Friday, April 10, 2009

Paul & Janie's Wedding, through the eyes of Dylan.

Cousin Paul is one of Rachel's favourite people in the world.


She still fondly remembers him and Ben driving 100 miles across America to find a new motel because she didn't like the cheese sandwiches in the first one.

And Paul has finally found someone worthy to become one-of-Rachel's-favourite-people-in-the-world-in-law. Lovely Janie.


So, we were delighted to be invited to their wedding.

But then, of course, we had to make the big decision....
Who would be in charge of taking the pictures?

Rachel hates cameras, always has and always will. Mark, in contrast, lurrrrrrrrves cameras, but does not like to be the person taking the picture, because then he isn't in them.

Fortunately, the solution was right in front of us.
Prancing about like a monkey...



We had only been at the wedding for 3 minutes and Dylan was already causing trouble. He needed distraction. So he was swiftly crowned 'unofficial wedding photographer' and instructed to take pictures of the 'most important things' at the wedding...

So here is Paul and Janie's wedding through the eyes of Dylan, who has kindly supplied his own captions:


A big, funny man. I like him.



A funny lady that wants a kiss.

Jody being rude. Look. Naughty.


That's you, mummy. You're very happy.



Musical statues. Yay.



That's Paul and Janie. But I don't know where their heads is.



Oh, good, there's their heads.


I don't know what's this. What's this, mummy?

(we suspect this is from the 'missing twenty minutes' when we lost Dylan. Thank you to whoever the hand belongs to, as they probably saved the rest of the guests from a foam party)



That's a door. But it was locked.



That's where the apple juice is



That's my chair. But it wasn't round that way.


That's where I spilt my apple juice.



That's the apple juice man.



That's Jody dancing.


I think that's me dancing. I'm a good dancer aren't I?

And for those of you who prefer the romance. Here are a couple of pictures from the official photographer. Altogether now, 'Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...'






























Sunday, April 5, 2009

Struck by lightning... And jet lag

The time had come for a trip back to the UK. So we ransacked the house in search of cardigans, coats and other crap-weather items.








The trip began brilliantly. BA had forgotten to update their database, so they treated us splendidly in the mistaken belief that Mark was still a gold card holder. We got to sit in their nice lounge, drinking nice tea and eating nice cakes while our not-so-nice children irritated all the genuine gold card passengers.



In recognition of our gold-liness, they also sent a buggy, and Jody schmoozed the driver into letting her drive it to the departure gate, which made the airport a far more exciting place for everyone.




And, as if that wasn't already enough to make a great holiday, the weather was pretty nice - as demonstrated in this picture of Mark pretending to like mum's cat.



We gave the kids an early Easter hunt. Partly because they have no idea when Easter is supposed to be. Partly because they don't really understand what Easter means:



Rachel: So what are we celebrating on Good Friday?

Dylan: Me being good.



Partly because it meant they could share it with cousin (The Hat) Harriet. And partly because an Easter hunt in a garden that is largely made up of swimming pool would probably require scuba equipment.


Jody very kindly helped little Harriet find her eggs.


Dylan didn't.



When the time came to go back to Dubai, we told mum that she wouldn't need to bring any jumpers as the weather would be fantastic.



We arrived back to find we had missed a week of torrential downpours, violent lightning strikes, and blinding sandstorms (bear in mind the buildings in the picture are over 50 floors tall)



While the news had reported the lightning strikes on the Burj (tallest building in the world), they had failed to report the attack on our umbrella and trampoline (tallest structures in our garden).




So we arrived home to a pool full of sand, a house full of water and several charred remains in the back garden.



In all the excitement, Dylan decided he wasn't tired and wanted the light left on in his room at bedtime so he could put himself to bed when the time was right.



He obviously realised a bit too late that that time had come...