Part 34: The good ole US of A

August marked our semi-annual pilgramage back to the US. Like most visits it was stretched between work and pleasure for me and purely pleasure for Amanda and Jacob. Also like most trips, I planned way too much stuff into too small of a time window. Oh well --- that's pretty normal for us, right?

In a nutshell our trip was (for Dustin) Amsterdam to Houston, Houston to Pittsburg, Pittsburg to St. Louis, St. Louis to Houston, Houston to Dallas, Dallas to Houston, and Houston to Amsterdam. All of that within 17 days. Amanda and Jacob's travelling was about the same, but without Pittsburg and spread over another 10 days.




Needless to say, it was too much in too little time. But, like every other trip, we tried to maximize our time with everyone given the tight schedule.

Our trip started with the flight to Houston. And, as we have come to expect from JT, it was very uneventful. He is truly an incredible traveller. We arrived in Houston on Friday and set out for an aggressive weekend of to-do's. It starts, like always, with a trip to Spring Creek BBQ with the Resendez's and Weber's. This time was a little different as Jacob couldn't even keep his head up during the meal. It was, afterall, 3am for him.

After dinner, the girls and kiddos went one way and the guys headed to the tennis courts for a healthy round of tennis ball. It was great, even though Brandon and Mike pounded Clint and I with a beating never before experienced on the court. Personally, I think Brandon and Mike are juicing.

The next morning we headed over to Brett and Laura's house for a leisurely day of games, catching up, and relaxing. It is always fun to visit them because they always have the latest and greatest gadgets offered by Best Buy. We had to leave a little early because Jacob needed a nap and I had an appointment with the batting cages with Brandon and Mike.

Sunday centered around Church and a cool get together with our "Lyondell" friends (or, now call the Lyondell - Shell friend circle) who seem forever connected to downtown living. We picked up Phil Ling at Matt and Jenn's new house for lunch, got the tour, and then headed out. They have a beautiful place that seemed to be built for hosting parties.


During lunch, we also made a slight detour over to the Galleria to exchange my Brooks Brother's birthday presents for sizes that actually fit. The stop was successful as we traded out the shirts and also signed Phil up to the BB fan club. Once you go BB you'll never go back.

The Kuhl party was great; lots of food, friends we haven't seen in ages, and an unexpected birthday cake for Amanda. It was superb. Scott was there too; he is our friend who has been battling cancer for the last year. It was the first time we had seen them in a while because our visits always conflicted with his treatment schedule or one of us in the group was sick. I can tell you that we truly miss this group of people. It is nice to know that good friends stay good friends regardless of the time gap. We appreciate still being accepted in their circle.

On Monday I worked from home and Tuesday headed to the office. Nothing exciting there. On Wednesday, the three of us headed to the airport for the second leg of our journey. Amanda and Jacob headed to St. Louis, and I headed to Pittsburg. For me, Pittsburg was the primary reason for the trip back home and required a lot of extra work in preparation.

In St. Louis everyone was eagerly awaiting their arrival. Dad and Kay flew into St. Louis for the weekend and Erin, Erik, and Jarrod all drove up from Cape Girardeau. We stayed with Ericka at her place in Foley so that Jacob and Emma would have a lot of time to play together. Frank met Amanda and Jacob at the airport and brought them to Scott and Ericka's place.

Dad and Kay arrived the next morning and the games began. It was great! These pictures did a good job capturing the fun that everyone had. It was only a few days together, but boy did everyone have fun. Dad looked like a kid again playing with the grandkids.


On Friday, I caught a really early flight from Pittsburg to St. Louis. Erik picked me up at the airport and we did some shopping prior to meeting everyone back at Ericka's house. We had a great time. A lot has happened over the last 4-5 years, but it is nice to know that Erik and I can still put that to the side and hang out like old days. It was also cool to see Erik hanging out with Jacob.


We made it back to Ericka's for the afternoon and started planning our Friday night on the town. Dad offered to take everyone out for dinner. With a mixed family like ours, it was nice that he agreed to take Erik out as well. It was especially good for Amanda and I because the steaks in the US just taste better than Europe. As you can see, Emma and Jacob were treated like Cowboy VIPs and left the restaurant with a toy.


