One of the new five-star hotels has a fancy new restaurant with one of those big-name Chefs (Gordon Ramsey). They offered a special night where they brought in a wine sommelier from Italy to talk to us about the wine produced at his winery.
We invited along our friends Paul and Rebecca and took the opportunity for a night out with no kids. The food was wonderful, the wine came nonstop by the glass full, we all had way too much to eat and drink but had a great time.
However, not so much the next morning when the kids were still up at 5:30 AM... They don't really understand what it means when mommy and daddy have a hangover - thank goodness for iTunes and seasons of Dinosaur Train.
He woke up a little later than normal (but don't worry Jaydon was up at 5:45), he ate up his cearal, eggs and some blueberries.
Got all dressed and when I said it was time to go he started to prepare himself for the fit he usually throws when he gets left behind in the morning.
This time though, to his surprise, he got to go in the car too. We left the house fairly early and both boys were happy as could be while sitting in traffic. We got to school and brought Jaydon to his class and said good-bye. Tylor was a bit overwhelemd by all the teachers who know Jaydon so well coming up to him to say hi.
I brought him to his classroom and he was a little hesitant but as soon as they dumped a tub full of cars in front of him he was happy. I figured I'd use that oppurtunity and say good-bye. He hardley noticed when I left - too busy with the toys. About 1 hr later the school called saying that he was ok but was crying on and off. I headed back over after 2 hours to bring him home. I walked into the classroom, he took one look at me and started balling. I got him calmed down, had him show me a few toys then told him it was time to say bye-bye to the teachers - he went to instant tears. Now since school just started there are lot of other kids brand new to school in his class and everytime he started to cry about 5 others would join in.
I decided it was time to leave the poor teachers with the other crying kids and get Tylor home. On the way out the receptionist said bye-bye and again Tylor went staright to tears.
I brought him home, got him settled but he was rubbing his eyes and so tired I suggested to Samina that she should put him down for a nap. He instantly realized what was going on and latched on to me not willing to let go. I finally pried him off and handed him over to Samina and left the poor little guy in full hesterics while I headed back to work. It was a tough day for him but I think he'll get used to it quickly.
He acclimated quickly, But between getting sick and the various weekends it took almost 3 weeks until he was fully comfortable with going to school.
Back home in Doha the boys were happy to have their own beds back.
Traveling to Europe is nice because we don't really have much of a time zone difference. Also the flight back meant that we arrived just at bed time with a couple of tired kids who slept through the night which is always a nice way to come home. Now that Tylor is walking it wasn't too much time before he figured out he next favorite thing to do was dance. Here's a great clip of the two boys dancing to their favorite singer...
They also enjoyed being in the hot weather. I don't recall exactly why they both ended up naked and in the water table together but it made for some cute pictures.
We also got some new haircuts because coming up next was time to go back to nursery after summer break.
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.
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).
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.
