A Whole Lot Going On These Days!

It's been a busy few months for the Johnsens. Teia is running around with school, violin, ballet and her expansive social calendar. Colette is enjoying Dutch school and we recently joined a little ballet class at DaMoves. 

In March a large group of us took the train to Rotterdam for the day for a little bit of drinking and hot tug boating! Hot Tug is a large hot tub boat. It's wood-stove heated and fits 8 people. We toured around the Rotterdam area in 2 hot tugs. We really enjoyed our boat excursion, and definitely gave tourists something to photograph! On our way home we popped into a delicious ramen place before finishing up our day!

It was about time that I pick up my Dutch language game and take some lessons! Twice a week I met up with my friend Leslie and our teacher Anna at a cafe for 2 hours of Dutch. I am certainly nowhere near fluent but it's been fun understanding the language more and being more helpful for Teia and Coco (even though Teia is always correcting my Dutch). I passed my A2 exam and have a certificate to prove it!

Starting April 8th in the centrum and other surrounding areas of Amsterdam the bike lanes officially have become "scooter/moped" free. The bike lanes can be a bit intimidating with motorbikes zooming by, and for years it seems like Amsterdam authorities hinted at restricting them from the bike path. Well April 8th has passed and the motored bikes are STILL on the bike paths. It appears that they have a 2 month grace period and hopefully come June they will officially start using the roads. It's been quieter on the lane, you definitely see the ones that really don't care - it's been fun yelling at them.

Kirk did a west coast swing for work in LA and Portland. In between work stuff he managed to catch up with some good friends—David, Jesse, Majo, Tim, Greg, Richard, Josh, Scott, and Pierre for a workout!

While Kirk was in Los Angeles I went to see Michelle Obama for her "Becoming" tour at the Ziggo Dome. It was surreal being in the same room. I really enjoyed her take on life and her strong message on empowerment. 

For Easter, we went to a park in the East and met with other families/classmates of Teia's. It was a potluck style feast, and multiple egg hunts in a wooded area.  The kids ran around like crazy and enjoyed their sweet treats!  Easter also marked another special event in our household - Teia lost her first tooth. The scene was epic - I was walking out of the wooded area with Colette and came across a flock of children sprinting towards me screaming at the top of their lungs "Teia lost her tooth!" She was super stoked and just the cutest thing!

The day after Easter we head to the beach with Melissa and Grant's family, and also Mickelle and Doug's family.  It was a super hot and perfect beach day. The kids ran in and out of the North Sea waves, explored the white sandy beach, built sand castles, and lounged in the sun. Melissa and I had us some fun with 2 bottles of wine!  

So we bought a house!  After much searching we discovered a lovely home that is close to Teia's school, on the water, and right next to Rembrandt Park. The area is called the West Indischebuurt/Baarjes. The house is rough around the edges - 3 floors (one that we can't access yet) and needs a ton of work. We are in the process of meeting with designers and contractors now. It looks like it will be about a 6-9 month project! I don't think we ever thought we would be buying a house to renovate, but as much as we hear horror stories about taking on such a big project we are super excited to make it into exactly what we want!  Wish us luck!

While all the house stuff starts to kick off Grandma Sharon came out for a 3 week visit!  It's been almost 3 years since Sharon's last visit so it was great to have her back in our home! Teia's school was closed for Mei Vakantie so it was really helpful to have Sharon around to help out with the girls! Unfortunately we were all sick. Sharon arrived with a cold, I had a throat infection, and Kirk was struggling with the flu. And the weather was terrible too. Even though we were not terrible healthy and the weather didn't offer us many opportunities to get outside and explore, we still had a nice time catching up and getting many Grandma cuddles and kisses!  

My friend Nancy was in town from Los Angeles. It was so nice spending time with her and Valentina! The girls played and danced and we reminisced about Nancy's time when she lived in Amsterdam! 

Sharon was here for King's Day which is always a fun event to experience. The weather was all over the place - rain, hail, sun, and then wind. The first part of the day we spent at our friends Dave and Kelsey's place for brunch, and then wandered over to another friend's house for drinks and partying. The girls were dressed in their King's Day get-up, and overall we made the most of the poor weather and had a nice visit. Thanks for all your help Sharon!

Sharon left on Mother's day, and I scheduled a facial and some yoga, and the girls made me breakfast. I'm one lucky mom! Next to come out for a long visit - Grandma Di Di! Yes, we had back-to-back visits from the Grandmas. The girls were feeling extra spoiled and so were we. First things first - our favorite drink at De Italian, always a must when my mom visits!

