Hup Holland! June 13-17

Gorgeous canals in Delft

So I kind of fell in love with Holland.  I wasn't expecting to.  But I did.  And that had a LOT to do with the wonderful friends we visited there.  Sam and I wanted to incorporate into our trip seeing old friends from our Prague days.  We had already visited with Angie in London, but a big part of the rest of our itinerary was based upon being able to visit more friends.  Our first stop after London was The Netherlands, or “Everlands,” as Sasha called it.  Our friend, Jenny, whom we taught with in Prague, lived near The Hague with her Dutch husband, Victor, and their three gorgeous girls.  They were kind enough to invite us to stay with them for the weekend (which we all realized was definitely not long enough!) and we had such a lovely time.

I had never been to Holland before, and it felt like it was right out of a picture book.  Jenny took us on a few bike rides around town, through forests, and even out to the beach on the North Sea.  Everything is so idyllic – canals lined with lily pads and ducks, fabulous parks for children around every corner, and even an occasional windmill.  But the best part was reconnecting with our friends and watching our five girls play together like they had always been playmates.  It was such a perfect break from busy London, and the girls were so happy to be around friends and toys and fun.  But even for the adults, it felt like hardly any time had passed since we were hanging out with Jenny in Prague.  And though we were just meeting Vic, it felt like we had always known him.  Sam and Vic became fast friends, talking a lot about beer and business!

An afternoon in Delft

The girls amazing bedroom!

Away we go - bike paths went everywhere

Sam gets good with the Bakfiets!

Happy girls

See....such a fairytale!

Evie and Morgan became buddies

Testing the waters of the North Sea

This is the cutest picture ever!

Not that our trip could get better, but it did.  The first night we arrived was also the opening of the World Cup, and Holland was playing.  The neighborhood and towns were decorated with orange and the World Cup was being promoted everywhere, from bars to grocery stores.  Holland was not expected to do very well,  according to Victor, so it was quite a delightful surprise when they beat their opponent with 5 goals!  Needless to say, Sam and Vic had a very fun evening watching together. So not only did we have a fantastic time with Vic & Jenny, becoming fast friends, but coincidentally, Sam had visited Rotterdam (very near to The Hague) a couple weeks before the girls and I arrived in London, where he presented research to a university.  The visit went quite well and they extended an invitation for him to come back, possibly for sabbatical.  Now that we have spent a bit of time in Holland and have awesome friends there, I quickly decided that Rotterdam would be a great place for sabbatical in a couple years!  We will see....

We then spent two nights in Amsterdam, a city I had never been to but had always wanted to visit.  It is truly unique.  Not the most ideal place to take kids, but beautiful and full of history.  But the best part of going there was meeting up with Kim!  She was waiting there for us with snacks and wine and local knowledge, since she had been there a few times before.

Our perfect weather had come to an end (or maybe it was just because we were in Holland), but we had a bit of drizzle and cool weather.  So the first day we started off filling our tummies at The Pancake Bakery.  That is definitely one place where the kids were happy!  A huge pancake with all kinds of sugary stuff on top plus a stuffed animal for the girls.  Good times!  We then took a hop on-hop off canal cruise around the city, which was perfect for little kid legs and perfect for us adults to not have to navigate this watery, circular city!

Crazy sugary fun at the Pancake Bakery!

Yay!  Aunt Kimmy is here!

Amsterdam artist at work

The obligatory playground - only 2 blocks from our flat

We stayed in a one bedroom flat in the Jordaan neighborhood, and found it using Airbnb, which was super cool and so convenient.  The girls checked out Dutch cartoons on TV (Netflix doesn't work in Holland or France it turns out), ate the best apple pie on the planet, and visited a nearby playground.  They got to play happily in a big sand area alongside Dutch kids our second morning, while Sam and I watched our two little world travelers-in-the-making.  There was one funny Amsterdam moment as we walked by an "adult" shop.  Morgan made the comment about some goofy thing in the window, "That guy has a funny nose."  And after being in the city of bicycles, I didn't care if I ever saw one again.  They were everywhere!  I still have no idea how people find their bikes once they park them.

Getting cabin fever on the canal boat ride

More adventures with Mommy and Morgan

The girl just loves shoes of all sizes!

And after a wonderful few days in Holland, our journey continues on the train to Paris!  What a life!

