Good Friends, Flowers and Gaufres

We made it to Belgium to pick up Alana and Erin at the airport after we arrived in Paris. The girls had a fabulous time in Italy and Croatia, at an island, Krk, and the Plitvice National Park.
Here we all are at Katinka's home. They couldn't have been more hospitable to us. We are staying in one of their lovely 3 bedroom cottages at their resort. It is located about 1/4 mile from the beach. . .it is similar to Cape Cod in looks.
Here we are with Alana and Erin at one of the more photographed locations in Brugge. . .we had a nice day visiting here and then going down to Dunkirk in France.
Yesterday, we went to the most beautiful flower display in the world at the Keukenhof Gardens. It is only open for two months of the year. The colors were magnificent and there is no way that pictures can do justice to the 100's of acres of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, etc.
Here we are at one of the many windmills in Holland.

You can't make me be happy!

If you want to know more about what I did today, Mom posted it here.

If I Was a Cow...

...I would live in Ireland. I saw lots of cows and sheep as I took a bus from Dublin to Waterford. I am convinced that if I was a cow I would love to live in Ireland. Although, I had fabulous weather while I was there and too much rain might have changed my mind. Ads say that happy cows come from California, but I am convinced that happy cows could come from Ireland as well.

(It was hard to get a good picture of cows from the bus.)

The countryside was beautiful. I can't wait to be able to spend more time in Ireland.

Winery "Wrun" in Paso Robles

On Sunday, Allison and two of her roommates ran in their first half marathon (13.1 miles). The setting was along the back roads in and around beautiful Paso Robles, through the wine producing area of the Central Coast.







They are still all smiles at mile 5!


Allison finished the race in 2 hours and 6 minutes. This picture is just after she crossed the finished line. All three girls are looking forward to their next half marathon later this year. You go, girls!!

Loving the Park

We have had a few warm days splattered in here and there between the rain and snow. We have taken advantage of those by going on walks or bike rides to the park. I put Ellie on the baby slide to start and she loved it so much I decided to try her over on the bigger slide. I love how she wiggles to get her self started.

A Day at the Gardens

Brielle and I went with some friends to Grand Rapids to visit the "largest temporary butterfly exhibit in the US" at the Meijer Gardens.


I have to admit, I was so busy watching the baby birds, I didn't actually take many pictures of the butterflies. But they were beautiful! Ellie loved watching them fly around her.


Hanging out in the 5 story conservatory


The giant Leonardo Davinci Horse


Ellie says "yes, I'm having fun...can't you tell?"

A Saturday in Liege

Last weekend I was able to take a day trip with some friends from church. We had a blast exploring Liege and Maastricht and seeing the beautiful countryside on the drive. The weather was gorgeous, which made the day twelve times better.

Here are a ton of stairs that we climbed up. I tried to count them, but kept getting thrown off by random numbers being called out.

The climb was not that bad as seen by the smiles on Roxanne and me at the top.

Here a picture of Liege from the top of the hill that the stairs went up.

Before Larry and Susan went back home I was able to meet them for dinner near the Brussels airport. It was great to be able to see them again and spend time just talking with them.

Ian didn't put this picture on earlier and I thought it was fun. We really had a great time together in Holland.

All in a Day's Work

I was in the Foreign Affairs Committee meeting yesterday when my boss came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to a rally for Tibet. It took me half a second to yank off my headphones and head out the door. The rally was held in front of some of the European Institutions right in Brussels. There were about 300 people there. It was very peaceful, but really interesting to be a part of. People were chanting, "Stop killing in Tibet" (also what my headband says), "We want freedom," and "China go away."

Here is a picture of my boss Paolo and me at the rally.

And here is a shot of the front of the rally. It sure was a neat experience to be there, especially after hearing the Speaker of the Parliament In Exile of Tibet last week.

The Many Faces of Rooter

Brielle helped Megan with the laundry today as you can see in this picture. She dug way deep to the bottom of the basket to find the last sock.



This is Brielle's "I thought I wouldn't have to do any work until I was 8" look.



This is her "Doing laundry with Mom can be fun" face.



This is Brielle's "Enough with the pictures mom! Now help me fold clothes" face.



And as a good little Finlay baby she always wants to go after the iMac!

amsterDIJK and amsterDAM

This past weekend I decided to take a weekend trip (I figure that I am traveling a lot for work so might as well really push the lifestyle with weekend trips to Europe) to the Netherlands. It was really neat walking on the dykes and looking at how the cities on one side of the dyke are lower than the ocean on the other side. Alana met up with me for three days and we had quite the adventure running all over the country living in boats, bungalows and hotels.

After church on Easter Sunday we set out to find the temple in the Netherlands. A phone call to James and an hour later we found it. It was really beautiful with the flowers out front and a canal running right behind the temple.

