Olivia Visiting

Phew, it’s finally cooled down here. We’ve had a storm system come through with some rain and now it’s a cool low 70s, finally. Yesterday we entertained Olivia, one of Anja’s class friends all day with her parents also coming over for dinner, Angie and Nate. It was nice to get to know some new people; we had a great evening chatting about all sorts.

We’re off to the movies this afternoon to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie. It’s not really one that we’ve being waiting for or anything; it’s simply what’s playing on this wet Sunday afternoon (I showed Anja the trailer to Cars 2 but that went down like a lead balloon).

It's Way Too Hot...

Not much going on here this week, we are all simply trying to stay cool and hoping that our air conditioning unit holds out. Most of the USA is under a heat wave and we have had scorching temperatures with high humidity’s. Yesterday it reached over 100F which feels like 114F when the humidity is factored in, that's over 45 degrees centigrade.

Friday mornings is my usual "Long Run Day" and it was tough this morning. I had planned on doing 17 miles via three separate loops around the house (to restock on fuel and water as I passed through) and managed to get on the road by 06.15am. First loop was fine, the second was mostly okay but my body would not allow me out on the third. Whilst I had stayed well hydrated by using my Camelbak, I felt simply awful as a result of the heat. I stopped after the second loop, which was after about 13 miles. It was 88F (feels like 95F with humidity) when I threw in the towel....:)) I think I did well enough.

Michigan Vacation

We returned yesterday from our weeklong vacation to Saugatuck in Michigan. You may recall that we also visited this small art focused fishing village on Michigan’s coast where the Kalamazoo River enters Lake Michigan itself. It’s a lovely little town situated on several large sand dunes with many small art shops, cafes with lots of vacation activities to entertain all who visit. We liked it then and still do.

We had a wonderfully relaxing holiday, I think everybody enjoyed it. Randy and Lorraine also joined us again this year. We did many things, a little something for everybody really. We went riding our bikes, short and long rides, Lynne took the girls fishing, we all did lots of swimming, went to Oval Beach to swim and build sandcastles, we bought kites and played with those, we had picnics, some of us did a little shopping, Randy and I played lots of chess, the girls had movies for some down time, everybody napped and did some vacation reading at some point and we all had lots of great food (and drink) and more…..

There are lots of pictures of Anja on her bike, she went without training wheels for the first time ever this week. Lynne and I even went on a 3 mile bike ride with her, she was very proud of herself.

As usual, I had way too many photos, many are shown below but I have put selected the best 100 or so and uploaded them to the web which can be viewed here. 

Anja's Lily

With Lynne’s help and encouragement Anja and Isabel each have their own flower garden. These are small-defined portions of our larger flowerbeds, which the girls have taken “full responsibility” for. They are really into it and are incredibly proud of their achievements. Anyhow, Anja has this beautiful lily in her spot and on Saturday morning she was urging me to take a photo of it, which I did. Thought I’d share its beauty with you.

04th July Weekend

We had a very busy but exciting 04^th of July Independence Day Weekend. We spent most of the weekend either chilling out with Steef and Ginette or relaxing over with Randy and Lorraine. The holiday festivities got started with Brooke’s Flag cookie, which went down a treat. On Saturday we visited the water fountain again which we followed up with food, drinks and sparklers at our house.  

After bunch with Randy and Lorraine on Sunday, we spent the day relaxing and entertaining the kids. Lorraine actually went over to collect Jane, her Mom, who had dinner with us. It was nice to see her again, it has been a while since we had seen her, she looked great. For those of you who have never met her, she is an extremely spritely 89 year old.

Then on Monday we had more of the same with Steef and Ginette hosting us with water games, food, drinks, firecrackers, sparklers and more. We had a great weekend everybody, thanks to all who had fun with us. I posted lots and lots of photos below, sorry, but I figured they’re easy to scroll through and you’d enjoy doing so.