Amsterdam Day 329: Longest Day of My Life

The best part about having very short days in the Winter is that you have very long days in the Summer. The bad part of very long days is that some of our children (Beverly) like to get up when the sun is up. That tends to be way too early for me. The cool part is that it is light until very late. And this time is the official sunset time. Since the sun is going down so slowly, it is still light enough to do activities until around 11pm. We will need to enjoy it now because Winter is coming again. 

http://kartchner.blogspot.nl/2015/12/amsterdam-day-144-longest-night-of-my.html?m=1

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and our gift to Kelly was being as far away from him as possible. He enjoyed a nice quiet weekend in Amsterdam all alone, and we enjoyed our Georgia friends.
 I gave the kids a quiz about Kelly to help me share our love from across the ocean.
Some children answered quickly and easily. Others (one in particular) proved to be quite difficult.
Overall, I just wanted to be sure that this guy knew that he means the world to us and that we would be lost without him. What a blessing it is to get to be with him forever. 

RYAN
What is Dad's name? Kelly
How old is Dad? 34
How tall? 5'5"
How much does he weigh? 100 lbs
What color is his hair? none
What color are his eyes? Brown
Dad is smart because he knows.... how to make us laugh.
At his job, Dad.... prices flights.
My favorite memory with dad is....sitting on the roof, playing ipad.
Dad's favorite food is.... hashbrowns.
Dad's favorite treat is.... peanuts.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... wrestle.
Dad makes me happy when he.... tickles me.
I make Dad happy when I.... rub his feet.
Dad always tells me/or says... "Have you finished your homework?"
Dad is good at.... annoying Mom.
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to Hawaii and take Mom.
I really love it when my dad....takes me on trips.
Dad makes me laugh when... he makes a funny joke.
Dad spends the day... working.
Dad taught me... how to be loving.
Before kids, Dad... played iPad.
When I grow up I hope I can  ___BE__ like my dad.
I know Dad loves me because... he wrestles with me.
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a private jet.
What I love most about my dad is... he gets us money.

CAMERON
What is Dad's name? Kelly
How old is Dad? 30-something
How tall? Um...maybe 14 feet
How much does he weigh? Um....um...14 pounds.
What color is his hair? Red
What color are his eyes? Brown (I'm guessing)
Dad is smart because he knows.... times problems.
At his job, Dad.... works for Delta.
My favorite memory with dad is.... wrestling.
Dad's favorite food is.... onions.
Dad's favorite treat is.... candy.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... wrestling.
Dad makes me happy when he.... wrestles with me.
I make Dad happy when I.... wrestle with him.
Dad always tells me/or says... Um...I don't know.
Dad is good at.... wrestling.
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to the beach and take Mom. 
I really love it when my dad.... wrestles with me.
Dad makes me laugh when...
Dad spends the day... going to work.
Dad taught me...
Before kids, Dad... I don't know, I wasn't there.
When I grow up I hope I can get money like my dad.
I know Dad loves me because...
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a cotton candy room.
What I love most about my dad is... when he doesn't go to the toilet when I want to play with him.

BEVERLY
What is Dad's name? Daddy
How old is Dad? I don't know.
How tall? Very tall.
How much does he weigh? 1,000 lbs
What color is his hair? Nothing.
What color are his eyes? I don't know.
Dad is smart because he knows.... how to help others.
At his job, Dad.... cleans up. 
My favorite memory with dad is.... playing with him. 
Dad's favorite food is.... fish.
Dad's favorite treat is.... chocolate.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... play thumb war.
Dad makes me happy when he.... makes funny faces.
I make Dad happy when I.... be kind.
Dad always tells me/or says... "Clean up."
Dad is good at.... doing work.
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to the ice cream place and take Bev.
I really love it when my dad.... is happy.
Dad makes me laugh when... he does funny faces.
Dad spends the day... going to work.
Dad taught me... to be nice.
Before kids, Dad... I don't know.
When I grow up I hope I can  ________ like my dad.
I know Dad loves me because...
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a present.
What I love most about my dad is... when he is nice to me.

