Nederland - Day 4

We're on vacation, so I guess I don't feel too bad about sleeping until 10:15 am this morning. Needless to say, we got a bit of a late start this today, but once we were on the bike path, we had a nice ride to Gouda (pronounced how-da), along the way seeing traditional windmills and enjoying more smooth, well maintained paths.

In Gouda, we walked through St. John's Church, which has stained glass windows from the 1500's! The building in the third picture below looks like a church, but it's actually the Gouda Statehouse. A wedding party was taking photos outside of the statehouse, and the bride (or her dress?) is obviously what is captivating the little girl in the foreground of the photo. Louisa and Cora would have been equally captivated, I'm sure.

Just a cool view as we walked out of St. John's

The flowers here, potted or otherwise, have really impressed me!

Before our 34 km ride to Mark and Lori's home in The Hague, we walked through a touristy cheese shop and drank a Heineken in the plaza behind the statehouse. Mark and Lori are here for 4+ years as he serves as a pastor in an international church. We feel very lucky to be able to spend two nights at their place and hang out with them again so soon after our visit to Michigan three weeks ago!

Nederland - Day 3

Trek has an office in Hardenwijk and Nate's co-worker Ned was kind enough to set us up with electric bikes for the week. After breakfast in Amsterdam, we took a 1 hour train ride east to Harderwijk, where we picked up the bikes. After walking through the Trek World expo and meeting the 15 or so Trek employees, we rode 53 kilometers southwest to Utrecht. The weather was perfect for a ride: partly sunny, no wind and felt like 65 degrees.



I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but the bike paths are incredible here! Not once during our 53 km did we have to share space with cars. Whenever there was a roundabout for cars, there was also one for bikes. Pedestrians, bicycles and cars each have their own stop lights and sensors under the pavement let the bike stop lights know when you are coming so you don't have to stop and push the button before you cross. Along our route, there were plenty of cute cottages and grand houses to look at, as well as lots of farm animals.

Once we arrived in Utrecht, we parked our bikes at a fancy, free underground bike parking garage and checked into Mother Goose Hotel and walked to lunch. Utrecht was instantly my favorite city in The Netherlands (so far!). A few lovely canals like Amsterdam, but with better shops and a much less touristy feel. Fewer cars, prostitutes and coffeeshops than Amsterdam, too.

Grilled Goat Cheese at Toque Toque. Yum.

Before dinner at Blauw, an Indonesian restaurant recommended by our hotel, we walked around the Dom Tower, which is tallest church tower in The Netherlands. As we left the restaurant, Nate happened to see a poster advertising (what he thought was) a Radio Head concert coming to Utrecht. As we walked back to our hotel, we realized that the musicians in the bell tower were playing Radio Head songs. We were quite far from the tower when they finished, but happened to have a clear view of one of the top balconies, where they came out to wave and acceptance applause from the crowd below.

Nederland - Days 1 & 2

Have you ever received a notification many hours before your flight, telling you about a delay? We have in the past, and intentionally didn't change our airport arrival time. Unfortunately, for our flight to Frankfurt on Saturday, we let our 1 hour delay notification slow our trip to Chicago. We tried checking in 1 hour and 15 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart, but the kiosk told us to go to the full service check in counter. We waited there for about 25 minutes, and when the airline attendant tried to check us in, she couldn't, because apparently they close check-in 60 minutes before the flight is scheduled to depart. My heart sank. We protested. "I'm sorry," she said, "but if I ask again [if I can check you in], they will get mad." We had planned to fly into Frankfurt (leaving at 3:30 pm) and then take a 3-hour ($100) train ride to Amsterdam. Instead, we got on a 5:55 pm flight to Brussels and took a 2.5 hour ($49) train ride to Amsterdam and even arrived in time for our FreeDam walking tour.

Waiting for our train from Brussels to Amsterdam

We didn't exactly fall in love with Amsterdam. Part of it was probably the jet-lag (ugh - it's been a long time since I only slept 2.5 hours in one night), but beyond that, the city almost seemed like a joke -- infamous because of marijuana and prostitution -- also just crowded, dirty and touristy. We'll spend one more day and night in the southern part of the city at the end of our trip, so hopefully that visit will redeem our tainted view.

The biking culture though. Wow. Bikes have the right-of-way over cars and pedestrians. Apparently every year, they pull 30,000 rusty bikes out of the canals in Amsterdam. The tour guide took us to a bridge where each night, you can buy a stolen bike for less than 20 euros. At breakfast in our hotel, I read that bikes involuntarily change hands every 3 years because they are stolen so often.