After dinner on Friday the guys (Dustin, Erik, and Scott) all went to Shop&Save to pick up food for Saturday. See, we had been planning Saturday for quite a while. We decided the best way for us to see everyone was to have a BBQ. It was great and tons of people showed up.


In total, I think 25 people showed up. Mom, Frank, Sherry, Jeff, Megan, Sarah, Sam, Ericka, Scott, Emma, Aunt Sherry, Uncle Tim, Matt, Amber, Gunther, Dillon, Blake, Alissa, Jarrod, Erin, Erik, Daniel, etc. It was one great party.

We spent the afternoon playing games all afternoon. Jacob and Emma played in the back playhouse with Grandma. We also found time to patch together a wiffle ball game at dusk. Scott handled the burgers and hotdogs, and Ericka worked together all of the other sides. I think everyone had a great time.

Sunday morning Dad and Kay had to leave early (i.e. like 4am early). Jacob was a little sick that morning (and up anyway) so we told Dad and Kay goodbye early in the morning. We then went back to sleep for a couple of hours and then woke up, packed up and headed out to Mom's house.

Our flight to Houston left around 5pm, so we didn't have much time to spend with Mom on Sunday. But, we did our best. Made it to their house around 10:30am and Mom and Frank had breakfast ready for us. I swear we eat more at their house than anywhere else. Frank is like a bottomless pit.

After breakfast / lunch --- can't tell because they run together --- we exchanged gifts for birthdays, etc. It was good and clearly Emma liked her gift. It is always a little sad to end a trip like this one. If there is one place that we see less as a result of living in Europe, it is St. Louis. For us it had been nearly 9 months since we had seen everyone, so it was a bittersweet departure.

The majority of the next week in Houston was spent shopping and working (shopping for Amanda and working for me). Really nothing too exciting happened this week. Oh yeah, except for Hurricane Ike. On Wednesday the reports started to get pretty dicey. We knew it was headed in our direction, but it was becoming very clear at that point that it was headed right for us.

The Houston office basically evacuated on Wednesday, no one was left and the building was officially closed down. Unfortunately for me I didn't get the mass email since I officially work in Europe. Amanda, Jacob, and I fortunately were able to change our airline ticket from Friday afternoon to Friday morning. That turned out to be pretty important since the airport shutdown at noon that day.

Lucky for us we escaped to Dallas without any delay or problem. We, once again, left our friends, family, and house behind in Houston. We did keep in contact with them and no one had any problems (other than losing power). Everyone / thing pulled through ok.

Dallas is always fun because Amanda's family is so full of kids. Amy and Dave have the three girls, now Andrew and Meredith have one girl, and we have Jacob. This environment is quickly turnning into the memories that I remember from my youth.

As the only boy, Jacob is a big hit. All of the girls love him; especially Abigail and Amelia. I don't know if it is because they don't get to see him as often or just the novelty of him being a boy, but he is definitely a big hit.

Andrew and Meredith became new parents earlier this year (April) and I hadn't had a chance to meet Addison until now. It was nice to be back and get to spend a little time with them. For me, this weekend was plugged full just like the previous weekend in St. Louis. We had a lot of family time planned around lunches and dinners. We also spent quite a bit of time sharing gifts with each other.

For us, we were innundated with birthday gifts for birthdays that were past, present, and in the near future. For them, we gave them all of the "stocking stuffer" gifts we had collected from our travels. We dropped the bomb on the family that we "probably won't be coming home for Christmas". I don't think people liked it much, but they understood and accepted it.

For Amanda and Jacob they got to stay a bit longer. We had planned their departure consistent with Brandon and Kristi's voyage over. It is always easier to travel in groups with a kiddo.

Amanda and Jacob had a grand time for the next week. Since it was summertime and it was "hot, hot, hot" (according to Jacob), they focused their activities around water. Jacob really isn't used to this kind of climate yet (but, he will have to be when we return to Houston) or this kind of activity. So, while he was a bit wary of the water sports, he quickly warmed up to them and had a lot of fun.

Lucky for them, they were there during the Plano Hot-Air Balloon festival. It looked really cool from the pictures and I know they had a good time.

After an extra 10 days in Dallas, Amanda and Jacob headed back to Holland via Houston. I was glad to get them back home, but also happy that they had fun. Now, let the fun begin with Brandon and Kristi...