Europe - Mt. St. Michel

After Monet's Garden, we headed West towards the Coast to visit Mont Saint Michel in Normandy. This location is amazing as it it an island during high tide and connected to the mainland by a small bridge during low tide. The tides here are among the greatest in France, with a swing of up to 14m between the high and low water marks. The first monastic establishment began construction in the 8th century. The age of the beautiful sites we visited while in Europe is difficult to grasp.

Despite the fog, the site was still impressive, especially under the lights at night. The facility is still home to monks and nuns. Because we were there on a Sunday, we were fortunate enough to catch part of Mass. The singing was beautiful. The kids were mesmerized - Ellie stretching to see where the "beautiful singing was coming from." The kids also enjoyed climbing up to the top of the monastery, 250 above sea level.

The gothic architecture throughout is beautiful. The thought and planning that went into the planning are astounding. For example, half way up, you encounter a 'cloister garden', a place where monks could meditate. While our kids didn't meditate there, they did have fun playing.

Our next stop is Normandy and WWII memorials before heading off to Paris for a few days.

Europe - Giverny France and Monet's Garden

On Sunday, we left safe confines of the Robinson abode to strike out on our own. We were headed from Brussels to Normandy, France. But first, a stop at Claude Monet's home in Giverny, France.

Monet's home has two beautiful gardens, much of which is recognizable from his paintings. While it is a little out of the way, the trip was worth it.

The kids had a nice time running around, stretching their legs and even looking at the paintings. Looking at the gardens, it is easy to see where Monet receive his inspiration for classics such the water lillies paintings.

Europe - German Castles

Next stop on the tour was a visit to Germany. We took a train from Amsterdam to Koeln (Cologne), where we visited the main attraction, its Gothic Cathedral. To say we were impressed is an undestatement. Started in 1248, it was not completed until 1880, and houses the golden shrine of the three magi (remains of the 3 wise men).

After Cologne, we hopped in the Robinson's car for a trip to Burg Rheinfel in St. Goar Germany. After touring the castle ruins, we took a ferry down the Rhein to see numerous other castles. The Kohn-Dusseldolf ferry was a wonderful way to travel. The adults relaxed on the deck, enjoying the sun and drinking German beer as the kids played on the slide.

After an all too short ride, we talked the kids into getting off in a small, picturesque German town right out of a story book. We walked around for a short while before jumping on a train back to the cars. Last stop for the evening was a to Moselkurn. The next day morning, we hiked to Burg Eltz, which is one of the best preserved castles in all of Europe. Construction started in 1157, it has been in the Eltz family since. It is still occupied by the decendents of the original owners. It looks like something right out of the sound of music.

I-am-ersterdam

After visiting the gardens, we continued up to Amsterdam. Highlights included visitin Van Gogh Museum & the Ann Frank House, both of which made good impression on the kids.

Amsterdam is a wonderful city, with great night life, lots to do and very easy to get around in. That is if you keep an eye out for all the bikes. Everyone uses bikes here, to work, for play, taking kids around, all walks of life. At the train station, inside of a park and ride, there was a park your bike garage, two stories tall.

Tyler really enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum, especially the famous Sun Flower paintings, which he studied in his art class.

Both kids seem to get a lot out of the Anne Frank House, which is extremely well done and kid appropriate. Very moving - I highly recommend it.

More Keukenhof - this time with People

Figured I better show some pictures with us actually in them, or you might not believe we were there. First up, a shot of my beautiful bride and I. That is followed by our wonderfully photo-genic kids, then finally a rare family shot. We were really, really lucky to hit the gardens at the right time. Unlike the US, Europe has had an unusually warm spring.

Europe - keukenhof

Don't really have any good words to describe how beautiful the gardens at Keukenhof are, so I will just post some pictures.

Europe - Brugges

We spent our second day in Europe visiting the historical Belgium city of Brugge (or Brugges if you are Dutch). The architecture of Brugges provides yet another example of classic European beauty. We stayed busy shopping, riding a boat on the canal, climbing 366 steps up the clock tower, and seeing one of the few Michelangelo statues outside of Italy - the Madonna.

Our first activity was hopping on one of the many boats along the canal that winds through the heart of Brugges - a great way to see the city. Plus great fun for the kids.

After the ride, we decided to visit Our Lady Church. The architecture inside the church is impressive, but what makes the visit a must see is that it houses one of the few Michelangelo's outside of Italy. It is worth the visit.

