Soya

I ordered a juicer and grain mill attachment and was very excited to try it out!  Paul was too so we dug in! 

We made whole wheat flour which became pancakes the next morning ( Mmmmm :) )

And ground soy beans which became milk, tofu, and other goodies.

Milking the soya cow!

Belgian Sweets! ~ And On To The States~

One of the highlights in Brussels was was the waffles, candy, and chocolate shops!!

They make your mouth drop open, then water... my favorite parts were the free samples in a couple shops!

Mmmmmm.....

More candy and sugary goodness than you can imagine!

We had to get a Belgian Waffle since we were in Belgium and all... only problem was... the cost a WHOLE lot more than we really wanted to spend... a base price for the waffle and another euro for each topping.... so, needless to say... the super delicious looking ones, covered in chocolate, with whipped cream, strawberries, peanuts, and caramel on top.... well, those were a little out of our budget.....

.... so we got a one that was still simply delicious with caramel and chocolate, and shared it! :)  Yay for legit Belgium Waffles!

Here's a sad example of the $$ of some of the beautifully delicious Belgian chocolates!  Notice the tray on the scale, .34Kg, for 22 euros, that'd be $30 :S

Yum!

Just when you thought there couldn't be anymore amazing sweets...

There's MORE!

We got rained on a little durring our exploring and really couldn't find anywhere to warm up, plus, our blood had been thoroughly thinned by the past 7 months in Africa, and we were FREEZING!  So when we done exploring and frozen to the bone we started to find our way back to the airport.

We were to cheap for any of the real eating places we found, so back in the airport we found a "supermarket" and got carrots and feasted on a loaf of bread we had gotten and a few precious Belgian Chocolates!  And spent the rest of the night in the airport trying to warm up and thaw our toes!

Mmmmm Chocolate!

Airplane meal!

Customs in Philadelphia went beautifully and when we walked through the officers said "welcome home" it felt SO GOOD!!

Once we found a place to eat in Chicago Mary sat down and fell asleep all in one motion!

We met our first delay of our ENTIRE trip (going in September and returning in May) in Chicago, it rained and hailed and all the flights were delayed.

It was a crowded airport but we got to Omaha where our friends were waiting! :)  

God is SO GOOD!

Buildings of Brussels

After finding the Atomium so smoothly we had a slightly more trouble finding our way to the Grand place, but we had nowhere else to be and everywhere we aimlessly wondered looking for it was exciting and beautiful to  us.  So we took our time and eventually got going back in the right direction, when were were closer we asked a lady in our tram and she walked with us from the station to the square... it was INCREDIBLE!

The grand place is the central square of Brussels framed with these gorgeous historic buildings on each side.

Another side of the square...

...and another view of the square.

Incredible shopping mall!

Just had to snap a shot of this Paul Shop :)

I was intrigued by how attractive and artsy even the metro stations are!

Even the "ugly" buildings are super cool!

Super pretty!

Pizza Hut delivery motorcycles, and a LEO truck! :)

Amazing

Quaint little European produce stand, but the prices take your breath away after shopping in African markets for 7 months!

Mother's Day

I am so blessed to have the Mother I do!

Brussels Adventure! ~ From The Beginning!

Let me tell you a little bit about our Belgian adventure that took place at the very end of our African adventure...

Once again, there's so many pictures, I'm going to have to relay this in parts so I don't overwhelm anyone!!  So... from the beginning...

Boarding the plane in Douala, Cameroon, Africa; leaving the country for the first and only time in over 7 months since our arrival in September.  It was so bittersweet,  Mary and I stood together and soaked up the moment as we stepped off African ground and into the plane.  7 hours later we landed in Brussels and our next adventure started bright and early Belgian time...

After exchanging some money (at a rate that made me chock a little) we got the right change and rented a luggage locker so we could explore the town!  I had researched public transportation and we got 24 hour passes for any public transport in town (buses, trams, metro).  So we headed aimlessly into town to explore and eventually visit the two main locations we wanted to see, the Atomium and the Grand Place.

The first couple times we got off the bus and metro we had no clue where we were but just wondered around taking pictures of the beautiful city, then I saw a tram with a destination I knew I had written down as the station nearest to the Atomium, so we hopped on and it was perfect!

The Atomium was built in 1958 for the last world fair.  It is very impressive and exciting to visit.

The view from the top sphere observation deck was amazing!

each "shaft" between spheres is an escalator or stairs with awesome and different designs in each one.

The topic of worldwide water and water conservation was a theme in most of the exhibits, this is a nifty toilet (a good addition to my toilet pictures collection) with a clever faucet built into the top of the tank, so the water you use to wash your hands goes into the tank, then flushes the toilet... no wasted water for hand-washing.

Another cool shaft staircase :)

Mini Atomium model.

Underneath the real one! :)

View from the top sphere.

View from the other side :) ... there's a restaurant in the top sphere and we had planned to just order something to share for the experience and view... but we checked the menu before we went in... we couldn't find ANYTHING under 10 Euros(about $15)... We just couldn't do it, especially being used to getting a full meal in Cameroon for roughly $0.50..... so instead we shared a cookie at the base of the Atomium. :)