Amsterdam--part 2

Queen's Day

We were excited to be in Amsterdam for one of the big holidays--Queen's Day or Koninginnedag.  It is a national holiday to celebrate the Queen's birthday.  The night before--Queen's night--there are celebrations all over town.

We met up with Rayan downtown.  Of course I had to get some fries.  :)  YUM!

Here we are Queen's Day at the local shopping area for the massive garage sale.  What's that you ask?!?  Well, Queen's Day is the one day of the year that they are allowed to sale things on the street without a permit and tax free.  So it is basically a nation wide garage sale!  I love it!  The whole area is covered with people sitting out selling second hand items.

We decided Kaiden needed some loot from Queen's day, so we bought him this police car for 50 cents.  Turns out the door was broken, so Oma went to the toy store and got him a new one (that also makes noise).  Now when Kaiden plays with them he makes the hooo-ahhhh hoooo-ahhhh sound of European police cars.  It cracks me up!  He loves them both!

After hitting the local shopping area, we left the kids with Oma and headed downtown.

We heard the streets can get very crowded and it isn't a good idea to take kids.  Uhh, yeah, that is true!  There is a canal in this picture.  Can you see it?!?

Here is another super crowded canal! 

And wow, can you say sale ANYTHING?!?!  We literally saw just about anything you can image for sale on the streets!  A few of my favorites/oddest:  girls that would paint your nails, a chair to sit and rest for a few minutes (boy was that one tempting after 5 hours of walking!), bras, razor blades, chance to pet a dog, cocktails--anything that you can imagine...

I really wish I had taken pictures of some of these things.

We didn't buy anything, but of course I had to have some more fries.  hehe!  We had a wonderful day walking the streets of Amsterdam.  We walked places I'd never been (and some I think even Lichar hadn't been!)

The Forest of Amsterdam

The Amstelveen Dillon's (aka: Rayan, Dips and Maya) were heading to het Amsterdamse Bos ("the Forest of Amsterdam") and invited us along.  My day started with this yummy hot chocolate.

We walked along the edge of this lake.  So happens that this was also the flight path of airplanes leaving the airport that day.  Kaiden was in heaven.  "Airplane!"  A few seconds later... "Airplane!"  There was probably an airplane every 2-3 minutes!

This is pretty much what we did all day...seems like there was always at least one kid that needed something.  :)

But walking along in the park was a great!

Ahhhhh, holding hands!

At the end of the lake we stopped for a little snack at the pancake house.

Kaiden enjoying some juice.

Love these faces!

Then the kids got to play on the play area there.

Kaiden's favorite was this helicopter.

Look at those grins!!

Waving bye to the helicopter.

After our day at the park, we went to Maya's house for dinner.  Kaiden loved the pre-dinner munchies typically served at our Dutch houses.  He and Maya got their own bowls.  :)

These two are only 5 months apart in age, and they have lots of similarities.  They sound so much alike that if we weren't watching who was talking, none of us could tell which one was talking.  They also both speak Dutch and English so they completely understood each other (and Maya speaks Punjab as well).

They shared a chair for dinner.  :)

I love how Maya is sticking her finger in the ketchup here.  Something K does often as  well.

Pipi

We also took a day to go visit Pipi.

Kaiden talking to Mailee.

Pipi enjoyed watching Mailee.

You can't see it in this picture, but I swear both the kids have Pipi's beautiful blue eyes.  She has the kindest eyes...

Pipi laughed watching Kaiden play with his police car.

More train rides.

Downtown

We took the kids downtown for an afternoon.  Kaiden was once again a happy camper as this time we saw BOATS!

Most of the pictures we got look like this, because we couldn't get Kaiden to stop watching the boats long enough to look a the camera.

More subways.  :)

Hmmm, I have to share my fries with Kaiden? ;)

He did eat a few, but lucky for me, he wasn't too interested in them!

We sat and had a drink at our favorite square, Leidseplein.  Don't worry, Kaiden's was apple juice.  :)

I love this series of pictures...Kaiden loves his Daddy!

We've had to learn our way around the subway system using the elevators...definitely a new challenge.  On our way back to the house we encountered this elevator.  Yup, that would be stairs leading up to the elevator.  Helpful, verrrry helpful!