My First Visitors!!!

I have been in Brussels for about 3 months now and I finally got to host my first visitors! I was SO excited to see Mom and my cousin Kristen! Dad did not receive his passport so was unable to make the trip. We were very sad not to have him with us, but he will get here eventually! It was good timing for Mom to be here considering Maxie had her paw surgery on Saturday and I needed help holding her down to the post-surgery treatment I had to do!! Mom has not seen Maxie since April....and I think she misses her more than me....so they were both excited to see each other!

We had such a good time hanging out, cooking, eating, watching movies and seeing the sites! Kristen is 12 now and this was her first trip to Europe! Needless to say...she will be back! She was so fascinated by all the history and had a million questions that I could not answer. She also loved all of the shopping and chocolate, of course!

After Mom and Kristen recuperated from jet-lag we hit the ground running! We took the train to Paris and spent a couple of days playing tourist. Mom insisted we take Maxie to Paris...and I, of course, agreed...so Maxie got to experience Paris with us! Mom and I have been to Paris before but it was Kristen's (and Maxie's) first time! We left exhausted but she got to see everything they wanted to see and we also got to eat at my favorite Italian restaurant. Here are a couple of pics:

Once we got back from Paris we spent a day recovering in Brussels then headed off to Brugge. We loved Brugge!!! Compared to Paris, it is so quiet and calm! We took a carriage ride through the city! Brugge is known as the "Venice of the North" due to canals flowing through the center of town so we also took a little boat ride through the canals. We had a ball!







Once we got back from Brugge we went and saw a few things around Brussels. We all really enjoyed a place called Mini-Europe! It contains a walk through the countries of Europe and miniature replicas of famous sites in each country. It was really cool and quite a learning experience for all of us! Here are a few pics of some of the most famous!

Eiffel Tower in Paris, France:


Flower Carpet in the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium:


Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy:


Big Ben in London, England:

It was so good to have Mom and Kristen here and I miss them already!!!!!