adventures with mom and mar

one day while i was at work here in brussels, i got an email from my mom asking me what i was doing next weekend. no specific plans yet, i replied... which was shortly answered with the flight plans of my mom and her friend mar who decided last minute that they should come see us. we were glad they did- we had one swell time and one extremely busy weekend. the mass amounts of pictures are to please my dear mother who still hasn't seen most of these... here are our adventures...


i forgot my mom and i bought the same coat last christmas. you wouldn't think this is a big deal because you probably all know someone who has the same shirt or sweater as you (thanks, downeast!) but here in europe- there are no repeats. exclusivity is totally in this season... matching green coats: totally out. despite our faux pas, we lived.

cade and i had work the day we picked up the two, giggling women, so we left them to sort out the time change with a nap at the apartment while we were gone. we managed to get out of work a little early and explore the nightlife of brussels... for some that means all night techno parties. for us that meant shopping.... while sight seeing along the way.


it wasn't mr. satisfaction or mr. perfection- but it was delicious nonetheless!

mannekin pis. the smallest tourist attraction. seriously... why is this so famous?

mom's best friend who made her a special waffle so she'll never forget belgium. turns out, special=huge.


grand place

parc cinquantenaire


the next morning we stopped off at a local women's christmas market with my friend megan. yes, we dragged cade along too. he had volunteered as the weekend photographer and that meant attendance at the market was necessary. plus, none of us dare drive in brussels.


after a few purchases, we were off to bruges. cade and i had never been to bruges so we were so excited to go with my mom. we had heard so much about it- and sure enough, it was more than what we expected. it was the cutest little belgian city.







the next day, we woke up early again and set out for paris. it was an early morning drive and by the time we reached versailles we were starting to wake up. we were out of gas, so cade pulled into a station to keep us on our journey. we have rented lots of cars here in belgium and each car is carefully labeled on the inside of the car which gas type the car is: diesel or gas. we looked all around and could not find anything telling us what kind of car we had. we figured- if it doesn't say- that must mean gas, right? WRONG. we filled a diesel car with gasoline and didn't realize how in trouble we were until we puttered into some random gas station down the road. oops!



the car towed, a 120 euro taxi ride, and 3 hours later, we got into our second car and continued our journey. we thought this blunder was going to cost us somewhere around 800 bucks, but in the end, the car rental company forgot to include the charges before they closed the account and we didn't have to pay anything! we explained the story to the employee who just laughed and told us how lucky we are nobody caught that billing mistake- a paris miracle!!! seriously- how does that happen?

we had a great time in the city. we were able to see it all...

the louvre



cade's really into posing lately, if you couldn't tell.



cade decided not to go into the louvre again and opted to stay out and take pictures in the park. he was right on time for pickup when we were finished.


the eiffel tower




notre dame


arc de triomphe

you'll have to forgive the blurriness of some of these photos. my mom got a new camera the day before she came out here and we were all trying to figure out how to use it...


we really did have so much fun!

it took us a few days to get back on a regular sleeping schedule after giggling well into the night with you two, but we want to thank you for coming and seeing us! we ate like kings and loved all the shopping! we love you and we'll see you again before you know it!