Dancing

Our kids love music and they love to dance! Not surprisingly, like Wes and I, they love Hip-Hop and Rap. I think some things you just inherit from your parents and Tyler and Madison's impulse to just move to music must come from me (not that I'm saying I'm good at it, but music just makes me want to move and groove). Tyler sounds like he hangs out at the bar with us; he says "Dad, can you play Apple Bottom Jeans for me?" This is a video from last weekend, just hanging out at home and listening to the iPod in the morning.

AWCA Group

I am part of the AWCA group, it's the American Women's Club of Amsterdam. I joined about one month after we move here and this group has been a lifesaver for me. It's a wonderful club that has allowed me to meet lots of other American women who have gone through the same thing I have; living as an Expat in another country. I mainly do things with the Moms-n-Tots group which meets every Monday for playdates at someones house. We try to host one time every other month to have people over. I have met many wonderful new friends and the kids really enjoy playing with all the kids. This month I also helped put on a seminar called Having a Baby in Holland. Not that I want to do that; but it's a popular topic for young Expat women. I worked on a team with 5 other women in the club and volunteered our time and services to make the seminar happen. I think there will be a few more in the future. I enjoyed giving back to this wonderful club that has given me so much.

Ice Skating

There is a pond in Museumplein that freezes over and they turn it into an outdoor ice skating rank during the winter. This is only a 5 minute walk from our house and one Sunday morning we decided to take the kids there. It was their first ice skating experience (and who knows how long it's been for me, YEARS!). Ice skating is not the easiest thing, I even felt awkward out there on the ice. But the kids loved it and really enjoyed themselves. At first we didn't let Maddie do it, but of course after seeing her brother do it she had to give it a try. It was a beautiful day and a great memory; ice skating in front of the "I Amsterdam" sign that stands tall right behind the pond.

Ice Skating

Mike Sheldon visits A'dam

Mike Sheldon, our CEO was in town this week. It's always fun when we have NHR visitors from other offices. I know they had a busy week at work but they also found plenty of time to play in the evenings. I think Wes went out with Mike 4 or 5 nights in a row. Did they make it to the Casino? I don't remember. But they did have nice dinners each night with different groups of people from work. One night they had dinner with the EMEA Manager team, and the Senior Sales Team and one night I even managed to go out. We had a great dinner at Hotel Okura (a Japanese and Sushi restaurant) with Mike and Lucie and Doron. It was a fun and busy week.

Expat Lifestyle

Tyler and his friend Emily

We had the pleasure of going to Princess Emily's 4th birthday at the end of January. It was a fun birthday party at The Little Gym with all of our Expat friends. Emily was Tyler's first friend in Amsterdam. Not only was she American and part of the AWCA with us but they also went to the same creche (daycare) and played together a few days a week. Emily and her family moved to NJ at the end of January were her Dad was starting at a new job afer being in Amsterdam for almost 2 years. It was sad saying goodbye to good friends after only knowing them for 10 months; but I guess that's the lifestyle of expats. At some point we will all come and go from this city and start over again.

"A farewell is necessary before you can meet again, and meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are true friends!"

We are Official!

Yeah! Finally, after 10 months all 4 of the Clanton's are official residents of the Netherlands. We all got our resident permits, sofi (social security) numbers, registered with the city of Amsterdam, and signed up for Health Insurance. We'll see how long that takes to get set up and going. Now going to pick up the permits with both kids was not an easy chore...but I managed and we survived! Madison and Tyler both had their first official doctor appointments through the city of Amsterdam were they administer vaccines, check wellness, growth, etc. They are both doing great and growing as they should!

Kids Classes

Since being in Amsterdam I've been trying out different classes with the kids (mainly Madison). I have been attending The Little Gym (like a MyGym) with Maddie for the past 8 months. She just loves it and I think we have a little gymnist on our hands. We've also tested out a toddler learning based Montessori class, music class, and community playgroups. I recently signed up for a Sporty Kids class with both Tyler and Madison. It's a fun group class which focuses on different sports things each week. I enjoy going with both of them and seeing what they each can do and watching Madison trying to copy what Tyler and the bigger kids are doing. She's so sassy and independent and is fearless! I sometimes forget that she's not even 2 years old yet.

