Favorites 8-22

This week has been a rough one weather wise. It has been raining and cold everyday making it pretty tough to get outside. We've tried to make the most of some peaks of sunshine so E could play outside a little bit. Here are a few favorites from the week(or upcoming weekend).

1. Last Saturday we FINALLY got a mamafiets(mothers bike). We have been looking for a bike that I could ride with Elliot for months and couldn't find the right one. Well, Saturday we found one and bit the bullet and bought it. E absolutely loves it! He talks or giggles the whole time we are on it. With the bad weather we haven't been able to use it a ton this week but the few times we did have already been worth it.

2. Elliot has a little area in our house he has made his "spot." In between the dresser and wall in our living room is a little gap that is the perfect size for a 13 month old. He takes books in there to sit and read, brings toys or just tries to hide from us. It is really cute and makes me smile every time he does it. 

3. I'm training to do the Amsterdam half marathon again and have been doing some of my training runs bright and early in the am before Brent goes to work. I'll tell you at first 5:45 was not a welcome sight, but the more I do it, the more normal it becomes. Also, running that early means no waiting at stoplights(the only turn on at 6:30). 

4. We had Brent's employee Tom's wedding this week. Thankfully, we were able to bring Elliot with and he cooperated for the most part. He loved all of the attention he got from everyone and may have started yelling "gog"(how he says dog) when Tom and Karins dogs came in to the ceremony. Oops :) Good thing he is cute!

5. We are hoping to get in a nice long family bike ride this weekend. Cross your fingers that the weather cooperates for us!

Have a good weekend!

Elliot's 1st Birthday

We had so much time celebrating Elliot's birthday when we were in Minnesota! Even though I still can't believe he is already one! On his birthday we had his 1 year photos taken, we had lunch out and he had his first taste of cupcake. The Saturday after his birthday we had both of our families over to celebrate. We had food, some drinks and some awesome cake and presents. We are so lucky that so many people love our sweet little boy. 

Family pic from his photo shoot

I'm 1!!!

Birthday lunch with Mama

I love cupcakes!!!

Elliot's awesome birthday cake! It was chocolate with a cookies and creme filling

Family

Opening presents, so many presents!

Best picture we got and E's eyes are closed

Smash cake time

This is for ME??

So good

I Love Birthdays!!

Favorites 8-8

To really get back in the swing of things, here are some favorites from the past 2 weeks

1. Elliot had ice cream for the first time and it was amazing. Of course he loved it(he is my kid). The only downside is that now I will have to share my ice cream :(

2. Now that he is walking, Elliot loves bringing things to me. I really need to take advantage of this ;)

3. Went to the Nintje museum this week with some new friends. Elliot absolutely loved it! He saw the playhouse that was in there and he went running and screaming with delight into the room. It was pretty awesome!

He loved this train

Inside a little tunnel that he thought was pretty cool

In the playhouse

So exhausted from the museum

It's Been Awhile

Whew! It has been a busy one over here. On Friday we got back from 5 weeks in Minnesota. I had every intention of blogging while I was there(for my own sake to remember stuff) but it just didn't happen. I'm planning on doing a couple of posts of some highlights from the trip.

Elliot and I flew to MN on June 20th. With just me and him flying alone we looked like a traveling circus once Brent left us at the airport.  I'm in the pink shirt below, wearing Elliot and the diaper bag and pushing a cart with our stroller bag, car seat and a suitcase and then also pulling 2 suitcases!

After checking our bags much easier to get through the airport

Elliot did great on the flight. He fell asleep before we even took off and slept the first 2 hours of the flight. He was awake for awhile ate, played and walked around. Then he took another nap and was happy as can be the rest of the flight. Even though he was wonderful, a 8.5 hour flight alone with an 11.5 month old is still exhausting.  My mom picked us up from the airport and after grabbing some lunch we were able to settle in at our house. Elliot crashed pretty early that night with only one wake up. It took him about 2 nights and he was over the jet lag.  We had some fun get togethers the first couple of days meeting some new baby boys and catching up with old friends. 

We had dinner with Brent's parents one of the first few nights we were there and Curious Elliot made his way through the house finding everything he wasn't supposed to. Thankfully, he did play with some toys and let us all sit for a bit :) 

I'll be back with a few more posts this week all about our time in MN and of course Elliot's big 1st birthday!

Favorites 6-13

These weeks, I tell you, they keep getting away from me. Elliot and I fly to MN in 1 week and I have SO much to do before then! But when do I pack for Elliot? I can't when he is sleeping, all his clothes are in his room, and when he is awake he will pull anything out that I have put it the suitcase! Hoping I can make a dent in his packing this weekend while Brent is around. Here are some of my favorite pics from the week.

Have a good weekend!

1. We had an extra day with papa this week and it was wonderful! Brent had Monday off for a Dutch holiday and we had to much fun. We went to the pool with friends, went on a walk and just enjoyed an extra day of family time.

Elliot also got some sleep on papa

Pool Time!

2. Elliot had his last music class until fall and seriously the boy loves it. I think it is just because he can bang things together and we call it "music" :) 

3. These ones are actually from last week but i didn't do a favorites post last week so you get them today! 

Family food truck fun!

Food truck festival with friends

4. So I know I said it above but I am really excited for our trip to MN! The flight to MN not so much! Elliot and I are flying alone and Brent is joining us 12 days later. I am hoping I have a friendly seat mate who doesn't mind a chatty 11 month old sitting next to them. Send some positive vibes our way next Friday! 

We Own the Night 10k

On Saturday night I ran the Nike We Own the Night 10k with 2 of my friends. The race was scheduled to start at 10:30 pm in Amsterdam. I was thinking I was going to be exhausted by that time but thankfully being with friends kept my energy level up! The race ended up starting about 20 minutes late which was frustrating but once we were on the course we could understand why things got delayed. The course was through the Vondelpark area and Museumplein which are two really busy areas so coordinating the road closures etc. must have taken some time. The course was really nice and considering it was a late race there was a lot of crowd support. The hardest part about the race was the heat. It had been about 85 all day and did not cool down much at night. Because of the heat they thankfully added some extra water stops which we all ended pouring over us instead of drinking. We all really enjoyed doing this race and are already looking into doing other Nike women's runs throughout Europe!

Pre race photo at Daina's house

        

My name on the runners wall

The race started and ended in the olympic stadium. Pre race warm up

Waiting to start

Running through the Rijksmuseum 

Showing off our race bling!

Instead of getting a race medal we got a necklace. It is actually a really cute necklace! We also got Dutch chocolate, coconut water(one of the sponsors), frozen yogurt and the dry fit shirts that we al had to wear

I'm looking forward to doing this race again next year along with hopefully some other women's runs!

Delft

In our quest to see as much of the Netherlands as we can while we live here, we ventured to Delft a couple Saturdays ago. Delft is located just north of Rotterdam and is know for the Delft blue pottery, also called Delftware. Of course, I didn't end up buying any Delftware but intend to before we move home. We spent most of the time just walking around the city, had lunch and toured one of the churches in town.

Cold and windy when we got there. We could definitely could feel we were closer to the ocean.  Thankfully it warmed up while we were there. 

The first picture of my alone in I don't know 11ish months :) 

Trying to keep E busy while waiting for lunch

I couldn't believe how close to the canal the shops/home were

My two Dutch Boys

Beautiful city

Had to take a picture of the William and Mary window for my parents. This is in the new church in Delft where they have the tombs and mausoleum of the Dutch royal family

Using an old bike as a flower planter