The U.A.E

Dubai was wonderful. Very hot and not as dry as I thought it would be. That means we got much more sweaty then I had expected which lead to chafing. Enough of that! Here are some pics. The first one shows our flight to Doha, which was just under 6 hours there then we had another 2 or 3 hours to sleep/kill in Qatar before our 3 am flight to Dubai. That flight was just under an hour and it was still on a HUGE giant plane the size of those you take across the ocean. Its called an airbus 330-200. It holds around 200 people, but on both our flights it had maybe 50. MAYBE. Each person could have their very own row of 4 or 5 seats to recline in.

Ready to go to Dubai

Our flight - nearly empty - ready pull away from the gate

my passport with new stamps!!

Pretty fabric

The first day we got in so early (at 4 am) we drove around a little bit to the rising sun. I think it was coming up around 5 when we were leaving the airport with our rental. We found the round about location of our hotel then drove to see the beach and parked. Since we were tired Tony thought it was a good idea to try to sleep in the car. With the rising sun and all I did not agree so we left the beach and headed to our hotel at 6 30 am. We tried to check in and thought we were good till they told us the room wasn't yet ready but it would be by 11 or so.

SOo we hit the couch in the lobby to sleep. I actually fell asleep there and only woke a few times because it was so chilly in there. I was so tired because when you put me on a plane with movies I have yet to see I have to watch the movies. Although Tony had slept, he needed more sleep because he was not very peppy. When he woke me around 9 to say our room was ready I felt good and ready to go. But thought that if I didnt nap I would just crash early that evening. So we took a nap till 11:30 and man was I tired after that nap. It was way worse then I felt before the nap. Then 15 minutes of me laying there, like I was supposed to be dead later, I got up to freshen up. We were going to officially start our first day in Dubai!

I put on my new long skirt that I got so my ankles could be covered and I wouldn't be showing sex all over Dubai but I did decide to change into a tank top. It had straps that were about an inch thick but it did show my shoulders. I had a light capelet thing that I tried to cover them with but it turned out to be way to hot to wear that. So I was showing my shoulders to all those men who are used to seeing most women covered from the neck down if not head down in black.

Tony noticed that the men stared at me..but I didn't.. I did notice that I was about the only female within sight a few times. If you look in this photo you can see the man in the white shirt looking at me when I took this picture.
Old Souk

We walked around a lot that afternoon going in and out of shops just to keep cool. It was so hot at 106 degrees that any air was good air. We went to the Dubai Museum which was very nice and had lots of air conditioned areas. They had lots of recreations of how things were done in the past such as how they used to pound metal into jewelry, or what a clothing shop looked like. They also talked about the pearl divers too. Lots more things of course. See link to Dubai Museum. = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Museum. We also took a water taxi across the Dubai Creek (at about 10 cents a ride its pretty cheap) to see the Gold Souk and the Spice Souk. I think the fish and Perfume Souks were also around there and those are the 4 main ones. However there are many more. Souks are traditional Arab Markets, the photo above shows one. I thought they were more like a market place where there would be tables set up with all the merchandise set out so this was a shock to me. We then ended up in the Dubai Mall. In the gold souk when we were getting some juice I started talking to a lady from England who was there on her Honeymoon and she had been one other time and she recommended that we go to the Atlantis water park and for sure to the Dubai Mall. Two places we hadn't planned on going to before. So we headed off to the mall to see what it had in store. We had no idea how cool it would be. Not only was it a very pretty mall it also had a huge aquarium inside and it had a beautiful fountain outside and it was also right near the Burj Dubai construction site. It reminded me of some of the malls and areas in Las Vegas. Even though Tony has never been he agreed. The photo below is taken on the bridge of the Burj Dubai.

Worlds tallest structure (soon to be building when it opens) 818 meters

Popular

WHO is more popular.. Snoop Dog OR Justin Timberlake. GO....

DUBAI!

