Thats right, even the fat guys can do it

Last June while Pete & Bonnie were in town, Stacie & I headed over to celebrate our anniversary in London for the weekend. While there, we met up with our friends Bryan and Erica who convinced Tony to meet them in Lisbon at the end of September to run a half marathon. Having never run more than 7.5 miles, the idea seemed like a good one for two reasons, stay in shape over the summer & go see a new town while in the process.

So after a few months of getting ready to run 13.1 miles, the Q'z headed off to Lisbon on the last Friday in September. Unfortunately, Bryan & Erica didn't end up meeting us like they said, but we had a great time anyhow.

Upon arrival to the hotel, we enlisted our regular routine of heading to the grocery store down the road to stock up for the 4 day weekend. When done buying the fruit, Port & variety of treats, we took a few train connections down to the exposition center on the water front to pick up Tony's number & tracking chip.

Stacie was very excited to see all that the water front exposition center had to offer. Coming off the train we walked through a huge indoor mall that not only had almost any store one could ask for, but had a couple of HUGE grocery stores. Note: every time we see a huge grocery store, we get very excited as the stores in Holland pretty much suck (small, minimal variety, etc.) and are clearly the worst in Europe from our point of view. It would turn out that we would spend a lot of time in this area over the span of the 4 day weekend.

That evening we headed down the street to a white clothed local Portuguese restaurant. We ended up eating some great local cuisine at a fairly inexpensive price. In looking back, Lisbon has been the most affordable big city in Europe that we have visited so far (nice dinner for 4 with a couple bottles of wine ~60 euros, cups of coffee ~40 euro cents, etc.).

On our second day, we headed back down to the waterfront area to spend some time at the local aquarium. Before enjoying the aquarium, we stopped at a Brazilian bar-b-que restaurant which in itself was worth a trip to Lisbon. Great views of the ocean & endless cuts of great meat made for a fantastic meal. On our stroll back to the train from the aquarium, the kids played in the wave pool that lined the walking path.

Along comes Sunday morning, Tony has to get up early to head over to the race that starts out on the Vasco de Gama bridge. Leaving the hotel at around 7 am for a 10:30 start, it would be a few hours before the Q'z hooked back up again. The journey from the hotel took Tony back to the waterfront exposition area from where he caught a bus out to the center of the bridge. After standing in the cold wind for about an hour the race kicked off and 1 hour 58 minutes later Tony finished his run through the streets of Lisbon.

Once complete, Tony headed over to get the gift bags and most importantly, the popsicles that they were handing out. Even in the crowd of thousands, Tony spotted Stacie & the boys walking around thanks to the bright green Cal Poly shirt Stacie was proudly displaying. Immediately we ran off to McDonalds to get a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel yet again. The reason for bringing up McDonalds was that this was one of 4 meals at this establishment that the Q'z got to while on the trip. Sometimes going months without eating at the golden arches, we found ourselves stumbling upon this as our only option far too much (arrival to the hotel, mid day snack before the nap on the 2nd day, post run & dinner at the airport on the way out). Luckily, McDonalds in Portugal have the option of the local lager to accompany your meal deal.

Our last dinner in Portugal was at an old convent that had been converted into a beer hall (Cervejaria de Trindade). We had a great dinner and got a chance to take the train into a new part of town. Since the hills are so high, we ended up taking escalators up and out of the subway for at least 10 minutes.

Our last morning took us into the down town area of Baixa. The most memorable part of the downtown was the mosaic layout of the streets. Very pretty and at times somewhat psychedelic.

In general, the town reminded us of San Francisco. Lisbon has a very hilly layout, it is sitting right on the ocean with two bridges, one of which looks just like the Golden Gate. With all of the beautiful sites, good prices and welcoming locals, Lisbon and Portugal would definitely warrant a longer trip sometime in the future.

Ending the summer just right

The end started with our first visit from Gigi & Rooster shortly followed by our first family cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean. The only bummer of this trip was that Tony had to fly out to the US the very next morning after getting back from the cruise.

