Good news on the kidney front

This past Tuesday Elliott had lab work done, and Friday we got the results: normal! We're so happy to report that currently he has no protein in his urine and his blood work was normal. We'll keep testing, but it's good to see him responding to the treatment.

Both Elliott and Theo had check-ups at the health clinic on Friday as well. Both are doing well; they are both average height and a little above average weight. We're going to call them big-boned...

Jolly Old England

Sooooo, after the departure of our guests on Tuesday, with just a teaser of a return to normalcy for the boys, we headed off to London and Cambridge for a week. We left on the morning of Saturday, October 6; Elliott was very excited for his plane ride and was perfect the whole time (the flight is less than an hour...). Once in London, we squashed ourselves, strollers, and luggage on the Underground and finally arrived a bit frazzled at our hotel. After a brief rest and some McDo, we journeyed into central London on an actual double-decker bus. Our first stop was the British Museum; it was great and free so we could leave without feeling guilty when the boys started to melt down. We ended our evening by walking around Covent Garden and having delicious pasties.

Highlights of the next day include: a ride on the London Eye, a walk to Trafalgar Square, seeing Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, touring a bit of the National Gallery. I really enjoyed London and would love to go back sometime...there is so much that we didn't get a chance to do (can't tackle quite as much when you are travelling with a two-year-old and a 3-month-old). Overall, the boys did pretty good, but I considered myself lucky with less than three meltdowns per child per day. We'll have to ask Cameron how he thinks I did...

On Monday, we headed to Cambridge where Cameron was going to do some research. In Cambridge, Cameron started the day with an English breakfast (no egg!); Elliott had an egg and sausage, while I focused on the thick-sliced bread! Lekker...oh wait, tasty. The boys and I spent a lot of time at the local park. One evening, we had fish and chips. We got a tour of the "campus" (bit of a different system than the US) which was beautiful and historic, and I'm sure inspires all the students to do their homework. One evening, poor Cameron had a screaming Theo practially naked at a restaurant in an attempt to calm him down while Elliott and I changed the laundry at the laundromat. Needless to say by the end of the week, we were ready to head home.

Ama Lee, Uncle Harrison, and Aunt Becca visit

We were fortunate enough to receive a visit from family during the last week of September. Ama Lee and Harrison arrived on a Friday and spent ten days with us. Becca came up from Switzerland the next Friday and spent the weekend with us. If you asked my mom, she would probably say it was the "visit of the sore butt"; if you asked Harrison, he would say it was the "anti-fun visit"; Megan's and Becca's descriptions of the visit are profanity-laced so I can't repeat them here. Needless to say, it was an action packed week! So action packed, that they'll probably never want to come back!

The fun started when Ama and Harrison flew into Dusseldorf. I picked them up at the airport in the Bluebird, eager to test out my latest modification on this sweet ride (a bungee cord to keep the clutch in 5th on the highway). After a safe drive back to Eindhoven and a good night's sleep, we picked up a rental minivan and drove to Stuttgart, Germany, where we had tickets to the World Athletic Final (a track meet). On the way to Stuttgart we drove through Belgium, and stopped in Luxembourg City for lunch. After a three-hour drive we weren't excited about sitting the kids down in a nice restaurant for lunch, so we ate hot dogs at a local street fair (which turned out to be the Luxembourg Alzheimer's Association Fun Run after-party - highly recommended tourist attraction). We stretched out our legs with a walk downtown, admiring the old buildings and the "interesting topography", and then headed into Germany.

On Sunday we strolled through a large park in downtown Stuttgart before making our way to the track meet. Harrison's friend Ryan from college was competing in the hurdles, and although he didn't win the race, we had a good time. We didn't know this before, but Elliott is a big fan of track and field. He especially likes the pole vault.

On Monday we drove to Gersthofen(near Munich), checked into our hotel, and then took the train to Munich for Oktoberfest! On the ride over, we realized that the kids were not going to cooperate for a third consecutive day of outings, so Megan and I headed back to the hotel while Harrison and Ama ventured into the city in search of brauts, brews, brezels, and beer wenches. They spent a few hours in Munich (I don't think my mom and Harrison make good drinking buddies) and then headed back to the hotel as well, bringing back traditional Oktoberfest roast chicken and brezels for dinner. Megan and I will have to experience Oktoberfest ourselves some other time.

We drove back to Eindhoven the next day, briefly stopping in Genderkingen (Germany) to search for signs of distant relatives. After four days of seemingly non-stop driving, we were glad to be back home.

We rested on Wednesday and had a mussel feast. On Thursday we took the train to Delft to check out the quaint, old, typically Dutch town. Friday morning we met Becca at the airport in Amsterdam and then headed downtown for a full day of sightseeing, including visits to the Heineken brewery and the Van Gough Museum.

Possibly the most memorable day of the trip was Saturday, when we rented bikes (no gears, foot pedals only, and hard seats) for everyone and rode to the closest Trappist abbey in Belgium. We opted to take the longer but more scenic route into Belgium, however our peaceful ride through the countryside was dampened by what started out as a drizzle and ended up as a downpour. We slopped our way 15 miles through the rain to the abbey, where we enjoyed our lunch, beer, and ice cream. We loaded up Theo's trailer with beer and other goodies from the Abbey general store and made the return trip back home with pretty good weather.

Sunday was spent resting our rears, although somehow we thought it would be a good idea to go for a night-time bike ride along a 15 mile route through Eindhoven. It is possible to ride at night because entire route is lined by colored and animated lights in the shape of various animals, objects, etc. It was fun, but probably felt longer than it was because the previous day's activities. All in all we probably rode about 50 miles on our bikes that weekend!

We said goodbye to Becca on Monday morning, and then to Ama and Harrison on Tuesday morning. It was an exhausting visit, but had a fun time hanging out with family; Elliott especially liked the new faces and the attention. He can't wait for them to come back!