IRELAND - T MINUS 1 WEEK!

The title again says it all - 1 week from today we will be in Ireland!  We are so excited for this trip and it will be great to see the country that was home to so many of our ancestors.  The first few days of our trip will be spent on the west coast of the country in County Clare.  We will be staying at a cute little B&B in a small town called Lisdoonvarna.  The plan is to rent some bikes and explore the countryside.  Our main destination to explore on this leg of the trip is to find the former home of Dan's Great Grandfather.  We know about where it is so fingers crossed we will be able to find it!  We also want to make sure we see the Cliffs of Moher.  After a few days spent in County Clare, we are taking a train to Dublin where will be staying at an old castle turned B&B.  Notre Dame plays Navy on that Saturday and we have a request in to a friend of my Dad for tickets.  My best friend and Matron of Honor Michelle Morrow and the Gary family will be in Dublin for the game so we plan on meeting up with them as well.  We likely will not know until the last minute if we will have the tickets, but there is a chance we will be able to go!!!!

In other news, it is now less than 1 year until our wedding and we've decided to start working out some more to be fit for that.  In the process, we're coming to realize that we really enjoy running!  It was unseasonably warm this weekend (90 degrees Fahrenheit) and very humid, but we stuck to our plan and got in a short run both days.  Yesterday, we officially signed up for an 8k run at the end of October to benefit cancer, so we will definitely keep everyone updated on our progress with that.

So much for promising to update more often!

Well, the title of this post says it all...apologies for not updating sooner.  The time just gets away from us and before we know it, a month has gone by since we updated the blog!

Since we've been back in Amsterdam after our amazing trip home, we've been keeping ourselves busy with our day-to-day stuff, along with planning trips and exploring the city more.  About 1-2 weeks after we got back here, we decided to bite the bullet so to speak and we bought bikes!  We are now "official Amsterdamers."  The bikes here are by no means fancy - we both have pretty much the same bike.  They have 1 gear, no hand breaks and we sit pretty upright on them.  When we got them, Dan told me that all he could think of was the music from The Wizard of Oz as Mrs. Gulch - aka the Wicked Witch of the West - bikes along.  The only thing missing is the basket on the front!  We haven't taken pictures of the bikes yet (sorry, this post will also be a bit lacking on photos), but when we do, we will make sure to post them.

For Dan's birthday we went to the Ziggo Dome for the Paul Simon Graceland concert.  One word: AMAZING.  It was such an incredible concert and we had an amazing time!  Our seats were in the front row of the 2nd ring, so we could see very well.  It was such an awesome experience, and when Lady Smith Black Mambazo from South Africa came out, it was breathtaking!

We also had a visit from my dear friend from Aquinas, Clara Yee and her friend Deb who works in the Peace Corps.  While we only got to see them for 1 day, it was great to be able to visit, as I hadn't seen Clara is probably about 5 years!  We took a walk around the shopping areas with them for an afternoon, and luckily the rain held off that day.

Our trip to Ireland is coming up at the end of August, which we are VERY excited for.  We will try to find the house where Dan's great-grandfather grew up and then for the 2nd half of the trip we will head over to Dublin and hopefully catch up with the Gary family - Michelle (Gary) Morrow is my Matron of Honor and best friend, so that will be amazing.  Notre Dame plays in Dublin the Saturday we are there.  Unfortunately we were not able to get tickets, but we hope to maybe tailgate and then will probably try to find a pub that is showing the game on television.

In other travel news, we have booked our flights for our trip at Christmas!  Destination: BERLIN!  We've heard so much about all that Berlin has to offer and have researched the "Christmas Markets" that will be all over the city while we are there.  We figured if we are not able to come home for Christmas, we might as well take a nice vacation!

To all of our Weatherhead family - we missed you all SOOOOOO much this past week at reunion!  We will be watching for photos and hope everyone had a blast.  It was rather sad this weekend knowing that we were missing all of the festivities.  However, Dan made a good point that at this time next year, we will be home for reunion and then our wedding will be right around the corner!

Well, that is all for now...we love and miss you all and are always open for any visitors!

Home Sweet Home

A HUGE thank-you to all of those who made our trip home so special!   We have arrived back in Amsterdam safely and are getting back into our routines again.

We had such an amazing vacation back home - family, friends, fun and lots of beautiful weather!  Our 2 weeks were very busy and went by far too fast.  We had a fantastic time at Abby's cousin Jill's wedding and were so lucky to be a part of Jill and Derek's special day and wish them lots of love as their married life begins.  It was a great opportunity to see as many of the Weatherheads as we could as well.

