Scotland

As promised here are some pics from Scotland. We had such a great time on this trip! We spent the first half on the SW coast and the golf resort Turnberry and the second half in Edinburg. We flew to Scotland and then rented a car when we got there as Ryan and I both wanted to have the experience of driving on the other side of the road from the other side of the car. It was awesome and just a little bit scary! It's kinda hard to judge where you are on the road when you are on the other side of the car but I think we both did really well! Our hotel in Turnberry was beautiful and had a great view of the coast. Each night at 6:30 a man in full Scottish dress came out to the back porch and played the bagpipes for 30 minutes. Groan if you wish but I loved it, so much so that I bought a CD of bagpipe music that I made everyone listen to on the way to Edinburg. Odd though that I haven't seen that CD since....Ryan? Any comments? Suggestions as to where it might be?
While at Turnberry the boys got to do a little bit of horsebackriding, except for James who was TERRIFIED of the horses. We walked along the coast where somehow Adam fell in the water and got completely soaked! I had my first fish and chips, it was delish! So much so I included a picture :) The boys did a golf clinic with Dad and no European trip would be complete without a tip to a castle. We did not hit any cathedrals this time though to the boys' immense relief! I absolutely LOVED the Scottish people. Everywhere we went they were so sweet and friendly and willing to have a chat with you. All in all it was one of my favorite trips so far and we have definite plans to head back to Turnberry some day.

Hoe gaat het

I have to say, I love the Netherlands and I love the Dutch and their crazy language. We get a few Dutch radio stations and are often crossing the border into the Netherlands to pick up groceries as they have a much larger selection of goods than can be found in Germany. I don't really know how to describe how Dutch sounds except to say that it sounds kinda like gibberish. The title of this post is pronounced: who got it and it's how you say how's it going. Some other Dutch favorites are: soap=zeep and pudding=vla. I mean come on, vla! That's not a word! Please pass the vla! I have met several Dutch people over the last two years from our travels and from friends at the boys' school and I think they are fun, friendly people. The all speak English really well partly because there is no Dutch tv. They watch tv in English with Dutch subtitles. We took a trip to Amsterdam last summer and really enjoyed it. The whole city has a canal system and we were able to purchase a family hop on hop off ticket for the canal boats to take us around the city. We toured around the city, ate some good food, avoided the "coffee shops" and the red light district....although I found it immensely amusing that there are late night tours offered through the red light district that are led by former prostitutes. Reading through the reviews of this tour on my favorite go-to website www.viator.com for figuring out what to do where when we travel was intertaining! My favorite review was short and to the point and said: very informative! Yes, I'm sure it was.

This last Saturday we loaded the fam up in the VW Touran to spend the day in Roermond, NL. This little city is about 40 min from where we live. It has an excellent grocery store and a good movie theater with a large selection of movies shown in English. We took the kids to see Zookeeper (I'll save you the time and the money, you can pass on this one) picked up some tasty Dutch goods, swung through KFC and headed home. Thanks Roermond for another great day trip, dank je wel (kinda sounds like donkey vell).

Back in the Saddle

Ok, so it has been a really long time since I have posted anything. I guess we were just busy living for awhile! But, I have since realized that we are making some pretty incredible memories here that I don't want to forget! So, quick recap: last year was our second year here in Dusseldorf. Last school year went really well and we had some amazing travels. We went to Paris with Ryan's parents, showed my parents around Dusseldorf and went on what has been one of my favorite trips so far to Scotland! I'm hoping this blogger motivation stays with me long enough to post some pics from these trips. But the best part about last year was that somewhere around March we came to really love being here in good ol' Deutschland. We have loved the travel aspect all along but have found our living situation....difficult. So many things went into the way we felt about living here but I think one of the biggest things was just how different life is here compared to life in America and apparently I am not as good with change as I thought I was :) We have grown so much closer as a family and have learned to rely on each other living here. We have also learned to appreciate a slower and less complicated way of life. All of the little things that used to drive me crazy I have come to see in a different light and I can now see some major advantages to the way things are done here. I still say that it is hard work being a German and I will hate till the day I die my very, very small and very, very slow washing machine and dryer but, I have found so much beauty and so much to love in this place! So as we start what will most likely be our last year in Dusseldorf I hope to soak up ever little bit that Germany and Europe have to offer before we head back to Colorado.