Anniversary/Antwerp
Happy 1 year Anniversary to us! Wow fascinating how fast a year goes by and the things that change in a year. Not only did I give birth to a wonderful and joyful baby boy but I grew closer to my husband every day even though he was across the ocean for a quarter of it.
Iain had brought me a dozen red roses and I cooked steak and scallops (Iain's favorite) for dinner on Wednesday 9-9-09! How lucky we are to have our 1 year on a special day and date! We didn't do much since it was in the middle of the week but we definitely went all out on the weekend.
We went to Antwerp the diamond capitol of the world! All the diamond trading goes trough Antwerp first and then gets sold to the other jewelers around the world. Funny because I love diamonds not just because I'm a girl but also because they are my birth stone.We drove one hour and half to get there and dealt with crazy traffic. Surprisingly the road system was even more confusing then where we live. You have to understand first before I go on on how Belgium is split up. It is divided into three parts you have your north east side, north west side and the south side. The NW is dutch speaking and don't like the french speaking side which is the S. side, where we live. The NE is the German speaking and they are friendly but still don't really care much about the S side as well. So with that explained everything in Antwerp is in dutch and everyone speaks dutch, so everything that I have gotten used to about Mons is out the window when we go north from now on! So not only will I have to learn french I will probably have to learn dutch and German just to be on the safe side.
We got to our hotel after getting lost in translation. Iain picked out a
great hotel room in the Radisson BLU which was located across the street from the Central Station. Everything was very accommodating there.I first wanted to go to the Diamond Museum and come to find out it was just across the street next to the station. We got to learn how diamonds are made, created, and traded. There was showcases of diamond necklaces and pendants, as well as crowns and tiaras dating back to the early 1800's. Unfortunately we weren't aloud to take our camera's in so I couldn't get pictures. I did however get a book on Belgium's Best and in it shows some of the diamonds we saw and other things that Belgium is known for. They did have a pen and pencil that said bling bling on it which I was debating on getting but didn't.
After the Museum we called it a night a headed back to the hotel because we were both tired. We rested for a little while and then dressed up to have dinner in the hotel restaurant. Wow let me just tell you it was great. I had a tree course meal with Belgium chocolates at the end and it was amazing, Iain's was good as well. It was all very fancy high class dishes.
The next day we went to the Zoo because we heard there was a new baby elephant there. The elephant was born on Mai 17 (May 17) just a couple weeks after Collin was born. Their zoo was so much different then the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was green a lush with gardens all over the place. 
They also had very different animals there. You could actually go and pet the penguins if you want to that's how close you can get! They also had at least two of every animal not one like ours back home. The Baboon cage was out side and had like 20 of them and it was feeding time so that was very interesting needless to say. The monkey house was very clean and had no stench to it at all like ours back home. 
Tons of things were different and I enjoyed every minute of it. It did rain but luckily we pick up some umbrellas the day before for just in case reasons so we were lucky.
They also had very different animals there. You could actually go and pet the penguins if you want to that's how close you can get! They also had at least two of every animal not one like ours back home. The Baboon cage was out side and had like 20 of them and it was feeding time so that was very interesting needless to say. The monkey house was very clean and had no stench to it at all like ours back home. 
Tons of things were different and I enjoyed every minute of it. It did rain but luckily we pick up some umbrellas the day before for just in case reasons so we were lucky. 
Again Iain did a great job on the weekend plans and we are deffinately going back because there were so much more to see and yet two days was not enough. I have the best husband and child anyone could ever hope for. I love them very much.
