'Tis the Season

This weekend I was in Norway visiting an account so I took Monday off and Gentry and I ventured out into the freezing cold of Amsterdam to do some Christmas shopping. It is wonderful to be here this time of year as we see all the Christmas decorations around the city and the amazing Christmas markets. We had a lot of fun walking around and looking at all the markets. It was so cold we had to buy some warmer hats while we were out, but they were worth every euro. In the middle of our shopping Gentry introduced me to a little bagel and coffee house. We ordered hot chocolate and I have to say it was really good. They bring you some steaming milk and a little cup of chocolate chips to mix in. It was excellent and hit the spot on a cold winter day. As we were making our way through the Christmas market it was fun to look at gifts for family and laugh about some of the things we could get, but I may get arrested trying to bring them back to the states. In our married life we have had some great Christmas memories, but yesterday will be one of my favorites to look back on. This year Christmas has a different feel and being so far away this Christmas our gift to each other was a trip home. We have realize how great it is to be around family this time of year. We love our new home and the challenges that it presents, but we love Utah and miss family that always keeps us on our toes. I wanted to share some pictures of our shopping adventure and a great Christmas message as we get into the busy Christmas season. Hope it is a good one for all of you! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Time flies when you having fun..or not.

So time really is flying and we are enjoying The Netherlands it's an amazing place to live. Although we love it here there are many things we miss. Here in the Netherlands they obviously don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I'm still thankful for some great things in my life. Family (I have to mention that first...), Our dog Harley... I know it's sad, but we really miss this little piece of our family. I crave Cafe Rio! Oh what I would pay for a pork burrito right now!

Although the Netherlands is a great country it's not the US and I'm thankful for the freedom we have in the USA. I'm grateful for this amazing opportunity to live in another country and gain experience that will prove invaluable. I'm grateful I get to choose my companion on this 2 year excursion, not that mission companions weren't great, but we have been able to grow closer in a way that would not have been possible had we stayed home going about our normal life. This is vain so be warned... I'm grateful for nice cars! If you know me you know I love cars and I really miss just driving up the canyon or through the streets of Alpine with the windows down enjoying one of my favorite things in life. Although it sounds great to be here living in Europe and it is, there are challenges that we are overcoming as we learn to find the good in all things. We are learning so much and I'm thankful for this huge blessing in life although incredibly difficult it will be rewarding.

As we (I guess as you) celebrate thanksgiving I thought this would be fitting. Enjoy!

How do moms just know?

How do mom's just know what you need? Last week we got the most amazing surprise! Mom sent us 2 packages and they arrived on the same day! I think I startled the delivery man because I couldn't contain my excitment and I was smiling from ear to ear. I couldn't wait for Chris to get home, so I opened up both packages and put everything out on the table so I could look at it all. Funny thing is I started to cry because I was so happy! Its amazing what kinds of things you start to miss when you don't have them and mom just knew what we would be missing I guess. I didn't know that just the sight of canned enchilada sauce and a bag of fish crackers would ever make me cry, but there you have it, a little taste of home. Its been so exciting because every day I reach into the box and pull something else out and get excited all over again. I keep thinking, "how did she know I would want this?" that's why we love them! they just know. thank you mom for all the wonderful surprises. We love you!

Finding Joy in the Simple Things

Well, my find of the day today was vinegar! I was going through some of my recipes looking at ingredients that I don't have and wondering where I might find them. I feel like every time I go to the grocery store I'm on a scavenger hunt. so with grocery list translated into Dutch in hand, I went searching and...wala! found all 3 vinegars I was looking for: red wine, white wine, and regular. Who knew that I could be so excited over such a simple thing as vinegar?

Weekend in Germany

On Friday I had a trade show in western Germany so Gentry and I decided to take a weekend trip and see what Germany had to offer. Germany was a beautiful country in the middle of fall and the drive through western Germany was absolutely amazing. The country side was full of color and picturesque villages sprinkled with castles. Here are a few pictures of our weekend.





We also visited the castle thurant.

Deventer, The Netherlands

ENJOY! We sure did.




Last weekend we drove to a near by city named Deventer and spent Saturday walking through the markets and around this amazing Dutch city.


The Market had so many neat things to see and typical dutch food.

A New Week

Ok, so I know that I have already failed miserably with keeping the blog updated. I'm tellin' ya, this is just not my thing, but its a new week and I'm going to try harder! there isn't a lot to say for this past week, because we really didn't do much. It was nice to just stay home and hang out together. About the only exciting thing we did was eat at McDonald's and shopping at the Chinese food store where there are some American products like Rootbeer! (how strange is that, American food at the chinese store?)But, this week is a new week and we are determined to make it a little more exciting than the last. For example, I'm actually going to try and cook this week. I think Chris is slowly wasting away because he hasn't had a complete meal since we got here. I'm armed with a new recipe and a grocery list written in Dutch this morning. I'm going to jump on my bike and be a good little wife and go get some groceries! I'll let you know how it all turns out. this will be my fist attempt at using my microwave oven thing. Should be very interesting...

Happy 5 years!

today marks our 5 year anniversary! It is amazing how fast time flies! I just wanted to tell my Christopher how much I love him and how fun the adventure has been so far. I look forward to the future and all the adventures yet to come.

Amsterdam through our lens

We will try and add more picture soon so keep checking in. Here are a few pictures of our favorite places in Amsterdam.

