Our Alarm Clocks

These two little girls have replaced our alarm clocks. Most mornings we can guarantee one of them will be awake by 7:30, so there is really no need to set an alarm. Every once in awhile Andy has to be into work for an early meeting, so he actually has to set his alarm but that doesn't happen too often. Since we are the kind of parents that let our children be our alarm clocks, the girls and I get to get ready for the day together. Well I'm getting ready Audrey is usually always out in the hallway playing with toys. Rachel chooses each day what she wants to do. Sometimes she stays downstairs to play with her toys and other days she joins Audrey and I upstairs. This morning she was determined for her and Audrey to read books while I got ready. Too bad Audrey was more interested in Rachel's book than the one she had been given. They definitely are cute alarm clocks to wake up to! Although we wish they would understand the concept of sleeping in on the weekends - one day... :)

What to do...

When Daddy's out of town for four days (besides miss him like crazy)...

• Rachel and I made strawberry jam
• I cleaned the house
• I caught up on emails
• We did plenty of shopping
• I planned sharing time
• We had a lazy morning

• We got together with friends
• We attempted to have a picnic dinner at the park until it started raining on us
• I caught up on the blog
• Rachel got a haircut

• We talked to Daddy on the phone
• Rachel checked out her first book at the Dutch library
• We got Rachel ready for Joy School
• Audrey slept for 9 hours straight!
• Rachel and I enjoyed some Vietnamese egg rolls at the Friday Market

Whew, we had a busy four days. Luckily that helped it go by quickly! It probably didn't go by as quickly for Andy - it never does when your sitting in training classes. We are glad he's back home!

Last Beach Day???

I am so dreading our summer coming to an end. It seems like the winters are way too long here and the summers are way too short. It seems like we will be wearing jackets and bundling up any day now. I'm not looking forward to it! So, when Andy suggested for us to take a picnic dinner to the beach on Monday, I jumped at the opportunity. The weather was nice at our place, but as we got closer to the beach we drove into some clouds. We got there by 6 and were able to enjoy the beach for about an hour before it started raining on us. I have probably used the beach umbrella more this summer for rain than sun. Oh well! We made the most of our hour at the beach. Rachel, as always enjoyed herself, and Audrey was quite content to play with her toys. It may be our last trip to the beach this year, we shall see...

It's great to be 8...

...8 months old that is!

Rachel the Photographer

I find random photos on the camera all of the time. Sometimes they can be of the floor, toys, pieces of furniture, etc... Rachel just grabs the camera without me knowing and snaps away. She knows how to turn it off and on, how to take pictures, and how to switch it so she can view the pictures. She's one smart cookie! On Saturday we were just hanging out and Rachel took a picture of everybody - she did pretty good! :)

We certainly love our Rachel and can't stop laughing when she's sporting her goggles:

Playing, Giggling, & Dancing

Andy put things perfectly the other day when he said to Audrey, "Audrey, you'd be the perfect baby if you'd just sleep at night". Audrey is so much fun during the day! She's very easy going. She loves to play, watch Rachel, be on the go, and takes good naps. Now if we could just get her to sleep through the night! :) Here are a few videos of Audrey that I've taken in the past week.

The first one is a perfect illustration of how different each and every child can be, even from the same gene pool. Rachel loved playing with these stacking cups as well, but half the time she wouldn't even let you get them stacked up before she was knocking them down. Audrey, on the other hand, takes her time knocking them down. Sometimes she even tries taking them down one at a time. She has her own unique way!

This second video makes being a parent so much fun. You can do something so simple and yet your child can think it's absolutely hilarious. Audrey reached out to me with a cheerio in her hand, so I opened my mouth for her to put it in. Of course, she didn't give me her cheerio but she thought my open mouth was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.

And the last video is of Audrey dancing away. She is such a good baby and entertains herself so well. She's not crawling yet and I'm in no rush for her to crawl. I love that she just sits and plays and stays in one spot. Audrey's a lot more curious than Rachel ever was, so I'm afraid that once she's mobile I'm going to be kept pretty busy. Don't you just love her moves! :)

California

Audrey and I took a quick trip out to California for my brother Steven's wedding. We left the morning of August 12th and were back home by August 17th. It was too quick of a trip! It was nice to see family, but it would have been nice if we could have stayed a bit longer. The flight was 10.5 hours long and Audrey did really well. She only slept about 1.5 hours of the whole flight, but luckily all those hours she was awake she was in good humor. She really enjoyed playing in her bassinet on the plane, so I didn't have to have her on my lap the whole flight. It made it a bit easier to eat meals that way! :)

We landed in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon and Ken was there to pick us up. Ken and Jenny were kind enough to be my chauffeurs and even put me up for a night in their apartment. On Wednesday we drove down to Gilroy and Jenny had everything set up for us. Audrey got a much needed nap in a crib while Kenny went back to work and Jenny and I got to chat. That evening they humored me by taking me to In-N-Out Burger for dinner and then to the grocery store to stock up on some food products to bring back to the Netherlands. By 9 PM that night we all crashed. I had been up for 24 hours straight, so I didn't have any problem sleeping.

