In at Last

On Wednesday we moved up to our house in Marquette. It was sad to say goodbye to our time at my parents. We had a lot of fun there! We will be seeing them a lot I am sure though. Tuesday we will head back down to drop off Amélie for the night, and the three of us will head to the Fox Valley to get our car worked on and visit the Mitchells. 

On Tuesday we had a great day visiting Kitch-iti-kipi and Fayette where we explored the old village and found some fossils. On Thursday I went for a run at our new house and discovered a river just 5 minutes away!

Yesterday we broke ground on the new pond. At least that's what we are telling the girls. Abigail was wondering why it was so round. They both helped dig. It will be a big surprise when they find out its for a trampoline! Our neighbor came over with his little tractor to do the heavy lifting. What a big help! The rest is just a lot of shovel work and measuring carefully before we can get everything put together. We don't want to use the net, so it has to go in ground. Our neighbor said they might do the same depending on how this turns out. They got exactly the same one. 

Getting tired of all the shopping. Quite a bit more to do though. Every morning has been a shopping trip. Had a lot of fun at the library and farmers market yesterday. We were so disappointed when the French baker left the area, but strangely enough, we found a new one! Naomi got to speak French with her for a while yesterday. She comes from Paris and her mom was visiting from the South of France. The baker is starting up a club for foreign born women living in Marquette, and Naomi is excited to join.

Old pier at Fayette. 

The new ‘pond.’

The river close by our house.

Ovens at Fayette.

The big spring.

Charcoal oven at Fayette. 

 

Nine. Years. Old.

We are halfway there. What a great age! The girls are a so much fun. They planned an unusual birthday party. They wanted family to come, and our time with the Sankeys got cut short due to our surprise arrival of the container, so they invited them to come up. The Sankeys made the drive, and we had a great time! The girls didn't want pizza or hot dogs or a normal birthday cake, they requested Budda Bowls with strawberry shortcake. Breakfast was pancakes and lunch was quesadillas with corn on the cob. Snacks were Grandpa's baguettes with lots of different toppings. Naomi made a tapenade and the Sankeys brought some fresh basil and tomatoes from their garden. Lauren made it up too and spent most of the day with two 9 year olds. Somehow, she seemed to enjoy it! We took a walk in the woods to try out their new walkie talkies. The girls wrestled for about an hour outside before dinner and we had 8 video calls. They had a great day! So did we. 

Earlier this week was all about unpacking. We made some really good progress. Still need some furniture, so I made moving box shelving that will get us by for a while. In a few days, we will be ready to move up for good. Definitely tired of the back and forth.

On Friday I got to meet with an old friend at Babaloons for lunch. Haven't seen him in about 20 years. Fun to reconnect. Also got my books into a local bookstore! We will see more friends this afternoon and early next week, along with a day trip to Fayette. Then it's time to load up the truck (and our car) and move on up!

New Car

Well, new to us anyway. It's pretty old. Lots of miles. In good shape, though. We tried ordering on online, but the inspection came back with too many issues, so we found an option near Green Bay. What a relief to have that one out of the way! 

Spent some time at the house starting to unpack and doing a bit of shopping. Tomorrow we will head up for a few days and we hope to get most of the unpacking finished. Still busy with administrative stuff like drivers licenses, changes of address, and cancelling plane tickets. Bought round trip, cheaper than one way, but we were able to get a partial refund fo the return, so that is a really nice bonus! 

Naomi is also applying for a job. No shortage of things to do. Hopefully most of the unpleasant stuff will be finished by the time school starts. Even found some time to go for a hike yesterday, and Dad baked some great baguettes!

Abigail made breakfast in bed for Naomi because she has been working so hard lately.

Hike at the Days River.

Happy with the new car!

 

Family Vacation

We had a great time with family this past week! It was a lot of fun to see so many people at my Grandma's birthday party, and then we went out to the lake to stay with Aunt Jenny and Uncle Pat for a few days. The girls had more fun on the water than they have had with anything else in a long time!

They got a pontoon boat, so the girls tried out tubing for the first time. They loved it. Abigail was a bit clumsy at first, but Amelie was really a natural. She got the hang of everything, instantly. Impressive to watch. They even went together which ended up being the most fun. Once, the tube flipped, and the spent 5-10 minutes figuring out how to flip it back over. What great teamwork and persistence! The method that ended up working was Abigail (who called the shots for this endeavor) pulled the rope over the top and pushed with her feet against the side of the tube. Amelie lifted from the opposite side. After a few tries, they flipped it!

The girls also enjoyed the kayaks, and, surprisingly, they found a new way to use them. They stood on the back and paddled as if they were stand up paddle boards! Very creative and a lot of fun. They are just the right size to get the balance down. Amelie was kneeling inside her kayak and one point and flipped it over. Quite the shock to her, and she hurt her ankle. Abigail righted the kayak while I took care of Amelie. Naomi came over in the paddle boat to help Abigail. 

We also played some croquet and had a bonfire cookout that Uncle Pete came over for. Didn't quite get a good view of the rising super blue moon, though. Too cloudy. We did get a chance to go to Pete and Joleen's for dinner. It was great to see them and the girls really enjoyed spending time with Joleen. 

After some sad goodbyes, we went to test drive a car on our way to Mary and Jim's. Shady dealership. When we got there it was gone, even though I had confirmed a couple hours before. Waste of a trip. We did have a great time with Mary and Jim! Excellent food, fun at the foosball table, and we even managed to get some shopping done. 

Our time with them was cut short when we were notified that we could either be there to recieve all our stuff from the Netherlands in 24 hours, or we would have to wait until after Labor Day and pay storage fees. The girls were very upset to have to leave early. Lots of tears from Amelie.  Naomi dropped them off at my parents and took care of the movers while my dad came down with the truck to pick up the first shipment of woodworking tools. Everything got unloaded and the only problem was a crack in the driveway from the moving truck. Yesterday we just installed a couple showerheads, cleaned up a bit, and got out of there. The amount of work was too overwhelming. Went for a walk on our land. So nice to be back there again after two years! 

Driving out to our land.

A full load.

Wiped out after three days on the lake.

Wiped out after having twins around.

Amazing food at Mary and Jim's.

Red sunrise from wildfire smoke.