Our First Backyard!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The first photos are the "before photos". Despite some tulips we planted last fall, the whole yard was bare dirt with only the patio. Neither of us have any interest or talent in working with yards, but we had to do something. So we have attempted to grow our own grass, found some fun sunflower seeds (which grew to be huge), planted some seeds in the pots and then sat back and enjoyed as Matthijs' parents showed up weekend after weekend with pretty summer flowers for our garden! Most of this, aside from the bush, grass and two small bush trees, are seasonal only. So, next year we will again plant the tulips in the spring and then get some pretty flowers for the summer. Too bad winter will likely be dismal! Its fun for now! We are just grateful, living in the city in the Netherlands, to have a yard at all :-))))

Kaltenbach, Austria Family Ski Trip

Innsbruck, Austria - Home of Hans Christian Anderson


















































Kaltenbach, Austria

The week leading to Christmas, the family went to Kaltenbach, Austria to enjoy a week of skiing. Of course, after a couple lessons in the Netherlands, I found out I was pregnant - so no skiing for me! I was too tired and suffering from morning sickness anyhow. I still enjoyed my first visit to Austria! The first set of photos are from the nearby large city of Innsbruck, where we spent a day. It was having a festival, which is always so much fun! I enjoyed the best bavarian creme donut ever!! YUM! Since it is the home of the famous child fairytale author, Hans Christian Anderson, several of the town stores had his charaters on their walls. I posted a few of them to show you what I mean. It was a cute town!

The rest of the time we spent in the valley. I enjoyed hiking a lot while the others went skiing. It was great to explore and have time to myself. One day we borrowed the car and drove up high into the mountains to find a snowy, winter wonderland! Every tree branch was white from snow - it looked amazing - like a christmas card :-) One day i went up the ski lift as well and walked around the ski area to enjoy some snow, but man, was I cold!!! It was a fun trip, but would have been much better had I not been 9 or 10 weeks pregnant with morning sickness :-)

Tulips/Flower Fields April 2007

Every year, after surviving another dreadful Dutch winter and wearing out all my Florida friends and family with my scheming on how to MOVE BACK.....suddenly a break in the twilight-zone like clouds comes and FLOWERS are everywhere! I grab the camaras and bikes and drag out my Dutch in-laws to embark on a a real-tourist experience - biking through the flower fields :-) LOL. I am not sure how they feel, but anything to keep me from taking their "baby son" and now their grandchild (likely first grand daughter) off to America! :-))

Aren't the fields wonderful?

Boloeil Chateau, Belgium

Only a week before my due date and Matthijs and I decided, what the heck, to jump in our car and drive 2 1/2 hours to southern Belgium and bask in a sunny day. Our friends needed a ride back from the Brussels-Charleroi airport and we saw this as a perfect chance to explore some more of southern Belgium before little baby comes. Fortunately, I was right that she wouldn't arrive a week early - lol! We only had the afternoon and so we found this little French-speaking town, Boloeil and its gorgeous, still maintained 18th century Chateau. Its only opened in the afternoons and only part of it is open to the public. We failed to confirm, but suspected that someone still lives in part of it. We skipped going inside the house and just wandered through the beautiful parkland surrounding it. Isn't great?? The best part is that although it was storming at home in Rotterdam, the weather was perfect here! Hope you enjoy the photos :-) I stuck one of me in there to also update on the belly at 39 weeks!

I am considering posting some old photos of the Netherlands, from when I first came here....which shows great Dutch windmills, architecture and tulip fields! We shall see...

Hannah's Room

Finally, I have taken photos of Hannah's room. I know it doesn't look like a traditional baby girl's room, especially by US standards. We used the colors already in there from when it was a guest bedroom (both Matthijs and I hate painting)...which worked b/c the colors are neutral. Using lime green, and thus the frog theme, was a fun way to fit that scheme and it is very Dutch to have simple decorations. Actually, by Dutch standards the room is quite busy - lol!

Regardless, we like it :-)))

Kreta, Greece May 2006

Here we are in Greece last year for a wonderful, relaxing 8 days. It was the perfect way to "survive" a 30th birthday. The hotel surprised me with a yummy cake and my in-laws threw a little party at the hotel. It was all so sweet. Otherwise, in many ways the trip was romantic and a perfect get-a-way. I truly hope we return one day.

For the most part, we enjoyed views of the amazing blue ocean and charming architecture. But, for one day we hiked the 16 km down the Gorge of Samaria, with beautiful trees and creeks running through it. I forgot my sneakers and wore these 5 EUR slippers - I couldnt hardly move by the end of it after stumbling through soo many tiny, tiny stones. It was worth it though.

We saw great ruins and otherwise slept peacefully on the beach or by the hotel pool. I needed every minute of soaking the sun up after the Dutch winter....

Ok, maybe next time I will post some of the gorgeous tulip fields found only in the spring here. They are amazing! Until then... (btw, pictures with a little boy are Matthijs' nephew Jesse. The others are his parents, sister, her other baby and her husband - big family trip!)