Moving Day!

We had SO much stuff to lug through the airports: 14 bags of luggage, 2 diaper bags, 1 backpack, 2 strollers, oh and 3 kids! Jarom somehow manned all the luggage and I took the kids, one of the strollers, and the diaper bags. It's exhausting just thinking about it all!

Our good bishop gave us a ride to the airport.

Last picture of our kiddos in Rotterdam. After being in the car for about 45 minutes Jimmy exclaimed, "Are we almost there?" We all just laughed!

I know this isn't the best picture, but it brings back memories of saying goodbye and our last few minutes in Rotterdam.

The last windmill I saw. :(

And then the bishop left us alone with all our stuff. I kept thinking, "I have no idea how we are going to do this!"

Jimmy was a good helper, of course. Keep in mind that even that little bag he's pulling weighed 50 pounds! We stuffed each one to their limit.

I don't have any pictures of us traveling because honestly, we were just lucky to survive. I didn't have an extra hand for picture taking. It was the most stressful day ever! The climax was when our connecting flight messed up our tickets and didn't have seats for 2 of us. They said we'd have to hold 2 kids on our lap. After personally delaying the flight an hour they finally got it figured out and found us seats. Our kids were screaming by the time we sat down because it was 3 am Holland time and the flight attendants expected the kids to stand in the plane aisle for 15 minutes while they figured out where to seat us. It was beyond stressful!

These last few pictures I snagged from my sister, Shelley. These were taken from their perspective as they waited for us to arrive in SLC.

I love this one...the anticipation!

FINALLY! We made it!

Lara and Glade. Glade was shy at first but warmed up quickly.

Myra was exhausted and didn't want anyone (except me) to touch her. Can you blame her?

Grandma Higley!

Grandpa Higley!

Grandpa Don!


...and now to get all of that luggage home! It doesn't seem like nearly so much stuff when you spread it out in our home though. It's a relief to have this move behind us.

Our Final Days in Holland

Sadly, our last few days in Holland were quite stressful. I had no idea how much work we were getting ourselves into! Thankfully we had so many generous people help us out. I listed our things online for several months and sold things little by little. That took way more time than I thought it would. Here are some pictures of the last few days when we were living with no couches, no beds, no washer/dryer, etc.

The boys loved sleeping on an air mattress in the family room. I, on the other hand, was glad when we got to sleep on a real bed again.

We had an indoor yard sale where we sold everything else off that we hadn't sold in the weeks prior. We ended up giving away lots of things too (including our nice entertainment center). It was a little discouraging to get rid of things we were planning on buying again as soon as we returned, but it was too expensive to ship everything.


Even the light fixtures were starting to disappear. We even had to rip out most of the flooring before leaving. Such a headache!


Thankfully our neighbors brought over some toys for the kids to borrow. We had already sold or packed all of their toys.

Dishwasher gone, boxes everywhere! Packing was so stressful because we had a certain number of bags we were taking, a certain number of boxes we were shipping, and everything had to fit in just right AND be a certain weight. We spent hours moving stuff from bag to bag or box to box, weighing them again, and then moving more things until everything was just right. I believe all of our bags were right on the weight limit!

This is what our bedroom looked like for the last few days. The piles of clothes by the window are the clothes we wore the last few days. I picked clothes we weren't going to take with us so that after we wore them each day we could just toss them or donate them (since we didn't have a washer any more). I'm so glad these moving days are behind us!

Saying Goodbye

Looking at these pictures has me in tears. Such wonderful memories. Such wonderful people.
I miss these people so much. I miss Holland so much.


Me and Ans (with a stroopwafel of course). I miss stroopwafels too.

Me and Pauli (she was one of the first to tutor me in Dutch).

Jimmy and Amber. Amber's Mom (Jennifer) and I became such close friends. I wish we would've met sooner. We bonded right away. I miss them so much. They are hoping to be able to move back to the states again some day.

Sweet Amber. Don't know why I didn't get a picture of her baby brother, Sam. Or of Jennifer. :(

Saying goodbye to Jimmy's school was sad as well. He started here when he was so little...just 4 years old. This picture is taken of the painting of Martin Luther King Jr, which was done by the students. This was such a great school. Such fond memories of walking to and from school several times each day.

Jimmy and his stool. Is it sad to admit that I cry when looking at this picture too? I'm heartbroken that Jimmy has already forgotten lots of his Dutch. When I speak to him in Dutch he asks me why I'm speaking like that.

juf Melanie

juf Angela

I hope to return and visit Holland again. I miss it so much. I never knew I'd fall so in love with a place and with so many people. What a blessing this opportunity was for our family.

London

We took one final vacation before moving back to the US. We went to London! We left the boys with some good friends and took Myra with us.


Gorgeous parks


Hamley's toy store was so cool! Of course we bought something for the boys. We wished they were there with us for this part of the trip.


Cupid and Jarom


Red telephone booths


Double decker buses (which we sadly didn't ride)


Westminster Abbey


St. Paul's Cathedral


We were surprised at how small the London Bridge was. In fact it took us a while to find it because we were looking for something spectacular!


Myra did a lot of snoozing during the day, all bundled up in her little cocoon. Too bad this meant she did little sleeping at night.


Tower Bridge...so cool! I loved all the colors and details (which are hard to see in this picture).


We went out to eat on Valentine's day and the waitor gave me a rose.


...or did he give it to Myra? She claimed it as hers.


Sleeping was awful. We did very little of it with the little munchkin snuggled in between us. The bed was pretty much the size of a twin. See that tiny space in between Myra and the wall? That's Jarom's. Yep, it was fun! Babies are a good form of birth control. :)


I had to snap a picture of Jarom carrying Myra and the stroller up a flight of stairs. He did lots of this seeing as there were hardly any elevators or escalators leading to the tube/metro.


Big Ben


Big Ben and the London Eye


The beginning of the changing of the guards.


Buckingham Palace




Big Ben from up in the London Eye. Myra got bored really fast. She was not a big fan!


But she was happy again once we were on the ground and she was snuggled up with Daddy.


In the Tower of London


Notice anything unusual about this picture? In London they don't only drive on opposite sides of the road!


Don't let this sweet face fool you, Myra was a little rascal on the long train rides to and from London. We had a great time and were so happy to get back and see the boys again! Thinking of London makes me want to eat fish and chips. :)