Scott and I snuck off to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, for Mom’s 60th birthday. It was fun seeing the family there and we all had a really good time. The kids stayed with a super cool babysitter who has an eight year old little brother. She didn’t take any flack from Caden which was great for the kids. We are sad she is off to college next month. )-:
United States
Houston is done
Well, we closed out the Houston trip successfully. Sunday was a great time. It started early with Berryhill’s meeting up with Gina and drinking a cold beer. For the record 9:30am Houston time is 3:30pm London time, so it was clearly beer-thirty. 
After a great visit with G-money, we went to the Texans game. Without question, it was one of the best games we have been to. Down to the wire, we stayed until the end, on feet, yelling and cheering. SO FUN!
Capitol Grill was the perfect ending. I do miss a good Texas steak!
Monday we were able to get our fangs cleaned at the (greatest ever) dentist. Then we tested our newly cleaned teeth on sushi at Fish. Of course overeating was in order since it would be our last meal in Houston. Again, Scott’s frequent travels paid off and we flew back to London in first class – truly the best way to fly internationally.
A huge shout out to John Kim for his generosity in letting us camp at his house. We are so lucky to have such great friends and we miss them dearly. As great as London is, it is without our friends…
Honorable mention:
Scott’s godson Braden who is now over 6 feet tall!
Braden’s daddy Paul
We ran into the Barrow family leaving the game – such cute kids!
Houston for the weekend
Scott and I returned to Houston this weekend for a work function for his job. We are only in day 2 of 3, but so far we have had a very busy, fun time. Our friend John Kim has graciously provided the comfort of his (beautifully redecorated) home as our base.
Last night we went to the Firm’s Christmas party. It was so fun seeing so many friends, most of whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. Especially fun was seeing JP Smith, who is recovering from a burn. While the injury was a serious one and has caused a great deal of pain and even a week in the hospital, the fact that a grown man was cleaning a grill with gasoline provides me a little giggle. Boys. Young or old, they see no danger…
Some of the things I have realized being back:
Houston is hot even in December and even a couple of weeks prior to Christmas. Yesterday was 75 degrees. The air conditioner needs to be on in the house to sleep comfortably. Imagine what August will be like!
There are restaurants everywhere here. All guarantee to expand your waistline so that you fit in nicely with the rest of the Americans.
It is a strange sensation after living overseas for over a year to be able to hop into the car and actually know where you are going without turning on the GPS sat nav.
We have only lived in London for 6 months, but already, Scott and I found ourselves going to the wrong side of the car and even driving on the wrong side of the road.
It is simply amazing how cheap things are here. From real estate to meals to clothing, cheap cheap cheap! I… must… not… shop… anymore…
I didn’t realize how much I missed college football until we watched a few minutes of it yesterday. It is intriguing how something so simple can be so entertaining.
And unfortunately three days is not long enough to see enough of our friends. But we have still a day and a half left so we will busily cram in as many visits as we can (between the Texans football game, miscellaneous health check ups, and a few cocktails).
I miss the kids (who are in London), but I cannot imagine dragging them on the 10.5 hour flight and adding their jet lag to mine. Without question, they will only make that trip when we move back.
Now, off to play with our dear friend G-money!
The joys of relocation
I’m happy to say that it is over. I am also happy to say it wasn’t nearly as painful as the USA –> Amsterdam move. Here’s sort of how it went…
Prior to leaving, Scott and I had a quick weekend getaway to Brussels, Belgium. We had a great time just hanging out in the old world streets and squares and drinking a few beers. We had a great dinner and Scott used his frequent travel points (again we benefit from his travels) to score us a great hotel right in city center. 
What a great city. A definite must for a quick stop during a European adventure.
Following our trip to Belgium, Scott, Caden, Keali and I loaded up on a plane and flew to Manhatten, USA. The attempts to get our UK VISA in Dusseldorf were painfully unsuccessful, but we were bound and determined to make the USA trip work. We arrived in the US on July 4th morning in preparation for our July 5 appointments for fingerprints, document drops, etc. Because we planned to only be there for 4.5 days, we decided to keep the kids on Amsterdam time. I am happy to say we were successful at this, but shocked at how difficult it was in New York City.
Due to the six hour time difference, this meant the kids being in bed at 3:30pm for the night and waking up at about 12:30am. Well for all those fellow NYC fans, the city that never sleeps, well, it sleeps. It sleeps soundly but for the few partiers out running around on their way home. The only thing open at 2am for breakfast are some (sketchy) 24-hour diners. Even the playgrounds are locked until 8am. Well, maybe my kids are trickier than most, but entertaining two kids in a small NYC apartment from 1am to 8am is impossible!
So we did what anyone would do… Ate breakfast every morning at around 2-3am at the local diners (gathering stink-eye glances from on-lookers for not having our children in bed at that hour)…
We crashed Central Park and their climbing rocks, careful to avoid the homeless people asleep every few feet (you don’t see homeless people overseas very often), took a much recommended cable car ride to Roosevelt Island (opens at 6am!) and played at the local parks (you can tell we have become more European by the picture below where the kids have very little clothes on…).
Once everything opened, we played in the water parks and went to the top of Rockefeller Building and checked out the amazing views, all while we were waiting on the British Consulate to either give us a YAY or a NEE (Dutch spelling).
We generally had a pretty good time, once the sun came up. The flight back, I have to say was fantastic. We flew business class (my first international business class trip) from EWR to AMS. Let me just say: Wow. After I sufficiently fed my fat on a four course dinner, my seat laid all the way flat like a bed. Amazing. What a treat!
Then came the move. Literally. Four days after our arrival back in Holland, the movers went to our house. They packed for one day, loaded the next, and arrived in London at our new home the following day. My saint of a husband handled ALL of it as I had to attend my first meeting as “boss”.
We have settled in nicely and the kids are loving it here. It seems much warmer than Holland, and it’s nice to understand the menus, signs, and mail again. I already miss my new friends in Holland and miss the no-car transportation style, but I think we will settle nicely into London.
In nineteen days, we all flew to the USA, were issued visas, returned to Holland, were packed and moved to London, unpacked AND had Caden’s 6th birthday (which gets its own entry). Busy. Very busy.
All in all, a successful relocation with a few hiccups along the way, but sooo much better than our last that we won’t complain a bit!
Here’s the video of pics…
Honorable mention:
Belt and suspends in real life
Entertainment can be many things in the wee hours of the morning – even stickers on a toothbrush…
Beautiful kids…
The trip continues…
Whale watching off the coast of Maui – check. Snorkeling off the coast of Maui – check. Doing them both on a $3.5 million catamaran – priceless. So it’s clear to me that we have been given opportunities and adventures of a lifetime while we are on this trip, but this exceeded my expectations ten-fold.
It is interesting to me that a couple would buy a boat worth $3.5 million and that it took 3 years to build the boat. More interesting to me is that they lease it out to select groups almost daily. I would be terrified that some tourist would mess up my boat! However, the other side of the coin is this: who would know and/or appreciate your investment if you don’t share it with complete strangers?! I for one am glad they share.
Today was a beautiful day with wonderful weather. It even pales last night’s dinner which was hosted at a $13 million home. (That’s not a misprint.) The home is owned as a second home by a couple that vacation in Hawaii two weeks a year, so they felt that it was prudent to have a home here. They evidently didn’t feel it was a good idea to be without EVERY amenity offered in today’s world, including, but not limited to, an infinity edge swimming pool.
I believe that Hawaii is a beautiful place and a fabulous place to vacation, but this has certainly been the way to see it! What a great adventure so far, and more to come over the next 3 days. Aloha!