'Tis the Season

We kicked off the holidays with our 3rd Annual Thanksgiving Feast at the home of Leslie and Ryan, who somehow manage to make the food better each year. Don't even ask how many helpings Geno had. The following weekend we headed to Cologne, Germany for our annual Christmas Market visit - we usually hit smaller towns but decided to try out the big city - it was a success. Click here for pics

We are now gearing up for our big trip to the states this week to see family in ATL, LA and San Diego. And we apologize in advance for any screaming you might hear if you happen to be on any of these flights. Adventure! Stay tune...

Stormin' Normandy

We decided to test out Tate's traveling abilities to make sure she really is our child....turns out, she is. We hit the road on our 7 hour journey to Normandy, France with Tate passed out in the car, and managed to make it with only 2 pitstops...thanks to Tate's love for Vitamin D drops (dutch recommend 10 a day). We called the charming town of Honfleur home for 3 nights. A special treat was dad meeting up with us from his 4-day blitz tour of the UK. We toured Omaha Beach (one of several D-day beach landing spots) and American Cemetery - all too powerful for words. Here are a few facts to remind you of the intense planning and sacrifice that went into D-Day (June 6, 1944):

• British, Canadian, American and Commonwealth troops.
  
• 4,000 ships in the fleet
  
• 5,800 bomber planes
  
• 4,900 fighter planes
  
• 153,000 troops


• 20,000 vehicles
  
• 11,000 casualities
  
• 2,500 dead
  
  Now that's intense ... and they did it with no email or cell phones. Blows my mind how they pulled it off. On the way back home, we wanted to make sure Pop got a taste of Belgium, so we stopped over in Ghent to stuff our faces with the best waffle in the world. Click here for some pics.

Hello Tate!

We did it ... had ourselves a baby. Tate Sierra Willis joined us at the crack of dawn on August 13 (no, it wasn't a Friday). She weighed in at 6.7 pounds, and about 19 inches tall. After a longer than expected stay in the hospital due to blood infection, we were overjoyed to bring her home to our sun filled apartment 4 days later. She's now happy and healthy and rapidly gaining weight in attempt to catch up in size to the larger dutch babies.

Thanks to the help of a dutch provided nurse the first week and Gene taking advantage of dutch parental leave benefits with a month off, we're adjusting well to the day in life of babyville (or as Gene calls it, Diaperland). We're loving watching her grow, make weird faces at us and sleep through every loud noise that happens outside our apartment. She's actually a huge fan of being outside, even conquered the tram (public transport) perfectly.

Here's some link to many pics - we're trying our best to keep them limited to the best ones to keep you coming back for more:

Click here for Week #1

Click here for Week #2

Click here for 1 Month

Lovin' Summer

Ireland - Gene took a quick weekend trip to Dublin to visit good friend Brian (aka Ireland) and his fabulous wife Kate. 24 hours to catch up over some fine Irish brews and tour the city.

Ijburg - Who knew that in Amsterdam there was a little beach front property ... we're a bit slow and finally discovered this little North Sea cove, complete with a funky Bohemian restaurant for dinner. Only 15 minutes by car (big day for us, rental)

'Lil Willis - Most of the summer has been spent enjoying the sun in Amsterdam (yes, that's right people, we have sun - even got ourselves tan!) and hanging out with friends and visitors. The little Willis is expected very soon ...Aug 21 is the big day. Pic is at 37 weeks - lots of baby going on there!

Chilly Willy: Iceland

What better place for a Texan's bachelor party, than Iceland? Gene went with five other ex-pat friends from Amsterdam to Reykjavik for a guys weekend before Ryan Lawrence ties the knot later this year. What was waiting in Iceland was a sun that never set, natural hot spring pools, Icelandic fly fishing...and beer that cost $13. Yep, even with the economic fallout, Iceland will not be renamed "Bargaintown" anytime soon. To cap off the weekend, the most impossible of coincidences, the gang ran into - Eric Gabrielson, who works at W+K Portland and is a great friend of Gene and two other buddies in the group. He was with his wife, Jen, and starting a tour of Iceland for a week, unknowing that any of his friends who had moved from Portland to Amsterdam (Eric + Jen also used to live in Amsterdam) were also going to be there. Only in Iceland. Click here for pics.

Headed North

So there's a whole lot more to Holland than Amsterdam, or at least that's what my co-workers keep reminding me of .... so we headed 2 hours north to the largest city in the region of Friesland, called Groningen. The coolest part was we stayed in houseboat. While fun for the weekend, proved we're glad we have a solid foundation back at home. We did a little outdoor market food shopping, museum viewing (Cuban exhibit, followed by some live music), tower climbing and, of course, eating. Click to check out the pics.

