Day 6

Kasey- So, I travel a certain way. I really don't want to miss anything, so some days I really pack stuff into the plans. I also like to go to cities just to say I've been there and like to drive off the highway if it means you can get a better feel and appreciation of the place. I still like to relax, though, and I'm usually fine with scrapping some things from the plans. There were a few days in our plans that I knew would be really busy and physically exhausting...this was one of those days. We woke up really early (5:50am) and left from Burgum. We got a tad lost around Leeuwarden trying to find the highway (I didn't have a car most of my mission so that's my excuse as to why we got lost a few times). We really enjoyed driving through the countryside because of how green it was and how pretty it was to see big churches, windmills, canals, flowers, etc.

 We drove to Harlingen which is a city on the sea. We taught some people there in the refugee camp. We drove by there but it's not there anymore. We parked and went up the dike where you can see the water higher up than the land. It's so crazy to stand there and see the ocean on one side of you, and then on the other side a vastly lower land area -- and only a small area that is separating the two!

 

We drove across the Afsluitdijk over to North Holland. After taking a nap a little bit into North Holland we drove up to Den Helder just to see the city (it's at the very top of North Holland). We drove the highway down to Alkmaar and really loved the drive because of all the tulip fields we passed and all the windmills. There are SO many windmills, and big fields of flowers covering the land! We mainly saw yellow and pink. Most of the other flowers hadn't bloomed, yet. 

We then went to Volendam which is closer to Amsterdam and bought some cool matching  Holland jackets. It's funny because we bought the Holland jackets the same place I bought my Amsterdam jacket 6 years ago. We enjoyed the sea walk and going into some shops (it's a pretty touristy place but it's a nice, quaint little town). (Emily: I LOVED Volendam! I know it's a totally touristy place, but everything was so adorable -- the little stores, tulips, little windmills, right next to the water!)

So after Volendam we drove to Haarlem and parked near the station. We walked to the Corrie Ten Boom house and did a tour in Dutch. Emmy just finished the Hiding Place (a very inspiring book) so it was cool for her to see it.

After Haarlem we took the train over to Amsterdam. I never served in A'dam but I like going there because it's older and I think it's pretty with all the canals, it's kind of like Venice.

 
Some of our plans got changed around in A'dam, but we went to a few outdoor markets and Emmy got to try her first stroop waffel (which was delicious!). We ate at a Surinaams restaurant with a Groupon. That was pretty good. We walked around the city and saw the Rijksmuseum, the Dam square, the Anne Frank House, and stopped to see some sights that Ocean's 12 was filmed at, namely the coffee shop and the hotel.

 Our camera wasn't working the second half of the day so we didn't get a ton of pictures. So in Europe the bathrooms aren't free to use. I've never liked that because really they aren't that much cleaner that public bathrooms in the U.S. I can still say that I've never had to pay to use the bathroom. I know it's not that cool, but I went 17 hours on this day without using the bathroom. I could have gone longer but I wanted to go to bed. After Amsterdam, we went back to Haarlem, back to our car and drove down to Den Haag. Gosh I love Den Haag. When I was in Holland, everyone wanted to serve there...I was ecstatic when I heard I was transferred there. It had been a really tiring day thusfar when we got in. We heard about this site- airbnb.com that was a bed and breakfast from normal people who volunteer a room in their house for a good price. We communicated with the people we were staying with a few weeks before our trip and they said we could park at their church. So we parked our car there and left it there for 2 days. It took us about an hour to walk to their place. It was a pretty chilly day so by the end of the day we were both cold and tired...it was so good to sleep in a nice bed! Before we went to sleep we visited with Hans and Karen, the couple we stayed with. They were really cool and had a really nice apartment right in the Centrum of the city. They spoke English very well and they honestly bent over backwards to make sure that we were comfortable and they were just the nicest people. We really enjoyed visiting with them. We finally crashed on the most comfortable bed ever around 11:30. (This picture is the day we left this bed and breakfast so that is why the bed isn't made.)
 

