Our New Neighborhood...

The movers arrived on November 9 at 8 a.m. for a long day of work. Bob and Jan generously loaned us their car so that we could bring over several loads of stuff ourselves. Sally, my guardian angel, spent a few hours at the new house unloading books onto the bookcases so we could clear out some of the boxes in the overloaded storage room. The movers didn’t think that they’d be able to get our US queen-sized boxspring up the stairs, but luckily they were able to and we were all able to sleep in our own beds on the first night in our new place. The next afternoon, the next door neighbors dropped by to welcome us with these flowers, which were temporarily housed in a blender until I could find a vase.

We cycle along this canal around the corner as a shortcut to the grocery store. Check out the Dutch lawnmowers! When I noticed the sheep eating the grass,  I made a return trip to capture it with my camera.

Veronica was happy to feed the swans that regularly float past our backyard.

Our New House...

On the last day of the school break, we got the keys to our new house. We were happy to meet the Dutch family that owned the house that are relocating to Brussels. They really have a lovely house and we’re very excited to be moving in. The gourmet kitchen has great features such as instant hot water, a full-size American refrigerator with an ice maker and a utensil drawer (that we have lived without for the last 4.25 years).

Veronica took this great photo of Ashlynn in her new room. The wallpaper made for a cool photo, but Ashlynn actually wasn’t happy about being in a polka dotted room. Luckily the owners didn’t mind if we painted, so we hired our former next-door neighbor to paint it teal.

Veronica was also happy to pose in her new room before it was transformed into her favorite shade of purple.

This is likely to be our favorite new photo spot on the spiral staircase down to the bonus room.

Fall Leaves...

We usually go away over the half term break in October, but with our pending move, we stayed in Holland and mostly hung out at home. On the day that we met Sally, David and Andrew at De Horsten Park in Wassenaar, it rained on our entire cycle ride, but luckily cleared up as soon as we arrived. We had lunch at the tea house in the woods.

The colors were lovely as we walked around for two hours in the woods surrounding Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima’s home.

The kids managed to take us off the main path during our six-mile walk.

Off to Normandy...

The first term of Year 11 (10th grade) is especially stressful with a lot of homework and studying for internal exams. In addition, Veronica was feeling very snowed under by preparations for NESDA, her GCSE drama performance and weekly panto rehearsals. She got very worried about missing any classes and wanted to skip the French class 5-night field trip to Normandy. She wasn’t happy when we made her go, but was glad once she got there. This was the beach they saw from the window of the hostel.

Veronica rarely didn’t have her camera bag over her shoulder and often carried a GoPro on a monopod. She shot over 600 photos! Here is the video she put together about the trip.

No trip to Normandy would be complete without learning about the World World II D-Day landings. They visited the beach above (where the Brits brought along the concrete blocks from England to build a port and breaker for the landing), two museums and one cemetery.

They visited this quaint town of Bayeux to see the infamous tapestry from 1070 about the Battle of Hastings. They also went to a castle, an animatronic museum, a caramel factory and a market that sold live chickens. They also worked in the classroom each day on their French, so hopefully she actually learned something.

Reflections on our 7th Year - Part 2...

We’re happy that our list of highs is once again considerably longer than our lows:

