back from The Netherlands

This week was our Spring Break. We planned a couple little excursions for our massive family. First, we went to the Playmobil Fun Park in a town called Nurnberg about 2hrs east of us. We had an absolute blast!! The park is filled with life-size playmobil figures and buildings. There is a castle to explore, pirate ship to sail, tree house to climb, jewels to mine, etc etc etc..... Sawyer already has plans for us to go back for his birthday. Some of the pictures I took on our drive over there. I just love the beautiful scenery. Tom, the ausfahrt picture is for you.

Next we took 3 days and headed north to The Netherlands. The first day we went to Amsterdam and saw Anne Frank’s hideout. Very sobering! My girls were old enough to understand what happened and were in awe the entire time we were there. Well, actually Natalie started to come down with a fever as we were leaving and wasn't such a happy camper. There are a lot of museum to see in Amsterdam but, not for a family with 5 young children. Could you see us in the Van Gogh museum, hahahahaha!!?? So we walked and drove around. The boys loved the canals and boats that are all through the town. Soon it was time to head to our hotel about an hour away. Traffic was terrible and it took us twice as long. The unexpected ferry ride made it all worth it (according to Sawyer). We gave Natalie Tylenol and put her to bed. Our hotel was fantastic! It was in a resort community where everyone had their own cottage with a thatched roof. We were very close to the North Sea and miles of beaches.
On to day two. Wake up and head to Keukenhof near the town of Lisse. Flowers, flowers and more flowers!!! The huge flower fields are amazing and I have never seen anything like it. The Keukenhof park is absolutely gorgeous!! The pictures we took do not do it justice! Of course the kiddos favorite part was the rather stinky petting zoo and zip line but, what did I expect, haha!! After several hours at Keukenhof and Lisse we traveled about 30 minutes (no traffic this time) to Den Haag to see Madurodam. Madurodam is a darling miniature village that is actually a memorial to the resistance fighter Lieutenant George Maduro who died in 1945 at Dachau Concentration Camp. What a wonderful place to see. It has working boat lochs, a boat that catches fire and two rescue boats that put it out, a truck that brings you a piece of candy, a rock concert and every historical building and location in Holland all miniaturized. We loved it!! After a day of going and going and going some more we headed back to our hotel via the ferry (much to Mason's dismay, he was sure we were going to sink). On our 3rd and final day in Holland after an hour or so at the North Sea collecting shells we made a quick stop in Schiedam. Schiedam has the 5 largest windmills in the world. There isn't much else to see there but the windmills are magnificent. Plus, you cannot go to Holland and not see as many windmills as you possibly can. Anyways, we had a great time!! Alas, we are home now and time to get back to business.......school, work, laundry (whimper, whimper I hate laundry)