Scotland - St. Andrews (Old Course)

If you know my husband at all, you know he loves his game of golf. While over here we just had to take the opportunity to see St. Andrews, where the game began, for ourselves.

He researched the course and found that he could possibly walk on as a single player if there were available tee times when he arrived. There was no booking ahead unless you wanted to pay a few thousand pounds to stay at their hotel as well...no thanks!

We decided the 'walk on' thing was worth a shot, so we awoke at 4:30 Thursday morning, left after 5 and arrived at the course shortly after 6:30. The first tee time was at 7:00. We didn't know what to expect. He had warned me that the kids and I might have to hang around the city of St. Andrews for 12 -14 hours if it took all day for him to make it on to the course. I was prepared mentally for the worst (you know, dealing with crabby kids) so my hubby could have the opportunity of a lifetime.

There were 4 others in front of him vying for a treasured lucky spot of walking on to play the Old Course. Meanwhile, the kids and I were hanging out in the car for a few hours waiting for anything besides the course to awake in the small town. I have to say they have become quite flexible with their traveling skills! They are such great little travelers now. (The volcano chaos didn't even phase them as late Friday night we discovered our flight back home was canceled for Saturday and we'd need to seek alternative ways of departing Edinburgh which ended up being a 12 hour ordeal of riding various trains Sunday.)

Great news - he called and he could start around 8 AM to be done by noon. Perfect!

He rented a caddy to carry his clubs so his bad hip wouldn't stiffen on him, which ended up being a great decision since the caddy had the course memorized and could easily report yardage to the pin for club choices.

After a few hours of hanging in the car, the kids and I headed to breakfast and then took a short walk along the beach where we found sea glass. Afterwards we walked just down the road a little to a cheesy aquarium occupying the time until noon when he would be finished.

I'm so thankful we came here. He was giddy the rest of the trip, constantly talking about the day and how much fun he had playing this course since it had far exceeded his expectations.

Here he is posing as Jack Nicklaus.

While hoping for an even par of a day, I'd say we scored a double eagle! It ended even better than we could have possibly hoped with the kids' great moods, the bright sunny weather, and the golfer in the family hitting a 79 at his dream course. It just doesn't get any better than that!

We Made it Home

After a long day of traveling yesterday (about 12 hours total) we slept in our own beds last night. Once again, the kids were troopers and didn't complain much about the mode and length of transportation. I'll just tell you too, that the London train station is doing some booming business! There's nothing to do there but eat or shop, and our family did both, spending more pounds than we had planned.

One of my favorite stores was there - Accessorize! It's so girly and fun. K urged me to go find something to buy for myself and I thought, "What do you even buy? There are way too many things I just love in this store!" I overcame, and limited my selection down to a few items. J had fancied this peacock hair accessory from earlier in the week. I tried really hard to talk her out of it, but you can see who won that battle.
Europeans walking by just giggled at our children and their suitcase riding abilities. Hey, whatever keeps them happy works for us. It's also a bonus for us - they don't ask for any help with their suitcases.

So, after walking through the door of our abode last night around 10:30, and falling asleep very quickly afterwards, the craziness of laundry continually piles for me as R woke up with the horrible stomach bug that's been going around. K has our only car since our second is at the airport. (We were going to pick it up this morning after sending the kids off to school, but you can see that plan failed.) The dog is still stuck at the kennel until I can retrieve my car. Poor Kelsey! I'm just glad that stomach bug chose to visit us after we arrived home instead of on the train, and so I'm off to do some more laundry.

New Game Called "Where in the World are YOU Stranded?"

So we headed to Scotland this spring break to only end up there for a few more days than anticipated. I'm writing from an awkward keyboard from the hotel that has graciously decided to allow us to extend our stay one more day since our flight to Belgium was cancelled for tonight. Thankfully the timing of this volcano has not discomforted our family too much. Sure, we're going to be out more than a few hundred dollars with the extra hotel fee, 3 separate (and might I add LONG) train rides to get home tomorrow, and other random expenses this has cost us. In the grand scheme of things though, my family is safe, we can afford the expenses, and we're not stranded here too long (not that I haven't grown fond of Scotland) since my kind hubby stayed up until 2 AM figuring out the best way for us to transport ourselves back to Belgium.
Our kids attend an international school and just minutes earlier I was checking e-mail for the first time since this event has shut down Europe air travel only to find a new game from our friends seeking the answer to where everyone is stranded. Many are still back in the states or areas of the world that can't get to Belgium by train. When you stop and think about it, it's pretty amazing how God can make us all stop and remember that He is in control of absolutely everything, even volcanoes.

