On July 25, we drove from Connecticut up to Boston, MA to catch a red-eye flight to Amsterdam. Mara was not in a very good mood this day, but eventually she fell asleep on the Mass Pike.
Boston or bust!
Mara was in much better spirits by the time we arrived at Boston Logan Int'l Airport. She had a snack of pretzels while we waited for my parents and sister to show up.
We met our airplane - an Airbus A330. It was actually very comfortable and Mara loved the fact that there were little TV screens in the back of all the seats. She watched several episodes of Elena of Avalor, a show which she had never seen. They also fed us dinner (real food!) and breakfast because it was a red-eye. It was actually only about 6 hours long and Mara slept for several of those. Despite sleeping, she woke up groggy and disoriented.
Before the flight...
And after... not so happy!
I was absolutely exhausted. As I've mentioned (I think) in previous posts, this pregnancy has been very hard on me. Sitting in an airplane, however comfy it may have been, for six hours and being up all night was just about more than my body could handle. We arrived in Amsterdam at about 9:00am which was unfortunate because check-in at the hotel wasn't until 3:00pm! Some other members of my family (I think it was everyone except my dad and me) went out to explore Amsterdam a little bit while I lay down and slept on the hotel lobby floor. Not comfortable! Eventually, the hotel staff found a room for us. It would turn out to be my parents' hotel room, but they let me and Mara nap in the bed. Mara slept so hard she actually wet the bed! I felt bad but my parents weren't mad. We woke up around 2:30pm and went to get lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Mara insisted on wearing a costume that cousin
Brady had given her. I believe it's an Alice Through
The Looking Glass costume from a previous Halloween.
Later that evening we went on a canal tour of Amsterdam. We were are still pretty tired despite several of us having taken naps and we found the boat ride very relaxing. Mara passed out on my lap and slept for about forty of the sixty minute ride. I found it hard to keep my eyes open as well.
After the canal tour was over, Corky was going to take Mara back to the hotel and go to bed for the night despite the fact it was only about 6:30pm. However, upon arriving back at the hotel, Mara seemed to perk up a little bit and wanted to go to dinner with the rest of us. We went to a pancake place and she wanted a "chocolate pancake." So she ended up with what was basically a massive crepe with Nutella on it. She devoured it!
Mara and her giant pancake with Nutella!
The next morning. Mara had a very hard time waking up.
Poor baby. Jet lag is no joke and she took it like a champ.
The hotel we stayed at the first time had an AWESOME breakfast buffet. Mara decided she would only wear that Alice costume again. It wasn't a battle I wanted to fight so I told her she could wear whatever she wanted. Here are some pictures of Mara at breakfast. I'm not sure these were all actually on the same day, but she was wearing the same outfit for both mornings we were there, so here they are.
My cute mom at breakfast. I believe this was the first day.
My mom and sister went off in search of art museums (not a hard thing to find in Amsterdam) and my dad, Corky, Mara and I headed to Vondelpark - a giant park in the city center. We found a few playgrounds but this is the only photo I took:
Mara on a huge swing!
On the walk back to the hotel, Mara passed out in the stroller. She used to sleep in strollers when she was a little baby but hasn't really done so in ages. It was so cute! She didn't wake up at all and actually slept for over an hour like this back in the hotel. It allowed me to get a nap in too, while Corky went out exploring on his own.
My sister decided to take a nap later in the afternoon, so the rest of us went out for a walk. We walked over to Old Town and actually found the hotel we would be staying at for our next jaunt in Amsterdam (to be covered in a future post). I was having a lot of trouble with my veins in my legs and groin. They are varicose and they HURT. So we took a lot of rests. One of the stops we made was at a playground, of course! Mara had a ball.
Family photo. Yes, I was very tired.
My gorgeous girl.
The area right outside our hotel.
July 28, we flew to Oslo, Norway. Stay tuned for Part 3!
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