This trip for me was that of reflection. It will be my last trip home until we move back at the end of next April and being home made me and Ryan realize that when that time comes, we will definitely be ready to move back and start the next phase of our life's adventure. There's something about being away for a long time, that when you return to the place of your roots, you realize that your culture runs deep in your veins. It's some kind of unexplainable familiarity that I felt when I was home. I could feel my own culture that I couldn't feel when I was living there and hadn't yet experienced living anywhere else. It was nice to be home and in that familiarity again. We are definitely Texas people and will always be most at home there.
We also realized while there that Chance really only knows Switzerland as his home. We were at Zilker Park having snow cones, and he sees a squirrel for the first time and shouts, "Look Mommy, there's a skunk"! And then one day we are driving down the road and he sees a yellow school bus (which he has only seen having one in his hotwheels cars) and says "Mommy, is that a REAL school bus?" It was so cute!
We arrived one week before my brother's wedding, which gave us ample time to get over jet lag, relax and bit and help get things ready for the wedding. We were able to spend a day at Zilker Park, and Chance was able to ride the little train with my mom (which I did as a little girl!).
We had Andrea's mom, sister and her boyfriend over one night for dinner which enabled us to get to know her family a little better before the wedding.
Umpa took us out one day to his brother's lake house so that Chance could go fishing for his first time ever, and he was delighted to catch a bunch of fish.
And then there was the wedding weekend, which was so nice to have all our friends and family in one place. We got to see many of our parents friends that we hadn't seen since our wedding 8 years ago, and it was also nice to have our family all in one place. The rehearsal dinner was a night to remember for sure. Chance had told us all along that he was going to give a toast. He wouldn't disclose what that toast was going to be, which made us a little worried to say the least. I knew somehow that he'd either chicken out, or get up and say something goofy cause he was embarrassed. So right before the well-anticipated moment, the kid informs us that he has not only one toast, but two, and still won't disclose what he is going to say. We knew this was about to be a disaster until....well just watch for yourself. He brought tears to our eyes with his composure, confidence, and unknown speaking abilities. There was a little funny party in the beginning however when he tells this poor mom trying to sooth her fussy baby to sit down! Sorry, I took the video with the camera turned to the side, forgetting that you can rotate video on the computer - just cock your head!
The wedding itself was gorgeous, on the edge of a cliff overlooking Lake Travis. It rained a little during the ceremony, but it made it memorable nonetheless and Andrea and Drew's happy spirit didn't let a little rain get in the way! My boys looked so cute in their tuxes!
The week following we went up to Dallas to spend our time with the Baganz family. Ryan's brother's family all came in from Florida, and so all 3 of Ryan's sibblings were in one place. Ryan hadn't been back home since X-mas 07 which was a long time! The last day we hired a photographer to take an updated family portrait since we had all the Baganz family in one place at one time.
The boys got to do lots of fun things like race car driving and fishing again, and as usual we ate our way thru restaurants and lots of hefty evening family meals.
Chance was in heaven when all the cousins brought their nintendo DS's so that they could play eachother in Mario Kart.
So returning back to Zurich has made me start the final phase of this journey. I'm definitely slowing down towards the end of this pregnancy, which will make summer long and hard having to keep an active boy entertained. Hopefully we can enjoy our last summer here. I've gotta say, I do love the cooler summer weather. Texas in May was already just too hot for us. We'll need to work on changing our blood back to tolerate such extreme heat before we move back!
We've uploaded the pics from Texas into 3 sections (in the right hand column)....time with my dad, time in Austin and at the wedding, and time in Dallas. The actual wedding pictures can be seen on the photographer's website under "recent weddings....Andrea & Drew".
