New house pictures x2

One of the things that really sold us on our new place was that it had a private, completely enclosed and reasonably large park. It's absolutely gorgeous out there, and Rocket has been really enjoying our walks and soccer games in it this past week. And the best thing is that there's hardly anyone else out there!

We anticipate spending a lot of time there, especially next summer!

A few photos below:

The grassy area is great for games of fetch and soccer with Rocket

The other side of the park, it goes back for a little bit with nice paths and scattered benches


Rocket found an abandoned football in the bushes today - she was so happy about it!

- Krista

New house pictures x1

I've gotten a few complaints that we haven't put any pictures up of our new house yet, so I'm sorry I've been so slow about it. We've had a few more moving complications than we'd hoped to have, and as a result our place is not yet fully put together, although it's starting to look more and more like a home. We're going to give it a final push this weekend and then I promise I will get more photos up!

For now, here are a few pictures of our tiny little yard:

Rocket loves it out there! We can't wait to get the fence all built and a little doghouse for her so she can spend more time outside.


The yard looks slightly bigger in this photo - once we actually spruce it up a little bit, it's going to be a great spot for summer BBQs!

Fishstick likes to watch us from our bedroom window - sometimes he joins us outside too, though of course it makes me a little nervous since he's always been an indoor cat.

We've been trying hard to build a fence this week to keep Rocket inside - hopefully it will be finished this weekend.

Gardening tips, anyone? I want to make this place nice so we can spend a lot of time outside next summer!

- Krista

Sara the dog

I wanted to take a quick break from European-related activities and pay a quick tribute to my dog Sara, who died last week at almost 13 years old.

I got Sara when I was in third grade and she was a big part of my life. She was also just about the sweetest, most polite dog I've ever met. She will be missed.


- Krista

Rocket and Fishstick's big adventure

We had quite a scare last night - both our cat and our dog escaped out the back door of our new home. While this may not seem like a big deal to most of you with yards and fences, neither of our animals have ever been outside on their own before (Fishstick has never been outside at all, and Rocket has only been out on a leash), so we didn't know if they would know how to get back, especially since we just moved to a new place a few days ago.

Here's what happened:

Fishstick feigned a fake escape out the back door, then during his getaway, Rocket slipped outside. When we realized Rocket was gone after about a half an hour or so, we went to look for her and that's when Fishstick made his real escape. I went to look for Fishstick in the morning and realized he had been outside the entire night, running around the park by our house. I think they were working together, those rascals!

We're just glad they came back - we would have felt terrible if we lost both our animals because we couldn't figure out how to properly shut the doors!

Mischievous cat...

And our funny/curious dog

By the way, I plan on writing a children's book with the title of this blog post someday.

- Krista

Move #4

I honestly can't believe we're now living in our fourth house in Amsterdam.

Yes, we moved this week... again. We've now lived in two temporary places (each for about a month), and two more permanent places.

When we last moved, we had absolutely no intention to move in Amsterdam ever again. But then, things changed. We got a dog, got sick of the five flights of stairs, and wanted to be a little closer to the city. So here we are, in our fourth Amsterdam home.

The move was interesting, to say the least. Unsurprisingly, not everything went as planned, and we had a few hangups with our new place. But, we're here, our old place is almost vacant, our new place only has one corner filled with our landlord's stuff, and so far as I can tell nothing is broken (except for a couple of legs on our TV stand...). Now on to the unpacking...

Here are a couple of photos of the move, more posts/photos/stories to come soon.

Boxes have been a major source of entertainment for the animals during this whole thing

Neither Brian or I understand how we've accumulated so much stuff... (it all had to go out that window!)

The elevator/ladder was 55 feet long, and barely made it to our window

Everything had to go on that little platform. Luckily nothing fell off!

- Krista

Acrophobia

Last weekend Brian convinced me to take a ride on the Ferris Wheel at the constantly reappearing Dam Square carnival. This was the view:
I guess it was pretty high up!

- Krista

The Dutch countryside

While on my way to drop off and pick up Rocket from her new kennel just south of Amsterdam, I walked through an incredibly gorgeous part of the Dutch countryside (I ended up doing a lot of walking on this trip, one of the downsides of not having a car).

Both times ended up being beautiful, slightly crisp, fall days, and it made me wonder what it would be like to live in the Dutch countryside. Everything seemed so luxurious - being able to have a car, a huge yard for our dog, an actual house - what a life!

But I know it's not right for us right now. We love to be able to walk and bike places too much, and even though these places weren't really that far out (it did take me 2 and a half hours to walk home, but it would be a much shorter bike ride), we still like being right in the middle of the city.

I can still visit though!

This bird was just sitting perfectly on an old bike... picturesque maybe?

This house seemed nice...

Rocket loved this long path by the river

- Krista