Awesome Antwerp

Today is Memorial Day, so all four of us had the day off. We hadn't planned anything to do, but decided during church yesterday that we just had to go SOMEWHERE. So we called up to the pet resort and lucked out with reservations, then tried to think of a few places we could go to that were still within Belgium (since Jared has to get prior approval to travel out of country). Ellie had learned about Antwerp in her Host Nation class at school, so that was the winner. So up to Antwerp we went.

For being completely unplanned, everything turned out GREAT. The hotel we chose was right downtown, and we could walk to a bunch of shops and restaurants, the Grot Markt (their big town square), and the harbor. We also lucked out with a beautiful suite with lots of privacy for me and Jared. Ahem. Since we didn't arrive until dinnertime, we just grabbed some dinner (yummy, by the way) and wandered around the rest of the evening. This morning we slept in (of course!), then jumped on a hop-on-hop-off tour around the city. We hopped off at the central station, and wandered around the diamond district and also looked at all the fashion shops. We were too lazy to wait for the next bus, so we then grabbed a taxi to the harbor, where they had a really cool Food Truck Festival. Ellie and I got our pho on, and Jack discovered a new love for nutella-filled crepes. Afterwards, we walked through the Grot Markt. As we were heading back to the hotel, we discovered my new Home Away From Home - a chocolate restaurant with the yummiest hot chocolate, brownies, milkshakes, and ice cream. I told the owner that I loved him (he thought I was joking). After our bellies were full of chocolatey goodness, it was time to head on back. All in all, an awesome weekend in Antwerp.


Jared always insists on a selfie, even though we look incredibly dorky trying to capture one.

Apparently we looked pitiful enough that a nice Belgian man came over and offered to take our photo. And then probably went home and talked about the incredibly dorky American family he met.

Wandering around the Grot Markt

We lucked out, and happened upon a Food Truck Festival. There were dozens of food trucks there, with really yummy food. Ellie and I shared some food, Jared got a waffle on a stick, and Jack had a nutella-filled crepe.

All of the food trucks had really cool designs

I liked the converted camper

Ellie liked the teacup food truck

Jared liked this cool car

Pink food truck, anyone?

Jared was nice enough to share his waffle on a stick

Jack wasn't as keen on sharing his nutella-filled crepe, but I managed to steal some

And true to our travel tradition, we tracked down a local McDonald's. Jack gave a thumbs-up. Please note the NORMAL "small" drink, unlike the monstrosities they have back in the states.

My new favorite place in the whole wide world.

No truer statement.

Take a look at that hot chocolate, people. Four kinds of chocolate (white, milk, 55%, and 75%), topped with frothy milk. You stir it all up at your table, and it just becomes a chocolate dream. Jared and the kids shared some brownies and ice cream, but I was too busy with my hot chocolate to notice.

Very happy people.

Caves of Han

The CAVES OF HAN...sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Well, it's not - but it's fun! The caves of Han are, well, caves, that are about an hour and a half from our home. They have really cool, old caves that you can walk through, a museum, a fun playground for the kiddies, and a safari area, where you can drive or walk through and see a bunch of cool animals all kind of free-range. The safari tour was in French, which means that we relied on Lydia's Limited French to understand it (given my level of French right now, that means that we understood the animals' names, where they were from, and how much they weigh - yup, that's about it - but I'm learning! give me a break!). But even with the language barrier (which we're quite used to by now), it was a lot of fun, and definitely worth the drive. Thumbs up for the dramatically named CAVES OF HAN!


The safari was a lot of fun, especially since you could get really close to most of the animals. It's springtime, too, so we got to see lots of cute baby animals.

Did I mention that you could get really close to the animals? It's hard to tell with this photo, but those bears were REALLY close. I'm guessing that Belgians must be smarter than Americans, because some American yahoo would TOTALLY try to get to those bears.

This is one of the entrances to the cave - since it's hard to take photos in a cave, you'll have to trust us that they were cool.

Baby Teeto To the Rescue

There's one thing you need to understand about our dog Oliver (otherwise known as Baby Teeto). And that is, he's not your ordinary dog. I mean, sure, he might look like your ordinary, smelly, hairy, goofy, drooly basset hound. But below that deceptive exterior lies the heart of a warrior, a poet, an all-around Renaissance dog.

Or so my kids would have you believe.

Do you know The World's Most Interesting man commercials, where they tell you all of the hard-to-believe facts about The World's Most Interesting Man? Well, every day I get my own version of that. Every day, one of the kids will walk up to me and tell me, straight-faced and somber, about Baby Teeto's latest accomplishments.

"Mom, did you know that Baby Teeto's muscles are the size of melons?"

"Mom, did you know that Baby Teeto travels almost exclusively by private plane? He doesn't need to, since he can run at the speed of light, but he's so popular that he needs to for security reasons."

"Mom, did you know that the original U.S. flag didn't have 13 stripes to represent the 13 colonies? It actually had 13 pictures of Baby Teeto's head."

"And by the way, Mom, did you know that the original 'Star-Spangled Banner' was written about Baby Teeto? Francis Scott Key was so relieved, after all the fighting, that Baby Teeto was still there."

"Mom, did you know that if you look up 'cute' in a thesaurus, that you see the words 'Baby Teeto'?"

