Happy Birthday Landon!

I can't believe that this little guy....

is already 4 years old!

We had a fun, relaxed day today celebrating Landon's birthday. The highlight of his day was definitely opening his presents. I seriously don't think I have ever seen anyone so excited to open presents. Here's the rundown (heavy on pics for those grandparents ;)

Landon got a bike for his birthday from us which he spent most of the afternoon testing.


Can we get to the presents yet?!


As we are singing "Happy Birthday" to him...


Listening to his musical birthday card...


Seeing car after car from "Cars" (the movie) come out of a Mack semi. (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!)

Seriously, when was the last time you were that excited to receive a present??

Again, more "Cars" paraphernalia...sheer joy!


Thanks Landon for being the reining funny man and wild man of the house...it just wouldn't be the same without you! :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY! WE LOVE YOU!

Ya'll Ready for This....

Okay so maybe I was premature in thinking it would only be a day or two before I sorted through our 456 PICTURES from our last trip. However, 6 days later, they have been sorted through and properly mulled over and now I am ready to share the best.

I can't believe that it is almost May already and that we are coming up on our 1 year mark here in a couple of months. This has been one of the most (if not THE most) challenging and rewarding experiences I have ever had. Some days or weeks the rewarding part is hard to see, and others it's the other way around and the challenging part is hard to see. Ultimately though, I have been challenged personally so significantly, and while it has led me to want to hide under my bed and never come out some days, it has also placed me on a path to self-discovery and enabled me to grow in ways and find abilities I know I wouldn't have discovered other ways. One of the best parts is having my little family here with me sharing this journey. Their love, support, and individual courage (the kids especially in this regard) is amazing to me and watching them stretch their wings and grow brings me an indescribable amount of joy. Most of all, I am just thankful. Thankful for the good and the bad and the ultimate icing on the cake - our trips.

Amsterdam

Ryan and I spent a weekend without the kids in Amsterdam and it was wonderful. I generally have a pretty steady love affair with The Netherlands as the Dutch are so warm and friendly and eager to speak English. Their cheese is unbeatable and the flower market (Bloemenmarkt) in Amsterdam was incredible! Definitely one of my favorite places. We didn't take many pictures, but rather roamed through the city on foot just taking it all in. I love that the city is built around the canals and I absolutely adore the fact that most everyone is on a bike. I don't know what it is about a whole city full of bicyclists, but it was very charming to me. I also enjoyed the traditional Dutch architecture - it is so beautiful. Along with all of these charming things though, Amsterdam has a bit of a "shady" side with its legal prostitution and pot smoking. Although we didn't go by the Red Light District, we definitely passed many "coffeeshops" (pot smoking places) and I swear the whole city smelled like stale pot smoke. That was my least favorite part and for that I dock it a star or two in my book. (We hardly took any pictures we were so enamored with walking around being able to carry on full conversations without stopping. See the other post for a couple of our other Amsterdam pics)





London

I don't quite know what to say about London other than the fact that I loved it. I'm sure it helped that we stayed in a crazy-fancy hotel (thank you Hilton rewards points!) and had no other responsibilities but to walk around and enjoy it all, but we had a great time. The weather was actually quite terrible, and admittedly this ended up being a bit more of an "adult" trip in what we wanted to do and see, but the kids were patient and went along with most of it quite well. Also, contrary to what I had heard, the food in London was pretty good. No black pudding made it our way. We were able to eat a lot of fresh food and ended our trip with probably not-too-healthy-but-definitely-tasty Fish and Chips. Yum. As with all of our family trips, I don't shop much (as in, maybe I step into 1 store), but I'm pretty sure if I had I could have done some pretty significant shopping. I liked the fast pace of the city and the thoroughness of the Tube (London's subway). Really, the pictures speak better of our trip that I can:

We started out everyday WALKING. Lots and lots of walking was to be had. The tube became handy once the legs started wearing out.


We ended everyday with a big bath in a big tub full with warm water and tons and tons of bubbles.




We made calls to the Queen to tell her we were much too busy to spend an afternoon with her drinking tea and eating crumpets.


We saw the kid's favorites (more than once...).

Soldiers at the Household Calvery





Guards at Buckingham Palace for "The Changing of the Guard"




Riding the London Eye (a must-do in my book)





We saw things during the day...

Big Ben


The London Eye


Westminister Abbey, looking down from the London Eye


And again at night.

Westminister Abbey




The London Eye


Big Ben with the London Eye


Buckingham Palace



We endured (and tried to enjoy) the rain...






We posed for pictures.










And, how the story always ends...we enjoyed each other.