You Aint Much if You Aint Dutch

In honor of living just a hop, skip and jump away from the Netherlands, our family decided that we should visit Holland for Easter.  I am, after all, 1/4 Dutch.  My mother always told me how her mother always told her, "You aint much if you aint Dutch." So yesterday, March 27th we hopped in our car and drove to New Castle in England to catch the ferry cruise (overnight fun) to just outside of Amsterdam (not Hamsterdam, as Owen keeps calling it.)

The Car Ride to the ship.  It went fairly well, about 2 1/2 hours long, and I packed some amazing sandwiches for our car picnic drive

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We feared showing up too late to get onto the boat, so we arrived an hour before we could get on.  What to do? A race in the parking lot.  Owen declared, in sobs, that everyone was just too fast and Calvin stopped mid race to comfort his little brother.

The ferry boat cruise ship.

Annie and me looking at the water from the deck on the front of the ship.

They had a kids area, complete with lego tables and a ball pit area.

We only had three time-outs based on ball pit behavior, a minor accomplishment after an exciting day.

The ship even had a movie theatre.  We enjoyed "Wreck it Ralph" which Ryan thoroughly enjoyed, since he recalled having actually played many of the games featured in the show.  I thought of my dad, who went to see this movie on his birthday with all of our Arizona family.  Happy belated birthday Dad!

All you can eat Buffett for dinner.  Annie couldn't stop eating the drumsticks.

Simon relaxing in his bunk. It proved to be the worst night's sleep of my entire life.  The North Sea has a rep of being pretty tumultuous, and our boat was not massive.  Calvin asked me if I woke up like 7 times, and I told him to add a zero and make it a two digit number.  At one point in time, I worried that Annie or Owen, who were sleeping on the top, would fall out due to the constant rocking and injure themselves.  In spite of the movement, I am proud to report that no one fell seasick.