Madrid

We just spent the most wonderful weekend in Madrid!  Both Cameron and I agree it was our best trip we've done with the three of us.  I think we've finally figured out a few tricks to make trips with Andy as positive as possible.  And he was exceptionally good all weekend.  (Despite is 5 AM wake up call on saturday.)  One of the reasons we chose Madrid because we wanted to go somewhere "warm."  (Though I still thought it was freezing cold.)  And Cameron wanted to go to Spain, but I'd already been to Barcelona.  So it was a bit of a random choice, but we feel like it as the perfect place for us to visit!  It was nice to visit somewhere where we didn't have a giant list of things we had to see, so we really spent our time just wandering and enjoying the beautiful city.  

In Puerto del Sol, right by our hotel.  

Plaza Oriente

Andy took the most incredible on-the-go naps every day!  We had the best lunch at this restaurant on friday.  We loved it so much, we went back saturday. 

There's this really great little park near the palace we played at both friday and saturday.  

The side of the Palace. It's HUGE.  

The Cathedral de la Almudena, which faces the palace.   

Plaza Espana 

We spent friday evening wandering the Retiro  Park.  Andy loves to run  out of control fast, so I think this is right before one of his many falls of the trip. 

Plaza Mayor Saturday morning.  

Tapas from the Mercado de San Miguel, a really cool indoor market.

Some crazy things like sea urchins and an octopus inside the indoor market!

The front of the Palace, Palacio Real.  I'm going to say it--the most beautiful palace I've ever been inside.  Hands down. I know what you're thinking: yes, even more beautiful that Versailles.  Cam and I were stunned.  We almost didn't go inside, so we were so pleasantly surprised.  

The only picture I got inside before I was told "no pictures!" 

I had to sneak a picture inside the Royal Armory because it was just SO COOL.    Yes, I got yelled at again for snapping a picture; I think I've mastered the "Sorry, I didn't know" innocent look.

A major highlight was wandering around the Palace Gardens , the Sabatini Gardens.  It was basically empty, so we had it mostly to ourselves.  Andy loved running around once he woke up from his nap. 

Waking up from his nap. :) 

This deserves an explanation.  One of the things I printed out before we came was a two-day Madrid Guide from Lonely Planet.  Cameron accurately assessed, "I think this is a guide for single middle-aged drunks in Madrid."  Hot Chocolate and Churros are a big thing to get in Madrid, and this guide told us this place was THE place to get it.  So we take the metro just to get there to a random part of town, ask tons of people where this street is.  No one had ever heard of it, which should have been our first clue.  Anyway, it was horrible!  An empty, dirty bar!  My hot chocolate had paper floating around in it.  And the churros were so gross.  But maybe we just don't like real spanish churros?  We tried them somewhere else and they were about the same.  Just cold fried bread with no sugar or cinnamon or anything.  

In front of Muniz, the "amazing" hot chocolate and churro place described above.   

We went back to the indoor market to get Paella for dinner.  Cam's first time having it! 

It happened to be Carnival when we were there, so we caught an incredible parade on saturday night.  

Oude Kerk, Temple Trip, & More

The first Saturday Cameron was gone, Andy and I visited Oude Kerk (Old Church), which is Amsterdam's oldest building and oldest parish church--it was founded in 1213.  I had a pleasant surprise while I was there.  Sweelinck is virtually the only "famous" Dutch composer, and it turns out he's buried there and has a plaque in the church!  (Yes, I realize famous is a relative term here.  I would be shocked if anyone reading this had heard of him.)  Sweelinck (1562-1621) served as the church organist there for 44 years, starting at age 15.  His work served as a bridge from the late Renaissance to the early Baroque and helped establish the N. German organ tradition.  Anyway--I was excited. :)  

I've realized I don't take nearly enough pictures here in Amsterdam.  I guess that's the way it is when you're living somewhere?  You tend to take it for granted.  So I've tried to take a few more pictures.  I can't believe I'm lucky enough to have this be neighborhood and to pass these things literally every day.

Dam Square: just a 5 minute walk from us. 

Royal Palace in Dam Square 

I will miss the beautiful canals here.

Here's a funny annoying thing Andy's been doing.  He thinks it's a blast to bring his toys into the kitchen and throw them on the counter, one by one.  Every. Single. Toy. We thought it was pretty cute the first time, but it's proved to be challenging if he throws things into the sink with dirty dishes, or throws things at the the stove while I'm cooking--and we have a gas stove.  It's terrifying!  Not to mention it's getting a little old cleaning it all up.  It's completely his personality to be hard at work on something random like that.  Love our crazy little guy!

For me, the highlight of this past month has been the temple trip Cameron and I took this last saturday.  Claire was generous enough to watch Andy for us all day--9 AM-5 PM--and she wouldn't even let us pay her.  Cameron and I haven't done a session together for an embarrassingly long amount of time, so it was a special experience for us.  The temple is called "The Hague Temple,"  but it's technically in Zoetermeer, just outside of The Hague.  It's the only temple in the Netherlands.  It took about two hours each way to get there, including a tram ride, two train rides, and a lengthy walk.  We'd heard it was a big pain to go by public transport (compared to the 40 minute drive it would have been by car), but we found it relaxing and loved every minute of it, probably because we weren't having to entertain Mr. Andy.  The temple itself is beautiful.  It's one of the "small" temples built during Pres. Hinckley's time.  It looks normal sized in pictures, but in person it's itty bitty!  It was a wonderful, rejuvenating day.  I find it so comforting the the church is the same everywhere you go.  Being in the temple reminded me of home.  It was wonderful to worship the Lord there together.  

The windmill in Zoetermeer; there really are windmills all over here.  

Den Haag (The Hague)

So I haven't blogged in a while!  Here's why: January wasn't exactly the most exciting month.  We had horrible weather--lots of snow, ice, freezing cold, etc.  (I can hear all you Utahans saying your weather was worse, which may be true.  But here's the thing.  You have cars.  It's a little tricky to leave your house with snow everywhere when you travel on foot!)  Cameron had to go to Texas for 9 days, which took up two weekends.  Possibly the longest 9 days of my life.  And Andy wasn't exactly on his best behavior.  Also, we all took turns getting really sick and spent most of the month trying to regain our health.   And it's the first month we haven't done an overnight trip.  Okay, I'll stop complaining.  We had one weekend to do something fun with Cameron and we were all feeling decent, so we took the hour train ride to Den Haag on Jan. 5 to wander around for the day.  Den Hague is a major business center and is also the seat of the Dutch government and parliament.  The city feels like such a mix of old and new.  We absolutely loved it!  

Den Haag high-rises, seen from the 'Plein,' with the statue of William of Orange.

At the entrance of the Binnenhof, where parliament is located.

The side of Knight's Hall inside the Binnenhof.

The Knights Hall, inside the Binnenhof.  

The Peace Palace.

Paleis Noordeinde, Queen Beatrix' work palace

These aren't in Den Haag, but I had to show evidence of the snow-filled January we had here.  There was actually snow on the ground for about two weeks!  Here it is when it first fell, from our living room window and looking onto our garden terrace: