As I said before, we had an absolutely great time being out and about. We vacationed in a gorgeous park in America—it’s a village in Limburg, the most southern part of the Netherlands. People were so confused when I told them I was in America. It was kinda funny.

The weather was fantastic: not too cold, not too hot, somewhere in the mid 70’s. Clear blue skies and lots of sunshine. The cottage we rented was great as well, it had a bubble bath that was mainly used by my son. About three times a day. It even had a sauna, so suffice to say I have baby smooth skin now. The only drawback was the food at the park. It was foul, plain nasty. And expensive. Real expensive.

Handful random vacation shots…

Normally the cottages in these type of parks are ‘hutje-mutje’ (really close together) but ours was pretty secluded with a private back yard. Oh, J-man is waving, just in case you were wondering.

It was almost like we had our own little beach. Sans the crystal clear water. And I’m no Bo Derek.

I told him these drag marks were from a giant crocodile, who dragged himself ashore every night, looking out for little blonde boys who were up way past their bedtime.

He was duly unimpressed. That seems to happen a lot. It was the perfect spot for him to play with his new fish buddies, though.

This was the back of our cottage. Part of it, that is. There were squirrels in those trees and bunnies hopping around every single morning.

It sure was no Big Green Egg, but we had a BBQ! We didn’t use it, though, I guess I’m spoiled forever now.

Check this out. There were food canvas prints all over the cottage! Made me feel right at home.

The sauna, it was small but worked beautifully. I used it three times that week and never slept better.

It wasn’t until 11pm on the 2nd night we heard our neighbors scream. Thinking they were face to face with an axe murderer, we rushed over to try to help them out, armed with, well, absolutely nothing. We didn’t find Jason Voorhees there, only the cutest Albino White-tail deer, ever. Not ever having seen them before did help with the ever part. Within minutes they were over at our cottage as well, trying to eat from our empty pizza box (pizza was gross, too, btw) and letting us pet them.

This was the neighbor girl.

The following night they brought their little ones. It was adorable.

It was such a kid-friendly place. A huge swimming pool and play grounds all over.

I got to babysit the fish…

While he played for hours on end with kids from all over Europe. They were all teaching each other German, English and Dutch words. Kids are so open and spontaneous.

This was the market dome—-the place they hid the swimming pool and all the little restaurants. Truth be told, I never tasted food worse than what they cooked and sold here. The meatballs came out of a 1 euro can, I swear, they put fake cheese on pizzas and even managed to ruin the simplest dishes, like French fries. The prices were outrageous.

J-man loved it there, there were birds of paradise and Macaws, but I never cared for animals living in captivity. Probably why I don’t like the zoo and refuse to set foot in any kind of Dolphinarium. The photo on the right was a really cute little boutique.

It wasn’t all fun and play. What’s the point in having a child unless you can make it work for food? So he dragged the groceries to the cottage. Can’t let him grow up to be a slacker.

It was around this time we read about the deer in our morning paper and saw a photo of the stag. Up until then we had only seen the hinds. But there he was, the Mr. himself, in broad daylight. First we spotted him at the neighbors cottage, but quickly he moved to our cottage.

It was breathtaking. Literally. I found myself holding my breath for fear of scaring him off.

He was so majestic, proud and beautiful. Those eyes and that antler. Wow, just wow. He actually posed for me, it was crazy.

They stuck with us for the rest of the week.

It was a magical trip, Narnia-like, that’s for sure. We definitely plan on going back there someday.