Our Latest Visitor, Flat Nate!

I thought it was going to be just another ordinary day walking the kids to the bus with our dog, putting the trash out, checking the mail, when I found a surprise inside our mailbox. It was a guy known as Flat Nate (just like Flat Stanley - in the book). He had traveled all the way from Indy to come for a visit! Our son and Nate were born just one day apart - Nate on the 22nd of May and R on the 23rd. They've literally known each other since they were 1 week old and we have pictures to prove it. (Not sure where the version that I could put on the blog is, but they're in our scrapbooks.) The boys have grown up together and we were flattered when Nate thought to send himself - flat and all - to Belgium for a visit! He arrived at just the right time, spring break. We were off for a few adventures these two weeks.

Flat Nate has come along with us to see the Lion Mound where the Battle of Waterloo took place, the Atomium, a little city called Hans-sur-lesse where we toured an animal reserve and a cave, and Dinant, another little city in the southern part of Belgium.

It's still a mystery to us how these buffalo lined up like Rockettes getting ready for some leg kicks, although, they appear to rather be desiring a nap right now!

We thought J would lose it when we spied some bats in the cave, but she kept her cool and wasn't scared at all.

While driving to Dinant, we asked the kids which part of Hans-sur-lesse was their favorite. It kind of surprised me when our son said the cheesy animal safari while I would have guessed he far more enjoyed the bats and eeriness of the cave.

Below is the River Meuse

It still kills me that we have to pay to use the toilet everywhere in Europe! The small white sign says 30 cents. Didn't we just pay too much to ride the cable cars up to this tourist spot?
The view from the top was amazing. The Collegiate Church of Notre Dame is below this Citadel.

Flat Nate is prepared to ward off any intruders.

Stay tuned to see where else we take Flat Nate!

Coming for a Visit (Finally!)!

Yes, you heard correctly, after about a year and a half (way too long in my book) we are coming on June 24th to visit family and friends in the states until July 25th. The kids and I can hardly wait! I've already had sleepless nights because of my excitement.
I love it here, but I do miss everyone and everything back home so much. I can't wait to be able to run 5 errands without leaving the comfort of my car (drive thrus are not the thing here), have different options for fast food instead of only McDonald's, chow down on Papa Murphy's pizza, and shop with lower prices everywhere!

Butler vs. Duke - Tonight!

The Butler Bulldogs are surely the underdogs tonight, but we're rooting hard for them!

K's Alma mater, where he earned his degree in pharmacy, plays in the final game of the NCAA tournament. We'll Tivo this game since it starts around 2 AM here and awake at 5 to watch it on the big screen, fast forwarding through those pesky commercials so we can watch it in 1/2 the time.

Go Butler!!

Happy Easter 2010!

Amidst the Neuhaus chocolate bunnies and Kinder eggs, the favorite, most talked about Easter gift was the gogos. I have no idea why. We are handed a few after grocery shopping at the local Carrefour in exchange for spending money at their store. I know the Easter bunny received them for all his shopping - especially all the Kinder eggs he bought for just about every child living in Belgium! Still, they are the rave here. Not sure if they even exist in the states?

These Easter baskets were one of the lone survivors of our basement flood last year. Arising out of the basement mud caked, they both needed the intense wash setting and even though the bunny lost her whiskers, I think they cleaned up pretty well considering she's white! They were one of my first washings of about 50 and it paid off.



After diving into the baskets, we headed to church for a day of celebration.

Dip, Dip, Dip, Dip an Egg

R sang this song yesterday at his Easter assembly. How appropriate since we were dipping our own today!

One of the topics of Easter conversation in Belgium includes which local store will be carrying white eggs for dying. It's a mystery which one will have them. One can only find brown eggs or already colored eggs in abundance around the Easter holiday.

I was elated to find some at the local Champion store, so today we colored our eggs with the dye from the states and these little color filled Q-tip swabs perfect for adding polka dots, stripes, and other artwork.

Viola!

The smile on her face is gone because as she was displaying them for me without my help ("No, I can do it!") she dropped one which cracked on the floor.

Don't worry, she's already over it as I type!