Cruising

Burke has decided he wants to one up Leoni by hitting the mobility milestones earlier than she did, much to my dismay. At 7 months, he is cruising around all the furniture very fast now, and has ventured further every day. He doesn't seem to think this is a problem.

Accessories

Such a little lady

If you look closely, you'll see she is even wearing "gloves." They are actually Burke's socks.

Jon's house

Until I have better after pictures, this one will do. This is the house known as "Jon's house."

Before

After

Lizard

We miss our lizard friend. He reminded me of my lizard catching days before Sam's Club & Wal-mart took over. He used to visit us in our kitchen, bathroom, but we haven't seen him for some time. Hope you are well, wherever you are little lizard.

Girls' Night Out

I got out of the house, alone, for the first time since Burke was born, to enjoy a few hours of yummy food and good conversation. We ate at a new Syrian restaurant in Souq Waqif. I loved the pomegranate used in several dishes and quenched my thirst with my favorite lemon/mint drink. A little something to look forward to each month.

We are still here

Blogs are great. I have been able to keep up with so many friends and what is happening in their families. I love seeing your families expanding and growing up. I find it amusing when you apologize for not writing "recently" which usually means within the past two weeks. Hopefully, I will have a little more posted soon to read for those who haven't totally given up on me. We have just been a little busy with life the past several months, and while I do still read your blogs from time to time, I haven't really kept ours up to date. Instead of writing a novel in the month of November, I am shooting for a few posts.

Wilson family at the Las Vegas Temple August 2011

Muslim Friendly

According to Wikipedia, "The Malaysian constitution guarantees freedom of religion while making Islam the state religion. Approximately 61.3% of the population are practicing Islam." This makes Malaysia a favorite vacation destination for Gulf Arabs. The resort we stayed at was no different. Not only very Muslim friendly, but many Gulf Arabs were also there for the Eid vacation. A few unique things you would see at the resort that you might not see in the Florida Keys are:

A prayer house

A Kiblat on the ceiling pointing the direction toward Mecca

Modest swimwear

A Langkawi Lunch

After a wonderful but all too short visit to KL, we headed to Langkawi, an island off the west coast in the Andaman Sea. We slept in late, and then we headed out to explore and have lunch at the resort. We chose to eat at the Beach Restaurant, which lives up to its name.

Here is the view we had in the open air restaurant

Enjoying an exotic drink

Travis wanted to be in the picture, too

Eating the butter

Burke had fun with the swizzle stick

My delicious meal
You have to get seafood when you are on the water. It had a tasty creamy coconut sauce.

Travis' meal that also had some seafood with potatoes in a stew

Of course, Baby Bear enjoyed lunch with us, too

KL Bird Park

We visited the KL Bird Park, which is the world's largest walk-in aviary.

We fed the fish

Spied on colorful birds in the bushes

And above us

Saw a display of pride

Had a chat

Tried on stylish glasses

Had deep thoughts

Were spied on by birds

Felt a fluffy duckling

Ate ice cream

Every last drop

Fed birds
Lizy did this for us since Leoni is terrified of being touched by animals but likes to look at them

Saw a hornbill up close

Checked out our dream cars

Had a great day

This is just a picture of Malaysian taxis

Kuala Lumpur

Our dear friends, the Priedemans, moved to Malaysia at the beginning of 2011. We were so sad to see them go, but knew that we would keep in touch with them, whether they liked it or not. With Burke arriving in the spring, we figured the soonest we could visit was in the fall, so we started to plan a trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL) for Eid al Adha.

Well, it actually happened, and we were able to visit. We spent three days in KL with them and then spent a few more days on an island, Langkawi. They were the most gracious hosts, and they went above and beyond in making sure we were comfortable and cared for. Leoni had a hard time with the time change, having hallucinations several times about needing to comb her hair the first night, but we were so blessed to deal with that in the comfort and company of friends. The best part was just being able to visit with them and their children. Leoni loved having the attention of "older girls." and Burke liked anyone and everyone's attention. We can't thank them enough for their generosity. My only regret was, why didn't I take more pictures?

Dinner out on our first night

The Petronas Towers
right after they lit up for the night

Our family in front of the Towers

Walking the short walk back to the Priedemans'

National Mosque

Off to Malaysia

After a harrowing day, we made it on the plane for our Eid trip to Malaysia.

Stand By Me

Standing & cruising

Laughter

A day without laughter is a day wasted.
-Charlie Chaplin

We don't waste our days.