Yes, it's me...

ok, so chris has been telling me that i have to take over the blog for about 2 years now, but I knew that if I just left it, he would do it. He even posted when we got here, but said I need to finally take over, so here I am. picking up where Chris left off, yes, we did go to the grocery store. And yes, he did find some Dr. Pepper, which he was over joyed about until he brought it home and drank it. You should have seen the look on his face. He keeps telling all of us it tastes like toilet water, which we are all dying to know how he knows what toilet water tastes like? I tried it as well, and yes it was nasty, but it tastes like candy mixed with soda water. I think he will wait until we get back to the states to drink another Dr. Pepper. for now, Coke will have to do.
We were able to go into Amsterdam this weekend, which was awesome! we took a canal tour around the city and walked down a couple of streets in the tourest section of town. I have never seen so many people jammed into a tiny street! we have decided to go back this weekend so that we can discover as many places as possible to show everyone when they come out to visit. we also discovered that there is a Hard Rock Cafe near the train station. And the food is 100% American! Lets just say that Chris has decided Hard Rock will be our weekly date night dinner. sounds good to me. Holland is gorgeous and a fun place to be, but the Dutch are definitley not known for their culinary skills. I will have Chris post some pictures as soon as he gets a minute. I guess I haven't let him off the hook completely with the blog :)

Getting the hang of things

It has been 3 days now and I think we are starting to get adjust to the time difference here in Holland. (8 hours ahead of Utah) Yesterday Gentry and I decided that we would be adventurous and we went to the grocery store as well as the gas station all in the same day. First we had to go to the bank and get bank accounts set up which by the way is very difficult here in Holland since the US government doesn’t allow them to give Americans accounts here unless you are going to be here for a long time. Thankfully 2 years is sufficient… After setting up accounts we decided we better get some food for the next few days and took a trip to the grocery store. This was an adventure as the store is very small and as we soon noticed everything is in Dutch. Needless to say we will be translating some items before going next time. The highlight of this trip was I found some Dr. Pepper! I thought I wouldn’t see this wonderful beverage until the next time we flew to the states, but I was pleasantly surprised. Our grocery shopping experience was interesting as we found you have to pay for a cart as well as bags for your groceries. Oh ya you also have to put everything in your bags and bring them with you every time you come to the store. Once we move into our apartment we will be about 3 blocks from the store so Gentry will ride a bike down a couple times a week for grocery shopping. (We will make sure to post a picture of this.) Oh ya you also have to pay for parking wherever you go here which I can tell is going to get both annoying and expensive.

After our trip to the store we had to get some gas which was also a new adventure since my company car is all new to me I didn’t know what kind of gas our what side the tank was on, but we figured it out and oh ya gas is killer expensive here. 1 liter is 4 euros. It cost about $100 to fill up a normal size car like a VW passat…. Good thing we are buying bikes here! Anyway to finish off the day there was a priesthood session for the stake which by the way was most of the country. There were about 50 men and it was all in Dutch so I didn’t get much, but it was nice to meet some of the people in our branch. It is amazing how the church makes the world a smaller place. All in all so far so good! We will keep you up on what is happening today we have to go and get visas and fill out all the paper work so we are legal residents here in Holland. We miss you all and love you thanks for taking some time to read our blog.

The Netherlands!

Gentry and I got on a plane Monday afternoon looked at each other and said "Are we really doing this?" Well...we did it and we are now here living in Amsterdam for the next 2 years. So far everything has been great and worked out perfectly, but there is still a lot to do for visas, bank accounts social security #'s and etc. Hopefully Gentry is going to start using blogger more and you will be hearing from her about this new adventure, but for now we are here and life is good although it was very difficult to say good-bye to everyone at home. We love you and we will see you soon hopefully!

Chris

Summer '10

If you haven't noticed already we are not very dedicated to updating our blog. I blame Gentry since she wants nothing to do with the blog. The funny things is she usually hears about recent blog posts from friends rather than reading them herself. I think everyone needs to give her a call and let her know they would love for her to post something on the blog. I figure people get tired of hearing from the same person over and over, right?

Anyway it's finally summer and I'm sitting at work wishing I was outside at the pool. The last few weeks have been busy with Holiday's birthdays and just the busy summer life that we all have. We recently went to the Lehi Rodeo with some good friends Christian and Michelle. It's always fun to hang out with them as they have become good friends over the past few years. Here are some pics from the rodeo... Sorry they are terrible we didn't take many. It's been a great summer so far and I have tons of pictures I will post soon! Thanks for taking some time to check out what we are doing. After so many people telling us to update the blog I will try and post more this summer.

Thanks!

The Locked Blog

So it's been a long time since I looked at blogs, but this weekend I thought its time I should know how my friends are doing... I was surprised to find out most of you lock your blogs... I have decided that this blog will never be blocked or locked or whatever. I guess the bright side is I will spend less time online reading blogs.

Pictures worth a thousand words...

Well it's been a long time since I posted and a lot has happened. So where do I start? We had a fun summer at Lake Powell, riding the motorcycle and just hanging out in the canyon and at the pool. This fall we bought Utah football tickets and had a lot of fun watching the games. Gent looks good in Utah red!






So what's new? Gentry graduated in December which was exciting. May 1st I'm done and we will be an educated family... ya I don't know what that is going to do for us, but it will be nice to be finished. Gentry is hoping to teach in the fall and I'm debating a Masters degree.

Since our last post some important things have happened in our life starting with buying a house. We ended up not building and instead found a really good deal on a house in Cedar Hills. I left QuicKutz last year and started a new company with a few of the guys I had worked with at QuicKutz. So far it has been a lot of work and I'm hoping we can continue to grow. We are both ready for summer and warm weather and hopefully some fun vacations. I will try and post more often, but you know how it is life gets away from ya.
A pictures worth a thousand words right? So here are some pictures we missed.





Also if your interested I started a professional blog for the small business consulting and sales that we do for our company. If you interested check it out and pass it on. Posting again soon Thanks for stopping by!
http://thedailygrind.posterous.com