Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! Brent and I had a really nice relaxing weekend.  On Friday he brought me home some flowers. So sweet :)  

Orchids are really popular in Holland.  Every house you walk by has one their window.  Now we fit in! 

I've shown you the pretty and now I am going to show you the gross...

   We think it is spider season here in Holland.  We found this guy right outside our front door the other night... EEEWWW!!  It is zoomed in so it wasn't quite as big as the picture but it was still gross!

On Saturday we went out for Dutch pancakes with some friends we met at an Internations event a few weeks ago.  It is nice to finally be meeting people and we had a great time with Sam and Dan.

The pancake place was about a 20 minute bike ride from our house on some amazing paths.  

 On our way

We passed lots of farms en route to the hidden, yet well know pancake place

This is the only picture we took there, I guess we will have to go back!

The place was so cute, with lots of seats just out on the grass right next to the canal.  Many people canoed or kayaked and would just park their boat right along the side and hop out for some amazing pancakes!

Brent and I decided after biking out there that we need to expand our bike routes a little bit.  We find ourselves going on the same paths and their are so many routes we still need to try.

Have a good week!

Mindy

Anderson's in Holland

Last week Brent's parents came to visit us.  Prior to coming to Holland they were on an 8 day cruise along the Reine river.  It sounded like a great cruise and they had a wonderful time!  Brent and Chuck spent a few of the days working and Mary and I spent the days drinking coffee, talking(we never ran out of things to talk about :)) and shopping.  It was great to be around family again and it made us even more excited for our trip back to the US in a few weeks!  We didn't get a ton of pictures but we got some good ones!

Mary and I enjoying a beer with our lunch

Beautiful day for shopping in Amsterdam

B and I

Chuck and Mary in the park near our house

Chuck and Mary with their "baby boy" 

Thanks for coming to visit Chuck and Mary!  We loved being able to show you our new home and look forward to seeing you in Minnesota!

Mindy

Portugal part 2

Our second day in Portugal it was HOT!! So we decided to head to the beach.  Right in Lisbon there are no beaches so you have to take public transport about 20 minutes to the beach.  It was really confusing- a tram ride to a stop, walk to the train station and then hop on a train.  Needless to say 20 minutes to the beach took us over an hour!  But once we got there it was all worth it.  We rented to beach chairs and an umbrella and enjoyed the amazing weather.

So beautiful 

We Minnesotans needed some sun 

Enjoying our surroundings 

Brent diving off the rocks 

 Loving life

Our amazing drinks

Enjoying my mojito

Another pic where we weren't able to get the beautiful background we hoped for

Trying to get one on our own

That night we had an amazing dinner at a restaurant I had researched before we left.  We had a hard time finding the place but enjoyed it a lot once we got there.

We spent Saturday at the Oceanarium and some more sightseeing in the city.

Hard to get a good pic of us

So awkward trying to use the self timer

Fountain outside the Oceanarium

We had an amazing trip and really enjoyed Lisbon.  The food, the people and the sights were all amazing!

Mindy

Holiday

The month of August in Europe tends to be a big month for holidays(vacations).  Many people take off a large portion if not the WHOLE month!  This includes a lot of shops and small restaurants.  Since so many people are off, I was able to convince Brent to take a few days off of work head south with me.  We took a late flight out last Wednesday night and flew to Lisbon, Portugal.  We were both pretty excited for some days in the sun and a little beach time.  We stayed in a nice hotel a little north(5 minute walk) of the main center of the city.  The entire time we were there we never saw a cloud in the sky!

  

The walk into the city was so pretty.  The path in the center of the road was lined with trees.  It helped keep the hot sun off of us too! 

 Statues everywhere

The city has these trams going through all of the tiny streets.  

Rossio Square 

Aaw, I think he likes me :)  

Brent and I were amazed at the patterns in the sidewalks all over the city.  Every single one had a different design and looked like it was a lot of work!

 Small street...lots of people

 The Santa Justa Lift.  Was built to connect the lower part of the city with the higher part.  Now serves as tourist attraction.

More sidewalk designs on our way to the water 

 My handsome hubby striking a pose

Enjoying the view

By the water.  As you can tell the person taking the picture struggled to get the water in the background, we had this problem we many of the pictures we had taken of us on this trip!

Those silly excavators taking away from the scenery :)  This one is for you dad!

Loved the gorgeous mosaic tiles on the side of the buildings

Handmade plates and bowls on the side of the street

Senior picture pose

While we were touring the castle of St. Jorge we saw peacocks walking around all over

Cannon at the castle

This post is getting really long so I will write about the rest of the trip tomorrow!

Have a great weekend

Mindy