Amsterdam

Canals, people, and bikes soar in this city

Kaiyah and I read Anne Frank's Diary in preparation to visit the Secret Annex where she hid.

This is the cabin we stayed in by Kuekenhof for our Spring Break in the Netherlands.

Our campgrounds had an indoor pool which we loved and took full advantage of.

Good morning! "Mommy the flash is too bright!"

The North Sea along The Hague.

The Netherlands; I prefer Holland myself

Kuekenhof. Who knew there were so many different kinds of tulips??

Blogger changed and I have no idea as of now how to rotate these pics.

I couldn't get enough of these fields

We have several pictures with the girls sitting in different shoes throughout our trip.

Another day we went to Zaans Shanse. We visited a shoe making, cheese, spice and wind mill factory. Very cool.

Moving On

I have given up! I have been so slacking with the blog that I can't go back, I must move ahead. This means that I won't be posting about our trip to Athens, Greece, Rome, Italy or our Centre Parc weekend in the Netherlands. But here are some random pics.

I took some pictures of Kaiyah while she was fast asleep. She's been wearing her clothes to bed so she can sleep in longer!! This particular night she even had her shoes on....She's a funny one!!

I love this picture because A. I think I look good! and B. because I love Harley's animated faces!

My Laney is growing up!

Apparently on paper so am I. For my 30th Jeremy took me to Baden-Baden. We spent 4 hours in the Roman Irish Bath's; in our birthday suits I might add. Can I say that felt quite liberating? Thankfully, I was the youngest spring chicken in there! I left feeling rejuvenated. My favorite part was at the end we went into this large semi-dark room and they wrapped us in these heated blankets like a cocoon. Ahhhh, I felt like a baby in my momma's womb all over again.

Ephesus, Turkey

This was by far the most tense day for me. I bargained for my group of 19, 3 taxi drives to take us from our port to Ephesus and back. Only 1 driver spoke broken English. We got to Ephesus and then our driver wanted 5euro more for parking. That annoyed me because I made it very clear what we paid up front was it. We paid him anyways and found a tour guide to walk us thru the site. Basically, lots of ruins and very cool to think that Paul was there preaching the Gospel. The main building you see was the library. Quite impressive. They had a short reenactment of some Gladiators fighting that the kids enjoyed. After that our drivers kept trying to convince us to see other parts of Turkey on the way home. They wanted to take us to a carpet factory, a leather factory, pottery and more. After saying no at least 10 times, we finally let them take us to the pottery place, where it turned was pretty cool. We watched the pottery being made and even bought some cool pieces. Then they took us to a leather store which I literally stepped out of the car walked 5 feet and got back in the car and said ok, I'm done! To make a long story short they got a cut from every place they stopped and we bought something at. I was just waiting for them to tell me I owed them more money for our taxi fare, which is why I was so insistent on them just taking us back to the Izmir market for shopping and then back to the port. At last, we got to the main Market, did some shopping, (bought a wooden coat rack, which is the great thing about cruising because you can buy big pieces and get it home easily, unlike flying) and at the end of the day they dropped us off at the port and DIDN'T ask for more money!! I was shocked. I just kept stressing that they were going to demand more cab fare money for driving us all over. So my advice when you go to Turkey...trust your driver :)

Holly, Annie, Me and Megan

In the background is the Ephesus Theatre

These 3 girls would do a secret hand shake, chant, thing while saying, "Star, Star, Friendship!" So cute!

Jerusalem, Israel -- Day 2

First stop of the day, Mt. of Olives. It was a beautiful day. I noted that several times and felt so grateful. My friend Annie sang a Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief for us all here. What a fitting song. After this stop we only drove by the Garden of Gethsemane because we were behind schedule. This was disappointing but the rest of the day made up for it.

Garden Tomb: As a group, a guide brought us onto the site. As I walked passed the entrance it was like a wave hit me and spread throughout my body. I was not expecting to feel the spirit that intensely at that moment. As soon as I felt it I looked to my left and through the trees I saw it. I saw the Garden Tomb. I KNEW that I was on sacred ground. What proceeded next was a speech on how the British came to own that little piece of land in Israel, the kids walking around with their friends down by the tomb, lots of picture taking, and listening to some other church group sing their hearts out!! The site was closing and everyone was leaving. Our group decided to sing I Know My Redeemer Lives. I'll think of the Garden Tomb whenever I hear that song.

Outside the Old City: My friend at this point said I needed to put my video camera away and grab hold of my kids. It was good advice. As we entered the Old City there were hoards of people in small alley's filled with all kinds of things to buy; clothes, grocery's, food stands, trinkets, electronics, jewelry etc. Finally we found a clearing and could relax! Note to self, don't try eating a falafel while holding 2 kids hands, and shop for souvenirs all at the same time. It was quite an adventure.

We were making our way to the pools of Bethesda when a guard stopped us and said we could not pass. He said only Muslims were allowed.

The Wailing Wall: Suppose to be one of the holiest places for Jewish people, Muslims weren't allowed. There were many Jewish people praying, reading at the wall. Some as they exited would do so walking backwards, so as to not turn their back toward God. I liked that.