Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a city of canals, bridges, bikes, museums, flowers, and much more! Saturday morning we woke up early and made the 2 hour drive to the center of Amsterdam. We started at the Dam Square...

...where there was randomly a huge pillow fight going on. 

The picture does not do it justice. There were hundreds of people and after the pillow fight this huge square was covered in feathers.

Amsterdam is known as the "Venice of the North" because it has over 165 canals in the city. Since it was a beautiful sunny afternoon, seeing the city from the water seemed perfect. So we decided to take a tour of the city in a canal boat.

During the tour we learned that Amsterdam is really down under, that is below the sea level. 25% of the city is below the sea level and the lowest part is 6.7 meters below sea level (about 22 feet) - crazy! 

Here is a picture of the famous seven bridges where you can see through seven different bridges in a row. Sorry the picture is too dark to see them all.

Another fun fact: every house has a hook at the top so you can tie up furniture with a rope and hoist it to the top floors! The homes had such small, winding stairways that this was the only possible way to get large items to the upper floors. This method is still used to move furniture today.

After our tour, ee wandered around the tourists shops. These wooden clogs are actually pretty comfortable. Maddie did not think they were very stylish though.

Mean mom :)

Then we went to the Bloomenmarkt which is a flower market. 

You can buy every kind of flower bulb and seeds imaginable and even some that I would never think to imagine.

We bought a pine berry plant- strawberry+pineapple=genius!

We concluded our day with a walk by the Anne Frank House - we would have visited if it weren't for the hour and a half line. For dinner we had a classic Dutch meal, well almost... It turned out to be a good old hot dog from a street vendor for me and Chinese takeout for Kellen and Shannon because Maddie was tired of walking around and being out.

Of course we couldn't be done without a little dessert. 

It was a beautiful day and by the end we were exhausted from walking all over the city! 

The French Alps

Have you ever imagined yourself high in the Alps skiing in powder up to your knees? Kellen and I have...And this weekend we got to live that dream. Kellen's work (BCG Brussles) coordinates a ski weekend each year and when we were invited to go we jumped on the opportunity. After submitting our final payments for the trip we began to second guess ourselves as we learned that no other kids or even spouses were going on the trip. We wondered if we emerge crazy to try to take Maddie.

It took quite the transportation effort to get to our destination. With a stroller, car seat, lots of luggage and an occasionally fussy baby it was a challenge-I would say we are kind of crazy.

We arrived just after midnight at our destination: Les 3 Valles Ski Area in the French Alps! Which claims to be the largest ski resort in the world. We were excited to discover our hotel was quite charming and was ski-in ski-out! Also, lucky for us there was a "crèche" or daycare right next to our hotel where we took Maddie while we were skiing

Our first day of skiing was perfect. The sun shining over head, it was nice and warm, and the sky was so blue! 

We were above the tree line so there weren't any trees at the resort, just jagged rocks rising up through the snow. This made for a very beautiful and dramatic scene.

As part of our "ski package" the hotel provided lunch for our entire group. Back in college, Kellen and I got very used to  to eating a smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of our pockets while we skied. The three course lunches we had were quite an upgrade. Europeans sure know how to eat!

This resort is famous for its "après ski." Near the end of the ski day everyone gathers for a huge party at the mid-mountain lodges! Featuring a huge out door dance floor, DJ, live performances, and many people who seemed to have misplaced some of their ski clothes (I mean honestly how else do you end up in just a speedo on the ski slopes!) Let's just say it reminded us of MTV spring break. 

Here is part of the BCG crew at La Folie Douce. In total There were 25 people on the trip, 26 if you include baby Maddie!

After a great ski day, we had a traditional French dinner. It is raclette cheese that you heat up until it melts and scrape off onto boiled potatoes. You eat it with an assortment of cured meats.

It is one of our new favorites- filling and fabulous!

That night, it began to snow and we woke up to...

... a winter wonderland. It just kept snowing and snowing which made for two more amazing, yet very cold, days of skiing! One thing that is great about skiing in Europe is the lifts do not close until 5pm so you get a longer ski day!

The second night we ventured out into the snow to walk around the charming little village and find a place to eat dinner.

This picture is in front of our hotel as we struggled to push the stroller through the snow!

After dinner, we walked around the small mountain village and got dessert from a charming little bakery! 

Our last day we skied in the morning in powder up to our knees. It was incredible.

I wish I had more pictures but it was just too cold to even think about taking off my gloves off get out my phone! After we finished skiing we met everyone for our last lunch then got ready to head home.

That's when I got very sick. I believe it was food poisining. I threw up multiple times and could barley stand up for more than a few minutes. This made for a VERY long trip home. It was a 3hr bus ride (I was just grateful that I did not throw up), 2hrs at the Geneva airport (where I resorted to laying on the concrete floor), a 1hr plane ride, a 20 min train ride, and finally a 15 min deive until we finally arrived at home. Thankfully, Kellen totally took care of Maddie and she was a very good girl during all the traveling. 

He wins the best dad ever award!

Overall it was a wonderful trip and we feel so blessed to have been able to see and ski at such an amazing place. Oh, and for the record, I swapped out my snowboard for skis for half the day on Saturday. My dad would have been very proud!

Wonderful Weather = Lots of Time Outside

The weather this week has been delightful- and by this I mean average temperatures in th 60's! So we have been spending a lot of time outside at the parks around town. 

There have been tons of other people outside enjoying the beautiful weather.

One afternoon after we got home I caught Maddie "black handed" as she was eating her navy blue bow and dye from the bow got all over her face and shirt... haha!

Saturday we had a very laid back/relaxing day. We started out by going to one of our favorite places- Flagey market- to stock up on fresh fruits and veggies. Then we went for a walk around... yes, another park!

It's finally beginning to look a little bit like Spring here (and check out the cheeks on that baby)!

During our walk we came across an interesting Belgian sight. Above is a picture of how people move their furniture. Since most homes only have tiny elevators or no elevator at all. To get furniture out of the higher floors of the narrow homes they use this escalator-type thing. Furniture is put out the window and onto this machine and brought down to the street. It makes me appreciate how easy it is to move in America with large freight elevators and wide hallways.

We also spent Sunday afternoon at the Park.

On our way home we passed this speed limit sign. This is not an ordinary speed limit sign. This week pollution levels were high in Brussels so they dropped all of the speed limits for the whole city for the week to 50km/hr which is about 30miles/hr. The goal is to discourage people from driving and encourage them to use public transportation. 

We also celebrated another big event in our life as new parents: Maddie turned 4 months old!

She is such a happy little girl weighing in at 13.5 lbs and measuring 25 inches tall.

She loves to play in her bouncer and eats everything in sight.

She loves bath time and looking at herself in the mirror.

She still can not roll over and does not enjoy tummy time at all.

She can stand up with our help and looks like a little hula girl with her hips wobbling everywhere.

She likes when Daddy is home and when he carries her around the house.

She is a great sleeper and sleeps through the whole night! She is always happy and makes my job as her mom so much fun! We are so in love with our little Maddie girl!