CHARLIE
What is Dad's name? Charlie.
How old is Dad? 3.
How tall? No.
How much does he weigh? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10....thru 15.
What color is his hair? Yes, today is Sunday.
What color are his eyes? I don't want to see it.
Dad is smart because he knows.... no, no, no, no, no, take a nap.

Thus ended Charlie's questionnaire. I decided to answer the rest for him.

At his job, Dad....
My favorite memory with dad is.... spelling with Dad.
Dad's favorite food is.... Charlie loves to sit in bed with Kelly and eat pistachios.
Dad's favorite treat is.... Charlie knows it's cookie dough and would say so if he could be bothered right now.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... Charlie loves to read books with Kelly. 
Dad makes me happy when he.... Charlie loves to ride bikes to school with Kelly.
I make Dad happy when I.... use the toilet appropriately.
Dad always tells me/or says... "Spell ____ for me, Charlie."
Dad is good at.... Reading maps. The guy is amazing. (Direct quote............ but not really a direct quote.)
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to Jerusalem and take no one, because nobody would go with him, because nobody is stupid.
I really love it when my dad.... wrestles.
Dad makes me laugh when... he knocks charlie over with his belly.
Dad spends the day... at work missing Charlie.
Dad taught me... how to read.
Before kids, Dad... was lost, had nothing to live for. He pined for children...I'm sure of it.
When I grow up I hope I can  be as awesome as my dad.
I know Dad loves me because... it shows in everything he does.
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a good night's rest.
What I love most about my dad is... how hard he works and how much fun he is, especially when he takes Charlie exploring.

Amsterdam Day 326: France vs. Albania

My job is to coordinate pricing strategies with out Joint Venture partners. What this means is that I am constantly communicating with our partners at Air France, KLM, Alitalia, and Virgin Atlantic. 

During normal times, communication works pretty well. But there is a time every two years where coordination, cooperation, and friendship completely fall apart (I'm taking a little poetic license on how bad it gets since it is really not that bad). 

Every four years the World Cup comes around. But a little lessor known cup to those of us in the U.S., is just important to those in Europe. The UEFA European Championship, or Euros, is also played every four years, two years apart from the World Cup.  And it is almost as important to those in Europe as the World Cup, with almost the same energy, pageantry, and status. 

Unfortunately, the Dutch really blew it this year and they didn't even qualify. Pretty sad for a team that came in third two years ago at the World Cup. So all the excitement and energy that comes to the Netherlands normally during the Euros is gone. And it is depressing.

Have no fear, for I have many French colleagues that have volunteered their team for me to support. With that, we decided to go downtown to Rembrantplein to an expat bar that is well prepped for large groups to watch soccer. I walked up to the place a little late, and was amazed by the amount of French people gathered to watch the game. 

Man was this an experience. The fans were chanting, singing, and dancing while cheering on their team. They taught us several chants but the favorite was something to the sentiment of screw you Albania, but a lot more crass. 

The game was exciting in the second half, where you could feel that France was going to score. But it didn't happen until almost the end at the 90th minute. And then the place went crazy.

And here is a video to share about the excitement that George filmed right after the goal. Notice the poor devastated Albanian fans as he runs outside.

France ended up winning 2-0. And it got me excited for the rest of the Euros.  

P.S. I'm still a true US fan, but I'm not waking up at 3am to watch their games. 

Amsterdam Day 348: Rotterdam

I decided to go explore this city of Rotterdam today. A quick almost 30 minutes by fast train and I had arrived. Unlike most cities in the Netherlands, Rotterdam was completely destroyed by the Germans in World War II. There is almost nothing old about Rotterdam but that is what brings some more charm to the city. 

There are two sights that I wanted to see. The Markthal is a new building. It's a big residential building with a fancy upscale market down below. 

