while still fresh in my mind. We are thankful to our Heavenly Father for His protective hand over us as we journey around the world to immerse ourselves in a different culture and experience all that Dubai, Arabia and the world has to offer. Big Hugs - the Andersons

 p.s. our first Dubai tv experience, Canada and the UAE in table tennis with the commentary in Arabic of course. So funny but thanks for the picture to remember it Daddy. :)

So here we are

The last few days have been tough but the week before that was almost more than we could manage. Here is the start of an entry that never made it to the web.

Are we there yet? Busy day today, too hectic for pictures, sorry. Extra furniture was packed and sent to our storage unit this morning. Oh ya I think I accidentally packed the power cord to my laptop in a box with our printer so I might have pictures when we go back to open it, when will that happen who knows. We had cleaners in to get the house ready for pictures and the MLS as well, they were great and have the house about 85% ready for tomorrow. We went to the bank and closed out RRSP's, savings, credit cards and US bank accounts, phew we are tired. Like seriously tired, both of us nearly took a cat nap when the bank lady went to ask someone else a question!! Seriously sleepy are we. Took care of cell phones, government child tax things, and probably sold our SUV.

Never made it back for the cable to my computer and I think it was dark when we did get the last things into the storage unit, too funny. We are going to take it easy and hope that the girls clocks can change, the jet lag it taking its toll on them and therefore their behavior is taking its toll on me :) So here is the family picture we took with the camera on a box of Kleenex on the desk in our hotel room, heading off to our first Dubai dinner. I love it, hope you do too.

Moving Day

20 feet worth of our earthly possessions are now loaded into a sea container. The remainder will end up in a 10 foot storage unit on Thursday.

 

 

 

Bye bye stuff. Words we never thought we would say... "please don't sink" According to the moving company rep they have never lost a container but then a comment about a rogue wave and 'another' moving company...

Very exciting and nervous times around our house. The girls are well and being appropriately spoiled at Grammy and Papa's house. We will spend the next few days cleaning and prepping the house for photos and listing the house for sale, too boring to write about, or not we will see . We will be back with airport and in the plane pics. Wish us luck or say a prayer, we will take both :)

Packing Day

On 2 1/2 hours of sleep we somehow managed to have the house ready enough to stay ahead of the movers as they packed up the house.

We are thankful for Grammy and Papa who took care of the girls last night so that we could get as much done as possible.  Hopefully, that will also help the girls with the transition.

I think we have all of the bases covered.  We even have our bikes packed up... so that we can do some cycling in the winter... apparently it's just too hot to do that in the summer.

They say that it will all fit in a 20' container... We'll find out tomorrow.  I wonder what we'll have to leave behind to make sure that the hockey gear and quilting machine fit.