July 4

It was nice to be in the USA for the 4th of July! We went to Victory Field in Indianapolis and watched the Indians play a great baseball game. After the game we stayed in our seats and watched the fireworks display from downtown.Not the best picture we have ever taken of fireworks...

Lots of action at this game!

Leah, Maria and Evan.

...and Jenn.

Butler Music Camp

About 24 hours after landing in the US back in June, Leah and Jenn were off to Butler University for Strings Camp. We had no idea what to expect but from everything I had read, it seemed like it would be fun. The girls had a great time right from the start. There was no audition required to get into the camp, but there was one to determine where they would be placed in the orchestra. Leah was 2nd bass and Jenn was 2nd viola! Cool!! They made new friends, traded emails and friended many on Facebook. Jenn right after the final concert. She sat in the front and was very proud.

Leah, always watching, played 2nd bass to a HS senior who was a great mentor.

New friends! The girls vowed to return to the same camp next summer.

The conductor was so fun! He was a lot like Jack Black in School of Rock.

We got the summer off to a great start. The girls also went to volleyball camp (twice!) and spent a week at Nana and Papa's. We all went to Vegas, remodelled the kitchen, flew to Colorado, hosted a lemonade stand, visited with lots of friends, swam, ate out too much, wrecked the car and moved Maria into 3 different locations at Purdue but I will save that for another post!

Expats come and go

Being an expat means that the people around you move frequently. Most expats are on a contract to work in a foreign country for 2-3 years. When we moved to Belgium we really thought we would only be there for 2 years. Of course we are now heading into our 4th, but lots of our friends have moved on. For example, during the first year of our expat adventure, I made friends with 3 wonderful people. By the end of the school year all of them were selling off their European electric appliances and planning for moves to other countries. It was sad but it reminded us that we are now able to expand our friendship base to wonderful people living all over the world.
Leah and Jenn are very lucky middle schoolers. Almost all their good friends are returning this fall for 8th grade. But sadly, their friend Rachel moved this summer back to her native country of Korea. Before the end of the school year, she made all of her friends an oragami crane with a goodbye message written inside. Jenn's was green and Leah's was blue. In the picture at the top you can see she even wrote each girl's name on the wing of the crane.

Jenn made the larger crane out of their shared orchestra music and Leah took the pictures.

June

Maria was visiting us in Belgium for most of May but right after she left we had 2 of the the loveliest guests from Marquette University.

Rachel and Katie had just graduated from MU and were making a big tour of Europe! We were so happy to have them at our house. We have known Katie since she was born and are happy to say she has grown into a lovely woman. Her wonderful friend Rachel was a great traveler and guest. They made me laugh so hard I cried! They met cute boys in every town they visited and helped us see Europe from a completely different angle. They saw things in Ghent, London and Venice that I didn't even know about and I have been to those places numerous times.

Rachel celebrated her 23 birthday while she was at our house. We ate fajitas and chocolate cake. Yum. The picture at the top of this post is of Leah, Jenn and Rachel ready to sing the Bday song. Leah took the picture of the cake. It tasted even better than it looks!

Katie and Rachel are heading off to graduate school in the next few weeks. We wish them the best of luck and many fun adventures on their newest journey.

"Friends are God's way of taking care of us."

In November my wonderful friends, Jennifer and Eileen, came to Belgium to visit! We had lots of fun in Amsterdam, Ghent, Grande Place, Paris (remember the train robbery?!!) and so many other places. We even took a short plane ride to Venis, Italy. It was a rainy day but we pushed on and saw everything we could. To describe Jennifer and Eileen, is somewhat hard. "Thelma and Louise" is probably a good comparison! They finish sentences for eachother, laugh and listen. They are wonderful to me and make me smile.

In Venice we walked through the mazes of streets, drank coffee with pigeons and bought Murano glass. Our final destination was the Basilica of St. Mark's in St. Mark's Square.

Inside the Basilica, there are beautiful mosaics, alters, scenes from the bible and the famous lifesize bronze horses. But I couldn't get Jennifer and Eileen to look up. They spent the entire tour looking at the floor! They are quilters and were enamored with the designs and patterns all made from different colored marbled tiles.Walking on these beautiful floors almost seemed sinful!

Then tonight I received a surprise I did not expect...

Jennifer and Eileen handcrafted this beautiful quilt using marble-like fabric. The quilt looks just like the floor at St. Mark's!!! This must have taken months to make and the fact that they did it together makes every stitch very meaningful.

Jennifer and Eileen, I can never thank you enought for your kindness and hard work. I LOVE THE VENICE QUILT!!! Now you must come to visit again...We could go to London...drive on the wrong side of the road, eat fish and chips, heckle at the gaurds at Buckingham Palace...

Wrapping up Spain with lots of pictures

Alter in the cathedral at Burgos
Can you tell Bob was in charge of the camera for most of the trip? We have lots of pictures of us girls.

In Burgos there is an old castle. To see the great tunnels underground below to castle, we had to wear these beautiful hardhats.

We also went to Bilboa and toured the famous Guggenheim Museum.

The permanent exhibits were fabulous, but the other pieces were not ones that we were too interested in. At times we were walking through exhibit rooms with our eyes closed!! It was a mixture between Ripley's Believe It or Not and trash.

This is the famouse flower dog in front of the Guggenheim.