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Still Loving It....

Hello.

It's been a week since my last post and that week was CRAZY!

I worked 60 hours this past week, which in Holland is NOT typical. It was rough. I didn't see the babies for 2 full days, so now I know how you all back home must be feeling. :-)

Besides having a crazy week we are doing well.

Henry is fighting his first cold, but I think teething might be involved. He is winning the battle quickly though so that's nice. He is also sitting up fulltime now and LOVES to sit in a highchair when we go out to eat. I am hoping to get him one for the house this week.

Ivy is clearly nearing her 2 yr mark. She had a full on temper tantrum the other day for no real reason at all. I think she is getting one of her 'fang' teeth and it is painful. Hopefully that has something to do with it. She is also talking more and more and is so animated. We are really enjoying her grow up...although it is happening rather fast. :-)

Today is Sunday and we are spending another restful day at home letting everyone recover from the week. While Ben took the laudry to the Izi Wash and Henry took his nap, Ivy and I got online and looked at pictures. She recognized her grammy and grandma jo immediately and blew them both kisses. Then we pulled up pictures of her aunties and uncles and when I asked her point out certain people she did. Then she reached out as if wanting to hold them. When I told her they weren't here she blew them kisses as well. It was very sweet and nice to know she still knows who all of you are.

While I was working, Ben and the babies found the local petting zoo and spent an afternoon exploring all of the animals. They also found and enjoyed the local Shwarma restaurant. YUM! Rain or shine they get out and about each day with or without a destination in mind. Sometimes it's just a great way for the babies to get some fresh air.

Ben and I were able to arrange for the babysitter to come over a few times over the past week and had some fun adventures.

Wed night Ben had his board game night and I went to knitting. It was nice to relax at the cafe with my knitting friends.

We met up with my work friends Eddie and Brannon (here from the US) on Thursday night and had some Tapas. The restaurant wasn't far from our house and the food was DELICIOUS.

Friday night we met up with the same friends and my friend Julian (another developer from work here from the US). We went into Amsterdam for some drinks and dinner. It was nice to have some fun adult time on the town.

Saturday afternoon we went to Jami and Igor's for their Wine and Cheese party. We had originally planned to stay a while and go out in Utrecht, but the craziness of the week and weekend coupled with Henry having a cold helped us decide to come home early and spend a quiet evening together. It was glorious.

I'm gearing up for another crazy week at work, but hoping it won't be super long days, just funfilled. :-)

I have knitting on Monday this week and Ben's game night is Wed so we will take turns staying home with the babes and save some euros on babysitting.

Enjoy the pics. I'm working on another video. I'll try to keep the size down so it will fit on the blog.

Until next time...

Lindz

Videos

I have finally put together videos of Henry and Ivy.

We are having a great and relaxing family weekend at home. It's very nice.

There will be pics tomorrow...Henry is now sitting up by himself and sat in a highchair at dinner. It was very cool!

Enjoy the videos!

Lindz

Brussels

Hello again.

We have been quite busy traveling around Belgium in our spare time.

Last weekend we went to Brussels. This was sort of a spur of the moment trip spawned by the fact that Ben wanted to take his Level 1 Crossfit Certification class at the US Air Force Base in Belgium. I figured, why not spend the weekend in Brussels with the babes while he does that...So that's what we did.

We were joined by a colleague of mine, Micheal, who is working in our Europe office with me and the team last week and this week. He was planning to go to Brussels so we offered him a ride. It was nice, because I had someone to have meals with and I wasn't completely alone in case I needed help.

We got a steal of a deal on our rooms. Upon checkin I realized we'd been upgraded to a 1 bedroom suite. It was heavenly...especially with the babies. Ivy got the living room and Henry and I shared the large bedroom.

It was an adventurous weekend, but I didn't stress and I had a great time with Ivy and Henry.
Brussels is to Chocolate what Antwerp is to Diamonds. Every other store is a chocolate shop...and boy to they do chocolate right! Our hotel even had a chocolate shop in the first floor...Chocopolis. I bought 10 truffels and I think Ben and Ivy ate 9 of them.

