We love visitors!

Amy and Ken visited us this week and it was so much fun to see them. They were only here for a little over 24 hours, so we made the most of our time with them. We hope they enjoyed their little tour of Amsterdam and a few other things around Holland. We were pretty lazy when it came to taking pictures, so I'm stealing all of these from Ken. :) Amsterdam definitely deserves a thumbs-up, especially since we're here! :) Rachel enjoying a ring pop she got from Amy. When we told Rachel weeks ago that Amy was coming out to visit and asked her what she'd like Amy to bring her, she was pretty quick to request a ring pop. She even talked to Amy on the phone to ask for one and Rachel's not that willing to talk on the phone that often.

We took a canal boat cruise and as we were cruising along we came across this musical act. I've been on 4 canal boat cruises in Amsterdam and have never seen this guy before. Audrey on her first canal boat cruise in Amsterdam.

Rachel ready to run through the pigeons at Dam Square.

Audrey just being absolutely adorable in her stroller. She really is a pretty good trooper to be dragged around all day without a crib to nap in.

Rachel fascinated with a ladybug. Amy was kind enough to let Rachel carry this little camera around Amsterdam and take pictures. She was pretty cute following Ken around and snapping pictures. She definitely got people's attention. We all held our breath when Rachel was running down the sidewalk and went for a tumble. Luckily she thought of the camera and it came out of the fall undamaged. Rachel just added to her collection of scrapes and bruises. We chilled for a little bit in Vondelpark and some cute pictures were taken.

We spent a good amount of time exploring Amsterdam Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning we headed out to Zaanse Schans to see some windmills and then to Muiden to see a castle. Both stops were fairly quick. And of course, once again Amy and Ken took all the pictures. So, hopefully they'll post some on their blog when they get a chance. We're glad they fit us in to their Europe tour. It's always fun to spend time with family! :)

Apenheul

We had some decent weather on Saturday and nothing to do, so we decided to take a drive to Apeldoorn (about an hour away) and visit a local monkey park. Apenheul Primate Park turned out to be a lot of fun. I was thinking we would last 2-3 hours max, but we ended up spending a good 5 hours exploring the park. It's basically set up like a zoo with it's main attraction being primates. There was a petting zoo with various animals and there was an aviary as well. But we were there to see the primates. And we definitely saw all kinds of primates! The larger primates were of course behind glass or gates, but most of the small monkeys were free range. Our first stop was to see some squirrel monkeys. There were nets and ladders above our heads for the monkeys to move around on. They of course jumped from tree to tree and were all over the place. We saw lots of baby squirrel monkeys hanging on to their mommy's backs.

After the squirrel monkeys we went in search of some lunch and came across some very friendly Golden-headed Lion Tamarins. For some reason the park was really quiet in that particular section so the tamarins didn't have any fear making friends with us, especially Audrey.

At one point there were 3 tamarins on the stroller tray, but I didn't get a picture of that. After some lunch and some play time at a fun playground, Audrey took a little nap in the stroller while we continued to explore the park.

We checked out the gorillas, the barbary macaques, and the orangutans. With the help of her daddy, Rachel decided to see what it was like to be a monkey. All throughout the day they had feeding schedules of different primates. We made it to one feeding, the feeding of the gorillas. It was somewhat interesting (probably would have been more interesting if we understood Dutch a bit better). But we enjoyed a little bit of a break from walking and watching the gorillas fight over their food. We caught the tail end of a presentation in the "Madagascar" area. There was this cute little family of lemurs:
They look pretty harmless, don't they? Which they are, but one still gave me a scare. I was standing there watching this cute little family and all of a sudden the mama or the papa (I don't know which) decided to jump on top of the little fence right in front of me. I didn't realize the goal was the fence, I thought the goal was me, so I flinched a bit. But hey, everyone around me good a good chuckle! Below you'll see a picture of some type of monkey (not sure what type because they just wandered throughout the park and we never saw their official exhibit) that was kind of freaky. They were very brave and very loud. There were 3 of them wandering the park together. They'd just walk right along with everybody else.

After we were monkeyed out the girls enjoyed a few rides on the carousel. It was Audrey's first carousel ride and she enjoyed it.

As we were leaving Apenheul you had to walk through a park area to get back to the car. We decided to plop the girls down and try to get some pictures. So much fun trying to get them to look at the camera and smile at the same time. Oh well, they're still pretty cute. :) Looking at me (Andy was taking the pictures):

Rachel actually looking at the camera and smiling:
Audrey actually looking at the camera and kind of smiling:

We definitely had fun checking out all the different types of monkeys. Rachel would get so excited every time she spotted a monkey. She really got into. :) She keeps on talking about going back to the "monkey park".

Complaint #57

I think I've mentioned before how Europe isn't the most stroller friendly place. I've learned to deal with it though. The elevators are extremely slow, but it's life. When there aren't elevators around Andy and I can manage carrying the stroller up and down the stairs.

