TRIP 2/9 Amsterdam Day 2

Today we took a relaxed pace day. Mimi and I went to the grocery store down the street where she experienced the challenge of finding what you want when everything is labeled in Dutch.

Grocery Loot

Silas living the dream

Navigating on the trams in Ams

Then we took off in an uber for Centraal Station where I picked up my IAmsterdam card. It was $70 for a three day pass for all of the museums and a bunch of other activities, including all transportation. The kids are free almost everywhere so I just bought them each transit passes for $2.50/day. So basically everything is paid for from here on out (except for food).
We hopped on the tram and took a wild ride to the Van Gogh museum. Trams are my favorite way to get around Amsterdam because they're fast, scary, you can see the whole city as you travel, and they go where you need to go.

Silas explaining the Potato Eaters

My favorite Van Gogh, of course

We jumped the line at the museum and the workers told us about a treasure hunt for kids. We loved it!  The best part of the museum was when a familiar face showed up. Nathan! He had a layover on his way to Pisa where he's establishing an exchange program for the UofU. Nathan and his buddy teamed up with my kids and we did the whole game and saw all of the paintings. I love doing kid activities at museums because they make them come alive.

It's not the real one.

The IAmsterdam sign was nearby so we hit that and then crossed the street when we saw a diamond center.

Photo Op with Nathan

Amsterdam is famous for diamond polishing. The smooth Italian guy showed us how they're cut and then tried to sell us some $6000 diamonds. The kids were delighted and said it was their favorite activity so far. I love when fun happens upon me.

Picking out diamonds.  They didn't have any black ones.

Next we had gigantic pancakes at a place Dax and I used to frequent when we visited Amsterdam.
By 5 we were exhausted. We went home to unwind and then played foozeball at the hotel. To finish the day we went in the Japanese hot tubs and sauna on the roof.

Pancake lover's dream come true.

This hotel was something else.  This is the Johnny Cash machine.

Badplaats apparently means hot tub. 

Rooftop hot tubs 

Jude's favorite Van Gogh.

These kids are such fun travelers. The world excites them and they love pointing out all the little different things they see. Their favorite observations are the tears of joy on my face when I see them learning to love traveling as much as I do.

TRIP 1/9 Amsterdam Day 1: Wooden Shoes and Modern Hotel

A few weeks ago I sent MY Christmas list to Santa.  I wanted a solution for the holidays (two dads' schedules to contend with) and something I could look forward to.

So Santa brought me my life dream!  He went on whichairlines.com and found us tickets to Europe for $360 RT. He couldn't resist. He knew it'd be just the thing.  So he sent us this letter down the chimney two weeks before Christmas.

We freaked out.  It was happening: my life goal and one of the main reasons I had children was going to materialize. I was taking my kids to Europe to show them the world.

Well, most of them. Mimi is 9, Jude is 8 and Silas is nearly 7 so they are all functioning independent human beings who can mostly be trusted to not run or crawl into a train well.  But I got the two babies tickets as well because I thought I could either get one of the dads to come too OR I'd hire a nanny for when we arrived.  But that plan was vetoed. There are reasons to be sad that they didn't come but there are also reasons to be very grateful they aren't here. Instead Danny took them to exotic eastern Arizona on a 17 hour road trip.  Hard pass on that one.

The planning began.  I managed their passports with the help of the dads.  There was one glitch that ended up in Si's and Jude's being held up until Weds Dec 22.  Close call. 

We hit the library and got some children's books on Amsterdam and Paris.  We went on line and found a killer hotel and a reasonably priced AirBnB in Paris. We found a podcast and learned some French.  Mimi brought home some Anne Frank books. I did little lessons about famous art we would see when we got there.

My friend (and champion) Joanna leant us some backpacks and plenty of pointers. I created a Google doc itinerary with activities and food. We have a plan.

Packing was easy. 6 outfits per person, two pairs of shoes: one for walking, the other for snow walking. Toiletries. Snacks. Two small disposable books each. Walkie talkies. iPads and headphones. Jackets, gloves, hats.  Done.
No diapers! No portable cribs? No bottle supplies? Who's life is this?! Do I even know how to walk without pushing a stroller? Where will I put my drink?

