Thanksgiving Recap

Think this girl was ready for a little Thanksgiving yumminess!?
Since Marc worked on Thanksgiving we decided to go to the Chapel for a community dinner and we had a great time.  It was a potluck and there was a ton of food.  It was nice not to have any dishes to wash after the meal! 

Our sweet Isabella is NOT a fan of crowds...I think I have mentioned that a time or 2 before! :)  If there are more then 5 people in a room she won't leave my side AT ALL.  I once was shy too so I get it. :)

Marc, Ava and Isaac enjoying the feast!

We stayed to help with clean-up and Isabella went to work.  She loves helping out and was finally warming up to people (of course she was happy that most of the people had left).

Isaac always like to play with the balls that they have attached to the bottom of the chairs.  There is always some sort of fun game to be had!

The girls in the kitchen helping out Miss Letty.

This was our attempt at a group shot.  Wow, they are busy these days and it is SO hard to get them looking at the camera at the same time!
We hope that your Thanksgiving was a wonderful one!

Happy Thanksgiving 2012 Netherlands Style!

Santoroni -- Greek Cruise -- Port #2

I know, I know, we have been MIA!  It's not because we don't want to post.  It's just that our days the last couple of weeks have been so full!  Last week was probably the busiest week we have had since we moved here.  It's all good stuff (teacher conferences, wine tasting parties, birthday parties, etc...) plus a couple of sleepless nights with kids with coughs :(
Well, back to the post at hand...our 2nd stop of our Greek Isles cruise was beautiful Santorini...if you have seen pictures of Greece this is the place that may come to mind!  That is the city of Fira on top of the hill.

We had to take boats into the port, so we were getting onto the tendered boat.

Do you see the switch back path leading up the hill (look to mountain at the end of the boat)?  There are 1 of 2 ways to get up...you an walk it (or ride a donkey) or you can take a cable car...we took the cable car.

We mostly didn't do the ship excursions (talk about overpriced!) and so in this port we rented a car...this wasn't what we had planned but it fell into place.  Every port was a different experience & hence we treated each as an opportunity to adventure :)

We thought it was better transporation then this!  Ha HA!

So this is what I am talking about!  This is in the town of Oia and it was BEAUTIFUL!  I had a calendar years ago with a picture similar to this on it.

We had a blast walking around this town.  We did a little shopping and Marc enjoyed some Baklava (Paklava is the Armenian pastry name) and Kunafa (sweet cheesy pastry).

Really, I was in an awesome dream....

We finally asked someone to take our picture.

The ship came into port a little later in the afternoon, so we could stay a little longer ashore & enjoy the sunset in this magical place.

This is right before we headed back to the ship.  We decided to walk down.

I can't say this was the best idea...just imagine enormous amounts of donkey do-do!
It was such a great time that even that didn't bother us too much...more stops & memories to come--stay tuned....

http://www.sarkispastry.com/baklava1.html

Videos of the girlies....

These girlies are just too cute!  Here is a little video from a few weeks ago.  They are growing up fast and good at playing.  When it is sunny here (which hasn't been often lately) they love being outdoors.  They are super creative and come up with the funniest things...enjoy...



Here's another great video from the girl's 2nd b-day.  I totally forgot to post it and Isabella's face cracks me up! Think she was focused on that candle? :)

Election 2012 & Veteran's Day Ceremony - Netherlands

Being 9hrs ahead of California Time - PST :), I had to wake up at 4am to start seeing some of the final coverage....I had some support from my little political scientist when she woke up at 0600hrs...she was all about checking the available media....

Watching the poll closings and state announcements...

Satellite TV - BBC live coverage & Online Internet - Fox News live updates

Cute activist with TV & Satellite controllers :)

OK, so what are the results?

President Obama received the required more than the minimum number of 270 electoral college votes and therefore 4-more years. Congratulations!

*******
JFC Brunssum celebrates Veteran's Day with a Ceremony at the American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands

The Remembrance Pool

The AFNORTH Junior ROTC element and students provided the Color Guard, Presidential Address, and Poetry for the Ceremony.

The Chapel

The JROTC Color Guard

Marc & Jack (a friend from church) look good in their full Army Dress Uniforms.

Corfu

1st stop...hello Corfu!

Corfu was a great 1st stop and did not disappoint.  We started our day with a little Greek coffee for Marc and tea for me.

It was sunny and we were so excited to be in GREECE! This was our 10-yr Anniversary Celebration & as we look back at these pictures we are amazed at what a special time we shared on a truly wonderful dream come true adventure!!! 

The town of Corfu had quite a few shops and historical monuments but what we were excited to get to was....

the beach!  We didn't do a shore excursion with the cruise ship.  Instead, we decided to do our own thing.  We found a taxi driver in the city center that took us to a beach on the other side of the Island...the only nerve racking thing was whether he would come back and get us like he said he would!

We also got a little Greek food...yep, that would be a TRUE Greek salad in front of me...SO GOOD!

It was a fun few hours at the beach...see Marc's head in the water! He was loving the water since the pool on the cruise ship was not really for swimming :) Marc swam some laps and then came back on shore to enjoy some sunshine before a few little sprinkles...It was kinda like the rain in Hawaii as it just passed thru and then more sunshine.

We loved all the rocky cliffs...it felt like a pirate movie and we were down in our own little cove.

Many, many times we looked at the Greek language and used the popular phase "It's all Greek to me"!  Thank goodness it was a tourist area that also had signs in English!  Oh...yes, the taxi driver did pick us up shortly after taking this picture! :)
More to come....