What on earth did we stumble upon?? I have no clue why this little boy was sleeping on a dog under the street blanket… but it made for some good climbing!

A little walk to the river. Lots of boats and a beautiful view.

We stumbled upon a little festival and helped our self to some street food! Europe is so cool.

The main square in Antwerpen is unique!

Thanks for a fun little stop Antwerpen!

~Tolman Travels~

The post Antwerpen – Our last major Belgian City appeared first on Tolman Travels.

Cathedral

The cathedral in the city was awesome. All cathedrals start to look the same once you’ve seen so many, but this one was nestled up in the mountain and was a nice escape from the rainy day! It’s quite impressive on the outside and very pretty on the inside.

Adolphe Sax Museum

The saxophone museum was smaller than I expected, but worth a stop! Most of the information was in French (or Italian, or something!) but it was a cool little place.

Citadel on Top of the Hill

Up the hill above the cathedral is a citadel. You can walk up the (VERY STEEP) stairs, or trade some Euros for a ride up the hill in a tram! Simon wanted the stairs… but mom said ya right.

They had a zip line at the playground on top of the hill, which was no big deal, except that the boys LOVED it! Watch this video and listen to these giggles all the way down. This alone will be worth a trip back!

We wandered around the museum up in the Citadel, and the view from the top was beautiful.

And… some of my favorite photos of the day from my little stinker photobomb Simon!!

Saxophones EVERYWHERE!

This town is super proud of their saxophone history. The entire city was decorated in saxophones and the bridge was lined with many saxophones painted representing many countries. Simon wanted a picture by ALL of them, so here’s is his saxophone photo collage.

This city is really incredibly beautiful!

Railbike in Falaen

Just about 10 minutes from Dinant was a Railbike that a friend had told us about so we thought we’d check it out. IT. WAS. AWESOME! We’ll be back for sure and taking anyone that comes to visit!

This cart has 2 bike seats with pedals and a little chair in the middle. Nick and I hopped on the bikes and pedaled the boys 3km to the end of the line! We waited a bit until it was time to turn around and go 3km back. They loved every second. Check out the video below!

My silly boys. What a fun day! This won’t be our last time in Dinant!

In case you missed it, here’s our adventure in the Hallerbos Forest!

~ Tolman Travels ~

The post Dinant, Saxophones, and a Railbike in Falaen! appeared first on Tolman Travels.

This Post is a compilation of all our zoo trips this summer! Here are some of our favorite things at Pairi Daiza Zoo.

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The words “Pairi Daiza” remind me of the word “paradise” and this zoo does not disappoint. There is such a wide variety of animals in beautiful habitats and each area of the zoo has trees, wildlife, architecture, and music specific to the native region of the animals.

Here are some of our favorite animals at the zoo!

My favorite part is the ambiance at Pairi Daiza, which unfortunately is difficult to capture in a blog post…

When you enter though, you hear soft Debussy music playing while you wander through beautiful gardens filled with peacocks, geese, a petting zoo, aquarium, large trees, waterfalls, and picnic areas. It is so lush and beautiful!

Peacocks, ducks, and geese roam around the zoo like they own the place. The kids LOVE chasing them.

The petting zoo is so much fun for the kids! Chickens, goats, and small birds everywhere.

There’s a fish touching pod somewhere in the zoo too, but I’ve only been able to find it once! The zoo is so big I often get turned around.

One of the kids favorite parts is the aquarium. A giant chateau they turned into an exhibit! It’s huge and again, they really create an underwater vibe with the lighting and music.

They have so many kid-friendly things at Pairi Daiza. One of our favorites is the playground and food court area. (Fun climbing for adults too!)

There are a few not so kid friendly things as well, like this footbridge! We haven’t been able to do this yet, but it’s a long bridge across the zoo and through the bird area. It looks like so much fun!

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This year they had a Dino exhibit! I was expecting fossils, but they had “real fake dinosaurs” as Simon calls it. They move, roar, and one sprays you with water! It was pretty cool and Simons favorite part. Hyrum, not so much…

We even got to take a grandpa this year! The kids loved showing him around one of their favorite places in Belgium!

Sometimes you need to stop and smell the roses. I love my sweet Simon and his tender heart! He always points out flowers in my favorite colors and comments on how pretty they are. He wanted to smell it to see if it smelt pretty too.