Saturday, after Ben left for Chievris, the babies and I explored the streets around our hotel. We walked through the outdoor market in the square just across from our hotel. We spent some time looking in the shops. We wandered into the Grand Palace square and we eventually found Mannequin Pis.

Mannequin Pis is dutch for 'little man urinating' and that's exactly what it is. For as much attention as it draws in Belgium, it's a very tiny statue of a man urinating. Everywhere you turn in Brussels you see drawings and picture of 'mannequin pis'. I never understood it until I actually went. He has entire chocolate stores dedicated to his figurine. People flock to this tiny statue weekly just to see what outfit he has on. It is quite a scene.

When we found him, we also found a giant crowd of Japanese tourists taking his picture. As I waited for my turn I parked the stroller to the side. When I returned to Ivy and Henry (just a few feet away) I found that Ivy had become center stage. There were no less than 6 japanese women smiling at Ivy and taking her picture. It was quite hilarious. I had to take a picture just to prove it happened. :-)

Unbeknownst to us, last weekend was also a big celebration weekend in Brussels. I am still not sure what they were celebrating, but everytime I turned around there was a parade passing by. Saturday night the festivities heated up with some MAJOR fireworks. I had finally falled asleep around 11 and not 30 minutes later I awoke to blasting sounds. I truly thought we were being bombed. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window. Not a block from my hotel was a GIANORMOUS fireworks display. It was pretty, but so loud. Thankfully Ivy didn't stir, but Henry did. He went back to sleep with a bottle and all was right with the night again.

Sunday we awoke to rain showers and dreariness. We had to find a way to entertain ourselves until 4pm when we could load up the car and go get Ben. This was not helped by the fact that checkout was a noon and they wouldn't budge because the entire town was booked full Sunday night for some sort of convention. So, we had breakfast, packed up, then chilled/played in the room until 11:59. Henry even got in a short nap, which was helpful.

By the time we checked out the sun was shining and the rain was gone. We walked the streets and indoor malls, enjoyed a light lunch at a sidewalk cafe and played in the square for a bit.

At 4pm we loaded into the car and headed to Chievres Air Force Base, 30 km south of Brussels. I thought we'd get there in plenty of time. I didn't take into account the fact tha Brussels is nearly impossible to navigate without a Tom Tom. It literally took 1 hour for me to just get out of the city. Thankfully, on my third attempt at stopping for directions, a gentleman who didn't speak english and only spoke french successfully used hand signs and Franglish to show me the way. It was a miracle, but we made it.

We arrived at Chievris at 5:30 and met up with Ben who seems to have had a wonderful time. His blog is below.

Not sure what this weekend holds, but I'm sure there will be more stories to tell.

Much love.

