Glowacki European Adventure

Rome

2010-02-06T06:55:00.001-08:00

Carlye and I got to escape to Rome for a weekend in the fall. Our neighbors and friends were nice enough to watch Alex for the weekend. We left early Friday morning from Rotterdam and came home Monday afternoon.

On Friday we visited the Vatican City -

It was actually still quite warm so the mist from the fountain felt good and we figured since every blog usually centers around Alex needed one picture with at least his name in it.

We had signed up for a guided tour but the guide did not show up on time and then we called and we ended up getting a tour just by ourselves. Here is some of the artwork in the Vatican museum. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel but were not allowed to take pictures. It is not because of the flash but evidently as part of the restoration - Kodak sponsored quite a bit of it and they own the rights to any pictures.

After our tour we made our way inside St. Peter's Basicalica -an ancient law is still in effect in Rome in that the Basilica is the tallest building in Rome and nothing is to be built any taller.

Each of the previous popes have a shrine inside the basilica dedicated to them. Of course Carlye found the one with the big kitties.

The inside of the church is amazing - we were told that the Statue of Liberty would fit inside the dome.

We also went on a walking tour on Saturday evening and saw quite a few other items in Rome including quite a few fountains.

There are also a few Roman Arches left standing which commerate their leaders and the wars that they were able to win to expand the Roman Empire. The one on the left is in the Roman Forum while the one on the right is outside the Coliseum.

We also did an audio tour through the Roman Forum which houses alot of the old buildings - it is right across the street from the Coliseum.

The Coliseum is massive and quite impressive considering how long ago it was built.

You can walk around the inside and see down into the floor where the gladitors and their opponents were released to fight each other.

Anyway we had a great weekend and we were glad we got to visit Rome while we were over here.

Dolphinerium

2010-02-06T05:55:00.000-08:00

Back in the fall we spent a day with Marco, Adrianna and Noah at the Dolphinerium (the Dutch Sea World). Alex and Noah had a really good time looking at all the animals and in general running around the park.

Alex and Noah got a good view of the seals -

especially the big one

In the park there were plenty of boats, slides, and playgrounds to play on. Noah and Alex seemed to like the boat type playgrounds as you can see them taking turns looking out for pirates and hiding in the corner of the ship -

Alex and Noah took their turns petting the rays -

Alex got a kick out of that -

We also saw a pretty incredible dolphin show (unfortunately the pictures did not come out too well in there as it was dark) but they did have some pretty cool underground areas where you could see the dolphins swimming -

Marco, Noah, Alex and Ryan made their way across the stones in the water without much of an incident -

Of course it helped having Ryan corral them so they did not try it on their own

At the end of the day Alex got to enjoy a couple of his favorites things - eating a popsicle (he calls it ice) and watching a show with some pirates -

Quick Update

2009-12-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Hi all - sorry its been a while since we posted. During the month of November we all managed to get sick with the flu. I was actually in Switzerland during the week Carlye was the worst and they told her that she had the "swine" flu - the doctor did not actually test her for it but that was his guess. She has fully recovered and thanks to some really nice neighbors got some help with Alex while I was gone that week.

We made it back to Houston on December 6th and will be here for a month. I am working for a few weeks and then will enjoy the holidays between here and San Antonio. Alex turned 3 on Tuesday (8th) so we took him to Chuckie Cheese and had mexican food for dinner (he loves chips and hot sauce). We will probably not post too much while we are home as Carlye's computer (the one with all the pictures) is back in the Netherlands but we will work on getting it updated when we get back.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday season!

France Trip #2 (Stop 3 of 3 - Normandy)

2009-10-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

Our last stop in France was the Normandy region. We saw quite a bit of the WW II historical sites as well some other interesting things while we were there.

The first stop was at Mont St. Michel which is on the northern coast of France. It is an abbey which is still used today. The site of driving up to it was quite impressive as it sits up on a rock formation that can be surrounded by the sea depending on the tide.

Here are some pictures of the inside of the abby - include one of the cathedral -

Alex and I looking down on the sea over the side of the wall of the abbey

We thought we were smart and decided to only get one audio tour so Carlye could listen but Alex still wanted it from time to time so that he could learn about the history of the abbey

Here are some pictures of Alex and I standing in one of the large chimneys as well as him up on my shoulders which he enjoys as you can tell -

Alex playing peek-a-boo behind the pillars.

After we left Mont St. Michel we made about a 5-10 minute trip down the road to a place called Turtle Bay, which houses turtles, lizards and crocodiles.

There you could get in the habitat with the turtles and "pet" them. Alex was very excited to get in there and get close to the turtles -

Evidently Alex was in a kissy mood on this specific day as he kissed the turtle and tried to kiss the komoda dragon through the glass -

The last exhibit was the "crockers" as Alex calls them -

Alex found a tunnel that he and mom got to crawl through I think he was looking to get close enough to kiss the "crocker"

But this was about as close as he got down there -

We stayed in a hotel near the beaches in Normandy. We first visited Omaha beach and some of the museums in there area.

Here is a picture of the monument on Omaha beach for the National Guard-

Omaha beach -

Bunker where the Germans were trying to protect Omaha beach -

Outside one of the museums at Omaha beach - Alex liked what he called the "big trucks" -

Inside Alex found one of the big bombs that were used in the area - finally he passed out in the stroller after running around quite a bit in the museum -

We then visited probably one of my favorite stops of the trip "Pointe du Hoc". It was an area that the Germany's defended that was up on a 100 foot cliff that overlooked both Omaha beach and Utah beach (the two beaches where the Americans landed on D-Day). The area was captured by the Army Rangers who had to scale the 100 foot cliff in order to get up to the Germans.

