Zandvoort aan zee!!

During the week, we expect the boys to be on their

"not worst" behavior. Therefore, on the weekends, you know

when we are playing with a one-on-one defense, we look for

things to do where its ok that they run and scream like they are

bat-shit crazy, ritalin-needing American boys.

This past week, we took them to Zandvoort, which is a coastal

town in North Holland.

The only thing I knew about Zandvoort was what the internet

told me in Dunglish (Dutch/English) (basically, food, nude beaches and discos...I mean if that doesn't scream 5 and 2 year olds, I don't know what fun is!)

or what my coworkers told me which was "The Coney Island of Holland".

Sign us up!

A short hour-long train ride later

we landed here:

Choosing a hotel is like throwing a dart without a tip.

We know nothing about anything here, but Nate's killer

daddy instincts went with the hotel that included "pool and water slides"

in the description. There were no photos on the internet, so it was a

a gamble from the get-go.

But, hot damn were we pleasantly pleased when we found that

not only was our hotel "family friendly", it was 100% completely built

for and around children.
This is the Kid Zone Play Area:

Arts and Crafts:
Climbing Castle:
Wii room:
Play Kitchen:
Ropes course:



And an eating area for parents so that you could oversee your youngsters

which included a 10 page menu;

1 page of appetizers and 9 pages of

frozen cocktails.

And that, my friends, is where this went from a kid-friendly to

a family-friendly hotel.

I was just waiting for the in-house nannies to tap us on the shoulder because it was time

for our couples massage and champagne and that they would make paper airplanes with our kids while we were away. It was that good.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.

Our nightly rate included a weekend pass to the

WATER PARK.

And that is when Henry fainted. Not really, but it

is when he couldn't stop bouncing up and down.

The water park was mostly indoors.

There was also an atrium of restuarants (which we won't talk about)

A water feature with turtles

and Shopping.

But they didn't care about any of that stuff..

They just wanted to get to the good stuff:

One of the many indoor pools (below) that

showed movies all day:

The urine pool (below):

We thought we'd died and gone to Heaven:

Until Henry's face broke out in a puffy red rash.

Not sure why, the only thing he ate was waffle that was

mostly globs of sugar and some orange juice.

This seemed citrus related to me which just confirms Henry's theory

that he is allergic to EVERYTHING except chicken nuggets or PB&J.
Fine. You win, Henry.

This is the wave pool and the big water slide.

When it comes to big slides, especially water slides, we go through the exact same exercise every time. They scare the holy beejezus out of Henry...until he tries it. Once we are over the intial volcano, and I'm not exagerating when I use the term "volcano", he is fine, and has a ball.

We started talking Henry up.....you can do it buddy! Its not fast. You don't even go underwater. Charlie liked it?! You'll love it, Henry. I promise you'll love it! And my personal favorite of Nate's "Buddy, I wouldn't steer you wrong!" To which Henry responds with a blank stare. And then finally, we bust out the reverse psychology with "It's ok, you don't have to do it. It's probably too big for you."

But finally, after an exhaustive pep talk, a dabble of reverse psychology and a pinch of bribery, Henry decided he'd try it with me. Mind you, this was at the bottom of the stairs. I still had to make it all the way up the stairs and continue to pep talk him. I was certain that once we reached the top - which was quite high - he'd want to come back down...the stairs, not the slide. Nate sat in the wave pool below us with Charlie and a silly grin on his face and the thumbs up sign permanently posted. He knew the challenge that lay ahead of me.

Up, up, up we climbed. Henry's eyes darting side to side. His fingers in his mouth and knees trying to keep the pee in. He was very stressed. But then, as I continued my talking, he stopped jittering, looked at me and said, "Mommy, I can do this now because I am FIVE!". And that was that.

He laughed the whole way down. At least I think he did, but may have easily confused my own laughter for his. We landed in the pool at the bottom and he climbed out, put his hands on his hips and said "I'm going to do it again".

200+ times later, he was a completely different kid. No fear. In fact, he wanted to do the slide by himself - as in he didn't even want Nate or I to walk him up the stairs. Ok, then.

Charlie has no, nor has ever had fear. Big Slide? no biggie. By the end of the weekend, we were tossing Charlie down the fast slides....alone even letting him stand in line for a slide sandwiched by German Teenage Boys. If only we could have bottled the laughter up to bring home to you all....what a souvenior that would be.

Sunday, we played a round of "Diaper Roulette" with Charlie. We couldn't, and yes, we tried, to find a swim diaper, to no avail. So I spent all 5+ hours of pool time with a heightened sense of poop alertness. Constantly asking Charlie if he need to go sit on the potty, to which he answered every single time "yes". I would often test him with: do you want ice cream? Yes. Do you want nuggets? Yes. Do you want to take a nap? Yes. Do you need to poop? Yes. He was really no help at all. In the end, we walked away from Casino Poopoo as the Big Winners. Nobody wants to be "that" parent.

Here is video of one of the hundreds of landings Henry had on the big slide:

The best part of the trip was when we sadly had to give the boys a "last call" for the weekend. It was time to head home. Nate and I were just as disappointed, it had been a great two days. Henry chose to go down the big slide one last time.



No water wings.



Alone.



The final slide.



Cue the inspirational music.



Nate waited at the bottom of the slide and said Henry shot out of the slide...ON HIS BACK!

Before this time, Henry always sat up because it would slow you down a little. Lying on your back made the slide like a rocket launcher.

Each time Henry finished the slide, he did the exact same thing. Put his hands on his hips, looked back up at the wild beast he had just tamed and walked out of the pool owning that slide.



BECAUSE HE IS FIVE.



We spent a couple hours on Sunday afternoon walking around Zandvoort. The beach was beautiful. I'm sure it is very cold, but it looked lovely. That is a red roach coach being pulled by a beach tractor.

After a weekend which included over 9 total hours of swimming, sliding and laughing, it only took minutes for the boys to drift off.
Like every weekend we've had here, we ended our Sunday with a "That was the best family weekend we've had here!" It's pretty awesome that we've been able to say that every weekend.

And the best part? We are saving the very, very best for our last weekend here.

Stay tuned!!!