doing a few family rounds..

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doing a few family rounds..

(we still had a few people to visit, and it was my cousins birthday today!)


DAY SIXTEEN:
we woke up earlier than usual because we had a few people do visit in Friesland, dad wanted to visit his aunty whilst still in Holland and he'd planned today to do so. The plan was to be there at 11:00, so that we could have lunch there and hang around for a bit. Unfortunately, a lot of us slept in.. so we pushed it to about 11:30. Which i suppose could be a lot worse now that i think of it. We arrived there and to my surprise, were a lot more people than i expected. Also attending the lunch was 5 of dads cousins. We arrived there with and said hello to everyone, that meant three kisses for everyone. SO MANY KISSES! but we got through them all eventually and all introduced ourselves and had a chat, then we sat down for a nice cup of coffee. I definitely needed one, it'd been too early of a morning, so i could use the wake up boost and it came with cake, so how could i say no? The cake was orange in celebration of soccer, it's nearly impossible to get something that wasn't orange these days and she was nice enough to give me the cake decoration with it that said 'hup holland hup!'

3 cups of coffee later, everyone was still chatting away. The visit was more for dad wanting to catch up with people. They talked a little bit of English but only when they had something to ask, just to make us feel a little bit more involved. I appreciated that, but i didn't mind them talking dutch at all and besides it gives me a chance to pick up what i can. Everyone chatted away and then a couple more people arrived, annnddd there were more kisses. But these people brought presents! my little sister and i both got books on the places and scenery and just general information on Holland, which i actually love. It's always good to learn a little bit more.

Once we were all seated lunch was brought out pretty soon after. We had rolls with different fillings, some with ham, some cheese and some others, and a big pot of tomato soup. The tomato soup was absolute perfection. I'm pretty sure i ended up going for thirds with it, which is quite selfish but it was actually that good! We stuck around until roughly 2 then we had to head off because dad was going to take opa for a road trip. So we headed to the car garage where our Volvo was to see if we would be able to collect it.. unfortunately not. luckily! they were nice enough to offer another car for the mean time. So dad headed off with the dodge to opa, and mum my little sister and I drove around killing a bit of time until 4ish.

Mums, sisters, son was turning 13 so she'd organised a bit of a familyAfter dinner at her house which we were welcome to come to. We killed some time driving to hardware stores because we were on the hunt for a nice umbrella to go outside my aunty and uncles house as a thanks for letting us stay. We found a few nice ones but at the moment we were just price hunting and looking at the styles they had available. With a little bit of driving we easily passed enough time and then we headed over.

Already there was the parents of mums, sisters, husband, and the parents of mum. They all arrived a bit earlier because they weren't intending on staying for dinner. I caught up with my little cousin who's 10, she and i did loom bands for a lot of the afternoon. I had the intention to make an owl for her but then i stuffed up and rage quit.. so she never got it. But we had a laugh none the less. As it neared closer to tea the parents left, and my uncle arrived with his gorgeous 2 year old. She's the youngest of my cousins and she has a talent. Her talent is that she can put a smile on absolutely anyone face, she's just such a dag with just a contagious smile! It's amazing.
Tea was delicious, my aunty made a sort of party food but it was adult party food, so it was lots of nibbles and different sorts of things, it was really good. I couldn't go past the potato salad so that's where i was most of the night..

After dinner, my cousin and my little sister rode to the super market to buy a few ice creams which they then brought back and we got to eat, classy almond magnums so no one was complaining. After tea we just hung around, my uncles son, my aunties daughter and son, myself and my little sister all just chilled around. We played a few ball games, and ran a muck for a bit. My uncle drove past and grabbed his son as they were about to head home, the rest of us played for a bit longer.. but soon enough boredom striked us again so we headed back home. By then it was getting late and my aunties kids all had exams and school the next day so we thought it was best we'd head off. We thanked them all for dinner and said bye. But even though our byes just seemed like casual 'see you later's' it wasn't.. This was probably the last time we'd see them for another few years. My little cousin of 10 years old was absolutely gutted, she was crying as he headed of and that really saddened me. Because as good as it always is to see everyone, whilst it's overseas you always have to say goodbye again. That got me down a little.

None the less, while we were all cheerful and smiling it was a great night.

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Photos

A NICE CANAL SHOT.
you can see all the boats and the houses among the water. :)