Fun on the boat

Marc's new boat is even nicer than the old ones so a few trips were taken this summer!

Dutch friends

This is Floortje with her Dutch friends.  They are Sanne and Lisa and live next to my mom and dad in Aalsmeer.  Every summer when we arrive the girls pick up where they left off.  So nice to see.  This year Floortje even went to school with them for a day.

Fun with friends

Always so nice to catch up with friends while in Holland.  So also today with Martina and Lisa.  We met an amusement park called Oud Valkeveen.  Big enough for the girls to entertain themselves, small enough for them not to get lost.  So while the girls explored we sat at a table and caught up.

Weekend Texel

To celebrate their anniversary my mom and dad had invited Marc and Diana for a weekend Texel ( we had already celebrated the vent in Galveston at the beach).  Now as it turned out the weekend they had picked was a weekend that the girls and I would also be in Holland so we were invited to come along.

What a great weekend, with so many things to do:

Walks on the beach

Lovely lunches

Taking the ferry across

A facial for the ladies

An incredible breakfast buffet

Beautiful hotel

Fun geocaches

A visit to Ecomare

Skuumkoppe biertjes and a visit to the brewery

Hugging little lambs

A visit to the lighthouse

Great dinners

Trip on a fishing boat to catch shrimp and see sunning seals

But above all: wonderful company (we really missed you Thijs!)

Thanks pap en mam!

Assen

A trip to Holland of course also always means a trip to Assen.  This time we took the train nd poezeoma picked us up from the station.

A fun filled week with lots of activities:

Floortje got her shoe made by oma

We put our own geocache in Poezeoma's little free library

Went to 'wolfeest' were west the shearing of sheep and had very nice, fresh french fries

Found some very cool geocaches

Oma and I had a nice dinner while the girls spent the night at Elsbeth.

Also had dinner at the wok restaurant

Great week!

Swim pics

Some action pictures from swim team season!

Day in Amsterdam

One morning we took the bus to Amsterdam.  First we visited the Albert Cuyp market where the girls enjoyed a warm stroopwafel.

A nice lunch at 'Burgermeester' was followed by a visit to 'het Museumplein'

There we saw lots of very large 'Nijntjes' as it was her 50th birthday.  I love 'Nijntje' so it was very nice to see them all.

We also made a quick trip to 'Het Rijksmuseum'  So much to see and do here but I just wanted to show the girls 'De Nachtwacht'. One of the most famous Dutch paintings.

After a beer on one of the many terraces in Amsterdam we took the bus back home for my favorite Dutch dinner: white asparagus!