Swinging Through Spring

The kids had no school this afternoon so we ventured out to the local farm/petting zoo/park to check out all the adorable new born animals.  And while they played, I picture adventured......a lot.....and I couldn't decide which pictures to post, so here are all of them!  Starting with my favorite: the swings!!!

If this isn't the look of pure glee, I'm not sure what is.

My future little photographer.  =)

And the misplaced duck hanging out with the lil sheep and goats.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Enlarge images to view in much better quality.  =)

Een paard heet Sterk

The title translates to: A horse named Sterk (which actually means strong in English).

A couple weekends ago, Sander and I joined a few of his housemates for a weekend adventure with Anne's horse Sterk.  We were having gorgeous +20 weather at the time, and it was a wonderful kick off to spring!  We had a nice BBQ after and even ate outside! Unfortunately, the weather has gone downhill a bit since then, but based on the facebook status' I've been seeing lately, I think the weather here is still better! 

That's Enny.  She's one of Sander's housemates, who also happens to make the most amazing Indonesian food I've ever tasted.  This past Saturday she made a dish called Gado Gado.  It's rice with green beans, tofu, rice, egg, cabbage and peanut sauce.  It was soooooo delicious!

Mom for a week

My conclusion of the week: children are tiring.

Kristel and Jerry have been in New York this week, so I've been the fill in Mom and Dad, and my gosh, what a week!  

First up, broken bike, on the way to swimming lessons.  The plan was that I would drive the bakfiets (click here to see a picture) with one kid, and the other would be on the bike.  They would then take turns riding the bike because it's an 8km bike ride one way, which is a bit far for little 5 year old legs.  But because I'm by myself and we were running late, the bike decided to break down about 1km into the journey.  So in goes the other child and the bike.  Doesn't sound too bad until I tell you the bakfiets is stuck in one gear and the tires are low.  All I can say is what a workout.  

Other than that, the week has been fantastic.  It was a great chance for me to bond with the kids more.  We have done lot's of fun things like painting and biking (we've had amazing +20 weather the last few days) and making fun desserts.

I was so nervous about this week, but in the end, it's been a lot of fun, and it has just made me love these kids so much more!  It was when Pilou came to my room in the middle of the night and asked if she could sleep with me that I realized they view me a part of their family, not just the au pair.  They treat me like family and they will always have a place in my heart with the rest of my family.  

That's Pilou in the purple, Pippa in the middle and Cleo on the right.

Pilou's definitely the goofy one of the three.  I don't think there's a day she doesn't come home with some sort of sticker on her head or her hair redone in some silly way.

Cleo was absolutely thrilled with the weather yesterday.  She literally played outside until the sun went down.  It truly felt like summer.  It was fantastic!

Pippa is the artsy one of the three.  She has the most beautiful 5 year old writing I've ever seen.  She is perfectly content with a piece of paper and some felt pens.  

Some time with Mom

Last Monday, I managed to eat breakfast in Barcelona, lunch in Paris, and dinner in Amsterdam, followed by fish 'n chips and cider in London on Friday.

Let me bring you up to speed.

For my birthday, I got the best present ever-- a visit from my Mom! Since the sun only shines once every ten days here in Holland, we decided to head south and cruise the Canary Islands.

Our holiday quickly turned into an adventure as KLM lost our luggage and we nearly missed our ships departure from Barcelona.  But, we made it in time, and like I said, it was an adventure!  After getting over the devastation of the thought of having to wear the clothes on our back for 4 days until our suitcases arrived, we started to enjoy the luxury of the ship (especially the 24 hour ice cream station. Mmmm).  It was a quick two days at sea before we were in Funchal, Maderia (part of Portugal).

It was here we did our first tour.  We were taken by a bus to the very top of the mountain to visit a beautiful lookout point.  Here's the proof:

We then went back down and took the cable car on the other side of the island to the top, and rode wicker toboggans back down.  This mode of transport has been used since the early 1800s. It's more or less a tourist attraction nowadays since most people have cars, but it is so much fun!  

That's our ship in port.  It was ginormous!

And I have no idea who those people are, I just really wanted a picture of the sled in action.

Our next port was Santa Cruz, Tenerife which is part of the Canary Islands.  It is a very quaint island with not a lot of touristy things to do.  It was also the day after carnaval so things were pretty quite. Mom and I spent our time roaming the city, being amazed by cool street performers like this: 

The next island we visited was Arricife, Lanzarote, another port in the Canary Islands.  This was my favorite port of them all, and I can't quite pinpoint why.  It was so picturesque, warm, and just nice all around.  

Our next port was Malaga, Spain.  We didn't actually spend much time in Malaga for we had another tour booked, but we visited the Caves of Nerja, and the small town near it.  It was so cool and beyond explanation, and picture truly do the caves no justice.  They were discovered only in the 1950s by five children who were playing in the area and fell through a sinkhole leading to the caves.  

All in all, the cruise was a fantastic adventure.  We met a few really nice people, and did a lot of catching up and relaxing.  There were many laughs, and many memories made. 

However, the adventure didn't stop there!  On the weekend, Sander and I ventured North to London for a weekend of backwards driving, Broadway and visiting.  

After having some delicious, fresh, fish 'n chips with Mom and Joanne, Sander and I ventured out to the Museum of Natural History and the Science Museum of London.  Following that, we went to the play "The Madness of King George III".  It was a fantastic play, and the theater itself made the experience so much more!

On Saturday, Sander and Vince went to a football (aka: soccer) game while us ladies enjoyed High Tea at Fortnum and Mason  (which happens to be where the Queen and Kate had tea last week).  It was so pretty and girly and absolutely fantastic!