"Mom, did you know that Baby Teeto's butt is so squishy, he can actually bounce on it like Tigger?"

"Mom, did you know that religious leaders like the Pope often call Baby Teeto for advice?"

"Mom, did you know that when Baby Teeto grows up, he wants to be just like himself?"

"Mom, Baby Teeto says don't you worry about your size, boys want a little more booty to hold at night"


Sure, these may all sound a little hard to believe. But look closely at Baby Teeto (after you've wiped off the slobber and hair that he just shook on you). Look very closely. Then you'll see.

Baby Teeto is awesome.

(Sure, it LOOKS like he's sitting on Ellie. But really, he's saving her. Good job, Baby Teeto.)

Chocolate, Chocolate, Everywhere

I'll be completely honest - I'm not "that mom" who likes to chaperone field trips. Aside from having to take off from work to do them, the idea of sitting on a hot, smelly bus with a bunch of screaming kids, then having to herd aforementioned screaming kids around a boring, dusty, old museum does not appeal. So, whenever Ellie would ask me to chaperone a field trip, I would pretend that something was burning on the stove and hurry away. (Yes, that Mom of the Year Award is indeed coming in the mail, any day now.) But this time she begged. She pleaded. She expressed her desire for quality Mom-Daughter Time. Sigh. So I looked at the list of upcoming field trips - and found one to a chocolate museum.

Now THAT I can do.

So off we went to Brugge, where they have a chocolate museum. Complete with the history of chocolate, all the important facts about chocolate (you can never learn too much about chocolate), with of course a lot about Belgian chocolate. But then there's also the actual CHOCOLATE, wherein you get FREE CHOCOLATE, and get to make chocolate, and then EAT CHOCOLATE. And all in the name of learning, my friends. So, it's all good - Ellie got her chaperone, Lydia got her chocolate, all is right with the world.


On the bus, heading to Brugge - that's my little group - Kriscea, Ellie, and Bogi. (Yes, Bogi - that's actually short for a really long and confusing Hungarian name, so I'm glad she goes by Bogi. And by the way, cute as a button. I lucked out with my group - cutey patooteys.)

After the hour-and-a-half drive, the bus dropped us off, and we had to walk about a half-hour to the museum. Luckily, Brugge is a lovely town to walk through, and there are literally chocolate shops EVERYWHERE.

As we took the tour, we completed a little quiz about chocolates.

I think the mascot's name is Choco-La-La or something - no offense, but not the most sophisticated mascot in my opinion, but hey, nobody asked my opinion.

But, ah, here's the best part - we got to go into the chocolate room and design chocolates. First, the kids got to design their own choco-la-la chocolate using dark and milk chocolates.

Then they got to decorate their own little chocolate candies - I can't remember the Belgian name for them, but they're popular around here - they're just round little chocolate disks, then they dump on candies or fruit and nuts.

That's our instructor for the day - very nice, but way too skinny for someone who works with chocolate all day.

And yes, slurping the chocolate from your pastry bag was encouraged - it's a chocolate museum, people.

Sunday Afternoon, Jared Style

Because Sunday's all about the rest, right?

Le Cinema Belge

To be honest, up until now, we've never been to a Belgian movie theater. There's an American one on the NATO base, and it shows American movies, and it's really cheap, and it's convenient, and so we go there for movies. But last weekend, we were feeling up for a change. So we headed up to Brussels to a local movie theater there. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, we saw an American movie (a really BAD American movie, for the record). But still, we enjoyed the Belgian experience.

The Belgian experience, for the record, includes paying to use the bathroom (40 euro cents per person, please). And really, they just don't see bathroom-going as much of a private thing as Americans do - you can totally see the women's bathroom from the men's bathroom and vice versa, not to mention that you can see all the boys peeing outside against the brick wall because they don't want to pay 40 euro cents to use the bathroom. The Belgian experience also includes lots and lots and LOTS of previews and commercials before the movie - both in French and Flemish, so even if you've managed to master French, you still won't understand half of the commercials. In some theaters, the Belgian experience includes an intermission (although not in this one). But ... and here comes some awesomeness, people .... the Belgian experience here includes some REALLY AWESOME SNACKS.


We're talking lots and lots of candy

And drinks as far as the eye can see

Or if you're in the mood for chips, we got your chips

But don't forget your popcorn

Or heck, just grab yourself some ice cream and be done with it


So you know, given my priorities, I will totally put up with the expensive toilets, and the confusing previews, because man, those snacks. Ahh, the Belgian experience.

Cutey Patootey

How do we say this. Ellie is unique. She marches to the beat of her own drummer. OK, let's be honest, she is sometimes a bit nutty. But in a really awesome way. And we love her just the way she is. One of the awesome things about Ellie is that she REALLY gets into stuff. She goes ALL OUT. And she's really gotten into the stuff around SHAPE here. If there's a party, she's there. Dress-up day at school? She's your gal. Activity of any kind? Just call Ellie. She's up for anything. Which will be a very scary thing when she's a teenager. We really may need to think about that. But for now, it's all good. Go, crazy Ellie, go.


Want some face painting? Sure! Ellie does!


Wear-purple-for-some-reason-that-I-can't-remember-day? Ellie is THERE!

Make your own flower bouquet? Sure, why not! Just call Ellie and she's there!