Joy School Graduation

Monday, April 26th, was Rachel's Joy School Graduation. We've sped up the second semester by having Joy School 3 days a week instead of 2. We needed to end a bit earlier because of travel and moving plans. It was nice to get together and honor the girls in their accomplishments this school year.

The cake and Joy School puppets:

Rachel receiving her certificate, report card, and bouquet of tulips:

Hannah, Ashley, and Rachel hanging out on the couch:Our graduate:
All 3 of the graduates:

It has been a fun year working with Lisa and Ruth while teaching Hannah, Ashley, and Rachel. It is a time consuming effort when it's your week to teach, but it has been worth it. It's been fun to teach and play with the girls. It has been even more rewarding to see each of them grow and progress throughout the year. Rachel is definitely going to miss her Joy School classmates and I'm going to miss the friends I worked with.

Rachel, we love you and are so happy you love school so much. We hope your desire to learn continues through the years. It's only the beginning of many graduation ceremonies to come!

Flower Parade

It's a tradition here in Holland to have a Flower Parade the last Saturday in April. The parade goes through quite a few towns on Saturday, Saturday night they are all put on display all lit up, and then Sunday you can go see the floats during the day. Once again, we headed out to see the parade on Saturday. You can find the parade route online and with your handy GPS it's easy to find a spot to stop and watch. The girls enjoy the parade. Well, Audrey enjoys just being wiggly outdoors and Rachel enjoys watching the parade and listening to the music. We hit the parade right around noon. So, we had a little picnic on the side of the road while we watched the parade roll by.

Audrey found herself a little seat (although a few minutes after taking this photo she fell backwards and was stuck between the foot rest and her stroller, luckily she didn't get too upset!):About halfway through the parade Audrey thought it was hilarious to just walk in circles. She was cracking herself up! Here are a few shots of some of the floats:
I really liked the biker one:
After the parade we then headed to the beach. It was too nice of a day to pass up! We ended up spending about 2 hours at the beach. The girls were so content to just play in the sand (especially when their daddy is so much fun!). After the beach we went searching for some tulips (since we really hadn't seen any the previous Saturday) and we lucked out!
Here's a shot of a field when we stopped by a little stand to buy some tulips to take home:
Another fun Saturday outing! It's really going to be a bummer when we are going to have responsibilities on Saturday once again, like yard work...

Our Biking Adventure

A few Saturdays ago we decided to rent some bikes and go searching for flower fields. We ended up biking a lot more than we had planned. Once we got home Andy mapped out the route we took and estimated we biked about 16 miles. Surprisingly the only thing sore was our rear ends, from the super-comfortable bike seats! :) But my legs survived. Amazing! Maybe I'm in better shape than I think I am...

While living here in Holland we ruled out the expense of purchasing bikes for a number of reasons. I guess we would have had a more "Dutch" experience if we had... But no regrets, I honestly don't think I would have used a bike enough to justify the expense. It was fun to rent a bike and see a little bit of what it would have been like. Anyhow, here's some pictures from our adventure.

After biking about an hour we stopped for a picnic by this flower field: An early bloomer:
These girls have to keep up with each other, if one has a hat on, the other one has to, too:
As we biked around we discovered that a lot of the flowers still hadn't bloomed, especially the tulips. But we were still able to enjoy the day and see plenty of flowers.
Our final stop before turning around and biking back to the bike rental shop:
As we made our way back through Haarlem, we spotted a park. So, we took a little pit stop and the kids had fun playing and eating some snacks:
After we turned our bikes in, we decided to head to the beach for a quick visit. Audrey loved sliding down this little dune: And then having Bailee help her back up... :)
Rachel loves the beach!
Definitely a fun Saturday spent with family and friends!

Spaghetti Fun

Shawna's Visit

Who would have thought that almost 12 years ago I would meet and get to live with a wonderful girl named Shawna in my first BYU apartment? And then who would have thought that about 10 years later I'm living in the Netherlands and Shawna's living next door in Germany? What a small world this world can be! Finally after being somewhat near each other for 18 months we got to see each other. Shawna and her cute family were coming to Holland for vacation. They took the time one evening to come over for dinner and I got to spend a day in Amsterdam with them as well. It was so much fun to see Shawna, to catch up (it's been years), and to meet her beautiful family. Thank you Shawna, for making the time to see me. It was so much fun and I hope it's not another 9 years before it happens again... :)

I wasn't very good about taking pictures of our adventures in Amsterdam. But it was a very nice day. We walked quite a bit in Amsterdam checking out some of the usual shops and Dam Square. We explored the Rijksmuseum and Audrey slept through much of that. Yes! :) We also hung out in the Museumplein area and let the children play at the park. It was very busy in Amsterdam that day. April's a busy month because of all the tourists coming to see the tulips. We had some fun trying to get 2 double strollers on the tram a few times, but it worked. We also did a canal boat tour and ate at a pancake house for dinner.

There's a special place in my heart for my freshman roommates. To some degree, we have kept in touch over the years through blogs, emails, facebook, and occasional reunions. Shawna and Jamie knew each other, but the rest of us just got put together. I was very fortunate the 3 years I did roommates. But I have to say, my freshman year roommates were the best. I have wonderful memories of that year. We were all out on our own for the first time and that led to quite a few adventures. Good times... :)

Marken & Volendam

Saturday, April 10th, we did a little day outing right here in Holland. The main purpose for this outing was to get pictures of the girls taken in traditional Dutch clothes. So, we first went to Marken, which we had never been there before. It's a little Dutch village, just like Volendam, that promises you'll see the locals wearing traditional dress. Well, we did see one lady in traditional dress, but she was leading a tour group! :) We had lunch at a little cafe along the waterfront and enjoyed walking through the village of Marken. In Marken I had my first uitsmijter. Pretty pathetic it took me this long to try something so yummy. I requested an English menu, Andy ordered from the Dutch menu, and after the waiter took our orders we realized we had ordered the same thing. I guess Andy has uitsmijter quite often for lunch at the cafeteria. Anyhow, I'm now a fan!

