Abu Dhabi Memories

Tonight I am speaking to a group of women educators here in Cedar City. Those of you who know me, know I don't like public speaking. When asked to speak of our Abu Dhabi experience, however, I accept. It was such a magical time for our family in such a fabulous part of the world. Many Americans misunderstand the Middle East and Islam. If I didn't share our positive memories and experiences every chance I got I would feel ungrateful.
Now, I've stalled long enough, updating the blog..I'd better go get my thoughts together! Wish me luck.

First Superbowl in 3 years

We've been in Abu Dhabi for the past 3 Superbowls. Not only are we happy to be back to watch the game and the commercials and to feel the superbowl spirit but we have children that are excited about it too.
Jack found some paper plates that have footballs on them over a month ago. We bought them in anticipation of this day and he has not forgotten.
Each child got to choose a treat they wanted to have available during the game..I had requests for Doritos with nacho cheese and Doritos with cool ranch flavor then Charlie requested Cheetos balls and Jack mixed it up by requesting regular Cheetos..It will be a really healthy day at the Cooks!
In addition we have thrown in Twinkies. What would the big game be without Twinkies..the All-American treat? Diet Coke for me and Diet Dr. Pepper for Brad. The kids have Sprite and Capri Sun to choose from. I'm making home made salsa, there are some nuts (for nutrition), Oreos and pizza for dinner.
All the kids were allowed to invite one friend for the party so we will see who shows up.
There are prizes for the one who guesses which team will win the coin toss, which team is ahead at the end of the 1st quarter and half time, etc..
We're trying to make it as much fun as possible because Sarah and JD invited us to a party at their house and we were all disappointed when we decided it was too far to drive for the game on a school night.
The boys are already throwing passes in the basement and loving the pre-game hype on TV.
It should be a great time. I love this cute family of mine!

CHRISTMAS 2009

Our Christmas began with a nice family dinner of prime rib and crab by candle light. We read our family favorite book of Hoshmakaka the camel and his visit to the manger.
Santa visited and the kids awoke at 4am. I have a feeling Santa barely had time to get back up the chimney before the children crept upstairs.
We opened gifts, napped and enjoyed the morning then gathered our stuff and headed north to visit family.

Avery was Baptized on January 2. That capped off our holiday visit and we returned home the next day to get ready to go back to work and school.
We had such a great time being house crashers on our cute family in Lindon and Riverton. Ben and Michelle and Cory and Angie were so great to open their homes to the 6 of us and the chaos that naturally follows. The kids had such a great time hanging out with cousins and playing with all the gifts and toys.
Uncle Ben was great to play Rock Band with the kids. He really made it fun for the kids and Michelle and I had a great time watching him be one of the kids.
Fresh snow is just what we all wanted after spending the last 3 Christmas' in the desert. There were snowball fights and tubing adventures.
I loved getting reacquainted with my holiday tradition of cracking fresh Dungeoness Crabs while watching Football Bowl games.
Brad and his siblings and their wives were awesome to step in and manage things while I spent time in Logan with Mom, Dad and my siblings taking care of Mom and helping Dad through the trauma and shock of a double mastectomy that surprised all of us when Uncle Gary found a tumor in Mom's mammogram just before the holiday. Mom and Dad spent Christmas in the hospital and returned to their own home on the 26th. Mom's recovery is going well and has seemed to be ahead of the doctors predictions. Thank goodness we have had Gary and his expertise to track all of us as in breast cancer awareness. His retirement on Christmas Day was inspired as Mom was motivated to get her mammogram before he retired and took a much deserved vacation to New Zealand.
Christmas night brought the traditional Nativity and dinner at Brad's parent's home. His father was suffering from terrible back pain which lead to surgery later the following week.
Over all we had a great holiday season. Thankful for family, good health and the ability to spend time with loved ones. We are happy to be back in the state of Utah and a short drive to all these great people that mean so much to us.

Snowballs, Snowmen, Tubing and fun with cousins met all of our expectations. The weather cooperated with fresh snow for the fun. Brad's Dad had back surgery the week following Christmas so it was nice to be close enough to be there for him as well.

From real acoustic guitars to Madden 10 (artificial football) Christmas brought all kinds of fun. We visited Ben and Michelle and their family where we enjoyed Rock Band with Uncle Ben. Then we headed north to stay with Cory and Angie where we built a snowman and went tubing. Family time is what the holidays are all about.
The Kerr Clan spent family time helping Bobbi (mom) recover from an impromptu mastectomy. Not what we would have planned as a holiday gathering but we were all sure glad to be together and to be available to lend support to her and Dad.

