Hi, everyone!
We spent most of the rest of our time in Brunssum doing things within walking distance of Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara’s house. On Tuesday, I helped James build a castle with his Megablocks. Then we took a walk around the neighborhood. There is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge at the end of the street that goes over a highway. The banks of the bridge are wildflower meadows! On the other side of the bridge, there’s a path through the woods that runs alongside the highway. James got to choose whether we took the path or stayed on the sidewalk, and he chose the woods. On our way back, we walked along a park that had a small playground. All the equipment looked liked cubic sculptures! James likes to climb on the gyroscope shape, but everything else is too tall for him!
When we got back from our walk, James built a train, a plane and a truck with his Duplo blocks. He has a special place to keep his blocks and build that Thomas can’t reach! Then I helped James make stone soup. We had banana splits for dessert and Thomas got to lick the chocolate sauce spoon! The AWACS planes that Uncle Steven works with fly their landing approach right over the house. When James hears their engines, he runs to the window to watch them!
On Wednesday, there was a children’s concert in the Centrum outside theater with music and characters from Frozen. After the concert, we stopped at the Centrum playground.
On Thursday, we went downtown to look for picture postcards for Grandma to send. We couldn’t find any, so we went back to the Centrum playground. James and I played on the fire truck first. I don’t even know what names to call most of the other equipment! Some seats on poles rotate in place and some move up and down. At least I recognized the round swing! It was a good thing Uncle Steven and Grandpa were along to show James how to play on the equipment.
In the afternoon, we went back to the private neighborhood playground with the very long slide. I tried sliding on it, but not from the top! Then I played with Thomas in the big sandbox and we all went on the swings.
On Friday, the weather was cloudy and very warm. We watched more AWACS landings, and then we had a big rainstorm! James and I watched the start of the storm from the patio, but when the wind started blowing rain at us, we went inside to watch, instead! Friday was Grandpa’s birthday, and Grandma made a chocolate pudding cake for him. I was a good helper with blowing out the birthday candles. I think Thomas really likes chocolate pudding cake!
On Saturday morning, we had to get up early to get ready to go to the airport. Aunt Kara and James and Thomas were flying back with us! Uncle Steven had to borrow a bigger car so we could all go to the airport in Brussels together. Grandma and Thomas and I sat in the back seats so Thomas could look out the rear window. When we got to the airport, we had to stand in a long line to check in. The agent who checked in Aunt Kara and James and Thomas made a mistake with the boarding passes, so we all had to go back and get a new set! Grandma and Aunt Kara got picked to go through security twice, too, so we were almost the last people to get on the plane! Thomas wanted to fly on a little propeller plane before going on the big jet plane, but that doesn’t work for flying across the ocean! It was hard to figure out when nap time was during the seven hour flight, but James and Thomas were very good travelers even without their usual amount of sleep.
By the time the big plane landed in Washington DC, it was already bedtime for James and Thomas! But there was another wait before our flight to Rochester took off. James was very excited that we were going to be flying on a propeller plane. He had a window seat so he could watch the propeller start to turn. After the plane took off, he could watch the landing gear fold up. But by then, it was already after midnight Brunssum time. No wonder we all fell asleep!
It’s a good thing Grandma and Grandpa stayed awake! We managed to get all the suitcases and the big stroller into the trunk of Grandpa’s car, and James’ and Thomas’ car seats were already in there, too! We took Aunt Kara and James and Thomas to Grandma Ginny’s house before we finally got home ourselves. It was a long day!
Love,
Lion-san
It is neat that James has his own place to build things! I think you are right, Thomas is beginning to be a chocoholic which is a good thing. Welcome back to Fairport!