Amsterdam Day 5 - Church

Today we woke up early to go to church. As far as we could tell, we had 2 options to get there. 1) take public transportation - about 1 hour away or 2) ride our bikes. We decided to do both. If we drove it, it would only take us about 20 minutes as it is only 12 kilometers away (you figure out how far that is in miles), but alas, we have no car, yet. So Jaimee took off with Cam and Bev and braved figuring out public transportation. Jannica, Ryan, Charlie and I took off on our bikes. Google maps estimated 34 minutes for the ride, but that must not be at the speed of a 9 year old. It ended up taking about an hour, but we still beat Jaimee by about 10 minutes. 

The ride to church takes us through a little bit of beautiful countryside and a beautiful little town on the Amstel river. There are cows, sheep, and horses along the way. There are few fences separating us from the livestock. They use little canals to keep the livestock on the property with little bridges with fences on them for the people to cross. I don't see how it really works to keep the cows in but then I'm not a cow (although Jaimee would argue that point). Further down the road are little farms, farmhouses, and windmills dotting the country side. It is an amazingly beautiful ride. And the best part is that it is all flat. 

Church goes from 10am to 1pm. We will have to describe church later as it is a true international affair with translation into English and Spanish. There were not a lot of people in attendance this week as all the Dutch take off 3 or 4 weeks at this time of year for vacation, or Holiday as the Brits say. After church, the young women get together for 30 minutes and chat over "Mormom Coffee". Jannica says that it is really gross and she is going to bring hot chocolate next week. It was a good time to chat and get to know each other. She was able to get the phone numbers from the other three girls that are her age so that she will have some friends here. 

The ride home from church was equally fun but with a bit more sun. My poor head got a sunburn from the ride. And poor little Charlie fell asleep on the way home. He had the hardest time getting comfortable leaning back and then laying his head on my back. But the bumps in the ride kept getting in the way of a good sleep. 

And by the way, we beat Jaimee home by about 15 minutes. I'm not sure if this public transport/biking only lifestyle is going to last long. I love how fit I feel, but this might be a bit excessive. I see a car, but only one, in our near future. 

Amsterdam Day 4: Cameron

We rode our bikes to the park today. We played in the water. They had a fountain. It made me feel good. I rode home cold and wet. 

We went climbing with a new friend. I hung upside down on this. This was great. 

We went for a long bike ride in the evening. But I don't want to talk about it. Because it wasn't fun. My legs were hurting. Because we went for a long ride. 

Amsterdam Day 3 - Ryan

There is an outdoor market on Tuesdays and Fridays. I love it. It makes me so happy. We bought dried mango slices. About 300gm of it. And two things of bread.

I rode side-saddle with my mom on Jac's bike. She rode and I held onto her. I can do it with one hand. It was fun. 

I got a bike today. It is blue and gray. It has gears 1, 2, and 3, triggers and hand breaks and peddle breaks. I love it. 

Love you all. 

Love,

RYAN

Amsterdam Day 2 - Jannica

My thoughts on moving to Amsterdam first two days

The first day for me was not really the best. I thought that it was the longest day in my life (I have some pretty long days too). When we got home I thought well... This is my new home... I had to get everything out of my suitcases from my summer break at my moms house, then I went outside on our upper porch and found a good place to sit. When I sat down I started thinking of everything at my old house and how it would be so great to just not deal with moving and stay there. I started thinking about my friends and how I was doing at school. I just started to bawl. I was just wishing that I could go back home. After a while I got over it and decided I need to stop grieving and just make the best out of living here. It isn't very easy to do that but so far I think I have tried my best to give this place a chance. I just dealt with it and I helped my dad build my wardrobe from my room. We went out to eat at McDonalds which of course was gross but that wasn't the bad thing about it. My family was so tired that we just started getting on each other's nerves. When we got home I wrote in my journal then I just went to bed. 

The next day was a lot better. We all had gotten a lot more sleep. Once everybody was awake we went on a team and my dad and I got bikes. After we got bikes ordered we had a while till they were done so we went to go get some food. 

After we got food we went out to the daily flea market. We just walked through and looked at things. Once we were done with that we went to the Rijk's museum and looked out on the park to see a portrait of Van Gough made with flowers made by the people from his hometown. 

We didn't go inside the museum because we had more planned for the day. After that we split up. My dad and I went to go get our bikes and the others went back home to chill out. The bike ride was a long way back to our house. We finally got home. A while after we got home the guys from our air shipment was taking things into our house. When they left we started unpacking. After we unpacked a little I put things into my wardrobe and I haven't finished that yet. Hopefully by the end of this week it will all be done. So overall I think that this move has been an interesting experience. 

Day 1: Our Adventure Living in Amsterdam

We arrived at the Amsterdam airport after a 10 hour flight from Salt Lake City. The kids slept a good 4 or 5 hours, which you know is going to make for a wonderful day. We excitedly exited the plane to pick up our bags. We had to get three baggage carts to carry the 19 bags, 3 car seats, and 3 pillows. Our plan was to go get a plethora of Ubers in order to take all our luggage.  Jaimee piled into the first one with the three little kids leaving me with Jannica and Ryan, and what felt like 30 bags. Our Uber pulled up not quite knowing what was about to hit him. But he was a good sport and helped pile in all the bags. It turns out that he had been my driver a month ago when Jannica and I came on a business/pleasure trip, business for me, vacation for her.

Once home we staring unloading all the bags, unpacking, and putting all the IKEA furniture together. At this point we hadn't eaten much and we hadn't slept much. We yelled at each other a bit, and whined a lot. At one point, Jannica was even bawling on the rooftop patio because life sucked so much. We went and got some food at a local Dutch restaurant, McDonalds and our spirits were slightly lifted. We finished up the rest of the IKEA furniture and hung out around the house. By the evening, everyone was feeling much better and more importantly the place felt like home.
And just so you know how tired we were, Charlie fell asleep on the hardwood floor next to me while I was pounding away putting the kitchen table together.

We are tired, ornery, and a bit disorganized, but we are happy.

Close Call

 Today while mowing the foot and a half high grass in the yard, I hit a particularly thick patch. I pulled back the mower to go over it again and saw a grey thing wiggling in the grass. I could not tell what it was at first. I thought it might be a weird lizard or newt or slug or something. I gotta be honest, I kinda freaked a little. I gathered my wits, cut off the mower and took a closer look.

 

 

This is what I found!!!! The camera is right next to him, he is so small, I could fit three of him in my hand, I think.

Do you see the place on this sweet guy's back where the blades twisted his fur? And there are at least three other little guys under him! I get sick thinking of what could have happenend. This is in part because it would not have been the first thing I inadvertantly hit with the mower.

Any-hoo. Cam and Bev and I googled what to do when you find a bunny nest in your yard.

 

 

You cover it up like you found it and leave it alone.

But don't worry, we will keep an eye on these sweet guys to make sure Mommy comes back to take care of them.

On a side note, bunnies drive me nuts. They eat my garden and are totally direspectful of me when I yell at them to get out of my yard. Every time I decide I am getting a bb gun to deal with them and their evil cousins the squirrels, I find a baby bunny. My heart then melts and I am back at square one. Yelling at bunnies and squirrels. 

 

Kisses

Last night Charlie gave Ryan a big we kiss before bed. After the kiss she wiped her mouth and giggled, then said "that was a marriage kiss. You know, you kiss on the mouth when you get married."