Mem's wedding...and the rest of the trip =)

When the clinic gives you a letter that looks like this:

 And sends you home with a giant bag of meds like this:

You're left with gratitude for a husband who can keep all things running on the home front while you sleep and cough the weekend away, and appreciate the extra time to catch up on blogging.

So, where were we?

Oh yes. This is little cutie and I got to sit next to each other on the three hour drive to Seattle.

Sweet sleeping angel never even made a peep the whole trip!

I on the other hand was super noisy, because I like to talk =)

We arrived ahead of schedule (**miracle**) and stopped by the Church to see who we could visit with before heading to the hotel to change. 

Lucky for us, we ran into our sister Vanessa...

...and our Daddy!

I even had the chance to hug the groom-to-be prior to the ceremony...

He's good people, that one. I'm so glad my sister snagged him up, and it does not go unrecognized to me that I genuinely love and like all four of my brothers in law. HUGE blessing!

These two are pretty great, and God is going to do great things through them. I feel so incredibly blessed I was able to witness their special day!

We popped over to get our fancy wedding clothes on, and then it was back to the Church for the ceremony!

A HUGE bonus of this day was also getting to see my in laws! David and I are ridiculously lucky that our families are close.

My dad walking his fifth daughter down the aisle...

It was a lovely ceremony, and I did my best not to cry...which was not very good, as I made it about 3.2 seconds before the tears came.

All five of us, together.

I'm so lucky to have such wonderful sisters! Growing up with four sisters was not always easy, but man, it was never boring ;). And having four adult sisters is awesome. 

I love this one because it looks like our poor new bro in law is quite distressed over what he possibly married into...

My beautiful Mom and Aunt...

The reception was next door and loads of fun. I mean, any wedding reception that has donuts instead of cake has got to be a blast, right??

I missed my man and kids so much at this point! They would have LOVED dancing around with all of us! 

The Fab Five.

Love my sweet in-laws...

Three aunties doting on baby LJ...

The fun had to end at some point, and then it time to head to the hotel and catch some zzz's...

 My dad and stepmom had rented a lovely flat that had space for me as well =), so I crashed at their place, which also allowed for us to have breakfast the next morning with my in laws...

Then it was off to the airport for the long journey back to Kuwait...

 (that reads "ADMITTED POO" and I felt the need to note it and photograph it, because I am very mature)

The flight from Seattle to Amsterdam was ten hours, and our plane was two seats/five seats/two seats. The seat next to me was EMPTY because Jesus loves me.

So I traded out my shoes for slippers, and settled in with a book and some earplugs...

Landing in Amsterdam...lovely looking, isn't it? I hope to go back and see more than the airport someday...

I had a five hour layover in Amsterdam, and I spent five minutes of those five hours relaxing in one of these thingys...

Then a trip to Saudi Arabia, very short layover there, and then finally a short flight back to Kuwait...

BOOM. Home. Just like that.

It was a really large amount of travel in a short amount of time, but totally worth it. I feel so blessed I was able to see so many people I love so much!

I of course also missed my people here in Kuwait like crazy as well, and did not come home empty handed =)

I brought Sister a Hiccup costume...

...and Brother a Kylo Ren mask and lightsaber...

I also had a suitcase full of things I'd ordered from Amazon and Zulily to be sent to my sister's house.  

Have we talked about how there is no postal system here?

I can't remember, and I'm far too lazy busy to look, but the basics are this; there is zero postal system here. Like, we do not have a mailing address. David's work has said we can use his work's address, but the head of the mail department has told him they have about a 40% success rate. 

40%.

That means SIXTY PERCENT of what is mailed to them is simply not received.

This is just accepted as fact here.

Forget that Kuwait is among the wealthiest countries in the world, they just do not see the need for a postal system.

Because Kuwait.

So I had several things for Christmas sent to Natalie's that I then brought home with me to Kuwait =). 

Also I stocked up on things like vitamins (crazy expensive here), and bought a new water bottle ($10 at Target)

($26.22 here for the EXACT same bottle)

And I brought back new sandals!

Good-bye, Target sandals I bought for less than $20 over eight years ago.

You served me well, and I loved you dearly. But you were no match for the harsh desert.

They'd been like this for over a month prior to my trip, but I just couldn't justify buying another pair of sandals when I knew I had a pair waiting for me in Oregon. So I walked around in these and prayed I didn't break any more toes.

Hello, new, non-busted, Toms sandals...

...you complete me.



Alright so there you have it. My whirlwind trip to the Pacific Northwest and then back to the Middle East. 
It was hard to say goodbye to all things "home" again, but good to catch a glimpse of it, and also good to realize we are but literally a days travel away from being back. I'm trying to use that perceptive to make the most of our time left here. Lots to see and do while we are on this side of the Earth =)