We scheduled Christmas for the night before the babies had to leave/were handed over tearfully. My little family has done our own Christmas at home for a few years. We have specific traditions: Mexican food, Jesus' birthday cake, we act out sing the Twelve Days of Christmas, we do a fairly rambunctious nativity, we get our jammies on and put out cookies, we read 'Twas the Night before Christmas, and we hustle to bed.  This time Santa was not coming and I had bought one sweet present for each kid and they bought a bunch of little things for each other. Grandma and Grandpa also sent some humdinger presents that required me calling in my friends to help put them together. Many thanks Dev and Bobb!

Christmas done, babies gone, stuff packed, it was time to go. 

My world traveler friend Megan picked us up bright and early and whisked us to the airport on Christmas Eve morning.  No lines, hoped on our flight, checked no bags. Flew to Houston. Waited a bit, climbed onboard an international plane (they're always more legit) and plugged ourselves in for a 9 hour screen binge.  We had a whole row to ourselves with two empty seats that we put to good use.
Landed at Schipol, waltzed through customs lugging our packs, grabbed some train tickets and rode the rails to Amsterdam Centraal.

We were here.

We took a good look around and then hightailed it to our hotel for food and sleep.

All hail the six hour nap!

When we woke we uber'd to the central part of town, ate crepes for dinner and then joined all of the people strolling around the streets and alley ways in the most beautiful weather. It's about 50 here which is warm enough to be outside comfortably without hats and gloves.

The streets of Amsterdam leave nothing to the imagination so I was left to explain the cannabis culture and all the sexy stuff in the windows. This is what I told them, "There are two kinds of smoking. One is tobacco and one is marijuana.  People smoke them because it makes them feel good even though it's not healthy.  In Amsterdam marijuana (which is a drug) is legal and people feel generally ok about smoking it or eating it in food. We are taught by our religion not to smoke it and it's especially important not to use it before your brain fully develops at 25, but other people have different ways of living and even if they drink or smoke they are good people just like us."  To which Silas replied, "It smells."

As for all the sexy stuff I explained thusly, "Another thing that is legal in Amsterdam is renting a girlfriend.  You can pay to hang out with ladies in bikinis in little red rooms."  To which Mimi responded, "Oh, so people who can't get a girlfriend do that because they're losers or ugly or something?"  I replied,"Yes. Only losers buy women."

Next stop was a nighttime canal cruise showcasing a special event that's going on here called the Amsterdam Light Festival.  While we were queued up a DJ started a dance party and, as you know, we are joiners.  It was an impromptu party.  Then on the boat (which I can barely talk about because it makes me renauseated) we were packed in and floated around the canals looking at these giant lit up installations.  Unfortunately it was hot and crowded and long and I nearly barfed. At the end we found the outdoor section and could enjoy it a little bit more.

Christmas 2016 Pics:

Then home to our cozy cool hotel call the Volkshotel that you should check out on their website.  I gave them some benedryl so they could try to adjust to the time change and it seems to have worked fine. I'm Celia: dinking around on my phone until everyone wakes up and we can go on some adventures.

2016, Bye Felicia

Tbc

Holiday Halloween

Sometimes my ideas are good ideas. Sometimes my people get right on board.  This Halloween was one of those times.

It started with Jude wanting to be Uncle Sam because he saw some guy dressed in red, white and blue on stilts.  Then Silas wanted to be Santa Claus because he thought it would be hilarious. And so we had a theme.

 

The kid I was most surprised about was Mimi. I thought I'd have to talk her into some kind of beautiful glam Leprechaun or something but nope. She was dead set on being a Thanksgiving Turkey.  When your nine year old silly girl wants to be a turkey you help her make her dreams come true.

 

I let the costume choose the rest of us.  I found a 6-12 month bunny suit and the Easter Bunny materialized.  I found some green striped tights and hat so a Leprechaun worked for me. Lou will not wear anything on her head and is going through a naked phase so she became Cupid.  I love it when things pan out easily.

I love how committed Jude was to Uncle Sam. The giant hat really sold it. He plans to wear this costume for all pro America holidays for the rest of time.

Six year olds are the perfect audience for Santa Claus.  His class loved it. Silas kept all of the pieces of his costume together and had a great time wishing everybody a Merry Christmas.  

You go with what you have.  There were more pieces to her costume but she kept ripping them off. Thankfully Cupid is naked. And thankfully it was really warm that week.

 Babies are best dressed as animals. Philo's first Halloween costume was a sniffly Easter Bunny. Not a bad way to start out.

Of course I had to teach that day so I offered extra points on a quiz if they showed up in costume. 90% of them did!  I was NOT going to be the only one in head to toe costume.  We had the best time and their costumes were so creative.  This gilly suit was rad. 

