A New Adventure

I guess it's time to dust off the old blog and try again. It's been over 4 years since I last posted. It made me so nostalgic and sad and happy looking through all the old posts. Sad because I wish I had kept up my posting, and happy that I HAD posted because my memory is horrible.  My kids have grown up so much! They need to stop doing that. But we are starting a new chapter in our family's life, and I feel like I need to chronicle it. Or I'll really regret it!

So this is the end of week one in Rotterdam. I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that we don't live in Houston anymore and that we live here. It's crazy. Sometimes I feel crazy. We had such a fun month in Utah with family--swimming, hiking, visiting, zoo-ing, aquarium-ing, shopping, etc. It was hard to say good bye.

We have been in transition since the end of June. Living out of a suitcase for that long isn't that great. But we are scheduled to move into our house in Rotterdam this Friday. Currently we are in a corporate apartment. It's super nice, but I'm ready to feel settled in our place.

oops, grace's eyes are closed.

So we arrived in The Netherlands this past Wednesday. No sleep was had on the flight. You would think that flying in Business Class where you can stretch out and get comfortable would make for good sleeping conditions.  I guess not when you are flying with 3 children who want to watch movies all night.

 The kids finally fell asleep a couple of hours before we landed. Which apparently was all they needed, because they were bouncing off the walls all day! It's taken a few days, but I think we are finally adjusting to our new time zone.  We've spent the last few days exploring the city, shopping for dutch bikes, opening bank accounts, letting the dutch government know we are here, shopping for a car, and just hanging out.

It was SUPER windy. I guess ideal for windsurfing!

Those rabbits were huge!

Saturday, we spent part of the day in Wassenaar, where we watched people windsurf on the beach and also found a cute little petting zoo to walk around in. We also explored IKEA, since it's pretty much going to be my new BFF when we finally move in to our place. We ended the day at the Pannenkoekenboot (The Pancake Boat) for a 2.5 hour tour of the Rotterdam port, with all-you-can-eat pancakes, a ball pit for the kids to play in, and ice cream for dessert. Dutch pancakes are kind of like crepes, but a little thicker. Pretty delicious.

A slide down to the ball pit--every kid's dream

Don't worry, James woke up with pancakes and the ball pit.

So there you have it. We survived our first week. Trevor is headed to London tomorrow on business, so it will just be me and the kids.  I'm a little scared to drive, but it's going to have to happen.