Oh, and while we were out, Joanne got a call on her ridiculously awesome cellphone!

On Sunday, Sander and I embraced our Dutchness (aka: were crazy) and rented bikes to tour the city....in the pouring rain.  It was super fun though, and driving on the wrong side of the road made for a very interesting adventure! 

So that's what I've been up to for the last month or so.  I've been seeing the world and visiting with Mom. =)  I have some travel plans in the works, but for now, I'm looking forward to some down time in Holland.  Sander and I have been so ridiculously busy since Christmas so it'll be nice to just sit back and relax for a bit. 

Wintertime in Holland

I'm aware of the fact that I have only written two entries since I've been back, and one was about my time in Canada.  I apologize, but you must understand that life here, as exotic as it may seem, doesn't contain much blog worthy excitement.  So, as a compromise, I'll offer you this website.  I've linked you to my personal favorite, but I urge you to check out some others, especially hagelslag, and not owning curtains (which happens to be one of my favorite Dutch traits, for it makes going for an evening walk through a rich neighborhood as exciting as sitting down and watching a good TV program).

As you may have heard, a "cold snap" has swept through Europe, and Holland has a whole 7cm of snow!  Honestly, I'd love to see their reaction to a real cold snap of -45 and a real blizzard leaving behind 37cm of snow, but nonetheless, this is a big deal for them, and it has left the entire country in a frenzy.  Aside from the crappy trains that can't handle a single snowflake, the hottest topic right now is The Elfstedentocht.  It's a 200km speed skating race through 11 cities in Northern Holland and it's all done on natural ice.  It's really rare for it to happen because it's not often that it gets cold enough for the ice to be thick enough.  The last race was in 1997, and there has only been 15 races since 1909.  The officials have met this year, and they're pretty tight lipped about whether or not it'll actually happen, but I think we're heading in the right direction.  There is currently 11cm of ice and the cold weather is supposed to stick around until next week sometime.  I'm not going to get my hopes up, but I'm even excited about the prospect of it!

And now for your visual pleasure, here are some snapshots of winter in Holland, and my friend Flores (whose name might actually be spelled Floris, but I'm not really sure....).

(random note: the thumbnails are in nauseatingly poor quality.  Click the pictures to view them all in a decent size and quality.  Please, just do it.)

you're in the loop

If I were to tell you this post is going to be super exciting, I'd be lying.  So here's my disclaimer: this is simply a post to keep everyone in touch with my Holland adventure-- the exciting parts and the boring parts.

Since returning to Holland, I haven't been up to a whole lot.  Actually, I think it's be safe to say I've been bored senseless this last week.  Kristel and Jerry have been very busy with work, so I've been tied to the house all week, often putting the kids to bed.  

Though I'll admit, I had one noteworthy adventure this week, I drove!  It was not only a big deal because it was my first time driving in Holland.  It was a huge deal because it was my first time driving in Holland AND I just happened to be driving a really really really expensive car.  A Jaguar to be more precise.  My job was to get from Central Station to my house, which is one road all the way there.  But crazy traffic circle like intersections combined with rain, darkness, and nerves led to me being in the wrong lane, thus going away from where I wanted to be!  After I found a place to pull over and have my mini panic attack, I turned on the navigation system (had it off because gosh, I only had to go in a straight line, not to mention I bike that route at least twice a week).  Eventually, I got home in one piece via some obscure route I didn't even know existed.  Needless to say, I have gained a whole new appreciation for my bicycle.

Christmas in a Nutshell

Hello from Holland!  I'm back to the land of good cheese and bicycles for part two of my adventure.  Being home for Christmas was one of the greatest gifts ever.  To those of you I didn't have a chance to visit, I'm terribly sorry!  And those of you I had the chance to see, thanks for putting up with my tight schedule.  Two weeks really isn't enough time!

As tradition, we spent Christmas Eve at Baba and Gido's indulging in to-die-for Ukrainian food. 

Baba, the amazing cook who had been slaving away two days prior to the Christmas feast, and Gido getting ready to eat his favorite meal of the year. 

Then, following tradition, Christmas morning started out with all of us in our pyjamas.  This obviously resulted in people being reluctant to being photographed, but I managed to sneak a few.  

And eventually people started to cooperate with my snap happiness.

The rest of Christmas was full of good food, family time and Ukrainian Caroling (thanks Volya for not only one, but two nights of awesomeness!)

New Year's was spent fonduing with this lovely gang.

We brought the New Year in with amazing style and even more amazing hangovers the next day.

The rest of my holiday was spent doing random things like finally towing the Hoff out to the cabin so Hope could have her driveway back.  That adventure ended a bit abruptly when the trusty van decided to gulp up every ounce of gasoline left in his tank.  No injuries this time, but we ended up having to push him into his resting ground.

Sander and I also made a trip to the mountains to try out our new snowshoes.  It was quite the adventure to say the least.  The unseasonably warm winter forced us 50km up icy, windy mountain roads for our snowshoe hike, which normally isn't a big deal unless your car breaks down and you have no cellphone reception to call for help.  So, we hitchhiked our way down with a nice old couple from California, and with a stroke of luck ended up catching Kendel and Katelyn just as they were passing through Banff!  Fortunately, they were able to rescue us.  Unfortunately, that forced us to cancel our second hike, only leaving us with a small taste of this winter in the mountains.  

After a whirlwind of a holiday, Sander and I made our way back to the Netherlands.  We had a wonderful (sarcasm) flight back with the Czech world junior hockey team (they were nursing their bruised egos with a little too much alcohol), and are both ridiculously jetlagged, but it's good to be back in Holland.  I have many adventures to look forward to (including a cruise with Mom!), and hopefully a few visitors too!