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.