On Thursday Ken had to work, so Jenny and I hit the Gilroy Outlets and Target. I spent way too much money, but I saved us a lot of money as well! :) We then had lunch at Panera Bread. It was so much fun to go shopping with Jenny. After Ken got off work we drove to Fresno and got there right around dinnertime. Thursday night my parents, Jeff, Ken, Jenny, Rachel, Audrey, and I all headed over to the Everett's for dinner. Maureen and her family were in town, so we got to meet her two little ones. It was fun spending some time with the Everett's. We spent a lot of time together growing up - it was almost like they were family. Good memories! While we were eating dinner at the Everett's Audrey was sitting on Jeff's lap and she feel right asleep. She's never done that before! I wish I had had my camera with me...

Friday morning we had a somewhat lazy morning at the hotel. Here's Audrey so exhausted that she doesn't even want to sit up to drink from her sippy cup:

It's too bad she decided to wake up at 5 AM on Friday and wouldn't go back to sleep until 9 AM. Oh well, the poor girl was a bit mixed up. My parents treated Steven, Rachel, Ken, Jenny, Jeff, and I to massages later that morning. It was so nice! My dad even joined in on the fun and got his first full body massage. He was a good sport and I think he even enjoyed it! After massages we had to get some chicken teriyaki bowls - a definite Fresno favorite. Then in the afternoon Jenny, my mom, Audrey, and I did some shopping. While Audrey took an afternoon nap, Jeff took Jenny, Ken, and I on a tour of his house that is being built. We're all excited for it to be finished so we have a place to stay for future Fresno visits! :) Right before dinner Paul, Cristy, Aaron, and Ashlyn arrived. I can't believe how much those two (meaning the little ones!) have grown since March. Friday night the girls all went to a bridal shower for Rachel and had some fun playing games.

The big day was Saturday, August 15th. Steven and Rachel were married in the Fresno Temple. It was a nice ceremony and it was good to be there with family. Here's the bride and groom as they came out of the temple:I snagged Steven for a minute and got a picture with him: Audrey playing with Papa's watch - a definite classic toy:The whole family (minus Steven's Rachel, my Rachel, and Andy) - I think the bride was busy getting her picture taken: My beautiful mother and I: The original 7 - aren't we a good-looking bunch? After taking pictures outside the temple we all met up for a luncheon. I tried to get a picture of Ken and Audrey without them realizing it. Unfortunately since I had to zoom in, it's a bit blurry. Typical Steven - can't even put away the little electronic devices on his wedding day - love you Steve! :) After the luncheon we all crashed at the hotel and took naps. We then got ourselves together for the reception. The reception was beautiful and well-attended. It was the fanciest reception I have ever been to. Rachel did a wonderful job planning the reception! Here's a few pictures of my parents: I have realized that I really need Andy there to take pictures. I didn't take very many pictures and I wish I had taken more. For some more wonderful pictures of the bride and groom you can go to the following website: http://jmasterphotoblog.com/?p=794. Their photographer did a wonderful job. I'm excited to see how the rest of the pictures turned out. Rachel and Steven looked so happy that day. I was glad that I was able to be there to be a part of their special day!

Sunday morning Rachel and Steve were good sports and met up with all of us at the hotel for breakfast. We chatted and didn't want to say good-bye. Finally around 10 AM we packed up my things into Ken and Jenny's car and we were off. I arrived with one suitcase inside of another suitcase and I left with two very full suitcases! Ken and Jenny drove me up to SFO and hung out with us through the horrendous security line. When I finally got through security it was 2:30 and my 747 was taking off at 3:00. So, I got right on the plane and we took off shortly after that. Audrey slept about 4 hours on the plane ride home - so she did a bit better.

Monday morning Andy and Rachel were at the airport to greet me. Andy was so good to let me go and to take care of Rachel while I was away. I had several friends comment on how impressed they were with Andy (he did Rachel's hair every day)! :) My wonderful friend Ruth watched Rachel a few days for us as well, which was very helpful. It made it a lot easier only traveling with Audrey for so short of a trip. Although it would have been perfect if all of us could have gone. :) Hopefully next time...

