Our European Vacation {Day 1 and 2}

Day 1

It started with getting up at 4:30am to catch our early flight.  We flew to Dulles, Washington which was over a 4 hour flight.  I feel asleep with Jeffrey in the carrier for about an hour while Brian was in a circus trying to keep the other 2 boys entertained. 

Then we had a nice (not really) lay over there.  We ate lunch at Wendy’s and I struggled to feed Jeffrey while we sat right next to a wine restaurant.  The restaurant didn’t have real walls so I know all of those people trying to relax and enjoy themselves probably didn’t because the kids were screaming and fighting.  At that point I didn’t really care what anyone else thought.  We kind of had to just pick up that mentality or we would have gone completely insane.

  We thought United would let people with small children board early but they said no.  Whatever.  So we were next to last to board with all of our baggage.  Luckily there was still room by us for our bags.  They booked two of our seats with the row with the bassinet for me but didn’t give me the actual seat in front of it and it was too late to switch.  So I ended up with the bassinet that goes on the floor.  Tyson and Andrew both conked out as the plane was taking off.  Since they’d been up since 5:30 they were pretty tired.  They slept through their dinner.  Tyson woke up and watched some movies and Andrew was difficult.  He woke up cranky but ended up eating some pop-tarts.  Anyway, it was a very long 7 hour flight.  We got our luggage and met my parents just outside.  We got the car seats in and away we went.  We were so tired because it was like we had never gone to bed.  The best way to get over that jet lag is to take a little nap and then wake up and stay awake until bed time.  We all crashed and napped for about 4 hours and then my mom woke us up.  I remember feeling like everything was in slow motion and blurry.  It was weird.

We took the train to Brussels and went to eat at the Hard Rock Café. We were all a little tired so it was kind of dramatic, especially on my part. We got our Hard Rock Brussels shirts and walked around the square. My dad was holding Jeffrey and he was crying pretty good. There was a group of Asian tourist behind him and he thought they were taking pictures of the buildings but they were actually taking pictures of my Jeffrey. It was hilarious. It was like Jeffrey had his own paparazzi.  We then headed down tourist street.  This street leads to the famous peeing boy statue.  I don’t know why this little angel boy statue has become so iconic but it is.  Haha!  I got a picture of all the tourists take pictures of the statue because it is just so silly. 

Leuven Train station

Downtown Brussels in the square

The boy peeing statue

We took a train home but first got on the wrong train.  There are two cities in Belgium that are very similarly spelled.  Oops.  These pictures are before the conductor told us we were on the wrong train.  So then we had to hurry and get off and get on another and we accidently ended up in the First Class section.  Luckily no one came by to check the tickets.

We headed home and crashed. Andrew woke up at 2am and Tyson at 3am. Brian was up with the boys for a few hours and then they all feel alseep again. Jeffrey woke up twice, which was pretty good.

 

Day 2

Since the night was a little rough we were slow going.  We picked up some sandwiches at my mom’s favorite sandwich shop and took them to the coolest park I’d ever seen.  The sandwiches are on a really long baguette.  They put lunch meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, eggs and carrots on them.  They were really delicious and super filling.

Here is Andrew on my mom’s rocking camel

And the park.  It had some crazy tall and long slides.  Tyson loved them.  I went down the really really long one with Andrew and he liked it but wasn’t interested in going again.  We were wondering why we don’t have cool slides and parks like these in Utah but I think there would be lawsuits if there were.

This was really really high up and Tyson did awesome on it!

This thing spun around and Andrew liked to just hang on

Feeding the ducks in the really nasty looking pond.

Bear Lake Part II

On Sunday we took family pictures in all of our purple shirts. We had a devotional that afternoon. I cry everytime. Mom and Dad Carlsen bore their testimonies as well as Aaron and Terry. I think everyone felt the spirit. The kids really got into the Popcorn popping song that we sung.

We had lots of twin moments at Bear Lake. John and Brian in the same purple shirt, Tyson and Kelby in the same shirt and Andrew and Zach in the same monkey pjs.

Terry’s science experiment

We played games every night. I love doing that every night. We played the Mafia game. Brian, Adri and I got to be the mafia one round. It was so fun! The last night we played some acting out game where we got to see Rob be a cheerleader, Jamin turning writing with a pen into knifing the couch, Jaden skydiving, and Brian, Dave and Rob showing Carina how to act out a playground.

We left Monday around 10am. We basically dropped everything off at home and then took off again to Payson. We wanted to spend as much time with Brian’s family as possible. Dave, Terrry and Rob’s familys live out of state so we don’t get to see them often at all. We went shooting with The Grills, Rob and Tina and Dave and Maddie’s family. I took Jeffrey because he needed to eat but he was pretty distracted and didn’t really eat anyways. I got to shoot a few times. Brian brought his guns. I thought he only had a gun but apparently he has two. LOL! I’m not a very good shot but I have fun regardless. I know Brian had fun too. Then we went back to Payson to eat dinner and talk for another hour or so before we had to leave.

When we got home every kid was sound asleep. It had been a non-stop, jammed packed weekend and they definitely felt the effect. Now in two years Brian and I will be in charge of the reunion. I wonder what we will pick?!