We are alive!!!

This may be a long one, you may want to read it in segments as the next one may not be here for a while.

So many amazing experiences. This trip has been absolutely unreal! Sorry for not being active on this bad boy, we really have not been around computers that much, and when we are the time is short.

Dubai- SoooooOoo good
From start to finish this portion of the trip was amazing. We were welcomed by the Stewarts at the airport late at night, they took us to their home and took care of us. They were incredible hosts, extremely kind, helpful, and fun!

Our time there was packed with lots of great things. We hit up the different markets and got some cheap clothes (including some nice nba jerseys, it was a jackpot I think between the 2 of us we bought 9 jerseys for about 70 dollas, they are usually 70 each). We hung out at the beach, went on a desert safari and and jumped on some camels. We were also privileged to watch the bronze and gold medal games of the FIFA club world cup... UNREAL. That was a lot of fun. For the sake of time I will stop there.
Dubai is an incredible place, the buildings are mind boggling, everyone was very very nice, and it was actually resonable price wise. The Burj Kalifa is a true piece of eye candy (tallest building in the world).
I literally have only good things to say about that place.

The next stop was Kenya. After catching a red eye we landed and Kenya and convinced customs to give us our visas for 10 dollars instead of 25. We met up with Angila, Kisserema, and Muthoka (3 mission buddies). We rented a car and rolled around with them, they showed us Nairobi, it was great to check out the places where some of our friends live. We rented a car and I can safely say that was the craziest place I have ever been to drive. It blows SA out of the water.

Now we are finally in our longest stay here in South Africa. We flew into Joburg, rented a car and shot of to Swaziland. I forgot how beautiful Swazi is!!! We were loving driving thru the lush green mountains and rivers, all the time looking at the shacks and settlements scattered about.
Fun turned to Joy as we were able to see some of the church members. Just seeing a few of these members who have a special place in our hearts has made the trip completely worth it. It is difficult to explain.
From Swaziland we traveled to Richards Bay, and after visiting with more member we headed down to Durban.
Christmas day was grand, we spent the day at a farm where Ian and me had spent both of our Christmas's while on Mission. It was great to just relax with some of the great members here. We both got to Skype our families too!
Durban has proved to be fantastic, I cant recall everything we have done, but the beach has been a big part of it. Yesterday we went to a mall that has a synthetic surfing wave, it was 13 dollars for an hour and we had a blast, we also got the crapped kicked out of us. Every time you fall you get thrown up the wave and then thrown down, sometimes nicely, and other times its just a free fall, we got some good videos and pics. Mark (any anyone else who enjoys any type of boarding) would have loved this!! We are going to back. Today we went scuba diving which was greeat, better than any diving I have done. I havent gone for 6 years, Ian hasnt gone for 3... we may have fudged those numbers a bit when we were signing up... though we didnt feel bad as its like riding a bike. We were a little nervous when we dropped 60 feet straight away, but it was a blast! We went on 2 dives and saw many great creatures, my favorite was a 'flock?' of rays. As we were finishing our first dive we got in the boat and we ran into a whole load of dolphins! It was amazing, they were cruising all around us, one even jumped up and showed off some sick air.

Diving seems to be tiring, as now I am exhausted. Tomorrow we are going to go surfing and eat at our favorite place in Durban--Alladins.

All our travels have been very successful and quite adventurous thus far!

Welcome to New York City

NYC- Not only is this place one of the most happening places in the world, it may be one of the coldest! After trying to sleep for 3 hours in a -5 degree terminal, I met up with Derek coming in from Toronto and we headed downtown.

Our first stop was lunch, pizza from some Russian-sounding dudes, where we were offered "2 topping pizza and a soda machine" for $6.50. Turns out it was false advertising because we never ended up with the soda machine.

We then made our way to the financial district to check out the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Instead of a memorial, there is only a parking garage, which came as somewhat of a surprise to us both. Also in the financial district we got to see the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, New York Stock Exchange, and Jay-Z.

Finally, we met up with our friend Rachael who happens to be in New York for a month because her mum, Marie Osmond, is doing a Christmas show on broadway. We cruised Times Square and went in all the fun-looking stores we could find. Eventually we went back up to their hotel room and hung out with Marie for a little bit. Not a bad day.

Aeroflot-Racing back to the JFK airport, we finally arrived at the Aeroflot counter to check ourselves in for our flight about 20 minutes before we left. Turns out the weather in Moscow was bad, so our flight was delayed anyway, and the airline gave us $30 to spend for dinner.

Upon boarding the plane, we were surprised at how nice the plane was for how cheap the ticket actually cost; however, an hour or so into the ride revealed that there were no air conditioning spouts to turn on or off above us! Hottest 11 hours ever.

Our connecting flight to Dubai put us next to one of the smelliest people we have ever smelt in our lives. No English. Perspiration.

Moral of the story- tonnes of supa fun and crazy stuff goin on during our travels in NYC.

K Dubai has been super sweet so far, although currently we are having to much fun with the Stewarts, they are distracting us from this post, therefore it ends now, we want to do it justice sometime though with a post, because it has been unreal. We will try to post later today, if not we wont be around the enet for a few days as we will hit Kenya and Swaziland.

Calgary and Toronto

(This may be boring for Ian’s family and friends)

Calgary (Dec 12) àToronto (Dec 13, 14)à New York (Dec 15)

I will try to summarize but it has been an amazing first few days!

After spending a great week with mom and dad in Medicine Hat it was off to Calgary. I left Friday afternoon as Mark and Laurel had set up a blind date for Friday night. It was a ton of fun! Saturday started very early with some Coyote hunting (which was unsuccessful), after that we came home and regrouped with the boys and Laurel and went to see Santa. It was fun to watch Nick and Ashton meet Santa. Thankfully Santa was at the Bass Pro shop (big sports shop) so the rest of us— or at least Mark and I-- were entertained. After supper we were able to spend the night watch GSP dominate Koscheck.

After about 3 hours of sleep I got up and Ben took me to the airport. I literally fell asleep during takeoff and woke up when we touched down in Toronto—yup, I was pretty happy. Sunday started with some late church which was very nice, supper followed which was delicious. We finished the day by going for a drive and looking at some of the light displays in Toronto. Monday Matt and I cruised around using the street cars and subway. We were able to see the Rogers Centre, Air Canada Centre, CN tower, U of T, China town, Parliament, Hospital block, Dundas square, and more—we were on the move! Today we went to the Hockey Hall of Fame, it was really cool to see everything there (even the Stanley Cup!)

Wyatt and me have become pretty good buddies, I think my favorite saying from him was when we were playing with the bubble wrap he would come up to me and say “Uncle dewek pop!”

Now we are just hanging out, hopefully we don’t stay up to late as my flight is very early, although I seem to do pretty good on 3 hours of sleep (Cherish, conference weekend) . I will meet up with Mr. Schwarting in NYC at 830 AM.

I cant thanks my siblings and their families enough for the awesome start to the trip! Between Mom, Laurel and Crystal I have been eating toooo good, I don’t know how I will go back to the student life! Both visits were packed with exciting and quality activities. I had a great time with all the boys, they are all very different and all great little guys! We will write in Dubai at some point!! Love you all!

testing 1.2.3.