My mom's visit

Our last visitor this year was my mom! She is the greatest, so her visit was so easy and fun. She didn't really want to see the souqs or do a desert safari and I wasn't complaining. I did go up the Burj Khalifa with her, though. I think it was my 10th time. That's one of my favourite activities in Dubai, though.

We spent some time at the famous Atlantis spa. The massages were so relaxing. And the sauna with twinkle lights in the ceiling was magical.

Then up the Burj Khalifa.

Can you tell that I'm much closer to the edge than my mom? She was afraid she would fall off the top, I guess :)

Back at the bottom. The sun had set and we found Brandon there.

My mom came to school and thought she would document some real life moments. Brandon and I often stand by this map to remind ourselves where we are living now.

We went for pizza by the Burj al Arab and reminisced about seeing it being built. Or rather seeing the peninsula it now sits on being built. My mom said there were so many cement trucks that they looked like ants.

The weekend my mom was here was Brandon's birthday. Yay! My mom got him the best gift ever: a sock monkey. 

This was the best gift ever because when we went on a family vacation to Mexico a few years ago, Brandon's bag got mixed up with a certain Senor Reid. When we looked in Senor Reid's bag all that was present was a very large sock monkey. Brandon made the trek up to the reception desk in my brother's bathing suit (luckily he brought 5). Unfortunately the bathing suits looked more like pants on Brandon, thus his motivation to find Senor Reid and his bag.

I decided on a surprise visit to iFly Dubai after a surprise French toast breakfast. 

I especially like my mom's realistic fork and knife action in this photo

Brandon didn't seem that excited when he figured out his surprise... I thought it would be a perfect consolation/ warm up for his rescheduled real sky dive in May.

Here we are before. Don't believe Brandon's excited look. It's all an act.

Here is our after picture. Brandon's happiness in no longer feigned. He told me that this experience was much more fun than he has expected. I agreed.

Then we went for a delicious lunch at PQ. We're not sure why the waiter chose this particular angle for the photo.

We stopped by the beach for an evening nap and swim:

And here is the birthday boy at one of his favourite restaurants: Reem Al Bawadi. My mom was also very impressed by the food here. We indulged and got the Umm Ali which is basically bread pudding made with baklava instead of bread. It's also one of Brandon's mom's favourites.

Isn't he cute? So happy to celebrate another birthday with Brandon.

The next day we took a trip to Abu Dhabi to visit the mosque. Brandon drove the jeep that our very kind friend lent us.

And that was the end of my mom's visit. We miss her so much.