With just a couple of weeks left in the summer Gigi & Rooster arrived looking for some Dutch sunshine, but I don't think they found much. The day after they flew in, we decided to go visit Alkmaar. Famous for their Friday morning cheese market, we thought it would be a great town to go visit as none of us had seen it yet. We were right about the town, the market itself was a bit disappointing, but the town itself was quaint and very pleasant to walk around. The cheese market on the other hand was a bit of a let down, their were too many people, so you can't really see anything and even when on our tippy toes, we realized we weren't missing much. Lucky for us there was a poffertje stand right where we were trying to get a look so we all shared a plate of mini Dutch pancakes with powdered sugar.

After Alkmaar, we spent the weekend absorbing Amsterdam with Gigi & Rooster in a very local fashion. On Saturday morning, Gigi & Rooster headed up to the bike rental shop to pick up a couple of bikes (we tried to convince them to get the tandum, but Rooster wouldn't go for it). After getting the bikes, we all headed up to the Noordermarkt (farmers market in the Jordaan open on Saturday's). Getting their was an adventure in itself as Gigi & Rooster had to figure out how to maneuver throughout the center of Amsterdam on the bikes (a notably brave excursion for some bike rookies). After the bike ride, we went home to let the boys take a nap then it was off to Sebastians house (another bike ride up into the Jordaan).

Sebastian, Tony's friend from work, lives on a houseboat up in the Center of Amsterdam. We really can't thank him enough as he invited the whole family over to his house from where we got on his little boat ("Wuzi Wuzi") to get a local guided tour of Amsterdam. We really lucked out on the weather that day. The combination of the sun shining the whole 4 hours we were on the canal, some champagne, snacks, family, friends (Sebastian, his fiance Fabiola & Bryan) and Amsterdam from a very unique viewpoint, it all made for a perfect afternoon. After touring nearly every canal route in Amsterdam, yes, Red Light District included, Carter got the opportunity to drive Sebastian's boat for the last 20 minutes. Yeah, he was pretty proud of himself. After a long day, Sunday required a bit of relaxing & bar-b-que to get rid of the sore muscles from all of that bike riding the day before.

The next week Tony had to head back to work after which on Thursday, Gigi drove us down to Rotterdam so we could hop on a plane to Rome. While we headed off on our cruise, Gigi & Rooster drove down to Metz to visit Sandra and her family for some authentic French relaxation.

Upon arriving at our hotel in Rome, we headed over to the nearest grocery store to stock our room up with the bare essentials. From there we took the hotel shuttle down to the area near the Spanish steps. After absorbing some people watching and the sights of the area, we boarded the subway to take a gander at the Roman Coliseum & the Forum. Simply amazing when you consider how old all of this is, imagine what went on in these areas some 2000+ years ago (wars, the creation of democracy, gladiators, etc.) then you throw on top of that the sheer size of these structures, no disappointments here.

Our second day brought us on a tour to Vatican City. We usually don't sign up for tours and probably never will again. We were told that it was a good idea to avoid the lines, but its just not as fun going at someone else pace. We made it to the Vatican museum & Sistine Chapel but unfortunately we weren't allowed into St Peters Cathedral. They claimed Stacie's dress was too short, after we intentionally got dressed up the pull this off, what?? The most horrendous part was that as we were waiting for the group to come back we observed various crowds of mid-westerners sporting some fancy cut-off jean shorts with matching wife beaters coming out of the cathedral, what a joke!

Rome is not to be missed, with expectations somewhere at a midpoint due to it being potentially over hyped, we left our short stay with a collective nod that this has to be one of the greatest towns of all. We had our greatest Italian eating experiences to date; from our local eatery full of sausages & great pastas to a hot stroll around supplemented by some of the finest gelato the world has to offer. We were pleasantly surprised by how Rome lived up to its huge expectations from all angles.

Just 3 days after arriving in Rome, we had to say good bye and head off to our boat. If anyone ever encourages you to arrange transportation from Rome to the port of Civitavecchia... DON'T! It's really quite simple, an 90 minute train into the port town, ~10 minute walk, 5 minute shuttle from the port entrance and you make it there for ~10 Euros per person. The arranged travel would have been at least $300.

