She's Gone.....

The past few days have been busy and exciting. It is all, now, overshadowed by the fact that this morning I took Kelly to the airport. I hated having to take her, but I’m happy for her to be able to be with her family and Stu these next few months. She has a fantastic wedding to plan!! I’ll keep touring Europe (just alone) and she’ll keep me updated about her new exciting life in Houston.

Over the weekend Mom and I went to Keukenhof (again) and then to The Hague to see “The girl with the pearl earring.” The flowers were blooming even more so than last week when Kelly and I were there. I have taken PLENTY of pictures and will put them up soon. I forgot my camera today. After spending several hours ogling over the flowers we headed just down the road to The Hague. I am slowly learning my way around this country! We parked and headed to the Mauritshaus. They have an amazing collection. It is a smaller museum that used to be a house. Each corner of the building is a room which houses the pictures. They have 3 Vermeer paintings and I think one of my favorite is his townscape of Delft. He really is the painter of light! You can see a picture of the painting HERE.

Mom and I had fun wondering around the museum and hearing the histories of the paintings from the audio guide. After about 2 hours we were art-ed out and our parking meter was about to expire. We also had a dinner date with Kelly so we headed back. Mom was a bit put out by me that we didn’t go to the beach since we were so close but I told her we would go before she leaves. It’s not exactly warm around here but I guess it is beautiful to see.

On Sunday we headed to the Van Nieuwkoops’ for Erik’s confirmation at church. It was neat to go to such an old church. The royal family is buried in the church, dating back to 1584. The service was extra long due to the confirmation and the benches are of the true, medieval style of hard wood and straight backs. I can see why all of the children wanted to go off to Sunday school during the service. I expected the church to be cold since it is rather old but they had installed heaters under the benches so it warmed your legs and tush. It was quite a nice little treat. I will admit though, my upper body was a bit chilled and it was terribly early (and we just had our time change to make it worse) and I wanted to curl up and the floor and take a little nap. My mom and I had headphones so we got an English translation of the service which was nice to know what was going on, but it wasn’t the best translation ever done. We found it rather entertaining at times.

After the service everyone headed over to Ton and Gina’s (Erik’s parents) house for coffee and tart. There were so many people!! It was multiple generations and cousins and aunts and uncles and friends. It was a lot of fun to see all of the people and be able to put faces to names that we have heard from Mark about his family. They were all very nice and Mom and I had a very enjoyable Sunday. We were exhausted afterwards though! I met some great people and they invited me to visit them so even though Kelly is gone, I should have plenty of things to do and people to see.

After we got home from Delft, Kelly had made us reservations for Wilma and Albert, our favorite place. We thought it was appropriate for her “last supper.” She had the garlic butter steak, I had the spicy ribs, and Mom got the salmon. We all traded a bit and had a super tasty meal. I also learned that they have little portion of the ribs which is ½ of what is normally provided. A great discovery!! We all also had a bowl of French onion soup to start. That is the best soup! Kelly is determined to learn how to make it and I keep warning her I might move in if she isn’t careful. I’m sure the newlywed couple wouldn’t mind!

On the walk home we stopped at the newly opened ice cream shop. This place is always packed so we had to try it out. None of us needed it, or really had room for it, but we couldn’t let Kelly leave without one more taste of the country’s amazing treat. After that Kelly and I curled up on the couch to watch one last episode of Grey’s Anatomy together illegally over the internet before we called it a night.

I got Kelly to the airport this morning with no major incidences and she got all of her luggage check in and had no problems. I headed to work where I claimed a new desk so I wouldn’t have to sit in the office by myself. It’s interesting to be back in the middle of the office and around everyone. I now hear a lot more Dutch so maybe I’ll pick it up a bit faster! I also get control of the radios since it is on my desk and I threaten to make country CDs for everyone to listen too. I might be kicked out then!

The rest of the week Mom and I are going to be travelling so I’m not sure how much I’ll be updating the blog. I will do my best to figure out mobile blogger but I won’t make any promises. If anything, you will have so much to look forward to next week!!!

I hope everyone has a great Monday!!