Beach Vacation

Well, we decided that it's been too long since we had a nice relaxing beach vacation. Because warm beaches are hard to come by around here, we had to fly to the Mediterranean and sit on some French beaches. Not a lot of pictures were taken from this vacation because we were too busy doing nothing at all. I think that this picture pretty much sums up what we saw for 5 day in a row. It was a great vacation.

Bruges, Belgium

We took our bikes with us and drove all around the city... and beyond.

I think she is trying to eat muscles in every country in Europe.

I wanted to take this guided boat ride just so I would get to be on the boat that chased all the swans.

If I ever make a brick house, I'm sure it will have this little design. :-)

This is part of the bike ride that we took to a nearby village.

Ireland

You have all probably heard that we had some guests a little bit ago. We took a little trip out to Ireland and these are some of the pictures. Enjoy. Road Trip!!!
We drove through Wales on the way to Ireland.

Cliffs of Moore

Whoops! I guess we are past that point!

Killarny National Park on the Ring of Kerry.

Picture from somewhere on the Ring of Kerry.

On the way up the castle stairs to kiss the Blarney Stone the stairs got a little skinny.

After we got back to our neck of the woods we went punting in Cambridge.

While we tried to switch drivers we spun around in about 4 circles. We then gave up and steared to the side of the river and then switched drivers.

One of the nights we had a BBQ and a fire in the back yard with all of our house guests. We all had a GREAT time.

"Tagged"

Because I don't have a 5th picture in the 5th folder I had to improvise. I had to take the 5th folder's, 5th folder's, 5th folder's 5th picture. Anyways, Thanks Nina! We all had a LOT of fun on my Birthday ;-)

Don't forget to keep up with abellevie!

Amsterdam

As you can see, our trip to Amsterdam was very cold. It didn't get any warmer at night when we were standing in Dam Square waiting for 2009!

This is apparantly the new way of getting furnature into the rooms. It still doesn't look very easy.

We took a tour of the diamond factory. Here is Kitty shopping long after everyone else on the tour had left. :-)

This is a picture of the boat that took us around the canals at night. We also took one during the day. It was a beautiful city.

It must be getting close to midnight!

We had really good... floor space... for the concert. It took us a while to make it back to the bus after midnight because there were so many people behind us.

This year it's, "Gelukkig NieuwJaar!" (Happy New Year!)

Dover

Kitty and I had seen the cliffs of Dover before this trip. I had never seen them from below 25,000 feet in the air, and Kitty had only seen them from a ferry crossing (below).
So, we both went out to get a closer look on our way to Amsterdam.

A much closer look...

...OK... maybe too close.

We survived the whole experience even though it was December and very cold... and windy. :-)

Christmas

Kitty went all out with the table decorations.

Here is me and my new bike, helmet, lights, storage bag, bike repair kit, and air pump. It's been very cold lately, but I've still managed to get out there and go on some bike rides. :-)

Here is a picture of the bird house that Kitty got for Christmas. We still haven't seen any birds in it. Maybe when it gets a little warmer.