Ballenbak

We are staying at a sort of vacation park, with a bunch of houses and a big rec center. Every day, as soon as the kids wake up, they convince someone to take them there. The main attraction: a ballenbak (ball pit). The kids are not the only ones who enjoy playing in it. Joe's still just a big kid.

Tecklenburg

Another typical German town. The houses were so cute, and most have been around for 500 years! If only we could all take care of our homes that well, to last that long. We did a lot of playing around, and silly posing.

A reunion

We drove to Germany for our very first van der Put/Valk reunion. We have rented a great house right on the other side of the border (of Germany and Holland), in a town called Bad Bentheim. It's only a 2 hour drive from the West of Holland, but for the Dutch that's quite a distance. Amazingly the landscape starts changing soon after the border as well. There are actual hills, and way less people.

Living in the US, unfortunately limits the amount of time I get to spend with my opa. He is 87, and still doing very well. I miss visiting with him, so it was great to see him again today.

(that's NOT me, but my look-a-like sister Emma)

We visited the castle of Bad Bentheim. It's a rather small castle, but it was a very fun visit. Europeans are not so scared of being sued, so they still let you climb up dangerously steep stairs, and only protect cannon holes with 2 bars, where children can easily slip through and fall to their deaths.
Emma and her boyfriend Jan keps the kids occupied
They had some pretty fancy salad tongs back in those days!

Beachly Sunday

In vacation mode we skipped church and headed for the temple grounds instead. Zoetermeer has a small temple, but it's lovely nonetheless

Trying to show the Simmons some more things real Dutch people do, I took them to the beach in Den Haag that I went to with my tante Siegried (a grandma that was my opa's second wife). I remember that Siegried would make wonderful brown sugar sandwiches, and load me on the back of her bike. We would then ride the bike to the duinen (sand dunes), and make the trek to the beach. This beach is relatively far away from the road, and attracts many families. It also minimizes the amount of nude people, a BIG plus! As a little girl I remember Siegried taking me to a playground in the duinen, but after asking some people, I'm not sure if that's still there.

Mike figured that he might as well still dress like it was actually Sunday

The kids didn't seem to mind the cold ocean.

In the afternoon we reunited with all my family. Everyone except Carlo was there. I haven't seen everybody for a long time. Even Wendy who lives in the US. We headed to the Kinderdijk, which is a place where a whole bunch of windmills are located together. A few of them are still operated, but most are just part of a historical preservation program. Ginger found her new best friend in her cousin Kenzie. The last time they were each other, Kenzie was just a baby.

To the homeland

The days are all melting together. I can't remember when we did what, but we've had a lot of fun. It might have something to do with jet lag, or the busy schedule.

My creative writing is under a lot of stress right now, because I'm trying to live up to the high expectations Mike Simmons has given me. I think he's the first person who's told me I am a good writer, so now I'm all nervous, and worried that I'll mess up. But then again... up to now I just write whatever I'm thinking, so I think the best strategy is to keep doing what I've been doing.

We had the best flight between America and Europe! It was the first time we have flown non-stop, and man does that make a difference!! Plus, we were lucky enough to travel with KLM, which is a 5-star airline compared to the 1 star poohole of American Airlines. I guess the Dutch are more service oriented. Each chair had their own tv, with literally dozens of movies, tv shows and games to choose from. No more worrying about children who get bored or sit backwards in their chairs to terrorize the back neighbor. There was so much choice, that I wanted to just skip the sleeping, and almost wished the trip was actually longer. The food was excellent as well. There was even Dutch Fanta! (very different from the chemically flavored American Fanta). Sorry if I'm sounding a little Dutch biased right now... I am among all Dutch folks.. I guess they're rubbing off on me.

Each time I visit Holland I feel a little more like a visitor, and less like a native. Especially the first day.

