When christmas came around we knew we didn’t really want to get Sophie much since she doesn’t need anything so we decided to get her the trike that she had played with that day with Sean.

Sean and I found her the other day sitting on her trike watching tv which was really quite cute.

Although she is still pretty little for it she likes to be pushed around the apartment on it as well as pushing it up and down the hallway by herself.

This year I wasn’t expecting great things.  In fact I pretty much expected Sophie to cry the second she saw Santa.  I was surprised that I actually had to peel her hands off my shirt just to hand her to Santa.

They took the pictures as fast as possible, but the crying was pretty much unavoidable.  It is a classic children’s Santa picture.  The ladies I was chatting with while waiting in line were laughing because their kids did the same thing last year.

I am looking forward to taking both of our babies next year to see Santa and for Sophie to actually understand what is going on at Christmas.

Sophie and I were in Seattle for Father’s Day so we weren’t able to celebrate with Sean.  We did leave him a very cute card for him to find when he got home from work on that Friday.

Since my family loves any excuse for getting together and eating insane amounts of food and dessert we gathered at my mom and dad’s house to celebrate father’s day.  Since it was my dad’s day he got to pick what we ate and we ended up with quite the spread of finger foods.  I was sitting at the table feeding Sophie all within reach of the food.  I finally had to step away because I think I might have eaten most of the food.

A celebration is not complete without a little croquet tournament in the back yard.

Sophie and I didn’t play with everyone else, instead Sophie had some time on the swing and sitting with Nama.

We had a great time celebrating our dad with lots of food and laughter.

Since Jen and Tyler didn’t come over for father’s day Sophie and I stopped by their house on our way out of town for a quick visit.  Declan showed Sophie how awesome duplo blocks are while Jen and I had some super yummy iced coffee.

Here is a bit of a preview of the cuteness that is our daughter in her Christmas outfit.

The next two video’s are from our time in Salzburg Austria.  The first is when Sean was supposed to be taking a picture but instead surprised me with a video.  We thought it would be funny to put both takes of the video because the first was not planned and therefore a bit more of how I was really feeling that day.  After watching it I knew that although I was disappointed there was no reason to be so negative so we did it again.

4 Generations of Paynes

Sophie with her Grandpa and Great Grandma

Streets of Amsterdam

Crooked Buildings in the streets of Amsterdam

Relaxing in her own seat on the flight home

We have spent a lot of time just walking around looking at the city.  Amsterdam is more of what I thought Venice was going to be like with old row houses and canals.  Sure Venice had canals but the look of Amsterdam is more what I was expecting.  As I mentioned before I have really discovered that I love old architecture, as with cappuccinos I guess I needed to come to Europe to appreciate it.

Tomorrow we head home to Seattle after an amazing month of traveling.  It is hard to believe it has already been a  month.

Pictures to come tomorrow, and hopefully Sophies 4 month post that is a little overdue.

We were greeted by Sean’s dad at the airport who was also in England to see his mom.  After a tour of where both Barry and Linda, Sean’s mom, grew up we headed to the care facility where Sean’s grandma is.  She was excited to see Sophie and get her chance for some cuddles.  I got some great pictures of the two of them, as well as a picture of 4 generations of Paynes but I am unable to upload pictures at this internet cafe so I will add picture tomorrow when we get back to Seattle.

Because we were only going to be in town for the day we had to head back to the airport after visiting for a few hours.  We ended up going through the country back to the airport to see something besides the view from the motorway.  After a quick stop for lunch where I was able to get my last british fish and chips we were back on the road.  At this point we were running late, but should still get to the airport with time to spare.

It was at this point that Sophie woke up from her nap and decided she was hungry and couldn’t possibly wait until we got to the airport.  She launched into her biggest crying session we have seen.  She was crying so hard she was almost throwing up.  I was trying everything I could to get her to calm down because we really didn’t have time to stop.  We finally decided that she was so upset that we had to stop to calm her down so that she would eat.

Sean was able to get her to calm down enough to eat but by this point we were late, like if Barry didn’t drive really fast we were going to miss our flight.  So off we went trying our best to make the flight, otherwise we would have to buy our tickets again to get back to Amsterdam.  After a wrong turn we eventually made it to the airport where we had to make a mad dash for the gate.

We have had some close calls in the past for flights but nothing compares to yesterday.  The second we got out of the car we were running at full speed to make our way to security, we had about 15 minutes to get to the gate.  A nice man let us cut in line through security and then it was a full out run again.  Sophie was in the carrier and just bouncing away as we ran, she had a smile on her face the whole time, I wish I could have taken a picture.  With a few minutes to spare we made it to the gate only to find out the flight was delayed and there was really no reason to be running.

It was a whirlwind day of travel but so worth it.  Sean’s grandma was so happy to see her and I am just glad that it all worked out so well.

We decided to head out yesterday to explore the city without realizing that since it was Sunday most of the stores would be closed.  After walking around a bit we found a cute cafe that was open so we stopped in for some lunch.  It is always great when traveling to find a place that is full of locals and not just a place for tourists.

After a nice lunch and coffee we headed back to the hotel to hang out for a few hours before we headed back into town for dinner.  I snapped this picture of Sophie taking a nap because it is exactly how she sleeps at night.  Sometimes she even turns herself completely sideways to make sure we know who is boss.

Since we are headed to Amsterdam today we thought it would be interesting to go see the red light district here in Antwerp to see how it compares to the more one there. 

I wasn’t sure if I was going to write about the fact that we were taking Sophie to the red light district and then I figured I would because it is kind of funny to see a women with a baby strapped to her walking down the streets of the red light district.  It was definitely an experience to see all the girls in the windows and to actually see guys going inside the little rooms.

After or little tour we headed to dinner where we ended up at a fancyish restaurant to get mussels, a dish that is popular here in Belgium.  I have only had mussels once before at a belgium restaurant in Vancouver so I hoped I still liked them. 

Yes that is a huge bowl of mussels with garlic and cream, Sean got an equally large bowl of mussels in white wine.  Both were very good and super filling.  As a side dish you got belgium fries with a mustard mayonnaise sauce.  Dinner was great and after a quick stop for a McDonalds sundae for me and some belgium beers for Sean we headed back to the hotel.

We have had a great time in Belgium and will be heading to Amsterdam this afternoon for the last few days of our trip.  There is going to be a one day trip back to London tomorrow to see Sean’s grandma again to give her a chance to hold Sophie since she wasn’t able to hold her when we visited a few weeks ago.  Sean’s dad is in town as well so I am excited to get a picture of 4 generations of Payne’s.