Sunrise, Sunset

Just a Las Vegas sunset from my parents' front yard.

If a Tree Falls in Your Yard, Does It Make a Sound?

One of the very first plants I remember in our yard growing up was this pine tree. For many years, it was the only greenery in our yard of desert sand. I remember carrying pitchers or dragging the hose out to water it. We eventually landscaped everything, and the installation of a sprinkler system helped it flourish. Well, flourish it did, but last year, a portion died.

We were afraid it was diseased, but upon inspection found that some of the roots strangled others, causing it to die. Rather than remove the dead portion, it was recommended to remove the entire tree because of its proximity to the house. Removing a portion might throw off the balance, and in a wind storm, the remaining portion could topple onto the house, causing major damage. Unfortunately, this meant that the large shady area it provided would disappear along with it. Now my parents need to find a new tree.

Beginning removal

Crane lifting out portions of the tree

The last section of the trunk

Before

After

A Purse and A Piano

Leoni checking out a purse from a cute friend in my parents' University Ward

Playing a little after church music

Great-Grandparents

Leoni is lucky to have 3 great-grandparents still living. We had a chance to go to lunch with my father's parents (Leoni's great-grandparents), but we sadly didn't take many pictures. Here is the only one that is decent, Leoni and her great-grandma

Memphis BBQ

I know this is an extremely flattering photo of both parties, but I think it is cute. Leoni wanted to sit on the edge of the car after a family dinner at Memphis Barbeque and Nor joined her.

Visit to Hoover Dam

We took an afternoon to drive out to the Hoover Dam and see the almost completed Colorado River Bridge portion of the Hoover Dam Bypass (opened as of October 19, 2010). It is supposed to relieve traffic going across Hoover Dam. Great idea, but a little scary to contemplate when you see how high up this thing is. I am glad they have walls up on the bridge because I would otherwise never drive over it. It also will keep the gawkers from stopping mid-bridge for a photo shoot.

We decided to have a photoshoot of our own (on a very bright sunny day),
but in a designated photo area
Check out how low the water level is by seeing the discoloration on the rocks

A Close Encounter

Though not of the 3rd kind, Leoni enjoyed following and petting the tortoises in Las Vegas. We have 4 desert tortoises, Sheldon & Shelonda (the adults) and two babies that are actually 5 years old and not really named. Yes, they are the offspring, though we don't know who the parents are. We used to have another female, Flip, who died from the same action as her namesake, and we had another male, Dodge, who moved on to another home. So, it is anyone's guess.

This is Sheldon, the largest and oldest, who we have had for 25 years. It is pretty much the only animal she enjoys getting close enough to touch.

A picture of the family

We tried to some pictures of all three of us this summer since we had people around to take the picture. Not super exciting, but I love Leoni's face in this one.

Wedding Surprise

I am full of surprises.

My brother scheduled his wedding back in February over Valentine's Day weekend. That happened to fall on the end of my semester break, so if I were to attend I would have had to take off a couple days of new-semester orientation (unpaid leave). On top of that, it's expensive to fly between America and the Middle East. So, with my brother's understanding, we decided that I would not go. However, every time I thought about it, I had a feeling that I needed to go and that I would regret not going. Finally, we decided to reverse our original decision, and I started making plans to go to America.

This time, we decided to keep it a secret from my family. They didn't have a clue. We joked with them that they should make a cardboard-cutout and put a laptop where my face should be so that I could Skype in for the luncheon. I even got my nephew - one of the groom's men - to tell me what tie they were wearing so that I could order it myself and surprise my brother in the Skype session by wearing the same one. Also, we had some things that we wanted to get from America to bring back to Qatar, which involved ordering those things. So, we ordered them to be delivered to Lindsay's aunt's house rather than my parents' so that we could keep the surprise.

