It sounds exciting — traveling for a year, visiting 12 cities, spending a month in each location. Imagine the place you will go, the people you’ll meet, and the coffee you’ll enjoy. 

Yes, that is all true, but the adventure happens mixed within the routine and peacefulness of everyday life.  I’ve found it is very important to not book every day with a scheduled activity, sighting tour, museum visit, tourist activity, etc. Sometimes, we just need to stay home and enjoy a quiet day — yesterday was a pretty perfect day.

Yesterday as a Saturday, it was my day to hang out with Nolan. It had been a long week of work and sightseeing already, the entire week as packed with activities and working. I was looking forward to my time with Nolan, but I always wanted to catch up on a few to-dos around the house and enjoy a low-key day, so we did and it was PERFECT.

I woke up around 7:30 am and rolled out of bed about 8:00 am.  I turned on some music in the kitchen, had a perfect cup of coffee on the deck and then made breakfast with Nolan played on his iPad. After breakfast, Nolan played at the kitchen table with a few art supplies and played with the train track in the living room, while I did dishes, picked up around the house, and started the laundry.  (Oh the laundry, it is never ending … but that’s another story.)

At around 10:00 am, I went for a run. It was a perfect chilly day, so I went the full 6-miles. Jim was at the house and Nolan was playing with the trains, so I took advantage of the opportunity to get in my run.  When I got home, Nolan finally got dressed and we took his bike out to the park across the street.  Nolan had been asking me to run alongside him while he rode his bike, so since I was already sweating and my shoes were one, we made it happen. We ended up renting a tandem bike from the park vendor and riding it around the park.  We stopped at a playground for about 30-mins before we stopped at the store to pick up supplies for our BBQ dinner.

We got home about 3:00 pm, Nolan had a quick lunch and then it was down for a nap. I was tired myself, so I too snuggled up on the couch and took the first nap of our entire trip.  It was perfect, I turned on a movie I had no intention of watching and drifted off to sleep.  I woke up about 5:00 pm with my pillow covered in drool, so I know it was a good nap.

Jim woke up Nolan and I started on dinner.  I had big plans for a BBQ after a massively failed attempt from a few nights back.  I researched and watched a few YouTube videos on how to start a charcoal grill, so I was much more confident this time around.  I drank wine and grilled dinner, while Nolan played outside in the yard.  It was a slow process, but the wine was good and I had some yummy gouda cheese and olives to keep me happy.

Dinner was ready about 6:30 pm and it was really good if I don’t say so myself.  After dinner we decided it was a perfectly nice for ice cream … as is every night … so we hopped on our bikes and rode to get ice cream. Nolan was really excited to show Daddy the tandem bike, so it worked out perfectly.  We ate our ice cream and Nolan played at the playground for a bit.  Before our bike ride back to the house, we popped into the store for a bottle of wine and laundry soap, which I had forgotten earlier in the day.

We made it back to the house about 8:00 pm for showers and PJs.  We were snuggled on the couch at around 9:00 pm for a movie before bed – we picked IT.  Nolan snuggled up next to me with his iPad and headphones while we enjoyed the adult film.  We paused the movie around 10:00 pm, put Nolan to bed and then finished off the movie. Then we were in bed by 11:00 pm.

Just another day, living a normal life, we just happen to be in Amsterdam.