New Places, New Year

Quite a bit of time has passed since our last blog post. Like most of you, we have been very busy with the holidays and the travel that comes along with it.

The weekend before Christmas Tracy was in London to see Leslie and Guy. She had a wonderful time walking the streets and seeing all the sites. It was especially beautiful since all the shops and buildings had Christmas lights and decorations up. Tracy was amazed at the size of London, you could definitely spend weeks and weeks exploring and still not see everything. Leslie and Guy were wonderful tour guides and it was so fun to see them both!

Upon returning from London on Sunday evening what Tracy really needed was a good night of sleep before piling into the car to head south to Eindhoven on Monday. We were invited to spend Christmas with the kids and Marja and Maarten. What she got was a 2:30 am wake up call because the Seahawks were facing the 49ers in Sunday Night Football. This was the first Seahawks game we were able to watch since we left Seattle. We watched the game with a pizza and toasted the Hawks victory with a fine Belgian beer before heading back to bed.

We spent Christmas in Eindhoven with the Koopmans/Weisbeeks. It was great to see the kids again. We missed our own families and our traditions but it was wonderful to be in a full home and experience a Dutch Christmas. Marja and Maarten spent hours in the kitchen creating an amazing meal and we spent hours playing games, doing art projects, and helping the kids with an entertaining Christmas cookie sale.

New Years Eve in Amsterdam is 4th of July in the United States on steroids. We were advised that the city is like a "war zone" as midnight draws near. Not only are there organized fireworks shows in the city, but seemingly everyone is lighting off bottle rockets and other very loud fireworks wherever they please throughout the entire day. In fact we heard fireworks in our neighborhood every evening for a week leading up to NYE and for the week following. We figured "when in Rome" and decided to brave the streets. We had dinner at a nice Mediterranean restaurant along a canal where we had a view of people across the canal lighting off fireworks from their third story apartment and then tossing them out their window. After dinner we stayed at the restaurant for a private expat party to ring in the New Year. It was a rainy and windy evening which probably kept the fireworks to a bit of a minimum and many of the revelers indoors. We made it to just past midnight and then headed home. We were welcomed back to our apartment by dozens of people still in the streets in front of our building lighting off fireworks. Once they ran out they resorted to just lighting garbage on fire to create a small bonfire in the middle of the street. It definitely made for an entertaining evening.

The bonfire in front of our apartment. That is a police car to the left of it. He just drove right on past.

After a single day of work in the new year for Nick, we decided it was time for a vacation. So we packed up and boarded the train for Paris. A few hours later we were checked into our beautiful hotel and were ready to see the sights and stroll the streets in search of Steak Frites. We joined Leslie and Guy for three nights in the City of Light and of course Paris did not disappoint. Among numerous other sites, we walked the Seine, climbed the Eiffel tower and descended into the Catacombs. We of course left ourselves enough to see during a return trip or two in the future. We'll be back in Paris in early March for the Paris half marathon. Seeing the always traffic clogged streets of Paris cleared out for 50,000 runners should be quite the site.

We had a foggy day for our Eiffel Tower visit.

Eiffel Tower light show.

The view from our hotel room. Right in the heart of Saint-Germain des Pres.

This past weekend we participated in the Egmond Halve Marathon. Which provided us with a number of firsts. It was Tracy's first half marathon in over a decade, it was also the first time we've been to the beach here. It is not uncommon for the Dutch to hit the beach year round on a sunny day "just to have the wind blow through their hair". Well, the wind was blowing through our hair. It was also a cool 25 degrees F before the windchill. We did luck out though and it was a beautiful sunny day, despite the cold temperatures. The run was unlike anything either of us had ever done. After a few kilometers in the village of Egmond, with plenty of supporters lining the streets and their balconies, the pack descends onto the beach for 7 kilometers along the North Sea. At the halfway mark the runners make their way to a path in the dunes to return to Egmond. Despite the cold temperatures we both enjoyed the run and are looking forward to continuing our training for Paris and other runs.

