Switzerland, France, Holland Nov 29

We are driving to Switzerland. We visited some people that my Mom lived with for 2 months and their names are the Perrachon Family. There’s one boy’s name and he’s 13 and his name is Julien. We played lots of games and had fun. They have 2 dogs named Comet and Lisa. They live in a 150 year old house that was nice. Mrs. Perrachon cooked us really good food. We went to see my Mom’s work place for grapes and she made wine there. Will, Ben and I went in a wine tank! We got some really yummy juice.

In Paris, it’s a huge city. We met a girl named Yolanda who likes me a lot and I like her. She used to babysit Will and Robby. We went to an art museum and it was big. I saw a really famous painting named Lisa (Mona Lisa!). We went on a huge Eiffel Tower that was tall, and it was dark out with dark blue lights. I saw the whole city and lots of boats on the river. I played with my brothers a lot, and I skipped so much that my knee hurt the next day.

At Paris, they don’t do Thanksgiving because it’s only for America. We went to a Chinese restaurant and it was really fancy. When we were going to the Eiffel Tower, we took a metro and it was really fast.
At Holland, there was an awesome youth hostel and it had a bar and a pool table. I learned how to play pool! There were really cool, fun people there and I really liked it. In Amsterdam it’s really cool. We took a train in and Will and I played cards. We went on this boat tour in the canals. There was a sunken speed boat, and lots of sunken fishing boats. Amsterdam is famous for its canals and they’re really skinny. There’s one story about a dam, and there was a leak. A little boy was riding his bike and he stopped to put his finger in it. He was there for 12 hours and he saved the city because it could have flooded the city!
One of the other places we went to was Anne Frank’s House and we bought 2 books. We saw the secret hideout in a pretty big room. These bad soldiers were going to kill all the Jews. So this secret hideout had a bookshelf that would open and close. They had to duck under the windows. They were there for 2 years, and there were 8 people hiding. Jews got really skinny because they didn’t get much food at the bad camp. Anne got really sick and died. It made me kind of mad and sad.
There were lots of bicycles. My Mom and I almost got run over by them! There are one million people and one million people in Amsterdam. There was a yoyo man who put this thing over his head and it was really funny.
People don’t speak English here sometimes. They speak French, German, and Dutch. It makes me want to learn another language so I can talk in other countries. There’s a huge castle right outside the window! We’re in Switzerland. The mountains are huge and snowy like Alaskan mountains.

Holland

We are in The Netherlands now, and I’m looking at a map. I just saw new and huge wind mills out my window. It’s pretty flat here. It was so snowy, and now it’s slushy and sunny. We saw a really cool toy museum, and Ben got a choo-choo train and Dad bought a spinning top. There was an awesome fair. You could press a green button and all these things would move. It was old fashioned, like a history museum of toys and legos. There were dolls, teddy bears, planes, warriors, and giant legos. There were huge legos of star wars, a huge church from Brussels that was taller than my Dad. It was so big that they had to make a hole in the ceiling.
We’ve been staying at youth hostels. It’s not as nice as hotels, and it’s cheaper with lots of bunk beds. You have to make your own bed, and it’s very clean. The first one that we went to, you had to bring your own food. The last two were much nicer, and we ate at their kitchen.
There was a boy statue that was about 3 and he was 3 and smiling! We were in Brussels. We went to a really cool flea market and it was like one mile long. There are hats, sweaters, and really good food and candy. We bought gloves, hats, a sweater, oranges. It was really snowy and windy. One of the guy’s big umbrellas fell over, and there was trash flying around.
We went into this one place called the Grand Plaza and people were singing. Everybody was rubbing this statue of Jesus for good luck. It’s the biggest building and there were lots of statues.
We went to a different town called Mons, Belgium and there was a fair. We had a great time. I shot a ball that was floating with a pellet gun and hit it every time. We gave all our points to Will and he got an awesome lighter. We went in the Haunted House. It wasn’t scary, but these guys would light up. At one part there was a lady who screamed because her husband went Boo. She was rubbing Robby’s face in the dark!
Before that we were at a neat park in Luxembourg. It was a pirate ship and had a big slide. There were a lot of cool statues. We got to go into another church and it was huge. There was a statue of an angel stabbing a bad man in the head with a spear. It was not flat there. It had steep hills.
At Germany, we went to this one castle and it was like 50,000 years old (not really). It was really big. We got to go in it and we saw statues, a bat, and the prince’s rooms. A princess wrote 60,000 letters! It’s called Heidelberg. We went to Ms. Karin’s house and her house was huge with an elevator. She had a pool and we went skinny dipping! We had a great time. On the roof there was a garden. They had a sauna and a steam thingee. There was a current in the swimming pool so you can swim against it. Ms. Karin was really nice and she knows my Nana.
The plane ride was really long. It took all night long. I got the biggest sleep because I was lying down on 3 seats! There were lots of Army soldiers on the plane and they were going to Iraq. It was my favorite plane because it was really cool and it was free because Dad’s been in the Army. There were empty seats for us.

Elkridge, MD

Today we are at Maryland and we are really having fun with Kira, Hannah, Julia, Troy, Shane, and Chipper. These aren’t new friends. We used to live here in the house right next door. Ms. Sharon is the best cook I ever saw!
At Uncle Eric’s house, he had a good time at Halloween and got lots of candy. I was a banshee with white and orange hair! I got to go trick or treating with my cousins. Uncle Eric was the grim reaper and he tried to be a statue. Somebody walked up and touched him and then he scared the wits out of him!
We went to the park and played hide and go seek. I rode my bike and went roller blading, and went scootering too. We did a lot of school there and I finished another green test. We went to this awesome corn maze. We had a lot of fun. We wanted to get to the middle of the maze before anybody. Uncle Eric was a good spotter, and he looked over the corn to find everybody else. There was a huge slide. Will would grab us when he went down. I accidentally touched the hay and my head started scratching into the hay. We played this awesome game. We played tag on this huge trampoline with about 30 people.