As soon as we dropped our luggage, we headed up to the room, put on the trunks & g-strings, the headed to the pool-side bar for some Pina Colada's & Apple Juices. Our bartender told us he was bummed because this cruise was typically full of Italians. Inquiring as to why, he said they don't like to have fun and are all rude. Initially surprised, we came to find him spot on. We had countless experiences that pushed me to the brink of changing our last name. In the end, it made for some good entertainment, for an example, see the below:

1. The table behind us at dinner complained about all of their dishes to the waitstaff each night which created tension in a room that should have been overly enjoyable. The worst part was on one of the last nights, it got to the point where the mother at the table had the head waiter standing over her pealing a plate full of shrimps.
2. The great thing about the lack of fun was that it made for a short line at the bar. From sun up til sun down, the sun decks were lined with Italians soaking up the 100 degree rays all looking like the grandma from "There something about Mary" by the end of the cruise. I swear, it looked like a cancer production line.
3. Common courtesy, oh hell no. Maybe we are a bit off mark, but usually, in all places around the world, you allow people to get off of elevators & buses before trying to enter. The Italians have a different perspective. To highlight how bad it was, on our last night, we were waiting to go down to our room when the elevator opened up and we saw that the same girl in the wheel chair was still in the same elevator that we had just seen pass us. We had to ask why and she noted that they wouldn't let her off, how horrible is that??

Once all of the ice in the apple juices was gone, we took a quick tour of the boat and found the kids club. This could be one of the best concepts ever. Once in there the next day, Carter never wanted to leave. We went on 3 excursions and he stayed on the boat the whole time. Beyond the kids club, we got familiar with the spa, the fitness center, climbing wall, mini-golf course, arcade and the other 1000 things to do, this was going to be fun.

We were out on the boat for a complete day and didn't dock until our second morning at sea. Our first port was Messina and we actually ended up just dropping the kids off at the club, going for a nice workout, then enjoying some Pina Coladas off of our balcony. We had a nice view of Sicily, so even though we didn't physically step foot on Tony's homeland, we enjoyed it all just fine.

A day after Messina, the boat arrived in Athens, Greece. Athens is really great for a day trip, but we wouldn't recommend more than that. We took a 12 euro taxi from the port to the bottom of the Parthenon. Though posted at 12 euro's, our driver tried to charge us 40 from which Tony quickly negotiated back to 12. After that, the driver offered a full day of guided tours in his taxi for only 200 euros. We denied that and were glad when we found out that it was only a 10 minute walk to the shopping area of Placa, which he quoted as at least an hour. After soaking up the Acropolis, we walked down to the Placa, did a bit of window shopping then enjoyed a slow Greek lunch with Avery (yes, Carter was back on the boat the whole time). On our way back, we walked to the right of the port instead of the left, that little mistake costed us an extra hour of hiking in the hot sun that caused us to nearly miss the boat. The good part, we burned an extra 1000 calories which allowed us to enjoy the evening meals and drinks.

From Athens, our cruise took us over to Ephesus, Turkey, our hands down favorite stop. We ended up getting a private tour here with our own tour guide & seperate driver. They were recommended by a friend of ours and turned out really good. We went to see the house of the Virgin Mary followed by the town of Ephesus (one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world). Ephesus is essentially a town of ruins from an old Roman settlement which has slowly been uncovered by archeologist (including Indy) over the past 50 or so years. Unlike Rome (where all of the notables are surrounded by buildings built in the last 100 years), Ephesus stands alone stuck in time. As you walk through it, you can really imagine what it was like to live 2000 years ago. At the conclusion of the town walk, we headed over to a museum then finished off the day with another slow lunch (yes, without Carter, he again was back on the boat) in an old train yard. On the way back to the boat, we stopped by a Turkish rug merchant and picked up an original (If you come by, please don't spill wine on it).

Our last port before heading back to Civitavecchia was in Crete, Greece. You know, the Greek islands were the original inspiration for this trip. We had been planning to get a villa with some friends but the timing couldn't be coordinated so we opted for the next best thing, a Mediterranean cruise! Unfortunately, Crete was a big disappointment. It was far from a quaint island village and more of a bustling, smoggy big city. We were only here for a few hours, so, though not the highlight of our trip, we now know which island not to spend a week on if we go to get a villa some other time.

With only one day at sea and a couple of nights left, we ended the cruise in style, enjoying all it had to offer. Our last day was spent lounging around the pool, getting one last burger at Johnny Rockets then heading over to watch the Ice show with some friends we met (Hananah, Ahmed & their boy) from Dubai (originally from Washington DC) that we spent some time with on the boat. We took the kids to dinner that night and handed out the tips to our wait staff after which we brought the kids back to the room to hang out with the babysitter. Stacie and I went to go catch a variety show after which we made our rounds to the many themes bars before finishing the night off on the boats promenade. We had a great time chatting it up with some of the crew as they were trying to push some goods, we took advantage by leveraging the free Sangria they had at their table.

