South Florida Road Trip

Today we took a road trip. Sorry Martijn - we have to admit that non of us had Will Smith on our iPods but we found an 80's radio station which made me want to buy leg warmers within 5 Miles and actually suited the surroundings. Somehow when we turned onto the highway from the Hotel Rick Astley came on (I know this is embarrassing) and it came back on just as we excited the highway to turn off to our hotel some 8 hrs later?!? Freaky?

Anyway we had decided to venture out to the Miami Seaquarium and Since we thought Rick would wake us early we ordered the rental car for 8. Of course we overslept but we where nevertheless at the park 3 min before it opened and we where pretty pleased with that.

The park was definitely organized in an American way. Very efficient. There where shows or demonstrations every 30 min, they all lasted 20 min which gave you just enough time to make it to the next one. So we did Sharks, Manatee's, Coffee (skipping the tropical fish) and the top deck Dolphins.

Yes that is my finger, yes we did get soaked, no Rick did not mind.

Then there was another Dolphin show with the original Flipper and Rick LOVED it. After that we saw the crocodiles and turtles and a Sealion show. Our tour ended with the prima act of the park a combined Killer Whale an Dolphin show.

It was very very impressive and again quite wet. There was loads of action, loud music, plenty entertainment. Guess what Rick did in the midst of the grand finale.....

Yes - he did. Big time. He never woke up till 90 min and some 20 miles later! As it was the memorial day weekend after all and as it was very very hot we did not fancy touring downtown Miami in a rental car. Instead we decided to finish of the day with a late lunch in the Florida Keys.....Tough life -;)

Chillin' in Florida

It is Memorial Day Weekend in the US and so we have the Monday off. We decided to book a last minute trip to Florida for some family time and relaxing. We ended up in a lovely 4 star Resort in Ft Lauderdale. (Lago Mar Resort and Club it is called for those of you feeling the need to look it up on google earth). The first day we where relaxing so hard we took no pictures at all. By day two we managed to get up by 10 am.

Rick started that day by sticking his head in his new beach toy basket.

Then Rick and Eelco hung out in the pool for a while. We taught Rick to jump in (which he loved!) and he was not so interested in his floating device. He preferred to drag along on Papa's back whilst trying to swim with his feet meanwhile checking out all the girls (of any age!)

Rick also loved playing in the sand. Sitting on top of anything his dad built and playing with anything that was not a beach toy.

Somehow he also liked putting his head down in the warm sand with the following result.... (he did this a few times and was not bothered by the result at all!)

Rick lasted till Happy Hour and was happy to entertain us all day long.

The boys ended the day with a meaningful father to son conversation.

Rick @ 11 months

We can't believe it. This weekend Rick will be 11 months old! He's got 7 teeth, is almost walking, talks back and imitates sound, is no longer easily fooled and gets his fingers in EVERYTHING. He still smiles plenty, eats well but wants to try all our food, and sleeps well to. He loves water and music and is a good dancer too. I can't believe that a year ago I was still walking around with a big belly!

Rick's face is changing a lot at the moment too and he has loads of hair.

He still puts things in his mouth but he has become more selective. He wanders around the furniture all day and if the gap between things is too big he just pushes one along till he can reach the next piece of furniture. So we constantly have to re-arrange our room by the time Rick has gone to bed.

By now you can have real conversations with Rick and he gets better at imitating all the time.

Rick stays away from most cupboards in the house and also most other 'no go' zones without much extra effort. He is however super interested in our pantry and is in there every time he can, mainly to play with our booze supply.

Camping

Last weekend we went to one of the Texas State Parks for a night of Camping. Texas has some 93 State Parks so plenty to choose from. Soon it will be too hot to go camping and so we decided to take the opportunity and picked a new park (as in one none of us had been to). We selected the Stephen F Austin park some 30 min driving from the edge of Houston.

It is lovely to be away from the concrete jungle for a bit and relax. In the Picture you see Iris & daughter Elfi. Janko and Rebecca and their kids Jannes and Ana Louise.

As you can also tell it is not exactly a 'light weight' camping trip and we where by no means 'roughing it'. That is what happens if you live in Texas and have a huge car and a huge garage and all the (camping) gear costs 50% or less of what it costs in Europe.

