September 7-9: Utrecht Trip -Happy Birthday Annemieke

[editor’s note: I cannot spell any of these names, and Art is not much help, so I have to apologize profusely to any Dutch relatives who read this and are appalled]
Happy Birthday Annemieke! We rented a car this weekend and went to Utrecht to celebrate Annemieke’s birthday and attend her party. She was super gracious and let us (all 3 of us – poor Dex stayed in Düsseldorf) stay in her room while she slept on the pull-out couch. That was wonderful for us, b/c we didn’t have to try and find a babysitter and be tense during her party – Zach just slept downstairs through the entire thing.

Friday we arrived around 4pm and had coffee w/ apfel kuchen (apple cake) with Oma Holland and Tante Mieke, and Rex of course. It was a very nice visit, and Zach was kept very busy playing with the little blue men from the tower of Pisa game and avoiding Rex’s tongue. We left a little before 6pm and headed to Annemieke’s for dinner. We all went to the store and picked out dinner and snacks for the evening: pizza, salad, chocolate peanuts, hamkaas, vla, etc. YUM. We also picked up a movie for the evening: Music and Lyrics which I had only seen once and LOVED (hint for Christmas present), and Art had not seen. So fun. Saturday was quite busy. We went to Marieke & Ruurt’s for coffee at 10am. We got to see their new son, Timo, as well as 2.5yr old Evette. She never spoke, so Zach made himself at home by picking food from her plate and feeding it to Art. Then they played outside w/ the sidewalk chalk we brought for her, and had a good time. It was a really nice visit which ended too quickly. Zach fell asleep on the way back to Annemieke’s and proceeded to stay asleep for 3 hours. We at the yummy sausage brotchen that I can’t spell for lunch and helped Annemieke prepare for party 1 with the arrival of Onno/Aimee and 3 kids, Liesbeth/Cees and 2 kids and Oom Taco/Tante Anneke. BIG NEWS: At one point the music was playing and some people were standing around not really dancing, but just chatting and moving a little. Zac was pretty tired and had his head on Art’s shoulder, when all of a sudden “the rhythm finally got him” (according to Art) and he pushed out of Art’s arms, started his bouncing dance, followed by his stomping and turning, THEN, here is the big news, he got on the floor and spun around a bit, then stood up and bounced some more. Everyone just stared, until someone said “Did he just do a bit of BREAK DANCING??”. It was so very funny. The families were all gone by the end of dinner which gave us about an hour to get ready for party 2. Matthijs showed up first (Sabine had previous plans) and we put Z to bed, hoping for the best. Then Haan, Marten, Eva, Taco/Nina, and Bart. A good size party. I was in bed at 12:30, and Zach mercifully slept late until nearly 8am. Sunday was good and relaxed with us having leftover apple tart for breakfast, and just lazing around. Zach took a nap and we all showered and got ready to leave. We took off around 3pm to visit an old co-worker of Art’s. He and his wife live in Holland (Edah?) about an hour from Düsseldorf. We stayed there and chatted w/ them for a few hours. During which Zach took a nap in their bed, and when he woke up, he got out of their bed and walked into the living room like it was no big deal. We were all pretty shocked. It was fun to sit and chat with them. Richard is Canadian and his wife (Susanna?) is Dutch and he works for a German company. They are expecting their first child in December, so there was plenty of talk about newborns and children. We left their place around 6:30, stopped at a rest stop around 7:15 to feed Z dinner and got to our apartment around 8:30 or so. It was a great weekend! Annemieke also loaned me a book and 2 movies to make my transition back to Düsseldorf easier.