Keukenhof 2014

While my parents were here we went to the Keukenhof gardens. We have been one other time right after we moved here with my sister and brother in law. The fact the the garden is only open this time of year definitely played a part in why they booked their trip for April. We ended up spending a decent amount of time there and thankfully Elliot did great! They only downside was because we had such a mild winter here, the tulip fields bloomed early and most of the fields had already been harvested. Last time we had 100's of pictures of flowers, this time it's all Elliot :)

Love all the color combos

Next year Elliot will love this playground

Just hanging out in some wooden shoes

My sweet boy

Elliot was super distracted by some people next to us

Smiley boy with his swollen tooth

Happy Wednesday!

Mindy 

Mom and Dad Visit

On April 4, my parents came to visit us! My mom came shortly after Elliot was born, but this was my dads first time visiting us. There were here for 6 days and we packed those 6 days full! They got here on a Friday and Saturday morning the five of us drove to Cologne, Germany for the weekend. Brent and I were in Cologne when I was pregnant for the Christmas markets, but didn't spend a ton of time there.  We got there just in time for lunch and hit up a beer hall for some food and some beer. My mom is not a beer drinker at all. In fact in my 30 years, I haas never seen her have a beer...until Cologne! It was a fun weekend and Brent and I always like having any excuse to go to Germany!

Cheers mom!

Elliot wanted in on the German beer too

Outside the beer hall there was a group doing the cupid shuffle in a square. Mom and Elliot decided to join in

Our hotel had a pool so Elliot got to go swimming once again! He's a little fish!

Using the panoramic feature to get the whole cathedral

The next day we took a city bus tour, Elliot's first

Mom and Dad and the bridge. The lovers lock are similar to the bridge in paris where couples put there lock on and throw the key in the river.

Another beer hall for another lunch

We have to have ice cream :) 

All snuggled up for the drive home!

I'll be back with more posts about the rest of their visit later this week!

Mindy

Oma and Opa come to town!

The past few few weeks Elliot has been spending some great time with his Oma and Opa Anderson.  Brent's parents came into town for a few days before they spent some time in France and then came back to Utrecht again.  We all then traveled to Berlin together for a work event for Brent and Chuck.  It was so great for Elliot to get to spend so much time with family!  Thank you for the visit Chuck and Mary and for all the love you showed our little guy!

Meeting Opa for the first time

 Snuggles and smiles for Oma

Walking in the park

Keeping Elliot entertained at lunch

Oma loves black licorice! 

Recent Visitors

We've been pretty busy over here the past 3 weeks with visitors.  In early August my sister Missy came to visit for a week.  3 days of her trip overlapped with Brent's work trip back to Minnesota so it was nice to have her here so I wouldn't be alone for as long.  We of course got a lot of pictures of Elliot but only a few with us in them

It was so great having Missy here to spend time with us and also for me to ask every 

question possible :)  Elliot loved his Auntie snuggles!

 And I have to show one of the adorable outfits Missy brought for E

Last weekend my good friend Jenna and her husband Bobby came to see us on one leg of their European trip.  Again we had a big time picture fail and managed not to get a pic of all of us

Elliot's first trip to an Irish pub

Jenna, Elliot and I at lunch in Amsterdam

We had a lot of fun with Jenna and Bobby here.  We had a picnic in the park one night and spent the next day walking around Amsterdam.  Thanks for visiting!

We are gearing up for Brent's parent to come see us next week and we'll be much better about pictures!

Windmills, Windmills and more Windmills

Living in the Netherlands there is no shortage of windmills and in the year and a half we have lived her Brent and I have never been to see any.  So when my sister Missy came a couple of weeks ago to meet Elliot we decided to see some.  This was her second visit here so it was nice to do something different.  

 We went to the Kinderdijk area where there are 19 windmills all along the water
It ended up being pretty windy, shocker right? So Elliot quickly went from being in the stroller to in the moby wrap.

 We were so bad with pictures I think this is the only one of Missy and myself

So Dutch of us

 Elliot really enjoyed this outing :)

One of the windmills that people live in.  The blades came so close to the ground it was crazy!

We didn't end up staying very long since the weather wasn't the greatest but we can now say we've seen windmills!

Grandma comes to town

A couple weeks ago my mom came to visit us but mostly to meet Elliot :) 

She got in on a Saturday morning and was here until the following Friday.  She of course came with lots of presents for the little man! We were amazed at how much she was able to get in her bag!  We spent a lot of time just hanging out at our place in the beginning of the week.  On Thursday we went into Amsterdam so my mom could see the city and order some tulips.  We had a great time having her here and loving our little guy.  Here are some pics from the week

 Elliot was already trying to impress Grandma(Oma is grandma in Dutch)

Meeting for the first time

Walking to the park with grandma 

Hanging out at Starbucks

Amsterdam

Saying good bye

Thanks for visiting mom!!