Our final stop of the day was up the Brugge Clock Tower. For a few Euros, we had the priviledge of climbing 366, narrow, twisting steps up to the top of the bell tower. It was pretty challenging to navigate, with people climbing both up and down. Dave had the extra challenge of carrying Ellie the whole way.

Europe - Brussels

We have been in Europe for 5 incredible days. I can't believe all the things we have seen so far. There is no way this trip would have been possible without the help of our friends, the Robinson's and Cliatt's. We can't thank you enough.

After an overnight flight from DC, we arrived early Saturday morning in Brussels. After dropping our luggage off, the Robinson's whisked us off to see Brussels, determined to keep us awake the first day and make the time adjustment as easy as possible. Thanks to a busy schedule, lots of coffee for Dave, and playtime for the kids, it worked perfectly. Hope we are half as lucky on the way back.

Our first visit was to historic Grand'Place in downtown Brussels, also known as Market Square. To say we were impressed is an understatement. This is our first trip to Europe, and the architecture is incredible. We strolled around hitting all the tourist highlights, including the famed Manneken Pis.

After seeing the sites, we looked for a good place to have lunch. Dave and Melissa had the mandatory "mussles in Brussels" and some very good local beer. I don't know if I will be able to go back to American beer after this.

Lunch was followed by more walking around, then an early night. The kids settled in great, Ty sharing a room with Will and Ellie sleeping in Emily's room. In all, we couldn't have asked for a better first day! Tomorrow it is off to see Brugges (or Brugge, depending on which part of Belgium you are from).

Easter Eggs, Dancing and Soccer - Must be Spring

I wanted to post one more update before we head out on vacation. That's right, I said the "v" words, but more on that later.

First, an update on the kids' activities. Saturday was the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. The day started out nice, but quickly cooled off as the wind picked up. At least the rain held off. Ellie and Ty both had lots of fun grabbing as many eggs as they could. Ellie particularly liked the purple and pink eggs. Melissa behaved herself this year by not taking any eggs for herself.

Ellie is almost finished with her dance class. We have a recital in a couple of weeks where she will show off what she has learned. If you click on the picture to the left, you can see a little tap routine.

Tyler has finished basketball and is on to soccer and baseball. Dave "volunteered" to coach Ty's baseball team. By default, Melissa is "Team Mom" and has been taking care of the administrative side of things - lots of phone calls and emails. Games don't start until May, so for now, it is more soccer. He definitely stays active, and loves it!

Okay, back to the vacation comment. We are going to Europe for a couple of weeks to visit friends in Brussels and Paris. It is something the whole family is really looking forward to - now that we ALL have our passports. A warning to anyone else considering international travel (including Canada and Mexico) - plan WAY ahead!!! The State Department is inundated with passport applications and it is taking several weeks to even get your application into the system to be tracked.

Our good friends from back East, the Robinson clan, have kindly opened up their house as home base, Kirsten has put together an AWESOME itinerary which includes trips to Amsterdam, Brugges, Luxemburg, Normandy and of course Brussels. If we're lucky, our trip to Keukenhoff Gardens in Amsterdam will coincide with the blooming of the tulips. We are then off to visit former neighbors, who are on assignment in Paris, for a couple of days. Dave will have his laptop, so we will try to make a few posts while we out of town.

March Update

Finally getting around to posting a few more pictures of the kids. First couple are from Tyler's basketball games. It was amazing to see how well all the kids on the team progressed during the season. In his last game, Tyler grabbed several rebounds, then turned around and started a fast break. (see first picture). Notice Tyler's imitation of Michael Jordan's tongue thing. Apparently it runs in the men's side of Melissa's family.

After leading a fast break, sometimes Tyler would pass, sometimes he would keep it himself and shoot. It was great to see his confidence grow. He worked hard, practices often and it really started to payoff. Hopefully he will take after his Uncle Todd, who was pretty good left handed ball player as well.





The last two pictures are from Ellie's dance class. Ellie still loves dancing. She often practices her dance moves around the house. In the picture below, you can see her working on her moves with her instructor.

If you click on the photo, or here, you get a special treat - a short video of Ellie dance in her tap shoes. The file is a bit large (16 MB), so it may take a little while to load.

Hoop Dreams (or white man can't jump)

Basketball - it is the the latest sport Tyler has decided to try. One of Melissa's friends recommended a great program for kids called "Upward Bound". The program focuses on fundamentals, sportsmanship, and competitiveness. The whole thing is done really well, including nice jersey's and shorts, intros with music and smoke machine, and even cheerleaders (which distracts Tyler at times).

