Sunday

Sunday morning came bright and early for us since we didn't get to bed until after 3:30am and had to be at brunch at noon. We would have been a lot grouchier if we weren't so excited to see Dubai in the daylight. Let's just say over-the-top craziness in every single direction. Honestly, Dubai is like Las Vegas magnified by 100 and there's no gambling to pay for it.
We met up with Taylor's family and Esther's family- the Gubbay's, at the Atlantis Hotel which is at the tip of one of those Palm Tree islands. I forgot to take any pictures since we were so late and so lost finding everyone. We entered at the backside of the main building (I snagged this picture from the internet just so you'd see how crazy it is) and walked to the right all the way to this crazy 3 story aquarium.

And after asking several (10 or 20) workers where the place was we finally called and learned we'd walked the wrong way and had to go all the way back. The aquarium was pretty amazing and worth seeing though. Later that day everyone else went on the water slide there that has a glass part that takes you through the shark tank. We opted to go back and get naps. Boring us.

So this is the Palm Jumeirah Island. There are 2 others of these that we saw and they're building several more. Seriously? You have millions of miles of desert in the Middle East and you need to "build" more land by dumping sand into the ocean? Pretty cool though. And huge. You can barely see the Atlantis hotel in this picture so you know the island is monstrous. Esther's family have a home on the 3rd palm leaf up from the right. Each leaf has a road going down the middle and houses on each side. So everyone's garage's and front doors face the road and then everyone's backyard is private beach front property. Pretty sweet. And if this island weren't crazy enough, the way you get to the hotel at the tip, is through an 8 lane divided tunnel. I mean come on, could you really not just continue the road down the middle of the palm? But no, that would make the aerial photos look not as cool so they built a tunnel, and maybe at somepoint there will be NYC traffic so they made it 4 lanes on each side. Insane!
So we finally made it to brunch and our kids instantly started to melt. Can you blame them? Less than 6 hours of sleep when they normally get over 12 and it was like 95 degrees. And we didn't get the memo that the dress was board shorts and t-shirts so we were all dressed for church basically. So we let Isaac watch a movie at the table and Ethan took our camera and played photographer.
So these are all his pictures. Miles would have liked to eat the camera.

The groom, also a little tired.
Taylor's mom, dad, the Gubbays, etc.
And then Ethan discovered self-portraits. It makes me laugh how tired we all look in these photos. Even Ethan looks like he might pass out if he just laid down.
And of course, the wonderful hide-and-seek eggs. Have you seen these? You close them and push the little button, hide them and then the little rabbit says things like "I'm hiding, come find me." Ethan and Isaac played hide and seek with these eggs in every hotel room, airport lobby, and at almost every dinner. It was great.
And of course if someone else is taking a picture you need to take one of them too.
There's the hotel in the background.
Ethan makes us laugh all the time. He seriously makes friends with someone wherever we go. So brunch was no exception. There was a little boy seated nearby so of course he could be Ethan's friend. They spent most of brunch hunting ants and taking pictures.
Esther's mom, Veronique, was so cute and brought the boys chocolate Easter eggs since it was Easter morning. They were beautiful and the boys devoured them. Okay so Taylor and I helped just a little.
After brunch it was back to the hotel for some much-needed naps. Isaac loved these elevators because of the mirrors and would sit and talk to the other "baby" in the window.
That night there was an open house at the Gubbays. The weather had been stiflingly hot during the day but was absolutely perfect that night. No bugs too. Everyone sat outside on cute sofas and ate good food.
Ethan and Isaac spent most of the night running around on the beach until Isaac discovered these little white rocks. Rock throwing seemed to be a theme for Isaac this trip.

Miles spent the evening being passed around and then Veronique brought out her maid to watch him so that we could have a peaceful evening. How nice was that? This poor mother-of-the-bride had about a million things on her plate to plan and think about but she made sure to have her maid at every function so we'd have help with the kids. Seriously love this woman already!
Those lights are the Atlantis in the background. The black is where the water starts on the beach. Beautiful and perfect is all I can say.
Of course even with a beach and rocks, the boys could only last so long so we brought out the DVD player. Poor little zombies. They really were such good little troopers the whole time.
And Miles enjoyed the maid. Luckily he's not to the stranger stage yet.
All in all a good Sunday. In Dubai, Friday is actually the Sabbath since that's when Muslims celebrate it. Felt kind of weird to just miss a Sabbath but we were in London on Friday and then Dubai on Sunday so somehow it magically disappeared.