Get Ready! Set! Go!

On our first weekend back in Belgium we headed to the Netherlands for a day trip to visit the town where almost 10 years ago on our honeymoon Rick's bike was stolen. Delft is a beautiful little city with picturesque canals, a leaning church tower, and pancake houses galore. Our plan was to meander around the city for a bit and then check out a reptile zoo before heading back to Brasschaat. But our first stop was lunch at a pancake house. These are not your IHOP pancakes. These pancakes come with anything and everything you could possibly imagine on and in the pancake from basic syrup to Indian peanut chicken.

After stuffing our faces we were sitting in the restaurant relaxing a bit when Megan burst into a fountain of vomit. It was awful, not that someone vomiting in a restaurant could ever not be awful, but we were complete novices at this. Believe it or not none of our children had ever puked at a restaurant. Drew and Alyssa's comments were priceless but I have since blocked out most of the memory of that experience. For me public vomiting pretty much kills the day but not for Rick. For him this was only a slight deterrance to our plans to check out the town. I had to agree that Megan did look much better and was far happier than before the episode. So off we went exploring. (Check out the pictures) We never did agree on the actual site of the stolen bike.

Although we had a very enjoyable rest of the day it turns out that Megan was sick for the better part of the week. Towards the end of the week we perfected the barf bucket usage. Thank goodness because our washing machine here has such a small capacity and the dryer condenses the water into a container that you must empty at some point during the cycle because it isn't sized big enough to handle the volume of water from a load of wash. I don't know what else to say about this than what the hell were they thinking!

I'd like to say that the first week back to school went off with out a hitch but it really didn't. I was so excited to get back to my routine (and get a break from my children after 4 weeks of 24/7) and it was anything but. Drew somehow managed to sleep through the late night sessions of crying, sheet changing and bathing Megan (you go Ferber) and was the only one who wasn't walking around like a zombie. The only good thing about that crazy week is it gave me tremendous appreciation for week 2. Week 2 has been great. Everyone is happy and healthy. Yes, I knocked on wood. We are doing finishing touch plans on our great ski escape which happens in just two weeks. We have also been doing itinerary planning for our next sets of visitors. And lastly trying to plan a warm weather vacation trip for Easter vacation. We'll keep you posted on all events.

Delft, Holland - Check out these cars parked on the canal. If you mis-step when you get out of your car you are going for a swim. 

Delft, Holland - Drew hanging out bya canal 

Delft, Holland - Delft blue ceramic tile. 

Delft, Holland - tiny tourists. Alyssa and Megan taking in the view. 

Delft, Holland - The church in the main square. 

Delft, Holland 

Delft, Holland - Could we be any more touristy? Alyssa, Lyn, Megan and Drew in a giant wooden shoe. 

The world according to Drew

Drew received a digital camera for Christmas. (It is actually our old one, shhh!) Keep an eye out for future pictures by Drew.

The world according to Drew

Bodmer family portrait taken by Drew
"Aren't those Auntie Kate's legs? And is Grandmom hiding? One sister is enough. They look alike anyway. Good thing Uncle Jeff isn't any taller."

Holly and Isabella at Tea's house taken by Drew

Home for the Holidays!

Drew and his gals: clockwise from the top left - Isla, Isabella, Lexi, Drew, and Tea

Some of the gang at Beth and Vinny's. From left to right: Max, Alyssa (he's touching me!), Dominic, AJ, Megan, Drew, Alexis, Ryan, Isla, Tea. 

I don't think Alyssa could be any happier about the snow. 

It's snowing!!! (Megan in pink) 

The sea of presents and the anxiously awaiting kids at Uncle Steve's and Auntie Kim's house the day after Christmas. 

Snow is great!! Drew and his cousin TJ 

One of Alyssa and Megan's favorite spots, sitting on their Pepere's lap.

Typical Daddy taken by Drew 

We're back!

Well we made it back from our whirlwind adventure visiting family and friends in the States over the holidays. What a wonderful time we had! Everyone made us feel so welcomed and loved. It felt so great to see so many familiar faces. Thanks so much to all of our very gracious host and hostesses, whose homes we crashed and ravaged, starting with Becca and Tom for letting us stay in our "green house", and my folks whom we immediately infected with all of our new germs but who were the best sports about it letting us come back again and again and again, and Jeff and Kate for notifying Santa of our locale, and Grandmom for braving the cold, and Steve and Kim for the second round of Christmas celebrations. Thanks to all of you who took time out of your busy schedules to spend time with us. It really meant so much to us and made for a very memorable Christmas 2004.

Happy 2005! We returned to Belgium on the 4th bracing ourselves for the the dreary dark wet weather when in fact it has been sunny and mild. I've yet to experience the late rise of the sun because with three jet-lagged kids waking up at all hours of the night we (Rick not included) have been sleeping until well after the sun rises sometime between 8 and 8:30. Let me give you an example of what it means to have three jet-lagged children. On night two having trouble falling asleep myself I was still reading when I heard stirring in the girls' room around 11:45pm. After about two hours of trying to convince them they should be sleeping and not playing, crying, or standing expectantly outside of my bedroom door I started dozing off. At 2:17 am after aproximately 15 minutes of sleep so far the whole night I am startled awake by I'm not sure what. I jump out of bed, rush to the kids room to find them all empty. I go running down stairs to find them ... eating breakfast. EATING BREAKFAST! at 2:17am!! Now because I'm very well rested at this point I calmly send them back to bed. OK, no actually that is what I wished I had done but instead I stood there pointing toward the stairs with incoherent noises coming out of my mouth in between the "get" .. "back" .. "to" .."bed". Well they luckily knew I meant business or was at my breaking point or something because they couldn't get up the stairs fast enough, climbed into bed and we didn't hear boo from them until I woke them at 10:30 the next morning. Now I would have and should have dragged us all out of bed earlier but I was so exhausted because when I went back to bed I couldn't fall asleep thinking of the predicament that just happened. You see on school mornings for most of November and all of December we ate breakfast while it was still dark outside. On the weekends Drew had gotten into the habit of shuttling his little sisters downstairs and giving them breakfast without bothering us. He loved this new found independence. A beautiful thing for Rick and I letting us sleep in on the weekends. A beautiful thing that I might have just destroyed. Anyway, I spent way too long pondering how to make sure this weekend breakfast thing still occurs. Your mind does funny things when sleep deprived.

Ok next day, when I'm a bit more coherent I plan my night time strategy if the kids wake up again. At 11:30pm that night the alarms go off again. Alyssa and Megan are up and don't want to go back to sleep. Wondering why I earth I did not do this the night before I drug them. A little bit of cold medicine and 20 minutes later everyone is back a sleep. Let's see what happens tonight...

Cologne, Germany

Christmas markets are a huge draw for locals and tourists alike. In early December we visited the Christmas markets in Cologne, Germany with our friends the Pruitts. The cathedral in Cologne is enormous and magnificent. On the foggy evening we were there the cathedral disappeared into the clouds. It was an awesome sight.

Cologne, Germany - Christmas Market in front of the Cathedral. 

Cologne, Germany - Cathedral 

Cologne, Germany - Pedestrian shopping area