California Trip for My Grandma's 94th Birthday!

My grandma turned 94 last week! Wow! Every year since she turned 90, my mom's family has gathered in Northern California for a few days to celebrate, choosing getaway destinations not too far from Berkeley/Oakland. For each of those years, we have been in the Netherlands and I have been nursing, pregnant or home with a toddler, making the trip impossible. Well I have earned my freedom and was so excited when I found a great airfare ($550!) to allow me to attend this year. The idea of 14+ hours of travel (layover in Zurich) might bum some people out, but I was stoked! It was everything I hoped it would be- time to read, watch movies, sleep and enjoy the peace and quiet! And thanks to melatonin, I didn't suffer much from jet lag, only waking at 5:30 in the mornings, which let's be honest, is not too far from the norm.

Onto the celebrations:

We drove from Berkeley to Inverness in Point Reyes National Seashore. The day I arrived was my grandma's actual birthday so we got right to celebrating.

The long weekend was filled with hikes, reading, puzzling, games, eating and drinking. So relaxing!

Hike down to Shell Beach

I loved time on the deck listening to all of the birds, especially the wood peckers, and watching the fog roll in.

Tomales Bay

My aunt put together a slide show of all of the homes where my grandma has lived. A fun trip down memory lane for her. She is doing remarkable for 94, but admits to memory loss. I enjoyed looking through old family albums. My grandma was a meticulous scrapbooker!

A young grandma looking a lot like Maeve

Grandma with my great-grandma Evangeline and her twin brothers. 

On Saturday, rain came in right when we planned on an outdoor lunch at Cowgirl Creamery and a hike with friends Gregg and Katie who have recently moved from Madrid to San Fran. Instead, we shopped in the rain and enjoyed catching up indoors back at the house. When the skies did finally clear, we took a short walk down to Chicken Ranch Beach where their dog was very popular with the kids.

A rainbow for my grandpa

I know we weren't in the Netherlands, but the whole weekend was super gezellig! Especially with the roaring fires and hot-tubbing under the stars. 

Playing the Copeland family classic: Oh Hell. I won by 1 point ;) 

The gang split up on Sunday with my parents and Uncle Tom and Aunt Diane flying back home. My other two aunts live in Berkeley so I got in some extra time with them and grandma before my flight home the next day. And I got to see Sue and Nick's new Berkeley home!

Margaret, Claire and I drove further into Point Reyes National Seashore and took a leisurely hike to the Pacific Coast. It was such a beautiful day and as we were relaxing on the nearly empty expansive beach, Claire spotted first a seal and then two humpback whales, who spent an hour swimming down the coast, breaching and spouting along the way! #California!

 

 Back in Berkeley I did some necessary shopping :)

Then I had the treat of seeing some college friends for dinner and drinks!

Can't remember the last time I saw Becca! 

Marcus and Kevin, 6 kids later... 

One final stop to see Grandma at her assisted living center on my way back to the airport. I'm so glad that I got to see you, Grandma and help you celebrate! Be well and keep making your 90s look good!

Now for another relaxing 14 hours and then getting to see my family back home!!

Travel Therapy

Some people have retail therapy, I have travel therapy. Or to be more accurate, "travel booking therapy." Last week's tax verdict blew, so I took to the interwebs to plan out some trips for us to look forward to. The timing was great because the cheap airlines had just released their spring/early summer fares and I was ready to pounce! Of course Pete has suggested that to counter the effects of losing our tax benefit, we could travel less, but where would be the fun in that?? And at prices like these, I don't feel like we need to quite yet!

Airfare for a family of four:

Fall Break to Bordeaux: $274

Source: France Voyage

February Break to Lisbon: $350

Source: Venturists

Easter Break to Naples: $350

Source: MyLittleAdventure

May weekend in Krakow: $260

Source: Trip101

Early Summer to Mallorca: $308

Source: Holidayguru.ie

Ahhh... I'm feeling better already!

The Tax Change Verdict Is In....

