Flying Back.

Sorry that it has taken me a week to finally come to my final “vacation” post. Getting back on our schedule here has been MUCH harder than it was going over. Until Friday I was still waking up between 4 and 5 every morning and barely making it until 8 at night before I was ready to pass out.

BUT, coming home:

My Mom made Green Eggs and Ham for Stu since he had requested it! Hehe... here are Kaden and Stu's breakfasts of green eggs and ham:

Turns out Kaden isn't a huge fan of ham...

Stu enjoyed his though!

Then we of course had to say goodbye to everyone and that is never good. I was doing well until i hugged my sister Maddison who was all done up with hair and make-up and is so grown up now. I have missed so much in the past few years and this little gorgeous adult I was hugging just isn't the baby sister I have in my mind when i think of her. Knowing how much more I was going to miss just set off the water works.

Kaden with his cousin Harrison, Great Aunt Mo, and cousin Hannah

Grandad saying goodbye... I wasn't going anywhere... I just like kissing those fat baby cheeks!

Hanging out with Grandad and Great Uncle Doug before we had to leave.

Getting ready to go...

Pulling Pongo's tail for the last time before we left.

With his Great Nana!

We left for the Spokane airport in plenty of time to make our flight… we split a Quiznos sub while we waited and Kaden ran around and thoroughly explored every corner of the airport. He made friends with a hippy with dreadlocks that was on her cell phone and with another little boy who’s family was going on vacation to Disneyland!

The flight to LA was not as fun as we would have hoped with Kaden screaming a vast majority of the time. The plane we flew there on made a Geo Metro look roomy. They CLAIMED it was a “50 seater” but I’m pretty sure that count is made using drunken midgets instead of normal-sized humans. We did eventually get there, with Kaden having slept some. We had a pizza for lunch at Wolfgang Puck, which seriously had to be the best piece of pizza I’ve ever eaten. So next time you’re stuck at LAX, definitely go get the BBQ Chicken pizza at Wolfgang Puck!

Waiting in LA was nice because we commandeered a section of window space where we could block off both exits so Kaden could play without us chasing him. He learned how to pull himself up on the chairs there.

The spot where our plane would eventually be...

No one likes to travel this far with a baby...

Mastering the chairs!

Kaden started whining about an hour before we boarded because he was more than ready for bed, having missed much of his nap time that day. We did get on… Air France with the completely unhelpful flight attendants who made a huge deal about getting us some water for his bottle before we take off (being a flight attendant, they have to know that babies have trouble with their ears on takeoff and landing… wouldn’t it be common for people to ask for such simple things?) And as if France was continually mocking us, we were seated next to a French couple for the flight all the way to London.

That flight really wasn’t bad… we gave Kaden Benadryl and he slept enough that I got to eat BOTH my meals by myself! It really was nice. Being a French airline we got little loaves of bread with each meal and yummy cheese so I couldn’t complain. I didn’t get much sleep but I got to play hangman!

Flying into London was such a different experience than what we had coming into Paris. London is beautiful and the whole descent I kept looking all around. It was so green! I absolutely want to go back there one day and see more. Before we left, Nana had warned me that the London airport was nothing special. She has apparently never been to Paris. The London airport was fabulous! Haha. It has a waiting area that has more shops than a shopping mall and several restaurants and then when it is time to go to your plane, a screen comes up that tells you where to go. Pretty cool. We ate dinner (breakfast?) at T.G.I. Fridays. I badly wanted to have fish and chips in ENGLAND! But get this, NONE of the restaurants in the airport served them!!!

Me passing time in London while Kaden had a nap.

They have a place called "Additional Seating" where it is much quieter and has large chairs where you can lay down a rest if you want. We set up camp here so Kaden could nap. It was a very pleasant wait.

The one VERY bad thing about London was that their security is controlled by the BAA instead of the FAA… so they have different rules about what can and cannot be carried on a plane. The guy made me open and TASTE every single liquid I had… which included the baby food I was carrying (which was enough for a small army of babies in case we missed a flight somewhere and got stranded). So not only did I learn that Pedialite is DISGUSTING and I understand why Kaden wrinkles his nose and shakes when I try to give it to him, but I also wasted 4 jars of baby food that didn’t end up getting eaten because they had all been open from London! I was none too pleased. Especially after having travelled so far already. BUT, the food was fine and Kaden literally fell asleep sitting up at the high chair which was the funniest thing I have ever seen. So Stu and I enjoyed ourselves. We were very happy to be flying Etihad back to UAE and when we got on the flight we had bulkhead seats to ourselves that were on the window! Yay! This was the most enjoyable part of the whole trip. Kaden slept almost as soon as we got on the plane and Stu and I got to enjoy yet another meal to ourselves and watch part of a movie before going to sleep some. The stewardesses on this flight were more helpful again, which was nice again.

We finally made it home around 8 in the morning Abu Dhabi time. Kaden cried through customs which sucked, but we knew how close we were now. We effortlessly got through customs and got our bags and car and left the airport. Unfortunately it was only 8 in the morning as I said so we had to fight to try to stay up for the day since I heard the worst thing you can to with jet lag is to give in and go to sleep when you’re tired instead of when the sun tells you it is night time. We went to the mall and did some grocery shopping and really tried our hardest to stay awake as long as we could (even watching Finding Nemo) but Kaden and I only made it until 5 PM before I was literally standing up and sleeping. Kaden got back up around 1:30 and we finished the movie and then he was up for good at 3:30 AM. Eventually throughout this week we’ve worked out the sleeping issues. I was still up at 6:30 this morning though and Kaden is still sleeping! Haha.

Anyway, so overall we had a wonderful trip and all Stu keeps talking about is getting back there as soon as possible. We’ve both had a hard time readjusting to being here (America REALLY is SO much better). I miss the happiness of people the most. I guess people here just have less to be happy about as they struggle day in and day out to survive and support their families in another country. Maybe the struggles we face in America aren’t as huge as the ones people face here. But it is still hard to be surrounded by inherent sadness so much of the time… especially in the land of sand where everything is dulled, the grass, the sky, the buildings, by the vast amount of sand being blown around all the time. Needless to say, we are counting down the days...