Now that the summer is unofficially over…

… it is time to record all we did.

(Warning: overload of text and pictures)

To keep the summer interesting and all of us sane Will and I came up with several field trips we could make. At KinderCare they would do the same thing during the summer (one field trip a week) and Will really liked this. We started with the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point, one of Will’s favorite places. He has seen it so many times that it only took us an hour to go through this time. 🙂

After going to the museum we had to keep driving north to the Salt Lake City airport because Ellen and Rens had flown in.

Ellen celebrated her 21st birthday here.

Sisters!!

They stayed with us for a little over a week. We had lots of fun things planned. We went shopping (of course) and had frites and Bruggese wafels in Salt Lake City. “Heerlijk!” Then we went to Moab for 3 days. Ellen had of course been there already, but Rens hadn’t. It is one of Ellen’s favorite places and Rens is very outdoorsy, and we will never say no to a trip there.

Tessa in our hotel bed.

Dinner at the Moab Brewery.

We tried to do some hiking there but it was too hot, over 100 degrees each day. Trevor and Rens did hike to Delicate Arch during one evening, and saw some scary spiders and a scorpion. Ellen and I did a lot of swimming with Will and Tessa.

We also took Ellen and Rens to the Hogle Zoo. While I was still traveling a lot I tried to visit zoos wherever I could. I’ve been to zoos (and aquariums) in Sydney, Berlin, Arnhem, San Francisco, Prague, Emmen, and others. Anyway, we had a fun time. Will lead the way.

While they were here Will was tested for his Orange Belt.

Meditation position, focusing on their goals.

Will with Master Miki Lawrence.

Unfortunately Ellen and Rens had to go home too soon. They got to stay another day since their flight to Chicago got canceled. But they had to leave way too early the next day to really get to enjoy it. 😦

After a tip on a good deal from our neighbor we got season passes to Seven Peaks. BEST investment ever. I was always kind of hesitant. I love swimming, but prefer it in places where not so many people go. But Will loves Seven Peaks. Even Tessa gets to have fun in the water. We’ve been with our neighbors and cousins and I already got our passes for next year.

Swimming wears you out.

As part of the field trips we also went to the Kennecott Copper Mine. We went the Monday after Independence Day, so Trevor got to go with us. It is pretty amazing to be able to look into that deep hole.

Will took swimming lessons twice this summer.

Will also celebrated his 9th birthday. We celebrated with family the day before at the park in our neighborhood. On the big day he wanted to go see the movie Despicable Me and have dinner (steak) at Sizzler. (Interesting choice of restaurant)

Mud cake with worms.

My work was very nice and gave us tickets to go see a RSL (Real Salt Lake) soccer game. They played Chivas USA and the game ended in a draw (1-1). Will and Tessa had never been to a soccer game and they both liked it a lot. The nice thing was that Aculis has a suite, so the chairs were very comfy and the seats were great. There was a fireworks show afterward since it was the 24th of July (Pioneer Day in Utah, for the Dutchies that read this).

Since we had to go to Salt Lake for the game we also stopped by the Living Planet Aquarium. It is a pretty small one, but they have plans to make it bigger. Will enjoyed trying to touch the sting rays and Tessa enjoyed watching the fish.

Other fun things we’ve done:

– Saw some pretty/interesting/humongous/over-the-top houses in the Parade of Homes

– Played at Paka’s pool with the Madsen’s and Aaron’s

– Saw the movies Percy Jackson, How to train a Dragon, Diary of a Wimpy Kid at the Movies 8

– Played with the neighbor kids

– Will started Scouts a few weeks ago

– I started working again (a little bit and now mostly from home, gotta love that technology!)

Tessa has been a great help. 😉

– We did some hiking. Some places we went to:

The Grotto (Nebo Loop Scenic Road)

North Peak (near Mount Nebo, Trevor hiked this one alone)

Lofty Lake Loop

You can see some pics and info by clicking on the following link:

http://www.mtbguru.com/trip/show_static/15155-lofty-lake-loop

We ended our summer vacation with a visit from Opa and Oma.

When they come they always bring lots of gifts, goodies and Dutch delicacies. Or at least the ones that I miss a lot. They also brought several books, Dutch books that I left behind in the Netherlands and that are crowding their attic. Every time we and they travel some books make the trip as well. One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, all those books will fill our bookcases here. 🙂

Chocolate, chocolate milk, more chocolate, stroopwafels, baby cookies, body scrub, even more chocolate, hagelslag, fresheners for the dish washer, puzzle books and…

BOOKS!!!

My mom made Dutch pancakes (pannenkoeken) for dinner one evening. Yes, we eat pancakes for dinner. She made her specialties:

Pancake with cheese, ham, leek, mushroom, onions and Herbs de Provence (Pannenkoek met kaas, ham, prei, champignon, ui en Provenciaalse kruiden)

And Pancake with apple (Pannenkoek met appel)

We also had brunch at Sundance, went shopping in Park City, worked in the yard (my dad did most of the work), had barbecues, celebrated my dad’s 55th birthday and just enjoyed spending time together.

So that pretty much sums up our summer. It was a good one and went by too fast. But we’re excited for fall to come!