Happy 10 year anniversary to us! We had a good rest last night as Eliza actually stayed in her bed! Unfortunately with the hour time change the kids were up before seven (visions of our January return haunt me now!). The dining room at the hostel didn’t open until 7:30 so we got the kids dressed and then I brought them down while Jonathan caught an extra hour. I think I now have his cold. There is a full kitchen we can make use of and free tea and coffee. I made the girls and I a pot of tea and they had chocolate chip muffins and bananas and peanut butter. Jonathan came down at 8:30 and the girls played computer games while I took a nice run. I have not run hills, rolling or otherwise, ... read more

I have written it before but feel I must repeat myself: travel days feel like six days rolled into one. I got up at 5am after a pitiful night’s sleep. Eliza was, once again, in bed with us and between her tossing and my anxiety over sleeping through my alarm I was up about every half hour checking the clock. When 5am rolled around I got dressed and made some tea. I packed the backpacks into the saddle bags on my bike and took out the recycling. Jonathan got up at about 5:30 and showered. We packed up the computer and double checked on passports and documents. We woke the girls at ten to six (Abigail: I am still tired, come back and wake me later). But we dressed them and got them loaded onto the ... read more

We rented a car for the weekend and set out with a plan to explore a little more of Luxembourg and see one castle in particular in Belgium. By the time we got going this morning, got the car, situated the girls in the car and scoped out the map for the eighth time it was almost 10am. We set out towards Luxembourg and the little town of Esch sur Sure. We anticipated about a 2 hour drive; what we didn't anticipate was Abigail puking two times on the way there. Ugh. Luckily she warned us and didn't get herself too messy. The girls entertained themselves fairly well on the way there between books, food, mp3 players and Leapster games. The scenery was beautiful all along our ride, but especially as we approached and entered Luxembourg. ... read more

Got up around 7:15 this morning and made lunches. Jonathan took today off so we could do a family trip before he left for the states tomorrow. We caught the 9:33 train to Ottignies and changed for the train to Villers la Ville. About twelve minutes later we were dropped on the side of the tracks, no ticket counter or anything, and I was glad I wrote down when the return trains were. The guidebook was a little obscure about the location but claimed that the ruins of this 12th century abbey were the most spectacular sight in Brabant-Wallon. Of course you can’t always trust guidebooks and there have been plenty of times when I have been disappointed, so I was prepared for the worst. Additionally, because this places was just a side note in our ... read more

Before we left for Europe in June I took our dog Gus to the vet for a check up. My youngest brother Tim was going to watch him for us while we were gone and he was staying in our house and commuting to college. The trip to the vet proved to be more than just a routine visit and we discovered that he had cancer. It was a horrible few days trying to cope with the news that he would most likely not be around when we returned. The vet gave him a prognosis of 4-6 months. We told the girls that he was getting older and sick but did not elaborate before we left hoping for the best. My in laws were gracious enough to offer to take him into their own home and ... read more