July 2018 - Belgium & Friends (Part 1)

July started good 😏, or should I say typical for us ... we got back from California at 2AM on the 1st of July with the rental car we got for that trip. So far so good, however this was our second car of that trip, as the first one was broken into while we were in San Francisco (more about that in my future post of June 2018), and only upon arrival at home, we realised that we left the house keys in that first rental car 😬
Options like 'sleeping in the car on our driveway', or 'putting up our backpacking tents in the garden' crossed our minds, but both were not really appealing after a 12 hour drive!
Luckily Jessica, our land lord, is a nurse who reacted on our message at 2AM in the morning, as she was just returning from a work shift. Lucky us!!😅 
It sure felt great to sleep in our beds after all, that night!

3 Days later, on the 4th of July, our boys left for their annual summer trip to Belgium while the fireworks of Independence Day were lightening up the sky (so to speak).

Departure in Salt Lake

        With my mom at their arrival in Brussels

While in Belgium, they live the lives of Nomads ... every few days they change their overnight accommodations. 

First stop was my parents' place in Wommelgem, where their growth spurt of the past year was noted immediately 😉

Their second stage was @ Katrien & Tom's place (Geert's oldest brother) in Haacht. Their children are around the same age as our boys, and they get along really well!

Checking out how tall they've gotten 

   Checking out Lucas' new motorcycle

After which it was time to go to their friends in Meulsté for a few days. Thanks to social media and online games, they stay in contact with all of their friends all year round, so when they see each other after 1 year, it's like they never left.

Next stop was Geert's mom, who just came back from a holiday in France. She lives next to Geert's sister, so it was at the same time a reunion with some more of their nieces and nephews.

Noortje making our boys feel right @ home 😆

The day before Geert and I arrived in Belgium, they returned to Meulsté again for a few days, where Geert and I would pick them up for a weekend with my sister and my parents.

During all this time, Geert and I were having a relaxing time in Utah. 

During the year, we have the kids with us ALL the time. It's not like in Belgium, where they sometimes go to friends for sleepovers, or go a weekend to omi & opa, ... No, we are together 24-7 here! Which is great of course for bonding and all 😏, but some time alone with just the 2 of us, becomes an extremely enjoyable event! 

So we had some precious us-time,

fun times with friends,

and (always!) some nature time, which of course also includes Antelope Island. 

This time we did the Split Rock Loop trail, a 18,3 km hike which leads you through 'death valley' (didn't steel it's name! 😅), and treats you with gorgeous views on the lake and the mountains, but sadly also thousands of bugs (a specially in death valley .. so not that death after all).

That black dot, left in the picture, is a pronghorn

And we did not miss the world cup games of course! We even got some American, Portugese and Danish friends come over to support for our team!

Enough Belgian colours? 

Celebrating our win from Brazil

Seems like Geert saw our loss coming against the French 😆 

2,5 Weeks after our boys, it was time for us to follow them to Belgium. On the 21st of July, Geert and I landed in Amsterdam. When we got to the passport control, I noticed that I didn't have my passport! People who know me, will not be surprised that something like this could happen to me 😬.  Anyway, as I still had it when boarding the plane in Salt Lake City, and no other steps where taken in between, I knew it had to be somewhere on the plane. Returning to the plane wasn't possible, so we were at the mercy of the airport security 😨

I'm not going to bore you with the details, but it took about 2 hours to get it back, and if it would have been up to the security, I would still be waiting there!

Because of this (annoying) 'little' problem, we missed our connection to Brussels of course. The next Thalys to Brussels was another 2 hours later, which we spend as pleasant as possible 😋

That Thalys was fully booked, but luckily we could get a ride in the bar of the train. There are worse places to have to hang around!

However, after like 15 minutes, they announced that due to a fire on the high speed line, the train had to deviate, leading to another hour of delay! 😖

We therefore decided to get off the train in Antwerp instead of Brussels, to catch another train to Mechelen, where Geert's sister would pick us up.

That first beer on Belgium ground after this long and eventful trip sure tasted great! So no surprise that we didn't stop after one?!

When @ 3 AM in the morning, and still going strong 😆, I stepped on my Phone and cracked the screen, I decided it was time to end this disastrous day!

After a good night sleep, without any effect of the jet lag (probably because we were so exhausted and didn't listen to our body when it wanted to get in sleep mode the day before), and an even better breakfast (the bread and buns in Belgium are just THE best!!), we headed to Antwerp for our first (of many more to come) reunion dinner with friends, including my sister who I hadn't seen in 2 years!

On our way to this dinner, we first stopped at my parent's place, where my dad immediately  pampered me by taking care of my feet ... something he's known for in our family!

Best pedicure ever!

The next day, it was time to pick up our boys in Meulsté for a weekend with my family in Slenaken, The Netherlands. We were however first treated with a lunch in the garden of An & Benjamin's, the place where Willem was staying at that moment ... it felt like we were in the South of France! 

The weather during our weekend was great (read 'hot'!) and the setting was beautiful. Unfortunately for our boys, perfect factors for a walking trip 😆 ... after a whole year of hiking trips in Utah, that's not really what they were looking for of course.

Long faced boys way behind us for the first part of the hike 😏

But once they got over it, we all had fun

It's hard to beat the hikes we're used to now in the Sates, but the ending it with a nice cold beer on the terrace of a cozy bar is something we definitely miss!

Our personal pedicure @ work again 😉

Others giving it a go too 😆

But he's the one and only!

Last hike of the weekend ...

... where we were saluted by our most typical cattle 😉

After these fun family times, it was friends time again! We dropped off Hendrik and Willem @ their friends in Meulsté again, and Geert and I continued to my best friend, Katrien.

We relaxed at their gorgeous place and had a fun evening/night ... it felt as if I had never left!

 

The next day, we returned to Meulsté for a BBQ @ Monique & David's place, where Willem was staying at that moment. It was a fun reunion with some friends we also hadn't seen in 2 years!

That night we were lucky to have a whole house for ourselves ... An & Raf had offered to stay @ their place while they were in Italy. After sleeping every night as a guest at somebodies place, it really was a welcome diversion!! Their dog, Fiona, was the cherry!

 

Geert's youngest brother and his family lives close to  London, and with us living in Utah now, a reunion with his whole family is not a given! But we made it happen!

On Friday evening we had a dinner @ Geert's mom's (aka 'Mams') place, and the next day we left all the kids with her and went for dinner in Leuven.

Geert's mom with her 3 daughters in law

Geert with his sister and brothers ... clearly at the end of the evening 😏

With the train to Leuven

And then it was time for the main reason why we came to Belgium this summer ... the 50th wedding anniversary of my parents. 

They had a big party for all their family and friends, and we could not miss that of course!

The guests of honours

Besides being the best pedicure, he also is a great speaker!

So it was kind of nerve wrecking to speech for them!

But it all went great 😅 ... we even teared them up a bit! 😊

As the party location was close to Meulsté, we got to stay @ another of our friends places ... this time @ Gracy & Philip's! They weren't home yet when we got there, but they made sure that we were taken care off! 😍

The next evening we had a party with them and the rest of the 'gang' with whom we've had many fun times before we left to the States. It wasn't any different this time!

 

The last day of July, the day before our boys would leave on their annual Chiro camp, Geert 'assembled' our boys, and went to his mom to get them packed and ready. Meanwhile I had a lunch in Brussels with 2 ex-colleagues ... forgot to take any pictures though 😐, but is was a perfect way to end this extremely fun, but exhausting month!