A few years later....

Re-found the ol' blog link and even Timothy looks at the images he recognizes and thought it was only a couple years ago when most of those activities took place....! Well, time to get some updates here cuz yes, life goes on and although I keep getting younger of course (!) the kids are getting bigger...

more highly attractive photos

Summer holidays in Wisco

Just back from summer holidays... sun every day, hanging out with family and friends... what more can you ask for?


Here are a few highlights including some great photos thanks to my new little portable mac...

Em's updates

Emily's into taking photos of herself - with the camera, with the phone.. and self-taken photos always turn out so lovely! She's getting ready for her 'spreekbeurt' or show & tell type presentation at school by taking photos of every dog she knows. And... it was her turn to be the goalie at hockey next Saturday - attending her first practice yesterday for the goalies helped her to learn the techniques that she hopes to never have to do again. Somehow it's not her thing to be inside a padded portable cage and not be able to run around!

Additional Timothy events

1st prize in the first round of the Amstelveen/Uithoorn school chess tournament, black eye from getting hit on the eyebrow with a hockey ball at practice (ouch!) and turning 11 ... lots of updates in Tim's life lately.

The new look

Visits to the orthodontist are the latest adventures for Timothy. Yes, the colour chosen = green!

Other 2007 highlights

Other highlights in 2007 included completing the NYC marathon with 35,000 of my closest friends in November. I had my hair dyed blond for the event and think I ran a pretty good race:

OK, so I'll admit that's not really me - I would have a hard time imitating Paula Radcliffe's accent anyways. Here's the real deal:

BDB 2007

Did my other favorite vacation spot last summer also: Wisconsin. Was crazy enough to the best dam bikeride with my sister: 150, yes count them: 150 miles (not kilometers!) of hilly biking...

the backside survived & the event is on the agenda to be repeated in 2008!

Curley girls at concerts on the square

Hikin' and hangin'

Best of the summer was hiking & hanging around with the van Meeks. How dare they move to Nova Scotia???!!!

More summer 2007

Saw so many beautiful waterfalls, I don't think I need to see any more for awhile.

Did some whale watching too - extremely impressive. Saw a ton of them too...

2008 already

2008 already and I haven't even updated this blog since March! Well, might as well throw a hodge podge of photos in here with a bit of background for those friends & family that may be paying attention...:

Summer 2007 was wonderful - spent a couple weeks in beautiful Canada to start off with. Lucky enough to have crazy friends willing to cross half their enormous country to spend time with us. That was definitely the highlight of the whole Canadian experience:

Realized I forgot to send the proof that Molly kissed a fish, so here it is:

Before the vacation feeling is a distant memory, I went through the photos from our 10 day trip to Scotland. What a great country - a short trip away, and yet a world of difference. From walking the shores, to enjoying tea and scones, cider in pubs, eating haggis neeps & tatties... I think I've seen enough castles for this year. Gorgeous landscape: lakes, mountains, coast. All that was necessary was a good pair of boots for solid footing on the potentially seriously muddy footpaths and a washer to get the mud out ...!

Why Frosty the snowman doesn't catch on here

The proof that it can snow in the Netherlands. Here is what was left of our snowman (well, he started off as a typical snowman, but kinda ended up more like an inverted snow cone) two days after we made him. Almost pitiful really

Monopoly weekend

Blew off the original weekend plans to run a 10k and spend a family weekend away as everyone felt like just hanging out. Ended up spending hours playing Monopoly - innocent Emily wiping us all pitifully out.
Having one day of snow gave us the chance to have a good snowball fight and make a snowman before the snow completely melted the next day.

Finished the next episode of Harry Potter too... it's a debate who enjoys the reading time the most

Winter in the Netherlands

Brrr ... it's finally getting a little wintry here in Holland. We're hoping it'll freeze enough to let us skate on those canals again...
Here are a few views of the kids during their annual Christmas skating lessons. Emily has discovered the fun of taking photos of yourself....

Hit the big 40 this year and decided to prove that I was still in ok shape... why not run a marathon?
Although I went into it looking forward to getting it over with and checking it off my list of things to do before I die, it sure was fun... NYC next year perhaps?!

The best way of celebrating thereafter was heading to Wisco on a girls' only trip (Em and I) for the autumn vacation and Halloween. Had a super time hanging out and attending UW football game, hockey game, shopping, seeing friends & best of all family.

Dutch dream house renovation

Time to get some of these renovation stories documented here... how do you take a 70's style dutch house and turn it into a place you love to be in? Make sure you have dreams, advice, trustworthy & good worker dudes (with their own advice), set a budget .... and....enjoy!!!!!:

Now for some house & garden updates... renovations are complete on the dream house. Garden guy said the work would be done in 8 days. Unfortunately, he didn't say which 8 days... some of those 8 days may just happen in 2007 at the rate things are going now. But the big stuff is done - most importantly: the trampoline! yeppers, we're havin' some fun here.