Sunday, June 10, 2012

Our last big European vacation!

We took a 15 day road trip through Europe!  We started in Paris, and spent time in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and ended back in Paris again.  It was an amazing time, and such a special way to mark the end of our three years in Europe.   

Max is ready to go!

The boys have made a routine of each bringing a zip lock bag of Legos on our trips.  It keeps them busy in the hotels, rental car, and airport.

DJ and Noah passing the time with their Legos.

DJ and Noah in front of the Eiffel Tower.  Love how Lincoln's holding his blanket.

DJ and Noah attempting to climb the Eiffel Tower.  Noah only made it to the second level.  It was pretty scary for him.  




Tom and DJ made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower!

What a view!

Reading some of the history while at the top.

Always learning.

Now onto Amsterdam.  

Beautiful tulips in the Netherlands.


Every once and a while you could see these old windmills in the fields in the Netherlands. 


Tom and the boys went to the top!

Have to try out these wooden shoes.

Noah wanted a turn too.

And of course, we can't leave out Lincoln.

Behind the boys is a maze.  DJ had the most fun using a map and trying to navigate his way out.

Lots of parks during our trip.

The Netherlands has fields and fields of Tulips.



Waiting in line to visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.  You can see Max in the middle of the road.  He entertained everyone while they waited.

DJ read the Anne Frank Diary before we visited her home.  What a great history lesson for him!

This is right outside of Anne Frank's home.  Amsterdam is such a beautiful city.  I think it's one of my favorites.


We ate crepes here for lunch.  So good!!

Surprise!  We spent two nights at the Lego Land Hotel and two days at Lego Land in Denmark.  The boys had no clue until we pulled up!

A little taste of heaven for these boys.  

Inside the hotel you can find all sorts of things made of Legos, like this dragon.

Max and I in the fire truck.

Our navigator trying to figure out what rides to go on first at Lego Land.

Noah surprised us with his love of roller coasters!

Lego Land had the perfect mix of big kid and little kid rides.

They had model cities completely built from Legos.

Max had so much fun too!


Lincoln looks serious in the picture, but he couldn't get enough of the rides!  



Pregnant mom and Max on a safari ride.




One of the highlights for older kids is getting their Lego Land driver's license.  DJ took a class and earned his driver's license!


DJ with his driving class.  Kids from all over the world!



I'm about 22-23 weeks pregnant on this trip so there weren't many rides they'd let me ride.  I did get to go on this boat ride!  It reminded us of a Lego version of It's a Small World.






Done with Lego Land, and now in Germany.  Waiting for mom to finish shopping.  Noah doesn't look thrilled.

Another surprise!  We took the kids to Phantasialand in Germany.  It's Germany's largest adventure park.  Now look whose smiling!

We stayed at a hotel right at the adventure park.  It had a pirate ship ball pit!  All the boys were able to play in this and they had a great time.


Our hotel at the adventure park.

The view from our window of the park.

Inside the hotel it was an African theme.


After leaving Germany, we stopped in Belgium.  This town is the strawberry capital of Belgium!

We ate strawberries and fed the ducks.

The strawberries melted in your mouth!  We've never tasted strawberries this good!  

And back to Paris for about four days.  We took a boat tour of the city.







We ended up spending two of our mornings at this park in Paris.  So much to do for all the boys, plus it was fenced in which made it easier to keep an eye on everyone.





This was definitely one of our favorite vacations while living overseas!  Tom did an amazing job planning this trip.  Our trip had a mix of fun stuff for the kids, history, eating, and shopping.