Fernando the Christmas Elf Leaves Great Surprises

Fernando has not disappointed in his nightly visits..The first night he left a slinky for each child along with some candy. The next night he left tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet...(Photo of Charlie dressed in his Christmas Sweater to go the Nutcracker). Last night he left coloring books and bags of coal. (The coal was bubble gum so not bad, huh...)

Meet Fernando, The Cook Christmas Elf

This is Fernando. Tonight, being December 1st, the kids all put a little fairy dust/elf dust/glitter on their hands and on the count of 3 blew it into Fernando's face. Through the magic of Christmas the glitter will allow Fernando to awaken every night from now until Christmas to do something either naughty or nice in our home. He won't wake up until we are all fast asleep and if it gets too late he gets tired of waiting and the likelihood of "something naughty" increases.
Some nights he will leave wonderful little treats or rewards for our family to wake up to. Other nights we may wake up to something not so nice.
Fernando also has relatives that work with Santa in the North Pole and he keeps in close contact about the Christmas spirit in our home and whether or not we deserve a visit on Christmas Eve. We look forward to waking up tomorrow morning to see what Fernando has done with his first night of freedom...We'll keep you posted.

H1N1 Vaccinations for the 3 Youngest

Stanford 45 - Notre Dame 38

It's always been a treat to return to Stanford and walk the beautiful campus. Brad enjoys recalling experiences that took place in his life there. He has great memories of his time playing football for Stanford in 1986-87. The campus is amazing and has a sense of tradition and history. The beautiful sandstone arches and Hoover Tower are so impressive.
This year Michael and Debi Benson invited us to go see the final season game, Stanford vs. Notre Dame. We jumped at the chance and loved every minute of the two night get-a-way.
Stanford has a new stadium, built the first year we were in Abu Dhabi so we loved seeing the incredible structure. It seats half the number of people as the previous stadium and gives all in attendance a much better view of the game.
Our seats were great. We sat on the 20 yard line behind the Notre Dame team only 4 rows up!
We could hear the clash of the helmets and the calls of the quarterback. It was awesome.
The game didn't disappoint. Notre Dame made a great showing. Giving Stanford a run for their money until the second half when the Cardinal came alive and thanks to amazing play by Gerhart, Stanford made and exciting come-back to win, 45-38.
(By the way..How is it fare that Dr. Hotpants looks better NOW than he did when he played there over 20 years ago??)

The 4 of us with Hoover Tower (faintly) in the background.



After the game everyone rushed onto the field to celebrate and congratulate Gerhart for breaking all kinds of records.

Timing worked out that we were able to see Sargon, Habib, Tammy, and Sargon's Father, Ron. What a treat. With Sargon and Habib in Afghanistan we have spent Thanksgiving/Christmas with them in Abu Dhabi. We never dreamed we might get to see them here in the US on the same weekend this year. The weekend before Thanksgiving Habib was honored by CENTCOM for his contributions to the US military in Afghanistan. After receiving this prestigious award in D.C. Habib got to see a lot of the US on his first visit to this country. He saw Florida, Las Vegas and the Bay area.

Veteran's Day Presentation 2009

Jack and Charlie were so cute when they presented Grandpa John's framed medals and awards from his military service. The class had a lot of questions and the boys had a lot of interesting and REALLY imaginative explanations for how he got each award. Only a few of which were true or even possible. Luckily I was there to correct the answers such as: "He got this award for running a man through with a sword..." "He got this medal for shooting a man from a helicopter."...

We Give Thanks for Each Other!

Our blessings are too numerous to count. It's easy to be grateful for each other and our happy, healthy family. We also give thanks for the experiences we have enjoyed together through our lives. Abu Dhabi is close to our hearts and we give thanks for the opportunity we had to share that unique experience. Now we find ourselves in another beautiful part of the world.
We hiked through Zions National Park on Sunday and took a few pictures.
I am so thankful for this cute family I am blessed with. So thankful for a loving, understanding, patient husband who is an incredible partner and an amazing father. Our children are a constant joy and source of entertainment. They are growing so fast and I am beginning to realize we won't have them in our home forever. Hopefully they will always want to spend time with us and together. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our loved ones all over the world.