This is the area where the German had the large caliber gun that could reach both beaches at Pointe du Hoc -

The area is well preserved and you can still see the effects of the war (holes in the ground that are 20 feet deep and a lot of concreate and rebar). On the picture on the right is one of the bunkers that was still in tact which is where the German soldiers slept.

One of the bunkers as Alex and I explore -

Alex is very trusting he likes to jump into my arms especially from a higher place - here he is inside one of the bunkers and also at the top of the bunker from the previous picture.

Alex and I in the look out hole

Alex and mommy hanging out on one of the look out decks - it was quite windy on the day we visited as you can tell -

Alex and mommy hanging out and down inside one of the bunkers -

Alex walking through some of the ditches that were made in the ground where the soldiers would take cover.

Last but definitely not least we stopped at the American Cemetary where there are 9,386 American soldiers buried from WW II. The cemetary overlooks Omaha beach and you can walk down to the beach from the cemetary.

I think that will take care of our trips to France while we are over here. Hope everyone is doing well.

France Trip # 2 (Stop 2 of 3 - Bordeaux region)

2009-10-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

Our second stop of France trip #2 was a little south of the town of Bordeaux along the West coast of France. It was much warmer here than in Versailles which is near Paris and this was by far Alex's favorite part of the trip - once you see the pics below no explaining is needed. We drove on Carlye's birthday (August 29th). It is tradition for us to go out to dinner to celebrate birthdays. This year is no different.... Best birthday dinner ever!!!

Europeans LOVE to go camping. So we thought we would see what it was all about. In Bordeaux we stayed at a Campsite in a trailer. (This is considered to be the very finest of camping experiances) Definitely different quality of beds etc than the hotels we stayed in during our trips to France. But we had fun grilling outside and you see Alex really enjoyed eating his breakfast outside in the morning as well.

The reason this was Alex's favorite part of the trip (without even mentioning that he did not get dragged through museums) can be seen below in the video. I think we thought it would be a good idea for Oma and Pa to install something like this in the backyard that way Alex, Jaxson and future grandchildren could play all day. Only no short shorts or speedos allowed.

Here are some pics of Alex enjoying the various portions of the kiddy pools - the water was quite cool the first few days and it warmed up the last day we are there so not too many pictures of mom in the pool with him -

As much as Alex enjoyed the kiddy pool his favorite part of the entire park was the big boy slides. I think at one point he and I went up and down these things 25 times in a row. Here are some various pics of us coming down the slide including going into the water - I did my best holding him up out of the water at the end.

There was also a lake near the campsite and the water was a bit warmer so mommy and Alex went looking for shells and other interesting items in the sand -

Awww - isn't that sweet

Next stop - Normandy.

France Trip # 2 (Stop 1 of 3 - Versailles)

2009-10-24T04:13:00.000-07:00

So Carlye, Alex and I made another trip to France at the end of August and the beginning of September. We made three stops - first in Versailles to see the Palace for a day. The Palace is massive and the gardens and grounds behind it are acres and acres of land. We spent the better part of the day going through the palace and then through the gardens and other buildings throughout the property.

We drove the entire trip (almost 3000 KM) so Alex was a trooper in the car. He started out reading one of his books but he got most excited when we were driving through the tunnels as seen below -

Here is Alex in front of the statue that sits in front of the palace the night before we went exploring the grounds - he had fun for a good 30 minutes running around this thing and playing peek-a-boo with mom and dad.

Here are some pictures from outside the palace -

Front of the palace -

Looking out at the gardens from the palace -

Looking at the back of the palace from the gardens -

Here are some pics from inside the palace -

This is the hall of mirrors -

Alex really did not appreciate the inside of the palace and thus I did not get to appreciate it as much as I probably would have since no strollers were allowed and Alex could not get on my shoulders (guess they are worried about him knocking into something). So Alex decided he wanted the listening device for the guided tour that I was trying to use and he also made sure to try and go beyond the ropes whenever it was possible.

Once we were outside he got to run around some more and inspect the palace.

Carlye and I got a picture in front of Marie Antoinette's house. She decided the Palace was too much for her so she decided to live in another building back behind the Palace on the grounds.

Next stop the Bordeaux region

Monkey Zoo and More

2009-10-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

So here in the Netherlands they have a zoo which is mainly primates. The thing is the smaller monkeys are allowed to roam around and interact with the patrons. Alex really enjoyed the monkeys running around as you will see below.

Awwwwww

Here were some of the monkeys running free in the zoo - the one on the left was in the middle of howling (it was quite loud - scared away most of the kids that is why I was able to get such a close up with out anyone around) -

These monkeys were quite curious of Alex in his stroller -

They got quite close -

And then decided to invite themselves into the stroller with Alex -

We then went into the area where the smallest monkeys were (no strollers allowed) - Alex got real close to them (you are not suppose to touch them but it did not stop Alex from chasing them up into their habitat - we had to chase after him before we got thrown out).

The zoo also had a petting zoo - Alex did not really have any fear of the goats - he also like the chickens (see videos - they eventually just ran into the coop) -

This seriously went on for a good 15 min. Back.....