Teia's school is moving to a new location. It's been a work in progress for a couple years and now the time has finally come. The school took the children from their old location to the new one in a bus. They each had a little suitcase with their desk belongings and talked about the move, change, what it means, etc. 

Melanie - expat Alumni and a dear friend of my mine is in town for work, and visiting friends. Always appreciate my special time with her!

We celebrated my birthday a little bit early this year in a private room in the wine cellar at Partisan. After our delicious feast a few of us danced the night away - thanks for celebrating with me!

The next day my mom had to fly back home to be back in time for my dad's retirement party. I am so sad to not be able to be there with her—unfortunately we had already booked a trip to Burgundy. I am really looking forward to celebrating my father and his career at St. Charles Borromeo. I will always remember the proud feeling I had when I would see my father in the halls of school. The way he helped so many kids. He is a natural born leader and educator—so much so the school dedicated the Junior High wing to him. What a legend! It's hard to believe 49 years. Congratulations Dad - we are oh so proud of you and your huge accomplishment!

On my birthday, we flew out to Basel, Switzerland with the Keyrouses, and drove to Volnay (a small village in the Burgundy region - about a 2.5 hour drive from the airport). But, when we were about a 15 minutes away from our destination a deer ran out onto the freeway and we hit it head on at high speed. It did a lot of damage to the front of our car, but we kept driving and made it to our house. Thankfully we were fine and the girls somehow slept through all of it.

For our first tasting we stayed in the village and went to Domaine Francois Buffet. The kids ran around the tiny cave while we sipped away. And that night we stayed in to eat and enjoy many bottles of wine and rummikub.  Kirk and Ryan had to drive the damaged car Dijon to exchange for another car. While they spent the morning handling that we hiked around the area with the kids. We had lunch at a local place and again enjoyed more and more wine!

For the rest of the weekend we explored the town of Beaune and it's darling market. The kids enjoyed ice cream and we got in one last tasting at Chassagne Montrachet. The rest of the day we spent at Katie and Ryan's friends' lovely home in Chassagne Montrachet. All the kids played and we sat amongst the vines that provided us the very delicious wine we were drinking. Thanks for the lovely weekend Keyrouses!!!

It is official - we now are the owners of a home on Postjeskade. We selected our architect/designer Inma and contractor/builders Rocco and Julian. The demolition phase has already started and we have had many a "Bed, Bath and Beyond" moments figuring out tiles, flooring and fixtures. Oh the list is long and we have a lot to do, but overall it's been a good process - fingers-crossed it stays that way!

For Father's Day this year Kirk went golfing with friends and I hit up a bar with the kids where they danced their butts off. 

Kirk went to the big annual advertising awards festival in Cannes. As usual he mixed meetings with parties and dinners a dip in the Mediterranean. This year he also presented the new campaign fort the Epica Awards.

Kirk's sweet cousin Molly and her friend Leah stopped over in Amsterdam before going on a European excursion.  Teia & Coco had fun playing and getting in their cuddles! We managed to get out for a night of drinks and dinner before they flew off to their next destination.

Before the end of the school year the kids celebrate Sport Dag at the Olympic Stadium. The day is full of field games and fun. Teia had a blast running around with her classmates and competing.  A few days later, I hosted a Boating event for the parents of Teia's school. It was a beautiful evening on the canals! And finally an end of the year picnic before the summer holiday. 

Our friends Haeji, Pat and their two kiddos arrived from Washington for a 2-week trip to the Netherlands and France. It was Pat's first time to Europe so we were happy to host their lovely family. Funny side story - I thought it was only Haeji and Pat visiting so I was pleasantly surprised to see their beautiful daughters also at the front door when they arrived. The girls were so excited to have their friends in town and we had fun every night. The first night we took them to Parry for dinner, and then the next day we celebrated the 4th of July on a boat with some friends, and the last night we had dinner with another couple that was in town, Liane and Nicolas.  

I managed to get in a playdate with Liane and her kiddos while they were back visiting - so amazing seeing and spending time with the whole family - please move back!!!

And finally - a huge congratulations to the USA Women's Soccer team on their win in the final against the Netherlands. It was a win-win for us to have both teams in the final - but obviously we will always root for USA!!!   It was fun bragging to my Dutch soccer team - they were all pretty good sports about it! Now we are enjoying some awesome sunny days before hopping on a flight home to Seattle! Happy Vacation Everyone!!!

