Love Grows, Part Twee.

The in-laws have an incredible green thumb and combined with the rainy/cool weather of the Netherlands, I was pleasantly surprised to see what our plantable wedding invites have grown into (prior blog post here). In Northern California, our invites have grown to be only plants, large green stems with leaves so I have been unsure of what they were to become. But the in-laws have been able to make them grow into something quite spectacular: actual flowers! Bright, lovely orange flowers with a faint sweet smell...sigh. It gives me the warm and fuzzies to know that our invites have been successfully grown into flowers!

• they are quite tall •

• a bee enjoying the flower •

Being back in the Netherlands is always fun but it's more of visiting family than traveling so this trip has included more traveling and experiences. Some of our friends have come out to celebrate our second wedding celebration with us so we've been able to take them out and show them parts of the Netherlands. As the rest of the family and friends start arriving this week, we're going to be in full travel mode and really showing them the nooks and crannies of the Netherlands and it's very exciting since no one has been here before. My understanding of the Dutch language is also getting better. I can only speak a few words/phrases and my pronunciation is quite poor but it's become a fun challenge listening to Dutch and finally being able to start picking out words (which helps me follow conversations better, I just can't figure out the exact context yet). It's fun being able to start picking up a new language and am curious if I will ever be able to fully speak Dutch. That would be quite spiffy.

• i heart the netherlands •