It had cool fruit and vegetable stands next to fun food truck type of restaurants. I found the whole thing pretty interesting. 

The other interesting attraction is the cube houses. Yes, these are actual houses. 

I spent a good 20 minutes wandering through here figuring these things out. Fascinating. 

I didn't spend a lot of time in Rotterdam. It kind is seems like a big city missing a lot of the charm of most cities in the Netherlands. Still a cool city by European standards, but I've been spoiled by cuter Dutch towns. 

Amsterdam Day 335: Container Houses

Walking through the north wharf of Amsterdam, we came upon this small village of shipping containers. The shipping containers have been converted into homes.  

Next to the homes was a really cool restaurant made out of more shipping containers. 

Isn't that a cool way to recycle? I mean, I wouldn't want to live there. But it is great for someone else. 

Amsterdam Day 333: Birds Outside our Office Window

We came into the office the other day to see a mommy bird and a daddy bird frantically starting to move sticks and mud to a central location right outside our office window. We watched them all day as they hurriedly built this nest. It was really cool to watch. 

The very next day, this is what we saw. There was an egg in a mostly finished nest. The daddy bird continued to build the best for the next two days while the mommy duck took care of the egg. 

We are not exactly sure what was happening next, but there was a lot of what I would describe as duck wrestling during one of those days. And then a second egg appeared soon after. 

We are now watching on a daily basis for what happens to this cute pair of birds. This picture was just to prove that it was literally right outside our office window. Nature is so cool. 

Amsterdam Day 330: Backpacks Hanging from Flagpoles

I was riding into town to watch a soccer game with some friends when I came upon these houses. I thought it was interesting but figured it was some kind of prank. 

But then I continued along and found more bags hanging from more flagpoles. 

The further I went, the more curious I got. They started looking like backpacks hanging from the flagpoles. I had to figure out what was going on here. 

And as always, the web has the answer. Now that is a cool tradition. 

Q: Why do the Dutch hang backpacks on flagpoles in June?

A: Putting the flag out and hanging your child’s school bag on the pole is a sign that they have passed their high school exams! You will see this all over Holland around the second week of June.

Schools started the bag-on-a-flag tradition when they hoisted a flag to mark the end of the summer exam period. A few decades later it was common practice for households to do this too, when a child passed his or her exams.

By the 1970s politicians questioned the legality of the use of the nation’s flag for this frivolity, but were overruled on the basis that it was ‘harmless’. These days the tradition is like a right of passage. I can remember being slightly embarrassed by all the fuss and the congratulations from the neighbours, nevertheless the bag-on-a-flag marks an important step in growing up.

Be warned: skipping the bag-on-a-flag could mean years of therapy to process the uncelebrated transition from teenager to adulthood!

Hedda Pier, 1 June 2012

 

Amsterdam 324: Grandma Passed

Bertha Marie Anderson Kartchner

My grandma passed away this last week. As is probably the case for most grandchildren, my grandma played a very important role in my life and she will be so very missed. 

My grandma was always there for me. We went to her house most every Sunday afternoon after church for dinner. Almost every time, she made mashed potatoes and I am sure that is where my love for mashed potatoes (with amazing gravy, and corn on top) came from. She never judged us for how much we ate. I remember sitting down to a breakfast once with two of my cousins. 40 french toast later, we were about to be full, and grandma hadn't taken a single bite.

I don't think that I ever paid for a haircut until I went on my mission. She was so faithful and willing to cut my hair whenever I wanted or needed. I didn't realize at the time, but I would come to relish those moments, mostly because after my mission, there wasn't hair enough left to have cut. And so ended those special times with grandma while getting my hair cut. 

My cousin Amy said something that really touched me at the funeral. My grandma had a way of making every one of her grandchildren feel that they were the most important person to her in her life. I know that I felt like I had a special connection with her where I always felt that I was her favorite. But she was able to have this same connection with each of her 16 grandchildren. We all felt so very important around her. Boy how it crushed by sole when I found out she loved us all the same. But deep inside, I know she loved me the most. 

