Our trip to Portland & Grace is here! :)

So from the 31st of Aug to the 7th of Sept we had a super uber speedy busy trip to Portland ... I think of the 300+ people at church, we only missed about 35! :O  Insanely tired we were each night ... a few nights I was the first person in bed, before the 6 year olds even!! I didn't take any pictures while we were there since it mostly was visiting people and doing some shopping .. nothing photo worthy really!

After a 5 hour delay at PDX we were finally on our way "home".  I slept a bit on the plane, which was nice, because I sure needed it!!  "Home" ... such a relative word... I sometimes feel like a misplaced lost soul... where do we really call home, Amstelveen or Portland?  It's a strange life we are living now ... but I'm sure it'll get better soon ... we are starting to slowly but surely set down roots and get involved in different activities with church.  Aaron is leading a men's bible study, and I've joined a women's group.

So a mere 5 days after we got back, Grace arrived! I think I had just enough time to get over the bulk of my jet lag, get in some good nights of sleeping and afternoon naps.

Tuesday, the day she arrived, we didn't really do much.  I took her over to Marieke's to get settled, and to meet her hostess, who {as a nurse} had to work the evening shift, so she wouldn't be around in the afternoon.  Grace was feeling quite chipper and didn't want to nap, so we came back to our place and just hung out for the afternoon.  We took a little walk in the afternoon, to keep her awake, and then I fed her an espresso! :)  She got her second wind then!!  LOL

Bullrushes from our walk

Yesterday, Wednesday, I biked over to her, and we attempted to find a bike shop before heading into Amsterdam Centrum, to get some minor adjustments made to the bike that Marieke is loaning her.  We had no luck, so we parked our bikes at a tram stop, and decided to just head into the city and deal with them later!

When we got to Centraal Station, we decided to take one of the boat tours, since the sky was threatening to open up upon us!  It rained a bit on the tour, but nothing major thankfully!  After the boat tour we walked down to Dam Square to see the war monument and the Palace.  The scaffolding is finally off the front, but I didn't take any pictures for some reason ... not sure! Next time!  We continued on from there to the floating flower market.  Grace picked up a few souvenirs and I got a set of three cacti plants, little miniature ones in red, pink and orange.  We then caught the tram back, since we were both starting to feel a little tired!  Thankfully Grace is here for a while, so we don't have to cram 30 things into one day!  We can take our time.

When we got back to our tram stop, and were waiting to cross the road to our bikes, this older gentleman asked Grace about her mittens, if they were hand made or machine made.  He was nice and gave us directions to a bike shop that sadly when we got there had moved, and I couldn't find the new location of!  But he reminded me of the uncle in "Little Orphan Annie".  Bald head, black suit and hat, and dark black sunglasses! We did end up finding another bike shop nearby, and got Grace's bike all sorted out.  The man even gave her a quick lesson on the proper way to start and stop riding your bike in Holland! :)

Today Grace biked here in the morning and we went back into Amsterdam to check out the Albert Cuypstraat Market.  This market is about 3 blocks long, both sides of the street, and has pretty much anything and everything for sale, from clothes to bike parts, to fresh fruits, veggies and fish to jewelry and purses and suitcases.

Now we are sitting at home, relaxing for a bit, then heading off to the grocery store again ... :)  a thrice weekly excursion. :)

Here are my photos from yesterday ... pictures!

To get Grace's perspective and see her pictures, go here!

Tomorrow we're going to check out the market here in Amstelveen and probably take a bike ride, but otherwise no plans have been made.

We are working on plans for Switzerland still, and trying to figure out a car rental too.

Enjoy! :)