Our travels

Our time in Europe is flying by, I can't believe we will only be here a few more days. Carl is actually already home; he flew home yesterday so he could get back to work today. We miss him so much, it's not the same without him.
We have had a blast here, doing some really fun things as well as some relaxing. Carl and I went to Barcelona for three days (Isaac stayed in The Netherlands with my parents)...Barcelona was amazing! Part of what made it so great was that we stayed with such wonderful people! We were able to stay with my friend Susan (a friend from high school) and her husband Sergi. They live in the heart of the city, within walking distance of everything! Sergi is the best tour guide in Spain, so we got a personal tour everywhere we went...he knew ALL of the history of everything we visited, it was impressive! We really got into Spain's daily routine, sleep until 10, breakfast at 11, lunch at 4, dinner at 11 or 12! What a fun lifestyle it is, but it was hard to adjust back to the regular routine in The Netherlands after that. We saw such beautiful things in Barcelona, including the Olympic area, Pablo Espanyol (sp?), Sitges (a gorgeous beach and cute town), beautiful churches and other buildings all over the city! We can't thank Susan and Sergi enough for the awesome time we had with them, it was just the break we needed!
In the Netherlands we have done lots of fun things, too, including going to Amsterdam, visiting a castle, biking through Kinderdijk (an area full of windmills), visiting with family, and visiting where my mom grew up. It has been a great vacation, I wish Isaac would remember it, but I have taken a ton of pictures so I will be able to tell him all about it later and he will know he was here.
Thanks for keeping up with us while we're here, I will be home soon and will surely update more.

Adios!
Dag!

First few days of our adventure!

Hello from Europe! We arrived here in The Netherlands on Friday morning and have been having a great time! The flight went really well, much better than expected...I can't complain a bit. Isaac slept some, ate some, and of course played some with his cousins; he only cried one time, and it was shortlived. Once we got here we went to a friends' house to hang out while we waited to check into our house. Isaac had fun playing with two little friends there, but mostly he loved playing in their little toy Jaguar...you know Isaac and his love of cars. We checked into our house around 3, and quickly put Isaac down for a nap, which went smoothly. He took a good nap, then we played and had dinner before an early bed time. He slept great the first night, until 10 am with only one brief disruption!
Saturday we hung out in town here where we're staying, it was fun to be in a small Dutch town, just shopping and of course eating lunch out on the patio. Did I mention the weather yet? It is beautiful!!! We have eaten every meal outside and even have to wear a light jacket in the evenings...love it! Isaac also went on his first bike ride, which he thoroughly enjoyed! His favorite part was probably ringing the bell. I'll post a picture of that soon!
Today we spent the day in Amsterdam, which was so fun! We were planning on going in the Anne Frank house, but the line was too long and we didn't want to wait. Instead we walked around the city, did some shopping, and of course ate lunch on the patio. We ended the day with a visit to the Heineken Brewery, which was interesting and fun! Carl said that was the best tasting Heineken he'd ever had!
Tomorrow we're going to take it easy again, probably go visit a nearby castle and go for another bike ride. Tuesday, Carl and I are off to Barcelona to visit Susan and Sergi...can't wait! We send our love from The Netherlands, and hope you are all doing well!

Tough Guy

So my Isaac is my little tough guy. The poor boy has been through too much in his little life, but thankfully he is such a trooper!
His toe has healed up very well, it is still healing, but so far it's doing great! The doctor took the stitches out yesterday, and said it looked good. I was so nervous about getting the stitches taken out because that seems like it would hurt, but it didn't phase my little guy! Along with being tough, he is also observant...he was so interested in what the doctor was doing, he watched every move the doctor made. The nurse and the doctor were both very impressed by how calm he was and how observant...those are definitely two qualities he gets from Carl. Now that the stitches are out we only have to keep a bandaid on his toe, so he can wear his normal shoe again, yay! This is really good because he had two major wipeouts, which were both caused by that big shoe. Saturday he fell face first on the wood floor and ended up with bloody top and bottom lips as well as a scratched/bleeding nose. Then yesterday, he fell again and bit his bottom lip, so again a bloody lip! Poor thing!
Thank you all for your well wishes and support through this time, I think we will make it! ;)

Lake Placid Vacation

Isaac's poor toe after the accident.

Isaac had to spend quite a bit of time in this chair, so we put it on the dock to let him enjoy the lake and the boats whizzing by.

Me skiing!

Isaac doing what he loves, driving the boat!

Adilyn! (Notice Hudson's awesome smile in the background.)

friends

Daddy and his buddy.

Emily! I love her "Cheese" face!

Relaxing

Fishing

All ready to jump off the boats and swim!

Swimming with the whole crew after we anchored the boats.

Hudson chilling in the grass...he is precious!!!

Lunch time

Rockband (we ended up renting another house on the property just to play Rock Band without disturbing the sleeping kids).

Tracy and Daniella were the stars of the show!

The kids feeding the ducks on Monday morning.

The ducks were so friendly, they took the bread straight from the kids hands.

