Happy Easter...from the Netherlands!

For Easter weekend we headed up north to the Netherlands. I booked two rooms at the Holiday Inn Leiden for the four of us (Amber & kids, Evonne & Anessa, Mandie, Hayden and myself) for two nights. We planned to go to Amsterdam and also to visit the Keukenhof Gardens. We headed up Friday morning, and to our surprise were met with NO traffic. Thankfully, since our last trip was definitely soured by horrendous traffic.

We arrived at the hotel, checked in and were pleasantly surprised with our accomodations. Our rooms were spacious and comfy, breakfast buffet was included but best of all, this hotel totally catered to kids! There was a "jungle room" for the kids with a ball pit, video games, small playground, blocks, etc. The kids were in heaven! Whereas most of the time we spend with bored kids in a room, this time around they were begging to go play. We also had an indoor pool to enjoy, but Hayden was not really feeling that adventure. They had Easter activities for the kids, and another play room with more video games, a bounce house and ping pong tables. We love to travel but it's hard on the kids sometimes, so this was win-win for everyone!

Saturday morning turned out to be grey and cold so we bundled up and headed to Amsterdam. We wandered aimlessly for a bit but by the time we had a destination in mind, the rain started. And poured. The rain definitely put a damper on the day, and limited what we could see. I had been to Amsterdam before, in 2007, and had seen everything I wanted to see then but the others hadn't been yet. In the end, we split into two groups...one that wanted to get out of the rain and go back, and one that wanted to see a bit more before calling it a day. It worked out perfectly, and everyone was pretty happy with our adventure.

On Sunday I heard the rain at 6am so we all slept in a bit before getting up and at 'em. We ate breakfast, let the kids play and packed up the cars. The weather was grey and dreary but not raining (!) so we headed to Keukenhof to see the tulips. We spent a few hours wandering around amongst the gardens, and really enjoyed it. We saw the giant windmill, wooden shoes and tons and tons of flowers. With the cold winter and cold weekend, the tulips weren't all the way up yet but it was beautiful!

We headed back home around 3pm, after a diaper disaster with Hayden was handled. We stopped for food and gas (in MORE rain) and were making good progress. Hayden was having a little trouble with his teeth and general crankiness, which came to a head about 30 minutes before we got home. He was crying uncontrollably and chewing on his fingers and threw up everywhere. I took the first exit I could, cleaned him up and changed him and got back on the road. When we got home he slept through his diaper changed and slept until 8 this morning! We had a great time, but today there's no place like home!