I am going to miss this wonderful woman. But I am so happy that she has been able to be reunited with the love of her life. And I know that we will be together on the other side of the veil. 

Thank you grandma for everything that you have done for me. 

April 18, 1926 ~ June 5, 2016

Bertha Marie Anderson Kartchner peacefully passed away on June 5, 2016. She was born on April 18, 1926 in Taylor, Utah, to Joseph A and Katherine Potter Anderson. She married Orrin Karl Kartchner, Jr. on October 25, 1946. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Logan LDS Temple. They raised five sons.

She graduated from Weber High School. She held many positions in the LDS Church starting as a Sunday School Teacher at age 16. She served in the Ward and Stake Primary for almost 50 yrs, nine as President.

She wrote three family history books. She and Orrin served in the Family History Library for 14 years. She had a talent for sewing and cooking. Many are the recipients of her beautiful quilts, homemade pickles and cookies. She was generous and kind. She always made time to listen to others and serve unselfishly.

She is survived by her sons, Glenn (Debbi), Lloyd (Myra), Wayne (Jackie) and Val; brother, Vernal (Valoy) Anderson; 16 grandchildren and 60 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, son, Dale; daughter-in-law, Julie; sister, Louise Wise; and brothers, Irvan, Hyalmar and Keith Anderson.

Amsterdam Day 323: Beverly Got Her Ears Pierced

I think that this picture pretty much sums up the experience.

Bev was very excited to get her ears pierced.  Jaimee cut Bev's hair really short and to make sure that everyone knew that she was a girl, we decided to have her ears pierced. 

It didn't take too long for her to turn right around and she was very exited to have her ears pierced.  She has been asking for ear rings for quite some time.  If you'd like to enjoy the experience more, please see the video below.

Amsterdam Day 315: Ryan's 4th Grade Performance

Today the 4th grade at Disney High had their musical performance. In general, I do not look forward to these events. I love my children and I think they are some of the cutest things out there, but performances can be a form of torture. Especially with Charlie in tow.

Today I was happily surprised. The kids have been practicing their marimba songs for months. Ryan had prepped me with saying her music teacher was so mean and that he always said they did a bad job. Whatever his methods were, they worked. Those kids were so cute and were SO into the music.

The music teacher wore a t-shirt and jeans and seemed like he was all about the music. The kids just enjoyed themselves. It was reminiscent of School of Rock.

Below are a few videos of the performances. Ryan is in a red shirt. They are kind of long, but at least worth a short listen.

Also, per her request, I bought Ryan flowers. The girl is not shy about making her needs known. 

Amsterdam Day 314: Boat Ride Around Amsterdam

Yesterday was the walk around Amsterdam. And today was the boat ride around Amsterdam. We took off in our rented boat ready for our three hour tour, picnic and drinks in tow. Dr. Pepper is my drink of choice (remember, we are Mormons, so nothing more exciting than Dr. Pepper for us). 

Charie had the time of his life sitting at the front of the boat, exploring this glorious world. So cute how he sat there just taking it all in. 

Of course, that did not last long. Here is Tracy enjoying her vacation without kids. 

We did a lot of the same places as our previous boat ride around the city, but this time we stopped at the Speelboat, which is two houseboats tied together with a public playground on top, instead of a house. The kids loved it. 

It all made for another wonderful day of exploring the city. And there is no other person that I rather be exploring it with (Jaimee not Tracy). 

Amsterdam Day 313: Walk Around Amsterdam

Last Monday, we went for a walk around Amsterdam  with Tracy. It was Memorial Day so I was off of work. But the kids all had school. We decided to go for breakfast and take a walk around the city. 

