Herways Do Europe 2015

We flew into the Brussels April 1st, the day before Jonah turned 1! Grammie had everything we needed to celebrate Jonah's birthday in style. We made a trip to Le Quotidien for a Chocolate Bombe in lieu of a cake. He didn't really know what to do with the treat and was a little confused about what all the fuss was about. And in case Jonah ever feels neglected as the third child, Hey Jonah! We took you to Europe for your first birthday!

Ta Da! Thanks Grammie!

Jonah also had his first haircut while we were there. Grammie is a professional after cutting boys hair for so many years!

The first few days we spend around Brussels visiting lots parks and getting our hands on delicious treats! First on the list were waffles, hot chocolate, and Carrefour sandwiches!

Soccer fields at the Cinquantenaire

Baby's First Waffle

Luke had lots of requests to play "Bing Bong" with Pop

Next up was Easter Weekend, Tom and Anita took us to their favorite hotel near Bonn, Hotel Dreesen  right on the Rhein.

This bike ride, while beautiful, was absolutely freezing. 

Can you believe the Easter Bunny found our hotel room?!  

The Rhein is not impressive to Luke. 

Our resident animal lover because good friends with this donkey at the Drachenfels 

We had to bring our lederhosen to Germany! 

Thank heavens for big brothers to entertain the baby brothers

Not sure what was better, they view of the Rhein or the breakfast! Pretty delicious! 

Three Generations

          

Back to Brussels- so many fun parks around Brussels. I love how different and non-safety conscious their parks are!

Had to take a picture of how teeny tiny the elevator in Grammie and Pop's apartment building. One day Taft got stuck in the elevator with Grammie and Pop. He began to cry not because he was scared, but because he was afraid he would get to eat again. 

We missed a month of school for this trip so unfortunately we had to do homework most days. At least we had this AMAZING view!

Hofsted Park- the coolest!

More of Hofsted

Anita and I both got stuck at this thing helping Belgian kids on the zip line! 

The main reason we were able to take this long of a trip is because Seth arranged a rotation at Leuven Hospital for a UCSD Resident. He's from Germany so he was also able to squeeze in some visits with his family.  

Grammie and Pop gave Martin the grand Brussels tour and trip to Pita Row

Day trip to Ghent

I love visiting Ghent. It is stunning. We went on such beautiful day too. 

Chocolate Wheels in Bruges. Taft was a really big fan of how many delicious treats are in Belgium. He still tells people that Belgium has the best treats in the world. 

I've been to Bruges lots of times but never came across this view. I love it.

I already knew Europe doesn't really do kids meals, but these glasses cracked me up. The boys loved using such fancy glasses.  And this picture will always make me remember when Pop took a sip of Luke's Fanta and he let out the loudest shriek  I've heard come from him. DON'T MESS WITH LUKE'S FANTA. Lesson learned. 

A fantastic pizza place right down the street from Grammie and Pop's city apartment. 

Belaxing

I've never really been into the mayo with frites, but this time we tried it with tartar sauce. Two thumbs up. 

Anita invited me to play tennis with her friends. Loved playing on the clay court. 

Yummy gelato in Leuven

Bookworm Taft

The last time we visited Belgium was September (?) of 2013. We overlapped with Colie and Jed for a couple of days. They built an awesome fort behind Seth's parents house. The boys remembered and we checked to see if it was still there. It had fallen a bit but it was still there!

The forest floor was covered with these white flowers. It looked like snow in some spots.

Luke: "I LOVE THESE FLOWERS!"

Luke: "It's a galaxy of flowers!"

We stopped by the Sijsjeslaan house before heading to the forest. We could tell work was being done so we went to go check it out. Nobody was there at first so we let ourselves in. Taft and Luke were so nervous we were going to get in trouble. The owner came back while we were still inside! Oops! Luckily she was so so nice and didn't seem to think it strange that 5 strangers were in her house!

Also, as much as I love this house, it was so cool to be downtown this time. Tom and Anita's apartment is awesome and has a killer view from every room. We loved it. 

Blurry, but documented. Seth got to ride the Paris Roubaix bike ride. This was the 113th edition of the race. It's a 157 mile ride, mostly on cobblestone- ROUGH cobblestone, all done with a road bike. Seth said he thought his bike was going to break it was so rough. He was really glad he did it but said it was probably a once in a lifetime thing. It was tough! 

One last photo before we thought we were on our way home. Long story, but we ended up staying another night in Brussels. 

It took a few hours at the airport to get things situated. The boys made themselves at home on the floor with some Delifrance baguettes.