The Miller Family Adventures: Efteling, Amsterdam...and Napolean

I really can't believe this finds us towards the back end of June already! It really doesn't seem possible that summer's actually upon us - as the weather we've been dealing with lately seems more appropriate for October:( We sort of laughed off all the comments from people who've been in Belgium longer than us - mostly along the lines of "well, we hope you enjoyed summer!" -that came at the end of May. How could this little slice of weather heaven end? - we asked ourselves in the midst of the 60+ days of sunshine and mid-70's. We were fools...our weather has been so completely schizophrenic these last few weeks, I feel like I'm losing my mind. Dreary, damp, storms, even hail the other day, then the sun will come out for about 15 minutes, and it starts all over again. Not to mention the fact that Will's still in school through next week, so it really doesn't feel like summer's hit yet.

Regardless, we have been doing a few fun things around here. Two weeks ago Scott had a four day weekend (the Ascension is a national holiday here!) so we took advantage and drove to The Netherlands for a few days - and, what do you know - we had beautiful weather for it. On that Friday we went to Efteling Park, a fairy tale land/amusement park in Holland. It was so great - the kids had an incredible time - and I'm so glad we did that for them. I feel like we're constantly dragging them around to museums, churches, etc., and it was a lot of fun to devote one whole day to them.

There was an incredible 3-D show sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund about animal and habitat conservation. It was hilarious to watch the kids - with the glasses on you really felt like the shark was coming out of the screen at you and the snake was right beside you...Bo was a little freaked by the end and buried his face in my lap. They had a big display with all the animals and their habitats at the end - this was the polar bear display, complete with an ice slide.

Bo about lost it here, and we had to make a pretty quick getaway - to the kid's credit though, a lot of the animals did look incredibly real.

The Wild River Ride - we were so excited the kids were able to go on...probably wouldn't happen in America:) Here Bo and I just got wet. Will said this ride was his favorite part of the day.

There was a "One Thousand and One Nights" canal ride - again, got a little scary for Bo, as you can see he's half covering his eyes. This was a pretty frequent look that day for him...

Enjoying an ice cream snack - it was pretty warm out that day.

They had a huge section of the park dedicated to fairy tales - some we recognized, most we did not. This was one we did - Hansel and Gretel.

Another indoor ride - Efteling's version of Disney's 'It's a small world...'

Outside the maze - Will loved it - appropriate since he's very much into doing mazes right now.

For dinner that night we ate at a McDonald's (cherry on top of a very fun day for the boys - and Scott and me too, actually, since we don't hit up McDonald's too much anymore) and drove to Rotterdam for the night, which was right in between Efteling and Amsterdam, not to mention a lot cheaper! We thought we were getting a great start to the day by getting up early and heading to Amsterdam, but the parking situation there is a little tedious, so we ended up not actually getting into the city until closer to noon! We started off by taking a canal tour - very good idea, as we were able to kind of get a 'lay of the land,' so to speak, this way. Amsterdam's different from most other places that we've visited, in that there's not a whole of historical places to visit necessarily, but more so just a lot of interesting things to see, not to mention a crazy amount of people watching.

You can see here the insanely narrow houses - apparently, during Amsterdam's Golden Age (throughout the 17th century), home owner's were taxed on how wide their houses were - so, the narrower (and taller) the better. I believe the tour guide said that incredibly skinny middle house here is famous (or infamous) for being the leanest house in Amsterdam.

The murky canal waters of Amsterdam.

One thing we did make it a point to see (we actually bought tickets on line ahead of time - and thank goodness too, as the line for them was ridiculously long) was the Anne Frank House. I am so glad we did - it was very moving. I had read 'The Diary of Anne Frank' years ago in school, but forgot the details of their ordeal. She came from a fairly well-off family and spent her early years in Germany. Her father saw the writing on the wall, so to speak, and moved his family to Amsterdam in 1933. There he continued his successful business making jars for jelly out of an office building/ home alongside a canal. By 1940, the Nazis had gained control over The Netherlands. When Anne's older sister, Margot, received a letter from the Nazis commanding her to leave the family in 1942, her father decided to take the family into hiding. With the aid of four of his employees, he moved the family, plus 4 other Jews, into the hidden rooms of his office building. Here they lived for two years, sustained by the tenacity of these four employees. They were betrayed (which still remains a mystery) in 1944 and sent to various locations, along with two of the men who were helping them. The other two, who were both women, were saved as one of the Nazi officers interrogating them hailed from Austria, as did one of the two women, and he didn't think it was possible that his fellow countryman would betray the Nazis. Anne and Margot died within days of each other in March of 1945 of typhus, sadly, a few weeks short of the liberation of the concentration camp they were at (Bergen-Belsen). Out of the eight living in the house, the only survivor was Anne's father, Otto Frank. He returned to the house after the war and found the women had managed to retrieve some papers from the house, among them being Anne's diary, which she kept for the two years she lived there. Her father managed to get her diary published a few years later.

