getaway

This weekend, we were going to go back to the UAE.  The main reason for this was to see this girl:

Shiny & me, Sept 2009

The Green House {let's have a moment of silence, as they tore our house down moments after we moved out!}

{not our best photo}

Shiny was practically our only friend in the UAE, and became a part of our little family.  We did so much together, and she's getting married in March. We would have loved to get back out there to catch up, hear about wedding plans, etc. Plus, I think I had all our meals mapped out for the time we were to be there.

But it wasn't to be. Reality checked in and we realized that time-money-energy is all running short, and it wouldn't be wise to go.  I'm still very sad about that.

Still, we needed a little getaway, a quick little jaunt out of Kijabe.  Dexter took Friday off from work and we went to Mbweha Camp for the night. This is a hotel (? can you call it that?) just outside of Lake Naurku National Park, in a private conservancy.  We spent a few nights in one of their partner places in the Mara during our honeymoon so knew we'd be in for a treat.  {Should you ever be in Kenya, I'd recommend it!}

We left in the wee hours of the morning to get a little game drive through the park in.  

Lake Nakuru

I'll never get tired of this view - even IF the pink flamingos have fled the scene.

When we went in October we didn't see giraffe too closely and as we were talking about that sad truth we stumbled upon these guys!

Dexter was being artistic with Kyalo's stuffed giraffe.  Here he is, looking out at his real counterpart.

After tooling around in the park for a bit we headed to the camp for lunch.  I completely forgot to take pictures of our cute little cottage, or of much else, really. I guess I was too busy relaxing! Even though we didn't do much while we were gone, it really felt like a nice escape.

This morning, before checking out, I wanted to get some photos of me and Dexter with Kyalo (feels like it had been a while), and it was at that moment that our camera's auto-focus decided to stop working {anyone know what we can do about that?}, so I wasn't sure how the photos would turn out. I think we still managed to get some keepers.

There was a little bridge right near our room, and I thought it would be cute to get some pictures there. They didn't turn out quite like I expected - the lighting was wrong (hello shadows) and Kyalo a bit uncooperative (hello squirmy) - but we did okay. 

I love these pictures of Dexter & Kyalo together.  Lots of love passing between these guys.

I also love vacation!