California (and Utah) Here We Come

Old Man Winter approaches with his trademark nip-in-the-air…but we didn’t write to talk about the weather. So, we were boring last month, even Jay’s birthday was pretty low-key (though we did have awesome cake made out of chocolate). If you’re still looking for someone to vote for in the upcoming presidential election, Jay is now eligible.

For us, October involved getting ready to go to the U.S., and then being in the U.S., and then recovering from the trip to the U.S. As you can see we’re pretty patriotic in that the U.S. occupies most of our lives and we don’t even live there. We had a great time during our visit – it was really nice to see everybody and to meet lil’ Bennett for the first time. James enjoyed spending time with family and meeting all his cousins. Grandpa Biddulph spoiled James with all-he-could-eat berries which ended up spoiling his shorts but (fortunately for Grandpa Stu) we were the ones who had to deal with that. Jay got a chance to hang out with Matt and Dan on Strawberry Reservoir and (for those that haven’t heard already) Jay also experienced the colder side of Strawberry by accidentally falling in. What kind of lake trip is complete unless someone ends up soaked?

Since returning from Utah James has started to prefer walking to crawling. He’s not very good at it though and looks pretty much drunk all the time. Even though we joke about beating him, all those forehead and shin bruises are from his walking accidents.

We dressed James up in the obligatory Halloween costume this year – a purple dragon – and used him to get candy for his parents at the “Trunk or Treat” hosted by the U.S. Army Garrison. As you’ve seen in videos of his early days, James can produce some really great ROARS! So, we were a little surprised and dismayed when our menacing dragon ignored parental prompts to roar and ended up waving his index finger and babbling “scidley, skidley, scadily” to the treat givers. Fortunately, they all thought he was adorable and gave him candy anyway. James’ “conversation” sounded really important. I’m sure a babble translator would explain that he was expounding on something very profound about the finer points of Halloween celebration and lore but since we mock what we do not understand, we just laughed at him.

Jay has started biking to work (whenever he feels green and liberal or whenever Bimmy needs the car). He’s slowing getting better at it and didn’t have to walk his bike up the hill last time he rode to work. Bimmy’s friend Craig would be proud. Apart from our vacation, Bimmy mostly studied in October for her PNP Board Exam. She’ll take the actual test while we are visiting the Mike and Roo Peterson families in Detroit during “U.S. Tour Take-Two” over Thanksgiving.

Bye Bye Summer

The weather has turned cool, so it seems that summer in Belgium is pretty much over. Hopefully, we will be spared the rain and gloom for a while longer yet. We had a really enjoyable August this year. It’s difficult to believe that we’ve been in Belgium for a whole year now, with only two more to go. Without the sunshine, the summer would have been pretty depressing because of the mass exodus. Many of our friends left town on holiday and were gone nearly the entire summer. Then there are the families that moved from Belgium in July and August: both sets of neighbors, the Thains, the Scherbels, the Pehrsons, the Williams, the Spauldings, the Wingeters, the Sauers, and the Simons, to name a few. We really enjoyed getting to know these families and will miss them greatly. The fortunate thing about working for the foreign service is that you tend to run into people again.
Even though the past couple of months have been a little lonely (especially at church), things are looking up. Folks have returned from vacation and we have great people moving into the neighborhood.

Our last entry was a little devoid of Buster news, so we’ll try to get you back up to speed.James is 10 months old now and has grown up quite a bit. He has a little more white-blond hair and is nearly 19 pounds. Emily laments that he’s growing up too fast. His four front teeth are almost all grown in. His top lateral incisors are emerging too. James is cruising around furniture and sometimes we catch him standing on his own for a few seconds. He is a really speedy crawler, but we think he may give it up for walking sometime soon. James is very silly and (unless he is in front of a camera) is usually smiley. He’s a happy boy and a very curious little nut who loves to touch everything (regardless of whether or not he should). Months 8 through 10 have been especially enjoyable so far. Dan/Charone and Sam/Deborah…hope you are looking forward to a lot of fun.

James’ latest trick is to crawl around carrying the belt to Emily’s robe (or some other similarly-shaped piece of fabric). He rubs the belt on a piece of furniture or window and then moves along to other items in the room. The only thing we can figure is that he is mimicking Emily, since he often sees her cleaning up the house. James’ “cleaning” efforts are really funny to watch because he really concentrates and is very diligent about his “work”.

A few days ago, Emily introduced him to one of those back massagers made of wood with a handle and rollers on the end. James loves it. He drives it around on the carpet, shakes it in the air, and then drives it around some more. James also enjoys climbing on top of stools, riding toys, and the dishwasher door. It’s obvious that he’s related to Anders. James has started singing in Church during the hymns and squealing at/chasing one of the little baby girls in our congregation. We had hoped for a weird kid to provide us with hours of entertainment and it looks like we got our wish.