Katinka took us to a cheese farm just outside of her city. I brought a wheel back to share with all of my coworkers and so we had a cheese tasting event this past week at work.

On our way down from Amsterdam to Oostkapelle we stopped at Kinderdijk. There are 19 windmills working in this location that pumped the land dry. It was really interesting going inside of the windmills and learning how they function. It got a little windy and nasty as we were running through hail to get back to the car.

This is the Merlijn, the barge where Alana and I stayed on while in Amsterdam. Katinka met us here (it is her aunt's barge) and we explored Amsterdam for the day with her stopping at the Rijksmuseum, riding bikes around the city (below: Alana in Vondelpark), drinking dutch hot chocolate, seeing the red light district and seeing the other sites of Amsterdam.

This picture is of Alana and Katinka on the beach at Oostkapelle. The wind was blowing really hard and the girls were almost able to lean at a 45 degree angle.

We had a nice dinner with the Wondergems and Larry and Susan in Oostkapelle. It was typical Dutch food and really, really good.

Alana and I found Brielle and drove through the city. Definitely seemed Rooter-like.

Rooter the Animal Trainer

Today was the 45th annual Vet-a-Visit at Michigan State University.  One day each year the hospital and school are open to the public to explore.  Several thousands of people come to see just what goes on inside.  We attended with some friends of ours (Joyce, Deb and Paiton).  There are animals of every type inside.  The first one (pictured above) is an alligator.  Rooter enjoyed feeling his cool scaly body.  

There were several ferrets wondering around the exotics exhibit.  Roots liked their soft fur and thinks that we should have a pet ferret in our house... we will have to see about that one.

We were amazed at the types of animals that Rooter liked and didn't like.  She had no problem with the snakes and alligator, but she was pretty scared of the 3 week old lambs.  Go figure.

The wildlife ward (of which James was a coordinator for 2 years before he started his clinical rotations) released a rehabilitated Red Tail Hawk.  It had come in as a juvenile with a wing injury and was fixed up over about an 8 month period.  He was released in front of a huge crowd.  He was thrown up in the air and never looked back.  With all the spring baby animals (bunnies, squirrels, etc.) he should have easy pickings until he improves his hunting skills.

Our New Bathroom

Thanks to Megan (Warnick) for all the work she put into our bathroom. We have new light fixtures, new hardware, a new mirror and cabinet, new paint...pretty much new everything! I've been waiting to post pictures until I've finished the decorating final touches, but I've realized that may take a long time since I can't find the curtains, towels, and shower curtain that I have pictured deep in the recesses of my mind.
Anyway, here is the only before picture I could find. You can't really tell, but the paint before was white, but really just looked like a thin coat of whitewash.


New and improved!




And just for fun, here are a couple pictures of dying our Easter eggs. Ellie was mostly just interested in eating the eggs. You can tell by how wet her shirt is, she was salivating just looking at them! :)

Mighty Jeannie up at bat. . . .

During Easter week, Dan, Helen and Erin flew to Connecticut to visit Jeannie and to watch some of her softball games. The weather was beautiful- clear blue skies, however it was very windy and cold while we watched 2 doubleheaders. Jeannie just loves all aspects of softball, whether it be catching flies out in left field or hitting the ball. However there seems to be one aspect of softball that doesn't like Jeannie - that would be running and sliding. During the last game on Saturday, the score was tied and she was leading off from third base. As the batter hit the ball, Jeannie started to run home, but decided instead to go back to the base. She stepped on the bag the wrong way and fell over, spraining her right ankle. To add insult to injury, Jeannie fell off the bag and was tagged out. Needless to say, Jeannie earned herself a trip to the academy clinic for x-rays and treatment. We aren't sure when she will be back playing, but Jeannie is hoping it will be very soon. Spring has yet to arrive in New England, but it was a great time visiting old friends and being together with most of our family.

Praha

My boss let me take some time off of work for Easter so I visited friends in Warsaw, Prague, and Holland. Here are some pictures of my adventures in Prague. In the first picture you can see the castle in the background and the Vltava River in the foreground.

This picture is taken from the mini Eiffel Tower that sits on a hill overlooking Prague. Marketa and I climbed to the top and were rewarded with a great view.

It was fun being Prague before Easter because I was able to go to the Easter Markets. There were all sorts of items and treats being sold.

Here is a famous clock in Prague. Every hour the little doors will open and the Apostles move past the windows.

I know I post a lot about food, but it is an important part of experiencing Europe! A lot of people were selling these - Trdelnik - at the Easter Markets. It is a traditional Czech treat. The dough is rolled out into a thin rope and then wound around the cylinder. It is then rotated over an open fire. It is rolled in a cinnamon, sugar, and almond mixture before being handed over warm. Yum!