Children's Museum

Last weekend the girls and I visited the Houston Children's Museum.  Great place!  Everything hands-on. The girls learned a lot and had loads of fun.

First pool visitor

Technically Famke was the first one to test our new pool as she fell in just after the pool was finished.

However, this little fellow wins the prize for the first one to really swim in it!  According to friends with a pool, he won't be the last one either.  All sorts of creatures end up in pools here.  I can't wait....

Bakfiets

 I am very proud of my brother!  Marc made this 'bakfiets'!  He started with an electric bike and went from there.  

I can't give you all of the technical specifications but it is definitely one of a kind!

Diana loves it and Norah and Buster did not want to get out anymore :)

Brazos Bend State Park

Yesterday we visited Brazos Bend State Park, about 45 minutes from our house. Armed with binoculars, cameras and zoom lens we went for a walk around one of the many lakes in the park.

Little did we know that the zoom lens would not be needed! We came across this 8 foot alligator about two minutes into our walk!

After our first encounter we continued our alligator spotting trip.  We counted 32 gators in total!!!  That is about 10-15% of the adult population of the park.  Pretty good score, we thought.

Most of the other alligators were just resting on the banks in the lake and were a bit further away than our first friend.  Unfortunately my camera battery died, so no close up of those.   We will just have to go back on another gator spotting trip.

If you look really close you can see two alligators on the grass. 

Less exciting but nonetheless very pretty, these huge mushrooms we saw growing on a tree trunk.

Hanging out in the park

Elections 3

Another election post, sorry, but can't help myself.  This one is getting personal :)  Don't go telling untrue stories about my country!!

In a video on YouTube, Rick Santorum claims that we kill our old people in Holland (using euthanasia).  The article below is a reaction by someone who obviously also does not agree...

Santorum: 5% of Deaths in the Netherlands are Caused by Involuntary Euthanasia

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Glenn Church

Rick Santorum made this comment about two weeks ago, but it is so outrageous and a distortion of the truth that it cannot be passed up. In this video, he claims that 10% of the deaths in the Netherlands are from euthanasia, which has been legal since 2002. That is false, but the outrageous part is that Santorum claims that half of those deaths are involuntarily induced on the aged and sick. He goes onto charge that people are going to hospitals in other countries so they aren’t put to death while in Dutch hospitals. Santorum then makes a connection to abortion in the U.S. with this fiction.

The truth is that only 2-3% of those who die in the Netherlands are eased into death by euthanasia. No one is involuntarily put to death. The system is loaded with safeguards from multiple doctors needing to approve of the procedure to only those with no hope of improvement being considered. Even at that, the person who is going to be euthanized must present the desire for euthanasia voluntarily and persistently. Besides that, the person must also be alert and fully aware of what is going to happen.

If you listen to Santorum, it sounds as if old people are being strapped into beds and euthanized like unwanted dogs in a kennel. This man wants to be president, just imagine the fun he will have the facts once in the White House.

Skiing with the boys

Thijs is in Breckenridge, Colorado this weekend.  Skiing with Michiel, Eelco and Peter.  Thanks to all the high-tech appliances the pictures are here and posted before his return!

Looks like they are having a good time!