We couldn't keep the big boys out of the water.

Boating fun (this is the Picou's boat, and that's Cory swimming back with Adilyn's glasses).

Me and my boy!

We spent this past weekend at Lake Placid (Texas) with a group of friends. This is a trip we try to do every few years, and it always proves to be a fabulous time! We rented a house together, and in total there were 12 adults and 9 kids! It was a great weekend away with friends, full of fun times, but unfortunately it wasn't all good. I'll start with the fun...the kids spent a lot of time swimming, we played on the boats (skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing). Almost everyone had a turn on the tube, even the kids, and I'm not sure who enjoyed it the most - kids or adults. It was so great to be with friends, and spending time playing with the kids as well as hanging out after they went to bed. :)

Now for the not so fun times...One of the families had to leave the second day after getting a phone call that a family member had passed away. Not only did they have to leave, but they had to drive to Georgia! We were all sad to see them go, and of course heart broken for them and their loss.

Monday morning we went out for a boat ride that ended too quickly and painfully. Isaac's toe was smashed by the ski locker door, so we had to rush back to the house and then to the hospital. It was one of the most difficult experiences of my life, but thankfully we were surrounded by amazingly supportive friends and had a great doctor and nurses taking care of our little guy. His toe was cut severly, so they did an X-ray which showed that the tip of the bone was chipped. Then they had to sedate him in order to stitch up the toe. I could not look at the toe before they fixed it or while they stitched it, but Carl watched the whole process! Isaac was so strong through the whole thing, I can't believe how tough he is! We spent a total of 5 hours at the hospital, then back to the house, packed up, and headed home. Again, our friends were amazingly supportive and made an extrememly difficult situation manageable. So thanks y'all!

Since we've been home we took Isaac to his pediatrician to check the toe. He said they did a good job stitching it, he cleaned it for us, and showed me how to take care of it. He also said that Isaac was allowed to walk if we got him a shoe (one size too big) to protect it. We did that today, and he is now walking again! It is so good to have our little man back...and it's incredible that he does not seem to be in pain! God is so good, we are so thankful for the healing and comfort He has provided our little Isaac.

Playdate!

Playing in "the farm."

"Ha ha ha!"

What are they up to now?

Isaac had a playdate today with his girlfriend, Taylor, and what a good time they had! Both were very shy when they first saw each other, but quickly warmed up and began playing together...well near each other. :) The very first thing Isaac did after getting over his shyness was point out Taylor's nose, pull her hair, and tug her ear. Apparently he wanted to make sure she knew that he knew those things. It was so cute how obsessed he was initially with her hair. They played ball together, played with the music toys, and even played together in "the farm."...who knew that a play pen could be so fun! One thing they definitely agreed on is their love of the dogs, they both constantly touched them and talked to them, including our little visitor, Sugar Bear. Sugar Bear is just their size, so he got a lot of attention from both kids. Taylor is absolutely precious, and I truly love watching the two of them together. She is so fun and in some ways so different than Isaac, while at the same time being so similar. She has a great vocabulary and can sign many different things, which really helps her mom know what she wants. She was very sweet while eating, she wanted to share all of her snacks with Isaac, however, she was not as good about sharing the toys. Evidently, she did not want Isaac to play with the ball, she had to have it...thankfully Isaac was very calm about that and didn't mind her taking it, he just laughed when he got it back. Don't worry though, Isaac did his fair share of stealing toys from Taylor, too. Oh what a fun day...14 month olds sure are exciting little people! I am so grateful for my friendship with Kristin and the chance to watch our little ones grow together.

Videos

Isaac is learning new things everyday! I have uploaded two videos to show his newest skills. :) One is a video of him doing his forward roll. He has been trying to do a "headstand" since he was about 9 months old, so yesterday I decided to teach him to roll. Oh he loves it! Now he does his "headstands" even more, just hoping I'll help him roll. This morning he even tried to roll himself, but he's not strong enough so he went sideways (it still made him happy though). The other video is of him showing off his Dutch skills. He can point to my eyes, nose, ears, and mouth in English and in Dutch! I'm not the best Dutch teacher, but he is learning everything I try to teach him.

I'm so proud of my little guy...I hope you enjoy the videos.

Trust

Today we went to church with Carl's dad and grandfather. The sermon was on the storms in life and how they can grow your faith, but you must choose to trust in God during those storms in order to grow. Lately our family has been going through some storms, and we have really seen the truth in this message. We have chosen to put our trust in God and He has carried us through these storms and continues to carry us. The pastor's message today was encouraging, and I am thankful we were all there together.
We were also blessed to hear music by Rachel Aldous, a Christian artist, with incredible talent. I was so touched by her music, especially one song in particular. I have uploaded a video of this song, and really hope you take some time to listen to it. This song speaks my heart, it is my prayer for Isaac...and I am sure the other mom's reading this will agree. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. (Before you watch the video be sure to pause the other music player on the right side of my blog.)
I encourage all of you to put your trust in Jesus, His love covers all and His grace truly is amazing! I praise Him for my wonderful family!