Lou was able to trick or treat for the first time this year.  She was on board, 100%. I love that she's in the storage phase wherein everything that belongs to her must be carried everywhere in her little arms. This pic also shows her mastering the "Mine" posture.  

Group costumes have to make sense individually too.  I like costumes that you don't have to explain.  I think we nailed it this year!

I'm Fancy

For the first time in known history I went places and did things. ALONE.

It all started when I burst into tears watching the snapchats of my sisters all together at Cam's baby shower.  I cried and cried. Camille was having a baby and I was missing everything.

Camille is the Lou to my Mimi. She is ten years younger than me (15 and having a baby! 😑) and she was my baby.  She slept in my room and I tucked in her pacifier and woke up to her happy little face every morning. Watching Mimi with Lou is like reliving that part of my life and it brings me so much joy.

So how could Mille have her own private baby without me?!

 

The weekend after Camille was to have her baby my mother graciously planned and provided a trip with my sisters to see Shakespeare in Ashland.  I committed six months before the trip. I had pie in the sky dreams of watching Shakespeare again.

But I have five stinkin' kids! I can't leave. And surely not two weekends in a row. I have never left. I've taken no breaks. I haven't been fully alone in years.

But the tickets to the shows were already purchased. One sister had already bailed. I wanted to go, badly. 

Camille only has her first baby once in a lifetime. I couldn't miss it.  

 

Guilt, fear, worry, planning be damned. I needed to go and I knew I'd live in regret if I missed these events. 

So I utilized all my years of people managing and made a plan.

Thankfully I have a solid team. My friends, family, nanny, and Hush covered me. Everybody survived, nay, thrived with a much needed break from each other.  I feel very grateful and proud that everybody did so well without me.  Apparently I am not crucial.

My trips were rad.

First, LA. Mille moved down there a month ago (btw, I call her Mille bc when she was little she deduced that nicknames were just the latter syllables of names). LA is home for me and I have a million memories and friends down there. As I was boarding the plane I got a text: the baby is here! LAME. She had been in labor for over 24 hours and I missed it by two hours. 

But I arrived shortly after and met her sweet perfect baby Lorenzo.

 

The next two days were baby days. Pam and I cleaned her house and got things ready. Of note: she went into labor in the middle of a massive cooking project that included tons of chopped onions and uncooked chicken. Her fridge was bursting at the seams.  We went to and from the hospital and got to hold and snuggle that little guy. He's a beautiful boy. Birth wiped Mille out though.  I was glad I could be there to help with nursing.  They didn't have much in the way of lactation support at that hospital so I did what Paige had done to me when Mimi was born: shoved that boob in the kid's mouth and taught her what a good latch feels like.  They are a successful nursing pair. I was grateful to be useful.

 

Nathan was in LA for his birthday so on Friday night we threw a party for him.  Was great to catch up with my ragtag band of misfits down there. I love those people. 

 

Me and Val

Pam and I drove back to Danville together on Saturday and then on Sunday I was invited to attend the wedding of the century.  Bronwyn and Todd were married at City Hall in SF and it was an epic black tie affair.  The bride had no less than four outfits and looked stunning in every one.  All of my favorite Danville people were there.

Mark, Ellie, me and Nathan who was mistaken for a husband numerous times.

The gorgeous bride.  This woman ages backwards.

 

I rolled into SLC at midnight, spent three days resupplying and bonding with my children and then unloaded them on my dear friends for the next trip.  I'm telling you, it was an intense two weeks.  I was also teaching at SLCC so I had to schedule my classes carefully also.

Off to CA again and then a five hour drive to Ashland, Oregon.  The babies stayed with their dad and he did a wonderful job with them.  The big kids were farmed out each with a different family.  It may have been the best weekend of their lives.

 

Celia, Ellie, Pam, and I saw Twelfth Night, Great Expectations, and a bluegrass production of the Yeoman of the Guard. We ate delicious food, shopped, and chatted.  It was one of the best Ashland trips I've been on, many thanks to Pam for making it happen, Celia for planning the itinerary, and Ellie for driving. 

I was home by late Sunday night and in school by Monday morning.

 

I am so grateful I was challenged by forcing myself to have fun outside of my children.  My identity gets swept up in other people's needs and it was revelatory to be away.  I think we all learned a lot.  But man, I missed my babies and I am glad to be home again.

Mimi and Philo

My scouts

Silas is always the first kid up and ready for school.

LouLou, 2

Jude and his personality mini Me.  Philo 9 months.