Lindz

Crossfit Level 1 Trainer Course Blog

Since Lindsey is writing the Brussels blog, I thought I would write about what I was doing on an US Air Force base in Belgium last weekend.
Back in April I was introduced by Coach Franz to a website called “Crossfit Kids”. At the time I weighed over 200 lbs, and was in arguably the worst physical condition of my life. Franz introduced me to “Crossfit Kids” because it has direct application to my job as a swimming coach.
Not only did the “Crossfit Kids” website have a positive influence on my coaching, it led me to “Crossfit’s” main website. Crossfit is home to the “Workout of the Day”, a free workout performed by people throughout the world who post their results online to create a virtual workout group. Aside from the “WOD”, the main site shares video of exercises, and lectures on all aspects of human performance.
Within 3 months I had dropped 20 lbs, and improved my fitness level dramatically. 6 months later, I’m fitter than I was when I was 22. To put it mildly, I’m hooked, and wanting more.
Franz and I became aware that “Crossfit” offers level 1 trainer courses, and we both had been waiting for the opportunity for one to become available to us. As soon as I saw the course offered in Belgium, I knew it was a possibility. With the support of Lindsey, we made it happen.
We decided that Lindsey would spend the weekend in Brussels with Ivy and Henry while I took the course at Chievres Air Force Base.
The Friday evening drive down to Brussels was an adventure. Lindsey drove, Mike (our carpool friend) sat in the front passenger seat, and I sat in the back between Ivy and Henry’s car seats. Ivy was my entertainment the entire drive, chattering with song and laughter the entire way. Henry on the other hand, decided to get car sick… in my lap. Poor guy was miserable, and thought I should be too.
When we rolled into Brussels, the Google maps directions were FUBAR, and we got lost. In addition to bad directions, the Belgians do not believe in marking their intersections with street names. Asking for directions was difficult because none of us speak French. Eventually we were able to get to the hotel, check in and clean up.
Dinner included a fine Belgian beer. It is true that the Belgians have mastered the art of beer making, and they make them just my style. I love dark beer and Belgian Browns are the best (and strongest) that I have ever had. Westmalle, Leffe, and Keizer Karel are my favorites.
Saturday mornings wake-up call came early, but I was so excited for my classes to begin I didn’t care. Because of recent terror threats, and the September 11 date, base security was hyper vigilant. As you can imagine, being on a military base overseas gave everything that happened at the trainer course a surreal effect.
Heading into the course, I had very little information. One thing that I was anxiously awaiting was finding out who would be our trainers. Upon my arrival, I was not disappointed. The trainers were excellent. The head trainer was Chuck Carswell, an awesome guy who played football at the University of Georgia, and for the Miami Dolphins. He’s a class act all the way. His staff was made up of Crossfit Gym owners throughout northern Europe including Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, and Germany. Fortunately the entire class took place in English.
The classes consisted of lectures on Crossfit methodology, foundational movements, nutrition, and programming. The class also included breakout sessions to learn/teach the foundational movements (air squat, front squat, overhead squat, shoulder press, push press, push jerk, deadlift, Sumo Deadlift High Pull, and Clean). In addition we were treated to instruction on the kipping pull-up, the muscle-up (Pull-up to dip on the rings), and the snatch.
In addition to the class work and breakout sessions we were treated to a workout on each day of the class. The day 1 workout was a fun one. It was a group workout. We split into teams of 5. The workout was a 400 Meter group run, 250 reps of thrusters (front squat to push press) divided up among our team, another 400 meter run, 250 pull-ups divided among our team, and another 400 meter run. My group finished second only because of an injury sustained to one of my teammates on the run. On my team were 2 enlisted soldiers, a 3 letter agency special operations soldier, and a professional MMA fighter.
After the 1st day in the classroom I went back to my hotel to study. The television found its way on and I realized that they had American Programming on the TV. I didn’t even notice the fact that European Television doesn’t cover American sports until the College football season started. I was treated to the Buckeye win over Miami. I really enjoyed the game, but was nervous that staying up until 1:00AM was going to affect my performance the next day.
The second day’s workout was an individual challenge. It was 7 repetitions of a Medicine Ball Clean, and two lengths of a basketball court with the medicine ball. Every 60 seconds, we had to drop and do 7 push-ups. The workout lasted 12 minutes and the goal was to find out how many rounds you could perform. The competitive side of me came out and I ended up winning this workout, and in fact lapped the closest competitor in my group of 20.
The course culminated in an exam. All that is required to become certified to coach at an affiliated Crossfit gym is a passing score on this evaluation. A failed score would mean a retest or taking the entire class over again. At my test we had at least 20 people come for the available re-test alone.
I was certainly nervous. As the test unfolded, it went well for me. I knew that I had done well when I had used half the allotted time. I used the time to go back over the test and review my answers. I’m glad I did because I discovered two errors upon my review.
Results were returned to us that day. They came in a large envelope, and contained either a Trainer Certificate or a Certificate of Participation. I nearly cried when I opened my envelope and it was empty. What the heck does an empty envelope mean? It ended up meaning that I had registered late, and they didn’t have a Certificate made up for me. I ended up with a 100% score on the test. It didn’t happen to me too often in school, so I was very proud of myself.
In Chuck’s closing remarks, he told us to go home, knock on our neighbors door, let ourselves inside, grab a broomstick from their closet and start teaching them how to perform the Snatch. In seriousness he encouraged us to start coaching as soon as possible, in order to keep the information fresh, and to start developing our coaching ability.
I’m offering my services free of charge to friends and family. Crossfit is not insane workouts. It is constantly varied, so it never gets boring. It is functional movement, so it helps you live better (think bad backs, knees, and shoulders). It is relatively intense, which means that it is designed to your ability and goals. Mechanics, consistency, and intensity.