Speaking of weddings, we were able to get quite a bit done for our own wedding while we were home (many people have asked, so we figured we'd give an update).  We are starting to get more excited for our big day, even though it is still more than 1 year away.  We have been so blessed with help from our moms especially, but also for the willingness of our friends and family to help with the planning, since there is only so much we can do while abroad.

A few fun things from when we were home aside from the above mentioned wedding (which was a BLAST):

-Dan had his first experience driving a riding lawn mower while mowing the LaVoies' yard and loved each minute of it:

-We got to visit with all of our Grandparents - many thanks to all of them for everything they have done and for all of their support!  We wouldn't be where we are now without all of their prayers.

-We had our engagement photos taken.  It was a great experience!  However, it was a very windy night and the gale force winds caused the sand on the beach to put a bit of a damper on our comfort level.  On the bright side, we are sure the photos will turn out great AND we were nicely exfoliated by the sand pelting our skin!

- We were able to spend a few days at Dan's parents' boat in Grand Haven.  There's something so comforting and relaxing about sitting on the boat and feeling the rocking of the waves during the day and while sleeping.  After being away from the boat for so long, it did take a few hours to get our "sea legs" back though!

- Finally, many thanks to all of the below people for making the time to see us during our visit (aside from those previously mentioned):

     *Our welcoming crew at the airport: Grandma Rita, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Denise

     *Denise and Blair Dame

     *Mary and Chris Overbeek

     *Meg and Mike Novi

     *Mark and Jodi Richhart

     *Michelle and Chad (and Baby Brayden) Morrow

     *Aly and Nick Dondzila

     *Our colleagues from the Booking.com Grand Rapids office (special thanks to Kim Dryer and Ken LaRoche for organizing)

Last - but certainly NOT least - major thanks to our parents and immediate families for making our stays so great (and also for giving us places to stay!)  We are so blessed to call you family and you all made this vacation so incredibly memorable.  Words cannot express our gratitude for all the support each and every one of you has shown!  We love you all! 

LaVoies (Mom & Dad, Nate, Molly and Neil): 

Feel free to make up your own story of what is going on in this picture...

Hillarys (Mom & Dad, Monica & Bryan): 

This photo was taken for a campaign brochure for Dan's dad, who is running for re-election for Kent County Probate Court...RE-ELECT JUDGE HILLARY!

No comment necessary.

Thanks again to everyone!  We'll keep you all updated on our journey and are so glad so many of you are able to follow us.  Keep the comment coming - we love them!

"We are Family"

We had an absolutely MARVELOUS time last weekend, as Abby's sister Molly and Molly's boyfriend Nick were in town for a long weekend visit!  Words cannot express how nice it was to have someone from back "home" at our new home here on the other side of the world.  Yes, we are able to Skype with our families now and then, but it is a completely different thing actually have family with us.

Molly and Nick had a great time exploring the city while we were both at work last Thursday.  They were able to visit the Anne Frank House, go on a canal cruise, and take a tour of the Heineken Brewery (this was a huge hit with those two).  After they had a fun-filled day doing that, they met Abby for dinner and drinks since Dan had to work late.

On Friday, Abby had the day off of work and took Molly and Nick to go visit the Rembrandt House and Museum.  What a cool place!  The house is very much in it's original condition.  Here are a few shots of how Rembrandt's studio looked and some of the tools he used:

After a few hours in the Rembrandt House, we got lunch at a small restaurant right next door and walked around the city for a few hours until Dan got out of work.  At that point, we all met for drinks and dinner.  It was very cool for us to be able to introduce our colleagues to Molly and Nick, and also very cool for them to be able to meet people from all over the world.

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day weather-wise (shocking!).  Molly and Nick actually lucked out, as the weather was mostly sunny during the time they were here.  The four of us went out the Keukenhof Gardens, about an hour's commute from where we live.  Keukenhof is a massive area outside of the city with flowers of all kinds everywhere you look.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Flower lovers, brace yourselves!  Here is just a sampling of what we experienced:

Naturally, we had to try on the giant wooden shoes!

Given the beautiful scenery, we couldn't resist snapping a few other photos:

Sadly, Molly and Nick left us early Sunday morning.  They had had a long European trip (they were in Spain and France before coming to Holland!) and we were so lucky to be able to be a part of their trip! We are hoping that perhaps they will be making a similar trip some time again (hint hint!).  

That is all for now; we are looking forward to our 2 weeks home in June very much. We will be arriving the afternoon of June 9 and are so very excited to see all of our family and friends in just a few short weeks!

