Europe 2011

Our two weeks in Europe could not have been any more perfect. The weather was gorgeous - in the 70's the whole time with no rain. That is almost unheard of in Europe. Maybe because of my Dutch heritage I truly felt at home there, I loved everything about it, the food, people, shopping, architecture I could go on and on but don't worry I won't. When I got home and saw the kids were okay I just wanted to get right back on the plane and go again.  I have 100's of picture each with a fantastic story but unfortunately I don't have that much time to post them all so here is the cliff notes versions. 

 The food there truly is like no other place I have been. Above are waffles that aren't quite like ours but you can get them fancied up in so many ways. The top further most right tray with the strawberries are the poffertijes which are my most favorite. I think I had a tray of those a day - so no surprise I gained 5 pounds there.

 Here we are in Volendam which is such a darling little town. We enjoyed walking around eating and shopping. Dave found some yummo fish here that he is holding in his hand. Don't worry we didn't eat any of the raw herring - not for us.

 This is the water tower in Sneek which has quite a bit of history to it. We were here for the Queen's day which was quite a huge festivity for 2 days straight.

 These are the flowers in koekenhof which were amazing. I have been to the buchart gardens in Canada which don't hold a candle to these. Rows and rows of colorful tulips, all different variations of tulips. Miles and miles of them, it almost didn't seem real.

 Oh my favorite are the Poffertjesh's which are little pancakes with butter and powdered sugar on them. Whenever I saw a stand selling them I had to have some. Those and the cream puffs there are like no other. They have a different kind of cream which goes inside that just makes you want to have more. Thank goodness there are pastry shops on every corner so we just walked and ate all day.

 Here is a guy making the poffertjes.

 This is madurodam which has every major sight to see in Holland in miniature. It has moving boats, cars  and planes. A definite must see in Holland.

 That is me and Jana with Jeff off to the side being goofs.

 This is the wall in the house of the Hiding place. They have knocked out a hole so you can see what it looked like where they would hide the jews. Probably the most fascinating tour we did while in Holland.

 This is my mom and her sister. My mom stayed with her sister the whole time we were in Europe. That is my Aunt's house to the right of us. They have such tiny houses, yards, refrigerators, everything compared to what we have.

 This is my Cousin Theo and his wife Cora, it was so fun getting to know our cousins that live there.

 A typical dutch sandwich, the Dutch love to put eggs on everything. So dang yummy.

 The cemetery where the American soliders are buried that lost their life during world war 2. This is only a tiny piece of it.

 This is a very strange church - they claim they built it all with which stone and once completed the next day it turned red on it's own.

 So I was craving a hot chocolate one night and we went into this fun chocolate store. We asked for Hot chocolate and girl started to scoop up ice cream, I quickly told her HOT chocolate and she said "yes of course"and continued to whip it up. It was the best hot chocolate I have ever had.

 Dave, me and Jeff

 The stain glass in St. chappelle

 One of the typical streets in Holland, always busy with tons of stores.

This is our tour guide in Paris who we feel in love with. We did a 4 hour bike tour the day after we got there and learned so much.

Winter

This month has gone by way too fast. Once again we have crammed it full of fun memories though and way too many pictures to scrapbook. Someday I will get back to my scrapbooks but for now I am just enjoying my darling family.

Dinner our for my sister's birthday. We love any excuse to get together and go out to eat.

My beautiful bouquet of flowers that Dave surprised me with on Valentine's.

Valentine's came and went too fast. Again this year we made Valentine's for the Residents of a retirement home here and went to visit them and hand them out. It is such a Valentine highlight for us.

We love Saturdays especially going to Matthew's basketball games. He is loving his team and his coach is our favorite so far. He has shown huge improvement from last year which has been so fun to see. 

Our great friends the Cook's invited us for their superbowl party. I am really not into football but this party was a ton of fun. The Ottley's know how to make it fun for everyone. When we got there we had to fill out a questionnaire about the game and about every hour someone won a prize. Yes, I even won a prize which thrilled Matthew because it was a gun that shot balls.