 
*Note: If you see any exclamation points in there, that's where Emmy added comments.

Day 5

Emily - So, we slept in a little, then drove to Heerenveen and parked by Kasey's old apartment building. We walked through the Centrum and some shopping areas and finally rented some bikes around noon. Then we biked to a windmill in the middle of the city and then we rode to Joure.

  The entire day we broke out singing "The Best Two Years". Kasey told a lot of jokes that he heard on his mission and we just kind of enjoyed the scenery. The country side really is so beautiful. We couldn't quite capture it with the camera, but I really just fell in love all over again with Holland on this day. It was kind of a misty and warm day, and just beautiful.

Once we got to Joure we took a little break on a bench next to a ditch, ate some delicious chocolate (pretty much the entire box...) then biked to Herrenveen. We then biked around the south part of the city. Then we went to Oranjewoud, which was a forest area. It was beautiful!!!! (Yes, it really does deserve that many exclamation points.) Even the forest area looks manicured and majestic.

  We then took another break and Kasey read some histories of some of the cities while I read The Hiding Place. I was getting close to finishing it so that the next day when we'd visit the Corrie Ten Boom house, I would know the history behind the house. 

 
We then biked to the station, and then to visit Heltji and her beautiful kids. It was a very nice visit!

 Next was to Jan and Anje's house but they were not home so Kasey left a message for them. Finally, we took the bikes back to the shop. (We also took a picture at the exact place Kasey took his famous bike picture.)
 

 We met up with the missionaries as we were walking back to the car. Kasey was able to encourage them to visit some of the people there, which was really good. Then we drove back Burgum and talked a little bit with Ferrai and then relaxed and read. We finally called it a night around 11:30.

We laughed that this day we biked by the bridge next to Kasey's old apartment 4 times and drove by 4 times. We got to know the city really well. This probably was my very favorite day because we got to bike a TON, and since there are no hills in Holland, it made it very easy.

Day 4

 Kasey- We woke in Arnhem at Zr. Lambooij's around 9:30 and got read to leave. I made breakfast with Zr. Lambooij and some lunch that we ended up forgetting. :( For breakfast we had bread and cheese which is a pretty good traditional Dutch breakfast. So we said good-bye to Zr. Lambooij and her dog, Lijke. We drove through Oosterbeek which is a beautiful little hilly town that has some WWII history. Arnhem is the only city I served in where we actually had some hills. All my other cities were flat as can be. We drove through Daventer and then through the countryside up to the Drenthe Province. We drove around Assen which was my greenie city. I haven't been back to Assen since I was a greenie and I was only there 6 weeks so I didn't remember it too well. We went to my apartment, took a picture, and I showed Emmy this little area next to my apartment that has farm animals. I remember the roosters always crowing in the morning. There were some sheep that started charging up to us, good thing there was a fence. I think they were hungry because they came pretty close to us and pretty fast.

We drove to Friesland through the countryside and went to Leeuwarden. I knew Emmy wouldn't like Leeuwarden as much as my other cities because it has a big city feel, even though it isn't that big. I was really excited to go back there because Friesland meant a lot to me. In the MTC, one of my teachers was telling me about Friesland because he served there. I remember feeling that I was going to serve there. I was in Friesland for about 10 months between 2 cities--Leeuwarden and Heerenveen. The language, Fries, is spoken in a lot of homes, especially out in the country. It's interesting because there is a Friesland in Germany and Denmark as well. Anyway, so after parking we bought a lot of chocolate and walked to the Centrum where we did some tie-shopping. I found a few at the Wibra store. We also bought a cheap watch for Emmy. I forgot to bring the watch I bought from back home for this trip. We also found a store named after Emmy.

