We Went to Holland!! (day 8 and 9)

Day 8 (Friday( : 

We went to visit the Stok's, they are a couple that was actually in Fillmore last summer at the arts festival. Someone found out they lived in Holland and got their info, eventually it got to my parents and they decided to see if they could find where the Stok's live. They looked it up and they live not 5 minutes away from each other. Small small world... They are such a sweet little couple, we had some tea and visited with them until the boys had had all they could take of being polite and quiet :)

I love waking up to see this boys no matter where I am :)

 Everything is smaller in Europe!

 Windmills we passed on the way to see the temple.

 After lunch we drove in to Zoetermeer to see the temple, and walked around the grounds.

We walked over to Zoetermeer's "mall" and walked along the streets shopping and eating. To use the bathroom anywhere you either need to pay 50cents or buy something, the door will not open unless you put money in it or get a token when you buy something. 

We were cold and their hot chocolate is so so good, so we would buy hot chocolate to go to the bathroom :) I feel like we spent at least half of the trip looking for bathrooms! 

They have a lot of art sculptures around, there was a little section of some sculptures that are for kids to play on.

Panekoken lunch break, yum!

We drove back to the mission home and my Mom and I walked to the grocery store and bakery. Then walked home along the big canal back to may parents. It is so so pretty, I cant believe my parents live 1 minute away from this!

Back home and the boys are wrestling again :)

They had even borrowed a crib for Nix to use while we were there, he is such a good baby.

Day 9 (Saturday):

We went back in to Delft Saturday morning. Every Saturday, in every centrum there is a big open market full of flower shops, and cheese, and bakeries, and clothes, and meat, and nuts, and fish, and and and!

The canal along this street is right up against the houses, what if the water rises 6 inches?!?

Holland is famous for the stroopwaffles, they are a warm, thin, crispy waffle that they cut in half and put caramel inside. Of course we had to stop and get a few! So good! 

An organ grinder in the road, the boys gave him a tip and he danced around to the music :)

They have a fried fish that I cant remember what its called, my Dad stood in the big line to get us all some (he is in the light greenish coat) again, it was super yummy.

After we were finished shopping and touring around Delft, we went back to the mission home and the Easter bunny had come! The boys had a great time hunting around my parents backyard for all their Easter things.

That evening there was an Easter concert that the missionaries were singing in, it was a little long for the boys, but really nice. It was so fun to meet a lot of the Elder's and Sister's that my parents talk about all the time, we loved meeting everyone. My parents have such a great group of missionaries! 

Back home that night to pack our bags and get ready to leave in the morning :(

We Went to Holland!! (day 10 and surprise day 11)

Day 10 (Sunday):

We got up Sunday morning a finished getting ready to go :( Got everything packed up and headed to the airport.

They had a full size plane cockpit and a few seats, and one of the engines there in the middle of the airport. The boys would have spent way more time there but we were nervous about being late.

Last meal together

We said a hard and tearful good bye to Nana and Pop and headed in through a maze of security checks. After our final check we were in a room and stuck there until it was time to board, luckily there was a bathroom :)

 Finally boarded the plane for our big ride back

this was about 4 hours in to the flight ...

We had another really good flight. Everyone around us was amazed at how good the boys all were the whole time. 

We had an almost 6 hour layover scheduled in Washington DC to stop and see my sister Suzie, and her cute family. We only see them maybe once a year, so we couldn't pass up the chance to visit. 

We met them at the air and space museum. The boys loved seeing a ton of planes, an actual space shuttle, all the different kinds of missiles, and a bunch of other stuff.

Space shuttle "Discovery" was there, it has been on 37 missions to space. The pictures do not do justice to how huge and amazing it was to see.

Suzie, meeting Nix for the first time :)

We went our fro pizza after and literally drug the kids away from the arcade.

They dropped us back off at the airport, we said goodbye, and rushed in to find our gate. See the white rectangle with red words, in the middle, halfway down on the right??? Yes, that was our flight... canceled!!

Our plane had mechanical problems and the next flight out wasn't until the next day at 5 at night! They put us in a really nice hotel and we tryed to make the best of it and planned to go tour around DC the next day.

Surprise Day 11 (Monday):

We were again on a major time change, so I was up (and super tired!) about 3am with the boys.

Of course we didn't have our regular luggage and no food for Nix, so I had to make a cab run to walmart. It was 6 miles away and the trip took over an hour, I hate cabs and traffic!

While we didn't have our luggage, we did have a million carry-ons to get us through our long flights. So we got ready and set out on our surprise day in DC.

The Washington Monument

The Lincoln Memorial

The most loaded down stroller there ever was, with the happiest and best baby ever. Really it could have been fun, but all the bags made it pretty miserable. We tried hard to keep a good attitude though.

The White House is in the distance, it was so far to walk and we just weren't up to it. Haha, Layton HAD to do the thumbs down in any picture that had to do with Obama :)

We waited for our shuttle to pick us up and had lunch on the grass in front if the Smithsonian.

The Capital building

And finally back to the airport again! I was amazed at how good Nix was the whole trip, this was right before our millionth time through security and he was just so so good.

Finally to our gate, to find out our flight is DELAYED!!! The computer system was down and they needed to update it via, get this... FLOPPY DISK!?! 3 hours later, they finally switched us to another plane.

Once we finally got on the actual plane, the flight attendants were really nice and took the boys up to the cock pit to meet the pilot and sit in the co-pilot seat. 

A 4 hour flight later and we were finally back in Salt Lake City. That last flight was the hardest of them all for the boys (and Lance and I!). We were all just so tired, I have never been happier to see my car!

The last day of the trip aside we had an AMAZING time. We are so blessed to have been able to provide this trip for our little family. I am so lucky to have such wonderful parents to visit and try to follow their example. The bar is set pretty high!!!

(Side note, if you read all 11 days you are a trooper. That was so many pictures. Good Job!!!)

Nixon is 8 months!?!

How is this baby 8 months old already!?! He is crawling everywhere, has 2 teeth, and is just starting to pull up to things. He is the busiest and sweetest baby. We are so lucky to have him!

Nix is 1/2 !

Nix is 6 months old... it is so bitter sweet! I love this baby boy so so much, he is such a happy baby and truely a joy to have in our family. His older brothers, especially Layton, are getting so great at playing with him and helping me out by entertaining him.

We love our Nix! Happy 1/2 birthday baby boy!!!

My favorite Valentine's