On our last day, we woke up, got breakfast, checked out then made our way back to Rome. We got a chance to spend a full day in Rome as our flight didn't leave until 8:30 pm. After finally getting to bed around midnight, it was up and out the door first thing the next Monday. Unfortunately the plane connecting from Amsterdam took off late so Gigi & Tony got stuck in Frankfurt for a night, not the best way end a vacation!

What a Freak!!

Say it aint so.... So we are at dinner in Maastricht on Saturday evening (August the 3rd that is) pondering the kids portion of the menu. As I look to the waiter to confirm the obvious, I'm clearly noted that my assumption is wrong. More on that later...

In an attempt to check off yet another fantastic city that we haven't yet visited on our 2 year Euro tour, we decided to head down to Maastricht for a weekend trip. To our luck, we were able to not only visit Maastricht, but also Vaals and Valkenburg in and out of town.

Arriving to just about the most south eastern part of Holland around 11 am on a sunny Saturday morning, we were pleasantly surprised that the BMW navigation system was leading us through the hills of Holland. Yes, hills! A key enabler of all of the bikes in Holland is the lack of any inclines, anywhere! To be driving through some hills and all of a sudden get slapped in the face with a view was quite a nice treat. The reason we were driving up here was to visit Vaals which is a town in Holland that borders Germany & Belgium and has a point that you can physically walk around all three borders.

After enjoying a light lunch and some playground time in Vaals, we headed into Maastricht to check into our hotel and visit the city that so many had told us we would enjoy. We dropped our bags and loaded the double stroller up for a cruise around the most posh town in Holland. The architecture was great and the stores were all nice, but the most pleasant surprise of all....they had a burrito joint. Though we didn't get a chance to dive into a local carne asada super burrito this time due to lack of seating, we left it as a great excuse to come back.

Knowing that a burrito would kill any chance of dinner, we headed back to the hotel to snack on some apple slices and sip some wine. When everyone was done relaxing, it was time to go find a restaurant. The only difficult decision was which of the many outdoor cafes to eat at, though we fought through it and settled on one in the town square. A few minutes into the menu research, we decided to ask the waiter a few questions.

A slight inquiry to confirm that the menu item "Frikhandel" was the Dutch version of a hot dog was unfortunately not confirmed. This raisin skinned, hot dog shaped, piece of mince meat that we had fed to our children several times in the past, turned out to be slightly different than a good ole American dog. The waiter said that the "Frikhandel" was actually deep fried minced horse meat, ewe! Needless to say, we ordered the chicken for the boys and have since steered clear of the ground up Mr. Ed.

One of the nicest parts of the trip had to be the leisurely stroll back to the hotel from the center of town. The streets were quiet and lit up nicely and the moon was shining brightly off of the river running through town.

The next morning, we got up and enjoyed a lazy walk around Maastricht before checking out. On our way home, we stopped in the town of Valkenburg in the hills not too far outside of Maastricht. There are caves here in the hills that you can hike, bike, ATV or train through. We opted for the train tour from which we got to view some very cool wall paintings and carvings dating back many hundreds of years.

It's not all about Vacation

The summer, though a bit rainy at times, has been pretty nice out this way. Though we had initially planned to make a family voyage back to the States, we ran into a bit of a snag with Avery's tonsils & adenoids.

Worried that the terrible two's would run far into Avery's teen years, Stacie started poking around the internet after we noticed Avery's funky sleeping patterns (chest nearly touching his spine on each inhale, snoring louder than his Papa & Uncle Daren, random bed positioning, not breathing for seconds at a time, etc.), she diagnosed what the doctors would eventually confirm, sleep apnea. The only way to get around this is to have his tonsils removed as well as his adenoids, which aren't supposed to be visible, but are hanging down visibly into his throat. Though a bit apprehensive to venture on a minor surgery in a foreign country, we have had great luck with the specialists that we have met with and are very comfortable with the hospital facilities that we visited over the past few weeks. The little Ace is scheduled to go in on Monday, August the 4th, and all signs point to him being a new kid after it's all said and done. We will only have to bear through a few days of a sore throat that we plan to smooth with loads of ice cream and popsicles.