..... and forth.

Petting the snake - like I said no fear (its fake we are not that bad of parents)

Here are some other pics from the month of July -

Alex keeping Noah company while he is going potty - we are still working on Alex on the potty training front -

Alex after he had been swimming at "Moms and Tots". Carlye and Alex attend this every Tuesday its a group of english speaking Moms and the kiddos get together (usually somewhere outside - all depending on the unpredictable Dutch weather). This particular day Alex decided to get "naked" and play in the water. Unfortunately Carlye did not have a swim diaper with her that day so he is riding a little low. Who knows... maybe he'll be a plumber.

Alex wishing Grandpa Stan a Happy Birthday and also feeding Mommy

Alex doing his best Angus impression (Jake from Two and Half Men)

Alex as a Kitty

Grand Glowacki Trip Continued

2009-10-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

We did make one last stop with my parents on our trip in Brugge, Belgium. It is an old town which still has a lot of its infrastructure from the Middle Ages. We were there only one night but I think my Mom would have liked to stay there longer - either that or have my Dad buy the expensive antique clock she found in one of the many antique stores in the town.

We went and visited a few of the old churches they were quite impressive.

Here are some of the old buildings we saw (you can see my Mom and Dad walking ahead of us in the second pic) -

It was a tough trip for Alex as running around and playing with stuff is mostly frowned on in the buildings we were in during our time in France and Belgium. Here he is in two of his most popular positions during our trip - in our bed (kinda glaring at me as to say "Dad you go sleep in the pack n' play I sleeping with Mom in the bed) and being a trooper in the stroller.

Here is with Pa showing off his letter skills - you can tell he is about to say "B"

After we got home we spent some time just relaxing on the couch - Alex liked spending time with Mom and Dad but check out the video below for who he really wanted to spend time with.

We are still behind a couple trips on this thing (Alex, Carlye and I went to France again in September and Carlye and I went to Rome this past weekend). We will work on getting pics up from those trips soon along with some local excursions here in the Netherlands.

Trip with the Grand Glowackis

2009-08-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

Finally the much anticipated pictures from the Grand Glowacki trip. Curt and Kris braved the 11 hour flight to be with us for a couple of weeks. Being real troopers, they arrived on Monday, and we left on our European adventure the very next morning!!! They laughed at jet lag.... well Curt laughed, Kris just wanted coffee. We spent 10 days driving through France and Belgium. 5 people, a stroller, coffee pot and 6 bags (3 were Kris's - but she did look fabulous where ever we went) ... we were quite cozy all packed into the 4Runner. We are proud to say that we made the whole trip without Alex getting car sick!! Quite an accomplishment for us. Here are some pics from our trip -

Paris -

Don't ask Ryan about driving to Paris - it was fine until we got off their loop and then the navigation system led us through a roundabout around the Arc de Triumph with cars and motorcycles going every direction. In hindsight it would have be a cool picture but everyone was scared Ryan was going to have a motorcycle for a hood ornament.

Eiffel Tower -

The obligatory pic in front of the Eiffel tower. We just couldn't seem to get everything into a single frame. Alex wasn't really cooperating, luckily he is too little in the pic to be able to tell.

Ryan, Curt and Kris went up into the Eiffel tower. Alex and I stayed down below (due to strollers not allowed in the tower and my fear of heights). I should totally be put up for mother of the year for letting my child play with the dirty Parisian pigeons.

Armory Museum -

I took these pictures just for my dad. I don't think we would have ever been able to get him out of this place.

Napoleon's Tomb -

For such a little dude, he sure has one big box.
Ask Curt about how he saved the life of a little girl here. Here's a hint, it involves a 2 story drop, a little brown eyed girl and one super hero cape.

Wine Tasting -

While in Paris we ventered into the underground tunnels and caves that once made up the Royal wine Celler. Here we learned all about the different kinds of wine throughout France and what differeniates French wine from others. Truth is, not much except they have tons of smaller winery and typically do not have mass productions like the US's Kendel Jackson.... oh and they are snooty about it. We do have more pictures of this, but apparently they are Kris's camera. whoops.

Louvre -
The Louvre was unbelievable - we spent 3-4 hours in there and probably saw 50% of the exhibits. Alex was in his stroller but in order to get around there you have to go up and down a lot of elevators - so eventually he was let out to roam and really liked the Roman room and decided to play peak-a-boo through one of the statue's legs. Completely inappropriate but pretty darn funny.

"peek a boo" Sorry the video is sideways. It is pretty funny that Alex looks up the girl's skirt at the end. This is the Jarrod comingout in him.

The Mona Lisa is very well guarded as it has had a number of people try to damage/destroy it over the years. Honestly, we all thought it was neat to see it in person but there were other paintings that were more impressive. Below is a picture of it along with the Venus de Milo and one of the incredible ceilings in the Louvre.

Notre Dame

The cathedral was very impressive and its hard to fathom what it took to build such a massive structure so many years ago. We read that it took a couple hundred years to finish. Both of the cameras had died from all the pictures in the Louvre so we were only able to get the picture below of the stained glass there.

Loire Valley -

So from Paris we drove South to the Loire Valley which is known for its white wines. On the way there we saw a large plume of smoke in the distance. Is this France or Springfield?

