The Winds of Change .....

The Winds of Change

As suspected, the length of time between blog updates continues to grow.  At the end of our last update Michelle and the kids had just returned from their summer vacation and everyone was settling back into routines as normal.  In terms of highlights from the fall…there isn’t much that sticks out to be honest.  We spent a fabulous long weekend in September in Bahrain with some of our good friends.  We made another quick trip there in December to make sure that our visas were activated properly before leaving at Christmas.  There are a lot of expat horror stories surrounding visas so we didn’t want to take a chance.

A major focus of our time this past fall was on training for the WDW ½ marathon.  Every Saturday both Michelle and I would do our “long runs” which would pretty much occupied the better part of our day.  Personally, I really don’t enjoy running.  I never have and I don’t think I ever will.  The last thing that I wanted to do on a Saturday morning was to go and run multiple laps around our little community.  I see these people who go out and effortlessly bound like they’re part gazelle.  I have a fair amount of disdain for these types of people.  While they may look like a graceful animal of the Serengeti I more resemble the African rhino.  I may not look graceful but I’m faster than I look and you sure as heck don’t want to be anywhere near me while plodding through the miles.  All of that being said...every single mile of training was worth it in the end.  Neither Michelle nor I can put our finger on it but there is just something special about running an actual race especially at Disney World.  One of the best parts was having Michelle’s folks fly down and meet us.  Always nice to be with family especially when we live as far apart as we do.

The WDW Marathon weekend is the first weekend in January every year and it’s more than just a weekend.  It runs from Wednesday to Sunday.  Wednesday is the first day of the “expo” and the day that everyone needs to go and pick up their race packets.  This was organized chaos at best.  It’s hard to describe but the main purpose is to go and pick up your bibs for each race.  Basically, the expo is spread out through Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex and pretty much everyone had to go through 2-3 buildings to pick up all of their stuff.  5k and 10k bibs were in one building; kids race bibs were in another building.  The worst by far was the building where vendors could come and sell all of their race gadgets.  Unfortunately for us this was the same building that we needed to get to in order to pick up our ½ marathon bibs.  I swear the training up to this event wasn’t meant for the race itself but for bib pickup.  I literally put in 7500 steps in this process alone.  Anyways, back to the vendors selling race gadgets…these running people are intense.  There is every tool, gel, bar, bean, shirt, fanny pack, shoe, tape, skirt, sock, tights, headphones, water bottles, etc, etc, etc under the planet at this place.  If it wasn’t bolted to the floor people were buying it.  I’ve even heard of fights breaking out over so-called “limited edition” jackets.  We all know that Disney people (ourselves included) are slightly crazy and borderline strange.  We get it and we embrace it.  However, when you combine this with a pile of people who are still coming off their “runners high” from a week ago and then utter the words “limited edition” hell hath no fury compared to the mayhem that follows.  If you’re ever wanting a great people watching experience just head to this expo.  You won’t be disappointed.  That being said both Michelle and I now have a pair of 2017 “limited edition” New Balance runDisney running shoes.

Thursday I ran my 5k at Epcot (Medal #1) and the kids ran their races at Wide World of Sports (Medals 2, 3, 4).  Friday Michelle ran her 10k at Epcot (Medal #5).  Saturday was the half marathon.  The event we had been training for.  The run that Michelle started training for 11 months out….

As you may know via our Facebook posts, the ½ marathon itself was cancelled due to the threat of extreme weather.  I get why they cancelled it and definitely err on the side of caution but it still sucked.  However, Michelle got up the morning that it was supposed to happen, put on her running gear (socks, tights, fanny pack, jelly beans, water bottles, head phones, etc, etc, etc) and ran her own half marathon at our resort.  She ran from Boardwalk to Epcot to Beach Club to Yacht Club to Boardwalk to Hollywood Studios and back to Boardwalk.  I don’t know how many times she did this circuit but it had to have been 5 or 6.  Regardless she is an absolute trooper and certainly earned her medal (#6). 

As soon as Michelle finished her race we jumped into the rental van, drove to Port Canaveral and hopped on the Disney Fantasy.  Feeling guilty the next morning I decided that I should probably do my ½ marathon as well.  33 laps around deck 4 on the Fantasy in 10ft seas was interesting.  That’s one way to get your sea legs I guess.  I even had my own personal port-side cheering squad which was pretty cool and made the final 10 laps a lot easier.  Cruise director Natalie also heard that there was some idiot running around on deck 4 and she greeted me with a Disney Cruise Line Medal (#7).  Not as nice as my half marathon medal (#8) but a great keepsake.  The cruise itself was amazing as always.  Disney really knows how to do it right.  Michelle also signed up for this thing called Fish Extender.  I don’t have a clue where the name came from but I do know that it took a lot of work and I heard about it NON-STOP for 3 months.  Basically, you hang a thingy on your stateroom door that has pockets for each member of your family/party.  There are 10 staterooms per group and we had to go and hand out gifts to each of the other 9 staterooms in our group.  We made a dedicated trip to the Khobar souk to pick up a bunch of Saudi tourist knick-knacks to give to these people.  Kids loved doing this and loved checking their pockets every time we came back to the room.  Just like the run – it may have been a painful process but it was worth it in the end.

