Kristal, Hannah and I hopped on the metro last Saturday afternoon to make our way to the center of Rotterdam. We decided it was finally time to visit a movie theater to see "National Treasure 2 - The Book of Secrets" First, the building looked large but there where only 7 theaters in it, we quickly found out why. We walked into theater 1 and found ourselves at the base of the most ginormous screen I believe I have ever seen. It was a bit larger than a typical IMAX screen. We then turned around to see row after row of stadium seating. I think that it seated about 2 1/2 times the number of people that a theater at the Cinemark does in American Fork. It was awesome! We have heard about dubbing vs subtitling before our experience but this just confirmed it. The dutch people do not like watching dubbed movies. Childrens movies are often dubbed since they do not all speak english and they may not be able to read yet but everything else is in English with Dutch subtitles. When I went to purchase the drinks and popcorn, they asked if I would like sweet or salty popcorn. I suppose the sweet was like kettle corn but I chose the salty.
As for the movie itself. Very Good!!! I was not disappointed and I am anxious for the 3rd "National Treasure". Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
The Foods the Kids Love
The diet of ourselves as well as the kids have changed a bit to encorporate dutch foods. I figured that I would write about a few of those foods. I think the overall favorite is stroopwaffles and stroopkoekens. The stroopwaffle is featured in the movie "The Best 2 Years", if you have seen it, you should know what I am talking about. They are basically 2 thin waffle-type cookies that have a layer of a caramel-type stuff inbetween them. Stroopkoekens are basically the same thing that have thin butter cookies instead of waffles.
Another favorite is hagelslag. They are chocolate (chocoladehagel) or fruit (fruithagel) sprinkles like you would see on cake in the states. You spread pindakas (peanut butter) or chocolatapasta (Nutella or hazelnut spread) on a piece of bread and then sprinkle the hagelslag on top.
Pancakes are also popular. They are actually more like crepes but a little thincker. At ward function we had the pancakes and they baked apples or cheese in some of them to give different tastes. You could also take a plain pancake and add fresh fruit, whip cream and syrup sprinkled with a little powder sugar on top. MMMM leker!
We all like the cured meats. Cheese and cured meats are very popular and you have a lot of choices in the stores. We just had a sausage that you slice up and cook in a grill on the stove and we eat it while it is still sizziling. Gouda cheese is big because it comes from the town of Gouda, Netherlands. We will probably go to the cheese festival in that town this summer.
The popular dutch foods are very good and we have found that we love most everything. They eat a lot of meat and potatoes which makes us feel more and more at home.
Another favorite is hagelslag. They are chocolate (chocoladehagel) or fruit (fruithagel) sprinkles like you would see on cake in the states. You spread pindakas (peanut butter) or chocolatapasta (Nutella or hazelnut spread) on a piece of bread and then sprinkle the hagelslag on top.
Pancakes are also popular. They are actually more like crepes but a little thincker. At ward function we had the pancakes and they baked apples or cheese in some of them to give different tastes. You could also take a plain pancake and add fresh fruit, whip cream and syrup sprinkled with a little powder sugar on top. MMMM leker!
We all like the cured meats. Cheese and cured meats are very popular and you have a lot of choices in the stores. We just had a sausage that you slice up and cook in a grill on the stove and we eat it while it is still sizziling. Gouda cheese is big because it comes from the town of Gouda, Netherlands. We will probably go to the cheese festival in that town this summer.
The popular dutch foods are very good and we have found that we love most everything. They eat a lot of meat and potatoes which makes us feel more and more at home.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Musicians in our ward
I figure you would be interested in this mom so I figured I would write about the musicians in our ward. There are many professional musicians in our ward. Our bishop plays trumpet and I guess sometimes is a guest teacher at BYU. He is going to Utah again in a couple weeks to teach for 2 weeks. There is a young girl from Orem that is here studying the violin. There are also a couple that both play the violin amoung other things. You may of heard of him, his name is Igor Gruppman, he is the Director of the Orchestra at Temple Square. They do live here in Holland but travel to Utah regularly. They both performed in Sacrament Meeting a couple of weeks ago. Here is the info about him:
http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/info/person?person_id=24
Because of all the musicians in the ward, obviously music is focused on a lot. I don't think we have had one activity where music has not been invloved.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas 2007
Last night, for Christmas Eve, we invited the missionaries over for dinner. We ate a wonderful meal of American Casseroles (the missionaries suggestion) and pumkin pie for dessert. The missionaries then spoke about the importance of Christmas and we watched "The Joy of Christmas" (on our new 40" LCD TV, I have to add, my present:). We had a good night filled with the Christmas spirit.
We started Christmas morning today by hopping on the metro and heading out to the church for a ward Christmas breakfast. Much of the ward showed up and the food was fantastic! We were able to visit and heard different musical numbers from members of the ward and the missionaries also sang The First Noel. After cleaning up, we hurried home because the kids were anxious to get home, start a fire, and open presents. I think a record was set not opening the Christmas presents until around 1:00 PM.
Below are the pictures of us opening the presents today. Ther are alot of the (55 to be exact) but I did not want anyone to miss anything.
If you want to view the pictures larger, click on the slideshow and it will then take you to the online photo album. You can then view the pictures individually, watch a full screen slideshow or even save any picture to your computer to print out.
We started Christmas morning today by hopping on the metro and heading out to the church for a ward Christmas breakfast. Much of the ward showed up and the food was fantastic! We were able to visit and heard different musical numbers from members of the ward and the missionaries also sang The First Noel. After cleaning up, we hurried home because the kids were anxious to get home, start a fire, and open presents. I think a record was set not opening the Christmas presents until around 1:00 PM.
Below are the pictures of us opening the presents today. Ther are alot of the (55 to be exact) but I did not want anyone to miss anything.
If you want to view the pictures larger, click on the slideshow and it will then take you to the online photo album. You can then view the pictures individually, watch a full screen slideshow or even save any picture to your computer to print out.
Beautiful winter in the Netherlands
Last week it started to freeze here and frost covered each tree limb and the canals and ponds iced over. The kids went out and played on the local pond, making snow angels on the ice and Hannah practiced her photography skills taking pictures of the trees outside our home.
If you want to view the pictures larger, click on the slideshow and it will then take you to the online photo album. You can then view the pictures individually, watch a full screen slideshow or even save any picture to your computer to print out.
If you want to view the pictures larger, click on the slideshow and it will then take you to the online photo album. You can then view the pictures individually, watch a full screen slideshow or even save any picture to your computer to print out.
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