Winery Tour -

The first stop in the valley was at a wine tour that Curt got setup through his restaurant (yea everyone snicker about how much wine is sold at a mexican restaurant - but the owners leading us on the tour did not need to know that)

Here is a picture of the front of the winery with the Grand Glowackis. It was kinda hard to get them out of here, but we finally all piled into the car and Kris had manged to sweet talk the tour guide into giving her the rest of a 94 euro bottle of wine that we tried.

When Alex was not busy running around saying the numbers on the large wine vats he was busy finding the fork lift and practicing for when he is old enough to drink wine. (The glass is empty)

Don't mess with the boy's wine! Nana says pretty much the same thing when you try to take her wine away. A Glowacki through and through, or maybe it's the Jancula coming out in him. Hard to tell.

Driving through the Valley -

From there we took some back roads through the valley to get to the Chateaux we were staying at outside a little town called Amboise. Kris and Carlye ditched the boys and went to see the Chateau d'Amboise. It is the resting place of Leonardo Da Vinci. It was amazing, until Kris made me look over the edge of the roof. Gave me the willies. Look how happy and care-free Kris looks without the boys. Or maybe it's just because we didn't have a screaming Alex......

Chateau/Castles -

This a picture from down at the pool at the Chateau we stayed at along wtih Alex in the pool (he was happy here - as long as we were not dragging him through museums etc). That is Curt on the left . To swim or not to swim.

Chenonceau
This one was built on a river and had the nicest gardens of all the places we visited -

The labyrinth - which I raced Ryan through and lost (he cheated he could see over the hedges) -

Chambord -

This one probably most resembled a castle and it was by far the biggest of the places we visited.

Alex trying to follow in uncle Brandon's shoes and be a long jumper - you can tell he is really about to take off -

Cheverny -
This was our third stop in the valley - Alex was happy he did not have to ride in the stroller in this one and got to walk around. It is hard to believe when looking at the size of the place but up until a few years ago a family actually lived here. This one had the most everyday items from the old days inside. As you can imagine, with all the antique girly girl things in this place, we counted ourselves pretty lucky to get Kris out of there before night fall. Alex liked the wedding dress.

Love to all.

May Update

2009-08-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

Ok this is my (Ryan) first try in updating the blog. This update covers our exploits in May. We went to a National Park outside of Utrecht and went hiking. Alex also spent quite a bit of time playing with his buddy Noah.

So the partner I work with suggested we go to this park outside of Utrecht (a city about 45 minutes east of us). We made our way over there and went hiking with Alex. It ended up being a pretty long trip as we were not sure exactly where we are going but finally figured out to following a certain color signs and we ended up back by our car.

Here is a picture of the scenary from a top a 10 story wooden tower in the middle of the forest (yours truly got to hike up that and take the picture while Alex was napping in the stroller below) -

Alex had a good time in the forest - one of his favorite things was looking for bugs - Mommy was always around to make sure he did no harm to any of the bugs -

Here is Alex just wondering around the forest - the kid has no fear he would just take off without even looking back -

Here is sitting on what he called a "big stick"

So Alex got a little bored with nature and he went to the bubbles (one of his favorite things to do currently) -

Alex also got a little tired of walking and did not want to ride in the stroller so his favorite new thing is to ride on dad's shoulders. My shoulders can take it but when he starts wigglying around that 40 lbs is tough on my neck.

Here are some random pictures of Alex from May -

Alex really likes his fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, strawberries, grapes, just about anything) -

Alex and Mommy being cute -

Evidently Mommy gets bored sometimes and since Alex's hair has gotten a little long - she likes to see what it would be like to have a little girl -

Noah and Alex playing with their hard hats and golf clubs quite the combination

Noah's family actually has a back yard and it got pretty warm over here in May so we spent some time over there and let Alex play in the pool with Noah -

Alex and Noah decided to play a game in the pool with them falling down together - they were cracking themselves up.

Oh yea Carlye and I actually got a night off from chasing Alex around and had a nice dinner on our 9th anniversary.

Hope everyone is doing well.

2009-07-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know we are once again wayyy behind on the blog. Here we are in July and April's photos are below. It was a big month, lots of fun and cute moments. Here are some of out favorite photos.

Alex loves Jack. He likes to cuddle and pet him. When he has a treat he always wants to give some to Jack first. Here he is just lounging around with our little orange prince.

We went to the tulip fields and let the little monster run wild. Surprisingly there were very few flower casualties.

Daddy and Alex checking out some of the wild growing flowers in the tulip fields.

It was super windy, but if you listen super close you can hear him try to tickle the flowers. Perty darn cute!!

One of the aforementioned flower casualties.

Precious moments

Alex is picking out his next victim.

I think we have a winner.

Flower fields almost as far as you can see. Madelyn will be sooo jealous she missed out.

Here we are in the Kuekenhoff Gardens. By far the prettiest park/garden I have ever seen. We tried to get Alex to stand in the clogs all by himself but he wanted Daddy to do it with him.

Alex brushing off some dirt after he went rolling in the grass. In case you were wondering... nope... you are not supposed to roll in the grass.

Alex learned this move from his mommy.

Whew - saved some flowers from Alex's clutches.

Just some pretty flowers.

Alex liked to smell as well as taste the flowers. Nope, not supposed to eat the flowers either.

Easter time!!! So much fun. And thanks to all the neighbors, Alex now has a firm grasp on the concept of candy and sugar. MMMMmmm yummy candy eggs.

