In September, we were blessed to take an incredible, three week trip to Europe. Kamy and I went back in 2011, but this was the first time Keller and Caden have visited. (Okay, so Caden was in my tummy, but that doesn’t count.)
Last Thanksgiving, we asked Oma if she’d be interested in going to Holland with us in 2014 and keeping the kids while Keller and I traveled around a bit. She literally held out her arm and said, “Go ahead. Twist it.” =) We greatly appreciated her willingness to go. The trip would not have been possible with her! Oma and Opa went ahead of us two weeks early and spent time in France visiting Joan and Mike before meeting back in Wilp. We got to spend three days with Opa before he flew back to Colorado.
Monday, September 1st, nearly the entire family met up at Janny and Frans’ home in Bussloo for a cookout. Everyone had a great time! The cousins all played in the back yard — especially on the go kart thingie. It was Kamy’s favorite! Keller can’t wait to replicate the party at home – everyone stands around and grills their own food while visiting. We had so much fun.
Tuesday we traveled to Arnhem to visit the Open Air Museum. It is a living history museum where they have relocated dozens and dozens of historic buildings to preserve and restore them. It was so neat to see how they were built and used.
They also had some “historic” style toys, including large-wheeled bicycles and a push and pull cart that the kids could play on. There was an elaborate play ground and kids area to mess around with too.
Thursday we went to Deventer to explore the city and market. It is one of the oldest cities on the river and has buildings dating from the 1500s. Oma took us on a tour of the market, down the picturesque streets, in some beautiful churches, and on the river ferry. We also bought a lot of cheese to bring home!
Friday we went to Apenheul – a primate park in Apeldoorn. It was so neat! It is kind of like a zoo, but most of the monkeys can freely roam around the park. You have to put your stuff in zippered bags, otherwise you’ll find little pilfering hands walking away with your stuff! The funniest were the little spider monkeys at the beginning. They will climb up on your shoulders and into strollers looking for things to eat. They were fearless (and fortunately, so were Kamy and Caden!) The monkeys were not really interested in us since we didn’t have a stroller, but the kids were fascinated by the little monkeys running all around. My favorite were the lemurs — their long tails were so beautiful and they could jump so far!
We also got to watch the trainers feed the monkeys and lemurs. Music played over the loud speakers and they all came running. It was quite the dinner bell.
The larger apes were all in areas that were fenced or bordered by water — gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos (like chimps).
If you ask Kamy about her favorite part of the park, she’ll tell you it was the carousel at the end. That girl loves carousels!
Saturday Keller and I took the train from Deventer and went to Germany! We had a fabulous 12 day trip and high a ton of highlights within Germany. But that is a post for another day. While we were gone, Oma and the kids had a great time! My aunts were amazing and helped Oma with the kids all week and kept everyone busy.
Two things stood out as the kids’ favorites — riding bicycles and going to the beach.
The Dutch have long been known as passionate bicyclists. A mostly flat topography, mild summer weather, and small towns makes biking around very feasible, so they all do it. My cousin Barbara was awesome and brought a bicycle, tricycle, and other toys for the kids to play with. The bicycle was the biggest hit! Caden was, of course, very interested in trying to ride it too, so Oma got a second bike at the rummage sale that happened to fall on the first weekend we were there. The kids rode their bikes all the time! They’d go around in circles on the patio, down the driveway between the barns, and down the dead end road behind Great Oma’s house. The other option was to bike down the road to Bussloo — a lake and recreation area a half mile away. There are bike trails all around the lake, so it was a great choice. The kids ended up being super mobile and loved riding the bikes!
We also took them on the big bikes with us — down to Bussloo and into town for ice cream. I loved Caden’s basket!
When they weren’t biking, they were asking to go to the beach. Bussloo has several beaches and the wonderfully warm, sunny, Indian summer weather meant they spent a lot of time there! I failed to pack swimsuits (since the forecast was calling for 60* weather), but Barbara hooked us up with suits. Not that being clothed stopped them from getting into the water. There were many pairs of wet pants! Caden was the worst … when his pants were rolled up he’d squat down in the water and end up with a dripping bottom. There was also a lot of sand in our suitcases when we unpacked at home. =)
The kids found a crop of mushrooms in the grassy area and ran around picking them and then threw them in the water. Who knew mushrooms would be so much fun?
There was even a kid friendly area around the lake a bit with a playground and water pump. The water was waaaay too cold for me, but the kids had a blast playing with Aunt Greet and Keller.
One day, Aunt Alie went with Oma and the kids to Het Loo. It is a palace and formal gardens that is occasionally used by the royal family. The old castle and “wild” gardens are beautiful and we visited them in 2011. This trip they toured the palace, formal gardens, and stables. Kamy had specifically requested to see a palace on our trip (and a ball, but that was a bit harder to arrange!). She loved it! They even took the horse carriage around the grounds.
The kids did awesome picking up some Dutch words while we were there. Thank you, you’re welcome, hello, good bye, cheese, milk, windmill … and their favorite – mushroom (paddestoel)! Fortunately the grand majority of our family speaks great English, so we didn’t really have any problems there. Their older cousin Gijs tried really hard to speak English so they could play together too, and they had a great time running around.
Both kids did amazing on the flights. The flight out was very painless and fast (8.5 hours) and both kids even slept for a couple of hours. Caden had a much harder time adjusting to the time zone though. The poor thing was falling asleep at the table the next day when I woke him up to come eat. It took him two or three days to really adjust. We dropped nap time while we were there, so they both slept long and hard at night.
Except, of course, the night there were fireworks. Caden has always been a lighter sleeper than Kamy, so when the fireworks went off at 9pm, he woke up screaming. Poor buddy! He felt much better once Oma got him and they sat up and watched the rest of the show from the window. They tried to wake Kamy up to see them too, but she was dead to the world. There was a second night of fireworks a few days later, so the kids got to stay up late to watch them.
The flight home was harder on everyone. A delayed departure of nearly an hour, plus a headwind, plus traveling with the day light made for some exhausted kids. Caden fell asleep as we were flying over Texarkana and Kamy fell asleep over Paris (Texas). Caden woke up just before landing and was so tired he was inconsolable. Fortunately we just had thirty minutes before we could get off the plane. He was d.o.n.e. We attempted to do naps at Granpops house that afternoon, but the kids just sat and stared at their dinner before we sent them back to bed for good. =)
Overall we had an amazing time. It was such a treat to spend time with our family over seas. Keller had never met most of them and it had been three years since I’d last visited. Maybe we’ll be able to make it a regular, every three year thing. We’ll see! Until next time … Tot ziens!
