Surprise Dinner

Well, we have been living in Belgium for over 9 months now, and there are still things that we are figuring out. Last week we went to one of the grocery stores here. It's the only store I've found that sells white flour, and it even comes in a big bag--relatively speaking. We were on our way to get the flour and passed the meat counter where they had these delicious sausages as a sample. They were so good, it gave me a little boost of courage to ask what they were. The nice butcher told me their name and handed me a form to fill out. I managed to fill it out and found where to put my name, but was stumped by a number it was asking for. A guy was close by and saw my confusion, I guess, and told me I had to pull a number and then write the number down on that line. Easy enough. I turned it in, finished picking up a few other things, waited for them to call my number, and then picked up the sausages. When we got to the check-out, the clerk rang up the groceries and then asked for that number card I had pulled. All of the sudden I couldn't find it--I didn't realize I would need it again. She went ahead and let me go and as we were leaving the store, I found the number folded up in my purse. Oh well, I had conquered another great feat here! The other day, I thought we should go get some more of those sausages for dinner and thought it will be easy now that I knew what to do. Right! I drew a number, picked up the form, and then tried to find the sausages on the sheet that had hundereds of different meats listed--in dutch, of course. I remembered that it started with "barbeque", but accidentally marked something instead of "barbequeworst". We brought them home and I threw it in a pan. It looked like very thick bacon. I wasn't sure what it was, so I asked Eric if he would call a friend in our branch and just see if I was cooking it right. He talked to the guy, got off the phone and told me they really like it and eat it often and that I was cooking it right. We ate it and it was pretty good and then Eric asked if we wanted to know what it was. It was then that we learned we had just eaten HORSE meat. Thankfully, Eric didn't tell me until after we had finished. I won't ever make that mistake again!

Slideshow of Italy and Austria

Slideshow of Italy

Ryan's Birthday

Happy 18th Birthday to Ryan! He got a camera and a trip to Italy (sort of). What more could a boy want. I think he really wanted a DS, but knew it wasn't very practical.

Pisa hotel

The hotel we stayed at in Pisa looked so cute from the outside. It was a charming little seaside resort that was very tropical and relaxing. . . until we opened the door and saw how "cozy" it was. All the kids had to squeeze onto roll-away beds that were crammed together to fit into the little kitchen/living room area. As you can tell, they seemed to sleep fine.

Ashley in Pisa

Here's the "had to get a picture of this" picture! What a wonder woman!

Pisa at night

Here we are at the leaning tower in Pisa, Italy. Most people here wonder why a person would travel off the beaten path to see this, but we thought it was very cool. Sometimes mistakes have an unexpected result.

Switzerland

Pictures of Switzerland and the Alps.

Ausfahrt and Einfahrt

We took these pictures to start our collection of foreign words that are difficult (or funny if you are a kid) to say.

Brandon's Birthday

Brandon celebrated his 13th birthday on Easter Sunday this year. He was extremely excited to get a DS.

The kids had their easter egg hunt in the house because the weather was very nasty. Thanks to grandma and grandpa, they got to find real Easter eggs.

Holland

More pictures in Holland.

Koekenhoff

We went to Holland to see the flowers at the Koekenhoff Gardens. It was probably the coldest day we have ever had. The weather had been too cold for the flowers in the fields to bloom, but we saw many amazing and beautiful flowers in the buildings there. One building was full of these flowers that smelled so good. The whole building smelled--I think--like heaven will smell:)

Paris

The nice weather we had in London did not hold out. We were freezing in Paris.
This was one of our favorite things to see. We were always happy to know there was a WC nearby!
This was the first time we rode to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was a pretty amazing sight to look out over that huge city.

Paris with Grandma and Grandpa!

Eiffel Tower at night.
We stayed in a very "French" hotel while we were there. It had a breakfast of very yummy croissants, juice, eggs, and meat and cheese.


This is what I mean by very "French". I still don't really want to know how you use these. They are in the middle of the room?!

Stonehenge

We got to Stonehenge 5 minutes before it closed:( Too bad. We didn't get to go walk up close to it, but got this picture.

Gadfield Elm Chapel

Does this make you appreciate your padded benches?
This is the oldest Mormon chapel in the world. It was originally built by the United Brethren. Both Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff taught here. In 2004 the chapel was given to the church. It is used today as a meetinghouse and the upstairs has records of all the people who were baptized and taught by Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff. We found one of Eric's relatives there.

Benbow Pond and Farm

This is Benbow Farm where Wilford Woodruff stayed and baptised many converts in the nearby pond. Within 9 months 1800 people joined the church, including almost one entire congregation of the United Brethren. Within 2 years, many of the converts left England and sailed to America.

More London Pictures

We ate fish and chips at the Walker Wine and Ale Bar. Had to get a picture of that!
Emily helped everyone buy a souvenier at this little store. What a generous sister!
Tower Bridge in London.