You can take the boy out of Texas, but not the Texas out of the boy.

This was at a going away get together for our New Zealand friends. This would have been an awesome picture if I had realized that Alex had but his greasy little fingers all over the camera lens before the picture was taken. Nice diffused look though.

Alex misses Grandma's and Pa's pool. He tried to take a little dip as best he could.

Apparently he found the diaper and shirt too restrictive and decided to try a more "free" (clothes free that is) approach.

Pictures of the Easter egg hunt we had in our backyard.

A Ha! Found one

Tricky little feller.

Yup got them all!!

Alex does his part to keep up the back yard. He waters the plants......

..... and provides regular art work for our enjoyment.

More to come soon..... or not so soon. But there will be more eventually. Love to all. Thanks for checking in on us.

Quick photo catchup

2009-03-30T00:44:00.000-07:00

I realize that we have fallen wayyyy behind in our blog, so this entry is going to be heavy in pictures and captions so that we can get to current events. The beginning theme is -- Wow!! It's really cold over here! Enjoy.

We came home to freezing temperatures. Everything was beginning to freeze over. It turned out to be the coldest winter in 15 years! All the locals were so very excited because they were able to skate on all the canals and rivers. Me (warm weather loving Carlye) not so very happy. Our timing is impeccable!

Our pond all frozen over

Leo and Alex walking on the ice. Not quite ready to break out the ice skate for them.

Sledding on the ice. It's starting to warm up here and the ice is starting to melt.

This is the view as I bike Alex to school. Looks cold huh?

Getting ready to head to school

Playing in the snow

Learning to make snow balls

Alex found boys playing with a frozen soccer ball. After this discovery he didn't want to play with anything else. Such a boy!

Alex was finally able to steal the ball away from the big boys.

Noah and his mommy

Being so cold we have to find ways to amuse ourselves inside. This was a good 30 minutes.

Cooking potatoes with block essence. Alex's specialty.

Nadja came over to play and fell asleep.

Time to wake up with a nice wet willy.

Luckily she forgave Alex.

Another 30 minutes down.

"I'm an owl! Whoo Whoo."

Swim time - yes it is indoors.

waking up from a nap

learning to use the potty like daddy

More cooking. Alex wants to help cook almost every night.

I got this move from my mommy.

just looking darn cute. Finally Alex's hair is starting to grow out.

Nadja turns 2. Fire and paper blowy things are a dangerous combination.

The boys helped blow out Nadja's birthday candle.

I had had enough of the cold so we had a girls weekend in Spain. Oh the sunshine, how I had missed it.

Seville at night

Royal palace in Seville

Gardens in the palace.

Left to right: Adriana, MC, Carlye

When Ryan saw the charge on the credit card for this dinner, he thought it was the charge for the hotel. Mmmmmm Mmmmmm worth every penny! So yummy.

MC, Ryan and Collin all have birthdays within a few days of each other. We had one leaning cake to celebrate them all. Pretty disappointed with MC's effort in blowing out her candles. :)

The kids couldn't wait to try the cake.

Ryan cuddling with Nadja. She loves him!! and Leo eating vla. (vla is kinda sorta like pudding)

Alex let Noah play with his precious car computer only if he would also be an arm rest.

Going away party for MC and Collin.

We are going to miss them!

Just looking cute

Having a snack with Jack

Alex just woke up from a nap and is a bit concerned with a bite on his leg. "Kijk an ouch"

Alex found an ink pad while mom was distracted with laundry. Surprisingly he doesn't really like to be messy and is a bit perturbed. Speaking a little more Dutch.

That's it for now. Hopefully we will stay more current, but don't count on it.

Christmas

2009-01-21T16:39:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from us! (even if it is a bit late)

It's Christmas time!! After picking up Aunt Carrie, Uncle Chris and baby William we trekked on down to San Antonio. Alex got a little car sick on the way..... nothing says it's Christmas time like a little curdled milk spewed all over the place. Funny - come to think of it, Alex has only gotten car sick when we are going to see cousin Madelyn. Hmmmm.. Coincidence??

As you can see we do Christmas a little differently in SA.

Alex had to get into the action too.

"Plane" fun

I think baby William looks like me!

Tickle Tickle Tickle

Whoopsie.... we'll say Willie's laughing.

Almost got it figured out..... I am a super genius, you know.

Nobody wanted to be the first to break into the gingerbread house so Alex took charge. That's good sugar just waiting to be eaten!

Testing out all the new gadgets.

There was a little down time too. Don't laugh all the COOL kids are doing it like this. Did you notice I finally got my hair cut - just compare it to the ones in the birthday pics - dad has my back he knows all that hair causes us Glowacki boys to get warm.

Then it was off to Houston for round 2 of Christmas festivities. The car ride to H-town went much smoother. More sleeping - less spewing.

Since we missed the main event we came up with some new Christmas traditions. We all went to the zoo. Good quality time with Pa and his lovely wife that has yet to be properly named. (We'll call her Grandma Kris for blog purposes.)

Alex and Pa

Christmas time may be Alex's favorite time of year just because of all the balls that appear everywhere!

Of course we saw all of the Glowacki clan. Here is Auntie Ann, Uncle Shawn, and best buddy Jaxson. Jaxson got some really nifty toys for Christmas and Alex tried to steal them. Unfortunately for Alex, Jaxson was fully aware of the attempted thievery and put a stop to it.

