Cleveland

So I'm officially a month behind on the blog, and just so you know, it's probably not going to get caught up anytime soon. We in the middle of selling most of our Swiss furnishings and getting ready for our move to Zurich for the month of December. Then we have only one more "easy" move to NY in Jan. :)

So, we left off in the month of October sending Andy off to Switzerland while Mom and Dad Huisman graciously drove ~7 hrs to transport Carsten and I to Cleveland, OH, where we got to spend 2 nights with Jed, Lisa, Linnea, and Julia. Here's a photo of Carsten sporting the new headphones and DVD player (he's watching "Bob the Builder" of course):

He only left the headphones on for a few minutes. Oh well, we all got to enjoy Bob.

Even though we were really only there for one full day, we managed to fit a lot in :). We first went to Mom and Dad's hotel where we all swam in the warmest pool ever. Seriously. The kids and adults all enjoyed it quite a bit :). Here's a few photos:

Carsten and Julia

Group shot #1. Poor Julia :).

Group shot #2. Much better :).

We then had lunch and naps back at the Koops' residence. After naps we loaded everyone up and went to a nearby farm/orchard that had tons of play equipment, food (free apples!), and overall just a lot of things to do :). We were lucky that it was a pretty nice afternoon so we stayed for a couple of hours. Carsten loved seeing all the tractors, and he also enjoyed following Linnea around. I think his favorite thing was the covered sandbox that had all sorts of tractors in it to play with. Julia's favorite thing was to eat the sand in the sandbox :). Here's a bunch of photos:

Tractor ride to the family fun area.

There were so many tractors for Carsten to 'drive'!!

He was a bit distraught that this hay was on the ground instead of in the hay bales. He tried to fix it. :)

Yet another tractor to drive. :)

'Hang on Grandpa!!'

They had push-carts. Go Grandpa!

The amazing sandbox with tractors.

This little cutie is a sand eater. 

Our best shot of all three kids at the farm. I believe Julia actually got a little stuck in this :).

We then went home and ordered Chinese take out (yay!!) for supper. We all slept, got up, packed, and then rolled out for our grand finally of playing at a terrific park in Cleveland. The weather pretty good, and since it was Sunday morning, we had the park to ourselves :). The kids had a fun time playing, and it was nice to have Carsten get some energy out before we set out for the 5-6 hr drive to Holland. Here's a few photos:

The sandbox is always a hit for Carsten. Especially when it has a 'BIG digger!'.

Swings are also fun! 

fun teeter totter for all the kids!

Fun teeter totter for all the kids plus ME!

A group photo at the cute little train.

Thanks for a lovely weekend Jed, Lisa, Linnea, and Julia! We loved spending time in Cleveland and look forward to more soon :). We said our goodbyes and then got on the road. Here's a few photos of Carsten on the trip:

He only really slept for about 30 min. We need to figure out how to get longer naps in the car for our road trips. Any suggestions?

He enjoyed his quiet book from Grandma Bonnie!

We got into Holland and quickly unpacked. Then we headed right out the door to Jeff and Amanda's house for a yummy dinner. The kids had a good time playing together :).

The boys looking out the window.

What a fun weekend! AND we got to see the whole Huisman side in ONE day (minus Andy :( ).