Return to the blog--America Part 2 (by Evie, mostly)

From Claire: Apologies for the non-blogging lately and thanks to Jim for his wonderful contributions because, after all, this is his blog, too, and he is a great writer and takes really beautiful pictures of things I wouldn't even look twice at. Hopefully he'll keep writing every once in a while. And now onto Evie's blog!

It has been five weeks since we headed out on our great American family visit adventure and after an amazing few days with my fabulous grandparents Nana and Papa, Lala and Grandpa joined us. To celebrate, we all went out for Mexican food! Everyone expected me to be compliant and eat the chicken quesadillas that they got me, but instead I opted for my Mom's charro beans.

I think it was completely understandable that after all those charro beans, I had a little trouble holding still...

and found that there was more fun to be had UNDER the high chair than there was to be found IN the high chair.

The next day we headed out on our road trip to Louisiana. Grandpa was excited and wanted to hold DouDou for the whole trip, but I said NO!


It was a little bit much for them to expect me to just sit in my car seat for seven hours, so I made a little bit of noise to remind them that I wasn't ok with it. But in the middle of making a lot of noise, I accidentally fell asleep. And when I woke up we went to this really big place called Sam's Club. Mom said it was pretty American to go to Sam's Club.

On the farm there were lots of dogs and lots of "Finchleys." You may remember this Finchley from the olden days of this blog. Chowder remains highly affectionate and we spent some quality time together.

I really tried to embrace the life of a farm girl, although I wasn't too sure about the beetles who were camped out in my sand box or about the gnats which persistently bit us and got in our eyes during our entire visit.
In the fashion of the late Buster, I took off across the cotton fields at break neck speed.

And I thoroughly enjoyed splashing in the baby pools--one by the big pool and one next to the sandbox.
Behold the Vicksburg water park!!! It's the only thing in Vicksburg for a hot little girl to do on a scorcher of day.
So I stripped down to her diapers and, with the help of a new friend, splashed around. It turns out that I'm a pretty big fan of wearing as few clothes as possible:



There was so much to show Lala!

And there were lots of rides to be had in the red wagon that my mom, Aunt Kate and Uncle Will rode in when they were kids!
Life on the farm was perfect...until Cora showed up!At first I didn't realize what a big deal this was because I went to bed and didn't see that everyone was holding Cora. Lala was holding Cora:
Grandpa was holding Cora:
And..the unthinkable....my MOM was holding Cora!!
Uncle Andy looked a little like my Dad looked right after I was born.
The next morning I decided to check out this new threat for myself. She IS pretty cute.
And she pretty much minded her own business so I could still have a nice time playing in the sandbox and baby pool (which my mom said I would have to share with Cora some day. HUMPH!)

Then, suddenly, Aunt Kate had to go in and talk on the phone and my mom had to hold Cora while she did. That was NOT ok with me and made me really, really MAD.
Oh, it was horrible and it took me many days to get over it. I had to do something, so I hit my mom and tried to hit Cora and tried to pry Cora out of my mom's arms and I cried and cried and cried.

Fortunately I was able to return to my previous zen-like status with a visit to the resident Koi:
And my older Cousin Jamie was really nice to me, too and made me feel very special.
And I got to eat some of Lala's extra delicious French bread:
So all was good with the world again...as long as my mom didn't hold that pesky Cora!!

As if one baby wasn't enough, then ANOTHER one showed up. Meg and Dan and Sebastian paid us a visit.

But Sebastian didn't make me jealous for some reason and was actually really fun. He put me in such a good mood that I even was willing to share Lala's lap with Cora:
Ok, ok...so I was really trying to sit on her, but at least I didn't hit her!

If I have a little brother, I hope he's like Sebastian. We like all the same things!


Riding the tractor:


Swinging:

Eating!!!


Lying on the floor and sharing binkies:

Cora likes to eat, too, but she only eats milk. I bet she'll like to ride the tractor when she's bigger and, as long as my mom doesn't hold her, I wouldn't mind having a sister as pretty and sweet as Cora is either. The more I got to know her, the more I loved her. Isn't she cute?

Before we left the farm to head to Atlanta, we went to Mike and Debbie's to visit their very friendly and docile chickens. My favorite thing was to play in their water, but I also liked feeding them.

I had a great time being a temporary farm girl, but we had to go back to the big city--Atlanta--to see my Uncle Will, Super Shug, more of my Aunt Kate and Uncle Andy, Lala and Grandpa and, most importantly, my Daddy, who was flying in to meet us! A family reunion, which I will tell you about in the next blog!

New Orleans

After visiting aunt Pat and uncle Tom in Birmingham last week, we headed south to New Orleans for a couple nights. It was blistering hot but it's impossible not to have a good time in New Orleans, no matter what the conditions. Here are a few pics from the trip highlighting my growing obsession with door and windows - I'm sure Claire will provide a more detailed and entertaining account of the trip later.

- Jim

Amsterdam by Jim

Note: To those expecting a steamy blog about the seedy red light district or visits to coffee shops, you will be very disappointed in this blog. However, if you're interested in Amsterdam's more mundane side including great architecture, bike rides along canals and a secret village of tiny houses hidden away in the woods, then read on!

So, with a weekend to spare before my flight back to the U.S. to meet up with Claire & Evie, I decided to hop over to one of my favorite cities - Amsterdam. Flights were cheap and with just myself to take care of I figured I could get away with the "Europe on $20 a day" scheme that seemed to work back in college. Oh how wrong I was.

On the way to the airport in East London I made a quick pit-stop to take a few photos of the Thames barrier structure - an engineering (and design) masterpiece! I've seen lots of pictures but have always wanted to see it up close. Pretty amazing. It's the world's second largest flood barrier and was built to prevent London from being flooded. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Barrier

After arriving at Schipol airport, I took the train to Amsterdam's Central Station, by-passed the busy part of town and headed straight for Hotel Von Onna in the Jordaan district, a great little minimalist hotel I've been staying in for years. The owner, Liuek, is one of the nicest people I know and is always willing to sit down and chat or give a tour the neighborhood. The best part of the hotel is the breakfast - good coffee, ham, cheese, four slices of bread, butter, hard-boiled egg and, of course, toast with chocolate sprinkles.

Central Station, Amsterdam

Liuek, owner of Hotel Van Onna

Summer is here

Somewhere in the Jordaan

Toast with chocolate sprinkles!

The first thing I did after settling in was to rent a bike and head out. The weather was great the first day so there were plenty of people on the canals drinking beers and enjoying the summer. After getting to grips with riding a bike in the city I decided to venture for a park outside the city, Amsterdamse Bos. It was more like a huge nature reserve with bike paths through the woods and a was great place to get lost. About thirty minutes into my ride, I noticed a few people walking through some narrow paths in the woods and decided to follow them. After a few turns the path opened up into what looked like a little neighborhood of tiny wooden houses hidden in the woods. After poking around a bit Isoon realised that this WAS a little neighborhood of tiny wooden houses hidden in the woods! The houses were no bigger and 25' square and all had emaculate gardens and there were no cars (paths not big enough). It had a commune feel to it - neighbors helping other neighbors load things into bike/trailors. Locals repairing some of the paths, etc. I managed to get off a few pictures but you have to visit to get a good feeling for the place:

Just before heading into the woods...

Tiny house #1

Tiny house #2

Tiny neighborhood along canals

The next two days were spent doing more of the same. Riding bike through neighborhoods, beer breaks, a few photographs and eating. My type of break.

Ice cream while riding bike while taking pictures

Vondelpark

Heron in the street