Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Chadderdons + Grandma Time!

March 1-4, 2024: We arrived back to Amsterdam the same day my Grandma, Curtis, Courtney, and Drake arrived. They have been traveling the past 6 weeks around Europe and closed the trip with some time at our house in Amsterdam. It was fun to see them when the trip started and fun to hear all the adventures at the end. I especially loved I got a few more days with my Grandma, she is the best!! I wish I took more pictures of these days and makes me sad I don't have one with the whole crew but we had a good time. They explored the city during the day,  and we would all play card games and chat and eat in the evening.

 One of the highlights was doing an art class with my grandma one evening. It ended up just being me and her in the class and was so fun, she is a much better artist than me and watercolor is the hardest medium. It was fun though,  I took her in my bakfiets bike which still makes me laugh and smile thinking about the memory of riding through Amsterdam with my grandma on the bike chatting about life. It was the best having her around, she is so sweet and thoughtful and she even babysat all the kids so me and Riley could go out to eat. I wish she could stay for weeks and explore Europe more with her. It was such a precious time and was the perfect thing to see all of them to get over jet lag fast. 

Also, something really cool she game me her spiral Book of Mormon she made! It was a labor of love. It has became one of my most beloved things just thinking of the process and time she put into it. She cut each page out and sanded them to make smooth and put spiral on it herself with journaling pages intermixed. It really is so cool and she wrote a note inside to me. I just love it and her and these days together. 





Thats a wrap! Bye California!

Feb 28, 2024: The final day of the trip before we flew out. We filled up the last day with lots of good cousin time. We played at Kenzie's house most the day and went to the beach. We went to Target together after the kids were in bed, which is what I really wanted and just walked the isles and get the see how much america goods I could carry on board. It was a great day and the kids ask all the time, even a month later when they can go back. Id love to repeat this whole trip with Riley next year. Happy days. 








latenight selfies

I also took some family pics of Hartley crew which turned out super nice I thought. Here are just a few of my people are so so grateful they hosted me and the kids for a week and some.  



They are the best :) 

Whale Watching

Feb 27, 2024: We went whale watching.. but it was more of dolphin watching! After a great german pancake breakfast we headed to a nearby harbor and spend a few hours on the water looking for whales and watching dolphins play around us. It was a great time. Makenzie brought all the kids a little sketch pad and they drew all the things they saw on the water. It was really fun being around so many dolphins and watching them play and we did see a whale from a distance and learned lots about them. Clay loves the killer whale, orca, and is one of his favorite animals and is convinced he saw one too :) 




a few other pics from the day 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Balboa Island

Feb 26, 2023: Our adventure on Monday was Balboa Island, it is this cute harborside community in Newport Beach close to where Kenzie use to live. We walked the cute shops and went to the banana stand and rode a little boat to the Island. Unfortunately, lots was closed on the Island we planned to go to the arcade but things were under construction. We still had a blast and the kids found a massive sand pile on the walk back and we all had a good time. I loved this little outing and the fun memories we were able to create together.






bahaha I love you lucy! This picture makes me laugh



Roo made my day, unlike the boys she was always smiling for the camera and telling me to send these pictures to her mom. 





king of the hill 


Does he not look like a little teenager here? He's growing so fast.