Veronica’s Visit...

The girls’ holiday schedules were not in alignment at all during spring break. Ashlynn was still in school when Veronica came home and when she was finally off school, Veronica had already returned to Norwich to go on a field course during her final week of break. Between getting ready to move and studying for exams, there wasn’t much time for fun, but we did enjoy going as a family to see the new Beauty & the Beast movie, which we all loved.

At least the girls had a weekend to themselves while Jimmy and I were at Belgian Nash Hash.

Veronica was especially excited about introducing us to her boyfriend Billy, who came to stay with us for three nights. Here they are making sushi for all of us...

 ...and here is Veronica introducing Billy to dumpster diving. Despite their efforts, these bed slats didn’t fit on the used bed frame that Ashlynn had bought. Billy also came in very handy in helping us bring boxes up to the attic in the new house.

Veronica enjoyed showing him around Amsterdam for a day. Ironically, as I’m writing this in late July, Veronica is spending the weekend for the first time at Billy’s house with his parents in Canterbury, England. He just graduated from UEA and is looking for a real job. Unlike her previous boyfriend that broke up with her when he graduated, she and Billy are adjusting to a long-distance relationship.

First Meal in the New House...

On April 5, we had our first family meal in our new house. Our furniture wouldn’t be delivered until the following week, but thanks to a friend’s offer of her car we were able to move some things over for a picnic on the floor. 

Although we hadn’t actually wanted to move, we were optimistic about this new chapter in our lives.

Ashlynn was very excited about giving up her loft bed in exchange for a double bed.

Veronica didn’t waste any time in hanging up her Nepalese flags and starting to decorate her room.

The next day Sally came over to build our new TV stand. We sure are lucky to have such a great friend that actually loves to build IKEA furniture.

Partying in Belgium...

That evening was a party at the hostel with a DJ. The theme was Zen: Back to Nature, so there was a wide variety of costumes. Needless to say, Jimmy was the only Fred Flintstone.

Inga’s costume was very intellectual, while Fenella’s depiction of the seasons was my favorite.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that Fred Flintstone couldn’t stay away from the T-Rex...

...although he did get a bit carried away. The next day was the hangover hash, which was a nice trail through the city and the perfect ending to a great weekend.

First Belgian Nash Hash...

Not only was Reinhardt (aka Boar Whore) sweet enough to help us secure spots at this sold-out weekend, but he also drove us to our first Belgian Nash Hash at the end of March. After a few wrong turns, we eventually arrived in Kortrijk, a city of 75,000 in West Flanders. Loved the name on our hostel room which we shared with Inga (aka Tasty Piss) and Reinhardt...

...who were good roomies with very clean teeth.

The hostel was clean, perhaps because of this strange warning sign of how to use the toilets. We missed Friday night’s trail, but met up with the group at the party afterwards at the bowling alley.

The next morning, we boarded buses to the run start where we encountered these adorable hares...

...and this strange playground. It was a nice trail through lots of fields and woods.

No surprise that there was good beer at the circle, including this one appropriately named Drunken Bunny.

Wassenaar Beach...

On Anna’s last night, we had access to a car so drove out to Wassenaar Beach for a walk and dinner. 

Kati had fun running through the little streams along the beach.

Veronica had just arrived the morning before for a two-week visit.

It was a great way to bid farewell to Anna and welcome Veronica home.

An Audience with the Queen...

As Anna and I were heading to Amsterdam Centraal, part of the road was closed. We were curious what was happening, so we stuck around for a few minutes and were rewarded with a quick glimpse of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima getting into a car.

Imagine our surprise when we saw the Queen again the very next day, but this time from just feet away as she was walking through the Mauritshuis (she’s the blonde). When I posted this photo on Facebook, a few folks thought the lady in front of the Queen might have been me. While it’s sweet that I have friends that think I might hang out with the Queen, I can assure you that I was with the rest of the museum visitors in the corner of the room with a security guard.

Playing Tour Guide in Amsterdam...

In late March, Anna from Sir Walters Hash House Harriers in Raleigh came to visit for three nights. We had a beautiful day to explore Amsterdam. My usual first stop is the library to see the view from their terrace, but it was closed for renovation so instead we headed to the rooftop garden of the science museum...

...where the views were incredible. 

We had lunch at my favorite dive bar and had a great walk around town.

We ended our Amsterdam tour at Wynand Fockink for a jenever.

Making Meerkats...

We fondly named our meerkat Stripy in honor of the stripes still to be added.

Here you can see a model of what Stripy will eventually look like along with the other six meerkats to be scattered across the traffic circle.

Emilie explained the complicated methods to be used to secure the meerkats from thieves and hurricane strength winds. I look forward to seeing the finished work of art in early September.

Me, a Sculptor?

When I first met Dutch sculptor Emilie Cummings at an AWC Coffee Morning, I was impressed with her passion to lead a community sculpture project by working with schools and a variety of clubs. Later when I was offered the chance to join some AWC ladies at Emilie's home for a morning of sculpting followed by lunch, I went along despite my lack of artistic ability. Here you see Emilie giving an introduction to her project while standing next to what will be a 10-foot (3-meter) tall meerkat, which is obviously still missing his head.

Emilie had already created the frames of the seven meerkats that will eventually be placed in a traffic circle in Wassenaar.

Our job was to help put additional wax over the frame. The finished wax sculptures will be used to make the molds that will be brought to a foundry that will pour the iron and complete the sculptures.

Celeste and I worked as a team to place the mix of black and purple wax over the bottom third of this meerkat. This shot was taken before...

...and this after. We sat in chairs for toddlers so we didn't have to strain our backs too much. It was surprisingly easy and relaxing work.

Celebrating Jimmy and Sally’s Birthdays...

As we often do, we celebrated Jimmy's birthday with Sally, whose birthday is the day before, and her family. This year was especially funny as John and Sally had purchased Jimmy a gift that had them cracking up before he even opened it. 

Of course, once he opened the package to discover that they had ordered him a Fred Flintstone costume, we fully understood why they were so full of laughter. Little did they know that their timing was perfect as we were heading to Belgium Nash Hash the following weekend and Jimmy was in need of a costume.

Breaking in Her New Boots...

Ashlynn was adamant that she didn’t want leather hiking boots for her 50-mile (80-kilometer) hike in Kenya, so it was very easy making a choice as there was only one option of waterproof nylon boots at our local outdoor adventure shop. Of course, I encouraged Ashlynn to break her boots in slowly like I did, but she had no intention of doing that. At least she was willing to walk around Vlietland with me and Kati on a beautiful day in early March.

Here she is testing her boots to see if they’re actually watertight.

They survived this very quick test, but the real test will be four days of hiking through the Kenyan rainforest.

Making a Difference...

We're so proud of how the girls have embraced volunteer projects at school. As the Environmental Officer at UEA, Veronica was instrumental in putting together a vegan fair on campus. Here she is posing with her favorite makers of vegan pizza: One Planet Pizza.

Ashlynn actually arrived in Kenya on July 15 with 29 students and 5 teachers from the BSN, but here she is months earlier helping to raise funds at an expat fair in The Hague...

...and here she is at the celebration when the team hit €30,000 raised (fast forwarding several months, the team’s grand total was a whopping €40,000!).

The only thing the girls were volunteering to do when this photo was taken was to eat masses of sushi (vegan, of course, as Veronica became a vegan on January 1), but I’ve included it as a reminder that Veronica visited for a week in February. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very exciting visit as Ashlynn was in school and Veronica needed to pack up her room for our upcoming move.