During the last week of the season, we decided to bundle up and visit the zoo on Halloween! Fall at Pairi Daiza was AMAZING! The changing colors were indescribable and the pictures hardly do it justice.

We LOVE the Pairi Daiza zoo and are so lucky it’s only 10 minutes from our house. I can wait to go make more memories there next year. We love Belgium. We love life! Our little family is so blessed to be here.

Now come to visit us so we can show you this amazing zoo!!!!!

~ Tolman Travels ~

The post Best of Pairi Daiza Zoo, Belgium – Summer 2018 Tolman Travels appeared first on Tolman Travels.

We’ve been in Belgium just a few weeks but so far are LOVING all the things to see and explore. It’s so different than the US and the language barrier is real, but what a fun and learning experience for us.

The post Chateau d’Attre appeared first on Tolman Travels.

Our flights went great. There was bad weather when we were trying to land in Chicago to connect to our Belgium flight, and we definitely felt all the prayers from family and friends as we were able to wait it out in the air and eventually land (instead of being diverted to another airport and missing our next flight). We only had an hour layover to start with so we then had only 30 minutes to RUN across the entire airport and made it just in time to our connecting flight in Belgium. We unfortunately didn’t have time to take our dog Adderley to the pet relief area but she did great. She’s the best dog ever and did great on the flights. The boys played on the first 3 hour flight and slept most of the 8 hour over seas flight (thank you Kids Dramamine!)

Navigating the airport with 2 kids, a dog, car seats, carryons, and a trombone was a challenge, but we discovered a homemade way to convert the big car seat into a stroller for the baby! We bought a small fold up dolly and attached it to the cars seat with a bungy cord. It folds up extremely small and we put it in an overhead bin and gate check the car seat. Easy! It has saved us so much hassle and then we don’t have to lug around a stroller too. ??

We also loved these AMAZING neck pillows we found! We bought one for each of us and kid sizes for the little ones. They were so much better than the traditional neck pillows!

Adderley’s dog kennel was awesome. It expands to give her more room while waiting for the flight and fits fantastic under the airplane seat. We had zero problems with her and I loved caring her around in this light weight kennel. I would HIGHLY recommend it when traveling with a small pet!

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We’ve had some amazing people here to help us out this week. Some guys from Nick’s unit picked us up at the airport, drove us to get our rental, brought us our phone SIM cards we had mailed to their house, and showed us to the hotel. It was such a lifesaver to not have to navigate or drive in this crazy new place right away!

Our small LDS English speaking church branch has been so welcoming and wonderful help as well. My favorite thing about the church is that it’s the same everywhere. A small piece of home here with us and an instant Ward family that will do anything for you!

Speaking of awesome church friends, several people volunteered to watch our dog while we stay in the lodge so we didn’t have to pay the $25 a day kennel fee. We are so blessed and Addi is having a great time. She even beat us to visiting France! I’m afraid she won’t want to come home with us but it’s so nice not to have to worry about her. Thank you Fontana’s!

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Ok, so Belgium. It’s awesome! There has been some culture shock for me, it’s difficult not speaking the language here. I’m so grateful I learned some before we came and it will be easy to find opportunities to learn and practice it while we’re here. People are patient though and some speak English so we’re getting by.

We stumbled upon a little ice cream/chocolate shop here close by and it was amazing!! The food here has been fantastic. I can’t wait to get settled and start exploring more and shopping locally.

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Housing has been stressful. We have been waiting to hear if a government house if available for us (which we would have to take) or if the capacity is full and we can look off post.

FINALLY, 7 days of waiting around living at the hotel and many visits and phone calls to housing officials, we were given the go ahead to find a house off post. Thankfully we had been looking anyway and were able to set up a lease signing right away for 2 weeks from now. Everything moves at snail pace here it seems, so 2 more weeks of hotel living then we’ll move into a house we love. It’s small, but we love the location and we’ll make it work for us. I can’t wait to be out of limbo! Our household goods are here and waiting for us and our car should be here next week as scheduled.

The temporary housing/hotel here is great. Small room but some fun playgrounds and the commissary close by. We’re making friends and finding things to keep occupied.

We have received so many blessings and guidance this first week and I’m incredibly grateful. New friendships are growing, we’re adjusting to the culture, and loving the large amounts of “quality” family time!

So far Belgium = Awesome!

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In case you missed the last post…

• Goodbye Oklahoma – Some of the things I’ll miss the most

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