Dubai Visitors! Sarah & Ben

Technically, this post should fall under the category of "early adventures of Baby L". I didn't label it this way since for some of our adventures with Sarah & Ben, Baby L actually stayed home with her nanny, Miss J, because travelling with her is not always the easiest.

The last time I saw Sarah and Ben was at their wedding last year in April. G had seen them more recently because he went to Houston to pack up the house. We were so happy to see them and looking forward to the week hanging out!  Their flight arrived late on Thursday night, so unfortunately, Baby L was already fast asleep by the time we got home. The good news is Baby L is like clockwork, so they got to see her bright and early at 5:30am the next morning!  In this case, jet lag for them wasn't so bad!

Auntie love!!!

As a side note here, just after we got back from Vietnam, we bought Baby L a Baby Einstein activity jumper. Holy cow, she loves that thing. There is no thought for stepping, crawling, only jumping. At night, pre-jumper, she used to kick me with alternating legs. Now, post-jumper, she kicks me with both legs at the same time as if she is jumping in her jumper. She is also reaching for things, and her facial expressions are priceless. Here is one of my favorite videos that G sent me while I was at work.

Hop hop hop! Give me the soda can!!!

Anyway, back to Sarah & Ben. They brought Baby L tons of goodies from her Mimi and Granddad's church as well as missing parts for Baby L's dresser. Apparently, Graco Storkcraft sent the exact same WRONG parts, and Sarah & Ben unknowingly dragged them halfway around the world! Fortunately, Ben is very mechanically inclined, and he took all the wrong parts and magically assembled the dresser anyway. The day was saved! Thanks Ben!!!

Baby L's nursery is now complete! And a whole section of her closet is now free, thanks to Ben!

Later that day, we went out to Friday brunch at Tribeca, a nearby restaurant that had gluten free menu options for Sarah.  The food was ok, and the unlimited drinks were a little disappointing - the only beer they had available was Budweiser, so none of us drank much. G wasn't even drunk when we left (unlike that one time at the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi...) The food was ok, though I don't think G and I will be going back unless it's a stop on a pub crawl.

On Saturday the whole family ventured to Mall of the Emirates for lunch. Sarah and Ben were still struggling from jet lag, so we didn't explore the mall much - we headed back home for a relaxing afternoon.

Sunday, Miss J stayed with Baby L while we went on a desert safari. G and I had yet to do one of these since I had so much trouble with motion sickness while I was pregnant. We figured now that Baby L is almost 6 months old, we could leave her for several hours and be ok (which, it was totally ok!). We booked with an Emirati company called Platinum Heritage, and the expense was well worth it. We were picked up in a Range Rover and were driven to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. 

G and I in the scarves provided by the tour company

We saw a surprisingly large amount of wildlife, from gerbils to gazelles to the beautiful oryx pictured above. After bumming around the desert and taking pictures, we had breakfast at the 5-star Al Maha Resort. The views were stunning and the food was delicious!

Arabian Oryx at the reserve

Our driver and guide saw that we were interested in the classic land rovers, so he also took us on a super quick 5-minute ride in one. It wasn't a part of our tour package, and it was so fun!!!

Old school class land rover! Noisy and smelly, and a ton of fun!

That night we went out to dinner at Gourmet by KCal at the Le Meridian hotel. It is a gluten-free restaurant, and they had delicious gluten-free pizzas and desserts. 

Monday we explored the gold and spice souqs in an area of old Dubai called Deira. The gold souq was as fabulous as it sounds, you can buy anything from the simplest gold bangle to the most ostentatious gold bib necklace. The gold shops were very nice and enclosed, and just outside them were hawkers trying to sell their trinkets (anyone want a pashmina scarf? how about a faux-lex Rolex?). The spice souq was a little disappointing - while yes, there were spices, the vendors all pretty much had the same bins of spices. I think we were expecting a bit more variety.

Tuesday was Ben and Sarah's last day, and we wrapped up their stay in Dubai with the big finale - the Burj Khalifa! 

Whole family at Burj Khalifa observation deck, including #grumpybaby

After our tour of the Burj Khalifa, the worlds tallest tower, we had a brunch and then explored Dubai Mall. One of Sarah's friends in Houston loves TWG Tea, so we stopped and picked a few boxes. We also purchased some more footie pajamas for Baby L since she's grown out of almost all of her current ones! She was, of course, asleep for most of this.

Baby L, fast asleep, as we explore Dubai Mall.

The metro ride home seemed longer than the ride there, I think because the metro was so crowded. There were three strollers in the women & children's cabin, and we had to frequently remind men trying to hop onto the cabin that it was for women & children only. After a few stops, the train was a little less crowded, and Baby L started hamming it up for the other passengers (as usual). She was fussy again by the end, so I took her out of the stroller to watch the buildings zoom past the window.

I like to eat my feet!

We finished the night at a restaurant called Scene that has a stunning view of the Marina (wish I'd taken a picture!).  We are so thankful that Sarah & Ben could make the time to visit us, and we can't wait to see them again!