Each week, Ty has one practice and one game. Melissa and I have been spending some time at the gym with him working on the basics as well. Ty does well in practices, and does very good job of listening to coaches. But come game time, he gets so excited he something forgets what he has learned. His enthusiasm has been fun to watch. It reminds me of what we forget too often - that sports, especially kids' sports, are about learning and having fun.

Ty loves to practice, and Melissa has been working with him at our gym whenever she can. Dave even made it one day this week. Melissa, Ellie and Tyler all ganged up on Dave for a scrimage. Anyone that has seen Dave play basketball knows how unfair that is....for him.

This week was probably the first week we have seen Ty put it all together. He played good defense (making a couple of steals), dribbled and passed well, and even took a couple of shots. Of course, Melissa is taking credit for all the extra practice time she has put in with Ty.

Ellie's Dance Class

Okay, I am finally getting around to posting about Ellie's Dance class. Sorry this has taken me so long. My only excuse is that it took a while to learn how to edit movies files from Melissa's camera. The camera saves movies in Apple's *.mov format, and our home computer prefers Windows *wmv or *.avi format. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates don't play very nice together. Anyway, you aren't here for my complaining.

Before you look at the videos & pictures, I should explain why they look the way they do. The parents have to sit outside the classroom, watching through a large window that has open blinds on it. Those hozizontal lines you see aren't my fingers, it' s the blinds. You can pick out Ellie is by her black leotard.

To see the first video, click here or on the picture. As Ellie dances across the floor, she looks out the window and sees Mommy and Tyler. So what does she do? Click to see.

To view the second video, click here or on the picture of Ellie in her ballerina pose . It is great fun to watch her in class. She listens so attentively to what the teaching is saying. I wish she would listen to us half as well! Every Friday, she is so excited for dance class that she gets dress in her leotard as soon as she is done with breakfast. Of course, her dance class doesn't start until noon !!

The last video shows how enthusiastic she is. The girls are asked to spin around. To see what happens to Ellie when she spins too much, click here or on the last picture below.

Christmas 2006 in KC

This is the first year we celebrated Christmas in Kansas City. Even though we haven't celebrated the holidays here before, we found that most of our same traditions worked just as well here as anywhere else. As you can see, we had lots of help wrapping presents from Santa's little elves.

Another tradition our elves like to help with is making Christmas cookies, especially with Pop Pop. Aspen made sure to keep an eye on the cookies while they were baking. That is our new stove she is staring at - Dave's Christmas present to Melissa. Okay, okay, Dave didn't really buy the stove for Melissa. Our stove died on Dec 22nd, with family coming to visit the next day! Thank-you Lowes for delivering so close to Christmas.

Anyway, back to the cookies. Melissa and Dave enjoyed a nice dinner out while the kids frosted cookies with Grandma and Pop Pop. At least we think they managed to frost cookies instead of frosting each other. All we know for sure is both the kitchen and the kids were clean when we got home. I wonder if Aspen got to 'help' clean up as a reward for watching the cookies? Oh well, at least the cookies tasted great. Sorry, no pictures of the cookies, we ate them all ;)



As you can tell, Santa was very generous this year, especially to the kids. Ty got lots of Legos, erector sets, sports stuff and a new fish tank. Ellie received a new baby doll and lots of princess stuff. Her favorite gift may have been the new 'big-girl' bed from Santa. For those of you who don't know, we don't raise good sleepers. Ellie has been spending lots of time in our bed. So we made a big deal out of asking Santa for a new bed. And guess who has been sleeping in it on her own most nights? Christmas really is a time for miracles.

I hope to upload a picture of Ellie's new bed shortly. Her room looks great - no longer a nursery, definitely a girls room. I should also have pictures of Ellie's dance class and Ty's basketball games up in the next few weeks.

Snow Day!!!!

As you might have heard, our recent run of great weather came to an crashing halt. First with a ice storm, then two days of snow. We received about a foot of snow, causing the schools to close for two days. Melissa bundled the kids up and headed over to the local hill for some sledding. Click on any of the pictures below for some video highlights.


Video 1 - Ellie Sledding (click here or on picture)


Video 2 - Tyler Sledding (click here or on picture)


Video 3 - Ty pulling Ellie (click here or on picture)