Prague

We took a quick trip to Prague a few weeks ago. It was kind of weird to go to a country that I could remember when it came into existence. I still remember my 7th grade geography teacher telling us that all our atlases were incorrect. Instead of the country on the map being Czechoslovakia, it was actually the Czech Republic and Slovakia. You remember those pull-down maps the teachers had? I think she had taken a black marker and drawn in the new borders. Anyhow, so it was neat to be able to go to a country that has come into existence in my lifetime.

We flew to Prague on August 6th. We got there around lunchtime and met up with our friends, the Harrells. We did a lot of walking that first day (okay, everyday). We headed to Old Town Square first. On the way we came across some neat buildings and a market that we strolled through. Once we got to Old Town Square we checked out the astronomical clock and then we climbed up (well, I think the guys climbed up and the girls took the elevator) a tower. From the tower we had a great view of Prague, so here are a few of pictures we took from the top:From Old Town Square (you see everything looked really close on the map) we headed to the Jewish Quarter. We didn't end up going into any of the synagogues and for some reason we didn't take a picture of any of the synagogues, but we got a picture of the Jewish cemetery: We then continued walking to the Charles Bridge. We stopped along the way at a little green area. One advantage of traveling with children is you do make sure to take breaks every now and then. The girls had fun stretching their legs a bit. Here's Rachel playing with her friend Ashley: Once we got to the bridge we walked about halfway across it and then headed back to find some dinner, a grocery store, and a metro station. Here are some of our pictures on the Charles Bridge:

After what seemed like a ton of wandering around we found a metro station and headed home. Here's Audrey riding the escalator down to the metro:

The next day we didn't do as much walking, but we definitely did a lot of stairs - especially the guys. We took a funicular to Petrin Hill. Once on top of Petrin Hill we were able to walk through some rose gardens. Here's Ashley and Rachel checking out all the butterflies:On Petrin Hill there's an observatory tower. Ruth and I opted out and stayed on the ground with the babies. Ben, Andy, Rachel, and Ashley climbed up to the top. I have a feeling the guys did a lot of the climbing. Here's a picture Andy took from the top:We then walked down Petrin Hill and made our way to the Prague Castle. We came across various cool buildings:
Here Audrey and I are right outside the entrance to the castle grounds:Once inside we were able to free Audrey from the Beco because Rachel was willing to walk around the castle grounds. Audrey loves being in the stroller...

And checking out the map and telling us where to go next:

We were able to tour through a few of the buildings on the castle grounds, walk through St. Vitus Cathedral, and stroll down Golden Lane. Audrey and Rachel both had their first turns on Andy's back in the Beco. Audrey wasn't too sure of it, but Rachel enjoyed it. She liked being on her daddy's back, just like her friend Ashley was.

After our tour through the castle grounds we found a grass area and the girls enjoyed some wiggle time again. I believe we dined at T.G.I.Fridays on Friday night and then headed back to the hotel for some swimming. I really wish the Europeans would learn how to heat their pools. Luckily the girls didn't seem to mind though and they had fun playing in the pool that evening. On Saturday we took the metro to Vysehrad, a castle built in the tenth century. This area had some beautiful views of Prague. Audrey is the focus of this picture, but the picture underneath shows the background in focus:

Here are the girls having some fun on the steps outside the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul:

After touring through the Vysehrad area we got back on the metro and headed to Wenceslas Square. We were hungry by the time we reached the square, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a McDonald's. Nothing like having your first french fry in the Czech Republic:

Here's a picture of Andy and Rachel in Wenceslas Square with the National Museum in the background: And then here's Audrey and I with the rest of Wenceslas Square in the background:

From Wenceslas Square we then headed back to the market we found on the first day near Old Town Square to purchase some souvenirs. The girls each got a marushka doll and are still enjoying playing with them. We then headed back across the Charles Bridge in search of the John Lennon Wall. On the way we found this bridge covered with locks (not sure what it means, but it must be something significant):

Here are the girls at the Lennon Wall trying to find the letters they know:

And of course what's a trip without some ice cream:

We then found a park by the Charles Bridge that the girls enjoyed playing at. After playing at the park we had some dinner at a very hospitable cafe (there's quite a bit of sarcasm there). To finish up a fun trip we took another dip in the hotel pool that evening.

On Sunday morning we flew back home. We definitely enjoyed our few days in Prague. It was fun to go with another family and to have the chance to see more of Europe.