As wonderful as 2012 was to us, we are very excited for what adventures 2013 holds. We know it will be a year filled with travel, work challenges and triumphs, new experiences, new friends, and visits from friends back in the U.S. We can't wait! Happy New Year everyone!

The Holiday's

Sorry for our long absence from the blog. We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and are surviving the build up to Christmas and the New Year. We will try to catch you up on what we have been doing this past month.

We celebrated our Thanksgiving together the Saturday after. We made a grocery run to the Kings Market near our apartment, which sells some "specialty" American and British food. There we were able to buy some stove top stuffing (for 4 euro a box!) and other ingredients that we needed to complete our Thanksgiving feast. They had frozen turkeys for sale, but we opted to go with a small chicken instead. The turkeys were about 27 euro for a 7lb bird. Way too much food for just the two of us and much too expensive. Plus, we were unsure how well our microwave/oven was going to do in roasting a whole turkey or chicken (turns out it did a fantastic job on our small whole chicken). The only ingredient that we were unable to find here were the fried onions for the top of our green bean casserole. We tried using some panko bread crumbs instead to give it some crunch, but it wasn't the same. I think we were both glad that we took the time to make a Thanksgiving meal and celebrate in our own way. This adventure has really shown us how lucky and thankful we are to have such a wonderful family and friends.

On the topic of being grateful, Tracy found a job just before Thanksgiving. She is going to be a nanny for 6 month old twins (a boy name Milan and a girl named Laia). It will be a full time job, but hopefully the schedule will be four 10 hour days, Monday-Thursday. The mom has some flexibility in working from home and wants to have some days with the kiddos by herself. They live four tram stops from us and right next to our gym. So it is really close and convenient. It will be a much different change of pace from what Tracy is used to. But the kids seem wonderful and she is very excited to once again be employed! She has worked a handful of days here and there since Thanksgiving and the family is now back in the U.S. for the holidays. But she will start full time in January after we are back from Paris.

Nick continues to enjoy his new office. His Dutch co-workers have taught him a few Dutch phrases to aid in his integration. He's made progress in many of the areas he had hoped to and is optimistic about finding the right new hire or two soon. 

We've had some beautiful days here earlier this month. It snowed off and on for a good week and a half, which made for some really pretty scenery. It has warmed up quite a bit, so now we're experiencing typical Seattle weather here. Rainy and dreary. We have noticed that it doesn't rain all day long here, like it can in Seattle. The rain will move in and then stop. 

Early morning snow fall.

We have done some more exploring of Amsterdam and the Netherlands. The other week we went out to dinner at Tempo Doloe. An Indonesian restaurant that was featured on Anthony Bourdain's tv show. We were very impressed. The waiter we had was really friendly and walked us through what we should order. We ordered a rice table (which is what they are famous for) and the ajam di boeloe (chicken in basil sauce). Both were delicious. The spicy dishes in the rice tables are no joke though. They are spicy! 

Two Saturday's ago Nick had his work Christmas party. It was quite a bit different than the corporate holiday parties in Seattle. It was a casual occasion held at a bar not too far from our apartment which made for a great way to get to know his co-workers outside of the office environment. Plus he walked away with a panini maker and an Ipod dock. Coupled with the open bar, he considered it a successful evening.

While Nick was at the Christmas party Tracy met up with Bridget, one of the ladies she has become friends with through Amsterdam Fit. Bridget lives in the Jordaan, a neighborhood located in Amsterdam to the west of all the main canals. They first went to a cocktail bar called Vesper. It was a really cute small space that specializes in nothing but cocktails. The cocktails were delicious! After Vesper they went to a cafe called Scout for a couple more drinks and some bitterballen (the perfect drinking snack). It was a very fun evening overall. 