We are going to Dubai tomorrow and I cant wait. I have a full length skirt and clothes to cover my scandalous shoulders and ankles so I should be good. Hope that 104 degree weather will be ok! I will write more when we get back.

20 weeks to go

The top of my little baby thing says "Twenty more weeks to go till mom can have a nice strong margarita or five!" So I am half way there. Half way to a life changing experience that will leave me with a tiny helpless infant who will then grow and chance everyday. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I know from seeing his sonogram he is the cutest baby ever to be in a moms tummy. He is adorable. He has the cutest nose and little hands and feet. I saw them move and it was awesome. We have chosen to name our first born son Roman. Now we have to choose the middle name.

I would like to name our children with our middle names. (*my parents gave their children their first names as middle names) So I would giving my daughter my middle name, and our son Tonys which is Neal. Tony was name Anthony Neal Corona after his grandfathers. The day we found out our child was a son he says "What if we named him Roman Anthony?". The day he found out his first born child would be a boy he now wants to use his first name. Since we like crazy weird names (until Isabella became the #2 most popular name on the name list) My name Crystal is not too normal, but I just liked how Annette sounded with our girl names. I hear Roman Anthony and I think Marc Anthony.. Tony's Aunt heard Roman Neal and thought Roman Meal, which I still don't know what that means. What do you think? I think I like them both, just means not using middle names.. or at least not on the first child. If you say you like one and we don't choose it done be offended.. and I wont hate you for saying anything bad about my child's name.

Roman Neal Corona RNC
or
Roman Anthony Corona RAC

BABY BOY!

Our little baby BOY!!!!

nose and lips

pp

Sucking Thumb. Face on left arm at bottom bent up to lips.

bottom of foot

pp between legs

profile

Profile again

Anniversary Trip

This is me getting to my goal! All in one day. You might not see photos for a while now. These are some pics from our trip to Spain and Gibraltar.. we actually went on "The Rock" too. Maybe if you are lucky I will post those too. Or you can just go to facebook and see them.

Gibraltar AKA The Rock.

I just liked how you could see the purple flowers and the sign

Cool Morish Castle Details

Cool old underground baths at Alcazar

A view of some of the Garden. It went on back and on
to the left behind that wall and to the right, it was HUGE.

View of what was behind the previous photo
Seville view of the Church were
Christopher Columbus is.

Who knows what..

Random fountain in the walkway

Trips and whatnot

When I got pregnant I wanted to keep a log online of things that were happening to me with regards to the baby. Things like what crazy foods I wanted and how I felt about the alien inside me. I also just wanted to write updates as was the point of the blog in the first place. I am obviously bad about it. To update on a few things that have happened in the past few weeks.

I went to visit Josh in DC for his graduation. I got to see my mom and dad and brother Hunter also as well as my moms parents and my uncle Wayne. IT was great! I took a military flight over there. I have written a post on the process of that.. but I have not published it yet since my computer froze while I was writing it and I haven't looked back at it. That might happen soon.

Josh walking across the stage to get his masters

Josh and I after his first ceremony before the second

Josh and Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa Delagardelle

His ticket with a view of the capital in the background

Tony and I took a trip to Seville and Malaga, Spain and Gibraltar to celebrate our two year anniversary/memorial day weekend.

Our first hour in Spain! Waiting for our luggage.

We went to a party this past weekend to celebrate and say good bye to friends who are leaving Germany or leaving their current jobs for new ones. We had it in the parking lot near the lake by our house. This sounds crazy, but its a large field with trees and grass and you can park your camper there too if you have one. So we just pulled out some chairs and our mini grills along with coolers of drinks and had a grand time.

Friday we will be having a sonogram along with finding that we have a healthy baby growing we also hope to find out the sex too. So wish us luck. I hear that babies can be trouble when it comes to this and unless we want to arrange for an off base sonogram and pay for a second sonogram this is our only shot at finding the sex out before birth.