Easter & Tulips

The Easter Bunny did, in fact, arrive and left eggs for 2 Easter hunts.  Ones with little tiny chocolate eggs for the morning when they woke up and then the eggs they decorated were hidden outside.  Sadly, Ben came down with a stomach flu and couldn't even make through Easter service.  The kids and I decided to head an hour south that day to a place called WildPark which is similar to a zoo but the animals are free to roam in their natural habitats versus little cages.  This means that they walk among us.  It was neat to have large wart hogs, deer, peacocks among other animals so close.  The exception was the wolves, bear, and buffalo of which had a several acre fence aroud them.  Very neat to see though!

The Tuesday following Easter, we made the 5-hour drive to The Netherlands.  Specifically, to a little town called Rijnsburg which is a bike-ride away from the famous Tulip Fields.  We were blessed with amazing weather, a cute little trailer-camper, and an English family with kids around the same age as ours.  As mentioned we saw the Tulips fields at Keukenhof, the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam, and relaxed in the North Sea beach town Scheveningen.

All dressed up - ready for church.

The Easter bunny also hid soccer balls.

Best we could get with the camera timer

Animals just roaming around

The hiking trails had some neat trees

You ask them to stand for a picture, they start wrapping their arms around each other in a bear hug and then this inevitably happens - one of them gets hurt.

The campground had several pools including an indoor one!

Amsterdam proved to be a little more exciting than we had hoped.  As instructed by the camp courier, we should use a Park & Ride location to get into Amsterdam which allows you to drive close to the city, park for super cheap and then ride public transportation further in.  He gave us a map of seven of them and sent us on our merry way.  Unfortunately, our navigation system didn't work at the street level outside of Germany so we had to hand write our instructions (no biggie).  Well after an hour of driving around these Park & Rides, 2 of them were full, 2 we couldn't find and the kids were getting a bit antsy but we finally found a parking place - just not a Park & Ride.  

Then about 10 minutes in, we noticed we didn't have our camera.  Oh well, we thought, we will use our phone.  The quality has improved in the last years.  I really had envisioned sitting down along the canals and eating outside only to not find one that wasn't full so we opted for a restaurant outside a large street to people watch.  As you will see by the picture below, it wasn't the most relaxing experience.  Then as we went to pay our bill, we found a slight communication breakdown between Ben and I on who had the money - neither of us!  Fortunately, they took Visa but we had no cash.

With no camera and no cash, we set on our way to find the Anne Frank house.  As expected, the line was 1000 people deep (I attempted pre-purchasing them before we left but the online tickets were sold out) so we enjoyed the view from the outside.  After we walked the city and took in the views, we set on our way back home.  With millions of people walking the streets, I was surprised the limited number of bathrooms available - Germany is also similar in this respect.  Does nobody have young children?!  We made multiple bathroom pitstops in random shops only to pay ~$5 each time to use them.  

After the last bathroom break, we decided to call it a day and hop back on the bus to head back to our car. Just as we went to jump on, Cashton said he had to go potty.  WE JUST WENT.  He had done #2 15 minutes earlier and then #1 just 2 minutes ago.  I decided to not believe him.  We were on the bus as Cashton continually held his bottom saying "I have to go bathroom" with me saying 'Cashton we'll be there soon, you'll have to wait'. Now, I was calm as a cucumber as this point because he had a pull-up on for an emergency such as this so if he happened to go it would be find.  Little did I know how badly he really had to go and that this little pull-up would would prove either insufficient or defective.  Five minutes later, Cashton started declaring 'I'm pooping Momma, I'm pooping!'.  Its true, Cashton defecated himself and it seeped out onto my jeans on the public transport bus in which we had to stay on and torture all those that came on/off for the next 30 minutes. The smell was horrendous and the bus was hot!   Not one person complained either - well at least not in a language that I could understand they were complaining J.  I take that back – a 70 year old couple came on towards the end and I think she said to him ‘scheetz’, I can only imagine what this translates to in Dutch.  

Ben in front of Anne Frank's house

Nothing like the pictures others take where they show the full beer glass and the nice weather they are enjoying while eating :).

If you look closely you'll see the poo all over my jeans.

Good thing we always bring a change of clothes and plenty of wipes.  Too bad I didn't bring a change of clothes for me - luckily Ben had just bought a pair of short so I was able to put them on and use my belt to keep them up.  It was a sight to see.

We woke the next morning to Karis throwing up and missing the toilet 2 of the 3 times.  This forced us to stay back at the camper and just relax on the deck and take short-walks.  Proved to be a very relaxing day prior to our drive home.

I guess I'll categorize this in section of fantastic family vacations.  I may have a calling for writing a book titled 'Tips for Parents Travelling with Small Children'.