We are huge Brian Regan fans in this house so when we found out he was coming to Logan we about died. Our good friends the Johnson's are also huge fans so we got tickets for our kids and surprised them for Chrismtas with them. Brian did not disappoint, we laughed our heads off the whole time and wished he would have gone on for another 24 hours. Just what we needed after another dump of snow and cold.

So this is our cultural month with 3 plays, and one comedian night. Lexie and I went with our friends to see the Music Man which was fantastic. There is such amazing talent up here in Logan. My sister came up and we went to see the High School's Wizard of Oz which was also amazing.

Cold is cold

So as many of you who know me know that I hate to be cold. Moving to Logan was a stretch for me since EVERYONE had to remind me how much colder it is in Logan.  Even my mom would call about every other day during the winter months to tell me how much colder it is up here than down in Ogden. Honestly to me, cold is cold wether it is a difference of 5 to 10 degrees. So Dave who is always so worried about me has planned trips to somewhere warm the last 3 years to help me get through the winters. Well here it is the middle of January and we have no trip planned because we have been so crazy busy this year. THAT has made all the difference, staying busy and not thinking about how cold it is but enjoying the beauty that the cold brings. It has given me a new appreciation for snow. This is the first year I remember in a long time that I have LOVED January and am actually sad to see it come to an end. Thank goodness there will be another January next year.

New Year's Eve - such great friends and food. It would not have been complete without the Amsdens (we were sad Rob had to work) and the Johnson's. Dave really was here - someone had to take the picture. We all ate, talked, played games, ate and had way too much fun until around 1:00a.m.

Once again the holidays have come and gone way too fast. All the decorations are put down except for the Christmas cards which I have hanging on in my entry hall and leave up for another month. I love passing by there and glancing at all the wonderful friends we have made throughout the years.

Of course we had to hit the lights on temple square which are amazing as always. This year we went with our darling neighbors the Johnson's and ate at Spaghetti Factory first. We just can't seem to get enough of that place.
For Christmas we got Just Dance 2 and have been loving it ever since. Jeff, Jana and kids came up so of course we had to have a dance-a-thon. Not only is it fun to do it but to watch the people doing it was well.
I love Christmas dinner and especially when family comes. I got pictures of the table all set but forgot to take them while we were eating oops.
Nothing says the holidays like Christmas plays, here we are with the other Johnson's to see "Elves" by Pickleville playhouse which was a Christmas highlight.
Every year we make out our wishlists for everyone to see. Matthew doesn't want to get anything wrong so he still includes pictures as does Dave's (his are on the back). It is a fun thing to see what the kids hope for each year.
One other musical - The Forgotten Carols which started us off on the Holiday Season. It was just what we all needed to be in the right spirit for Christmas.

Excuse me I wasn't finished with Summer yet.

We had such a great summer this year and crammed so much into it. Here is a small glimpse of some of the things we did. A family triathlon which was a blast.
Our yard looked so gorgeous this summer. Hard work really does pay off.
Flew up to Denver with my sweet Indiana friend Joan and her daughter to be there for our friend Keri who had lost her daughter.
Love driving by seeing Dave on the billboard.

My 20 year highschool reunion was a blast.
Dave did the spudman so we all went up to Idaho to visit our darling friends the Pedersen's.

So Dave did a couple of Triathlons this summer with his brothers, I don't think I have enough room to post even half the pictures from them. But they all improved this year and had a lot of fun doing them.
I think I am getting old because I could only do the roller coaster twice this year at Lagoon. Luckily the kids are old enough they can go on it by themselves.

Love, love, love hanging out at Cherry Hill with the Dodenbier's. (Lexie wouldn't get out of the Lazy River to be in the picture)
We hosted couples bunko again this year which is such a great tradition.
We love hanging out with the Miller's in Park City
My sister, Mom and us cheering Dave on at the Ogden Marathon.
Matthew had another great soccer team this year and scored more goals than ever.
Threw a fun surprise party for Lexie's 13th birthday party. She had no idea.
We spent the 4th of July weekend in Kaysville having so much fun with family.
Love going on early morning runs with my sister. Wish she lived closer by so we could go everyday.
Sisters and Mom weekend - making christmas gifts. We love spending time together.