Summer Fun + Friends ... and Spontaniety

This summer has been full of a lot of fun with friends and spontaneous adventures.  Summer is such a great but off-kilter time for me, as I go from the routine of the school year to weeks of vacation, camps, and unstructured days.  It is lovely to have so much time and be able to be outdoors, but it it is hard to keep up with the everyday stuff like laundry and grocery shopping.  I find myself often out on our block chatting with neighbors as our kids run around later into the summer evenings.  It's so nice to have truly kind and easy-going neighbors, and a luxury to be outdoors so much, since in the winter it's not very pleasant to hang outside together.  So I am thankful for these spontaneous gatherings, and try not to sweat it when I walk back into the house and find it is a disaster and there is nothing to make for dinner!  After all, summer should be a break from the day-in and day-out of the rest of the year, even for grown-ups, and I am trying to be more spontaneous the older I get.

We loved having our friend Tony visit, whom we worked with back in Prague ten years ago.  He is originally from the UK and had never been to Portland.  He enjoyed wandering Hawthorne, trying the plethora of local brews, going to a soccer game with Sam, seeing a concert at the zoo, and seeing sights like Multnomah Falls and Timberline Lodge.  It's always so fun to share our beautiful Northwest with new visitors.  Even better was reliving old memories from our days overseas and catching up on all that has happened since.

We also had our friends, the Langhams, come visit from Eugene.  We never get to see each other enough now that we have four kids among us, so it was great to have time to catch up in person, as well as watch our kids play together.  We visited Jameson Square and the zoo, and enjoyed a nice long dinner and conversation in our back yard after the kids were in bed - definitely a treat when you have young kids!

Another spontaneous summer night was spent at Kruger Farm on Sauvie Island.  Morgan and I went a couple summers ago to Farm Tunes, and it was just as fun as I remember this year.  It was even better that Morgan's two best preschool friends, Mira and Lilian, happen to be going that same night, as well as our neighbors and their kids.  It was an amazing, hot summer evening, and being out on Sauvie Island feels like being in another country completely.  I am always amazed at how soothing it is to get away from the city and have the freedom and simplicity of farm life, even if only for a couple hours.  Listening to musicians play, watching the kids run around under the giant farm sprinkler, an itchy hay ride, seeing Morgan soar on an old tire swing, and a gaggle of girls running around picking berries and climbing trees - simple summer fun at it's best!

And somehow after always failing to find weekends to get together, we managed to squeeze in a bit more summer fun with our good friends, Sue and Joe. Sometimes waiting to the last minute is actually a good thing.  So we just returned from a couple nights at beautiful Alki Beach in West Seattle.  The girls adored little Brody and the three of them had as much fun playing, as we had watching them.  Brody is such a sweet little boy, already with such a charming and easy-going personality at age one and a half.  Morgan really wanted to go to the "Space Station," which she was calling the Space Needle at first.  Sasha had zero interest in it but seemed to enjoy having a snack at 500 feet in the air.  We had lots of time to catch up with Sue and Joe, who are expecting baby #2 in a couple months.  Sam and Joe got to go to a big Sounders soccer game, and Sue and I took a nice walk on along the beach.  We also did a group bike ride, with our family in a pedal car, and the Belchers on their bikes.  I never thought I would be seen in one of those things, but it was perfect for all four of us to ride along the water, seeing fish jump, views of downtown, and even a baby seal pup napping on the beach.  What a great weekend and a great summer of friends!

Summer Ain't Over Yet...

Well, technically there are only 2 more days of it, so here's a little bit more of the fun we squeezed in!

The Calles!
My best friend and her family came for their annual visit and we got to share some fun times together: Pink Martini concert at the zoo, visiting the Rose Garden with the kids, swimming at my parents' house, and having a BBQ lunch at our place and watching the kids play in the smallest water park ever (a hose + baby pool + slide).

Ron's Car Show
Papa Ron hosted his annual Cruise-In car show in August, so the girls just insisted on bringing their own cars to show off!  The big highlights for Morgan and Sasha was the "short bus" that was decked out with a flat screen and the amazing recreated 50s diner where the cruise in was located!

Beach Labor Day
We made it down tot the beach for our annual Labor Day weekend, where, as usually, we were treated to some amazing weather.  It was fun spending time with Erica, Roger, and the kids, and Sasha took a special liking to Noah's friend!  It was great watching the kids play, cooking yummy dinners, spending an afternoon at Pacific City, and enjoying the beautiful (early!) mornings on the beach with Sasha (to keep her quiet.