The kids clearly loved it too.

No skunks in the tent this time and little excitement but that was just fine with us!

Countdown to hurricane season

"As many as 14 hurricanes could hit the Atlantic basin this year, the top US climate agency says. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts 14 to 23 named storms. Eight to 14 of these could develop into hurricanes, it says.

The season could be one of the most active on record, with between three to seven major hurricanes, the NOAA said. "In short, we urge everyone to be prepared," added a spokesperson for the agency said.

Major hurricanes can reach category three or higher, which means they bring sustained winds of at least 111mph (178km/h). The NOAA says the seasonal forecasts have a 70% probability.

The hurricane season begins on 1 June and runs until the end of November. "

Guess we have our work cut out for us next weekend......

Oil Spill

All news currently coming out appears to be very subjective and emotional. Especially here in the US there are hourly updates and a gazillion news outlets all trying to bring their version of the story. We are starting to see the effects in work and in our social life with some of our friends and colleagues being called in to help out.

It is impossible to find an unbiased story at the moment, but the technical information in this article from the economist is pretty good if you want to understand more of that part of the incident. 

http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16160853 

Kusje van Rick

Rick is 'way' behind at school. Almost walking but not quite and 2 of the kids in his group are now 'feeding themselves' - (Rick is 2 - 3 weeks behind some of his peers so, read with some cynicism). Anyway, the good news is Rick knows lots of other far more useful party tricks,.....like blowing kisses to all the lovely and friendly people in the world.

Big Boy

Rick is a Big Boy these days,....look at him! In his big boy shoes with his big boy mannerisms. He can stand almost unsupported and is pretty steady on his feet. He walks fast along the furniture.

He also loves to help in the Kitchen. Below he is inspecting Daddy's pot & pan collection.

Rick is also willing to do other chores like helping pack the dishwasher. Although I am not sure if it really is any help if he takes out anything you try to put in there and then takes off with the dirty kitchenware.

Raspberries

Raspberries as you can see below are a big hit with Rick

Although we are not so sure that is purely based on taste as he also loved to (body) paint with them. And he is happy to share them with y'all!

This is a face we see very often from little Rick - Happy, Happy Happy! And since Rick is a Dutch Texan we understand the Happy, as 'Happie' means 'a bite of food' in Dutch.

Apple

We are almost daily trying new foods with Little Rick. Rick loves any mashed fruit dishes which include apple so we thought the step to actual apple pieces would be easy.

Rick's initial reaction as usual was enthusiasm....

...but that did not last very long!

The reason Eelco will not sleep tonight

So a pretty poor quality picture but Eelco is terrified. This Wolf Spider lives in our Garage. Mind you on my side of the Garage so I am the one meeting him first thing in the morning......

My 1st Mothers day

Party Weekend

So this weekend we had a few parties - at home and away. Some of the pictures attached are made with my phone so not the best quality.

First of all Rick helped Dad with the preparations - restocking the booze -;)

Then we went to the Company Expat Family day at the H&H Ranch. The place is for corporate parties (family oriented) and pretty huge. Rick was too small for most attractions apart from this one.

On his own!

They also made us a great family picture. As they 'photo-shopped' the background in, the screen in front of which the photo was taken is bright green. The software then replaces everything that is bright green in the real photo with the fake background. As Rick's boots are also bright green,.....the fake background with Texas Blue Bonnets was also 'pasted' on his boots.

 

Then we went to Tatum's 2nd Birthday party......the only picture I have is off the cake as it inspired me. A good example of an over-the-top but fun (instead of tacky) American B-day cake!!! (by the way - the pressure is on for Rick's 1st Birthday - wow)

There where some 300 (well maybe 25) kids at the birthday party so it was a bit overwhelming. Eelco ran into some old colleagues from Subsea7 in Aberdeen (well we know Shaky, Tatum's dad, from that time so that was not completely unsurprising). Everyone was impressed by Rick's beer fishing skills - unfortunately we had no camera present when Rick after trying for 30 min managed to fish a can of beer out of the big tub with beer, water and ice. Talent!!!

Today we had a little play date with Roddy and his Parents. The neighbors also came for a little while as well as Michiel. Rick is always happy with more company and was quite ok with the twins testing his new walker wagon for him (yes one sat down and the other pushed and then the other way around!)

