Behind the Camera...

While Ashlynn has taken a few shots at events in past years, this was the first time that she really got into it. Not only did she enjoy taking the shots, she enjoyed helping set up poses.

Bye Bye Blue Volunteers...

In addition to the Project Africa team, there were several volunteers from the year above and they got into several of the photos as well.

I was also there to take candid photos.

Photographing Bye Bye Blue...

Just before Ashlynn left for Tanzania, she helped at Bye Bye Blue, the Year 9 (8th Grade) year-end dance, as a fundraiser for BSN Project Africa of which she is a member of the team going to Kenya in July 2017. Jimmy set up a smaller backdrop than in the past to keep things simple. Ashlynn recruited Sophie and Roisin to help take photos.

Of course, this was a good opportunity to take a bunch of portraits of Ashlynn and Sophie.

Off to Africa...

On June 27, I dropped off Veronica for a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. The airport was a complete zoo and it took so long to drop off her bag that she almost missed her flight. The following morning she caught a flight to Mozambique, where she spent 4.5 weeks at Guanjata Dive Centre with the marine conversation group Love the Oceans, followed by 5 nights in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

When Ashlynn found out that Veronica was heading to Africa, she figured out a way so she could do the same. Since she was too young to go on Veronica’s volunteer program, she found another that would accept a 16-year-old: Frontier Marine Conservation and Diving. Although she would be camping for four weeks on Mafia Island off the coast of Tanzania, she had to bring a lot of her own diving equipment. Thus, she had a lot more luggage than Veronica as you can see when Jimmy and I dropped her off at Schiphol on July 3 for her flight to Dar es Salaam, which I was pretty distressed to learn is one of the world’s most dangerous airports.

Year 11 Prom...

The prom itself was a bit disappointing as the venue was quite small and there was no vegetarian food, but the girls still had fun.

Ashlynn’s Closest Friends...

When Veronica attended this event, she and all of her friends wore short dresses. As you can see, Ashlynn’s friend group all wore long gowns. And although the prom was alcohol-free since the kids are all under 18, Sue served the girls some bubbly.

I especially love this photo as it looks like something from a magazine.

I also love these playful photos.

Getting Ready for Year 11 Prom...

On June 28, Ashlynn went into The Hague to have her make-up done for her Year 11 (10th grade) Prom. She doesn’t like to take selfies, but promised to send me a photo so I could see what a nice job the make-up artist did.

Ashlynn and her closest friends all got ready at Sophie’s house. I was thrilled when I got an invitation from Sophie’s mom to come see the girls. I arrived just in time to see Ashlynn as she finished getting dressed. I think you’ll agree that she looked beautiful in the dress that her grandmother bought her in California.

Sophie and Ashlynn were definitely all smiles.

When Ashlynn put on her heels, she towered over me. I was so happy to get to share this special time with her.

Statues in Leiden...

Thought this boat with an actual statue and some humans as statues was very cool.

After the parade, we walked around a sculpture display.

See any resemblance? Apparently this statue is a bit hit in Russia according to this article.

More Boats...

This boat full of monkeys also made us laugh.

Jimmy liked the look of the female animals

More laughs from the frogs and fairies...

...and the Mexican banditos at a country bar.

Leiden Boat Parade...

My first big outing after getting out of the hospital was to head to Leiden with Jimmy to watch the Leiden Boat Parade. As usual, we found somewhere to sit along a further out canal and picnicked while watching the wide variety of decorated boats go past.

Heineken made us laugh as they attempted to pass out beers using a ridiculously long plastic pole with a tray of beers at the end. Too bad they were a few inches too far away for Jimmy to reach.

Thought this stand-up giant paddle board was pretty cool.

Liked the fancy costumes on the front of the October 3 Liberation Day boat.

Time for a Swim...

After some sunbathing, Ashlynn joined in Veronica’s tradition and jumped into the canal to celebrate being done with school. 

The water was a bit chilly, but the girls were all smiles.

Burn Homework, Burn...

Veronica only had two weeks in Holland before she was off to Africa. Luckily we managed to find a date when Sally, John, David and Andrew could come over for dinner and a fire.

Ashlynn was thrilled to have the opportunity to burn most of her GCSE homework, especially in the subjects that she won’t be continuing like French and history.

A Rude Awakening...

I have no memory of it, but at 7 a.m. the next morning, I fell in the bathroom and hit my head. Jimmy discovered me unconscious on the floor with blood coming out of my mouth. He put me in a recovery position and called an ambulance. I was taken to Leiden University Medical Center, where a CT scan confirmed that I had fractured my skull and had a concussion and cerebral hemorrhage. Sounds horrible, but I didn’t need surgery, which was a relief; I had two further scans to confirm that the bleeding didn’t spread. An x-ray confirmed that I had also fractured my ankle.  

Unfortunately, I spiked a fever which caused concerns that I might have meningitis. The spinal tap for the culture hurt like hell. It took five days for the results, so in the meantime they treated me with high doses of antibiotics just in case I did in fact have meningitis. Not much fun as the drugs made me quite sick and the IV disconnected once so I woke up covered in blood. Every day neurologists visited me and asked me my name, where I was and the date; every day I asked them when I could stop with the horrible drugs and when I would be cleared to fly.

Spending eight nights in the hospital wasn’t a lot of fun, but I was really impressed with the staff as everyone was really nice. Jimmy visited me daily and did a great job running the house. I was disappointed not to be home when Veronica returned from the UK and was thrilled when Jimmy brought her and Ashlynn to visit me. I also missed dinner at Carlin’s where this cute photo was taken, and wasn’t allowed to go see Coldplay the following week because of all the noise and flashing lights. Luckily I was cleared to fly and the neurologists thought that hiking would actually be good for my brain; just needed to give my ankle a good rest so it could make the trip.

More Hash-a-Thon...

Here’s a few photos from the drink stops, complete with the number of the stop.

Our final stop was at Nat’s place for pizza. Not surprisingly, I was a bit wobbly on our way home and managed to smash my ankle at a curb.

Hash-a-Thon...

Instead of walking on the final day of my two-week C2C training, Jimmy and I went to a Hash-a-thon in Amsterdam with the plan of running 13K with 13 drink stops hosted by 13 different hashers (which as you can guess, was a formula for disaster). As these photos show, it didn’t take long for things to get a bit kooky. Here is Jimmy and Alenka riding a goat sculpture...

...and a giant dog sculpture watching us run.

Jimmy didn’t hesitate to lounge in the rooftop pool where he was served one of his drinks.