After breakfast, we wandered through Vondelpark. It wasn't more than 100 feet in the park that we were already stopped because of a cool tree overlooking the canal. The whole time Charie had been carrying around this book. He would not let it go for anything. But he really wanted to climb the tree. So we helped him up and he read his book in the tree. 

And of course it was cute, so we had to pose for some additional pictures. 

Tracy also climbed right up the tree, but she wasn't quite as daring to just jump down. Plus she wasn't wearing any shoes which would make a landing hurt a bit more. Jaimee saved her though. It was so interesting seeing how uncomfortable Tracy was not being in control. So much fun. 

We wandered through the park to the other side. Since it was early enough in the day, we did not smell Marijuana even once the whole way through the park. After leaving the park, we had to climb the letters of the I AMsterdam sign. I like this pic because you can obviously see the teen girl struggling to climb up the M. She was not making it, but no worries. After I snapped the pic, I helped her up by boosting her feet. 

Charlie had a blast and was really jealous that he could not climb the letter too. 

Here he is trying to reach Jaimee to get up. Don't worry cause I helped him up also, much to the worry of his mother.  

And that was our uneventful walk through Amsterdam. 

It was very successful in that Charlie was very pooped after the walk. And so was I.  He didn't quite fall asleep on the bus ride home. 

Amsterdam Day 312: Edam

We took off today to explore the area north of Amsterdam.  Our destination today, the city of Edam. Our good buddy Rick Steves told us about Edam and how charming of a town it is. And we were not disappointed. After about a 40 minute drive from our house, we arrived on the outskirts of this cute little town. 

Immediately crossing a drawbridge, I thought that I loved this place and it was somewhere that I would want to live. It was the perfect combination of tranquility and charm. 

We started our journey into the town and found a cute tree swing that just had to try. We were without kids, but we still had to try. 

We walked past one of the shops and saw this brand of alcohol. We just thought it was funny. 

At the center of town, there are adorable little shops and little canals. 

We walked into the cheese shop to ask about Edam cheese. We have heard about Gouda cheese and thought we knew about it pretty well. So we wanted to try out some Edam cheese. 

Edam is a semi-hard cheese that originated in the Netherlands, and is named after the town of Edam in the province of North Holland. Edam is traditionally sold in rounded cylinders with a pale yellow interior and a coat, or rind, of red paraffin wax. Edam ages and travels well, and does not spoil; it only hardens. These qualities (among others) made it the world's most popular cheese between the 14th and 18th centuries, both at sea and in remote colonies. 

It turns out that the cheese made in Edam these days is not actually Edam, even though it is named after the town. The Edam cheese is made further north and this cheese was actually of the shouts type.

Amsterdam Day 311: Fourth grade bike through the Bos

Disney high has a tradition of taking the fourth graders on a bike trip through the Amsterdamse Bos. The Bos is a large forest/park near our home. it is completely man made and I think every city planner's dream. See this for a basic history. A really basic history is that a botanist wanted to build it, in the "crisis years" or the depression, it gave thousands of people jobs planting all of the trees by hand.  It is huge, has swimming, biking, horseback riding, "hiking" (walking thru trees) a goat farm and a slew of other activities. 

The Bos is very close to home. We can be to the goat farm in 15 minutes unless the kids are biking, then its more like 2 hours. 

So as the date was approaching, the chaperone requests started coming in. But I have already chaperoned once this year, and done a party or something. I feel like I have done my part, so without guilt, I was able to ignore the requests. The requests turned into Urgent Requests and then the pleas started coming in. And so, If you know me at all, you know what is coming next. I volunteered. Kelly looks at me like I am crazy when I do these things. Mainly because I complain to him a lot after I have gotten myself into these messes. 
But I digress.... 

Charlie had school, so luckily I only had to bring him along after 1. So at 8 this fine June morning we headed off to school on bikes. Its June. June should mean shorts. Or at least capris and sandals. NOT HERE. We headed out in jackets and the pants I had changed into. It was cold. Ryan wore shorts, I think she may have been feeling stubborn. 

