Our week in Pictures

Warning!!! This is probably going to be another long post - so feel free to just look at the pictures!

We began this week trying to plan a family day, since Kaylie had the week off of school for fall break. Both the kiddos needed a little fun time with only mom and dad, so we checked movie times and were off to town for an afternoon of togetherness. However, when we got to the movies to see Space Chimps - which just opened here -we realized that it was being shown in Dutch. Typically they show American movies as shot and then subtitle the Dutch, but for kids movies they do Dutch voice overs since the kids do not speak (or read) English. So since our kids don't know enough Dutch to enjoy a whole movie, we were off, slightly disappointed, for Plan B: a paint your pottery place. Unfortunately, when we got there and saw the Closed sign we remembered that on Mondays nothing is open in the morning and some places stay closed all day - so no painting pottery for us :( We did not have a Plan C, so we walked around a bit and found a Bagel shop where we got warme chocolade (hot chocolate) and a bagel. From there we decided to take advantage of being in town and went shopping for Kaylie's Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child Shoebox. (For those of you who don't know what that is, it is Billy Graham's charity that sends out shoeboxes of small gifts from toys to toothbrushes that are then mailed to needy areas all over the world. Thousands of boxes are sent from all over the world, and it really is a great project to involve your kids and teach them about giving to others. For more information, click here) Last Sunday all the kids in Kaylie's Sunday school class had decorated shoeboxes with the instructions on what to put in them and a return date. So we had a good time picking out small toys and other items to send. Both Kaylie and Keiric enjoyed trying to find items to send that would fit in the box. I hope they learn that giving is better than getting!

Tuesday we headed up to Schagen to help Eline, one of our youth leaders, prepare her lesson for Saturday night's meeting. She had never done a Bible Study lesson before, and so we sat and had hot chocolate in a cafe while we went over the points she wanted to make. They are using a book on Arguments for Christianity and Why they believe, and this particular lesson was on how we know the Bible is true and what type of difference that should make in our lives. We discussed the Scriptures that claim that it is inspired by God, the claims that Jesus himself made about them, the amount of prophecy that has been fulfilled, and the way that the Truths in the Bible can change your life. As we were talking, an older couple stopped by our table and commented on how great it was that she was talking about the Bible. When they left, she turned to us and translated what they had said with a huge look of surprise. She said that she didn't know any Christians in her town, so it was very "random" the way they happened to be sitting behind us that afternoon in the cafe. After our meeting she took us on a short tour of her town and even took us by her work to meet some of her co-workers. Here are a few things we saw:

Anyone needs directions to the crematorium? Seems odd that someone might need this sign after getting off the train, where this sign is located.

This used to be the Catholic church - it now has a giftshop at one end. Eline didn't know if there are still services or if anyone attends there.

A typical "coffee shop" that doesn't serve coffee ;)

Eline with the kids (Sidenote: Eline was an exchange student last year to the States so she speaks great English.)Also, for those who have asked. Schagen is the place where the man built a replica of Noah's Ark. He finished it last spring and began a tour in the summer. Over the course of the next year, he will be sailing it through the canals of Holland and will be docked for tours. We are sad that we missed seeing it up in Schagen (it was gone before we got here), but we just saw that it is going to be docked in Amsterdam from November to February. We are excited to see it and are also asking around to try to find people who would like to go with us.

Wednesday evening the Holland field leader from GEM and his wife came up and had coffee with us. It was a great time to get to know them a little and find out about their goals for Holland. That afternoon Jeremy had taken the kids to play soccer in the field near the skate park. We are still trying to get to know some of our neighbors.


On Thursday after my Dutch class, Jeremy, the kids, and I all headed down to Koog Zaandijk to meet up with a friend I had met back in 1999. We went to the Zaanse Schans which is a very touristy location where they have recreated an old-fashioned Dutch village. It has several small museums that you can tour, including going up inside a windmill, antique shops, antique clothing displays, and a klompen exhibit where you can see how they make wooden shoes. We had a great time catching up with Daniel, and the kids really liked him. Keiric became attached and wanted to be held by him, or walk holding his hand. It reminded me of how he is with Mr. Jeff or Mr. Aaron and made me miss home. It was a great day. We were grateful that the weather was beautiful because it was rainy and yucky both Wednesday and Friday.
Watching them make wooden shoes
Inside the WindmillUp on the landing on the windmill

Keiric's new friend Daniel
Thursday was also the GEM Day of Prayer for Europe. Thank you to all who participated. They were hoping for 10,000 votes and as of midnight had 10,003! Praise God!

Friday night we had a movie night with new friends: Barbel and her 4 daughters (Jamie, Camelot, Stephanie, and Tiffany). They came over to watch Enchanted with us and to play for awhile. It was Stephanie's birthday party that we were able to go to last weekend, and it was fun to get together again and get to know eachother better. Keiric and Tiffany, who is 4, also had a great time playing. They've already asked when we can do it again! Barbel attends the Women's Bible study with me on Tuesday mornings, and I am excited get to know her and her girls.

Saturday morning we headed off on a 2 hour train ride to Den Haag, which is the political capitol of The Netherlands. We were going to meet up with a New York native, Angela, and her Dutch husband Jeroen with their ten month old baby Angelo. I had met them at a game night several weeks ago, and we had been trying to get our families together since. When we heard that there was going to be a Sesame Street exhibit at Madurodam (another tourist attraction - which has all the buildings of Holland in miniature), so we decided to make it happen. Keiric was SO excited about seeing Elmo! Fun fact - in Holland Big Bird is Blue. Here are a few pictures:


Kaylie and Keiric in front of the miniature Cheese Market of Alkmaar
The miniature version of the center square in Amsterdam.
Apparently they are even willing to complete their mini city of Amsterdam with its own Red Light District
Keiric was so excited about Elmo!Even though Elmo was not there in "person", Kaylie and Keiric were excited to meet Bert and Ernie.

In the late afternoon we headed home because the youth were having their Bible Study. After getting VERY lost ( I actually had to have someone come meet me and show me the way), I made it to the meeting where they had begun with a game. Eline did a great job with the lesson (from what I could tell since it was in Dutch), and the kids seemed to get the point. Afterwards we played a game that I had never seen in the States, all about auctioning and buying farm animals and using strategy to get the most valuable ones. Here's a picture of the group during the game.

This weekend was also day light savings time change for us. This was something that I had never had to do before - always living in Phoenix. We used the opportunity to send the kids to bed at 7 instead of eight without them ever knowing it! And believe me - after the excitement of the week they needed it! We had great time with Kaylie out of school, but she was excited for school to start again and tobsee her friends.