Last Monday our ocean cargo shipment finally arrived. It actually got here earlier than we had expected. So that was a great surprise. Also a pleasant surprise, everything made it in one piece, despite some beat up looking boxes. It's great to have some of our stuff from back in Seattle. Mainly, sharp kitchen knives, the dutch oven, and warm winter running gear! Rocky is loving that "his" two big pillows have arrived as well. Now he has multiple beds in each room. He uses them all. Such a spoiled cat.

Some of our boxes that arrived.

We were ready to get into the Christmas spirit and had been toying with the idea of jumping on the train and heading to Cologne to check out the Christmas markets. As the weekend approached we just had too much going on to make the trip worth it. After a little research we discovered a Christmas market in Dordtrecht, a town in the Netherlands just outside of Rotterdam. We decided that we would take a small road trip Saturday afternoon to check it out. After talking to Bridget at AMS Fit Saturday morning she opted to join us for the festivities as well.

After a little more than an hour journey south in the car, some searching for the free park and ride, and waiting in line to catch the free shuttle bus, we finally arrived at the Kerstmarkt. We were definitely impressed by the size of the market and the crowds. It was located in a really pretty part of town as well. Most of the booths were lined up on the canals with gorgeous houses on the other side of the street. There was a wide range of stuff for sale in the booths. Some had cute crafts that people had obviously worked hard to make by hand. Other booths had stuff that you might expect to find at garage sales. It was fun just to walk around and take it all in. We of course, purchased some warm gluhwein to sip as we walked around.

One of the busy streets in the market.

The church in Dordtrecht. The market was centered around it.

In other news, we got our wedding pictures back earlier this month. If anyone is interested in them let us know and I can send you the link and password. Here's one of our favorites. Both sides of the family and ALL the kiddos. We love it!

We are sending out Christmas cards, but made the mistake of ordering them from Snapfish U.S. Apparently an international delivery can take up to 25 days. So our cards might be Happy New Year cards instead. But we haven't forgotten you!

The last two weeks around here

We thought we'd share what we've been up to lately.

Nick traveled to Paris two weeks ago for work.

Nick and Aaron, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

While Nick was in Paris, Tracy traveled to Eindhoven to spend more time with Philine, Niels, and Danique. She was there for Halloween and volunteered to help out with Danique's class Halloween festivities. She wasn't sure what to expect as we had heard that Halloween is not as big of a deal here. There are definitely no pumpkins or household decorations to be found. But all the parent volunteers at the school did a great job decorating. There aren't as many options for buying costumes here, so there were a lot of skeletons (boys) and witches (girls). Niels definitely was unique in his Commander Cody (Star Wars) costume from the U.S. Danique was a cute space girl and Philine was a spooky witch. All in all it was a very fun holiday!

Danique and her friend.

Danique's class, all dressed up.

While Tracy was down in Eindhoven she had some time to explore the city. There is a huge shopping center in the city center, with numerous stores to explore. She also checked out the Van Abbemuseum, which was recommended by several people. The museum itself was a really unique building. The art was a little bit over Tracy's head. Modern and contemporary art is not something she understands or knows how to appreciate. But it was interesting to check out. Perhaps she's even becoming more cultured!

Van Abbemuseum

Tracy had a wonderful time down in Eindhoven and is grateful that she can continue to spend time with the kids! She will be heading back down next week to help out for a few days while Maarten is out of town on a ski trip.

That Friday night, we were treated to a very nice dinner by Nick's boss Aaron. It was Aaron's last night here before heading back to Seattle. It was very generous of him and great to see a friendly face! We haven't been impressed with the food here, so were a little unsure about where to go. We consulted Yelp for restaurant choices in Amstelveen and were pleasantly surprised by what we discovered.  We went to BarRestaurant which was a quick drive from our place. It had a very modern feel and located right on the Amstel river. We will definitely be returning.

