This weekend I had to take my mom to Brussels so she could fly home, back to the states after a month long visit ( Lost in the Schwarzwald,Saint-Mère-Église,Omaha Beach,A Final Goodbye,Goodbye Oma). We have had an amazing month together.  Losing Oma has brought us closer.  I needed her, she needed me.  We knew saying goodbye would be extra hard this time, so when she suggest a whole weekend of just us girls… of course I said yes!

We got to Brussels late Friday night and she treated Tess & I to a fabulous, gourmet dinner.  I actually have NO idea what I ate, but it was beautiful & delicious.  A fabulous start to our weekend.  We spent Saturday in Bruges (and I will skip that amazing day till this Saturday). Sunday my mom’s sisters & little cousin Zoë took the train over from Holland to spend the day with us, making it a true girls day out.

Tess & Zoë are like sisters. Zoë is an only child, and Tess the only girl.  They squealed with delight to see each other and immediately gave us “old folks” glares that they were stuck with us.  With a rapidly beating heart I gave them my blessing to go explore the Big City on their own.

I lasted almost two hours before needing to call and get them reeled back in.  Brussels is a big, bustling, overwhelming city. I wanted to be sure the girls were okay, and I wanted to pop them in some of the photo’s.

“We’ll be right there.” said Zoë, “We’re at the train station again.”  Again?  Okay.  The train station is only a 5 minute walk from the Grand Place in Brussels.  I waited 10 minutes, then 15.  The Oma’s (my mom & her sister Kitty, Zoë’s Oma) were getting nervous.  I sent a quick text:

Zooooooooooooooooooë!  She quickly replied with one of her own:

We’re getting FREE shirts! She texted back. And, finally, another 15 minutes later the girls finally reappeared sporting matching pink shirts.  There was a big Zumba Party in the middle of the Grand Place.  It was loud & filled with people & surround by amazing architecture & statues.  Tess & Zoë had discovered that if you participated, you got a FREE shirt!  We all love free.

So of course they’d stopped on their way back to the anxious old folks, Zumba’d for a bit & gotten their FREE shirts.  What were we on about?

IMG_8271 copy