No School...Again.

The girls weren't really ready for summer vacation. They had just started getting back into the school routine. Oh well, we are having fun. On Monday we had an expensive car checkup and we spent some time in Utrecht.

On Thursday Naomi took the girls to visit one of her friend in the northern part of the Netherlands. They had fun. I got some things done around the house.

Tomorrow we leave for Switzerland and Northern Italy. Should be a fun trip, but it stresses me out a bit. Hopefully we can get all the prepping done today so that we can leave straight away in the morning.

We got the girls an UNO game for finishing the school year and it is their new favorite. Even played with Grandma and Grandpa which worked surprisingly well.

Fun in Utrecht.

Our first water lily.

The girls had fun with Naomi's friend.

My first attempt at a logo. Any thoughts or suggestions for improvement?

School's Out

Not quite the summer we had hoped for and looked forward to, but we will still have a good time. We made plans to visit Claire and Matt in Switzerland. From there we will spend a week in Northern Italy. Naomi found a bungalow that is on a peninsula sticking out into a big lake. Since Venice is only two hours from there, we can check that out one day. This is the only time we would be willing to go since the tourist levels should be much lower. Hopefully the lake will be quiet as well.

The girls had a lot of fun with their last week of school. Plenty of ice cream. Hopefully we can fit in some swimming lessons, but those booked up the minute they opened apparently.

Naomi had a nice time closing off her school year, although the food at their BBQ was quite disappointing. Not a surprise. We are developing particular tastes. The girls and I got to go to the zoo to celebrate the first day of summer. We had a great time!

Our goldfish reproduced!!

Fun at the zoo.

Broken shade - I don't think I can fix it. One more thing to figure out.

Auntie Claire!

We had a really nice time with Claire this week. She had a lot of work to do while she was here, and we had more or less our regular work/school schedule but there was still time for some fun. The girls were really sad to see her go, but happy that we will go down to visit them in two weeks. We did get to enjoy our first two tomatoes of the season with her!

On Friday, I didn't have to teach. My last lesson for the year was Thursday. That is a relief! I do have some meetings this coming Tuesday, but other than that I am finished with school for the year. Naomi, as always, has more work to do but at least she has finished her grading. The girls will have their last day on Thursday.

Yesterday we had our yearly trip to the Dunes to meet Clifton and Karmen and have some hamburgers. The meal really upset our stomachs this time. It has been a while since we had meat. Maybe next year we will need to try the veggie burgers. We got a kite from a neighbor and flew it for the first time at the dunes. It was fun! I haven't flown one with two strings before...nice to develop a new skill. Amélie almost got hit by it once or twice, but we will have to try it again sometime.

Our first two tomatoes!

Cancelled.

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our trip to the States this week. The numbers there are just climbing like crazy, and they don't seem to be slowing down. I am sure the holiday weekend won't help things. There are several risks and complications, but our main concern is that if we were to go, the EU wouldn't let us back in as they might shut down the flights entirely. Depressing, but at least we will be able to enjoy more of our tomatoes if the slugs don't get to them first!

Claire was able to make it up here for a visit. She is freezing. No, we don't turn on the heat in July! Great that at least this level of travel is possible again! She will stay with us for a week, until Friday. A working holiday. We might be able to go down to stay with them later this summer. We shall see how our plans turn out. Naomi also wants to go to France.

Yesterday we had a nice Fourth of July celebration. Ron and Edith came and we had some great food. The corn on the cob was actually tasty! Ron was also happy with the table I made for him, and gave me another small project to work on. Abigail and I also made a game together - she drilled the holes and did some power sanding! Good to put the workshop to use again.

Ron found a piece of glass on the street and wanted a table built for it.

Abigail had so much fun playing this game at a friend's house that we made our own.