... and it is not good news 😞

We waited anxiously last Tuesday until around 3:15pm to hear the verdict of the proposed tax changes. We were hopeful that the government would come around and agree to grandfather us into their changes to the 30% ruling (some background from my first post here). But they did not and as things stand, we will lose our benefit at the end of July this coming year. Really disappointed, though not really surprised. Over the summer, the tax changes were debated and it seemed clear then that they were not backing down on their plan to screw a lot of us over. Many friends felt more certain that they would not go through with their plans and were quite shocked last week. But it ain't over til the tall Dutch man sings. The changes have to pass through both houses of government, which will take until mid December. We hear that there is some hope that they could add in the grandfather clause, as they did back in 2012. The United Expats of the Netherlands group is also going full steam ahead looking into the legality of this change. At the time of blogging, 41,000 euro (of an 18,000 euro goal) has been raised to pay a law firm to write a legal opinion on the matter. And we still don't know if or how Pete's school would help families like ours if the law takes effect and there is no legal case. So it boils down to more waiting, which drives me crazy. Simple life decisions are that much harder when our future is uncertain. We still plan to stay at least one more year to see what it is like living here without the tax benefit. Sink or swim. As unfair as all of this is, we are willing to shell out more taxes because we see what such a system does for quality of life. What I'm most upset about is the kid's tuition at ISA being taxed prematurely and our foreign assets being taxed, which thankfully for us are not too great.

We talked to so many people this summer about all of this and I wanted to share an update. Thank you for all of your support! Seems it will be a few months still until the final verdict is in. I will continue to keep you posted! And in the meantime, VOTE!, because we may be coming back sooner than we'd hoped.

Yearly Apple Picking Outing

We picked a few apples on Sunday at our yearly outing to Olmenhorst. Memories from 2015, 2016, 2017! We met Jill, Matt, Malin and Elodie and their friends again on the beautiful fall day. The season just began on Saturday so it was a bit of a scene, and the bounce house was an ER visit waiting to happen. The kids loved picking the apples (and picking, and picking). We'll be enjoying them for a while! 

Serious apple picker

Goofy

Jude has been so great with Maeve lately. At home, when she's being 2 and we are firm with her, he comes to her defense and tells us that we are being mean to her :) So it was no surprise that he wanted to help her with the apples.

 

 

 

Pear shape to another level

Took a few turns around for her to stop crying and enjoy it :( I think she was upset about the color of her chair. 

'Til next year, Tot Ziens!

Used Car Shopping in the Netherlands

We ended our car-free existence a few weeks ago, buying another used Volvo to replace the car we lost in May. There were moments in the last few months when we thought we'd be fine living without a car, but thoughts of cold, rainy school drop offs and warm, sunny beach days made us realize how much we wanted one. It helps immensely that as a perk of being an entrepreneur, the car expenses become business expenses. The catch is that at the end of each tax year, you have to account for personal use of the car. For cars newer than 15 years old, this equates to paying 35% of the value of the car off the lot- ouch! For cars older than 15 years, you have to pay 35% of the current value of the car. We had this set up with our old 1998 Volvo and it led to big savings (as it lowered my profit and therefore tax liability). 

So from the outset we knew we needed a car from 2003 or earlier. Buying a used car in general can be an anxiety provoking experience, throw in doing it in another country/culture and I was seriously stressed out. There are plenty of used car websites here along with the Dutch Craigslist, Marktplaats. And if we'd had another car and plenty of time, I'm sure we could have scoured the sources for a real deal. But we wanted something quick and easy so we made an appointment at the Volvo dealership to see the used cars on their lot. Pete's coworker and his wife came through big time, lending us their car and staying to babysit the kids while we went out. The few cars we had seen on the dealership website were really dumpy, but another car had just been dropped off that morning (or so they say..) and hadn't yet been posted. A 2002 V70 with a lot of kms, a banged up driver side door, but a good price. 

A young sales guy, rather green, assisted us. We wanted to get the car up to highway speeds, but there weren't any nearby highways so he assured us that there were no speed cameras on the local road. He had to go to his manager at many points during the transaction. In very Dutch fashion, the manager says to us something along the lines of "You take this car today for close to nothing, then anything that goes wrong is your problem. Maybe you get lucky, maybe you don't." Blunt and to the point! Time being of the essence, we made the quick decision that we wanted to take the chance, called our former insurance company, filled our paperwork, and paid (PIN of course). Then she was ours and I was once again behind the wheel in the Netherlands, driving our new baby ever so cautiously home. Jude had told us that he wanted a blue car, but was happy with how big this one was. 

Four days after we bought the car, Pete left on his grade level trip, which meant that I was to do all of the drop offs and pick ups. That morning the skies opened up and it rained and rained and I was so so happy to have a car!!