Amsterdam and Halloween

Last week, Eric and I left the kids with Kate (yeah, we owe her big!) and went to Amsterdam for a couple of days. The city was beautiful and "clean". By clean I mean the streets were swept and no one littered. No one really drives in Amsterdam, they all bike... really, really fast. Nothing is off limits to bikes- roads, sidewalks...anywhere. It can make being a pedestrian a little scary! And all you have to do is window shop to gain quite and education on...well...many things...

So, I have chosen the least "educating" pictures possible in a city full of just about everything- including Ann Frank's house which is where we were when I took this picture. We waited for about a half hour in freezing pouring rain to get in but it is one of the things tourists should do!
I don't really know what this is. It kinda looks like a church, but I almost find it hard to believe that there is one in Amsterdam. Anyway we passed this building often while wondering around (usually half lost) in the city.
Waiting to get into Ann Frank's house... you can see how much I love to be cold and wet...
See how fast these bikers go? He's practically a blur!
Central station where we picked up our dinner cruise
The dinner cruise was really good and we got to see the whole city at night going from one canal to another.
Yeah, something was missing from our bathroom...let me see... yeah... when you book a room with "en suite bathroom" isn't fair to assume a toilet is included... Yeah, lesson learned...
After we left Amsterdam, we stopped at Delft (where all the hand painted dutch pottery comes from). After discovering that we could afford a thimble and pretty much nothing else, we headed home. The town was very pretty though and I bought my second pair of boots on the trip. (The first pair was from Amsterdam and they are red and beautiful and completely not practical.)
For Halloween, Ava was a snow princess and Eli was Superman. The shivered and froze through 2 solid hours of trick or treating with determined looks on their little faces!
Mommy had to work, but they finished trick or treating off by coming up to see me at work and show off all their candy.
Aren't they adorable?!
Trick or Treat!