It's been a busy week in our world! Where to start?

Last Thursday, Ben, Wesley and I got up reeeeally early, loaded ourselves into the car and drove to the Amsterdam airport. We had two purposes...

First:


And then, after meeting my parents (and Wes meeting Gamma and Papa), they all got back in the car, and I got on a plane to Ohio. Like I said, we were busy. I know many many people think I'm crazy for traveling back to the states mere weeks after Wesley was born, but I had to because Jessica (my best friend) was getting married! I couldn't miss that for anything! She's been my best friend for almost 20 years, and I was the matron of honor, so I had to be there. Plus, a trip to the U.S., even a short one, means I get to make a visit to Target. Sweet Target, my home away from home, the happiest place on earth. That alone was worth the trip.

But even better than Target was seeing Jessica, and being there for the wedding.

Helping the bride get ready


The happy couple


There was cake!


And dancing!


And chocolate martinis at a bar afterwards so Jessica could milk the wedding dress attention as long as possible!

See my big smile in all the pictures? I had fun. And it was so good to see Jessica. And to finally meet Doug, who is great and I'm glad Jessica married him. I had such a great time, it almost makes me wish I lived in Columbus. Almost, but not quite. Too bad it's not in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, back in the Nederland, Gamma and Papa got to hang out with the baby, help Ben with stuff around the house (don't be jealous!), and even get out and see a couple things. They made a trip to our market and bought more fruits and vegetables than one person could possibly want (unless that one person is me. Yay for fresh produce!), and then on Sunday they went to check out the antique market in Tongeren. They didn't return with any antiques, but they did bring back some beautiful items:

Yum!

There was also a pastry for me, but it was set aside until my arrival back in Amsterdam Monday morning.

Whoops, did I say my arrival Monday morning? Yeah... about that... The plan was that I would fly to Ohio on Thursday, stay for all the wedding festivities, and then fly back on Sunday afternoon, arriving here early Monday morning. That didn't quite happen.

So, you know Hurricane Ike? Yeah, the one in Texas. Well, it came to Ohio. And closed down airports. For real. All the planes in Columbus were grounded for hours. I was supposed to fly from Columbus to Atlanta and Atlanta to Amsterdam. Well, I had to rebook because there was no way to make it to Atlanta on time. So, next they booked me on a flight to Cincinnati, then Cincinnati to Amsterdam, getting in a couple hours later than originally planned. The only problem? Cincinnati's airport was shut down due to weather, too. The geniuses at Delta reasoned that this was okay, though, because it meant that my next flight would be delayed too so I would most likely make it. Hmm. I couldn't really argue though, because every single person in the airport was attempting to rebook flights, and I was just happy to have some sort of option.

Guess what? It didn't work out. They neglected to tell me that my flight from Cincinnati to Amsterdam got canceled, something I found out when I arrived in Cincinnati at about 10 p.m. Something Ben found out much before then because Delta called our house trying to get a hold of me. They could call my house to suggest Ben come get me from the airport (Hellloooo? We live in the Netherlands. He can't exactly collect me from the Columbus airport. They had a hard time understanding this.), but they couldn't do anything crazy like, you know, let me know before I got on an airplane and got stranded in Cincinnati overnight along with 800 million other people. So, the short version is that I joined a bajillion people trying to get hotel rooms in Cincinnati, ended up sharing a room at the Radisson with another of Jessica and Doug's friends who happed to be on my flight (luckily we found each other because the Radisson was not so cheap AND it was nice to have someone to commiserate with over a bottle of wine), and then I left at 3 p.m. the next day, getting home on Tuesday after much more time on airplanes and a long layover at JFK, one of the crappiest airports ever. I was not really happy by the time Ben picked me up. I greeted him with a big hug and a glazed donut (one of the things from the states that he loves, misses, and cries himself to sleep over) and then started to cry because I was just that tired.

Luckily, I got to come home to this:

Ahh, baby snuggle naps make everything better!