It was unusual for this bike to be locked up alone, without others locked up all around it

But about prostitution. Apparently they only legalized it in 2000, which surprised me. And the pot-smoking? Not legal, but tolerated in an effort to keep people away from harder drugs, mainly heroine. One way it's tolerated is that the government allows each person to carry 5 grams of pot and grow 5 of their own plants. The government gets a 58% tax from each "coffeeshop,"which is where you get pot in Amsterdam. So interesting and strange! No, we did not smoke. I don't tend to follow the concept of "when in Rome."

Last night, we had a lovely dinner at a gastro-pub and then quickly walked through the canal lined streets back to our hotel to go to bed. I was fast asleep by 8:30 pm. Also haven't done that in a while!

Spare ribs and beet ravioli with mint sauce at De Reiger

I guess because we essentially lost 7 hours during our plane ride, I will call this day 1 and 2. Tomorrow, I'll blog update you on Day 3 (Amsterdam, Harderwijk and Utrecht). For now, I'll just say that it feels AMAZING to be celebrating our 10th anniversary for a whole 8 days. No real schedule, no responsibilities (other than the e-bikes we're borrowing from Trek) and the chance to hang with my favorite man.

Back in Touch with Flamingo Pink

Last week I did something I've done before, but never with the same expensive consequence. We've all done it, right? Okay, probably not all. Only the multitasking, clever moms out there? I left Costco and before strapping Peter into his carseat, placed my phone on the roof of our car. About one quarter mile out of the parking lot, I thought the person behind me honked at me, but I brushed it off and kept driving. A little less than halfway home, driving 65 miles per hour down the highway, it hit me: my phone! I looked at my Apple watch. Sure enough, out of range. We pulled over a mile later (as soon as we safely could) and I looked on top of my car. Wishful thinking, I know. No such luck. We retraced our path and went back into Costco, just in case. I asked a friendly stranger if I could text Nate. Using his phone he could see my phone on the side of the highway! So maybe it was still working?

My loving husband left work and went to search. Apparently Find Friends is not so accurate, plus I described the debacle poorly, so he spent a fair amount of time driving on the opposite side of the highway from the phone. Sorry Nate.

Later on, the phone was not showing up as active, so our hearts sank a bit. Most expensive mistake I've made, but on the other hand, it could be way worse. I admit I said some prayers. Louisa laughed a bit, I think knowing that God cares, but maybe that he was busy answering more important requests. Long story (a bit) shorter, we found parts of it smashed on the side of the highway, maybe 100 feet from where it originally showed up on Find Friends. Without the bright pink case, our search would have been in vain.

I know it's still $700 more than we planned to spend this week, but I sort of feel I had an iPhone purchase coming, because I never actually paid for my two I've had in the past 5 years. Yes, that's right - I made 2 phones last 5 years! Okay, okay, I know it's still NOT COOL that I left my phone on top of my car.

My love for pink prevailed when ordering a new phone, and there were no pink iPhones in stock, so I was without a smart phone for 5 days. First world problem? Yes. Kind of nice to be out of touch for a bit? Yes. But I'm happy to report that I'm back in touch, with a smaller screen and flamingo pink case.

Raise the Stars and Stripes

Our weekends are starting to feel a bit more weekend-y and less dominated by renovation projects. That's not to say that things are done; there are plenty of projects to start and complete. As I type on this cool Saturday morning, Nate is downstairs building the final wood tiles for the screen porch from the remaining ipe that bought for the back deck. But don't feel too sorry for him, because in about 45 minutes we'll all bike down to the farmers' market & children's museum and he'll continue on to University Bay to play ultimate for 2 hours.

On the glorious long weekend before July 4, the goal was to complete the front porch. While it doesn't look that different to any of you, we're super excited to no longer see the uneven cuts of the ceiling and blotches of yellow primer on the fiberglass columns. Everything is trimmed and has two coats of pearly white paint. My favorite part is the dentil molding under the eaves, however subtle it is. On July 3, before driving to Oconomowoc to spend time with my parents and grandparents, we raised the American flag and hung the house numbers.

