House Hunters International

We have been here in Rotterdam for 10 days now and we have spent most of those days looking at different places to live all over the city.  Since we don't have a car yet, we just walked and walked and walked some more for the first several days.  Finally, we got brave enough to try public transit, and we never looked back.  It definitely has it's challenges (with the 4 little people), but it is so much faster than walking.  So after all the walking, bus riding, metro riding, and house looking, these are our final three choices in no particular order:

#1 - Great Area/Small Kitchen

Pros:

- Really pretty family friendly area with lots of parks and cute shops.

- Completely renovated on the inside with new everything (paint, floors, kitchen)

- Big balcony and bonus "balcony room" which would make a good play/guest room

Cons:

- A LONG bike ride from Kaydree's school (5.4km one way, that would be like 12 miles of biking a day for me…and often in the rain).

- It's not on the ground floor so NO GARDEN and STAIRS, lots of stairs.

- Tiny kitchen.  Really tiny.  College dorm style.   

#2 - City Center

Pros:

- Just a couple of streets over from the school, an easy walk or bike ride

- Ground floor with a nice garden

- Completely renovated on the inside with new everything.  Awesome new kitchen, big fridge and freezer.

Cons:

- It's near the city center so it's very multi-cultural.  It's on a good street and so is the school, but one wrong turn and you're in the middle of Little Turkey.

- No closets in any of the bedrooms.  That could be a big expense moving in.

 #3 - Great Front Play Area and Back Garden

Pros:

- This one is on the corner of a private street with a small public park in front.  There's no cars around, the kids could play out front everyday.  The back garden is big too.

- Nice big kitchen (the biggest of the three).

- Huge, I think there were 5 good sized bedrooms.

- The surrounding streets are all really private and nice.

Cons:

- Another trek to the school (4.2 km)

- Aside from the kitchen, it's completely hideous inside.  I couldn't really tell until I walked in, but awful paint and wallpaper throughout the whole thing.  We would have to change everything ourselves.  And every single surface needed a fresh coat of paint.  

- Only 1 toilet…and the toilet seat had a picture of a COW on it.  I'm not exaggerating, this place is ugly and dirty feeling.

As an added detail, here's where we are staying now:

Our temporary housing is an uber modern 4 bedroom furnished apartment.  It's kind of fun for a little while, but I don't think I could do this permanently with the kids.  But, you can't beat the view:

The Erasmus Bridge at night, right outside our window

So, which place would YOU choose?

Guess What?

We rented out our house...

 We spent the last night in our house camping out in sleeping bags since we already moved all of our stuff out.  We sold some things on craigslist and stored the rest in my parents empty 3rd garage.  Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us use your house as a storage unit…maybe it will feel worth it when you get to come visit us in Europe!

 We said goodbye to all our friends and family...

 We had separate vacations with both sides of the family and had a super fun "Glowing Away" glowstick party with all of our Justin friends.  Ry's coworkers organized a going away dinner for him (and me!) at Pappasitos, yum!  Plus we had a few more going away dinners, game nights, and swim parties with separate friends and family.  Want to know how much you are loved?  Just move to another country…it's worth it so far just for the going away parties!

 And we flew to Amsterdam...

 We took 12 suitcases, 5 carryons, 6 smaller backpacks, 4 carseats, and 2 double strollers to the airport to get set for our 9 hour flight. Do you think we look crazy?  So did everyone else at the airport.  We are used to being stared at since we have twins, but I think we took it to a whole-notha-level, paparazzi style - the kind of circus you have to see to believe.  But maybe you can get the idea from the pictures.  Luckily Stephen, Afton, Brooksie, Zoey, Mom, Dad, Caitlin, and Roy (who actually works at the airport) were all there to help us.  If people are gonna stop, stare, and take the occasional iphone picture, we might as well have an entourage to accompany us, right?  We couldn't have done it without you guys…seriously.  Thank you!

 Now we're living in Holland...

Here are the girls standing in front of a typical "dutch parking lot."  Everyone here rides bikes everywhere, it's SO fun to see.  Little kids, elderly people, parents with babies (on the handle bars on the back of the bike or both), and adults (sometimes several on one bike at a time) ALL on bikes riding all around the city.  I've got to take some more pics of this, I read about it and saw pictures but actually seeing it in action is different than I imagined.  Below, we spent our first Sunday at a Dutch ward of our Church.  We had to wear head sets so we could hear the English translation of the services, but we liked it pretty well.  Next Sunday we'll try out the American ward and see which one we like better.  Below that pic is a quick video of some fun we've been having at one of MANY local parks here.  This is Ava zip lining at de langepad @ Kralingen Plas.   

And figuring things out one day at a time.

You'll have to check back for newer AND older posts, as I hope to fill in some of the things I missed over the last year & 1/2 that I've been slacking on the blogging.

Going out with a BANG

 It's our last 4th of July in the states (for a while anyway) so we made it a good one.  We'll be staying at Nana's for a couple weeks until we head to the Netherlands, and the littles are getting more spoiled by the day.  This holiday was no exception.  We started the day off by using some free passes to Caitlin's water park that she's working at for the summer.

Here we are in our swimsuits and patriotic coverups...

K's the only one who will pose for me...

 Nana had a matching coverup of course...

Then we headed home for a big dinner.  Nikki and her kids came over too.  I had some helpers with the desserts, mostly they helped eating them...

As soon as it got dark we drove out to the lake to watch the fireworks.  The cousins all sat on top of our cars for the show.  Then, we went back home for the REAL show.  My mom never let us blow stuff up when we were kids, so Ryan takes over this holiday by busting out the explosives and putting on his own show.  My mom stayed upstairs in her room (probably with her head under the covers and keys in hand ready to drive someone to the hospital), and the rest of us sat back and watched…well, after we did some sparklers first…

Here are the guys watching the show.  Can't you see the little wheels turning in their heads?  PLEASE don't try this at home...

Poor Shelby had a meltdown when she heard all the fireworks.  It was hillarious, I wish I would've gotten a video.  It was youtube material.  Nana's little clone...

I'm not sure how we're going to celebrate in Europe, but I'm sure we'll think of something fun.

Yes to Yellowstone

All this time going back and forth to Idaho…we even lived there... and we never made it to Yellowstone National Park.  We finally decided to say YES to Yellowstone and make it a must see before our move to Holland.  Even though Robert and Robyn (aka Grandma and Grandpa) are not big on camping, they said YES too.  And we were all so glad we did.  

We had the best time camping.  We spotted just about every animal you can see at Yellowstone: squirrels, birds, buffalo, mountain goats, elk, and even a black bear AND a brown bear.  We were pretty lucky.  We hiked, drove, played in the dirt and the river, and of course ate s'mores.  Kaydree even rode a horse.  But the best part was that we spent quality time together, without any distractions…it was awesome.  Here are the highlights, but for the full recap, you have to see the video montage (poor quality and all).