Well, this morning I headed out to the grocery store. As I was walking there I was hoping that the elevator (which has been broken for a week) was repaired. No such luck! The elevator I used last week was unavailable, because I had to use a department stores elevator to get to the floor in the mall that I needed to. But the grocery stores and drugstores are the only stores that are open on Monday mornings. The rest of the stores don't open until at least noon on Mondays. So, I thought, no sweat, I'll just try taking the double stroller down the escalator. I'll take Rachel out and then I should be able to manage the stroller with just Audrey.

I soon realized that wasn't going to work either - the escalators were being serviced. Wonderful, impeccable timing! So, I get both Rachel and Audrey out of the stroller, Rachel walks down the escalator (really just stairs) and I carry Audrey down while dragging the stroller behind me. Halfway down there was a kind man that grabbed the other end of the stroller and helped me down. Thank you - it's not often you see such acts of chivalry displayed! :)

I do my grocery shopping (not really thinking of how I'm going to get back up to ground level) and realize I now have two little ones in the stroller, 3 bags of groceries hanging off the stroller, and the basket underneath the stroller is full. Not a problem when there's a working elevator. I decided to go to the service counter at the grocery store and ask where another elevator was. The lady quickly told me around there was one corner and of course I had to inform her that it was broken. So, there aren't any other options.

I then took matters into my own hands. We went out into the parking garage, which we never have been and I just pretended like we were a car. We went up the exit ramp to the parking garage and made our way home. So, I was able to find solution and it worked. But it still bugs me! Am I being unreasonable? Could the department store have been asked to make it's elevator available on Monday morning? Shouldn't the shopping center have paid to have some security for the department store so nobody would run off with their merchandise? I really don't think I'm asking too much...

Okay, now I feel better, venting is wonderful. Now here's to a better afternoon! :)

7 months old

Audrey really needs to slow down. :) She's 7 months old, weighs 15 pounds, and is 26 inches tall. She has decided that her swing and bouncy chair are pretty boring. Audrey enjoys being on the floor playing with her toys. She still loves being outdoors. She gets so excited when I wheel the stroller to the front hall and open the door. Her first tooth has finally broken through, but it still has a way to go. It's her bottom, right tooth. Audrey loves cheerios, rice cereal, water, and tolerates baby food. She does this excited little laugh when I pull out the boppy or my nursing cover-up, so she still loves to nurse. She's doing 4-hour stretches between nursing during the day - wahoo! So, I have a bit more freedom. :) Audrey is doing better in the sleep department. She usually goes to sleep somewhere between 8:30-9:00, then usually wakes up for a feeding around 5-5:30, and then wakes up for the day somewhere between 8-9. A 7-hour stretch of sleep is so nice!!! :) During the day she's down to two naps; the length of the naps varies. Sometimes she'll take a 2-hour morning nap and then a short 45-minute afternoon nap; other times she'll take two 1-1/2 hour naps a day. She likes to keep us guessing! Audrey loves water - going to the pool or splashing away in the bathtub. She doesn't mind getting dressed in the morning, but at night she screams through the process of getting dressed. I guess she's tired at the point and just wants it over with. Audrey isn't showing any signs of wanting to crawl, which I am totally fine with. :) She has started responding to us when we call her by name. We tried to get some pictures of her today by some flowers. The best one is below - we didn't have much luck. But Andy got a cute one of her in her stroller just smiling away.

And just like her sister, Audrey can turn it on and off pretty quickly:

The I-N-P

Today we went to the I-N-P or better known as the local indoor swimming pool. The acronym doesn't quite match does it? Let me explain. Last night Andy came home from work and informed me that he had to ride the train down to a client, so I would have the car. I then said to Andy, "Well, maybe the girls and I will have to go to the P-O-O-L". You all know that trick - spelling things out. I didn't want to disappoint Rachel if it didn't happen. Well, today was a drizzly day, so it was a perfect day for going to the pool. As soon as Rachel woke up this morning she asked me quite simply, "Are we going to the I-N-P?". Well, we have to give her credit for getting one of the letters right, but she didn't know what she was talking about. Before I know it, I won't be able to spell things out because she'll be too smart for it. Rachel, Audrey, and I had a good time at the pool today. There were several of the indoor pools open today, so we got to try out a new pool. We hung out in a smaller, more toddler friendly, warmer pool with a little slide. Rachel loved the slide and Audrey enjoyed watching her sister!

Mealtime Fun!

