Sunday, June 21, 2009

Windmills, Clogs and Canals


After who knows how long, here's the second part of our Holland trip. I just thought I'd share with you some of my favorite pictures of this beautiful land.

This country oozed rural tranquility as sheep, ponies, and goats roamed alongside the dikes.



How could we resist posing inside these enormous clogs at the clog factory in Zaanse Schans.



At the end of this day, Tristan's exhaustion and irritability could only be cured by a strawberry milk shake (which was previously Pauls until he gave the little guy a sip...).






A cheese shop in Zaanse Schans that featured dozens of delicious types of Dutch cheese. After much deliberating we went home with two varieties that we enjoyed for days and days.


Amsterdam

We so enjoyed this relaxing city as we took a boat through the canals and walked the cozy little streets. Amsterdam is a city filled with more canals than Venice and more cyclists than the Tour de France.








Boat houses fill the canals and are common places to not only live on weekends but serve as permanent residences for numerous 'Nederlanders'.









Anne Frank's house.




Windmills, windmills and more windmills. The town of Kinderdyke was quaint and know for just that -picturesque windmills.




These last pictures of Holland are from Kuekenhoff's petting zoo. After hours of walking around and enjoying the flowers Tristan was more than thrilled to get out of the pack and play with the animals.


This Flintstone type car was oddly placed in the middle of the petting zoo, but Tristan couldn't have been more happy.



You can see from my face that this emu (I think that's what this animal is) just nipped me.



Tristan's favorite animal was by far this little sheep. He couldn't help but climb into its little manger and sit in the hay with him.

Lately Tristan has found every possible spot to find climb into and sit in. After fears of him braking the end tables we finally found a chair just his size.


Tristan just like his dad is a huge fan of meat. More often that not we wonder if Tristan is eating enough, because of most of his meal ends up on the floor. This particular day though, that was not the case. We had barbequed pork ribs and he couldn't get enough.

After putting away an amazing amount of ribs the little guy was feeling fat and happy. I have to say that after reviewing these pictures, I'm wondering what happened to his bib and why he reminds me so much of a crazy old man (you know the ones that roam their home in a wife beater all day) at only a 16 months.

Lastly, we do have some news that we're very excited about. After a recent ultrasound we found out that the newest baby Domm will be....a girl!