Our flight to Seattle was easy peasy - the girls did great and it was pretty seamless. Lucky for us we narrowly missed our flight being canceled because Schipol had a fuel shortage issue and they had to cancel over 100 flights. Thankfully we got out of there in time. Our first day in we settled down at our cabin. Teia immediately made a friend next door - Gracen - they met last summer right as we were heading to the airport so I was happy to see them pick up where they left off. We enjoyed walks around the island, biking and scooting around; and even kayaking, beaching and inter tubing.  It's so great to see Teia make her first Treasure Island friend.  

                               

My sweet childhood friend Kelly came by the cabin with her kiddos for a visit. And Kirk golfed with my dad. We spent a nice day with Haeji and Pat and their kiddos for some more golf, pool time, and a delicious bbq. And then off to Tacoma for the day where I met Kristi and Quin. And the weekend we shared with the Licht's (both Jake and Jesse).

                                               

Out at the cabin we did more kayaking, standup paddle boarding, watching movies, and hitting the golf course with Teia & Coco. On our way to Chelan we made a stop in Gig Harbor to see David and Jesse; and then a stop in Cle Elum to meet Aunt Jan for dinner; and then off to Nate and Rhi's cabin for some good old outdoors fun!

It's time for a week in Chelan with Kirk's family. 100 degree weather, bright blue skies and time with family was in order! The girls enjoyed swimming all day and feasting with the family. I worked on my wake surfing. The ladies got out for some wine tasting and the boys golfed! Nothing like cold dips in the lake in the evening.

On our way back to the cabin we stayed in Seattle for the night to see Emily and Kai. It's a bittersweet trip because they bought a new house and will be moving out of their Ballard home. We have been staying at their place for years - it's like a second home for us in Seattle (even had my baby shower there when I was pregnant with Teia). We will sure miss you Ballard house and congrats Emily and Kai on your new home! Finley and Teia played together non stop and we had a nice dinner out (meeting up with Dave too).  The next morning was nice and lazy - the kids played while Emily and I got morning bloody Mary's...and then we were off to the cabin.

                                               

One night we managed to get out in Tacoma and see our friends Karey and John, my cousin Jacob, and Kirk's cousin Molly. It's always great seeing how much Tacoma has changed - the bar and food scene is pretty impressive! And then back to the cabin for our final night, and our friend Jake and Annie-Rose came out for the day. It's been such a blessing to spend an amazing time with our family and friends back home. We always say how lucky we are to call this place our home growing up. The girls love it too - nice to give them opportunities to experience America and not only through the stories we share with them!  For our flight home myself and the girls jetted back to Amsterdam, while Kirk flew directly to Los Angeles for work.

I always find it interesting how long it takes me to adjust to being back in Amsterdam. I miss Washington—my family, friends, a car. Amsterdam is vibrant, intense, and busy....your brain is constantly in overdrive - biking here, moving there, go-go-go-go. The jet lag with 2 kiddos didn't help out, but what really gave me a sense that I was home was my lovely friend picking us up at the airport. They even had a sign. That was so nice and much needed—thanks Tiina for cheering me up!  The girls loved seeing their little friends and slipping back into Amsterdam life with ease.

School officially started for both ladies. Teia is now in Groep 4 (2nd grade) and Colette continues to be at Voorschool. Teia has 2 brand new teachers to the school - Juf Melany and Meester Rens. Her class consists of 16 students from last year (which is pretty awesome considering a lot of kids in International schools come and go) and 6 news students. Once again I took on the role as class parent, and also the head class parent - for all of the grades. And after much time planning and developing, I launched the After-School program at Teia's school. We have 9 great programs, and so far so good.  We hope to expand and continue the program throughout the year but for now we are just taking baby steps and seeing how it works. Teia is also taking violin lessons with her new teacher Laurens and has art class with Julia. Colette is busy running around with her little friends, absorbing as much Dutch as possible before she joins Teia's school in January.

                                               

My sweet friends Mel and Eric (and their daughter London) were in town and we got to catch up at a park and let the girls run wild. It's always so lovely to reminisce with these Amsterdam alum. It was too short of a visit but I'll take what I can get!

                                      

                                     

We've been incredibly busy working away at our home. Visiting tile shops, kitchen stores, and ordering materials and appliances like crazy. I feel like we are doing homework for hours everyday.....it's all worth it though!

Teia had her 7th birthday with some friends, at you guessed it, Candy Castle. I swear it's the last time we go there for her bday. She insisted on a donut cake (easy) and running around like crazy. Happy Birthday Sweet T!