In Oconomowoc, the kids were thrilled by the $12 fountain fireworks I bought at Menard's the day before. Papa had them chanting "We love Dad! We love Dad!" over and over as Nate lit them off one by one. Another highlight of that evening was the boat ride the kids took with Belle and Papa while Nate and I stayed back to make dinner. Win, win, since my parents would prefer not to cook but would prefer to spend more time with our kids.

But back to today. Again, my husband never ceases to amaze me with his "get it done" attitude. He hardly stopped for more than a glass of ice water after we biked back from the capitol. He had the floor installed by 4 pm. The screen will come soon enough, and then we'll be dining mosquito free until it's too cold to do so.

Looks pretty great, Nate! And I'm sure the tiles will last way longer than the ones we saw at Ikea last month.

Permits Be Gone!

On Monday, we had our final, final, final inspections for the house renovation. What an AMAZING feeling of relief and accomplishment. Nate worked patiently and humbly throughout, researching and implementing all of the little things the inspectors found. Thank you, Nate, you're the best.

The pictures below show how much the landscaping improved over the past 4 months, but the main thing I like to focus on is the missing permits from the window to the left of the front door. It was very fun to remove the tape and recycle the permits!

March 2017

June 15, 2017 (we got it done just in time for your birthday, Anne!)

May, Before You Slip Away

We've had so many good things filling our days lately: happy, healthy kids, mountain biking, renovation awards, funny things kids say, a Cora-initiated haircut, celebrating 60 years of MSI with my parents, and extended family birthday parties (celebrating 12 birthdays in April and May). My brain would rather sleep now than think of creative things to say about all of these blessings, so, may these pictures speak millions of words to you.

Travis, Adam, Aaron, Josh and Nate heading north for a bike-packing trip

Sisterly love while Lou poses with her newly pierced ears

Cora gave me no choice but to finish her bang trim

Date night at the Historic Preservation Awards

Bird watching on the MKE river

Fun selfie on Nancy & Carol's balcony (at the family birthday party)

Congratulations to my amazing parents for leading MSI to such success and through a beautiful renovation!

Dirtying the glass and leaving poopy diapers in the ladies' room...likely the last party this guy will be invited to! 

37 year of our favorite guy, Nate. We celebrated with margaritas and key lime pie!

And because photos can't capture specific things kids say, two Cora quotes from the week:

Chasing [trying to catch] swallows in the field next to Nate's spring league game, Cora cries out "I just want to see you!"

Seeing 4 extra potatoes on the baking sheet at dinner, Louisa states that they are hers. Cora grumbles, saying "they are everyone's. No, actually, they are Jesus' "

Long Lost April

I don't put too much pressure on myself to blog regularly, but it does feel a little bit odd to miss a whole month. I'll blame it on too many parties, since April brought two birthdays, so we now have a four and a six year old. I'm excited because now I can say that my kids are six, four and two, which prompts less of a pity look than saying that my kids are five, three and two. We celebrated Cora's birthday three times: once with our immediate family, once to share the celebration with Aunt Georgia, and a third time with my parents and Cora's besties, Emmett and Cordelia. Cora is a friendly, creative little lady, who loves Moana, Elsa, pajamas and 2nd and 3rd breakfasts. We do our best to appreciate her persistence/stubbornness/passion that I'm told means she will be very successful someday. Bean, stubborn or not, we love you!

Party #2 - white cake with lemon curd and whipped cream

Cora got her very own yoga mat, so here they are, doing Cosmic Kids yoga on Easter Eve

Holding the letter "Y" to spell "We Love You" for Belle Mere's birthday

Pure joy

For Louisa's birthday, we were lucky enough to spend a long weekend with my parents on Coronado, an island near San Diego. We had a wonderful time seeing Grandma Joanie, walking to the beach, seeing my brother and his family, and celebrating the golden birthdays (60 years and 6 years on 4/29) of Louisa and my mom, Belle Mere. Louisa had high hopes for a birthday party with her entire Kindergarten class, but she graciously accepted the fact that we couldn't have a friend party and go to CA to celebrate with her grandma. Lou seems to be getting more and more "happy-go-lucky" the older she gets. She loves school, her friends, and piano lessons. She reflected the other day, saying, "I think the last time I had a time out was when I was three, in the rental house." It's true, she doesn't often need time outs, but I think she must have had a least one in her fourth year and one in her fifth.

Dress rehearsal of Moana Live!

Reminding myself that in Campbell, we couldn't walk to the beach, made it easier accept the fact that we left CA

Crafting with Grandma Joanie

The birthday girls