Mini-Vacation in Amsterdam

Hi everyone! We are about 30 minutes from boarding our flight to Tanzania. We are here in Amsterdam. Spent yesterday sleeping until 2 PM, then a quick tour around the city, complete with chocolate waffles, Heiniken beer, yummy food with Dutch cheese, Van Gogh museum and a special expose on impressionism, and a long walk at night along the canals. Pretty much perfect. Good night's sleep for me and Diego, but Christian couldn't stop his mind from thinking about our coming adventure. It was GREAT to stay the night in Amsterdam and split up the two 8 hour flights. This city is quite amazing.....I love it here. And it felt so very GOOD to step off the airplane into a totoally new place. Lauren the world traveler is back! Diego's cutest line so far on this trip (and he was incredible on our first flight and walking all about Amsterdam) was when he saw the smaller carts for carrying carry on luggage. He said, "baby cart." He's doing great - we all are - and the chaos of last week getting ready is nearly out of my mind. Thank you to everyone who helped us actually get to this point. We love you, The Ramers

House on the Market and All Packed

It's time to start blogging again. The Ramerses are off on another adventure. This time, we'll be traveling to Moshi, Tanzania for 3 months. We leave on Saturday around noon, fly to Amsterdam for the afternoon and evening, then head to Moshi the next morning on NWA/KLM airlines. We are mostly packed, but may have some weight issues with our baggage. When I traveled to Guatemala last time, I could take 70 pounds. Now the restrictions are stating 50 pounds. We have all sorts of things we are carrying for Duke folks that are already over there, plus our own gear and things Christian wants to bring in the way of medicine and books. So, we need to get out the scales, weigh in, and then start negotiating. Will it be the diapers or the peanut butter that goes first?

Our house is officially on the market today. It took us a good month and a half to get it ready for sale - new siding on the ends of the house and repairs within (some are still not complete, but I am hopeful that will all wrap up today or tomorrow). The house looks very "generic". It almost makes it easier to say good-bye since everything that used to make it ours is packed away in one of our hundreds of boxes. I hope our new home in Seattle has some storage space!

Diego and I are running last minute errands this week, having last dinners with friends, and gearing up for the bon voyage. Christian, of course, works right up until the bitter end. He'll get off work on Friday around 6 PM and we will leave for the airport around 10 am the next day. Crazy.

Please check in on this blog every week or so; I'll be posting photos hopefully of our adventures, and relaying tales of life abroad. Thanks to everyone who has helped us get ready for this journey, especially my mom, sister, Kim and Silvina, plus all the folks who worked on the house repairs.