Nash-ville: 2010

Friday, September 24, 2010

6 day journey with an iphone

Trent and I are back home and getting re-settled after the whirlwind of our trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. I decided to leave my bulk of a camera at home, so here is our journey documented with my little iphone, and I couldn't be more happy with the outcome!

FYI- We joked that we will make a slide show of our trip to show our family, and bore them with our adventures, but the pics turned out so cool that we will bore you all with our trip pics, it might take a fews days worth of posts...so stay with me and enjoy!

The journey started in first class, which is an experience on its own...especially on an 11 hr flight. The food was amazing and the only time in our lives when we watched 4 movies in a row. (we were both too excited to sleep on the airplane).

Day 1 first stop- Zaanse Schans

One of the highlights in this town is that we got to tour a real working windmill. We walked in paid our 2 euros and waited for the tour, but the tour never started. So we asked the lady and she says, "Oh just go in and walk around". We were a little surprised because we basically had freedom to go where ever, climb and touch whatever with no ropes or boundries. So, we climbed up steep ladders- opened doors and walked out on rickety balcony's and ducked under the arms of the windmill.

It was raining outside this day so we hung out a bit longer in the windmill and enjoyed the view.

Inside the working windmill- This was a flour processing windmill

The town of Zaanse

Wooden shoe museum in Zaanse

Day 1- Haarlem, Holland

Corrie Ten Boom house-

Did you read the book, "The Hidding Place". Well, if you did then you know all about this place. This is the house the the author Corrie lived in during world war II. She was the only woman head of the resistance- (the dutch underground that helped jewish families and men in hiding from the Nazi's).

It was an amazing tour- the guide sat us down in the parlor of the 500 yr old house and told us the whole story of "The Hidding Place" and then we got to see the room that had the false wall where the jews hid. Trent and I both love history and especially history that involved my own family. My grandparents lived through the war in Holland and so seeing this house really hit home for me and made the stories even more alive. Outside the buildings you can still see bullet holes from where Nazi's lined up jews and shot them in the streets.......

Our favorite drink is called Cassis- I wish they had it here, it is a black current flavor and is the best soda ever........and I had at least 2-3 a day.

Check out the cute little cart with the kids in it. Kinda a wagon with huge wheels

Our awesome tiny rental car- All the cars are super tiny, and this was a far stretch from the SUV that we drive.

Amazing bakeries and cheese!!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It's official!

I have a middle schooler! Yep, Brooklyn May graduated from 5th grade & she starts middle school in the fall.

I am a bundle of feelings about this new change. It brings some freedom for me, since I now have a live-in babysitter, and I can rely on her more and more as she gets older. But it also means freedom for Brooklyn, which ultimately means that she is growing up. And I have a harder time with that.

I know everyone says how fast time flies and to cherish every moment, but really it is true. I seems like last week she was the funny little 2 yr old making everyone laugh with her high voice and perfect vocabulary.

While she still does have that little high voice and perfect vocabulary, she is growing up right before our eyes. She truly is such a great girl and everyone who knows her loves her. And I love that she keeps on surprising us, like what a fierce competitor she has become in swimming. We didn't see that coming and we didn't know that was in her. She still surprises us every day and makes us so proud in everything she does.