Tot Ziens, Nederland

How is it possible that this could be my last post in the Netherlands?  We've come from Holland to Holland, and now we're heading back again.  Our movers are arriving to pack us up early next week, and then we fly back on March 28.  Over the past few days and weeks, it has finally started to hit me that we're actually moving back.  It is going to be hard to say good-bye to our adoptive country that has treated us so well.  The Netherlands and Eindhoven will always hold a very special place in my heart.

A year and a half has gone by in a blink, even though it may not have always felt that way at points throughout.  This week I've been thinking about regrets, and if I have any from my time here.  Truthfully, I can say "no", my overall experience here has been overwhelmingly positive and I've gotten to see and do so much.  Not to mention the fact that I've met some special people and built real friendships in a year and a half.  I'm so thankful for everyone Todd and I have had the chance to get to know. 

It has also been wonderful to spend so much quality time, "just the two of us".  I am grateful for the many trips Todd and I have taken together, the frustrating expat moments, the times when we felt pretty alone and learned to lean on each other, and now for the fact that we're bringing home the best souvenir imaginable.  Ok, maybe this pregnant lady should stop before there are too many tears.  What an unforgettable experience.  And my feelings are so bittersweet, since I'm 100% looking forward to being back stateside and seeing our beloved friends and family that we left behind to come here.  But that's life for you!  And change can be a good thing, especially when it involves the addition of a new member of the family.

Last weekend, we hosted a going away party at our home.  It was a great capstone to this experience to have so many of our friends gathered in one place.  I took photos at the beginning before guests arrived...

Woot woot for the non-alcoholic drink section!

...and then I proceeded to forget to take any photos until later in the party after many people had already left.  But I did manage to get a few before the end.

Thank you to everyone for coming over to celebrate this past year and half with us!

And with that I'll sign off for now.  I do plan to continue using this blog for updates once we've moved home, so this won't be the last you'll hear from me, I promise.  Although the blog will be changing subject from European adventures, to all of the new adventures awaiting us when we return!  Thank you for reading!

Showered With Love

The weekend before last, I was blessed with an awesome first baby shower.  A couple of my (very creative) friends here, Sam and Katja, threw a shower for me, and it was amazing.  Every detail was a delight, and it was so fun to celebrate this bambino of ours!   The weather that day was also amazing, 70 and sunny, so pretty much everything was perfect.  But enough with the superlative vocabulary (for now).  On to the photos!

The ladies and I gathered at Sam's apartment as we admired all of the details put into the decor...

All photo credit goes to Bart, Sam's husband, he did a fine job.

Even the fireplace was wrapped in the theme colors! Our first order of business was eating, naturally.  The hosts made a delicious potato leek soup and all of the guests brought along food as well.   Yum!

What a fantastic group of friends! 

Throughout the shower, there were lots of cute little games and such to play.  Everyone was guessing the baby's due date and gender:

Very even!

And if you look closely, each person started out wearing a white clothespin, which could be stolen if you said the word "baby".  I didn't win that game.

A hilarious touch was found in the bathroom, where this rendering of Todd and my child was placed.  Hopefully our kid doesn't look quite as creepy.

Another game was where I guessed everyone's baby photo.  I must admit, I did a pretty good job, getting only 3 wrong originally.  Those were some cute babies!

Next, I got to open lots of lovely gifts.  It was such a generous and thoughtful group of ladies - I loved the books (many Dutch-related), adorable clothing (thanks for keeping it all gender neutral), handmade socks, rain boots, gift cards I can use in the US, and more.  Baby R will love it all.

After gifts we dug into the very lovely cake and other desserts, which were oh so good.

And here's a photo for all of you looking for the bump in these posts.

It was an all around awesome day. I am so thankful to have made the friends here that I have. And a special shout-out to Sam and Katja for all of their hard work in putting together the shower! I can't thank you enough.

30 in Bruges

Turning 30 turned out to be pretty great! It feels crazy to have entered into a new decade, but I'm so thankful for everything going on in my life right now.  It's also crazy to think that I'll be a mother this year, wow.  Here's how the bump is coming along:

I'm definitely starting to look more preggers now, which I'm enjoying. And I'm understanding why everyone says the second trimester is the best - I feel great!

My birthday weekend was a success.  On the actual day I had a lovely lunch with friends and then we hosted a dinner party at night.  It was a perfectly low key way to celebrate the day.  Then the next morning Todd and I set off for Bruges for the rest of the weekend.   We took along Jack, figuring it would be her last time to live the life of a Euro-dog (i.e. she can come into every restaurant and cafe).    We had only been to Bruges once before, so I was so glad we had a chance to get back to this beautiful city.

Our weekend revolved around walking and eating, as you'll see from our photos.   We started with lunch at a cute place near our hotel, with some pretty great opening hours (the place was owned by a British couple):

And it was very cute inside as well.

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around with Jack and exploring the city.  Jack was intrigued by all of the horse drawn carriages.  I wonder if she thought the horses were just extremely large dogs.

One of the many bridges in town.

Out and about, getting rather soggy, but not too bad.

Aren't they cute? 

Of course there were waffles to be eaten. So good. And not the only one of the weekend.  I'm eating for 2 after all.

Horse!

She was a very good girl.

The rain came on and off, but it was never too heavy, so we managed to walk around for hours.  After dropping (and drying) off Jack at the hotel, we proceeded to happy hour and then dinner.  Happy hour was at one of our favorite spots in town, a small bar down an even smaller alleyway called De Garre.  You may remember us going here with our visitors Jon and Christina last year.  They have one of the best beers I've ever had,  the De Garre tripel, served with some delicious cheese.  And although I couldn't drink the beer this time around, the cheese went mighty fine with my iced tea.

The entry to the alleyway.

Todd did enjoy the beer; actually he enjoyed a few during our time.  Here's your fix of Todd holding beers in his right hand for the week:

For dinner, we went to the Vlaamsche Pot, which makes traditional Flemish dishes.  We both got the house specialty, and it came in a massive pot that we got nowhere near to finishing.  But it was oh so good.

The next day, the weather had cleared up completely, allowing us to do more walking.  We started on the outskirts of the city center, where there are these beautiful old windmills.

We then proceeded to one of the city gates.

Jack was loving the blue sky.

The main market square was looking particularly lovely. I think it was the first time we had seen the belfry in the sunshine.

Can't beat that.

We stopped for a drink at the Halve Maan brewery, which we had toured last time.  They have a modern tasting room where Todd tasted beer and I tasted hot chocolate.

Jack did great under the table.

We then continued walking, stopping for lunch along the way, and trying to soak in the city as much as possible.

My favorite canal view.

The begijnhof, a nunnery.

What a fabulous weekend exploring one of my favorite smaller European towns.  On the way back to Eindhoven, we stopped at another beer locale, the trappist brewery Westmalle.  No visitors are allowed on the grounds of the abbey or in the brewery, so the closest we got was the cafe across the street called the Cafe Trappisten.  The cafe was totally packed, but we managed to grab a seat outside in the sun.  

I loved having one last weekend away just the 3 (and a half) of us in Europe. I am truly going to miss the ease of travel to awesome places here!