Amsterdam

I've got to give Dan and Jan (Ben's parents) credit for picking Amsterdam, Netherlands as a city to visit. I always figured that people want to see London, Paris, and Rome when they visit us here but I never figured Amsterdam as a highlight. Luckily for me though Jan really wanted to go because of the Van Gogh Museum and the Rembrandt house and so our little family went with them. And I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of fun we had. 
We took a bus there which Brooklyn rocked then spent the first day touring the Anne Frank house. I can now say that I have seen the Anne Frank diary. The whole apartment was much bigger than I imagined but what hit me the most while I was there was a picture of Otto Frank, the sole survivor from the group. He came back to the Annex after the war and in the picture you could just see the loneliness in his eyes. 
The highlight of my trip had to be at dinner that night though. Ben has this habit of ordering extra spicy food at restaurants. He loves to cry when eating don't ask me why. Anyway so that night we went to an Indian food place and as usual Ben ordered the spiciest thing on the menu thinking "this is Europe it can't be that bad". Well, not to be shown up, his dad orders the same thing because he also likes spicy food which is proved by his delicious homemade salsa. Well to say the least it was authentic Indian food with authentic Indian spices and boy it burned. To give you an idea I ordered something marked "hot/mild" and I couldn't eat it because it was too hot (sorry dad I fail as a New Mexican descent). Theirs was marked "Extra Very Hot"...yeah it was bad. Dan was sweating and red faced and Ben got the heat hiccups. Thank heavens for Jan who ordered the only edible thing on the menu so that I could eat while laughing at the boys as they choked in their spicy food. They both had to take acid medicine afterwards but Ben would want me to assure you that he finished his whole dish :)

All in all Amsterdam was much more fun than I thought it would be. I loved the art at the Van Gogh museum, the time with Dan and Jan, even the 4 hour bus ride with Brooklyn who, as you can see, did just fine on the ride. 

Brooklyn and Ben in line at Anne Frank's house.

Brooklyn's busing strategy.