As the grown ups had some finger food we decided to serve the kids a plate with their own (rice puffs, sesame street biscuits ad fruit puffs).

For food Rick is clearly willing to see if he can free up more hands and stand without support. Maybe he had to as there was a fierce eating competition going on!

It was clearly Roddy who won

And that was the end to another lovely weekend.

SanFran (Part II) - "I'll be back!"

(For Part I of this Story Scroll Down)

The morning off day 2 started off well with another happy tram ride in a more conventional tram. We went on our way to the Bike Rental Warehouse in order to 'bike the Bridge'

In true American style we where greeted there by a group of cycling enthusiasts who screamed at the top of their lungs "are you ready to bike the bridge?" After hearing that 20 time in 60 Seconds and then being yelled at by 8 different people to get us on a bike did not make our mood any better. They even made us test ride in the warehouse to see if we where 'good enough' and since we where the only ones in the shop at the time the full 10 man staff got involved in getting us on our bikes and kitted out. We where supper annoyed, and by the time the 2 little boys were strapped into the cart (trailer) they where screaming and in panic mode.......

So we got out of that shop as soon as possible and moved to the nearest park 250 m further along to calm all the kids and ourselves down.

Roemer switched with his Big sister for the seat behind his mom's back meaning that Rick and Fiene got to share the trailer......Well that was a big hit. The two lovebirds had loads of fun and Fiene was keeping everyone abreast of Rick's well being. In the end he fell asleep on her shoulder after all her good care.

We made it to the other end - and despite it being VERY VERY busy on that bridge and near it - the trip was well worth it for the views. Yes we did it - we cycled the Golden Gate Bridge!!!!!!!! (and did NOT buy the T-shirt)

We took the ferry back to the city across the bay. At that stage Fiene was no longer willing to take just anything from Rick and the two of them were busy getting organized in the back seat in a manner as if they had been on Holiday together for the past 30 years.

The weather was super for the whole weekend so we all got a little color and Rick was practising his Californian Surf Dude Greeting.

 

We decided to not skip nap time for a second day on a row and this made for much happier kids at dinner time - as you can see - something was going on for sure,.....but of course we as parents got told nothing and could only speculate.

The next morning there was only time for a small walk through Chinatown and some coffee before it was time to head back to Houston and say goodbye to Joris, Marike, Fiene & Roemer. Thank you guys for a Fantastic weekend! Till next time - whenever - wherever.

Rick helped me pack the bags by dictating the rhythm on the Toiletseat - slave driver already -;)

As Eelco had gone home early for work I had to travel back to Houston alone with Rick. Fortunately he slept 3.5 out of the 4 hrs of the flight. In the 15 min at the start and end he was awake he managed to charm the 4 rows ahead of us and the 4 rows behind us so easy travels!

SanFran (Part I)

Last weekend we made a trip to San Francisco to meet up with Joris, Marike, Fiene and Roemer who were about to finish a grand tour of South West USA. It was absolutely lovely to see them all again after some 1.5 years (and meet Roemer for the first time).

As you can see it did not take too long for the kids to befriend one another. Rick was pretty smitten with Fiene in no time!

The next morning we took the boat to Alcatraz, Rick loved it but struggled a bit in the bright Californian sunlight (especially since he only wanted to chew on his hat and sunglasses rather then wear them).

Rick and I dressed as proper Texan Tourists - Rick beat me about 15 to 3 in compliments about his boots! As you can see Rick is getting big....too big fro the Baby Bjorn anyway.

The arrival dock at Alcatraz.

If you zoom in you may see in red spray paint the words Indians Welcome around the big black & white sign. What we learned and was new to most of us that there was an Indian occupation of Alcatraz for a couple of months a few decades ago. Claims are made that because of that protest action land and other rights for native Americans have improved since.

The cutest inmates

"The Rock" as seen from the Boat (City Side)

After a very touristy but nice lunch we made our way back into town on the cable tram.

In some areas the route was quite steep (both up- and down)

Whilst mom went in to buy some wine for after baby bedtime in the hotel room Rick managed to get a free banana from the shop owner (Straat Schoffie!).

All in all Rick really enjoyed day one of his first ever real city break

Part II to follow tonight.