No cameras were allowed anywhere in the house, which was very disappointing, as I would have loved to capture some of the things there on film. It's really hard to describe the feeling you get being there - brought back a lot of memories of going to Auschwitz, on a totally different scale, of course, but just knowing how her story ends is heartbreaking. It was also quite inspiring, though. Seeing the relics of their day-to-day life was incredible - and, although they lived in virtual captivity, they also lived a relatively normal life - even though they were forced to do most of their 'living' in the off-hours - after the workers below them would go home for the day. The house remains essentially the same as it was then - although most of the furniture has been removed at the request of Otto Frank. You can see markings on the wall where her father marked the growth of Anne and her sister. There is still a portion of the original wallpaper up with cut out pictures of movie stars that Anne glued to her bedroom walls. The house has been a museum for over five decades now...and there's certainly no sign interest is waning.

The only picture we got on the inside...moments before we were yelled at to not take pictures. Prior to touring the house, we were able to listen to a 30 minute talk on the life and death of Anne Frank. Although I nearly had a panic attack going into it, as I was so worried with how the boys would do, they actually did pretty well...but not without some bribery:)

Our dinner at the famous Pancake Bakery, just down the street from the Anne Frank House. They serve these ENORMOUS, delicious pancakes - you can choose from hundreds (ok, maybe not that many, but lots...) The boys were excited to get 'Pirate Pancakes' - just a regular pancake, but all decked out in Pirate gear - a compass, telescope, the works.

Was this picture taken before Will spilled his entire bottle of apple juice on the floor, or after Bo choked on a piece of my pancake and caused a complete scene?? Hmm, don't remember...

One of many 'coffee shops' along the streets of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam's city hall

Another famous 'coffee shop'.

All in all a good trip to Holland. I think I would like to get back to Amsterdam at some point, as I think we probably missed a lot being there only one day.

Last week we watched my friend Bekah's dog for five days when her family went out of town. Bo LOVES her dog, Luna, and cried and cried when we had to give her back. I think poor Luna was ready to get back to her quiet life, however. The boys were constantly pestering her, covering her up with blankets and pretending she was a 'ghost dog', teaching her how to 'hunt', Bo kept putting things on her head, trying to ride her, and pretending she was Rudolf (he has a serious Christmas obsession). Anyway, it was fun, and she's a very low-maintenance dog, which is good.

Poor Luna

This past Sunday, Father's Day, we did what most people do to celebrate Father's Day and attended a war reenactment. Just south of Brussels is the city of Waterloo, famous for the Battle of Waterloo, Napolean's last battle, where he was defeated by the British and Prussian armies. The annual reenactment/celebration began Saturday morning with a whole 'see how the soldiers' lived deal, then a battle Saturday night (occurring at the exact times it actually happened in 1815), then ended with the battle that sealed the deal for the British on Sunday morning. As we already visited the sights, museum, and saw soldier reenactments shortly after we moved here, we just attended Sunday morning. It was actually pretty cool, and Will of course, loved it. He is very much into all things soldiers, warriors, pirates, hunting...pretty much anything that involves getting to carry a sword. It was quite loud, as they were actually shooting off cannons and guns, and it took Bo a little while to warm up to it, but it was fun - and probably the closest we'll actually get to seeing fireworks this year!

Tending to the wounded...

After firing...had to wash all our clothes/coats, etc. - everything smells like gunpowder!

This week Scott travels to Frankfurt for work for a few days, then this weekend we're heading to Disneyland near Paris - should be a fun time - pray for good weather!

The first time I could get him to sit on his potty chair...while watching 'Monsters, Inc'

'Move mom! Can't see the t.v.!'

Showing off their medals from the B.C.T. (Brussels Childbirth Trust) Sports Day. The B.C.T. is an organization for English-speaking families here in Brussels. This is where Bo and I attend his playgroup and music group.