Onto the other little rascal... At first, we thought the only thing he was going to get out of this place was a damn British accent. It has come to be that Carter has learned more in the past year than we could have expected and has made some great friends along the way. The approach that the British School of Amsterdam takes in teaching is different than the "American Way" or "KC's way". Carter had been learning a lot from KC at his old day care, so our expectations were quite high. At first, we were a bit skeptical, but looking in the rears, we couldn't be happier. Not only is he picking up a lot, but he can't get enough of it. Only in school for 4 hours a day, he was constantly asking us if we would sign him up for a full day like the rest of his friends. He is totally excited about moving onto Reception (US pre-K equivilent) next year as Avery will also be starting back in the same Nursery class that Carter was in this past year. Oh, and, whew, that accent of his.......it's gone!

As we finally got some great weather this past week, we took advantage of it by heading over to the Sower's house for a good ole fashion Bar-B-Que, and boy, was it tasty. As Stacie was enjoying their wine, and they were sipping on our "dog shit" blend (a funny-had-to-be-there story), the girls got the idea to head down to Paris for the weekend. So off they went early Saturday morning to spend a couple of nights along with all of the other Tour-De-France fans.

With Stacie gone, it was just the boys to hold the house down. This was my first weekend alone with them since we had moved out here, and we couldn't have had more fun. After some pancakes on Saturday morning, we picked up Ron and headed out for a day at the beach in Bloemendaal (yes, it is topless). With some beach chairs, sand toys, sandwiches, Capri-suns, Heinekens & beautiful weather, we couldn't had hoped for a better day.

Thinking ahead to Sunday, I gave the boys a heads up that I wanted to take them to see Kung Fu Panda (their first theater experience). Oh, how this has resulted in some funny out-takes leading into the trip and more so after the theater. Over breakfast on Sunday morning Carter offered to Avery the following: "I'm a better ninja than you, and mommy and daddy and you are last on the ninja list".

After filling the morning up with some grocery shopping on the Power Wagon and a trip to Praxis (Dutch Home Depot), we ate some lunch and headed out for an afternoon matinée. The kids were excited about the Kung Fu Panda popcorn and "Gatorade Water" that they got to snack on during the flick and Dad was even more excited that you could buy a big bottle of Grolsch. Boy, were they good (both the boys and the beer)! The only sound out of the boys was the following:

(During the pre-movie commercials): "Daddy, I need to go poop", said Avery.
(Throughout the movie): Whispers from both of the boys asking for more popcorn.

After getting off the tram when the movie was out, we had about a block to walk back to our house. The short walk was filled with Kung Fu practice moves by both boys and some accompanying commentary....

Carter: "I learned more kung fu moves than you, so I'm a better ninja"
Avery: "I'm the blue tiger and you are the green tiger"
Carter: "No, I'm the blue tiger and you are the green tiger"
Avery: "Hi-yah" (Kung Fu sound bite from Avery)

Though I have to say, the funniest of them all came when I went to pick them up at creche (Dutch day care inside of the gym) after my workout. After silently observing both of the boys applying their new martial arts techniques on each other, I asked if they ate their snack. To this Carter replied, "No, we ate Kung-Food". (The lady whom worked there said Carter came up with this new term on his own).

So, for next weekend, I think we will have to head out to some noodle soup for lunch to keep my little ninjas sharp.

Weekend trip to the beach

We took advantage of the 4th of July weekend to get out to one of Holland's beach locations. Up off the north west coast of Holland, there are a number of small islands that continue into Denmark. You can actually take a guided walking tour through the ocean to one of them, though we opted for the ferry ride as Avery's legs are still a bit short for that one. For a Friday and Saturday night combo, we took up a hotel room on Vlieland. We really couldn't have picked a better way to relax for the weekend.

The island of Vlieland is an hour and a half ferry ride after an hour's drive from Amsterdam. Once getting to the island, you find that there are only about 10 cars and buses on the whole place. People generally just use bikes or walk. You can walk from one side of the island to the other in about 20 minutes.

After a short bus ride from the ferry station and dropping our bags at the hotel, we walked a few meters down to the beach and took up a seat at the restaurant over-looking the ocean. We ordered some dinner and drinks while watching the waves and people playing on the beach. After the kids were done with dinner, they played on the beach while we enjoyed a couple of cold Heinekens.