During the cruise we stopped at Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Jamaica.  Cozumel was alright but a bit dirty/sleazy.  Did a bit of shopping and met a Mexican from Red Deer strangely enough.  We were walking past a store and buddy on the street was trying to get us to come in.  Being Canadian we politely said “no thank-you” and kept walking.  Buddy saw my Canada tattoo on my calf and said (use your inner Mexican accent) “hey vato, nice tattoo, where you from bro?”.  I turned around, shocked, and said “Alberta” and kept walking.  He says (again, Mexican accent) “no way bro, I’m from Red Deer, come try some tequila”.  Michelle and I started laughing, politely said no thanks and continued walking.  We got to the end of the street and decided to turn around and head back to the boat.  Rather than walk the store front gauntlet again we opted for the other side of the road near the beach.  Sure enough, my new buddy from Red Deer spotted me again and says “hey Alberta, it’s real good tequila, give you real good price bro”.  I gave him a smile and wave and continued walking.  Can’t knock a guy for trying I suppose. 

Next day was Grand Cayman which was fantastic.  We really love this island.  Nice people, beautiful beaches, nice shopping, good food, great rum cakes.  Perfect.  Bloody expensive though.  Initially we were going to grab a taxi to a little known swimming spot called Smith Cove but the seas were a bit rough so we ditched the kids in kids club on the boat and had an adults only outing.  Nice and relaxing.

The following day was Star Wars Day at Sea.  Long story short – Disney running people don’t even hold a candle to the Disney Star Wars people.  This is a whole new level of obsession.  Kids got to do Jedi Training and also met a bunch of characters.  Was a pretty awesome day.

Jamaica was the next day and we briefly got off the boat to do a bit of port shopping.  A couple of the life guards that I came to know well used to work for Beaches Ocho Rios (or something like that) and told me that in order to really see Jamaica we needed to get to the other side of the island.  This was about 45 minutes to an hour away but, no problem mon, they have good friends that could get us there safely.  We declined the offer and enjoyed the empty boat.

Our last day on the cruise was a stop at Castaway Cay; Disney’s private island.  On our last cruise the seas were too rough to get us in there which was a big disappointment.  This time we got in and had an amazing day on the beach.  Got medals (#9 & #10) too by running the Castaway Cay 5k.  A week’s worth of cruise food definitely didn’t help my finishing time.

The next day we got off the boat and spent another 3 fantastic days in Disney World with Michelle’s folks before boarding the plane back to Sand Land.  This time we chose to fly with Emirates direct from Dubai.  It was a great choice other than the check-in experience in Orlando.  We just about missed our flight because of a nimrod check-in agent.  It’s a long story that I’ll spare you from.  Heck, if you’ve even made it this far you deserve a medal (did I mention that we have a few?).  We got back to Dammam and lo and behold we were missing Michelle’s bag.  We have the worst luck when it comes to baggage lately.  Fortunately, it ended up arriving the next day.  I blame the aforementioned nimrod for this.  Unfortunately, Emirates no longer delivers to Udhailiyah so I had to drive back to the airport and pick it up.  They have a Tim Hortons there though so it wasn’t all bad.  Still shouldn’t have to drive 4 hours round trip to pick up a bag that should have been on the plane in the first place or delivered when they screwed up.

 

Ah now back to reality…everyone got back into the groove alright.  Kids all came down with a nasty cold bug soon after coming back but that’s what happens when you live in a petri dish.  Work has been busy as always but that’s alright.  I’m not going to lie…outside of the amazing vacations we are able to take by living here life is a grind.  Being away from family is increasingly difficult and our oldest is having some struggles with anxiety and depression.  Our best friends have just moved to main camp which is almost 2 hours away.  The Tracey Family has always been very self-sufficient and rarely imposes on anyone so we have only ever really needed each other.  That being said we are starting to feel very alone in our little oasis in the middle of nowhere.  The problem is that the saying “just another reason” has found its way into our vocabulary lately.

Here is an example – ran out of protein powder, went to put in an order, cannot ship to Sand Land any more.  Message my friend who works 28/28 here, he goes and buys what I need in Edmonton, flies into Sand Land, hands package off to another buddy who’s rig is somewhat close by.  5 hours round trip to pick up protein.  Next day Michelle has specialist doctor appointment.  Leave rig at 6am, drive 1 hour back to UDH then 1.75 hours to main camp, see doctor for 15 minutes, drive 1.75 hours back to UDH, drop off family (had to take kids out of school as we are proudly nanny-free), drive 1 hour back to rig, finish job, drive 1 hour home.  Now if Michelle was allowed to drive she could have easily taken herself, I could have handled the kids and it wouldn’t have been a big deal…”just another reason”.

 Here’s to hoping that the oil price stabilizes and that the Alberta provincial and Canadian federal government quit screwing around to do something to helping the Canadian oil & gas industry.  The number of “reasons” are starting to stack up here for the Tracey family. With saying that we are going to  keep moving forward as any family with little people does , going to soccer, swimming ,golf and planning more Vacations.    Just wait and see when the next adventure will begin. 

Now for some shameless Blogg photo's .

Castaway Kay , Aka Disney island 

This is hands down our favourite place in the world , no matter what is going on this day is always perfect and this trip did not disappoint.  

People always ask don't we get tired of doing Disney all of the time , and of course our answer is NO.  The time and memories we make here are always going to be with us and now a days we find our self watching/experiencing the attractions through the eye of the kids .Littlerly watching them enjoy it all.  And we all get to act like kids to.

The is one of our home away from home , Disney animals kingdom lodge. Coming from the land of sand during Dec and entering the lobby full of Christmas joy brought joy to everyones Hearts when we got there. You will never truly understand what that feeling is like until you have lived it. Words do not describe beside feeling like a fog has been lifted from your world.  

no words needed , there was a lot of Star Wars this trip......COOLness 

My husband is amazing! Half the joy of our travels are the picture we get to enjoy after

Kids races for race weekend were a big hit~! We were so proud of the kids the busted it!!