Surfing in Holland?

Ashlynn was very excited that she was invited to take a surfing lesson for Ellie’s 11th birthday party. It was a beautiful day when eleven 5th graders gathered at the beach near Scheveningen harbor for their first lesson. Ashlynn was convinced that she wouldn’t need a wetsuit, but luckily she had a change of heart because the North Sea was a chilly 60° F. 

The waves weren’t exactly the size you see on surfing movies, but were perfect for a bunch of beginners to practice getting onto their knees. All the girls had a great time! After dinner, Ashlynn went back to Ellie’s for a sleepover. Meanwhile, we dropped Veronica at Kelly’s 14th birthday murder mystery slumber party. With both girls gone, we cycled to Delft for a nice dinner, then headed to The Hague for an Indian Dance Party that I’d gotten free tickets for.

Teamwork and Fun on the Water...

Ashlynn really enjoyed all the time they spent on the water during the Ardennes trip. In addition to going kayaking, they also got to go down a small rapid in their life vests.

A big part of the week in the Ardennes is to work as a team, whether to keep their room in the hostel clean, to help doing kitchen duty or to build a raft out of inner tubes. Here you see that they managed to stay afloat.

An Adventurous Week for an Adventurous Kid...

Ashlynn had quite an exciting 11th birthday--she left that morning with her Year 6 (5th grade) class to go on a 4-night trip to the Belgian Ardennes mountains. Apparently she was embarrassed when she was called up front so everyone could sing to her, but she survived. She also survived all the adventure activities for the week, such as mountain biking for the first time and rock climbing. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a photo taken when on the most daring of the activities: climbing the telegraph pole and jumping off. Of course, she had on a harness; the goal was to grab a trapeze, which she managed to touch with one hand, but wasn’t able to hold on.

Speed Demon in Leiden...

On the day before her 11th birthday, Ashlynn ran in the Kid’s 2K as part of the Leiden Marathon. Imagine my joy as I stood on the ancient steps of the Leiden Stadhuis (city hall) and saw Ashlynn come flying down the street as the 2nd girl (and 9th kid) to cross the finish line. With a time of just 8:00, she hit her fastest pace yet at 6:26/mile. She also earned her first running trophy, which she is posing with at race headquarters in the Pieterskerk. Jimmy managed to get a very respectable 1:36:57 (7:24/mile) in the half marathon, especially considering he didn’t train and we were up late the night before at the gala.

AWC Gala...

This year the AWC hosted a gala to benefit autism efforts in the Netherlands. Terri and Chris hosted a few of us at their house for cocktails. We failed to get a nice photo of the guys, but Jimmy did get this one of the ladies all decked out.

Jimmy worked his butt off as the official photographer for the evening. The live auction was very successful, but took up most of the evening so the dancing started ridiculously late. It was very exciting to learn that the event raised € 50,000 to be split between a special needs school in The Hague and an autism musical therapy group.

I Was Kissed by a Seal at the Zoo...

We had just enough time before our taxi picked us up to stay after the seal show for a free kiss. No cameras were allowed, so those free kisses weren’t so cheap after all. But hey, how can you pass up an opportunity like this?

More Adventure...

 After their urbex adventure, Jimmy and the girls decided to go swimming. However, instead of starting in the water, they thought it would be more fun to start on the bridge....Ready, set, jump!

As usual, the wimp in the family stayed behind the camera and on dry ground. I was bummed to miss the best part of their swim: a private show by some dolphins at the nearby aquarium. Granted, they were separated by two fences, but Ashlynn was thrilled to see the dolphins jumping in the water from this vantage point.