Monday, December 27, 2021

Avery + Meg Visit!

After Christmas, Avery and Meg headed to Amsterdam from Germany! Meg’s sister lives in Germany so they decided to come over and visit us too! Unfortunately, the Netherlands was on a strict lockdown with all the museums and things closed do we only stayed one night at our place and headed on a train for a couple days in Belgium. We stayed a night in Brugge and Brussels and hunted for the best friets and waffles  and just enjoying time with Avery and Meg and exploring place. My only regret is not bringing camera, rain was forecasted the whole time so decided against it, but weather worked out for the most part thankfully! 









Saturday, December 18, 2021

Whitney + Ephraim Weddding

On December 18, 2021 my baby sister got hitched! They got married in the Boise, Temple in the same sealing room I got married in! It was such a special sealing and really great to be there again and meet Ephraim! One of the huge disadvantages to living abroad is the couple days before was the first time I got to meet the guy. He is great and seems perfect for Whitney. We love the fact he is from Alaska and Riley loves that he is a baller. They both are the same level in school and both recently got accepted to the Nursing Program and doing that together. They are so cute and fun loving. This trip to Boise was a solo trip and spent almost an entire week in Boise without kids! It was great. The highlights of week (besides the wedding) was just the quality time and chats with my Nana and sharing a bed with Whitney every-night before and chatting for hours. A funny story my first or second night I guess i KISSED Whitney in my sleep!!! I guess I kissed her on the head and cheek  maybe thinking it was my kid or Riley, she thought I was prepping her for sharing a bed with Ephraim haha (but I had no idea I even did it)!












So, flying without kids was REALLY great! On the way there my travel day was 26 hours door to door! SO LONG. We had a medical emergency aboard and made an emergency landing in iceland for a few hours and then layovers due to weather in Seattle so made for a long day. Also in Seattle during security my name for flagged for a fugitive and they took me in for questioning (asking if I was male or black before...).  Very grateful I didn't have the kids with me that day especially. But I missed them and Riley was such an Allstar with them all week and was a great reunion to be back just a couple days before Christmas!  

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Bike ride to Muiderslot

 

12/11/2021- There's some random Saturday activities that end up massively exceeding expectations and biking out to Muiderslot castle was definitely one of them. Riley had seen it on a map for a while but we had not gone out to it until this day. The bike was just about an hour and turned out to be such a fun ride. We were very lucky had a really nice sunny day which made the ride even better. The first part was through the city and then through Flevopark until the last half was on a bike path through the country and herds of sheep. The castle sat in a really pretty, quaint little town which made it even more magical. Luke was excited there was ice skating and Clay was happy there was hot chocolate. We then walked around in the castle which was really cool and interesting to see and not very crowded. We all had a great time except for when Luke saw the taxidermy bear rug on the floor and was horrified that they caught the bear and 'smushed' it. He luckily calmed down after a while and finished off the great outing with some pizza at out favorite 'Cafe Milo'. 


I spy us on bakfiets 

this picture really doesn't do it justice. The sky and water just merged together all in one and was so surreal. 







Sunday, December 5, 2021

Basel, Switzerland

12/5/2021: Our final night of the trip was in Basel Switzerland which turned out to be a really fun city to explore. Besides the fact that Roger Federer is from Basel, we hardly knew anything about the place going into it so were pleasantly surprised by the great Christmas markets and how pretty of a city it was. 


On our Sunday morning walk to church. Had a really pretty walk seeing more of the city on the way to church and was there for the ward's primary program, which was fun to see and so cool to see how global the church is and how welcomed we were into their small little ward. 




During this trip every morning for breakfast we hit up the local bakeries and got croissants which Clay became obsessed with and would wake up every morning and request that we get 'saants'. They were amazingly delicious, so everyone was quite happy to get Clay his 'saants'. 







The elusive meat on a stick. Finally got it our last day thanks to the strong recommendation from Bishop. 

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Colmar, France

12/4/2021: Our Christmas market trip continued with a stop in beautiful Colmar. Loved walking around this town, especially early in the morning before most of the tourists were fully out. Really amazed by how pretty the town was and discovering quiet cobble stoned streets. Last stop in France. 

Clay wouldn't let me move up or down his beanie or scarf, wanted it just so! 

photocredit: Luke















Luke's rock collection, which somehow managed to be our only souvenirs.