The hotel was great as well. Located just steps from the beach with great views of a serene & isloated island, it also had all the amenities to keep us all entertained (an indoor & outdoor pool, tennis courts, two playgrounds, a bowling alley, 3 restaurants & organized activities for the kids). Carter couldn't get enough of the pool. He is pretty anxious to learn how to swim without the floaties, though "gave it a go" (see British slang) and realized a bit more practice was needed.

After getting up on Saturday morning, we took a nice walk from our hotel into the village to grab a few snacks for the room and for our beach picnic. The day was shaping up beautiful from the get go. We woke up to clear sunny skies that carried through the whole day. After getting back from our walk and lugging our groceries (cheese, beer & cookies) across a whole island, we quickly proceeded to the beach where we lounged in near 80 degree weather for a little over 5 hours.

The only minor snag in the trip was that we forgot to grab our beach chairs when getting off the ferry on Friday. Though a bit worried that we had seen the last of them, we came to find them untouched and nicely placed in a lost and found area at the terminal. It's nice to know that there are places in this world that don't take advantage of the lost goods.

Upon our return to our parked car, the sunshine disappeared and gave way to a major rain storm. We sure lucked out on the weekend weather!

Yep, We're Still Here....And Euro As Ever!

Okay, so this is REALLY bad.....our last post was in January! We have been so busy travelling. Yeah, we know, really rough, you say. But our time has also been eaten up battling the world's BIGGEST 2 and a half year old!

Let us break down what's the haps since the New Year struck:

In February, we were joined by our friends Bryan and Erica on an Alps ski trip. We left our house in Amsterdam at 6:00am and drove through Germany on the Autobahn to Kitzbuhel, Austria. The trip took 12 hours with only two stops.....one gas stop and one Mickey D's stop! The boys did great in the car.....aside from Carter's motion sickness!

On a side note, we have to say that international McDonald's restaurants are really amazing! They are equipped with leather couches, plasma TV's, and individual bathrooms that are clean and lit up with fancy colored lights!

Austria was amazingly beautiful in landscape, architecture, and weather! We finally got to experience some California weather (well, almost)! Snowboarding on the Alps was great, and so was drinking beer at the top of the mountain! In the middle of town there was an "oasis". An indoor swimming pool and water slides. We got to show off our newly acquired pastey white Amsterdam skin! The pool was fun, but the waterslides were even better. They were like the water version of Space Mountain....all dark with neon lights. I hadn't had so much fun in so long. I am sure that all of the teenagers at the top of the water slides were cracking up at "that old lady" screaming and laughing every time she went down the slides!


We took a day trip to Bruges, Belgium in March. We walked around and toured the sights, and even took a horse carriage ride.

March was wonderful because it brought us back home to California. Again, the boys did great on the plane. They got to sit with the pilots and wear their hats. They got wings pinned on their shirts, and loved every second of it! Carter's motion sickness visited again on the ride to Grandma and Papa's house. Tony had to work the two weeks we were home, but Stacie got to shop! I couldn't wait to get to the mall and Target! The ATM machine (or what some of you close to my heart call "the ready teller"!) was smokin'! We were fortunate enough to be able to spend Easter with our families. The Easter Bunny was good to us this year.

We spent the last part of our trip home in SoCal. We got to stay in a Marriott Villa in Newport Beach. We took the boys to Disneyland. They had no idea what Disneyland was, but, boy, they sure do now! They absolutely loved it, and are excited because they know that next month they will get to go to Disneyland Paris! We went to the Character Breakfast in the morning, and got to eat breakfast with lots of the Disney characters. They even signed the boys' autograph book.

We returned to Amsterdam the first part of April.....with another great plane trip......and another visit from Carter's motion sickness! I always wondered if anybody REALLY used those barf bags for anything other than spitting old gum into. Unfortunately, my question was answered by my son!

April held a trip to the tulip farms (Kuekenhof), a visit to Volendam (an old fishing town with nice shops and views), and a visit from Doug and Jenni (Tony's cousin and his girlfriend). We also journied to Bloemendaal--a sweet reminder of a California beach bar and grill, where the kids can play and the adults can drink a beer (or if you're the Q's, two)! April also marked the end of training wheels for Carter. He mastered riding his two wheeler within days and looks like a true Dutchman now! Only one nasty fall for Evil Kneivel so far. The last day of April is the biggest party day of the year in Holland, especially Amsterdam. It is called Koninginnedag (Queen's Day for those of us that don't speak Dutch!). Every canal in the city is jammed with boats. Every cafe, coffeshop, store, sidewalk, street, etc. is packed to the point of gross. Everybody wears orange and it is one big ol' party. Great to experience it once, but we will probably head to a different country next year for the weekend.


