Day Trip to Brussels

Our trip to Brussels was uh-mazing.  We met up with some new friends of ours (the Listers - they actually have more kids than we do), and we headed out at about 9am.  You gotta love these small European countries, it only took us an hour and a half to get there.  We ate waffles, checked out all the chocolate shops, saw some pretty sweet architecture, and saw the amazing Flower Carpet.  They do this flower carpet display only once every 2 years.  I love flowers, so I thought it was really cool.  It reminded me a little of the rose parade in Pasadena that I went to with my dad when I was a kid.  They get really creative with the design and use of flowers, trying to do something really different each time.  We saw some pictures of the carpets from past years, and they all looked so different - it's really neat.  My friend Melissa and I paid to go up onto the balcony of the town hall to get a better view.  They only open the town hall to the public for the few days that they have the flower carpet display, and once we were inside we could see why.  There were fragile 15th century tapestries and even older artwork everywhere.  We couldn't take any pictures inside, but I would say it was a memory well worth the 5 euros I paid for it.  We also really enjoyed seeing the cathedral there.  Ryan and I took turns going in while the other watched the kids play outside.  And our kids thought the statue of the boy peeing was hilarious.  There are different legends about how the statue came to be, and we did a little research beforehand and explained it to them.  They laughed every time they saw the little boy somewhere (he's all over souvenir shops, etc.).  When I got their picture with a giant lime green version of the statue, I caught them just staring at the naked boy…welcome to Europe kids!  The weather was awesome, the food was good, and we were home by 5pm…not bad for an ordinary Saturday.  Here are some of my favorite pictures, but you can see them all in the slideshow.