It’s not really a SURPRISE anymore, since we’ve been back for almost a month, but here we are.
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We told everyone that we were flying in on Wednesday, May 13, but, back in January, we bought tickets for Sunday, May 10 – Mother’s Day! 😀 Anthony & I had to constantly remind ourselves not to blurt out our REAL arrival date. See, people, we really CAN keep a secret! 😉
We landed at LAX at 2:30 in the afternoon, and after going through customs, getting our luggage, and picking up our rental car, it was nearly 5:00 pm before we started driving home. We planned to go to my parents’ house first, but they weren’t home… ಠ_ಠ Thankfully, I can always count on my sisters to tag themselves on Facebook, so I Facebook stalked them (by getting WiFi in a Taco Bell parking lot), and we drove over to the restaurant where they were celebrating Mother’s Day with our mom.
We recorded our family’s reactions, and here’s a video compilation from our big reveal:
The first group that you see is my family. They were eating dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Rancho Cucamonga. We stayed with them for a little while before leaving to Anthony’s parents’ house, which thankfully was only about 10 minutes away.
Next, the video shows us at Anthony’s parents’ house. His dad answered the door and, needless to say, was VERY happy to see us! (｡◕‿◕｡)
After that, you see us hiding in the shadows in Anthony’s twin brother’s house. We really spooked him. Poor guy!
Finally, when Anthony’s brother and his wife got to his parents’ house, they saw our luggage in the living room (we didn’t think about that lol) and then they rushed outside to see us. This was also the first time that we got to hold our niece Rilee, who was almost 4 months when we finally met her. ❤
REWIND – ABOUT OUR FLIGHT
This is the route that we took from Dubai to Los Angeles. I took a photo of the map with Arabic writing, but it changed to English right after. 😉
Emirates really is a fantastic airline to fly with. I really appreciate that the planes are so quiet and there’s hardly any turbulence. There are so many movies and TV shows that you can select from too. Unfortunately, I don’t watch anything cause I have to watch Micah, but he loves the little video games that they offer! Emirates gives a little blanket, a stuffed monster, and some extra treats for the kids as well. Our flight was delayed because too many people were being annoying, and it was nice to see how the attendants kept their cool when they had to have wanted nothing more than to snap at the rude customers.
On the plus side, as we were taking off from Dubai, I got a photo of The World islands! It was a foggy morning, but you get the picture. 😉
Our 16-hour flight was way tougher coming back to California than it was going to Dubai. It’s because flying out to Dubai, we leave LA at around 5 pm. Micah’s bedtime is between 7 – 8 pm, and he sleeps about 12 hours – most of the flight! However, flying from Dubai to California, we left at about 9 am. So that’s the whole day that Micah still wants to stay up and play. He’s good at sitting down and concentrating on things but trying to entertain him the whole time definitely made the flight seem longer and more exhausting. But we survived! 🙂
Some more photos from the plane (leaving Dubai):
Rest assured, we won’t surprise everyone again, so next time we come home from Dubai, we really will arrive on the date that we say. This is really something that we can only do once…. we think. 😉
Los Angeles to Dubai 