We definitely feel blessed to have two beautiful, healthy girls. However, we aren't blessed with babies that sleep good and eat good (unless it's mommy's milk). I still remember all the tricks we would do to get Rachel to eat when she was an infant. One of our tricks would be to put a cheerio on the edge of a spoonful of baby food and as soon as she would open her mouth we'd shove it in. We are starting to pull the same tricks with Audrey. She loves rice cereal and some fruits, but we haven't had any luck with vegetables. I think I just need to stop being so lazy and pull out the food processor to make her some food that hopefully she'll enjoy. I mean when you smell some of the baby food, you really can't blame her. :) Anyhow, here's a peek at how fun mealtime is around our place:

Laughing Away

Rachel didn't really laugh much when she was a baby. I remember commenting to one of my friends that she didn't laugh much. This friend, who has 4 little ones, just said it was because Rachel didn't have a bunch of silly siblings entertaining her and giggling around her. I have seen this theory prove true as Audrey laughs quite a bit. Rachel is definitely the best at getting Audrey to laugh and it's so much fun to hear her laugh away. Of course, whenever I pull out the camera the laughter stops. So, last night I attempted to get Audrey to laugh. It's not the best example, but it will suffice... Excuse my dorky laugh in the background and enjoy Audrey's precious laugh! :)

Number Sense

Rachel has really surprised me with her number sense recently. It's amazing how she figures these things out. I don't really make a point out of doing simple math/counting things with her. I should probably be better about it since she seems ready to figure these things out. The few examples I can think of all have to do with the numbers 2 and 3.

• A few weeks ago the girls were in the bathtub and Andy walked into the bathroom saying, "There's my cutie", as he was looking straight at Audrey. Well, he quickly corrected himself and said something to the fact that he should say, "There are my two cuties", because Rachel was in the bath as well. A heartbeat later Rachel corrected Andy even further and informed him that he had three cuties, because Mommy counts as well. Thanks Rachel! :)
• The other day we went to the park and I took along a bottle of water from the fridge. When Rachel asked for a drink she was surprised that it was cold. I told her it was cold because I had gotten it out of the fridge. So, then she said, "Well, that means there's two left in the fridge". And she was exactly right. There had been three, but we had one at the park with us. This one really floored me!
• This morning Rachel wanted to drink out of her princess cup because she had noticed a family that we went to the beach with last week had the same kind of cups. She said, "Ashley has one, Kate has one, I have one, and that makes three".

Summer Fun

I really need to sweep and mop the floors downstairs, vacuum the upstairs, and do some major dusting; but we've just been having too much fun! The weather has been really nice the past 10 days and we have been enjoying it. It's actually pretty hot - averaging 78 degrees - with lots of sunshine. It seems like almost every day we get together with Rachel's friends and have a blast. Here they are enjoying Ashley's pool one morning: Audrey didn't take a dip in the pool, but she enjoyed hanging out indoors.

Here's a picture of Rachel having some fun one morning. She's very patient as she waits for Audrey to get her morning nap. This particular morning she was riding her scooter around the house in style! :) Last Friday the weather was going to be questionable (chance of rain), but we didn't let that stop us. We met up with our friends at the local indoor pool. It was the first time I had gone without Andy and everything went great. Audrey loved her floatation device (if that's what it's called).
Today we went with a bunch of friends to the beach. The girls lasted longer at the beach today than they ever did on our trip to Greece. Audrey stayed busy playing in the shade and in the sand. Rachel had fun with her friends. She especially enjoyed Chase's company today. They were the two crazy ones that didn't mind playing in the cold water! :) Rachel also had lots of fun playing in the sand with her friends. We are definitely enjoying the nice weather while we have it and love having so many wonderful friends so close by. It's making this summer fly by! :)

Santorini

We spent less than 48 hours on the island of Santorini. By the time we got there we were pretty exhausted. Audrey hadn't slept well the whole trip, so none of us had slept well. Audrey and I were still recovering from our colds. Luckily Andy and Rachel were pretty much over their colds, but still needing more sleep. So, we took it pretty easy on Santorini. We really liked the place we stayed at in Santorini. On Friday we got there just in time for a walk and some dinner. As we walked from our apartment to the town of Fira we definitely took a lot of pictures. Here are a few of them:

After we were done with dinner Rachel took it upon herself to clear our table because she was quite impressed with the dumbwaiter. Luckily we were the only ones upstairs so it really didn't matter.

Here's a picture of the sunset we got that evening as we walked back to our place:

The next day we figured out the bus system and headed to a black sand beach. Rachel and Andy got in the water while Audrey and I chilled in the shade. Andy's feet were stained black for several days after our adventure at the black sand beach. That afternoon we all crashed and took naps. We were quite surprised when we finally all woke up and realized it was 5 PM. It felt kind of ridiculous wasting our time on Santorini taking a nap, but we all needed it. We then caught a bus and headed to Oia. Santorini boasts have the most beautiful sunsets in the world. It must be hit and miss, because we didn't see that great of one that evening in Oia. The sunset was nice, but we've seen more spectacular ones elsewhere. Here are a few pictures of our evening in Oia:

The next day we then took a ferry to Athens, spent the night there, and then flew home the next day. This trip was probably the most stressful for us with being sick and not getting much sleep, but we tried to make the most of it. We learned that the Greek people truly do love little ones. So many people would just walk by us and reach out to hold Audrey. I also had plenty of people comment on how brave (they were probably thinking crazy) we were to travel with two little ones. There were moments on this trip that would have been a lot more enjoyable without two little ones, but we wouldn't trade them for anything any the world. We have to make the most of our experience while we are living out here in Europe. One day Andy and I will get a nice, long trip with just the two of us. Until then, we'll make the most of our trips with our little ones! :)