Oh hi, I'm Becca. Nice to meet you.

I know, it's been forever right? My last post was about the holidays, and here it is June 4th! We updated our computer, and apparently Apple doesn't think iPhoto is needed anymore, so my thousands (Chris would tell you millions) of pictures are just kind of hanging out somewhere on our computer. I need to get that all figured out, but in the meantime I have two photo-dump posts so I can play catch up.

The boys are growing like weeds and eating us out of house and home! (I'm nervous for the teenage years, what happens if they have friends over and there are like ten stinky, hungry boys here?!) Bennett just ran up the street to our neighbor friends house by himself for the very first time, we signed him up for pre-k next year and he's just about reading without help! Buck turned two(!) a few weeks ago, he's starting to talk in sentences and recognize letters and he could move piles of dirt around in the backyard all day long.

This is what we were up to in January and February...

We had a family portrait done by mylittlebuffalo on Etsy:

(So cute right?)

This past winter was crazy in the snow department. We had a few really big snow storms.

This was the last and biggest storm, we just kept getting more and more snow each day, then on the last day we got freezing rain on top of it all. 

We all were going stir crazy being in the house so we tried to get outside a couple times a day. Why is  it that it takes 20 minutes to prepare them to go out in the snow, then they only want to actually play outside for two minutes? 

This was Buck's first time out in the snow, and he didn't understand what the point of gloves was, he would yank them off immediately after getting outside.

He decided that snow was pretty much the worst thing ever:

Three smiles and a stink-face:

The boys decided that going in Buck's crib is the best thing ever.

They still ask me to put them in it a few times a week:

It's always to rough house and Buck pretty much ends up sitting on Bennett every time. 

They love it and I love it because they are contained and it's a great way to get energy out!
The little elves gave us a puppet show:
(yes, they are still wearing their elf pjs even in June!)

Dressing up is always a fun time to be had.

Iron Man and Thor:

(Bennett had his fake glasses on, then Buck went in search of the Mr. Potato Head glasses for the picture!)

Oh yes, Valentines Day...man that seems like a long time ago:

(This is the best picture we could manage to send to my mom...the only way I could get Buck to stay still was to pull up the stool and give him a snack. Obviously it was too much to ask him to look at the camera as he shoved his face full of goldfish.)

Bennett made me a valentine:
(which I can't bear to take down yet)

When we were stuck inside for what felt like an eternity, I got creative with fort making:

and lots of cozy clothes were worn:

Buck passed out holding his bowl of macaroni:

It seems like it was a pretty drastic change to warmer days once it stopped snowing.
I love seeing these brothers together. They love each other and watching their friendship grow has definitely been my favorite part of having two boys.
Balloons:

Indoor picnics:

Now that the sun is out most days, we've had lots of playground time.
It's funny because Bennett has always been cautious and Buck will do anything, that boy has no fears:
(lord help me)

This is what happened when I tried to get a picture of all three of my boys on the wall...impossible.
The little stinker ran away and of course Bennett went to go catch him:

and if you haven't noticed our new family member in many of these pictures, I introduce you to Coon...a permanent extension of Buck's hand:

We've had a few sets of my late grandpa's deer antlers and finally got around to mounting them.
Chris learned how to mount them himself and we knew we wanted to make them look funky and modern to fit in with our house decor so we used some Pendleton wool for the fabric covering and our friend Jordan cut the plaque out of plywood.
We couldn't be happier with the way they turned out:

Okay so like I said, I have another post full of pictures and I just need to add words. That shouldn't take me 3 months, but you never know. I'm horrible.
I actually almost forgot how to do this whole blog post thing but I made it!
Woohoo!

Now you know we're alive at least.

I'm finally blogging about our trip to Europe! It's a daunting task, as I took a million pictures
(europe in autumn is amazing, how could I not take pictures of everything I saw?!) 
but I am making myself blog about it before I start forgetting, even if my posts aren't exactly how I want them to be. You see, I'm a slight perfectionist and things don't get done until I can do them perfectly...which means they don't get done most of the time. So here I am blogging about our trip now that we've been back for three weeks.
(I'm giving myself a pat on the back for that one.)