Last week brought some long work days for Nick as they are making progress on interviewing people. Tracy was busy broadening her job search. She opened up her search to nanny jobs, as it is clear jobs are still hard to come by here. She's had a couple good interviews with a couple more scheduled. Hopefully something will be a good fit and she can start working soon. She's finding it rather boring not working.

Last Friday night we attended an Expat Meet Up at a restaurant in Amsterdam. It was fun to get out of the house and talk and meet other people. It was really interesting to hear different stories about what brought people to Amsterdam. It is apparent that it is a transient city where people are constantly moving to and from.

View back on the city from Openbare Bibliotheek.

Saturday was another low key day. We made our daily walk up to the Albert Heijn to grocery shop for the weekend. There is really only one choice for grocery stores in Amsterdam and that is Albert Heijn. They are everywhere. We have three of them in Amstelveen. The one in the basement of the mall seems to have the best selection so we tend to frequent it the most. There is a Kings Market that is just down the block from us that "specializes" in stocking U.S. products that you can't find anywhere else. Color us unimpressed. We bought a box of Lucky Charms there for Tracy to take down to the kids and paid 6 euro for it. Overpriced is an understatement. We have been pleasantly surprised that groceries in the Netherlands are cheaper than they are in the U.S. But so far they are the only thing that is cheaper.

Saturday evening we were finally able to Skype with Tracy's parents. It was wonderful to "see" them and cute baby Kate!

Sunday we ran in the Olympic Stadion 5k. We lucked out and it was a beautiful sunny morning. Part of the run was along a canal with some of the cutest houseboats that we have seen here. It was a lot of fun!

Finish line picture

Nick took off Sunday afternoon for a few days of work in Norway.

Kristiansand, Norway

We are settling into our life here and establishing some daily routines. We are really excited for our Paris trip in January and have started to think about the other places we want to see while we are here. We are very thankful for this opportunity to see Europe. But we miss all of you back at home, especially our cute nieces and nephews that are changing daily. I don't think we ever imagined that the beginning of this adventure would make us as homesick as we have been. But we know that in the end and after time it will be worth it and will get better! Thank goodness for Skype!

Fall Back

A week of firsts for us here in Amsterdam. On Monday morning we completed our second to last step of the immigration process and registered at city hall. Apparently one must register in their municipality whenever they move. On Tuesday we received confirmation from our immigration attorney that Tracy was finally legal to work. We have to hand it to the Dutch, they are nothing if not efficient. Tracy's work permit came through right when they said it would.

Tracy attended an Expat meetup group luncheon on Friday that was held at a restaurant on the 7th floor of the Amsterdam Library. It was a great time where she met a lot of friendly women. It was very encouraging to have such a great experience at the first one of these gatherings. It ended up being a beautiful day to walk around the city as well.

Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam

We awoke to a beautiful blue sky and sunshine on Saturday morning. Cool and crisp doesn't really do it justice, it was flat out cold. Despite the morning sun Nick's hands still turned to ice cubes on his morning run.

The weekends bring us the opportunity to really get to know the city. So despite the cold temperatures (5 C with a windchill of -1 C), which allowed Nick to use his new down coat for the first time, we headed into Amsterdam. We were prepared to stand in line in order to get into The Rijksmuseum but luckily for us the sunny weather was keeping other people outdoors. The Rijksmuseum is the State Museum of Amsterdam. It's filled with art from the beginning of Dutch settlement through the Golden Age. The real draws at the Rijks are Vermeer's The Milkmaid and of course the Rembrandt's. Unfortunately The Milkmaid was on loan to a museum in Egypt but the Remrandt's more than made up for it. The Nightwatch is arguably Rembrandt's most famous painting, it's so large it commands its own room at the museum. We'll be the first to admit we are not art buffs and neither one of us took art history in college but seeing these works up close is pretty special. We look forward to visiting the other museums that Amsterdam has to offer, including the Van Gogh and Stedelijk. We also look forward to sharing these experiences with visitors (hint! hint!). 