Thanks again for all your love, prayers and support!

Je t'aime Paris!

We've taken our first official tourist trip since our move to Europe!  Last Wednesday evening we left right after work for a long weekend in Paris.  Needless to say, we LOVED it!  Our friends Brandon and Sarah McGillicuddy so graciously offered their apartment to us during our stay and we cannot thank them enough.  There was so much to do and see, and we got to see most of the sights we had in mind.

Thursday morning we woke up and got to The Louvre pretty early.  The line was not too long, so we really lucked out.  The Louvre is MASSIVE (it would take 4 months to see the entire museum!) and the first thing we  saw after we walked into the main area was the infamous Pyramid:

 
Once inside, we immediately went to see the Mona Lisa.  It was actually much smaller than we both had thought it would be.  It was surrounded by glass and everyone had to say about 10 feet away from it, but seeing it in real life was very surreal.

 

Another famous work of art that we saw here was Venus de Milo:

Here are a few of the other works of art we saw.  Keep in mind that we only saw a tiny portion of the museum, so this is just a snapshot of some of the works that are included in this amazing place.

 

After our 4 hour visit to the Louvre, we decided to check out Notre Dame Cathedral, of course!  We did not go inside, as the line was a bit long, but the sheer awe of being at the original Notre Dame Cathedral was truly incredible.  We learned that the whole thing took 2 CENTURIES to build.  It is truly a beautiful and amazing place:

Next, since it was an absolutely gorgeous day (and those are so few and far between for us, living in rainy Amsterdam!), we decided to go on a Seine River tour.  We were able to learn a lot about the city (we have more photos from this but have not yet uploaded them), and got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.  After the river cruise, we decided to get dinner at the Notre Dame Cafe (across the street from the Cathedral) and then walked to the Eiffel Tower.  (This was just over a 3-mile walk - one way.)  We knew we had to take advantage of the beautiful night to see the Eiffel Tower in person and then to watch it light up.  We had seen pictures, but nothing does it justice like seeing the enormous structure in person.  It was truly breathtaking!  After sunset the tower lights up and then at 10:00 pm, the Eiffel Tower sparkles!

After the tower sparkled, we walked back home and fell asleep almost as soon as we laid down!

The next day we grabbed breakfast on-the-go and ate it in a beautiful and expansive park that runs all the way from the Louvre to the Obelisque.  It was very picturesque and a great way to begin our day:

After enjoying our breakfast and the scenery, we went to the Musee d'Orsay.  We cannot put up any photos, as the museum did not allow any pictures to be taken.  It was a very cool museum with famous paintings from many impressionist painters such as Monet, Manet, Matisse, Degas, VanGogh, Renior and many more.  There were other works of art there as well, but we spent most of our time looking at the impressionist art.

After the museum, we had lunch at nice cafe across the street and walked down to see some of the souvenir shops right at the Eiffel Tower.  We also enjoyed browsing the trinkets, photos and memorabilia at the street vendors on the street that runs along the Seine towards the Eiffel.

On our last full day in Paris, we met up with Brandon and Sarah and toured the Catacombs.  This is basically an underground tunnel-turned-graveyard.  Many bones were moved from cemeteries after some of them became health hazards.  Moving all the bones took 80 years.  This was truly an amazing thing to see, knowing that all the remains we saw had a story behind them that we will never know.  It was a  bit eerie, but also very interesting.

After the catacombs, the four of us had lunch and while Sarah waited for our table to come available, Brandon took us around the corner to see St. Sulpice, a MASSIVE Catholic church.  We were allowed to take photos inside the church.  For those of you from Grand Rapids and Catholic Central - it makes St. Andrews look tiny:

When our bellies were full, we went to Montmarte, a beautiful area with a Catholic Church even larger than St. Sulpice.  Montmarte is the area in Paris where most of the famous artists from the past would gather, and seeing the views, it's not hard to understand why.  From the top of the hill, you have one of the most breathtaking views of the city.

Once we had seen Montmarte, we decided to head back home to grab some dinner.  Later in the evening we met up with Brandon and Sarah to grab a few drinks and to say goodbye.

Sadly, our train left on Sunday morning.  We had such a great time in Paris and would definitely recommend it to everyone.  It's a great place to go if you ever have the opportunity.  The city is so beautiful and so rich with history that it should be on everyone's bucket list!

In just 2 days, Abby's sister Molly and her boyfriend Nick will be here and we are so excited to have family from home here for a visit!  

Stay tuned for updates, we will try to keep them coming more often!  We love all of your comments and are so glad we can share our experiences with you all.  Thanks for the prayers!