Going to the Zoo to get Married!

Last weekend was a family travel weekend - A&A got married!  If you know either A or A and couldn't be there - don't worry, it was a small wedding that was intended to be super intimate and romantic for them.  Mission accomplished.  I still can't believe how great it went.  I didn't have any doubts that it would be amazing, but it exceeded all of my expectations.  I only cried twice, which I think is a miracle.

 

The weekend started with a long flight on Thursday to Indy (where A is from) through Newark.  Rough start as I was sat in a seat in which the video display didn't work.  Fortunately, 2 hours later, I was bumped to economy plus with an empty middle seat, which was perfect.  I was delayed in Newark for 2+ hours, which is not a great airport to be delayed in.  After finally making it to Indy, it was time for bed.

 

On Friday morning, we relaxed and enjoyed the time together as a family with a long breakfast and then a long lunch.  After that, it was off to the Indy Zoo for the rehearsal, followed by dinner:

 

The bride and groom - gorgeous!

 

Bride and her dad practicing for the big day!

 

More practicing

 

Dad and brother pretend marrying them

 

Pretend vows

 

Dinner - best man M

 

Sister J and Cousin J

 

Mom, Aunt L and Uncle M engrossed in conversation

 

Hubby and wife to be the night before

 

The day of the wedding started with some pampering...hair done, nails painted and make up done with the girls before getting ready for the big event.  I took a quick nap sitting up to preserve the hair....I'm pretty sure I didn't figure out my time zone the entire time I was back.

 

The wedding was at 6PM, but there was plenty of pictures and setting up to do before hand, so we headed up to the zoo at 3:30PM to see the bride before the big event.  The wedding was in the butterfly garden, which the butterfly garden in the HMNS happened to be where their first date was (that's the significance of the zoo!).

 

 

View from reception

 

View from reception (the house that Peyton built and then left)

Bride walks in with dad

 

 

Gazing into each other's eyes....

Just after the event - husband and wife!

Grand entrance - getting the party started!

Sister's speeches

Cutting the cake!

Cake table!  A&M representing...

So sweet - no cake on the nose at all!

First dance.....I was crying so I didn't get a video, but it was to Avett Brothers February Seventh:

 



 

Me and the bride

Leaving the zoo!

Congrats Mr and Mrs K!

I flew back on Sunday....slept the entire flight back after a stop in Dulles, which worked out perfect!

 

 

Dutch Footie

I've finally done it.  I'm shocked, really.  I thought I would hit a footie match very early in my time overseas. It's a number of factors that kept me waiting so long to see one.  First, I had no idea how hard it was to get a ticket to good matches.  I didn't want my first Euro football experience to be some lame second division game.  I could have seen ADO Den Haag at some point and they are first division in the Dutch league, but I've heard the fans are rabid for a bad team and wasn't sure I wanted to put myself in the middle of Dutch football riots.  Maybe English Premiere League riots, but not Dutch where I can't understand what we are rioting about.

Second, you really need to plan ahead to attend these decent matches.  I'm good at spontaneously planning a weekend, but thinking in advance for tickets, etc is not my strong suit. 

But still, if you would say to me a year ago that I would see a Cricket test before a football match, I would have said you are crazy.

I learned this over the summer and spent a Sunday scouring the internet for events in Europe that I wanted to attend.  I ended up booking a ticket to last night's match in August and almost forgot about it until Wednesday of this week.  I booked a ticked for the Dutch National team - World Cup Qualifier!  The  funny thing is that when I booked the ticket, the Dutch team hadn't qualified.  However, they qualified shortly after that, so this game only really meant something to the Hungarians.  That didn't stop it from being an excellent night.

I learned something from an English friend of mine...when booking tickets for sporting events, theatre, etc, if you know you won't be doing it very often or at all in the future, book the better seat for a reasonable amount more.  It totally changes the experience to be near the goal line on the first level and generally those who have paid more for their tickets are not the hooligans of the stadium.  She was proven right.  I loved my seat and enjoyed the game that much more because I wasn't in nose bleeds.

Pictures from the match:

 Hungarian team warming up

 Hungarian team warming up

Dutch team warming up!

 View from my seat

 Just to be sure everyone is clear - Netherlands vs. Hungary

 Back of Dutch bear (no idea why a bear)

 Marching band to play national anthems

 Football pre-match festivities

 Marching band coming on the field

 

 Crowd and large flags.  More empty seats than I would have expected

 Better picture of the flags

 Pre-match national anthems

 Best picture of the night - streamers shooting off

 Dutch National team on the end

 Start of the game - keeping eyes on the ball

Corner kick - The Netherlands won 8-1 and 5 of those 9 goals were scored on my end of the field.  Incredible reactions from the crowd.  Van Persie (Netherlands best player) had a hat trick and in the process became the leading Dutch National scorer of all time.  Cool to see.  He also added considerably to the scenery.  Lekker.

I felt bad for the Hungarians.  As A texted me during the game "this isn't even fair".  It really wasn't - I couldn't tell if the Dutch were just that good or if the Hungarians were just that bad.  Then in the second half when a Hungarian scored on his own goal, I decided they were just that bad.  But the Dutch did have some pretty sick goals and I think they are going to be tough in Brazil.

 Corner kick - lots of these on my half of the field in the first half.

Representing!  My company sponsors the team.  I think I could have gotten tickets through our intranet, but it was all in Dutch and very hard to figure out!

 Action shot

Seats look empty, but they aren't.  The colors worn were either orange or black, which meant that some of the seats didn't look filled.  When the wave came through, you quickly realized they were full.

Goalie

 My view

Halftime Brazilian/Dutch band.  Celebrating heading to Rio

Complete with scantily clad Brazilian gals

 Me at the game!  Representing with my orange.

 

 

Pre game - ignore the horrible videography.  I was trying to capture the mood of the crowd - which was jovial.

 



 

Dutch national anthem

 



Some actual play

A corner kick

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