"Hema'nJames" Visit

I am coming off the high of hosting our latest set of visitors, grad school friend Heather and her husband James. Or "Hema'nJames" if you are Jude. When I visited with Heather this summer in NYC, we were talking about baby plans for the future and she mentioned how fun it would be to visit us this winter and both be pregnant. Of course we knew that there could be many barriers to this plan, but were both fortunate enough for the plan to work out! Heather is a month ahead of us and sporting an adorable belly. 

Heather studied abroad in the Netherlands (Maastricht) and it was her first trip back to the country. James took great pictures of their whole visit of which I have stolen many for this post (thanks, James!). 

To combat jet lag on the day they arrived, we biked out to the goat farm through the Bos. So many adorable baby goats! And the cutest baby chicks who liked to nestle under their mama. 

Required stop at the goat farm cafe. The soft serve goat's milk ice cream machine was shut down for the season so we had to settle for poffertjes! Sad day :)

We planned to take a day trip on Sunday and Heather suggested Madurodam, a theme park of sorts with miniatures of all of the major Dutch landmarks. So essentially, they saw all of the Netherlands within 1 day of arriving! It was cool to see a lot of castles, museums and towns that we still have on our list. I'm excited for more Dutch exploration now!

Palace Het Loo- High on my list now!

Wheels of Gouda are heavy! "Is that the best you can do, daddy?"

Honey I shrunk Amsterdam

When I figure out what this is, I want to go there, too!

 The indoor soccer experience was a hit for the kids, young and old.

Heather and James prepared themselves for parenthood with a night of babysitting while Pete and I went to see The Tallest Man on Earth at the very cool Carre theater. 

On Tuesday morning, we drove over to Oudekerk on the Amstel to check out the cute town and have lunch. We made a stop at the Eisenhove goat farm on the way because you can never see enough goats when you visit Holland :)

"Een biertje, alstublieft"

We got take out Indonesian food from down the street to sample some local specialties. 

On Wednesday, I took the day off from work to have a kid-free day in the city with Heather and James. It was a day of indulgence: lunch at my favorite Italian deli shop, free lunchtime concert at the Concertgebouw, frozen yogurt and snack at the Food Hallen and an afternoon movie, The Big Short, at the Film Hallen. Later that night, we got a babysitter and chowed down on burgers and ribs at Cannibal Royale, rounding out a pregnant mama's perfect day :)

And then they were off, to continue their baby moon in Lisbon, leaving Jude asking daily, "Hema'nJames?"