Heatwave Adventures

Allright, I just had a good nap so I think I can handle a new post today. For those of you not living in Holland: we just had a mini-heatwave! For three or four days it felt as though summer was actually on it's way. Luckily us dutchies aren't so easily fooled. We know rain will always prevail, just like it did on Sunday. We did enjoy the heat while it lasted though. Mom, Lara and I drove to Germany to go shopping and had a really good time. Did you know that in german parking garages there are special spaces for women drivers? We took a photo of the space we found, but it turned out a little dark. Can you read the sign that says 'Frauenparkplatz'?


Frauenparkplatz

How could we possibly start our day in a better way? So we shopped and shopped untill we dropped, and then we shopped some more. The German city we went shopping in was called 'Bocholt' and had a really cute city-centre. We came across a street with a fountain where we let Lara play for a bit. She even made friends with a little german boy.


Lara by fountain

There was also a little river where we sat on a bench for a while and ate Slush Puppies.


Bocholt, May 25th 2005

And then mom saw the biggest piece of luggage she had ever seen and had to have her picture taken with it. I know she wishes she'd bought it so she can bring back even more goodies the next time she visits the USA!


BIG luggage!


Another 'adventure' we had during the heatwave was a morning spent at the park. I know, not very adventurous really, but it was good for some really cute photo's. Enjoy!


Zuiderpark, May 26th 2005


Lara running free


Discovering sand


Tell me I'm cute!



Friday night we saw the new Star Wars movie. I had some trouble staying awake for the whole thing, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with the movie.
Then on Saturday morning Sander, Lara and I all drove down to the beach and had fun there. Lara loved the beach like nothing else. Not the sea though, she was terrified of the sea. The water was too cold anyway :P

Last week we also had something a lot less fun happen to us. Our car gave up on us! We were driving down the Groot Hertoginnelaan here in Den Haag, when all of a sudden the engine just stopped running. No matter what we did, it wouldn't start back up, so dad had to come tow us home. The garage around the corner took a look at it today and they're trying to fix it. Let's hope it won't cost as much as the last time stuff broke down in that darn car. Can you believe we only bought the car last January? Let's just hope and pray this is the last thing that'll need fixing for a while to come.

I borrowed mom and dad's car yesterday to go do some grocery shopping at the Leyweg. I put Lara in the car seat, which is seated right behind the driver's seat. All went fine, untill we got on the way back home. I was just driving onto this humongous intersection, when I heard Lara's door slide open! She had wiggled half her body out of the straps in the car seat and had managed to unlock and open the side door! There was no way I could stop right there on the intersection, so I had to keep going, which I did super slowly. Luckily she was still strapped in at the waist, so she couldn't fall out of the car, but it still scared me pretty bad. Apparently the doors in that car had a child safety lock, so we put that on now (better late than never!).
Today Mom and Lara and I drove over to the Boogaard in their car and we got there safely without engines failing or doors sliding open mid-drive. So then Lara fell out of the car in the parking garage!! Poor little thing! She has a bruise on her forehead from where she hit the concrete (i feel really bad), but she forgot about the scare quickly when we got her an ice cream.

OKAY! I think those were pretty much all the adventures of the past week. I promised Marissa that I'd do a little 'news' section on her and Michael, so I'll do that in my next post.

Bye!!