Keown Family-Life in Belgium: Adventures with Grammy, Paps, and Aunt Sherry

Grammy and Paps came over again for more Keown adventures and this time they brought Aunt Sherry along. They arrived on Sunday, baseball tourney day. So they watched about 5 games and Paps only fell asleep for a little bit. Then Sherry got cussed out by a French lady because we parked in front of her house...nothing new here, but in Sherry's sleep-deprived state she turned to the lady and said "We don't speak English." Although she said it in English...it was pretty funny, but I don't think the lady thought so. Then it was time for our fave Chinese food and then bed!

The next day I took them for a ride on the tram to downtown Brussels. Another one of Paps' items checked off the list (to ride the tram)! It is right beside our house and more convienent than trying to drive down and find parking.

St. Michael's

Yummy Belgian waffles. They are so good!!! I just like mine plain and it's still awesome

Debbie & Sherry in Grand Place

This is a fake Manneken Pis, but it's pretty funny

We couldn't pass up the world record bar!

It was a good day...it rained but luckily we had just walked into a restaurant. We all bought some goodies too. I got E a Belgian lace Baptism gown and we got some Belgian tapestry as well.

The next day they all went to Paris by train. The Louvre was closed that day so that stunk, but I hope they had a good time anyways!

Beersel Castle & Chocolate day!

Located in the town of Beersel, Belgium. This is an old 12th century castle that was used to defend Brusssels. It's been through a few renovations after being destroyed in the wars.

Sherry and I walked up the windy, crooked stairs pretty high. You can see Debbie down in the corner of the pic.

We think this was a toilet

Grammy & Paps

We cleaned out the chocolate store!! This is the Neuhaus outlet, I always take the visitors there. You get to taste as much chocolate as you want! Needless to say, I make myself sick every time. Then I usually end up walking out and buying nothing, maybe some gifts but nothing for myself. Then I'm ready to go back when the next visitors arrive.

Finishing up our yummy Belgian dinner with ice cream!

Dame Blanche is our favorite! Belgium has the tastiest vanilla ice cream and whip topping, it really is the best I've tasted. Then they bring you a side of melted chocolate to add to it. It's heaven!

France

Our trip to France that day had a purpose, Debbie and Sherry knew from a family member that their ancestors are probably from the town of Wicres, France. It was only an hour and a half from us so we decided to try to see if we could find out anything. I as well have discovered that some of my ancestors were from Belgium. I need to look into it more but it's kind of neat to think Emerson's ancestors are from the place where she was born!
Lille was only 15 minutes from Wicres, so we made that our stop for lunch. I also discovered some great shopping! Will have to go back!

Grand Place in Lille, France

Paps and E having some yummy mussels for lunch!

We found it!

The first cemetery we stopped at, and to my surprise the first person Tommy talked to could speak English. I figured that for this tiny little town that there would be no one who would be able to speak English. He asked her if we could find any records, but she said there would be none.

The burial sites were very fancy

We think we found an ancestor! Probably need more research to make sure, but it was still cool to see.

Sherry and Debbie have come full circle....

Amsterdam

Mike and Preslee took them to Amsterdam for Father's Day. The boys didn't want to go, so I stayed home with them.

Anne Frank House....Preslee said it was cool but scary too. Here are her thoughts....
It was pretty cool to see what a WW2 house looks like! It was so cool of how like a family of jews were hiding and how they had to hide from the Nazi's. It's so sad how her family couldn't really move because the workers under them would hear and tell. It's really sad that Anne Frank went to the worst concentration camp and that she died 2 months before they got let out! They are so clever to have a hidden door as a bookcase and maps covering the line of the crease of the door, so smart! It would be very scary to be a jew during that time!