Mother's Day on the Belgian Coast

After nap on Mother's Day we took a drive to the Belgian Coast, a town by the name of Oostende. When we left Tervuren the weather that afternoon the weather was sunny and warm.  As we approached the coast it was cloudy and colder. We arrived at the beach to find a nice sandy beach, boardwalk and a very cold sea.  The boys did not mind the cold water, they splashed around and played in the sand for a few hours. Then we had a wonderful dinner at a place called Valentino.  The staff there was very nice, spoke english, had crayons for the kids-which is not common here at all (crayons).  The weather held out till after dinner and ice cream, but started raining just in time to walk back to the car.  It is Belgium after all.



Jax loves drinking from the fancy cup.



The boys ate the cold fish appetizer. Greg did not like it but they both ate some. I did not try it.

We were also lucky to get our swing set this month. Thanks to help from Andres, Stacey, Jenn and Dan we (Greg and the guys) were able to get it put together in 2 days about 9 hours total. The boys have loved playing and swinging.  My mom came again for a visit from the 11th-19th and while she was here Aidan learned to pump the swing himself and Jaxon learned how to blow his nose, he is only 2 years so that is an amazing accomplishment.

I had to find Jax a infant style swing and the only one we could find is a Hello Kitty swing that is hot pink and purple.  It works, although I did have to do some creative setup.  The hooks attached to the swing are too big to fit in the hooks of the set so I used zip ties to attach the swing, so far so good.
Overall, May has been a pretty good month here. Greg was gone a lot. But while my mom was here we had a chance to go to the King Tut exhibit, dinner and a movie all in one night. Thanks mom for babysitting :)

Easter in Amsterdam & Keukenhof April 23-25, 2011

Aidan is testing out his new boogie board. Jaxon is tired and hungry, not a good combination.

Any tricks to get them both to look?

Aidan at the Puma store.

Easter Sunday!

We spent Easter weekend in Amsterdam.  It was a great time, the people were very nice and the canals were interesting. On the way home we stopped at Keukenhof to see the tulips and check out the windmill.

The boys loved the dancing manequins at this department store.  Too funny. Got us to go into the store, we did not buy anything.

We were supposed to go to Brunch with the Easter Bunny at the Hard Rock Cafe.  We got ready, walked over there and Aidan said he did not want to and since we had a good breakfast at the Marriott we skipped it. Once we changed clothes and headed to the canal tour Aidan asked when we were going to the bunny brunch! Ugh. He was not happy that we missed it but he survived.

KEUKENHOF



It was a beautiful day to spend in the gardens.

I am obviously not the best writer and don't have much time until the boys are asleep.

Disneyland Paris 4/14-4/17/11

We took some time during Aidan's Easter break to go to Disneyland Paris, we are after all big Disney fans.  Greg and I had been there 8 years ago or so and it has grown, it is still small but there was enough to do. We stayed at the Davey Crockett Ranch a 10 minute drive but we had a trailer in the woods with a kitchen and enough space for us all.
Jaxon's favorite ride was It's a Small World and Aidan's favorite was Pirates of the Carribean. We also got to experience the new Crush Roller Coaster and other new rides at Hollywood Studios.  Suprisingly, Jaxon was tall enough for the Parachute drop in the Toy Story Land. He did not like that ride in the least. It brought you up and dropped down a few times. Aidan liked it.

Jaxon ate Nutella spread like it was pudding!

He loves chocolate.

Aidan's room.

Jaxon's room, tight fit but dark and quiet.

Sharing with puppy.

Enjoying his french bread.

They don't have photographers in this area like they do in the U.S..

The Haunted Mansion is scary!

Hanging with Goofy in front of the Tower of Terror.

Here is video of the Parachute Drop.

Character breakfast.

When we planned this trip we did not take into consideration that all of Europe was off during that same time. It felt like all of Europe was there. It was very busy, we were able to get into Disneyland early since we stayed on property so that helped beat some line time. We bought a year pass so we will be going again soon I am sure :)