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| Noah really enjoyed playing with his new train set in Grandma and Grandpa's basement. We were able to pack it up and get it home as baggage on the airplane. |
| Rachel had a good time reconnecting with her cousin Sydney. They had sleepovers, shopping trips and even got their first professional manicures together! |
| Getting to spend time with family was the whole point of the trip. There were "men's outings" to the Indy Speedway museum and the annual auto show and "girl's outings" to the local mall. We all went to see the film "Night at the Museum" together and had a big family gathering on New Year's day. The kids also had some grandparent time when Ralph and Karen took in "Dreamgirls" at the cinema and had dinner out with Jim and Teri (Karen's brother and sister-in-law). Karen also got to do some scrapbook supply shopping with sister, Teresa. |
| We took a day trip to Dayton to visit with old friends, not that they're old. . . well, you know! Noah was also able to have a brief visit with his old pal, Sloan. The boys made the best of every moment during a much too short stop. We were also able to attend an evening worship service at Hope Chutch and have dinner at a local Mexican restaurant that we used to go to often. The kids ate way too many tortilla chips (Noah ended up getting sick on Grandma's stairs after our return to Indy - no fun!) but we all had a great visit. |
| Above is a shot taken in the Indianapolis airport as we began the journey back home. Karen got in one last Auntie Anne's pretzel and Ralph had a final Starbucks fix. While hard to say goodbye, we left looking forward to family visits planned for this next year and planning our adventures for our final year and a half in Holland. |
| Indianpolis Children's Museum glass exhibit - cool! |
| Indy Trip '06 -'07 |
| We took a trip to visit Karen's parents the day after Christmas. Our flight out of Amsterdam was smooth, but we were delayed in Newark by a few hours and didn't land until after mid-night in Indy. From the time we left our house in Holland to arriving on the ground in Indiana was about 20 hours! We included a way too short day trip to Dayton to visit old friends as well. We returned to Holland refreshed and relaxed and with everyone in a state of improved mental health. The kids really enjoyed seeing their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. The jet lag was well worth the time to visit family and friends. |
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| Dec 25, 2006. Merry Christmas! We enjoyed an early Christmas morning with the kids waking us up at 0600! We had a nice day (the picture at right is from a family walk) and hope you have had a great holiday. |
| Dec 3, 2006. Ralph's work has slowed down a little since our last posting. On Thanksgiving the kids participated again in the annual service at the Pieterskerk (St. Peters Church) in Leiden (where the Pilgrims worshipped before they headed for America). Rachel is dressed up as a pilgrim (center, left). It looks pretty likely now that we will get to stay here until the summer of 2008. After that Ralph expects to become a civilian and Karen hopes to return to nursing. |
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| Our New Year's eve was spent quietly with Karen's family - almost everyone saw the ball drop on TV. |
| Jan 20, 2007. You may have heard about it. Europe had it's worst windstorm in years on Thursday with 100+mph gusts. 6 people died in the Netherlands and 47 died throughout Europe. We lost a fence and some rain blew into the bedrooms through the seams of the windows. The storm knocked out roads and rail and created quite a mess. From the Dutch press, here are some storm pictures. Thankfully, we and our friends are all OK. |
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