Well, the day for the surprise arrived. I left early in the morning on Monday, 8 February, and took a taxi to the airport. I traveled from Doha to London to Chicago to Salt Lake, arriving late Monday night. I took a shuttle service to Springville, again to maintain the surprise. I knocked on my parents' door about midnight. The first thing my dad said to me was, "Do you want to know the irony of this?"

I had traveled all that way to find out the wedding was being postponed. Things had fallen apart the week before the wedding, which is way better than the week after the wedding. My brother and his fiancé had decided that they needed to take a little more time to figure some things out, so the purpose of my travel simply changed to being there for him (and some shopping). Well, it was late, so after talking a little with my parents about what had happened while I was flying half-way across the world, we all went to bed.

The next morning, I got up and got ready for the next part of the surprise. I was able to "hack" into my brother's university account and look up his schedule. So, I went up to campus and found his classroom and waited for him to come out. He's working on some nerdy degree that involves a white lab coat and goggles. He came out of the lab to go to the supply room across the hallway and there I was. Surprise! He invited me into his lab to show me the poo that he was working with. After he was finished, we grabbed some lunch and talked a little more until his next class. The next day, we also had lunch together between classes.

It was a rough week for my brother and my parents, but it was good to have family support for everyone. My brother continued seeing Kristina with an open-relationship understanding. After another month or so, they were back on. They probably would have scheduled the new wedding date for May or early June, but I think I convinced my brother of how much it meant for me to be there. The scheduled it for mid-July, during my Summer break when my family would be back in America.

We spent the first two weeks of the summer in Las Vegas visiting Lindsay's family. On a Thursday, we drove about six hours up to Utah to my parents' house. Tyler's wedding was the following day, Friday, but we had a big family dinner for Tyler's and Kristina's families on Thursday night. We arrived about an hour before the dinner, so we took our bags in and cleaned up for the dinner. We came out for the dinner with another surprise.

Lindsay is wearing an abaya, and I am wearing a thobe. This is seriously a rather authentic look. I even grew out my beard for about six weeks for this. I am rather proud of how good we look. And, these are normal, everyday clothes for Gulf Arabs - basically, the same as jeans and a t-shirt. Needless to say, my family was surprised. I thought about wearing the same thing the next day for wedding pictures, but that didn't happen.

The wedding the next day was very nice. Tyler & Kristina were married in the morning in the Draper Utah temple and then had a beautiful reception in the Springville Museum of Art that evening.

Tunnels

Leoni has a tent with a tunnel at Nona & Nor's house. Who doesn't love tunnels? Now they just need to make them in a larger size for adults.

Metro Pizza

We had to have Metro Pizza while we were in Las Vegas.


Look what the pizza does for your figure

Storytime at the Galleria Mall

We were invited to storytime at the Galleria Mall by our great friend, Angela Davidson. Although Leoni has not been too interested in listening to more than half a page of any story, we figured we would head over anyway to at least visit for a little bit. It was fun, and if we actually lived in Las Vegas, we might stop by more often. We tried to take a picture of our kids afterward, but this is the best we ended up with.

4th of July--Las Vegas City Center

After enjoying a great barbeque, homemade ice cream, and a fireworks display, we decided to extend our evening longer. I wasn't sure how wise this was going to be with jet-lag still hanging on, but we had good friends in town, so we couldn't resist. We headed to the Las Vegas City Center which had recently opened and no one except Holly had visited. It has 5 hotels as well as shopping, spas, etc. (Oh, had to stop at the Bellagio on the way.) Here is some of what we saw.

Large Mushrooms
(shown here with Suzi)

They were also known as...

I don't know if it was the late hour, but I thought that was funny, and so did they.

The Bellagio dancing fountains

Tornadoes in the water

Interesting staircases
(with slices of geode type rocks on the facing)

Comfortable seating in elevators

Fancy bathrooms that smelled great

Fancy bathrooms with a view

Dim upper lobbies with a view

Cool artwork made entirely of stacks of paper

And this guy

Yes, we felt the effects the next morning, but we had a fun time. Now, we just need to go back to explore some more.