After watching movies all night, we got to the hotel of our "old" friends the Simmons (they're really not old, we've just known them for longer than any of our friends- 7 years). They have been living in France for the last 9 months, and are just at the tail end of their adventures. I was just lucky enough to be here to show them a little of my home country. So while we crashed at their hotel, they went on a bike tour through Amsterdam. When we drug ourselves out of lala land, we joined up with them at an awesome flower parade. Once a year the big flower garden puts millions of flowers on floats and shows off why Holland is famous for flowers. Just standing on the road, it seemed like my nose was in a bouquet of flowers.

After walking a few miles we took the Simmons to a typical dutch pannenkoeken (pancake) restaurant, and introduced them to the delights of sugar syrup, bacon, and carbs.

(pics come later)

We caught Joe and Mike sneaking into a "coffeeshop" *dutch name for weed shop- and NO they didn't buy any

Joe and I really enjoyed staying with my cousin Talita and Camaron a few years ago, and were lucky enough to stay with them again. Joe and Cam are 2 peas in a pod. Each time we tried to go to bed, Cam would crack another joke or start another anecdote. It would be fun to live in Zoetermeer and spend more time like this with them.

Ph matters

In high school I detested Chemistry. I had a hard time grasping the principles, plus, I was convinced I would never need it in the "real world" anyways. I guess I was wrong. Living here on my little farm, I've found several uses for chemistry knowledge. First, my pool. It's imperative to keep the swimming water balanced. Balanced water keeps the algea and germs aways. It feels good to the skin. It looks clear and sparkly. Having a Ph between 7.5-7.8 it very important. I learned that Acid lowers the Ph, while Baking Soda makes it higher.

This was some knowledge that would prove very helpful to me yesterday. As I spent 90 minutes peeling 11 hard boiled eggs, and creating puckered/cratered eggs, I wanted to pull out my hair. I kinda knew that fresh eggs were harder to peel than older (store bought) eggs. I just didn't know why. Apparently it has to do with the chemistry of the egg:

"In fresh eggs the albumen sticks to the inner shell membrane more strongly than it sticks to itself because of the more acidic environment of the egg. The white of a freshly laid egg has a pH between 7.6 and 7.9 and an opalescent (cloudy) appearance due to the presence of carbon dioxide. After the protective coat is washed off the egg shell the egg becomes porous and begins to absorb air and loose some carbon dioxide contained in the albumen. This reduces the acidity of the egg which causes (after several days in the refrigerator) the pH to increase to around 9.2. At higher pH the inner membrane does not stick as much to the albumen so the shell peels off easier"

Some website suggested adding baking soda to the boiling water, to manually raise the Ph of the egg. I was open to any suggestions. So with a little fear (after last night's peeling fiasco) I set out to boil some more eggs today. Here are the steps to hard boiled Farm Fresh Eggs.

1. Use the oldest eggs you have. A few days in the fridge makes a big difference
2. Bring the eggs to room temperature.
3. Place eggs, single layer, in a pot, and cover with 2 inches of cold water
4. For about 1 dozen eggs, I added 1 Tbsp Salt and 0.5 Tbsp Baking soda.
5. Bring water to a boil (rolling boil), then cover.
6. Take off the heat, and let sit in hot water for 12-15 minutes.
7. To shock the eggs, run cold water over them, and then let sit in icewater bath for 15-20 minutes.
8. Watch the difference! It only took me about 20 minutes to peel 16 eggs. That's about 8 times faster!!

Now I don't have to be scared to make deviled eggs, egg salad, or potato salad anymore. And it'll be much easier to attempt eating a dozen eggs a day.

Blah!

Remember my disclaimer in my nature intervenes post? Well, we are to that point! Our flight got canceled again, and when I went to reschedule my flight, they informed me that everything is booked full until next Sunday. That's bad for several reasons.

1. We are ready for vacation NOW.
2. Our hosts will have other guests, so we'll have to find another place to stay.
3. The Simmons won't be able to meet us in Holland.
4. This is so close to the end of the school year, that the kids are missing all sorts of important/fun events.

Blah! That's all I can think of right now. I'm just about ready to throw in the towel, and wait to fly until school is out in June (except we can't, because we're supposed to be there next week for a family reunion)