There were soooo many toys to play with, but a favorite had to be the Mr. Potato Head man glasses.

All too soon we had to head back to The Netherlands. There was a nice surprise awaiting us on our arrival. But more on that in the next entry. Merry Christmas!!!

Birthday and new baby cousin!!!!

2009-01-17T12:10:00.001-08:00

Guess who turned two! That's right it's me!!

December is always an exciting month, but throw in a birthday, plane rides, family you haven't seen in months and a brand new baby cousin and it just gets a lotta crazy. Alex turned 2 on December 8th and we celebrated with a small birthday party with our favorite new friends and lots and lots and lots of balloons. Ryan will claim that he blew all the balloons up himself, but I did a good 3 of them.

You may ask yourself, "What makes up a good party for a two year old?" Well let me tell you.....

There should be lots of screaming and funny faces.

Blowy outy noise maker thing-a-ma-jigs.

Good friends

Good women (you gotta love a girl that knows how to appreciate food)

Music, lots of music. (our neighbors really LOVED this part)

Of course cake with a bit of fire.

He looks rather pleased with himself, doesn't he?

Presents - lots and lots of presents. Here is Alex working away in some of his new birthday gear.

Oh and did I mention the balloons?? (Ryan wanted me to make sure no one forgot all of the balloons HE blew up)

Yup - it sure is fun turning 2.

Then it was off back across the ocean for a whirlwind tour of Texas. Starting in Houston, Pa and Grandma (name yet to be finalized) picked us up from the airport. We spent a couple of days there to re acclimate and it was off to Dallas to visit GrandDad and my new baby cousin. Carlye failed to get a bunch of pictures - blaming jet lag of course - but did capture these keepers.

Meet baby William Hauser Haden. Or little Willie as we like to call him.

Alex liked to check on and pet the "BeeBee" (translation: baby)

Christmas time is almost here. But we will save all of that for the next blog entry. Until then --

One last look at Alex enjoying all the balloons that Ryan blew up. He'd plowed into the pile a couple of times before I was able to get the camera so some of the enthusiasm has worn off, but it is still pretty cute.

Busy Busy Busy

2008-12-01T13:14:00.001-08:00

The past month has been super busy. We have discovered so many new places, said goodbye to dear Madelyn, and watched rain turn to snow. There is a lot to catch up on so lets get going.

Alex was a pirate for Halloween. The Dutch don't really celebrate Halloween over here. Our neighborhood is one of the few exceptions and they have a mini carnival and trick or treating. All the kids are dressed as scarey things such as spiders, vampires and witches... oh and pirates. No doctors or clowns here, unless you want to get looks for not dressing appropriately. We went over to our New Zealand friend's house for dinner and by the time we were about to head out for the carnival and trick or treating --- it was super cold and raining. Shocking I know. So we decided to stay all nice and toasty inside and hold off on the kids learning the wonders of large bags full of candy until next year. Nadja (Alex's lady) was a witch and Leo was a spooky spider.

There is a really cool petting zoo close by. They have some of the most ginormous rabbits I have ever seen, goats, ducks, donkeys, pigs....etc. You can buy food and go in and feed all of the animals. We just love going there - Leo and Alex were sharing in their excitment as we drove over there.

This pic should be good for blackmail a few years down the road.

Alex made friends with an especially hungry goat.

Cute - isn't he?

There is also a HUGE building filled with trampolines, climby things, balls, balls and more balls. I know, it's like Alex's dreams have come true! We went on one of the few sunny days we have had lately and no one was there. Literally - no one. It was just us and the guy behind the counter. I guess everyone was out enjoying the pretty day.... either that or we missed the news
report telling everyone about the slime in the ice machine.
.

Taking my lady for a drive. Nevermind the creepy elf in the background.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Couldn't wait for Mom and Leo to slide with me.

One of our last adventures with Madelyn before she left us... :( ..... we went to the minature museum. Many of the most famous sites in Holland have been consolidated right here in minature form. If you only have 24 hours in Holland - you can come here and see all that Holland has to offer. Personally I believe that someone's hobby has gotten wayyyyyy out of control - but it was fun. Oh - and in case you are wondering after viewing the next few pictures - No, you are NOT supposed to touch the minatures.

Listen super close - you can hear him say "WOW"!!

Hmmmm... I think this car may look better...

here, on the roof of the church. It's asthetically pleasing and solves Holland's parking crisis all in one! Pure genius.

Windmills - windmills - windmills. It is always about the windmills with Madelyn. Ooooo I need to touch the windmill.

Chilling with Madelyn on one of our last nights together.

It has already started to get really chilly. A few days before Thanksgiving it snowed. We were all tucked inside fighting colds. But it looked so cold outside... I'm not sure we are up for all of this jsut yet. Alex stood by the window pointing and saying "wain" (translation - rain) and "brrrr cold". The snow only stuck around for a day or so. We felt bad for the ducks out on the pond so we took them some extra food. Alex will start school in January. I can't wait to have to bike him to school in all this mess.

Crazy person walking in the snow.

Nothing much to report in the way of Thanksgiving. Funny the Dutch don't really celebrate the American tradition of giving thanks for the blessings of life and remembering the indians that saved the colonists from starvation. We had chicken and snowpeas and potatoes. The following weekend we did go to some friends house for turkey and dressing. It was wonderful but still had nothing on home.

