Personal Accomplishments

We haven't even finished January and we can already check a few things off our 'goals' list.

This morning, I ran a 10km race as part of the Dubai Standard Chartered Marathon. Although I've been running quite regularly now, my training for this race was crap after being so sick for the past few weeks. I wanted to give it a try anyways and was really hoping to finish in under 1 hour. It was so cold and foggy here (ok, cold by Dubai standards - I know those of you sitting in New England are laughing at me now) this morning which made it really tough to get started. Once I warmed up I felt really great and kept to a consistent, comfortable pace. My official finish time was 57:41 which is six minutes better than my last attempt at a 10km race (this past November).

 I also received a phone call from Rich this morning as he made his way down Mt. Kilimanjaro. He is on day 8 of his trek and happily reported that his entire team of hikers had reached the top of the peak this morning! A huge accomplishment as they've been hiking for 7 days now, camping and dealing with crazy altitude (peak is 5895m / 19,341ft). Our phone conversation was short as he didn't have a great signal and I'm so anxious to hear from him again tomorrow when he is off the trail. As soon as he returns home with the camera we will get some photos posted!

In front of the Burj Khalifa, just after completing 10k race

The 1st Sunrise

We woke up around 4am on January 1st and drove a very long way out into the desert. It was cold and dark as we approached three massive balloons being blown up. We were given some basic instructions, hopped into the basket and up we went! A little after 7am we were 4,000 feet above the desert and watched the sun slowly creep up in the distance. It was a stunning sunrise. Such a fantastic way to start a new year! My favorite photos are included in the video attached.

My Big Return

When I started this blog, it was meant to help document all the adventures of becoming parents and moving to China. The ever-changing Angela and move to China gave me plenty of material to be able to post updates on a semi-regular basis. Since then we've had a second baby (who is now not at all a baby) and moved to Dubai. And now I'm left with a blog that never gets updated because the kids change daily (and no way could I keep up with the photos and entries) and Dubai just doesn't offer the same material that China gave me. I've taken to using Facebook to share most of our photos but have decided that I don't want to abandon the blog entirely. The girls are both at nursery in the mornings now (Angela five days a week and Caitlin three days) and they are both sleeping so well (knocking on wood). I plan to make good use of that time - gym, groceries, crafting, and blogging! That's right, a return to the blog. I'll continue with some of the fun stuff the girls are doing and also mix in the things that Rich and I are up to (me - running, crafting & photography; Rich -climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and traveling all over the place for work). Hopefully I can keep this going through 2013. Please read, comment, share, etc. It's motivating to see that people are actually following along :). Happy 2013! Love, Meg