• Family Travel: England - Harry Potter Studios Tour, punting in Cambridge, Olympic football game with Sally, John, David and Andrew followed by a week at the Tower House, lots of hikes, kayaking, White Scar Caves, fishing, juggling; Europa-Park - Food Loop restaurant, awesome roller coasters, great shows, nice riverfront apartment; Garmisch - Jan, Bob and Johanna there to hang out with while family was skiing, night sledding, making a GoPro video of the girls’ fun ski group; Germany - Christmas Markets in Cologne and Dusseldorf, playing on a Kinect video gaming system, BMW factory tour in Munich, geocaching in Olympic Park, silver mine tour with Bill and Nina; Morocco - great impromptu tour of souk in Marrakesh, hike in High Atlas Mountains, mountain biking to oasis and Atlas Studios, our amazing mountain guide Khaled, camel ride to the Sahara, camping in the desert, chasing moonshadows, Villa Vanille, exploring urbex; Tuscany - spending time with Steve, Carolyn, Samantha and Zach, playing Frisbee in the main square in Siena, contrada dinner, rooftop swimming pool, Galileo Museum, Ponte Vecchio; US - girls’ two week trip to CA including Safari West, seeing family, pedicure with Auntie Lee-Lee, chilling at Grandpa and Grandma’s, sleepover with Auntie Eden, Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Jimmy and Melissa Time: Croatia - site survey for 2013 White Girls’ Milestone Party, planning Andrew’s birthday adventure race, absinthe bar, sea kayaking in Dubrovnik, scooter ride on Hvar, night in Zagreb with Narcissa and Hrvoje, epic train rides; Hungary - Corinthia VIP Lounge, Turkish spa, ruinpubs, Budapest Hash, bike tour
• Solo Trips: De Kaag, Netherlands (Ashlynn) - water skiing, kayaking, amazing disco, YOLO (You Only Live Once); Berlin, Germany (Veronica) - Berlin Wall; Switzerland (Veronica) - glacier, photo shoots with friends; South of France (Veronica) - staying with Curt, Vero and sweet Nils, first kiss from a French boy (8-year-old Zachary), photo shoots and cinema alone; Bronze Award Expedition in Southern Netherlands (Veronica) - feeling of accomplishment, bringing our cooking stove otherwise they would have starved, ROFLMAO (Rolling On the Floor Laughing My Ass Off); Normandy, France (Veronica) - macaroons, beach, more photo shoots with friends; Ardennes, Belgium (Jimmy) - cycling with buddies, emergency stay at organic farm 
• Ashlynn Sports: 1st place girl at CPC’s 2.5K kid’s run, winning € 75 for coming in 2nd girl under 15 in 5K circuit, joining hockey team
• Visitors: awesome having Buddy help again with photos during Bye Bye Blue, hosting Debby and Tim from Cary and us all meeting up with Dan and Nancy from San Diego, Tami visiting from Finland
• Dogsitting Max, Hannah and Brinker
• Performances: Grease during school International Festival, Jimmy performing as a cop and girls dancing/singing in Aladdin Panto, Veronica in GCSE Drama performance of Negative
• Awards: Ashlynn - Year 7 (6th grade) Outstanding Achievement Award
• Moving to a new house! 
• New Year’s Eve bonfire and fireworks with Sally, John, David and Andrew, New Year’s Dive into the North Sea, ice skating on canals through Leiden, Snow Patrol concert with Terri coincidentally in next row
• Jimmy: More optimistic about work after changing positions, living debt free after paying off Cary house, New Year’s High Tea
• Melissa: Finally moving out of that crappy house, bringing girls to Election Breakfast, Going Dutch magazine, Coldplay concert
• Veronica:  A* on Science GCSE exams, juggling while running the CPC 5K with Jimmy, making GoPro videos on school trips
• Ashlynn: 12th birthday party at Drievliet amusement park, getting a Kinect, visiting the seal nursery, Ed Sheeran concert with Ellie

Reflections on our 7th Year - Part 1...

Happy New Year! We survived another firework-filled New Year’s Eve in Holland. We missed the deadline to participate in the New Year’s Dive into the North Sea, but since the sun was shining Jimmy and I went on a 5-mile run. Now its time to catch up my blog and squeeze in a few extra postings. Our 7th anniversary in Holland was on November 22nd, but we didn’t manage to have our traditional anniversary dinner at La Lantera Pizzeria in Scheveningen until December 30th. As usual, between courses, we reflected on the highs and lows of our 7th year. Let’s start with the lows:

• MICE! Our efforts for a humane relocation program was a complete failure, but we waited too long to resort to poison and lost a lot of food in our pantry.
• It was a bummer that Jimmy couldn’t join us in Tuscany and that he worked in Mons, Belgium for 9 months
• Travel inconveniences/disappointments: ripped off by bad tour guide in Tuscany, Vivynne and family missed the first day in Marrakesh with us due to Air France strike, double charged by KLM for unaccompanied minor fees, stuck in crappy Florence airport for 7 hours, missing the last tram into The Hague on New Year’s Eve, couldn’t buy tickets to the Olympics because we don’t have a frickin’ VISA card 
• Melissa: nearly constant bickering between daughters (afraid that this will be a repeat entry every year)
• Jimmy: Dirk (work colleague) passing away, falling through the ice bringing skating to an early end, bad luck two weeks in a row on the international train when in a rush to get to school events (1st hit a construction crew and 2nd hit a jumper), never got into any Trappist breweries on Trappist brewery cycle weekend
• Veronica: very stressful 1st term of Year 11 (10th grade), no longer being within walking distance of Pronto’s Pizza, couldn’t see Grandpa despite being in the same Swiss town at the same time
• Ashlynn: bike being stolen, losing Dutch ID

Flying Into the Finish...

Ironically, Sally, John, Veronica and I almost missed seeing the kids finish because we underestimated how fast they were. Luckily, we got into the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium just as David rounded the final bend before heading to the finish line in 5th place! Our estimations were off by about 3 minutes for Andrew as he came whipping into the finish in 45th place (unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photo).

Frankly, we had no idea what to expect of Ashlynn, who hadn’t run a race in four months. Imagine my surprise when she came flying into the finish with Jimmy nowhere to be seen! Our little 12-year-old came in 302nd out of 4,197 runners (40th woman) with a time of just 37:17 (7:30 minutes/mile), which was 5 minutes faster than last year.

Jimmy actually came in one minute behind Ashlynn. While he could have easily overtaken her at the beginning of the race, he opted to stay with her. However, when she went into passing mode after the halfway point, he couldn’t catch her. Next year he’d like her to start near the front to see what she can do without having to weave around people.