Enchanting

I was told this past weekend may have been our last nice one this year. I took advantage of the sunshine and walked to a huge park 15 minutes away from our apartment with the little boys. We fed the ducks and the swan pretzels (that's what we happened to have stashed in the crevices of the stroller pockets), jumped in puddles left over from the last rain, ran as fast as we could, gathered sticks and other "goodies" from the brick walkways, tried to climb the massive trees covered in moss, and just basked in the sunlight hoping we would get another day like this before the cold creeps in. It felt heavenly. I was humming Hymns in my head as I watched others ride by on their bicycles. Truly. Enchanting.

"Why hello there Mr Duck."

Glade reached out and took this picture all by himself ;)

Such a sweet baby

Glade hated the grass.

Breaking Sticks...this one was a little too thick!
Can you see his two new bottom teeth?

Every time Glade cries Jimmy says, "His toof is coming in!"

Notice the couple that rides by in the background. My favorite is seeing the babies on the bikes and I also saw a really old couple riding side by side holding hands! Oh, how precious. :)

Jimmy's Wheelies

This movie is dedicated to Grandpa Don (that's where Jimmy got his love of motorcycles) and to Uncle Glenn and Uncle Matt (I believe that's where Jimmy learned this trick). Oh and btw, this movie was taken in Toys 'R Us. I was so happy to find they have one here. Not as happy as Jimmy was though! It takes us about 20 minutes on the metro to get there.

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig...

The little boys and I went to the market last Tuesday. This particular one (in Blaak) is held every Tuesday and Saturday. You can find all sorts of things like fresh fruit, vegies, fish (ew, they stunk), clothes, shoes, watches, jewelry, tv's, couches, candy, cheese and of course flowers! I loved walking by the flower stands. They smelled heavenly. And can you believe that you can buy 20 gorgeous roses for only 6 euros 50 cents? Or large bouquets of flowers for only two fifty? They had 10 kiwis for 1 euro, shoes for 5 euros, shirts for 1 euro, etc.

I only spent 12 euros and got all the following:

Jacket, pants, sweatshirt, hoodie & shirt for Jimmy; watch (with extra battery) for me; two headbands, 12 cookie cutters, & 6 toys to play with in the dirt (although so far we’ve only used them in the tub).

I love the fresh produce (although it is a little annoying that they don't have much frozen or canned food). Check out my carrots I bought at the grocery store. They seriously took up half of my tiny fridge until I chopped the greens off. Oh, and my eggs look like they came straight from the chicken complete with feathers and poop...they may have still been warm! Okay, so they weren't warm but they do just store their eggs on the shelf (not refrigerated) at the store.

Opening up the egg cartons here brings me back to the good Mapleton farm days when my siblings and I would collect the chicken eggs each day (often warm, complete with feathers and poop) while dodging that pesky rooster that Matt eventually got the best of. After collecting eggs we'd be off to feed the horse, cats, dog and cows. My favorite was probably when we had the ducks and also the baby cows that we fed with a bottle. My least favorite were those mean pigs (Amos & Andy)...oh man they were mean! And I never enjoyed cleaning up any of their feces...but who would?

This inspired me today.

Happy Grandparent's Day!

We just wanted to wish all the grandparents out there a Happy Grandparent's Day (yesterday)! This post is for you...thus MANY pictures of the little boys.

Today Jimmy told me he wanted to "Take buggy Grandma's house get a lolly!" I found it funny that he's already starting to use a few new words. They call strollers "buggies" and suckers "lollies." Since Grandma lives a little too far away he settled for a walk to the store complete with a short ride (see video) and two lollies (one for baby).

Here are a few of the other fun things the boys have been doing recently:

Jimmy would spend all day outside if I let him.

Making brownies!

Playing with our two small buckets of toys...can't wait for the remainder of our stuff to get here.

The little boys and I often walk to the city center to get french fries & ice cream. Jimmy finds it hilarious to chase the pigeons.

Sneaking cookies out of the keuken kabinet...too bad for him he's not very sneaky!

And we leave you with:

some typical Jimmy attitude...

a silly face of Glader boy...

and a sweet movie clip.

We love you and miss you so incredibly much! xoxo

Rotterdam Zoo

Saturday we took the boys to the Diergaarde Blijdorp in Rotterdam. It was pretty much just like any other zoo I've been to. Although I felt like we got closer to many of the animals than allowed at the Hogle Zoo. In fact there were some parts where the barriers between us and the animals were very small, short fences...ones in which it seems the animals could have easily gotten over if they wished. One man told us they had a gorilla get out recently. I wasn't too surprised! We had a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. Jimmy's favorite was the "alligator" (actually a crocodile). He loved it when the crocodile opened his mouth to show us all of his teeth. Glade's favorite was all of the fish. My favorite was swinging on the big swings in the play area. I was surprised how big of a play area they had. We were gone about 7 hours total including our half hour walk each way. Fun day!

You must be an American.

I've noticed a few differences between Europeans and Americans so far. Of course I've pretty much only lived in UT before coming here so it may be more of a difference between Utahns and Europeans. Here's my short list that is sure to grow.

You must be an American/living in America if...

1. Free refills are the norm.
2. You think ordering water in a restaurant should be free.
3. You stay inside when it is raining (or at least don't ride your bike).
4. You drive your car across the street to go to church.
5. You think eating plain mayo (not mixed with ketchup) on your fries is weird.
6. You speak only one language.
7. You think it's a good idea for bikers to wear helmets; or maybe even for children on a bicycle to wear one.
8. Your library card is free (at least mine in UT was...it costs approx 30 euros for one here).
9. You can wait longer than three days in between trips to the grocery store (I feel like I have to go almost every day).
10. Unfurnished means no furniture in the house...as opposed to no flooring, curtains or even light fixtures...here in Holland they generally take these out when they move out of their houses leaving them completely empty! If you want flooring and light fixtures you have to ask for a semi-furnished home.
11. You're shocked that you must insert coins into the shopping cart at the grocery store in order to use it.
12. You expect someone else to bag your groceries for you.
13. You did not bring your own bag to put your groceries in.
14. You think a building is old because it's been around for 100 years.

That's it for now. It's fun to notice the differences. We're starting to get more adjusted. It was weird at church to have no nursery class to take Jimmy to. They didn't have a need for one until he came in. Looks like he'll be joining Primary sooner than normal. He seemed to enjoy it. There was no more than 10 kids in the whole Primary this past Sunday. I had to type his papers he brought home into Google Translate to see what he learned about that day!

I planned on going to the store today but alas it is raining and really don't feel up to dragging the boys out in the rain. Plus I'm extremely tired due to the fact that I was up every hour during the night with either Glade or Jimmy (not sure why but hope it doesn't happen again).

I'll end this post with a short conversation I had with one of the guys that works here at the hotel:

Man: How are you liking the weather here in Holland?
Me: It's nice when it isn't raining.
Man: You're sounding Dutch already!