Sam's First Shiner

Sam was hit in the eye with a football. He officially has his first black eye! I'm so proud...so is he!

Halloween Memories

Happy Halloween

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SNOW HAPPY!

When they arrived home from school the kids were so excited to have seen snow. They didn't mind there wasn't much left on the ground, they went right out and started making little snowballs to throw at each other. Sam has been sick for over 2 weeks now. (No, not the Swine Flu) Some unknown virus has taken it's toll on him so he didn't join in the reverie. The other 3 had a great time though.

At the time the sun was out and it appeared the storm had passed. Now, though, it is blustery and stormy again so there is bound to be more fun later. Off to make hot cocoa and toast..

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

First Snow

Today we experienced the first snow of 2009. Granted we have seen snow at Ski Dubai but this was actual precipitation falling from the sky..or rather flying sideways. I had mixed emotions. It was nice to be home, cleaning the house and having a fire in the fireplace but to go out for errands was brutal. By 3pm the sun was out and was melting any accumulation. Just a warning of things to come I suppose.

Southern Utah University (who we now cheer for) played Utah State University (who I cheered for as a student there and through my childhood) in Logan. We took the family and spent a night with cousins in Riverton then on to Logan to see Bobbi, Grandpa John, Sarah, Bergen, JD and the FOOTBALL GAME.

The weather was perfect for an evening of football. The game was exciting with great back and forth offensive plays with SUU doing a good job of keeping up with the Aggies. Toward the end the Ag's ran away with it but we all had a fabulous time and enjoyed the atmosphere with popcorn, snowcones and soda.

Half-time was a great opportunity for the kids and Brad to play hot potato with the football the boys take with them EVERYWHERE.

Cairo looked so cute on Friday as she left for school. I just had to catch a quick photo of her in this great little outfit we got for a school year that will include colder weather.

Eastern Sunset...

The sunsets here are spectacular. However, as I looked off our east deck the other night I noticed the sunset was creating a beautiful view of the eastern mountains as well. Amazing.

Sam's Tackle on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1BZjYb2TLk

Sam Makes a Tackle

Sam actually got to play in a game on Saturday morning. Sam, Jack, Charlie and I took off headed straight west into Nevada to a small town called Panaca. It took about an hour and a half to get there but it was a beautiful fall day and I had my 3 boys who are

football crazy

in the car.

There was nowhere else I'd rather be.

(Brad stayed home with Cairo because she had her first tennis lesson that same morning.)

Sam was put in the game playing several different positions, just trying to get a feel for the plays and field positions.

In this video you will see him make the first tackle of his career.

He is easy to spot because he is the only guy on the team with a gold helmet.

Sam is so happy to be playing football. He looks so grown up in that uniform. I cannot believe he goes out there and crashes into other bigger boys and comes off the field smiling.

Wednesday Night Lights

The boys have officially started their football season. Brad coaches Jack and Charlie and their 1st and 2nd grade flag-football team.

Jack scored his first touchdown last night in the game. The play went off just as the coach had designed it. I was so proud and shocked to see scrappy Jack with the ball tucked under his arm running like crazy, the right direction and crossing the goal line. What a night. Charlie is a great defensive player and is great at returning kicks. He got a few punt returns that wound up gaining yards for the team.

Brad and Charlie helped out with the chains at Sam's game after the flag-football game. There was so much support for this 5th-6th grade football game. The parents all pitch in to make it happen.

The boys getting ready for their big night. Putting on their shoes. NO cleats in the house..

Charlie loves to wear Sam's helmet.

Sam's First Football Game

Wednesday night lights in Cedar City. Because Sam joined the team late and is still learning the plays he wasn't played in this game. He supported his team. Helped with the chains and learned the plays so hopefully he can play in the next game on Saturday.

Girl's Weekend at the St. Regis at Dana Point

The View from our room...Ahhhh palm trees. I didn't realize how much I was missing them until I saw them. They gave me a tug back to Abu Dhabi. But I was home. With some of my favorite women, my Mom and sisters. I needed to feel the sand, the sun and to see those palms.

Barb's ideal vacation breakfast. A danish from the hotel bakery and good Diet Coke.

The Sand, the Sun...and Trader Joes for lunch. We couldn't ask for more.

Sarah and Bergen

(who got to join her Mom on the weekend due to her great behavior and youth.)

Eating, another of our favorite things to due on vacation.