The Dutch are in full swing of preparing for Sinterklaas to make his appearance. Sinterklaas and his helpers Zwart Piet (black Piet) come to the Netherlands via boat from Spain. They go to schools and shopping centers and hand out candy. Small toys are left in children's shoes laid by the fireplace. It starts in November and the big day is December 5th. They also celebrate Christmas on the 25th.

Here is Alex getting ready to go meet Sinterklaas and his Zwart Piets.

Pretty excited for the big meet and greet.

Not too sure about the Zwart Piet

Making some crafts with my friend Eleanora. She was brave and got some black paint for her face.

It's hard to believe the end of the year is here. Alex is about to turn 2. We are going to have a little party with a few of our friends we have met. Check back soon for some pics.

Look what Madelyn has taught me

2008-11-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

To play nicely with others.... well except the girls. Girls have cooties.

eat my veggies

to stop and smell the hydrangeas

play with bugs.... does anyone know if this guy is poisonous??

wear mommy's lipstick and like it

go nighty night in my big boy bed

smiling pretty for pictures

lovin' the ladies... I actually got this move from watching uncle Jarrod.

************************************************************************************

And last but definitely not least................

When I am thirsty, I can get my own water - all by myself!

Oh, did you think I meant getting water out of the toilet? Come on now... that's just gross people.

Amsterdam

2008-10-19T13:06:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Amsterdam! Ryan and I waited until Alex was asleep and made a skeedaddle up to Amsterdam for the weekend. Don't worry, Madelyn stayed behind to watch the little feller. See next blog entry to see all the tricks she taught him while we were gone....

Soooo, we get to Amsterdam and decide that we should see the Ann Frank house.

We stood in this line

It curves around the building, and is just as long on around the corner. In case you were wondering... YES it was cold and very very breezey. My nose was frozen by the time we got in. Luckily we had some young college age whipper snappers behind us that were discussing their previous night in the Red Light district. I'm pretty sure that they were also working off the effects of visiting one of the local "coffee" shops. At least we were a entertained while we froze.

We took this picture of Ann Frank's house

We found out later that this is not the house. But rather a building later added. So let me amend the the caption. We took this picture of a building later built to hold the majority of the Ann Frank exhibit. Her real house is a couple doors down. Whoopsie. :)

As we were walking back to the hotel I spied this little boy with his grandma.

The little boy has a baby doll strapped to his chest!! AWESOME!! Now that is something you would never see in America.

The next day we decided to take a tour on the canals.

The hotel had a private boat for their guests. It was just us and one other couple. Very nice.

Here is one of the regular boats that tour the canal.

Eeekkk! Look at all those people crammed in there. Our boat was wayyyy better and they knew it. In fact they were so jealous that they drove by really close and really fast...... and.......

Ha Ha Ryan got wet

That there is some cold water. Still worth it though... our boat is still better.

We saw lots of cool stuff, most of which I can't remember, so here are a couple of shots.

These are 7 identical bridges all lined up down a canal. The picture doesn't do it justice, it was really pretty.

There are house boats that line some of the canals. Here is a look in one of those boats. These folks are pretty tidy. Some boats had garbage strewn everywhere, and dirty dishes in the sink for everyone to see. I don't think I could live on a houseboat where hundreds of people pass by everyday and look in your windows. Some "house boats" were nothing more that a flat bardge with a tent and some lawn chairs. CRAZY!!

We tried to take a picture Shawn and Ann style.

Shawn must have some crazy long arms for his body, cause we could never seem to get as good of an angle or picture as they are able to get.

We then went to the Van Gogh Museum. Can't take pictures in there so unless you wanted to see the massively long line we waited in to get into the museum... well you'll just have to take our word on it that we were there. Tip for future, always check to see if you can purchase tickets online. Almost all attractions have this option and you don't have to wait in the cold to get in. Then on to the flower market, which should be really called the flower bulb and trinket market.

Of course we strolled through the Red Light District. It was rainey and cold so we dind't hang out there very long. Funny... they didn't let us take pictures there either. To bad, we were thinking of some great Christmas card captions to go with those pics.

Oh, and we went back to the Ann Frank house.

This is the real Ann Frank house.

Now we have to go home to Rotterdam. See ya.

Oktoberfest

2008-10-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Oktoberfest 2008

Madelyn and I made a quick escape over to Germany for Oktoberfest. The prize of the trip --Madelyn was able to replace her long lost mug from the Hofbrau House.

One man's trash is Madelyn's treasure.

We met some folks from Texas and Holland. Apparently we are drawn to what we know.

These are our Oktoberfest buddies

Really big beers........ don't let the amount left in the glasses fool you. I was wayyyyy ahead of Madelyn.

Madelyn was proposed to.... looks like she will be staying here with me. YAY!!!

Not everyone was in liederhosen.

Woooo Hooo... drunkin bumper cars

Soooo many possible captions sooo little time.

A picture to make her daddy proud.

We missed our plane, slept in the airport, and what does Madelyn get a hanker'n for???? 5:00AM Airport Bratwurst.... ewwwww

Pics of the month - September

2008-10-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Windmills

2008-10-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

We finally got to see some windmills!! We spent an afternoon at Kinderdike a town outside of Rotterdam. The town was rebuilt after a devastating flood in 1421, and renamed Kinderdike ("the children's dike") to reflect the discovery of a baby and a kitten on one of its dikes after the storm. The windmills are used to pump the water out of the area.