The last weekend in August, we returned to Paris and spent a couple of days just hanging out. We went to two art museums, (for those that know Paris) the Orangerie and the Museé d’Orsay. Both Museums have lots of impressionist and turn of the century paintings featuring cubism and pointillism. Orsay also has a bunch of sculptures and one of Jay’s favorites “The Gates of Hell” by Auguste Rodin. Walking through the museum, Jay considered how strange it is who society chooses to acknowledge as contributors to humanity: writers, painters, sculptors, sometimes architects, actors, singers, yada-yada- yada. Hardly any thought is given to the efforts of common workers which resulted in the creation of such a fantastic city and made possible the lives that these artists enjoyed. During our visit, we spent time walking around enjoying Paris in the summertime. We also met up with Suzannah Bingham who has been living in Paris for 3 years and has nearly completed a masters degree in French history. Of course, we couldn’t resist indulging in a delicious French meal. Our deepest respects go to the French peasants who built such a lovely city and created such delicious cuisine.

Rar!

The much awaited - over hyped video of Buster Raring.

Enjoy!

O’er the Ramparts We Watch

To honor our National Anthem this July we made it a point to visit lots of places with ramparts. While Old Glory wasn't ever gallantly streaming we still enjoyed watching o'er the ramparts. Being overseas makes us appreciate the United States more than you could understand- unless you have lived overseas. The trick is not to let working for the government spoil the added appreciation.

So we filled July with lots of day / overnight trips. We went to Flanders fields in Ypres first. Flanders is the northern part of Belgium and the famous WWI poem by John McCrae was written there. (We've included the poem below because it is a beautiful piece… and yes, red and orange poppies really do grow wild all over Belgium.) Ypres hosted one of the bloodiest fronts during "The Great War." The British, with the help of various other nations, withstood the Germans in Ypres and kept them from advancing to England. Both sides lost a total of around 500,000 men only to advance the front 8 miles (in favor of the British of course). The town of Ypres pretty much got flattened by the Germans so everything in the town is rebuilt. There are memorials and gravesites everywhere. We even found an F. Biddulph on one of the memorial walls.

It is often said that the United States saved Europe's bacon in both World Wars but by the time the United States decided to join the trench warfare, the British and their allies had beat the Germans down enough for the U.S. addition to tip them over the top. There is a great museum in Ypres – one of the eeriest parts is an exhibit of gas masks – World War I marked the beginning of chemical warfare. Also, the museum played recordings of air raid sirens and falling bombs. James hated that part. It was a very interesting afternoon but also quite somber to consider the many lives lost in the defense of freedom.

Bimmy wanted to include this poem

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

—John McCrae

To celebrate the 4th of July we enjoyed a traditional barbeque with our neighbors and then drove to Luxembourg the next day. Luxembourg City is built on the ruins of a great fortress. The fortress was built on top of and around the high, stony "Bock promontory". The Bock Casemates are a series of tunnels, rooms, and underground defensive passageways which were carved directly into the rock. The casemates expanded the fortifications and useable space of the fortress and grew to a 14 mile-long network by 1644, with some passages as deep as 131 feet. This earned Luxemburg the title of "Gibraltar of the North". Only a fraction of the tunnels remain open, but it is a fun place to explore. We hiked around the part of the casemates that were reported to be more baby-friendly. Otherwise we would have scraped off what little hair Buster has on the roof of the caves. While walking around Luxembourg City we found it to be one of the cleanest cities that we've visited so far in Europe. General Patton is buried just outside of Luxembourg City but unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the cemetery. In keeping with our theme for the month, it is important to note that remaining portions of the Luxembourg fortress feature lots of ramparts.

The next day we visited the Ardennes region of Luxembourg which is also called the Valley of the Seven Castles. We visited two (which were reported to be the coolest) of the seven – it's a young boy's medieval paradise. The area is beautiful with lots of hills and streams and is very green. This area is near the site of the Battle of the Bulge.>

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg restored Vianden, the first castle we visited. We thought it was pretty cool – with suits of armor, a bedroom with large, very old tapestries and of course ramparts. The next castle we visited, Bourscheid, hasn't been restored and sat mostly in ruins. They have restored the tower portion, complete with ramparts, so that folks can get a good view of the area. James enjoyed all the castles and was a great sport during our wanderings.
We finished our journey with a visit to a quaint little town called Esch-sur-Sure which means "the town of Esch on the river Sure" but the pronunciation of the name reminds us a lot of Bob Loblaw (one of our favorite characters on Arrested Development- see Bob Loblaw's Law Blog).

Lastly, to support the troops Gary Sinise formed a band called The Lieutenant Dan Band. During July, he visited NATO and Jay got his Forest Gump DVD autographed ("To Buster") and posed for a picture with him. You'll notice that it's a bit Gumpesque in that it looks like Jay snuck into the picture. You'll be glad to know that Gary Sinise is a pretty cool guy and travels the world to play for the troops so he can do his part to support them. We're pretty sure that meeting him is way cooler than going backstage to meet the gassy old farts from Air Supply – Roo?