Home, Sweet Home (and a wedding!)

Two months after moving to Abu Dhabi, we headed home for a family wedding.  G's sister (Sarah) was tying the knot the first weekend of April!  We couldn't possibly miss it.  Plus it was an excuse to come home and enjoy all the things we missed from Houston. 

A blushing bride...

And a handsome groom!

We're so happy to see Sarah & Ben so happy!

Since we were home for 2 weeks, I'll hit the highlights of my favorite parts of the trip home:

• Of course, THE WEDDING!  It was the first time meeting G's extended family.  The groom and I had that in common.  Wedding was lovely, bride was gorgeous, we had a great time. :-)
• Seeing our family and friends!  We didn't get to catch up with everyone we wanted to, but we definitely saw a bunch including our swimming/triathlon buddies and our neighbors!
• Checking out mom and dad's new beach house in Galveston.  We only stayed one night, and it was super relaxing.  We will definitely enjoy spending some time there when we move back to Houston.
• Eating at most of our favorite restaurants, including KA Sushi, Liberty Kitchen Garden Oaks, Chick-fil-A, Cafe Express, Black Walnut, Gringo's, and Canyon Creek.  I think we probably would have eaten at a lot more restaurants if pregnancy didn't make me queasy half the time!
• Hanging out in our house.  There really is no place like home, and the house on Brinkman will always be the first home that G and I had together.  For all the little things that drive us nuts about it, we still love it!



Photo that G's dad took of us at the wedding.  The gorgeous dress from Rent The Runway hid my little baby bump!

In addition to all these, Sarah moved in to our home on Brinkman!  I mentioned in Uncertainty is Hard that we have fabulous house-sitters.  Our (now) brother-in-law, Ben, has been house sitting for us since we moved out, and we were so fortunate that the timing of their leases expiring worked out so they could live in our house.  With my assignment being a "short term" assignment, my company didn't provide any sales or rental assistance, and having an empty house is almost as bad (if not worse) than having bad renters.  Plus our home is very close to one of Ben's cousins that he and Sarah spend a lot of time with, so the situation iss great for everyone!

We also had the opportunity to announce to our family and friends that we're having a baby girl, and that we decided to name her after my mother who passed away from ovarian cancer in 2014. We were hoping for a good 3D ultrasound photo of her to share, and she is apparently a wiggler and a thumb sucker. She wouldn't stay still long enough for the 3D rendering, and the few times we ALMOST got it, she moved her hands in front of her face.  Maybe when she gets bigger and has a little less room in my belly, we'll get a good photo.

After two weeks at home, we were sad to head back to Abu Dhabi - we love the life we built for ourselves in Houston!  Fortunately, we know that with such good quality friends and our beloved family, we can adventure around the world and know that we can always come back home.