Brugge, Belgium

 We have been to Brugge once before, but it was a place worth visiting twice (and it is only about 4 hours away).  Never warm (during our visits), but amazingly beautiful.  We went here for our Thanksgiving break.  It is small enough to be wandered through for a day or two and charming enough to end up with 300 pictures.  It looks like a fairy tale city, and sort of is because of all the delicious chocolate shops found there.

Any place that has swans instantly becomes a Jag Favorite.  He is such a bird boy.

Davis looks tortured. Funny boy.

Waffle truck

Lane with his little brat.

Waffles for lunch. 

Thanksgiving and a Velvet Cave

*I'm going to try to catch up with my posts!  Holidays, Travels, Guests, and an issue with the computer have put me a bit behind.  However, these are times worth posting about.

We always travel at Thanksgiving.  Living outside of the US means that Thanksgiving is really just known as Thursday.  Nothing is closed, nothing is different, but schools and work are out.  We like to take advantage of our available time.  However, we love Thanksgiving gathering and food.  Davis would cry if he didn't have the opportunity to get himself just sick with food.  So we always have dinner before we leave.  This time it was on a Sunday.  I really haven't had to balance cooking all the food and still going to church for 4+ hours on the same day.  Took some extra planning and advanced cooking.  If I'm going to cook, I'd like to have people around to eat.  This year the Fawcett folks decided to stop their European travels and visit for a bit.  They had been in Europe for 3 weeks before we saw them, and we were thrilled when they finally got to our house.  For years Lane has been "threatening" to come to Thanksgiving dinner at our house, it was nice to finally have him.  It was really, really nice that I didn't have to carve the turkey! (Darin won't touch the meat)

We also had the missionaries over and a single guy from the Branch.  It was a nice dinner.  On a side note, 2013 will go down as the year that I fell in love with sweet potatoes, I never liked them before.  Guess I'm growing up.   I love them seamed with butter and salt, but this year I learned to love them candied with coconut as well. 

I love the boys and their action shots.

Elder and Sister Smith from Rexburg, Idaho

Elder Givens from Virginia and Elder Palmer from Orderville, UT.  Dan Patterson.

On Thanksgiving Day we were in the Netherlands.  We went to a Christmas market in the Velvet Caves (sandy walls make them feel soft).  I'd heard many people rave about this market and it was on our way to Brugge, so we had to stop.  It was early so it was not crowded or else the cave would have been terrible.  The paths are sometimes narrow and they go on for quite some time.  I think that we were in the caves for an hour and a half.   The caves were cool with all the "paintings" on the cave walls.  It was warmer than it was outside and that was nice, but the market wasn't fabulous.  Who wants to buy sheet sets or aloe lotion at a cave Christmas market?  I wanted traditional handcrafted trinkets and yummy food.  I don't know what all the praise was about. 

Found a Santa giving out shaped marshmallows.  He told Jag to hold the bell and pose for the picture.  All the Dutch speak amazing English!  Another reason to love the Netherlands/Holland.

Neat "paintings."  I don't know what it is painted with, kind of looks like ash to me.

Finally After 18 years!

November 1st was our 18th wedding anniversary and for the first time we went away BY OURSELVES!  With young kids and always living away from family we've never felt really comfortable going away.  Darin has counted our 3rd anniversary trip to Hawaii, before kids, as every anniversary since.  He says it counts because it was such a good trip.  It was good, but we'd gotten such a good deal it turned into a whole family trip.  All of the Fawcett's went on our anniversary trip.  Best of all, one of Darin's good buddies used a buddy pass for the airlines and flew over for the trip as well.  He stayed on the extra bed IN OUR ROOM.  I really do think that Hawaii is awesome, but honestly to count that as an anniversary trip for 15 years is kind of a stretch even for the cheapskate. 

 

Last year we took a step in the right direction and took a trip to Luxembourg for the day, while leaving Davis to watch the kids.  It was great!  This was even better.  We have some friends in our Branch, the Burke's, and the kids love them...better than me most of the time.  So they offered and we jumped at the chance to go somewhere by ourselves. 

 

Cochem is only about 2 hours away on the Mosel River.  We have wanted to check it out, but it is a little long for a day trip only.  Fall is beautiful in Germany, so the drive was about as amazing as you can get.  We visited 2 castles in the area, ate dinner in peace, and completely enjoyed ourselves.  As I was talking about how great it was to be just together (strange BUT really great) Darin reminded me that next year when we move and aren't living in Europe (no announcement yet) I'll be lucky to get Chuck-A-Rama...He's going to count this one for then next 20 years at least.  What a romantic.   Although Europe will be tough to top.

 

Cochem city square

 

Cochem Castle and the yellow grape leaves. 
The Mosel is the wine region of Germany.

 

 

 

Pathway to the castle.  Dragon railing.

 

 

 

 

Looks like a frog, but is actually a lion with a knights helmet on and closed.
At least that is what the guide told us.

 

Wine cellar.  We like to buy the grape juice from the local area.

German dinner of goulash, potatoes, and pickled red cabbage (rot kohl). 

 

Our hotel

Me standing on the balcony of our room.

Burg Eltz
Looks like a fairy tale as you walk down to it.

18 years and counting.

 

 

Pizza and the rest of Rome

Pizza bought by weight- weight by pizza not person.
100 grams is about a normal portion.  200 grams if you are a starving teen.

 

Hot Dog (I think it was some kind of wurst actually) and French fries.
Popular with the boys, but looked yucky to me.

On the wall right behind Noah and Christian is a huge painting of a naked lady.  I commented on it being "fine artwork" and Darin reminded me that it wasn't any different than what we'd been seeing in all the museums all day. 

Now this is how pizza should be cooked!

 

This is the best kind of Italian pizza!  Super thin crust. 
However, because of the super thin crust, this is about a serving for 1.

 

Noah and a cute little car.  He even made sure to give his collar the European flip. 
Notice the trash around the car, Italy is not a super clean place. 
When we get home from our travels-Germany, the cleanest place, always feels like washing your hands after being at the grocery store.

The place we rented in Rome.  Our apartment was the one on the first floor.

Cinque in Rome

Rome was our longest vacation in one spot.  Usually we are moving from one city or country to another.  It was really nice to see Rome and all the sites without being rushed.  "CINQUE?!" (5?!) was what we heard everywhere we went in the city.  "Congratulations."  The Italians were shocked that one family would have so many children.  We were looked at and watched everywhere.  You can even see the lady in the train still looking out at us.

Waiting for the metro to go to church.

Church
It took a long metro ride, a bus ride, and a walk to find the church.  We arrived just in time for it to be OVER.  The church website had the time wrong and so we arrived just when it finished.  Took a great deal of time and lots of frustration, for nothing...except to teach our children that we go to church whenever we can.

 

Peter in Chains Cathedral

(San Pietro in Vincoli)

 This church was rebuilt around 432-440 to hold the relics for the chains that bound St Peter.

 



 

The chains that were used to chain up the apostle Peter. 

 

 Moses by Michelangelo

Sitting and waiting as usual.

 

 

 The National Roman Museum

The Boxer

An amazing sarcophagus all carved from one piece of marble.

The Discus Thrower(s) 

Some of my favorite pictures that really show the personalities of my kids.