Holland part 2

Here's the rest of the Holland pictures and a few videos.  Every day we spent a few hours with Tony's mother (Oma) and then ventured out so she could rest.  One day we went to a place called Madura Dam.  It's basically a giant model of things in Holland.  It has lots of mechanical parts so things moved and make sounds, like trains and airplanes and a fair.  Unfortunately we went on the coldest day that we were there, but the kids didn't seem to mind. 

 A bird just happened to be hanging out on one of the buildings to give it an interesting scale perspective.

 We hung out in the little restaurant for a while to warm up.

 It was quite an amazingly cool place.  I hope to go back sometime when I'm not shivering!

This is the couple who owns and runs the bed & breakfast we stayed at - Pieter and Simone.  They were very nice! 

We went to a little tiny farm place in the middle of town near our B&B one day.  There were lots of varieties of sheep.  Very interesting for little girls!!

 Pieter from the B&B got the girls some chocolates with Flipje on it.  Flipje is a little boy made of fruit who is like the town mascot.

 Pappa sneaks some snuggles during a nap.  The girls slept really great the whole time we were there.  The woke up at 4:30am the first day we got back!  It gradually got better till they were back to normal after 4 days.

 Fun family time.  That's Melanie's brother Patrick who is 9 months younger than Anton, Tony's brother Will and sister Wilma (Melanie and Patrick's mom).

 Wilma made dinner for us twice while we were there.  It was yummy!!

 The cousins had lots of fun together!

 Patrick and Melanie got out their big tub of Duplo blocks for the 3 little girls.  They had lots of animals which was super fun since we only have the blocks.

 My girls love Duplo!!!

One day I ventured out the store by myself so I could cook dinner at Oma's house.  I thought it was funny to come out to the parking lot and notice how big our little rental minivan looked next to all the other cars in the parking lot.  Gas is $10 a gallon, so everyone drives small cars.  There's always a big row of big SUV's and vans at the grocery store parking lot at home.

Our last day Wilma had a party with some of their cousins.  There were kids of all ages.  They watched some TV for a while.

 The kids spent most of the time on the trampoline.  The 3 little ones got a turn without the big kids a few times.

 There were lots of cousins.  All the adults spoke English really well, so it was fun for me to get to know them.

 Melanie with her dad Patrick.  Will's wife Jamie (Mia's mom) is at the end.

 Back on the plane ride home.  They only slept 1 hour of the 11 hour flight.  We were all happy to get home!!!

Here's another video at Madura Dam...

And some cute ring around the rosy with Mia...

It was really great to spend so much time with Tony's mother and all his family!  What a blessing!

Holland - part 1

We went to Holland for Spring Break to visit Tony's family.  Anton helped us keep the girls busy while we finished packing after church.  He's under the blanket in this picture. :) 

This is our first night.  We ate at a restaurant in this square in the small town where Tony's mom and sister live (Tiel).  My pictures are all out of order...

 

The girls had fun playing with their cousin Mia at Oma's house (that's the dutch word for grandmother).  Mia lives in Colorado, but they are living near Amsterdam for a few months while our sister-in-law works in her company's office there.  It was really fun to spend time with them.

Anton slept alot during the day. :)

Having coffee at a little restaurant near Mia's apartment.

Playing on the bed in Will & Jamie's new apartment (Mia's parents).

The living room

Jumping with cousin Melanie at her house. 

Anton's room at our bed & breakfast...

Artistic picture of Tony's childhood church taken by Anton.  This is in the small city of Bodegraven.

Eating junk food at one of Tony's favorite restaurants in Bodgraven.

More of Tony's church...

Here's the staircase at the B&B.  Most of the staircases in Holland are steep curving staircases like that.  We all got used to it and I don't think anyone fell!!!  Below that is our bedroom at the B&B.  It was great, but there was no dresser so we had to live out of our suitcases (just in case you were wondering about the big mess on the floor)..

More Bodegraven pictures above and below (we only spent 1/2 a day there - sorry the pictures are all over the place).

This is the house Tony was born in and lived in until he was 16.

There was an unusually friendly cat who came to greet us and follow us around for a while.

This pond is between Tony's church and his house, which are only a couple of blocks apart.  Tony used to play here a lot when he was a kid.

The inside of Tony's old church...

A typical old Dutch windmill.

This is at my friend Welmoed's house.  I met Welmoed 10 years ago when I lived down by the Galleria.  She lived in my apartments while she was working at a Dutch chemical company for a few months.  We hit it off, and I showed her around Houston.  She went out on the town a lot with my friends.  She likes to bike a lot, like most Dutch people, and so we went mountain biking alot too.  Anyway, we have stayed in touch, and it just so happens that she lives 45 minutes from Tony's family.  I visited her when I went 5 years ago, and again on this trip.  Her youngest daughter is only about 6 months older than Anna, and the kids had a lot of fun playing together.  Her 7 year old boy had lots of fun playing soccer with Anton.

After dinner the kids got to eat these little pancakes with powdered sugar.  It's a typical Dutch treat for kids called poffertjes.  They ate about 20 of them each!

All our kids together... :)

And there's Welmoed.  It was such a blessing to spend time with her!!

Here's some pictures from the flight over (takes too long to rearrange...)

The girls both slept for about 5 hours.  Emma rolls around in her sleep a lot.  This is what her hair looked like when she woke up. :)

I got them miniature Color Wonder books with markers, and it kept them busy a lot during the trip, especially on the plane.

This is where we ate breakfast every morning at the B&B. 

I'll post a part 2 soon!  It was a really great trip! :)