Holland Post Een

Look at that, five days in Holland and I'm already speaking typing Dutch. (Een=One, btw) Well we got here safely. We just got internet in our apartment today and I'm thrilled. I feel like I can actually live here now! :) It's eight hours later in Holland than in Utah so it's about 1:30 am here. Glade is the one that has struggled the most with the time difference. He's wide awake and thus I have to be as well. Last night he had his best night and finally cashed in at 3 am.

Anyway, I don't really know where to start. This will take a few posts to get you all caught up. Either that or one REALLY looooooong one. So I'll just start from Thursday morning...

We had to be up at 5 am and didn't get to sleep until around 2:30 am. We got ourselves and the boys ready and Jarom's mom picked us up and we loaded our 5 large bags, 4 carry-on bags, 2 carseats, 1 stroller and 2 precious boys in her suburban. She drove us to the State Capitol because of course we couldn't just make this "easy" on ourselves and we had to get our birth certificates apostilled before flying. I accidentally shipped my birth certificate and our marriage license so I've been trying to get an extra copy of those and get them certified and apostilled from across the country. Ugh headache...and headache #2...our basement in Utah flooded. Lovely. One day at a time I suppose.

Okay, back to Thursday...we got to the airport and checked in and did all that fun stuff. I wish I would've taken a picture of Jarom trying to push all our luggage on one of those $2 carts. It almost tipped several times and I couldn't help but snicker and try to walk faster so it looked like I wasn't with him. I know, I'm such a supportive wife! The first flight we got stuck in the plane for 45 minutes before it took off but thankfully Jimmy was excited and Glade fell asleep. I was the lucky one and got to sit in between the boys while Jarom sat across the aisle. While we were waiting to take off Jimmy said, "Uh oh, the pane not working again. It need gas!" The boys were really good and Jimmy was very excited about all the fun things we had packed in his backpack (thanks Emma, Brittney & Mom Higley). At one point he looked at me and said while grinning, "Mommy, I SO lucky!" What a cutie. Both boys were incredibly good. They both had their moments but thankfully it was still at times enjoyable.

Waiting for plane #1 to take off.

Because our first flight was delayed we almost missed our second one. We were supposed to have a nice layover so we could have time to change the boys, let Jimmy run around and get something to eat. Instead we rushed through the Ontario airport. When we checked in they said the only four seats left were all separated from each other. Thankfully they moved people around and we all sat by each other. Although it may have been more relaxing to sit by myself and pawn my boys off on a few other lucky passengers! Our first flight was close to four hours with the delay and our second one was just over seven hours. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The boys slept off and on (Glade more than Jimmy) and we had a lot of things to keep them entertained. I felt bad that the person sitting in front of Glade couldn't recline her seat at all because of his carseat. She was a good sport and that made me feel even worse. Poor girl. I was disappointed because when we flew to Holland a few months ago we had our own personal TV's on the longer flight. This one we didn't. I was counting on that to help keep Jimmy entertained. That kid loves TV.

We arrived in Holland and it was Friday at 7 am Holland time. There was an arranged taxi to pick us up so we wandered around until we found him and loaded everything in the taxi. Both boys were just enthralled with the busy city. They both just stared out the window almost the whole way to our apartment/hotel which was about an hour. In the taxi, Glade was very intrigued by all the people, cars, buses, metro, noise...of the city.

We are staying in an apartment that is owned by a hotel. It's much bigger than I expected and it's already starting to feel like home...well, as much as it could at this point. I'm planning on taking pictures of the apartment tomorrow so stay tuned. We've walked to the store a few times and it's reallly quite close. It'll be tricky going alone with two little boys though. I have to push the stroller there so I can get the boys there without having to carry them. I can't really push the stroller and a cart so I'll just have to carry my things I suppose...maybe I can balance a basket on top of my stroller? I can only buy as many groceries as I can carry/stuff in the stroller basket. Needless to say I have yet to attempt the grocery shopping without Jarom. In front of our apartment after shopping trip #1.