Tuesday (a really looong Tuesday)

Tuesday ended up being our only real "vacation" day of the whole trip. Every other day was filled either with traveling or with wedding events (or naps/recovery for our poor kids). It was nice to have one day to just relax and see some things. Ethan wanted to go to a children's museum but we compromised and instead agreed to go to the Salt Lake Children's museum and the aquarium and the zoo once we got back. Plus we agreed to rent them a little car stroller. And Ethan will do just about anything for one of those. So off we went to the larger mall in the world, and we weren't disappointed. Just a random monster light LCD screen to walk across. Why not? That seems to be Dubai's theme: Why not?
And why not add a 4 story waterfall complete with metal diving men sculptures? Why not? And let's just make 2 different ones for fun too.
And even though it's the desert why not add an ice skating rink to the mall? Why not?
And while we're at it, why not have a giant rotunda filled with paintings of the ruling shiek? Why not?
And since there's some dead space in the middle of the mall let's just build a whole hidden jewelry and gold market.
And around every corner let's build fountains and sculptures. Why not?
And more fountains and more ambience. Why not?
And let's add amazing tilework. Why not?
And let's for sure build a star room with gorgeous light things. Why not?
And we maybe need just one more giant rotunda. Why not?
And we absolutely need a 3 story aquarium where we can build a glass tunnel through it and let people pay to scuba dive inside it (since there's not an ocean anywhere near the mall- yeah right) and feed sharks. Why not?
And since this is Dubai we definitely need to build the tallest building in the world.
And let's make it so tall that you'll have to take 2 pictures of it just to fit it all in. And at the bottom of the tallest building in the world let's build the largest fountain (ie lake since it's so large) in the world.
And let's surround this world's largest mall and largest fountain and largest building with amazing buildings that will make architects the world over drool. And let's do all this just because we can. Why not?
That's the tallest building in the world on the left. It completely dwarfs everything else. This view is like 2 miles away from the building. It makes me laugh how quickly you go from skyscrapers to bare desert.
Another view as we were driving. It is pretty impressive to see.
After our mall trip we went back for naps and packed up to leave. Our flight left Dubai at 10:30pm. After a very frustrating attempt at returning the rental car (absolutely no signs pointing you where to go and we ended up driving the wrong way on a one-way road because we just couldn't figure out how to get there) we finally got into the airport.
The first thing that greeted us was a passport check followed by a line to go through the metal detectors- WITH all our luggage. After that we checked in where they checked our passports AGAIN. Then we went through ANOTHER passport check followed by regular security. Once we got to our gate we went through another passport check followed by another metal detector AGAIN and a personal pat-down (they even took the ladies into a separate room so it was a private pat-down) followed by a person checking every item in our carry-ons and also checking our shoes by hand. It was good we were there 3 hours ahead of time for all that. So we should all feel safe about flights incoming from Dubai. They take their security very seriously.
We were given the bulkhead for this flight and were even luckier to get the bulkhead behind Business class so it was quiet the whole time (no bathrooms or kitchen) and no one was really walking past us since business class goes forward to first class. So our area ended up being quiet and dark for most of the 15 1/2 hour flight and amazingly the time flew. Ethan and Isaac alternated taking 2-3 hour naps with watching cartoon movies. They both slept in their seats part of the time and part of the time on the floor. Miles was a champ and slept for 10 straight hours in his bassinet! 10 STRAIGHT!!! He wins the prize for best traveler. So the longest flight wasn't that terrible- even if our Tuesday had 34 hours instead of just 24 (Dubai is 10 hours ahead of Salt Lake so we picked up all those hours on our way back).
We arrived in Atlanta a little out of it but feeling very blessed for how well our kids slept. We headed to customs thinking we'd be through in no time (customs in London took 10 minutes, Dubai just 5 minutes) and then we stood in the queue for an hour and 20 minutes. Not a problem... except we only had 1 hour and 45 minutes for our layover. When we FINALLY got through customs we ran. Literally this was the first time in my life I have RUN through an airport. And I'm sure we were quite the sight. Me running while pushing a stroller with Miles inside and Isaac riding backwards on the front. Taylor dragging/carrying all our carry-ons. And both of us yelling at Ethan to run. Poor thing ran and cried the whole time and just kept saying "I just want to sit down". We found all our bags, got them re-checked, made it through security again and all the way to our gate in just 22 minutes.
We got to the gate and couldn't believe they were still there. We boarded as they closed the door and we started taxying out. We were still unpacking bags and trying to settle our crying, begging for food and water children into their seats. That's when Taylor discovered baby poo all over his hand. Apparently Miles decided to explode during customs. We tried to wipe what we could there, and then tried to just hold him standing up for take-off. A kind stewardess recognized/smelled the problem and let us run to the bathroom to change him. They even stopped the plane which was good since there was again no changing table so poo ended up covering every surface of the bathroom while I tried to hold legs, prop head on the toilet seat cover, strip the child and wipe him and the bathroom down. But we made it and 3 hours later we were home. Blessed home! And just to welcome us... there was snow on the ground. Amazingly our bags arrived with us and we made it safely home. Ate McDonald's (our bribe to get Ethan to not just lay down and sleep on the floor of the airport in Atlanta) and went to bed.
We survived. We're glad we went. We know it meant a lot to our family and we're grateful for all the small and large miracles that made the trip possible. We're grateful for how understanding our kids were and what good sports they were. And we're glad it's over and we don't think we'll ever have to do it again. Halfway around the world and back in almost exactly 7 days. We left Wednesday at 9:50am and got back Wednesday at 10:15am. What a trip!