Where exactly is Slovenia?

In case you're on Jeopardy, Slovenia is hidden diamond of a country next to Italy and Croatia. Gene hasn't stopped yapping about visiting it since we moved to Europe because apparently it's an incredible secret spot for fly fishing. So fishing he did - striking gold by finding the coolest fishing guide who brought him to turquoise colored rivers and streams where he managed to catch 8 fish. I found our little cozy hotel to be the perfect spot for lounging around - helped that it also had 1 of the top 3 restaurants in the whole country attached to it. Danger. Click here to check out the pics because the natural beauty is off the charts.

Zwanger! A little Willis....

So our big Christmas holiday news was finding out we were pregnant - and the even better news is after our recent ultra sound scan, the little kiddo seems to be doing great. Here's a few fun facts:

• Birthday is currently targeted for August 21, which means I'm currently about 5 1/2 months.


• The belly officially popped out last week, where the airport security guy in Greece pointed to my belly and motioned me the front of the line .... if only we would've known the perks of having a baby belly earlier!


• Birth country will be The Netherlands. Hey, they've got major healthcare perks over here, we're for sure not passing those up! For example, for 8 days following the birth of the baby, you get a nurse at your house who helps you figure out what the hell you're doing (they also prepare meals, do laundry, etc). Sweet!


• Gender is an ongoing debate, with Stef currently winning. The ultra sound technician wrote it down for us, but it's currently very well hidden in a sealed envelope (although Gene is probably combing the house as I type).


• Belly pics - check out our Greece post below, you won't miss it! The blog photo is at 5 months, 1 week. Yes, I'm lame (okay, vain) and chopped my head off cause I just woke up.

It's all Greek to me...

... and that's just fine. Ah those famous Greek Islands - now we understand why they are just that. After failing to figure out how we could permanently support ourselves financially, we came home ... but really, this place was heaven. Naxos was the island we landed on for 5 days and we got the royal treatment from our lovely beach hotel. Apparently we were the first to arrive for the season and were greeted with an upgraded room and wine - nice! As you'll see from the pics, we pretty much ate our way through the island (Gene claims he's trying to match my belly), hiked around the city, and rented our "fun car" for the day to explore the island. We also spent a day in Athens doing some tourist stuff - just check out the pics.

Canary Islands ...where our winning streak ended

For the most part, we tend to have ridiculously good weather when we travel....such as sun in Ireland and Scotland. But the lucky streak ended in the Canary Islands where we desperately wanted sun. Thank goodness, the island (Lanzarote) was cool enough to have plenty of action such as cave exploring and volcano tours. (The whole island is built on volcano rock and soil due to dozens of eruptions that happened centuries ago.) It was crazy to see grape vines and veggie's growing in the black soil. The sun did break for us long enough to hit the beach and at least turn our pasty skin to red. And we got plenty of heavenly Spanish food so for sure a worthwhile long weekend! Click here for pics.

French Valentine

I told Gene we couldn't officially move back to the States until we used the box of ski gear he made us move over here 2 years ago. Accepting the challenge, he planned a fabulous long weekend to Chamonix, France - which was only a short flight and van ride away. Seeing how there's NO mountains in Holland, we were stunned at the beauty of the Alps ... snow everywhere, and my favorite part .... sun . Excellent ski (snowboard for Gene) conditions. We even went up on this insane gondilla ride to Aiguille de Midi, (learned it's the world's highest vertical ascent by gondola - which explains why I nearly lost my breakfast), but the views were worth it. Click here for some pics.

Ghent or Gent...still unclear

We were in need of some Belgium treats, so we trained it 2 hours to Ghent for an overnight. Loved it so much already booked the same hotel for a return trip in July. What's not to love about old streets, Fisher Price style ancient castles, and mouth watering food at every corner. We bought the best waffle in the world for a euro from a street vendor who doesn't realize what a huge thing he's onto ... he could easily crush Leggo my Eggos. Here's some pics.

Good 'ol USA for Christmas

Nothing is more relaxing than visiting 3 cities, all your families, many good friends and stockpiling empty suitcases with American goodies in a 2 1/2 week period. But we wouldn't trade a moment of it. And we're super grateful for everyone who made time to see us, especially those lucky folks who got to host our tornado of suitcases.

As we're experiencing jetlag, we're keeping the blogging short and have photo tour of Atlanta, Portland, and Los Angeles for you. So, click here for the pics.