Also, everyone asks if it was hard to leave the boys for 9 days. Yes, it was hard especially in the beginning (the initial goodbye was the hardest part) and I cried a few times during our ten hour flight but once we landed in Amsterdam my adrenalin kicked in and we immediately started go-go-going so we really didn't have much down time to think about it. Of course we missed them and thought about them a ton but I knew I had prepared them as best as I could and they were having fun with family and friends, it was like a vacation for the boys as well. We were also on complete opposite schedules as them (Portland is 9 hours behind) so it was easier knowing that they were sound asleep for most of the time we were awake. We did get to Facetime a few times which really helped all of us I think and we kept a photostream of the pictures we were taking so they could see us whenever they wanted to.
I love technology!
It was difficult, but not as hard as I thought it would be and I honestly can say that I don't remember the last time I have felt so at ease and stress free, and I definitely came back a better mom (and wife!) because of it. Don't let the fear of leaving your kids hold you back from adventuring with your love!
...
September 21, 2013.

Coffee in hand, we headed into PDX to catch the longest flight either of us had ever been on. It was the afternoon and we'd be meeting our friends in Amsterdam at 8:30am with a full day of exploring ahead of us.

Obligatory airport pictures:

I highly recommend only taking carry ons, it made travelling so much easier.

Our ride:

We made it to Amsterdam! 

After meeting up with our friends (who live in Germany but were gracious enough to come travel with us and show us some of their favorite spots in Europe), we headed to some vintage shops.
Neef Louis was amazing and I'm pretty sure I walked around the entire warehouse (yes, warehouse) with my jaw on the floor.
One of everything please:

I've always been on the lookout for an old school poster and they had a ton of them:

This is the one we brought home:
Their chair selection alone was amazing:

And to top it off they had a great cafe where we sat and had our first European meal.
Apple pie in Europe (served with fresh whipped cream, not ice cream) somehow outdoes the good ol' American version:
(that's Gage, Jessica and their daughter Remi our gracious hosts looking longingly at our slice of pie)

Europe also know a thing or two about hot chocolate:
(they just pour hot milk over chocolate chips!)

This fancy ham and cheese panini came with jelly for dipping and it was amazing:

Us with Remi, isn't she adorable?!:

After vintage shopping, our friends showed us around Amsterdam. We were so exhausted, as it was technically the middle of the night for us, but we still had the rest of the day ahead of us!

If you look closely, you'll notice that this is a bike parking garage:
(it's no doubt that Amsterdam takes biking seriously and we learned quickly that you don't dare step in the bike lanes when one is coming)

A few interesting bike facts about Amsterdam (thanks to wikipedia):
- There are far more bikes than people in Amsterdam. There are 1.3 million bikes vs. 800,000 people.
- Bikes get stolen all the time, so nobody rides fancy bikes. In 2005 about 54,000 bikes were stolen.
- Each year about 15,000 bikes are retrieved from the canals!

Enough about bikes...
 I had read so many reviews trying to find the best rated places to eat in each spot we were traveling to. One place I knew I wanted to find in Amsterdam was Vlaams Frite Huis. There are a ton of places that sell fresh cut fries in cones in Amsterdam but this little hole-in-the-wall fry window was so good. Fries in Europe are commonly served with mayonnaise instead of ketchup, but Vlaams is known for their selection of 55 different sauces so we decided on a curry sauce which was pretty darn good.
Fries are my love language:

One thing I noticed is that Amsterdam is amazingly clean for the amount of people/tourists that were there. And everything and everyone is gorgeous. You can tell that the Dutch people take pride in the way they carry themselves, how they upkeep their homes and the way they dress. Everyone is effortlessly stylish, even the old ladies.
I was constantly in awe of the architecture and just how pretty everything was:

Even the shopping areas were amazing:

And not surprisingly, the Euro is beautiful as well:
(especially when you compare it to American dollars)

After some shopping, we checked into our cute little "eco-cabins" at Camping Zeeburg just outside of the main part of Amsterdam.
Ours was the yellow one:

It was essentially a dorm room but it was perfect (and cheap!) for sleeping and holding our belongings. We had to share bathrooms with everyone else, but it wasn't that bad really. I'd say everything about this place blows Oregon camping out of the water. Somebody needs to build a campground like this in Oregon, there was even a restauraunt with a bar for the night owls (which was definitely not us). There was also a little store that had some basic grocery items and they baked fresh bread and pastries each morning, but more on that in my next post!

The "wagonettes" that were across from us:

The cute restaurant:

Eventhough we spent most of our time in Amsterdam out of all of the places we saw on our trip (we also went to Germany, Paris and Switzerland) it's the one place we know we'd like to come back to someday.
It's like Portland on steroids and we loved the heck out of it!

Stay tuned for Amsterdam p.2 coming soon...hopefully!