Strawberry Land

Josh and I have decided that we are going to go somewhere or do something every weekend while we are here.  Besides we only have a limited amount of time and tons to do and see while we are here.  This last weekend we stayed close to home but still had a great time! 

Pretty much every weekend there is something going on in our little town.  This weekend was "Carnival" .  Which is basically like a mini- state fair.  There are vendors, rides, food... not so much fried food but more like pastries and yummy desserts!  We went out and had dinner on Saturday night and just took it all in.  There really weren't too many people out but it was still fun to see.  Now that it is Monday morning there are more people than ever out.  There is live music and the beer is flowing.  I went to the grocery store at 11:30 this morning and the streets just reaked of beer!! I guess it's a good reason to take a day off. 

Oh and kind of a weird thing to see, an outdoor urinal for men.  And just in case you don't know it is for men they are sure to have a male picture on it.  I would love to see a woman try and use it!!

Yesterday we went to a little place (well not so little) called Strawberry Land or Aardeien Land.  What a great place to take kids.  We will be sure to go back when Jackson is bigger.  They have a strawberry castle and tons of places to play and you can even pick your own strawberries. :)

After we ventured through the strawberries we made our way to a lake pretty much right across the road.  We had ourselves a nice little picnic and took a stroll around the lake.  Next to this lake is a castle ruin as well so we were going to go and see it but instead we found what was called a "Car Boot".  We thought oh no what is the Black Market??? It turned out to be the equivalent of a garage sale only out of the back of your car... Pretty odd!!!  We walked through but didn't buy anything :)

As for Jackson news.  He is 16 weeks this week and growing like crazy.  He weighed in at 12 lbs 8 oz. last week, so he has just doubled his birth weight.  He is rolling over from his tummy to his back, smiling and laughing, and his lastest is sitting up while in his Bumbo seat.  His head is still a little wobbly in there but he seems to love sitting up.  His legs are so strong he is holding himself up and wiggling all around!! He is growing up soo fast!!

One more little note, Grace is doing good too.  Still being very lady like as you can see!

Thorn

Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves that we are missing out on the 4th of July festivities this year Josh, Jackson and I decided to venture out again this weekend.  We made the quick 30 minute drive to Thorn.  A small village in the Netherlands that is known for it's white buildings and homes from the 18th century.

It is also know for it's Pannenkoeken restaurant, so of course we made a stop there for lunch.  After enjoying our lunch on the patio, we got to walk through the church of Thorn.  It was incredible.  The church was originally built in 995 AD.  It hard to believe that anything even exists that is sooo old!  It was so beautiful inside!!

Walking around the outside there is a cemetary with family plots dating back a few hundred years all they up to the most recent we saw in 2010.  It was also incredible to see the names that had been carved into the walls surrounding the church.  They look like they have been there for so long!

After the church we ventured out to look at some more of the famous white homes.  The town seems incredibly small and you would think it would just fall off the map, but there were hundreds of people coming in on tours and renting bikes to see these unique homes.