After the museum we decided to join everyone else and enjoy the sunny afternoon strolling the streets. We did some window shopping along Amsterdam's equivalent of Rodeo Drive and then walked through part of Vondelpark, which is comparable to Central Park. We found a cafe for lunch just in time, as what appeared to be wet snow or sleet began to fall as we were sitting down. The restaurant was nice enough to provide "entertainment" for our meal. By entertainment we mean random music videos from the past 30 years played on mounted flat screens. We have not quite figured out what is going on with the music scene here but there is probably a reason you don't hear of many famous Dutch music groups/acts.

The Rijksmuseum

I amsterdam letters (there is always huge crowds around these wherever you find them) with the Rijksmuseum in the background.

Museumplas on a gorgeous day.

Sunday brought daylight savings time for us and more morning sunshine and chilly temperatures. We're not complaining though, the first half of October has been one of the wettest on record for Amsterdam. We'll take cold and sunny any day. As both of us will be travelling this week, we treated ourselves to a late breakfast, and began to prepare for the week ahead. Tracy will be heading to Eindhoven for a few days to spend time with Marja, Maarten, and the kids and Nick is off to Paris first thing Monday morning for work.

We also booked our first side trip this weekend! We will be going to Paris in early January to meet up with Leslie and Guy. We are over the moon excited to see them and to see Paris!

An update...

We spent the week settling into our apartment and getting the lay of the land around our neighborhood. We decided that on Saturday we would head to Ikea to pick up the few extra things we needed around the apartment. Mainly we wanted to buy some big coffee mugs. Everyone drinks from tiny little espresso mugs in Europe. That just doesn't cut it in the morning for us. We need our giant cup of coffee!  There are Ikeas all over the Netherlands. So we were able to find one a few kilometers away. It was pretty much the same layout and the same Saturday chaos that you would expect at the Southcenter Ikea. We found it amusing to pick out all the furniture and decorations that are in our apartment. Pretty much 99% of it is Ikea stuff. After wandering through Norwegian furniture paradise and picking up a bag of meatballs we headed home. We only managed to get lost once on our way back.

After an early dinner (of Ikea meatballs) we decided to head out and check out a couple bars in Amsterdam. So we hopped on the tram and headed for De Pijp (a neighborhood we had heard a lot of good things about in Amsterdam). After wandering the streets for a bit and realizing that we can't trust the navigation on Nick's new phone (or don't quite know how to use a phone that isn't an iphone), we finally found a great restaurant to slip into for a drink. The de 3 vrienden looked so inviting from the outside we just had to go in for a drink. We saddled up to the bar and were greeted by the owner of the restaurant. We struck up a conversation with him over a couple of beers and learned more about De Pijp and some of the other places we need to visit while we are here. About a week ago our friend Kayla recommended that we visit the town of Giethoorn, which is referred to as "The Venice of the North". It is a town that has no roads and cars, the only way around is by boat in the canals. The owner of the restaurant made the same recommendation, so it has made our short list of places to see in the Netherlands. The menu at the restaurant looked really good and he was so hospitable that we will definitely be heading back there sooner than later.

As we made our way back to the tram to head home, we popped into the Kingfisher Cafe for one (or two) last drinks. The Kingfisher reminded us of a Capitol Hill type venue, only with fewer hipsters. The place had a great vibe, we will definitely be back.

The city was not as busy as we had anticipated for a Saturday night, but we thought perhaps it had something to do with the Amsterdam marathon which took place Sunday morning. We came to find out that the reason De Pijp was so dead that evening was because there was a world famous deejay event going on in downtown Amsterdam. Apparently there was a three day dance event that weekend where deejay's from all over the world come and perform at all the clubs in Amsterdam. We were bummed to have missed out on it as Nick really wanted to get his groove on. Next year for sure!

