Seattle and Whidbey Island

Erik and I spent a wonderful five days in and around Seattle visiting Isabelle and Nick. They've made such a great home and business there and we were so happy to finally make the trip to see them. We spent half of our days in Seattle and the other half on scenic Whidbey Island in the cabin Nick and his family designed and built together. We ate lots of great meals, watched a few movies, broke in some new hiking boots (purchased at the REI flagship store), rode three ferries, and saw the house my family had lived in over forty years ago. It was only our second trip to the west coast and we hope to make it out there again in the near future. Next time it will be with the three of us!

Around Seattle

Seattle Public Library

The Seattle Public Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, opened just a few years ago. I had seen the building in magazines and couldn't wait to see it in person. It was incredible. The NYPL should take some notes!

Nieuw Amsterdam

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Henry's Hudson's arrival in Manhattan. Two weekends ago, we joined a MAS walking tour called "When New York was Nieuw Amsterdam". It was fascinating to hear about how diverse and welcoming Manhattan was all those years ago. Sadly, because of two great fires, there aren't any buildings left from Nieuw Amsterdam, just the grid of the streets and some great anecdotes from our tour guide. It was nice to see lower manhattan through different eyes and to spend the day with friends. Erik and I were even interviewed for this Dutch website.

little peanut

Erik and I are expecting a baby September 18th and couldn't be more excited! We had planned to start trying for a little one in January, but when my period never arrived we started celebrating instead. I've had most of the usual pregnancy symptoms, but once I passed the 13 week hump last Friday, I began to feel much better. I've been sleeping a lot more while my body is busy forming the baby's little fingers and toes and everything else in between. We've tried to resist buying stuff for the baby, but picked up these swaddle blankets at Target last weekend. Meisje was a very willing test subject.

what we've been up to

Spring is almost here...finally! The last few weeks have been really busy. We've had two sets of visitors: Rein and Christa and Nick and Isabelle, we've seen two Broadway shows, celebrated Edwin's birthday at Wollman Ice rink in Central Park, saw Josephine's new paintings at Volta, met Aaron and Caitlin's newborn son Henry, and we both survived the 24 hour stomach bug. And, oh yeah, we are having a baby! More on that later.