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:

2012 In Review

I know I'm a couple weeks late for this type of post, but tradition says I still needed to do one!  Looking back, I'm amazed at what a great year it's been.  We've settled into our role as parents a bit better.  We've watched Andy change from a baby to a toddler.  We had a lot of great visits with family.  We spent a good chunk of the year in Amsterdam.  I'd say it's been a great year!

January

My baby was still a baby! I'm realizing he has grown up way too much.  Here is proof: 

February

We had a great visit from my mom and Abby!  Sadly, we were having too much fun to take any pictures.  The big event of the month: Andy got the dreaded helmet to fix his misshapen head.  Ugh, I don't miss that thing at all.  

March

Cam's family came for a weekend!  We had a blast visiting San Antonio and eating loads of delicious food.  

April
Andy and I took a super fun trip to Utah for Rachel's graduation!  It was so fun to see everyone.

May

We took our friendcation to Galveston!  Wow, it was so much fun.  Andy experienced his first time at the beach and loved every second of it.  

June

Andy graduated from helmet wearing and celebrated his first birthday!  We were lucky enough to have my family (Mom, Dad, Sara, & Abby) come visit and be there for his first birthday party.

July

Weaning was completed in just enough time for Cam and I to take cruise, thanks to Kathy who flew in and took care of Andy while we were gone.  We ported at Cozumel and Progresso and loved every second of it.  

We were also lucky enough to have my sister Christine come visit us for a week.  We loved showing her around Austin! 

August
We celebrated both of our 27th birthdays plus our 3 year anniversary!  We also took a trip to Utah to spend time with both sides of the family.  We had a blast!

We finished off the month by putting all our stuff in storage and moving to Amsterdam! 

It's strange to look back at this picture and think it was ever warm enough here to wear a t-shirt.

September

We spent the month getting adjusted to Amsterdam life and enjoying living in such a beautiful place.  We also took trips to Brugge and to the north of England to visit my mission.  

Brugge 

From Castle Hill in Huddersfield in England

October

We continued to explore around Amsterdam and traveled a bunch, too.  We went to Berlin, Paris (just the two of us!), Bratislava (for Cam's work), and Vienna.  

Rainy Berlin

Paris!

Bratislava

Vienna's Schonbrunn Palace

November

We spent the month of November exploring the Netherlands.  We visited Haarlem,Utrecht, and spent a night in beautiful Maastricht. 

Haarlem 

Utrecht 

Maastricht

December
I think this was our busiest month!  We started off with a weekend in London--just the two of us.

A couple weeks later, Cameron went back to London with his brother Brendan.  He's agreed to do a blog post about it, but I'm still waiting.

My sister Rachel came and visited for a week.  We had so much fun!

Cameron's family came to spend almost two weeks with us!  We went to Cologne for a day to see the Christmas Markets with Cam's family and Rachel.  

We had a wonderful Christmas in Amsterdam with Cam's family and then headed on our Italy adventure, where we stopped in Florence, Cinque Terre, and Venice.

Florence 

Manarola in Cinque Terre

Venice

I think we had a pretty great year!