The Great Catching Up Part 1

Life has been busy!  I know it's been nearly a month since my last post, but I have been up to a lot!

The week before my mom came to visit I came down with a severe cold, so as not to worsen it I called off delivering mail (as running around in chilly, rainy weather would truly only worsen an already bad cold).  I took that week to do preparations but also, J needed me to do a ton of testing for the program he develops so I did indeed end up working that week.  It all worked out for the good!

I drove to Stockholm on Friday the 21st and stayed with a friend in Stockholm that night so that I could get up early and pick up my mom, aunt and uncle from Arlanda early in the morning.  The Stockholm trip went great!  My mother loved it there (she had never been to Europe before and had always wanted to see Scandinavia, it was truly a dream come true for her).  My aunt and uncle very much enjoyed it as well.  We did a good amount of touristy things like walking around and taking a bunch of pictures in Gamla Stan.  We also visited Skansen (yes, we took the trolley/tram/spårvagn there), the Wasa museum, visited the royal palace and rode on a boat tour around Djurgården (the island in Stockholm that contains Skansen).  Alas, we did not do the Skyview on Globen.  Here is a little taste of Stockholm!

The second picture is a water view of Östermalm, the posh area of Stockholm where many famous people live.  The third picture is a popular square in the midst of Gamla Stan - we sat and had a lovely fika under the orange awning there.  The fourth picture is of the Nordic Museum (Nordiska Museet) as seen from Skansen.  The final shot is one of Gamla Stan, again from the water.

Monday evening my mom and I said farewell (until Wednesday evening) to my aunt and uncle and drove back to Tibro where J's parents live.  J came to Tibro the following day.  It makes sense on the way from Stockholm to Gothenburg to stop in Tibro to visit J's parents, but that wasn't the only reason!  There's something I haven't been outspoken about, but now that it's all said and done, I can out it now!

Back in August J and I decided to get engaged!  But why this?  When we found out that my mom was coming to visit, we decided that we should get married (as we'd talked about getting married for a while but we weren't in any rush, and had no immediate reason to).  As it would mean very much to me to have my mother at my wedding, we decided to get married while my mother visited Sweden.  So!  On September 26th, J and I tied the knot!  We're now very happily husband and wife.  I would have wished to have more of my near and dear from the U.S. attending, otherwise the wedding could not have been more perfect.  More on the continuation of my mom's visit and the wedding later!  To be continued...