A true Dutch family!

Looky looky what Carlye found!

Clog feet!

A girl and her windmill

awww

windmill here...

windmill there...

windmills everewhere! ok, I get it....

I'm going home!

Un día en Den Hague...we're working on the language

2008-09-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

The true events of the day as seen through the eyes of Madelyn: Our first adventure outside of our Rotterdam bubble took us to the royal city of Den Hague! We began our adventure by following our new navigation lady friend to the heart of the city. We walked through the shopping district to the Queen's Palace. We never expected to be invited in for tea and become hommies with the Queen, but we are just that amazing! Then we moved on to tour a "famous" old prison. The tour was in Dutch and because my Dutch skills are so amazing, I helped her through the whole tour. I'm a great cousin. After Carlye attempted to take a picture in a zone clearly marked by pictorial "no photography" signs, no language barrier there, just stupidity, we got yelled at and Carlye was put in the stalks! This adventure in the prison left us with a grumbly in our tumbly! We went to the Mexican food place she and Ryan had scoped out on an earlier trip to the area, and indulged in Holland’s finest Mexican cuisine. Once our bellies were full and we were recharged we headed out to find a miniature museum. But it was closed so in our defeat we found the beach. We enjoyed watching the sunset on our day of fun in The Hague:)

Carlye's side: I never realized my loving Aunt and Uncle could have raised such a fibber. We did not have tea with the Queen, but rather saw some "queens" while enjoying a Coke nearby. And as I recall the picture taking story somehow left out the Double Dog Dare issued by dear dear Madelyn. In case anyone is interested - No she did not come to my aid, but rather snickered in a corner. There was an interesting part of the afternoon where Madelyn decided to make friends with some stuffed figures in the open plaza. This may or may not have occured after margaritas, I'll let you decide. Enjoy our pics - we had fun!!

No, we are not tourist! We live here! Obviously!

My new friends! We could sit and talk or not talk for hours.

This was Carlye's attempt at taking a picture in a NO picture taking zone at The Gevangenpoort (Prison Gate Museum)

Apparently they are VERY serious about their "no picture" taking policy!

After out torture chamber experience we thought we deserved some relaxing time by the North Sea.

Dipping our toes in the refreshing Scheveningen beach waters

Zoo Adventure

2008-09-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

There is an arguement going on over here that we hope that you can assist us in settling. We can not decide who makes a better penguin. Please see the poll over to the right and help us settle this once and for all.

The Rotterdam Zoo is really nice. We started out in the Oceanarium.

Alex didn't waste any time getting to know the great white shark.

He then thought it would be a good idea to check and see if his breath was a s stinky as Jack's.

Nope... Jack still wins the stinky breath contest!

Ready to go explore the world above the ocean floor.

Still checking for breath to compare to Jack's, no winners so far. The fake animals were a little more cooperative than the real ones.

Global warming polar bear. Where's the snow!?!

Madelyn and I tried to get a picture together with the animals. One elephant was especially eager to get in a picture with us.

This giraffe was eager to get out of the picture, luckly we caught it before he was about to escape.

Alex the ladies man.

2nd day of work

2008-09-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of bringing home the spek. (bacon)

Mission Completed.... in record time.

2008-09-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Curt gave Madelyn one mission while in Holland with us. The mission - - to stop Alex from running around while eating.

Madelyn enthusiastically accepted the mission......... Watch the video below and join Ryan as he observes Madelyn's handiwork for the first time.

Madelyn says:

Well, he's definitely not running anywhere. Close enough, Mission completed!

We made it!

2008-09-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Everyone survived. Yay! 2 hours at the airport, 10 hour flight, 2 hours to get the dogs out of customs, and an hour drive to our new house. We were exhausted! All and all nothing too exciting to report about the trip other than several rounds of high 5's between Alex and the guys sitting behind us.

As of today, we've been here one week. So far it has been bunch of unpacking and a little bit of exploring. Madelyn has been suspiciously quiet when somone asks her what exciting things we've done so far. Apparently vacuuming up cat hair does not rank high in the wild and crazy things she has done in her life. I'm sure we will have lots of stories in the near future. But for now everythng is pretty tame.

Ryan's first day of work was today. He looked so handsome all dudded up. Unfortunately he escaped before we thought to take a picture. Maybe we will catch him tomorrow.

Our house is very nice despite the cat hair that we are diligently working to rid ourselves of. It is located on a quiet street in a neighborhood that is themed around music. To get to the house you have to cirlce, the harp, G clef, and music notes roundabout. Its pretty cute.

Just a short walk from the back door is a little pond where we walk the dogs. There is also a little zoo where we go to see the goats, chickens and bunnies. Some of the roosters are bigger than Jack! There are wild ducks, geese and swans that appear in the neighborhood ponds from time to time. It's awesome here. Now if we could do something about the cold...... Here are some pictures of our new home.

Our front door

Looking down our street from the front door.

Our back patio. No grass, but there is an apple tree, pear tree, grape vine, etc. Alex loves it back here. Lots of pics coming soon.

Pond behind the house. We take the dogs walking around here 3-4 times a day. We've met lots of doggie friends including our neighbor Spike.

Wilber the swan that sometimes hangs out at the pond.
p.s - sorry Carrie, we named the swan Wilber. I guess you'll have to come up with some other name for baby Haden now.