Here's our pictures in Marken:

I took this picture of Audrey and then did a 180 and took the next picture of Andy and Rachel:

Rachel insisted I take a picture of this particular yard since it had a "mini" house:

We could have taken a ferry to Volendam, but we decided to save ourselves the ferry fare and just drive. It gave Audrey the opportunity to take a 20-minute snoozer... In Volendam our first stop was one of the many photo studios.

Audrey wondering what the lady's putting on her head:

You can have this back: Rachel all dolled up and ready for her photo shoot:The final result:

While we were waiting for the pictures to be printed I purchases some Dutch souvenirs to take home. We really haven't bought much here, thinking we'd always have plenty of time. While, now the time has come to start buying. Andy took the girls outside to get the wiggles out and I shopped away.

Here are the pictures Andy took of the girls outside:

After the pictures were completed we walked around Volendam a bit. We ran into an outdoor market that we browsed through. Once we got our fill, we headed back to the car. I couldn't resist taking a picture of all the houses along the street as we walked back to the car:

There are definitely a lot of things we are going to miss about Holland. I'm going to definitely miss the quaint, little villages. Marken and Volendam turned out to be a fun Saturday outing.

Easter Monday

The girls were not forgotten on Easter Sunday. The Easter bunny did find them in Berlin and left a small treat and gift for each of them. However, the Easter bunny left the rest of the stuff at our home. So, once we got home the Monday after Easter, the girls were able to see their gifts and hunt for eggs. Although Rachel was really the only one interested in searching for eggs. Audrey was quite content starting in on her candy. So, we celebrated Easter a day late, but the girls didn't seem to mind... And what's more fun than after a long ride getting to come home to surprises??? :)

Berlin - Day 3

Our third and final day in Berlin was Easter Sunday. Since we had seen most of what we wanted to see in Berlin we decided to go to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, just north of Berlin. It was about an hour train ride and then a 20 minute walk. I'm glad we took the opportunity to visit a concentration camp. We hadn't had the chance yet in Europe. It was quite interesting to see a place that we've read and heard about. I had actually never heard of this particular concentration camp, which was one of the first built and was put into use in 1936. As a matter of fact, prisoners from this camp were sent to build Auschwitz and other concentration camps. It was quite odd to walk from the train station to this camp and realize that it was right next to a neighborhood. Not sure if that's how it was back in the 1930s...

Sachsenhausen was another one of the many freebies we got on this trip, but we did end up paying 3 euros per person for an audio tour. We could have spent a full day here. There was a lot to see, read about, and listen to. Quite overwhelming... We were able to see watchtowers, the roll call area, Jewish barracks, a prison, kitchen, execution trench, crematoriums, pathology lab, and infirmary barracks. One unique thing about Sachsenhusen is that it had a shoe-testing track. One form of punishment was to have the prisoners wear new shoes and walk roughly 40 kilometers over cement, cinders, broken stones, gravel, and sand. Oftentimes they purposely had prisoners wear shoes 1 or 2 sizes to small and they also had to carry sacks filled with 20 kilos of sand. Sachsenhausen was actually used until 1950 because after the war the Soviets utilized the camp to detain political prisoners. Anyhow, we obviously learned a lot more on our visit there...

Words cannot describe what it felt like to walk through such a place. A place where horrible things happened to people. Where you know that as you walk back to the train station you're walking through streets that were paved with people's ashes, in order to hide what was going on. It makes your heart ache to think of the suffering. But in the same breath, it's make you so grateful for a knowledge and understanding of life after death. And a hope that in some way things will be made right for all those who suffered.

Here are some pictures of our last day. The girls checking out their maps on the train ride to the concentration camp: The entrance gate, which translates "work makes free":
Soviet Liberation Memorial:
After quite a few hours inside the camp we grabbed a late lunch at a cafe. Here's Audrey eating fries the European way (not something we've necessarily trained her to do):

Once we got back to Berlin we met up with everyone for dinner. From dinner we headed over to the Reichstag (parliament) building. Andy had done his homework once again, so we knew of a separate entrance for those with strollers. Sweet! We didn't have to wait in line. Sometimes traveling with children can have perks! The Reichstag was another freebie. We were able to walk up the dome of the building that gives you a 360-degree view of Berlin. By the time we got there, it was dark. But we still enjoyed listening to the audio guide point out different Berlin landmarks as we walked up the spiral walkway up the dome.

At the very top the dome is open. So, the kids all had fun laying on the benches and looking up at the night sky...

A cute, but unfortunately blurry, picture of Audrey in the Reichstag:

The next morning, before we left, we learned a bit more about Berlin's history thanks to Allison's dad. We had used the Fredrichstrabe Train Station several times during our time there. Every time we went to and from the station we passed by a bronze statue of children. We didn't get a picture of it, but I do remember it. It's a statue that depicts the history of the station. One side of the statue shows children with suitcases off to the UK to safety. The other side of the statue shows the children who were not as fortunate, and from the same train station were headed to a concentration camp. Click here, if you're interested in more information.

We really enjoyed our weekend in Berlin. We found Berlin to be a unique European city. Berlin has a lot of recent historical events that we can remember happening. It was really neat to be able to visit a place with such modern history.