Sunday was a lazy day for us. We have discovered a huge park about a mile and half away from us. It is called De Braak. There are trails all around and throughout the park. So we have both taken to running there. It feels nice to be able to do some trail runs instead of running on busy streets.

This week we joined a group called Meet Up. It is a way for us to meet other expats and do and see fun things around the city we might not otherwise do. Tracy is going to a ladies lunch social on Friday and we have a couple events that are just drinks out on Friday evenings coming up as well. We're really hoping it will be a good way to meet people around here. Tracy also joined a running group called Amsterdam Fit. They are a group that meets and trains for the Paris, London, and Amsterdam marathons and other fun runs. And again, hopefully it will lead to meeting people with similar interests. Nick has promised to join on some of the training runs. But we all know running comes a little easier for him than Tracy!

We also found a really nice gym that is not too far from our apartment. It is on the tram line that runs near our neighborhood and once we get bikes it will be a quick bike ride. It is called Club Sportive and absolutely has a club-like feel to it. Tracy went in for a work out this morning and could barely hear her ipod over the loud music being played in the weight room.

We have definitely made progress this last week in attempting to build a network outside of work and outside of our home. But we still miss Seattle, our friends, and our families very much!

Sorry, but no pictures for this post. We've been bad about the camera this week.

I'm not a tourist...

So we're just over two weeks into our new adventure. We've figured out the grocery store, we have a dutch bank account, and we've secured an apartment. We are definitely not on vacation. We were feeling a bit guilty that our first and only trip into the city (together) was two weeks ago. So today we decided we would spend the day further exploring our new home, despite the 8 degrees Celsius temperatures and constant threat of rain. There is a tram station which is a convenient five minute walk from our door, which has a tram that takes us straight into the Centraal Station in Amsterdam. We needed to go to the Centraal Station to pick up our Amsterdam Holland Passes, which we had purchased online last night. The Amsterdam Holland Pass is a discount card that provides free or discounted entry into museums and other attractions throughout the country.

Without fail we arrived among the hordes of tourists descending on the city for the weekend. What makes us different than these people we thought? Well, first and foremost we weren't packing bags and secondly, we were prepared for the rain (of course native Seattle-ites never leave home without a raincoat). Oddly enough, we have noticed that the Euros seem to love themselves suede and leather coats, despite the torrential downpour. After picking up our passes successfully and navigating the streets like seasoned veterans, the most important decision lay ahead. What museum would we visit first? Although many of the museums are spread throughout the city, the Museum Quarter, houses many of the city's top artistic attractions. The area houses five museums and a concert hall, all in very close proximity, including the Van Gogh Museum. We decided to dip our toes into the shallow end of Amsterdam's culture pool and visit the Heineken Museum first. Culture and drinks, sign us up!

Not surprisingly the Heineken Experience was well attended on such a dreary day. We were actually quite surprised by the length of the self guided tour. We spent a solid two hours drinking in, literally, the experience. The tour even included a view of the draft horses, which were used to deliver Heineken to the bars of Amsterdam until the 1960s. Horses two weekends in a row, fancy us! After the tour of the brewery we continued our Heineken adventure with a mini canal tour and a visit to the Heineken Company Store. They take their Heineken very seriously here.

It became evident the weather was not going to lift, so we decided to wander back to the Museum Quarter and grab a bite along the way. Our walk back took us along the Amstel River and past the most expensive hotel in Amsterdam. We were told rooms will cost you 2800 euro per night (breakfast is included). We also walked across the Magere Brug, the current wood bridge is a 20th century replica of the 17th century original, where the mechanical drive was only installed in 1994. As the rain truly began to come down, we ducked into an English Pub for some sandwiches and a beer. We've taken to drinking Palm, although we mistakenly called it Paul upon our first order a few weeks back. Clearly we had not picked up on the Dutch accent yet.

