We made it!

 It was a long trip - some brutal flight delays turned it into a 25 hour journey - but after some extra attention by the folks and customs and homeland security, we managed to squeeze our way into the US. Europeans aren't allowed here, so it was tricky to get Naomi in as an exeption to the rule.

Sure is amazing to be here! We have been really busy so far. Visited our new land, set up the golf course, played games, picked Kalia and Evi up at the airport, discovered a new skate park next to Lake Michigan, the list goes on.

On a sad note, my Grandma Harriet passed away this week. I am grateful that we will all be able to go to the funeral, but it is a difficult way to start the holiday. Looking forward to seeing all of the family next weekend though! What a treat!

The Gladstone skate park!

No shortage of deer to watch.

A picnic and a hike on our land.

Passing the Tests

 This week has been about preparing to fly to the States. Travelling is not fun anymore! We decided to get tested 3 days prior to departure so that we had a bit more time to prepare everything else. That was a good idea. We showed up to the test site and there was a 45 minute line out the door. In the past we could just walk right in and get tested. I guess lots of people want to go on a holiday and they didn't take that into consideration. 

Anyway, we finally got to the front and I thought we needed to bring an ID, but we needed the passport we would travel with. So we had to make new appointments, drive back home, get the passports, and stand in line for another 45 minutes instead of our planned trip to the skate park. We still got to skate for a few minutes and then it was time for Naomi and the girls to visit her Grandma. Fortunately we passed our tests, so we should be allowed to fly tomorrow.

I had to spend a few hours just getting all the paperwork in order so that we can hopefully get through customs in Minneapolis. We have to prove that Naomi is a part of our family so that she can get in because travel to the US is still not allowed for EU citizens. Yesterday and today are filled with packing up and preparing. We will get up a little after 4 in the morning tomorrow so that we can get to the airport 4 hours early. Hopefully that will be enough time!

The girls had a good last week of school. Lots of unhealthy food and parties - three students are leaving their class along with one of their teachers who is retiring after teaching for 40+ years at that same school. Our schools were anticlimactic. All of my events got cancelled because of the spike in Covid numbers. Naomi's continued, and she had a really good graduation ceremony where she spoke on behalf of her mentor student. 

Wrapping up the school year.

We have been enjoying the tomatoes!

Found a bird's nest in the garden shed.

Jungle tomatoes.

Swimming Diplomas

The girls got their first swimming diploma yesterday. A big ceremony at the pool. It was quite impressive to see how far they have come in the past year and a half. They are good swimmers now. Amélie loves to dive into the pool and swim underwater. Abigail likes swimming on her back. We celebrated with Opa and Auntie Edith at the windmill and then made some pizzas for dinner. It was a fun day.

Feels good to be done with school for the year apart from a couple online meetings I have this week. I really got paid a lot to do very little work thanks to all the Covid stuff. Next year will likely be more work even though I will get paid less - I dropped half a day of work to spend more time on the new business. 

The case numbers are skyrocketing in this country as they decided to open everything up again. Now they are shutting things back down. I wish our government would just take a hint from Germany when it comes to handling this virus...they seem clueless. I just hope we can get negative test results so that we are allowed to travel to the US. We are worried about that. 

We had fun at the big skatepark - all the other kids were in school so we had the place mostly to ourselves!

I made a stand for my new belt sander.

Found a big beetle in the forest.

Good swimmers!

Abigail jumping off the diving board.

Auntie Claire

 We sure had fun with Auntie Claire this week! She had a good trip up on Wednesday and slept most of the day Thursday - that worked out well as we all had to be in school. On Friday we went to Zwolle for the afternoon. Strange to see everything opened up and back to normal. Our silverware is getting rusty, so we were looking for a new set, but couldn't quite find it. It has been about a year since I have gone into a store.

On Saturday we went to the skate park and the girls had swimming lessons. Then we had a restful afternoon. This morning we will have red, white and blue pancakes followed by a trip to the open air museum. We will drop Claire off at the train station on our way back home. She had a really good idea of starting some weekend trips with one girl at a time in the fall. They will start exploring some nearby cities together once they turn seven. 

Things are winding down at school. Just two more days of lessons for me, then a few meetings. I have been making some progress with the knife blocks, but also some mistakes. Hopefully they will turn out okay, it is a challenging design. My belt sander broke, so I had to spend 300 euros on a new one. Ouch. This one should last longer though. 

These screws aren't holding on tight enough.

New Tires

 It was an expensive year at the car dealer - had to go twice to get all the work done. Traffic was really a drag, but nice that everything is finally as it should be. Happy to finally be able to get home early this week on Friday! Auntie Claire is coming for a visit so hopefully we can do something fun then.

They have been changing the rules quickly around here. Basically all of the guidelines have been dropped and it is business as usual. Our neighboring countries aren't too happy about that. The US has also dropped in threat level, so that should make our summer plans easier, and it is great that Claire can visit! I got my second injection so I have been tired this week.

Making progress on the prep work. Hope to be finished before the holiday. Also making progress on the knife blocks, although I messed something up yesterday. Hopefully I can redo it without too much trouble. 

Amélie seems to have a bit of an ear infection, and both girls have been getting these brown, rotten looking teeth called because of a condition called enamel hypoplasia. We are worried about it, but the dentist says there isn't anything we can do other than brush them well and add some fluoride. 

Hiding out under the tomatoes.

Progress on the knife blocks.

Fun with rollerblades.

Father's Day

 It was nice to enjoy a special breakfast and some presents this morning! We will head to a playground in the forest that I discovered while avoiding a traffic jam on Friday. Looks like a fun spot. This afternoon I get to start with a new student named Ocean. 

Unfortunately I will need to sit in the same traffic jam this Friday as well, because they weren't able to finish fixing our car. Very expensive repairs this year. 

I got back into the workshop this week. Working on making some knife blocks to accompany the cutting board sets I finished up earlier. Nice to be back after so many months!

Fun at the zoo last weekend.

We replaced a spiky bush with a new fern by the pond.

First ripe tomatoes! Delicious!!

Working hard at school.

Silly pictures.

First water lilies. 

Father's day breakfast and presents.

Butterflies

 We got to release the rest of the butterflies this week. Watching them change from little caterpillars to big caterpillars to pupae and then butterflies was a fun activity that the girls learned a lot from. Letting them go was a lot of fun!

Had some contact with my old friend from Mali, Secouba, this week. He is doing well. His voice really sounds older now. 

We also had a lot of fun last Sunday at the Open Air Museum in Arnhem (right next to the zoo). They relocated historic buildings from all over the Netherlands and they demonstrate how things were made in the past. It is a great spot! Today we get to go to the zoo again. Sure is nice that things are starting to open back up!

Would be cool to build one of these on our land someday!

Releasing the butterflies.

Secouba and his moped.

Even got to do some biking this week.