We walked to the Church and the train station. In each of the cities I served in I wanted to see the Church, the station, and my apartment because we spent a lot of time at each of those places. So we went to those places, then walked down a canal, and then back to the Centrum where we ate at a Greek restaurant. Groupon is pretty big in Europe so I bought some Groupons that we used over there. It works a little differently, though. They don't let you order from the normal menu usually which kind of bothered me. Our meal at the Greek restaurant was amazing. It was all you can eat so we tried lots of different foods - different yogurt concoctions, salads, lamb, green olives dishes -- lots of good things to try. They put a glass of liquid in front of us. We weren't sure what it was. Emmy tried it out and she had no idea what it was so we joked that Emmy tried wine and that she got a little tipsy from it.

After stuffing ourselves full we walked to my apartment and then to the car. We went and visited an older investigator, Roseanne, and then somebody I found who got baptized later on, Roland. We were actually having a hard time finding his place and then some kids asked if we needed help and they took us to Roland's place. It was pretty late so we just visited a little but it was really good to see Roland and his family. There are some people from my mission I think about a lot and Roland is one of them. He speaks great English which is another reason I wanted Emmy to meet him, because she could actually talk with him.

 After that we drove to Faria's in Burgum, a small town outside of Leeuwarden, and visited for a little bit with him and then went to sleep. Faria is an old investigator we taught, and he is from Angola but speaks really good English and Dutch. It was a very fun and beautiful day.

Day 3

March 26th

Emmy- We had breakfast with Bro. Stewart. We had some toast with sliced cheese on it. It was really good. We said goodbye and then went and drove by Kasey’s apartment from when he was a missionary. Then we visited the church and the station. I really enjoyed seeing all the flowers along the roads. Lots of random art! (Like a huge bowling ball statue). We also passed by a random Michael Jackson statue at a McDonalds.







We went to Vucht, the concentration camp that Corrie ten Boom stayed at briefly. It was closed but we just kind of walked around it a little bit. EVERYTHING is closed on Mondays. Haha, so funny! We then went to Den Bosch. Very pretty city!



We had a really hard time finding a bathroom! Finally went to McDonalds. Yay for free bathrooms! We went to inside a cathedral. It had 25 angels on top, and when they were updating it they added a new one with jeans and a cell phone with only one dial – God. We then went in a mall complex and got some strawberry vla. Loved it so much!



We walked around for a little bit longer and then on our way back got a Doner Kebab, a Turkish pizza, and a Bosche bol (which is like an éclair, only better- it’s round, cream filled with a chocolate covering). I definitely liked the Bosche bol. Off and on we’d snack on the vla, just drinking it straight from the carton.





We drove through Nijmegen to Arnhem where I served- we first went to the Church and then stopped by Fam. Veldt, a family I taught. It was a good visit, I’m definitely glad we stopped by. I didn’t think they would remember me because I was only there for 6 weeks. But yeah, they remembered me and welcomed us in. Bo, the mom, has been battling cancer for the past 5 years. She did chemotherapy a year ago and decided to pull the plug because of how much pain she’s in and it just isn’t getting better. It was a very difficult decision for her. They had a visit from a priest the day before who told her she was going to hell. She asked me what I thought and what our church believes. I told her that it’s impossible to judge and that it was really something between her and God. I read some scriptures with her and bore my testimony. It was neat being with them. She pulled the plug April 5th so we came just in time to say goodbye. After seeing the Veldts we stopped by old apartment and then stopped by Willy, someone I taught and got baptized later. His health isn’t doing well but he’s doing great going to Church, serving in his calling as YM advisor.



After, we went to Zuster Lambooij’s where we stayed the night. I baptized her a few days before coming home from my mission. She made us Surinaams food which I really like. It has an interesting spice that I’ve only had with Surinaams food. We Skyped with my parents- it was a relief to see Jimmer and to hear that he was doing great. It was also fun that Jimmer recognized us with a little smirk on his face. After visiting with Zr. Lambooij and doing the dishes we went upstairs to the attic, read some and crashed.