As we exited the pub and headed for the tram stop to head home, it didn't take us more than a block or two to realize that we had wandered in a giant circle and were right back in front of the Heineken Company Store. We're blaming it on the concentric circles the streets run in here, not the three and a half Heinekens before lunch. However all is well that ends well, we found our tram stop and hopped back to head home, warm up, and dry off!

Have we become full-on locals? Not even close, but the tourist in us is starting to wear off. Next week will take us back to the city and deeper into the culture pool.

Flower market along the canal.

Mecca? Close to it on this dreary day.

Don't mind if we do. Beer here is served in metric, but it is still delicious.

Nicest hotel in Amsterdam. Good to know the 2.800 Euro per night includes breakfast.

Theater along the Amstel River

Must be so you can hold a 6 pack.

Eindhoven

This past weekend we packed up the VW and hit the road for a good ol' fashion road trip. We headed all the way to the southern part of the Netherlands. Only an hour and a half later, including a slight detour because the highway/freeway was closed for widening, we arrived in the 5th largest city in the country, Eindhoven. Eindhoven was merely a small village back as early as 1900 but has grown exponentially due to the arrival of Philips, which was founded here. The population is now in the 200,000's.

As we drove further south we noticed more and more farms. Eindhoven has a city center as well as a technology campus but reminded us of Issaquah, as there are lots of trails, woods, and farm land surrounding the center of the city. Maarten, Marja, and the kids live in a very nice neighborhood which is only a ten minute bike ride from the barn they ride at. In fact Philine can ride her bike there by herself in order to tend to her pony. The neighborhood also has a nice small wooded area just across the street from their house where the kids can play.

All of the books we have been reading about the Netherlands claim that Dutch kids are some of the happiest in the world. We have found that children here are given much more freedom than they are in the U.S. They can ride their bikes almost everywhere on their own. On our way out of Aalsmeer on Saturday we were driving behind what must have been a 10-year old boy and his younger brother, who we estimate was no older than 5 or so. They were riding their bikes through town all on their own right down the middle of the street, yet cars yield to bikes here, so you don't really have the same worries about being on a bike, that you do in the U.S. No one here bothers to wears bike helmets either! Since arriving we have probably seen hundreds of thousands of bicyclists, but not one with a helmet (not even the kids).

Once we arrived in Eindhoven we had a little time with just Danique and Niels, as Philine and Marja were still at the barn preparing for Philine's horse show the next day. It was great to have a home cooked meal for the first time in a few weeks. We also very much enjoyed an evening catching up with everyone. It was so wonderful to see how the kids had changed since being back but also how much has remain unchanged. All three of the kids have picked back up the Dutch language. Philine and Niels are even learning to read and write in Dutch at their school.

The next day Maarten, Niels, Danique, and Fudge took us on a mini tour of parts of Eindhoven (Philine and Marja were back to the barn to prepare for the show). We arrived at a wooded area where the kids could dig for pirate gold around the lake and Fudge could chase countless sticks (and small trees) into the lake. We had the place all to ourselves, at least until church let out. Once church let out the area was flooded with other people exercising their pups and their horses. We lucked out and enjoyed a beautifully sunny day! Here are some pictures.

The mini lake

Danique

Niels

Fudge

Yup, we saw this ;-)

After seeing some more sights around Eindhoven (lots of horses) it was time to go watch Philine in her first horse show since moving to the Netherlands. Not to mention her first horse show on her very own pony! She did a wonderful job and we were so happy that we were able to come cheer her on!

Philine and Dancing Girl, getting warmed up before the show

Preparing to enter the arena.

After the show we headed back to the house for some lunch and more play time. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Aalsmeer. We are both adjusting to life here, more and more each day, but it was wonderful to spend some time with "family". Tracy will head down to spend a couple days with the kids at the end of October while Nick is on a work trip. There is also a trip with them to Switzerland in the works for Christmas. We couldn't be happier to be in the same country again!

Tomorrow is moving day for us! No more hotel!!! Woo-hoo!