A Lovely Visit Comes to an End

Jeanni and Carel flew back to the Netherlands today, and it was a sad sad time--walking out of the airport and driving back home. We stopped at IKEA for a little fun, but my heart wasn't in it. I just needed to be sad for a while.

But it was a lovely visit. They stayed with us for a week, went off for 3 weeks to tour the amazing sights of the western US, then returned to spend the last week with us.

We spent lots of normal time together. Carel would bike with Alexander to school in the morning. We took walks around the neighborhood. And of course, there was lots and lots of playing with the kids.

We even got to share some special occasions. We went to Bauman's Farm to experience the crazy American harvest festival celebration. (Carel is pretty handy with an apple slingshot.) And they were here for Halloween too. Annabel wore a flamenco outfit they brought from Barcelona and Alexander went as a kangaroo.

As you can see, Alexander ate a lot of candy:

And of course, there were pannekoeken dinners, and lovely clothes for the kids from Jeanni, and books galore! I am so happy to have so many Dutch books in the house. Most of them I can actually read aloud without sounding like I'm in elementary school.

And what will the kids hang on to? Annabel will no doubt keep asking us for a certain fingerplay that begins: "Daar komt een muisje aangelopen..."

And she now knows the Dutch word "botsing," which means collision. She'll be bumping and crashing into things for months to come, always ending with a gleeful, "botsing!"

As for Alexander, he got heaps of attention from his oma and opa. He'll remember sleeping in the motor home with them, reading lots of stories, and playing trains. He's already talking about how "next time, when I go to visit my oma and opa, we're going to...."

He's got big plans, big plans. They involve the ballenbak, a certain boat, feeding ducks, sleeping in his own room, and of course, snoep (candy).

Jeanni and Carel, we miss you!