Ben

Antwerp!

Antwerp is an amazingly beautiful city. The architecture is interesting in that there are very old buildings next to modern buildings and ancient statues litter the way as you walk down the cobblestone streets. It's a fabulous mix of old and new.

Last weekend we made it to Antwerp. We left Saturday morning and the drive was quite nice, although it was long due to traffic.
We arrived at our hotel, the Plaza. It was smack dab in the middle of the Hasidic Jewish neighborhood which proved very interesting and thought provoking whenever we went out and about. Left me with lots of questions and left Ben doing tons of reading/research on his iTouch. (I actually left my computer behind!)
Our room was glorious. We got a Junior Suite so it had a separate bedroom and a walk-in closet. We had two children's beds delivered to the room as well so we didn't have to pack them along. Henry got the front room and Ivy got the closet. :-) The babies did great.
After getting settled we set out for the diamond district, just a short walk from our hotel. The diamond shops are in and around the train station. The diamonds are absolutely stunning and it's overwhelming how many there actually are. But the train station takes your breath away with its old world beauty. It's far more than just a train station. (Check out pictures in next blog down)
We (I) was on the hunt for a few things...a ring for me that was not too flashy, but sentimental and some diamond earrings for Ivy. I wanted something with a pink and a black diamond. I ended up getting a very simple, but elegant ring with 3 white diamonds, a pink and a black. I LOVE IT. We found Ivy some fabulous earrings. She will get them when she's old enough to appreciate them. :-)

My ring.
Pink for Ivy, Black for Henry, 3 diamonds to symbolize me, Ben and our family.

Ivy's Earrings.
Every girl deserves a nice pair of diamonds.

We spent the better part of Saturday walking the diamond shops and the Meir (great overall shopping). After lunching and purchasing diamonds, we decided to treat the babies, and ourselves, to a trip to Aquatopia, Antwerp’s aquarium. We had a great time. Mostly because we enjoyed watching Ivy explore. She now loves to find and do new things and then exclaim "TADA". It's quite cute and hilarious.
From the aquarium we wandered in search of dinner and landed at a nice Argentinean restaurant. The restaurant was on a cute little side street not far from the station and shopping. The food was good, as was the company. It was rather creepy because the owner is an exact match for my friend Adam.
We meandered back past the diamond shops to our hotel and after a long bath in the giant bathtub (very exciting since we don't have one in Hilversum) we turned in for the night. The babies didn't fall asleep until after 9pm, but they slept good so I was happy.
Sunday proved another day of diamonds and adventure. We were waiting on my ring, as it had to be made, so we stayed close to the shop. Lucky for us, and Ivy, the zoo was straight across the plaza so we went in.
The zoo in Antwerp is AMAZING. The animals are very close with a small fence to keep them in. Well, for the most part...The tigers and lions have a giant moat in front of their cage and the elephants have an electric fence keeping them in. But they are not far from view. We actually picked the perfect time for zooing, as the animals were lunching or had just lunched so they were active. Ivy loved it! I really enjoy watching her take everything in and process it. It's quite amusing and eye opening.
One of the best finds at the zoo was a petting pond. That's right. A petting pond. The pond was about up to Ivy's waste and she was able to splash her hand in the water and large koi came swimming up to suck on her hand. That sort of freaked her out, but she loved to 'pet' the fish. I hope we were able to capture it on video.
After lunch at a mediocre Italian restaurant we picked up my ring and headed home. Ivy was asleep before we got onto the freeway, less than 2km from out hotel. Henry was asleep shortly thereafter and both babies slept until we arrived at the house. The ride home was much shorter which was nice.
Overall, it was a grand adventure and a glorious weekend and Ivy and I now have authentic diamonds from Antwerp we can enjoy together in a few years!

Enjoy the pics below. I hope to post some video soon.

Tata for now!

Lindz

Pictures from Lindsey

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