That ride was typical, Ryan rushing ahead, Cam screaming from behind that his legs were so tired and that I needed to slow down (I was not pedaling, I almost fell from lack of movement) and me trying to keep calm but the crazy was starting to ooze from pores. JUST FREAKING PEDAL AND STOP SCREAMING AT ME!!!! 

But I digress.....

At school I got specific instructions for how this ride would go down. 

1. We ride single file 

2. Chaperones ride behind their group of children.

3. BELLS ARE ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES!

I was assigned a group of 3 kids (Ryan, Hikari, and Francesco) along with Francesco's mom Chiara. And I could not help but think "So, you people were DESPERATE for chaperones?" But I kept it to myself, because I am kind. 

And so we began. Our class brought up the rear. We were a line of 100 children plus 20 some odd chaperones in a single file line. It was a bit slow going. I have new respect for the mormon pioneers and how aggravating it must have been to just wait for the dang people in front of you to GO ALREADY!!

We crossed 5 busy roads without difficulties. At least, no difficulties for us. At the roundabout, the boy behind me yelled "Mummy! Look at that HUGE queue of cars!" A: How cute is a British accent? and B: The queue WAS really long. I felt so bad for those poor drivers. We got it back at the stoplight though. It took 10 lights for all of us to make it though. 

We stopped for a snack at a big open field. The kids were to park their bikes (and Leave the keys in them! I forgot another rule) and then left to their own devices for 30 minutes. There were no jungle gyms, a few kids brought frizbees or balls. I love that they all just ran and played with no complaints of being bored. I feel like the play here is super unstructured, and the kids thrive. 

Ryan had snack with a few of her friends. I love this little group. Starting in the top left and moving clockwise, you see Carlotta (Italian, sweet, mischievous and a flirt) Indy (a Kiwi, fun, no filter, super practical) Hikari (Japanese, a tease, loves Charlie, super cute and always happy) and Ryan (American, super confident, silly, compassionate and always looking for fun). They are so cute together and have such a good time. 

Ryan is sporting her new haircut that her mother was very concerned about. I think she looks super cute, and she is SO HAPPY with it, but I was super worried that she would be made fun of or regret the haircut. She has had some teasing, but it passed and she still loves the haircut. I do too.  She is such a goofball. 

Also, do you see this outfit? it was FREEZING! She insisted on those shorts, refused to change to a matching top and just threw her leather jacket on because that is her favorite. Sadly, this child has her mother's sense of style. 

We set off again to another open field to play and eventually have lunch. This is half the group. I couldn't get everyone in. 

The kids were so great and patient. They were all strong riders and this was the first year that all the kids rode bikes. There was only one fall. Ryan wanted me to go check on the kid, but I figured the teachers could handle it. Then word came up the line that he had lost consciousness and my inner nurse took over. I headed back towards the kid and then word came that he was back up on the bike and ready to go. I talked to the teacher later, and she said he had just fallen and then laid there with his eyes closed for a few minutes til a teacher came. I think if we had given it a few more minutes, the poor kid would have been bleeding from all orifices and knocking on deaths door. Isn't it crazy how stories get mangled with retelling?  

During lunch, after hearing the latest gossip about the board of govenors election at school (I was ENTHRALLED.....) and signing myself up to be a PTA rep for the American's next year (wait, what?) Chiara watched our group while I biked home and got Charlie from school. We bundled him up because it was FREEZING (it was like 50 degrees, raining off and on and windy, so, kinda freezing, ITS JUNE.)

He was so happy to see all of his friends, especially Hikari. She is so sweet. 

The bike trip was awesome and the kids had a great time. We left at 9 am from school and returned at 315pm. I was SO TIRED. I am old and out of shape. Seriously. Today I may not be able to drag myself out of bed. Would I do it again? Absolutely! It was so fun to hang out with those kids and be able to see a little glimpse of my girl's life.