Amsterdam

After our week at De Eemhof we spent a couple nights in the city of Amsterdam.  We had had wonderful weather the whole trip and felt that all the rain gear we had packed was going to waste, well the few days in Amsterdam changed that. 

It rained on us the whole time which made actually seeing the city a little tricky.  We did do a canal trip in the rain which was a dry way to get around the city but we didn't see very much through the foggy windows. 

At the end of the tour it cleared up just enough to get a view from the back of the boat. 

We tried to go see the Van Gogh museum but the kids were hungry and tired so we changed plans and ended up at the Hard Rock cafe. 

Since traveling with kids we've really come to appreciate those American family restaurants that are in every city and provide a reliable source of kid gear like high chairs, chicken nuggets, balloons, and coloring kits.  We headed back to the room to get the naps in and after the boys went to sleep I ventured back to the museum alone.  Later that afternoon we spent some time walking through the park and doing some interesting people watching - there are certainly all types who end up in Amsterdam.  It cleared up enough for us to have dinner outside. 

After a good dose of rain we felt like our trip was complete and loaded up all our stuff to get back on the plane.

 

Dolphinarium, paddle boats and the forest

We did get brave on one day and decided to venture to the next town over to see the local Dolphinarium. 

We booked a mini bus for the eight of us and after waiting an hour for it called another taxi company .  By then our optimal morning hours when everyone was awake and happy had long passed and we had two tired babies who wanted to nap.  At just about the point we decided to call it off the 2nd taxi finally showed up.  The drive was about 45 minutes - just enough time to get the kiddos asleep but not enough for them to actually be rested. 

Fortunately, the Dolphimarium was a very small place with a few good viewing of key animals like sea lions, walruses, rays and small sharks.  We timed our visit to get in 2 shows. 

The first was a pirate adventure with sea lions which are always fun to watch (which is good since the show was in dutch). 

Tylor thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. 

He couldn't get enough of the silly animals on the stage and in his over-tired state was pure hysterics with giggles. 

After that show we saw the main attraction - the dolphins. 

The show was very dark with much of it under black lights and that was too much for Tylor - we spent most of the show standing at the door to keep him from screaming. 

I think Jaydon liked the show but he had also missed nap time by this point so we were all happy that the return taxi was right on time to bring us all home. 

The next day we took it easy to let the kids recuperate and while the babies were sleeping the dads and older boys ventured out into the forest to play in mud, catch bugs, chase geese and get into other kinds of boy type trouble. 

We also rented paddle boats which was a fun way to spend an hour. 

We again brought along all the spare bread so had many ducks interested in following us around which is how the boys stayed entertained for the hour. 

Steve and John also went down to the archery range for a little brake from the family fun.

 Jaydon also discovered that he loves those small tender carrots straight out of the garden, he and Jacob had rabbit eating carrots competitions (and usually Jaydon could are less for the things).

 

Feeding ducks, waterparks and lots of fun

One of the features of the apartment / cottage we stayed in was that they provided fresh bread every morning.  Well since we had booked the 12 person cottage for 4 adults and 4 kids (one of which is not eating things like bread yet) we had enough bread on a daily basis for 12 people and were lucky to eat barely half of it. 

But fortunately, we had some friendly ducks who were quite happy to help us with our dilemma. 

Tylor loved feeding the ducks and called them 'quacks'. 

He started full on walking during this trip and would take you by the hand, lead you to the front door and then bang on it saying "quacks, quacks!" 

We spent hours out with the those ducks (and a few coots). 

There was also a big play area for the kids that we visited a few times for lunch but the big attraction was the water park. 

They has a lazy river and a few different kiddie pools. 

It was all indoors so the temperature was perfect anytime you went. 

They only issue was being crowded but since we were up at 6am most morning it was easy to be the first ones in at 10 when it opened. 

They had sand boxes right next to the pool which provided for hours of fun for the boys.

That way the boys were ready for their nap by the time everyone else arrived after lunch time.  The place also had tons of good old fashion parks where the boys played in the sand...

 and caught bugs.

Tylor was very brave going down the super fast metal slide. 

He also discovered the parking lot was full of his favorite things (beside quacks) - gocks (aka rocks).

When we weren't out in the great outdoors riding bikes with the cows,

the boys found plenty of way to have fun like building couch seat cushion forts. 

Daringly jumping over crocodile filled water and playing air guitar. 

And using all the handy rain and swimming gear we'd packed along to be super heroes.

 

Petting Zoo

We woke up the next morning to a beautiful view of windmills out our window. 

Between the windmills and spiders we had hours of entertainment - just the kind perfect for relaxing on the porch with a big glass of wine with some real pork salami's. 

The vacation village we stayed at is called De Eemhof and it has it's own little petting zoo which was on our way to just about anywhere we wanted to go in the park. 

The boys had a great time seeing the chickens, sheep, goats and donkeys everyday. 

They also had some old tractors for the kids to play with and other barn yard type toys. 

The rabbits guinea pigs, and geese were locked behind fences. 

Probably for the better because we were very amazed with what these animals put up with day by day with exciting kids being around them all the time. 

All the animals seemed very calm and well fed so I guess they know they had to put up with kiddos to keep their situation going. 

 

Eid Holiday in Netherlands

This year for Eid holiday we decided to get out the heat and head north to enjoy some cool rainy weather in the Netherlands.  We'd heard good things about a place called CenterParcs which is a holiday village geared towards kids and the outdoors - sounded perfect for us.  We invited along our usual vacation buddies the Fenns and shared a 6 bedroom cottage (which was really more of an apartment) on the lake about 45 mins outside of Amsterdam.  We got a great deal on the flights but it meant that we left at midnight and arrived at 6 am. 

This meant by the time we loaded up a small bus with all the kids and their gear and finally arrived at the park it was only 8 am and check-in wasn't until 3pm. 

We found a nice place to stack up our luggage and spent the first day entertaining very tired kids while waiting to get into our room. 

The boys had a great time playing in the greenery, catching bugs, and playing with sticks that they were quite satisfied with our temporary situation. 

The babies had their naps on the go and we found a restaurant for lunch. 

Since everything here is kid friendly they had a great play areas for the kids

... and the big kids too.

We finally got into our cottage/apartment and found there was already someone there - actually tons of them - all over. 

I have never been anywhere with so many spiders.  They were in the rafters, on the windows, all over the porch.  If you left something hanging for more than about 12 hours you'd come back to webs on it.  It was amazing how many there were they were very interesting to watch too - no need for TV when you have spiders everywhere.  After a couple days we kind of got used to them being around (and had no issues with mosquitoes or other pesty bugs).

After a long day of travelling, waiting, and finally moving into our new home away from home (filled with spiders) we got all the kids to bed and enjoyed a beautiful sunset while sitting on our porch enjoying the local wine.