The beginning of May was greeted with a visit by Stacie's parents. A few days after they arrived, we all went to Paris. A few days after Paris, Tony and Pete went to Scotland for some serious golfing. We would love to share our latest pics of Paris, Scotland, Amsterdam, and Avery now wearing undies, but some jackass on Easy Jet decided to steal our cameras and I-pods so that's not possible.

OK, back to Paris. A short train ride from Amsterdam brought us into the heart of the city. Our first task was to find a taxi to take us to the apartment we rented. After being jockied around, we finally found someone to drive us the 10 mins. to the apt. for a reasonable price. This is where we would insert pictures of the beautiful Parisian chalet we were going to call "home" for the next 5 days, but since someone else is enjoying the pics we took, that's not going to happen. Let us enlighten you.....

***The doorknob was broken, so in its place was a pair of scissors you had to turn to the left to get the front door open.
***The kitchen was inhabited by ants and crumbs and dirty dishes.
***The shower was SO SMALL Stacie had to stand OUTSIDE of it to shave her legs.
***The bathroom had to be bleached before we could use it
***The TV, internet, and phone did not work.
***The fish tank was held together with string and duct tape (yes, we were in charge of keeping the fish alive)
***The ceilings in the "TV room" and bathroom were peeling apart
***There was an unmarked jar of mysterious red sauce in the fridge, along with some mayo, mustard, and cheese
***The freezer not only held ice cube trays, but also a spilled, frozen, buillon looking substance
***There was a wet shower towel hanging in the bathroom when we arrived

Oh, the list could go on and on....if only we had our pictures!

We really enjoyed Paris, but it was jinxed from the get-go.

Carter had a fever, the flu, a rash, a cough, and his eardrum ruptured. Avery got a really bad case of pink eye. His eyes were glued shut every morning. Pete and Bonnie were attacked by bloody noses. Pete, Bonnie, and Stacie were battling allergies which turned into coughs and colds. And of course, Tony escaped it all! On the plus side, Avery is no longer wearing diapers!!! Side note: NEVER potty train in a foreign country!

Okay....on to Italy!

We started out in Florence. We rented another apt., but actually had a "normal" place this time. We saw all of the beautiful sights...St. Marco Square, the Duomo

Looking Back Part I: The trip out (Departure from SFO –> October 11, 2007)

The night before we took off, the Hidalgos were kind enough to let us overtake their home with the kids and our 10+ bags. Stacie came to pick me up at Cisco in the Yukon rental. That was when the leaving really hit, no home, no car, everything is all packed up, here we go.

We headed up to San Francisco to drop off the bags and head over to Luisa’s for dinner. Gigi, Rooster and Bridgette came up from Santa Cruz, Bri and Anthony got home from work, then we all headed off to dinner. Jaime couldn’t make dinner as he was just getting back from a romantic getaway in Alaska with Joe. (Word on the street was that they enjoyed a nice night’s sleep on a bear skin rug in the shape of a heart.)

Luisa was fantastic to us all night, the Chianti was flowing along with the Oso Bucco. She even took the boys for a while and filled them up with ice cream, cookies & suckers. This was a great way to say good bye to the US for a while!!

The next morning we woke up and got ready to head off to the airport. I checked my email one last time to find out that our temporary housing had changed and that we needed to find our way to central Amsterdam on our own. This started to worry me, thinking ahead to the tired kids, tired parents, 3x more luggage than we have arms and on top of all of that, driving through the Canals in Amsterdam. There was no turning back now. Amsterdam or Bust!

We couldn’t have asked for a better plane ride, no crying or screaming from the kids. The only bummer was that neither one of them slept the whole ride out which left for one tired Q family. We flew through Frankfurt and left for Amsterdam after only an hour layover. An hour and 15 minutes later, we were in Amsterdam.

