'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