A very long blog.....

Hello everyone! So sorry I haven't kept up the blogging.....but here I am again at last! I didn't do anything interesting for weeks and weeks and then BANG so much in such a short amount of time!

Let's see, the birthday went well; I don't even know why I stressed about it at all! Just a nice little picnic in the park with dips and cupcakes. My signature dish here is guacamole - being from Texas I feel I have to represent! That and hummus go a long way! Don't tell anyone they're so easy to make it's almost like cheating.......oops. Oh well. Now you know...:) We gave Miles a scooter and he's already super good! I may be a little biased.......

Also, we took Miles to an outdoor circus of sorts to celebrate on the actual day of his birthday. Strange, but fun. There was a horrible Dutch melodrama in a very hot tent - even the Dutch people weren't laughing.....and there was a silent Disco. If you haven't heard of this, it is super fun! Everyone participating had on wireless headphones and were listening to the same song.....there were silly people who led the dances too. For everyone not participating, it just looked like a bunch of people dancing in silence! But we were having so much fun, we didn't care what we looked like! If you have the chance - go! Fun for kids too!

Anyway, right after Miles's birthday (sans fireworks), my friend Sarah came to town. Yea!!! I of course dragged her all over town showing her the sights. Most of them kid friendly, but we managed to squeak in some culture too. I am so indecisive though, I'm sure it got on her nerves (I know it got on mine and it's my indecisiveness!)...should we go here or there? Should we eat this or that? Just make up your mind already, jeez! I should stress here that we had a great time (she said it on facebook, so it's for the record!)

She and I were roommates at college. Gosh, that was more than 10 years ago. tick tock tick tock, that's time flying again.....But recently (the last 5 years), we hadn't been able to meet more than once or twice a year for dinner. Having her here for three days,- talking almost nonstop except for when we had to sleep - really brought that friendship back to me. I'm so glad she came, because who else can you laugh hysterically at the smurfs with than an old friend? No I was not drunk. We were pretty tired by then though.

THEN, after she left, we decided to check out camping the Dutch way. Pretty luxurious, if you ask me. They call these little houses in the woods "bungalows." With wood floors, full kitchens, two bedrooms and a living room, I call it "bigger than my first apartment." They also had playgrounds, a heated indoor swimming pool (a must in this climate), archery, kids programs, a grocery store, cafes, bike rental and a horse and buggy, if you can believe it. Yeah, we were roughing it....

Landell GreenPark is close to Amersfort in the middle of The Netherlands, but we had no idea how to get there. This is the bad part about not having a car. Door-to-door, the way there took 4 hours. We changed trains FIVE times. Plus a BUS! Luckily, Miles was asleep for most of it. I look at it as a learning experience. Turns out we were directed to a neighboring town when all we had to do was take a train to the actual town it was in. If you're confused now, join the club. Suffice to say, we changed our route back and saved two hours.

BUT the place was super nice (see list above) and Miles didn't want to leave. The Dutch people think of a weekend as Friday through Monday. I started packing our things up Sunday morning without realizing we had another day....sure that day was rainy and cold, but we did have it :) Aaron and I were ready to go on Monday morning, but it was a nice place to visit.

One thing I never thought about before moving here, but with all the rain, Holland is really green. It's not a very big country, but they have set aside so much of the land (relatively speaking) for parks and green spaces! We rented bikes on Saturday there and the camp is in the middle of a national park - trees as far as you can see in any direction. One thing I thought was funny though - the only true roadsigns I've seen here (they're mainly on the sides of buildings) were in the middle of the forest marking two bike paths coming together. Weird. That's the one thing I forgot to get a picture of. Oh well. I guess it helps you not get lost!

Hope everyone is having a nice summer and surviving the heat (sorry to hear about that Texans). We're heading to Illinois for 10 days to see my dad's family. If anyone is in the Chicago area between July 21-31, shoot me an email!

Love
Nicole