After waiting for all of the bags, we piled them onto other bags, an airport cart and some onto the stroller. We pushed them through the airport, to the Hertz desk, and got the keys to our Honda Civic Hybrid (with a bumping system) after about an hour. I stuck the two car seats in, put Carter and Avery into their seats, then began piling as much luggage in every open space that car had left. Still after all of that, we had 3 large bags and no front seat.... It was off to the Taxi stand for Stacie, the stroller, and the 3 remaining bags.

Before turning the car on, both of the boys were out. I entered the address into the “Hertz Never Lost” and off we went. Good old Never Lost took me right into the Jordaan, on Binnen Oranjestraat, where our temporary apartment was. I definitely didn’t feel comfortable driving there, tired, small streets, canals & bikes everywhere. I just parked the car on the side of a small street and hoped that Stacie would show up soon. She got there at the same time as our leasing agent, and we started unloading the car.

Stacie said that she was a BIT nervous riding around alone and tired with a Dutch/British/Jamaican taxi driver for half an hour having no idea if she’d end up in some brush under a canal to never see her family again! Finally, her taxi driver went down our new street the wrong way and got into a swearing match with a policeman. The taxi driver proceeded to tell the cop to f*@k off, so he did, and let them go by. This was our first view into a culture of tolerance.

We unpacked the boys first, laid Carter in the small bed up on the 3rd floor and put Avery on the couch on the 2nd floor. After sleeping for 8 hours or so, the house woke up and we headed out for some dinner. Since our last dinner was Italian in the US, why not make it Italian in Amsterdam? Tired and not knowing the culture, we stumbled into our first dinning experience, not sure if kids were welcome, and if we needed to seat ourselves? It all worked out and we got a nice dinner along with some Heineken for Mom and Dad and apple juice for the boys. Avery quickly turned that pizza into some “child output” and it ran out through his pants. Thinking he had just spilled juice on his pants, I put him on my lap to calm him down, only to find out later that Avery and Dad now both had pooey pants.

The house we were to call “home” for the next month was in a great area full of hustle and bustle. The house was 4 stories spread out over 4 flights of tiny spiral steps. Not good after too many drinks! The boys shared the front room on the top floor. Carter got the bed and Avery pulled up some hard wood floor and a Thomas the Train air mattress, as we didn’t trust him to not roll off the bed! The place definitely exercised form over function.

The parking in the Jordaan is insane and expensive, and Tony had to go out every few hours and feed more Euros into the meter. Not convenient.

We quickly found the supermarket, and learned even more quickly that one must bring their own grocery bags to pack your groceries into yourself. Otherwise, you have to buy the grocery bags before you pack your own groceries.

The owner of the apartment, Hussein, was friendly and full of information. He said the apartment used to be an Indian restaurant with red velvet wallpaper. He had the bottom floor dug out an extra meter and a half and made a bedroom/laundry room/bathroom out of it. The entire apartment was decorated with Ikea items, except for the PINK fridge, which Hussein hand-picked himself to match his undies!

A few days in we met with a realtor to have a look around Oud Zuid (Old South) to find a permanent home for the next two years. We loved the last one we saw and thankfully were approved to move into it at the end of October.

December Festivities

We had a busy December!
Carter's class put on two Christmas shows, in which he played a holiday bat and ran around the stage to the Batman song!!
We went to Barcelona, Spain for 5 days. Such a beautiful place to soak in some sun, see some castles, and sip some Cuarenta y Tres (that's 43 for you gringos). Salud to the Hidalgos!
We had 4 days of light snow. We thought we were going to have a white Christmas, but it all melted away pretty quickly.
December also marked the beginning of the Q's getting ripped at the gym! Watch the muscle growth in the pictures (along with Ton's beard growth....how else does a dude keep his face warm during European winter months....okay.....don't answer that!!)
The last day of December amazed us with the most spectacular fireworks display we have ever seen. Dutch tradition dictates all people must go outside to join their neighbors in sipping champagne and lighting firecrackers, bottle rockets, screamers, sparklers, etc. The Dutch didn't let us down! The fireworks began at 11:50 and continued full force until after 1am. Unbelievably, Carter and Avery slept through the whole thing, even though it sounded like someone was unleashing an AK47 in the middle of their room!
December also marked the end of Paprika. We had to say goodbye to Uncle James right before Christmas. He had to return to shorts, sunglasses, and burritos! Long live Tio Pepe's!