Yes, I am still here!

I really have no excuse for the lack of blogging lately. I have had plenty to blog about, just no motivation to do so. As many of you may know, we are about to be American residents again. We have enjoyed our time in the Netherlands, made some wonderful friends and have had the opportunity to do some amazing traveling. However, right now we feel it is most important to be near our family where we can offer support and be closer to our support system. This moving process was set in motion in December, but yet we still don't have a definite return date so I think the waiting has put me in a funk. We are getting closer though and hopefully at least the kids and I will be home within a week. We have a house waiting for us, we just need to get everything in order to get ourselves on a plane back to to good ol' USA.

In February Jason surprised me for my birthday and flew my best friend (my sister) over here to spend a week with the kids and I driving across the French countryside. We had an amazing time in Bruges, Belgium, the Normandy region of France, and Paris. We drove down one lane roads surrounded by farmland and stone walls, we visited medieval walled towns and we walked on the beaches of Normandy where many American soldiers lost their lives. We stood on top of the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower and rode a boat down the Seine River. We had a wonderful time and the kids loved their time with Aunt April.

We expected to be in the USA with our family by Easter, but apparently that was not to be, so we took at trip to the Rheine Valley in Germany. We made our first stop in Cologne, Germany and then spent the night in Bonn. Then we made our way to the romantic Rheine Valley lined with castles on each shore. We took a boat cruise from St. Goar to Rudesheim and took in the sights of castle ruins, the Loreley Rock and quaint German towns. Justin loved watching the trains that ran along both banks of the river. We stayed two nights in an old castle fortress and Lauren tried her best to find secret passageways. I think she has watched too much Scooby Doo because she was trying to push pictures on the walls, look behind wardrobes and pull any lever she could find. No such luck. We still had a wonderful time, including hunting for Easter eggs in front of the castle. It was a very relaxing trip in a beautiful land.

Yet another week went by and we are still here, so we ventured out again, this time to south Holland. We first visited Madurodam, the smallest city in the Netherlands. It is a miniature city displaying the highlights of the Netherlands on a scale 1:25. We all felt like giants walking around this land of exactly replicated landmarks. There were trains and buses zooming all aver the place and Justin was beside himself trying to watch all of them. I am very impressed that he didn't try to grab them and pick them up. After our fun there we headed to the beach town of Noordwijk where we stayed the evening. The Netherlands has many beaches, but this was our first time to visit any of them. It was very nice, just a little cold. Sunday morning we drove down the road to Keukenhof, the largest flower garden in the world. It was beautiful with gardens full of tulips and various other flowers. Since we have only had a few warm days, it wasn't quite as stunning as it could be because many of the flowers have yet to bloom. However it was still amazing. Lauren loved snapping pictures and she couldn't wait to put up a post about it on her blog. Make sure you check it out here.

Another reason I was really looking forward to being home in the USA by now was to join my family today as they participated in the Run for the Rose which benefits brain cancer research. My sister assembled a team of 47 people who participated in honor of my dad. It was a great turnout for a great cause. You can read about their day on my sister's blog. If you are interested, it is not to late to donate to the cause. You can do so by following this link.

Look for another blog post soon and I will try to post pictures of our adventures. We have had a great time in Europe, but we are looking forward to being near our family soon. Thanks for checking in!