Europe Trip: Days 1 and 2

So our Europe trip actually began a week before we actually left for Europe. We left Saturday March 17th for Iowa. It wasn't a bad drive, though there were a few times when Jimmer just wasn't having it. The kid used to love being in his car seat but not when he's there for 14 straight hours. We had a really fun week in CB visiting with family and friends and showing off our little Jimmer. He really loved my parents' dog, Rusty. We have a few videos of Jimmer with Rusty but he would just laugh and laugh at Rusty running everywhere. Being in CB also meant eating lots of Papa Murphy's, which we did. Kayla bought tickets for the midnight showing of Hunger Games for Emmy and her. On the drive to Iowa Emmy read like two-thirds of the book to me and then I finished it after a few days in Iowa so I went and saw it, too. I really liked the movie. I liked it so much that I read the second book the day after, only to be disappointed. I just had Emmy tell me what happens in the third book because I already knew I wouldn't like it. Emmy struggled the week leading up to leaving because we would be leaving Jimmer. Probably the longest Emmy had been away from him the past year was like 3 hours. It was really hard for her. It was hard for me, too, but I was also pretty excited about going to Europe. We felt good about the trip, and I gave her a Priesthood blessing which helped a lot.

So this all leads us to Saturday March 24th. Our flight left at 11 am. It was a rough morning of trying to do last minute things of making sure everything was good with Jimmer and making sure we were packed. We forgot a few things like a watch but nothing too big...we were pretty prepared for the trip. I'm kind of OCD when it comes to certain things and this trip definitely brought that out. I was so prepared with the trip planning. I had tons of things to do and see, I bought several Groupons for places to eat at, I looked up some French and German words that I know would help out, I knew where the cheapest gas stations were, I had twice been over our driving routes street by street. I printed out the wikipedia histories of everything we would see and visit from the Atlantik wall to the Battle of Verdun. I don't like to miss things so I did a lot of research to make sure we caught everything along the way. My kids are really going to hate traveling with me someday. Anyway, so we had everything packed, we had jackets and umbrellas for rainy weather as well as a bike lock for when we would rent bikes. My backpack was full of the Europe histories, maps, important addresses, and schedule for the two weeks. I had kind of hid everything from Emmy leading up to this but sitting in the airport I showed her the HUGE stack of papers I brought and she just laughed. The airport--so it was a rough drive to the airport. Me and Emmy both sat in the back with Jimmer and video taped and took pictures of him to watch when we were in Europe. In the airport I lost it and so did Emmy. It was really hard on both of us. It was tough for Emmy because that was the only thing she thought of in the weeks leading up to the trip, it didn't hit me how hard it would be to leave Jimmer until the few hours before our flight. In the airport after we said goodbye to Jimmer we both had to just walk to a corner, pretend to look at a picture and just cry. I don't think I want to ever go through that again. It's pretty rough just writing about it. So we flew to Chicago, walked around the airport playing a game of walking up to a gate, and one of us would guess where the people there were flying to. Emmy got pretty good at the game.

We landed in Brussels at 10 am on Sunday March 25th. I had a really hard time sleeping on the plane which was weird cause I'm usually pretty good at that. It was really exciting being in the airport and just realizing we're in Europe. We made sure to go to the bathroom knowing full well it could be one of the last free bathrooms we come across. We got our backpacks and hopped on a train to the Brussels centrum/center area. It was Emmy's first time on a real train (I don't think the Heber Creepe counts). She though it was was pretty fast and she loved hearing the conductor's Flemish. So this next part I'm borrowing from Emmy's journal...she really likes exclamation points:





The Brussels Centrum was really pretty! It was voted the prettiest plaza/market in Europe in 2010. I can totally see it! I loved it. We were both feeling pretty good at this point! I slept pretty solidly on the airplane, so I was feeling pretty good. We then went to the little Maneke Pis statue. Haha, oh man, there is just something so weird about this one. There are a LOT of stories about how the little dude came to be, but the one that they tell tourists the most is how a Father lost his son, and if he was found, he would create a statue of the boy doing exactly what he was doing when he was found. I guess the statue now has like 200 outfits, so he was dressed up when we saw him. Lots of people weere taking pictures of him. Then we took the train back to the airport, got our little Opel car, and then drove to Antwerpen.
Kasey comments: So I did the math and it was cheaper for us to rent a car for two weeks instead of doing the public transportation route. In the end it probably was like $100 more but we were able to do so much more because we had a car. I wanted to make sure Emmy would experience Europe and my mission the way I did so we did plenty of trains, busses, and trams still. It was fun driving a stick again. The biggest thing that I didn't plan for was how lousy Europe is at telling you the street and highway names which pretty much made the directions I made out obsolete. We were able to do fine, though, only a few times did we get "kind of lost," but really it wasn't bad at all.



Emmy- We ended up getting lost for a little bit, but we eventually found parking. We saw Het Steen, which was the first fortress in Antwerpen. Right next to it was the meat house museum, and the cathedral. We then went to the market /plaza, and then found a hidden Medieval street. It was cool because nobody was in there, but it was a really small, thin, and long pretty street. We went to the Central Station which is a really cool, old station. It was so cool to go in. Very grand looking. Everything is so majestic and detailed. They had some disturbing display of Mummies in there, though! We then went to the diamond district. It is HUGE!!! SO many diamonds. I don’t know how they can possibly do well when there are so many!







We then walked back to the car and then got stuck in a traffic jam on our way to see Harry in Maarheeze. Once we got there, oh man! BEAUTIFUL! I feel like this was my first taste of what Holland was really like. Everything is maticulate and manicured. I loved that everyone seems to take such good care of things. All the brick homes with that Dutch style was just so adorable! I LOVED it!!! We saw Harry and he is so wonderful! Kasey and he had a good time talking Dutch and he fed us some raisin bread with sugar in it and some drink that tastes like Kool-aid only it came out like syrup. I found out there that bathrooms are TINY over there! As we were saying goodbye someone else that served a mission in Holland came over. Harry is definitely a popular guy with the missionaries! We then drove to Eindhoven and met up with the Van Gils, a family Kasey taught. They are just the warmest people ever! I loved talking with them! They were so gracious and kind and fed as reaaaallly well.: Mushroom soup, spaghetti, fruit, yogurt, and fried little bread balls. We really enjoyed talking with them and then as we were leaving Sis. Van Gils gave me a necklace. It was beautiful and extremely thoughtful. We finally drove to Bro. Stewart’s home. Kasey and I were able to meet his wife. They were very fun to talk with. He was from Ireland so it’s always fun to hear the Irish accent! He is a musician so he played us some of his music. After visiting for a bit, they let us crash upstairs. The showers there are also crazy. It’s just a spout and then the floor. So water gets all over the floor. Very strange! By far that was the best night sleep we ever got. We were exhausted!!!
Kasey comments: Emmy really loves manicured, man-made beauty. This is why I knew she would love the Netherlands. It is WAY different than the rest of Europe. Some parts of Germany remind me of the Netherlands but for the most part it's so different in terms of neatness and organization. I really wanted to take her in the Spring because the flowers are in so bloom. We were not disappointed, there were a ton of flowers all over the place.

My Almost One Year Old

I can't believe it! Jimmer turns one year old this week! I have to admit, I really wish he'd stop growing! He is growing up way too fast. This past year, hands down, has been the most rewarding and wonderful year of my life. I have my little Jimmer man to thank for that. So, to commemorate this glorious occasion, we did a little photo shoot! I got this idea from here and I love it! Anyway, here are a couple of shots:

 

It really took some coaxing on our part to get Jimmer to dig in! All he wanted to do was take a tiny little bit off and examine it. Haha, his Daddy was more than willing to show him how it was done. :)