Little Gym

Car in Amsterdam

Ok, so we did it! We gave in...I just couldn't take it any longer. But no, we didn't buy a new car. One of our great friends Alissa is letting us borrow her Mom's car that wasn't being used. It's not a normal car that you'd be seeing the Clanton's drive in the States but it turns on, drives, all parts work, and it gets us from point A to B and back. It's a 1987 Mitsubishi Colt 2-door stick shift. Parking is easy in our neighborhood and we can always find a spot. It's nice to have the option of driving the kids to school and to work when it's freezing outside, raining or snowing. I must admit I didn't think I needed a car, but I have driven it a lot in the last month. At least 4 days a week it goes somewhere with us. Tyler likes to say "we have a little car" now.

Back to Amsterdam

We flew back to Amsterdam on Monday January 12th and arrived on Tuesday. The flight was pretty uneventful. The kids do great on the flight back; they sleep for half of it. But then we pay for it! Once back in Amsterdam it takes them about one whole week to adjust to the time change and get back on their normal schedules. Let's just say it's a very hard week and pushes us to our limits. The kids wake up almost every night sometime from 12-4am and stay up for a few hours. They want to play and want nothing to do with their beds. This makes it for a rough day, especially when we have to get up and work. Each time I think it will get better and it doesn't!

Papa - Richard Solga

On New Year's Eve we lost our beloved Grandpa, Dick Solga. He will be forever loved and greatly missed. I was so thankful we were able to be home to be there and support my Mom and Grandma. We were able to celebrate Christmas with him and the rest of the Solga family just 5 days earlier. We were home for the Memorial Service which was a beautiful family gathering. Please feel free to check out a website to remember and honor his life at http://www.dicksolga.com/.

Family Memorial

Santa Barbara Visit

After our time in Vacaville we headed down to SB for a week. Let's just start with the fact that it was GREAT to be back! We stayed The Hotel Santa Barbara and my Mom came down for a few days with the kids. Wes worked all week and had lots of meetings and I was busy running around with the kids going to every appointment that I could schedule. We did doctor visits, dentist checks, hearing and ear checks, allergy, etc. It was a special trip because we were able to see a lot of our other NHR friends from other offices (Singapore, Dallas, London and NY) as well as the SB ones. It was convenient staying at the hotel downtown, we were right next door to our favorite bar, O'malley's and The Hall Upstairs. So let's just say we spent a lot of our free time there! We attended the annual NHR yearly party on Friday the 9th, which was held this year at Stateside Restaurant and Bar. It was a fantastic party with a fire and ice theme. I loved seeing all my girls and catching up with them and having a fun time dancing to the DJ at the party. The party felt a little different for us since we haven't been in SB for 10 months, there were lots of new faces that we didn't know. Over 300 people were at the party and you never have enough time to talk to everyone as much as you'd like to.

Friends in SB

Kids hanging at the pool

Tyler and Madison hanging out with Grandma Jackie at the pool in Santa Barbara.

49er Game

We were lucky enough to be able to attend the last game of the season to watch the 49ers play. It's funny, we are living in Amsterdam and were able to catch 2 games this season! Wow, this was a great game to watch. We went with our 2 good friends; Kevin and Brian and had fun tailgating with Clanton cousins.

49er Game

Christmas Holidays

Our Christmas celebrations began in Amsterdam. We celebrated as a family at our house in Amsterdam, attended a Santa breakfast at the HRC and Sinterklause visited the kids school. We flew back to the States on Christmas Day and Grandma Jackie and Papa Don picked us up. We had a busy next few days celebrating Christmas with all the families and friends in Northern California and being spoiled. The kids really enjoyed this Christmas and both really got into opening the presents. Maddie wanted to tear open all the gifts (including everyone elses) and she wanted to open each new toy or gift right then and check it out and play with it for a little bit. Tyler on the hand wanted to unwrap each gift and stack them all up in his own special corner so he could survey all he got. He didn't want to open any of them until he was done unwrapping. It was cute how they each did their own thing. We spent one week in Vacaville before heading down to Santa Barbara.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas 2008