Amsterdam - Tues 7/28/26

We left Oom Dick and Tante Saskia’s house before 7am and drove to Schipol Airport and returned the rental car we had for the last 2 weeks.

Hendrik and I walked Titia to passport control and said bye to her at 8:45am for her 11am flight back to Houston. We then went back to the rental car counter to pick up a smaller car from Hertz for 4 weeks. Yikes! Hendrik realized he booked and prepaid for 11pm pick up and after calling hertz and speaking with the counter person, there was no changing the start time earlier than 9:30pm. 😬

So we took an 18min train ride into Amsterdam Centraal station to spend the day in the city. We stored our bags in a locker at the station for 16Euros. While waiting for the train, I noticed there were no benches to sit down on but there were there things to perch on…notice that works for someone of Hendrik’s height, BUT IT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME!!! 😂

We got there about 10:15am and walked. Loved this fish sculpture where you could fill your water bottle.

This is the top floor of De Bijenkorf department store which has a great/different view of the city rooftops.

We had breakfast.

Love the canals.

Walked to the Rijksmuseum and played in the fountain, I got wet on my left leg. Then we spent 4 hours inside looking at art! The last time we were here was 2018 and both ram and ant WHINED and I think we spent only 1 hour at the museum. One of the key pieces here is the night watch by Rembrandt (and the Milkmaid by Vermeer) but it was under restoration and has been for the last FIVE years and will continue restoration for another SEVEN years! I thought we were at the Rijksmuseum in 2022 and saw it, but had to look at this blog to figure out we visited in 2018. This blog is like my diary/history, and this is what inspired me to try blogging again. 😀

More canal views

We walked by this restaurant and realized we ate here in 2022 with Annet and Floris and Philip. 

We ended up buying premade food for dinner at Jumbo (grocery store) and sitting on a bench by a canal to eat. I had tried to go to Pluk where we had a açaí bowls in 2022, but walked in at 6pm just as they were closing. Also bought this delish cookie for dessert. We ended up back at the top floor of the De Bijenkorf department store from 7-8:30 where we charged our phones and played cards, then took a train back to Schipol airport and picked up our rental car at 9:30pm. Hendrik drove and we got to Ghent, Belgium at 12:15am, checked into an Ibis Hotel and went to bed.

Ghent, Belgium and Bayeaux, France - Wed 7/29/26

 

Ant's Football Senior Night, Homecoming Weekend, Chili Cookoff

It's been a long time since I've blogged! I am going to try to get some things into the blog otherwise time and memories will disappear. Blogger loaded photos in reverse order, so I will write about things in reverse order.

We were invited to the neighborhood chili cookoff at the Watkins' neighborhood for Sun 10/27. Darren and Annie helped cook chili the night before, then Hendrik smoked a brisket and added brisket to the chili.

Anthony eating Karim's chili but it was more like a roast, served taco style. Anthony came for a bit to the chili cookoff.

Darren and Oreo, Ant, Hendrik and Celeste at our station.

Pictures of all the leis Ant received at his senior night.

Hendrik, Oreo and Celeste watching TV on Sat 10/26 night while Annie, Darren and I made chili.

Hendrik made smoke tri tip for dinner Sat 10/26. We also had corn salad, green salad, cheese and crackers.

Hendrik and I dropped off a small smoked tri tip for Ant and his friends pre-Homecoming at Rowan's house. Ant has a new white shirt and wore his suit pants from sophomore year. No tie.

And and his friend group pre-Homecoming dance. Then they went to Elizabeth's house where parents weren't invited. There were 75 kids and they didn't get a group picture because it was dark outside. The dance started at 8pm and Ant was home approx 1am after an after-party.

We put our Ramsey's single bed frame and it was taken within a few hours. Sad to see the bed go as Ramsey used it from age 5ish to 21. (Hen insisted on buying a queen bed for him which was purchased right before the Heep family reunion this summer when we had 16 people on our two properties.)

Ant was interviewed by the M-A Chronicle after the game, but I didn't see him quoted in an article.

After game pictures. M-A beat Paly for the Homecoming game and Senior Night game.

Ant has tight hips and gets stretched before every game by the trainer.

Celeste prepared kukui nut leis for all Ant's coaches.

Above pictures with the trainer Steph. She takes good care of Ant, and the rest of his friend group also.

Friend group pictures

Above pictures are from photographers who took pictures as we walked through the arch as they were announcing the seniors.

Giles and Ant

Above 4 pictures are of the 4 boys who went to Our School at Teacher Mickey's for young 5's. 4 of the 6 boys that year now play M-A HS football. The moms took a picture together too. (L to R: Ant, William R, Joshua P, Joshua O.)

Above 2 are Susan M who runs the football program, a volunteer! Her sons graduated from M-A and played football at least a decade ago and she is still an amazing volunteer!

Friend group picture: Ant, William S, Cole, Giles, Jackson.

William R and Ant.

Annie drove up, arriving day of (Fri 10/25). Celeste flew up and prepared leis for all the player's moms and players. 

Annie made candy leis for Ant 

Annie arrived about noon and we spent ~3.5 hours making candy leis!

After the Thurs night dinner, Devin shaved his head due to a bet. This past week, Giles had to shave his head. Xander does too or opt to bleach his hair. The things to boys think to do!

We made 2 posters and a big head for Ant's senior night.

Thurs 10/24 night, we served dinner for the football team. Hendrik smoked 2 briskets and grilled 12 packs of chicken thighs. We put 7 trays of Costco ready-made pasta in the oven. All the food got eaten!