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| From Shann's Halloween Party |
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| From Shann's Halloween Party |
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| From Shann's Halloween Party |
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| From Shann's Halloween Party |
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Halloween at Shann's house
Guillaudeu's Visit
Lou and Alan came to visit and see the fall colors. Lou also brought out our housewarming present. The coolest quilt ever.
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| From Guillaudeu's Visit |
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| From Guillaudeu's Visit |
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| From Guillaudeu's Visit |
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| From Guillaudeu's Visit |
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| From Guillaudeu's Visit |
Marissa and Sebastien's Wedding
Steve and I had a fantastic time going to Marissa and Sebastien's wedding in Vermont. It was a great weekend full of apple picking, lots and lots of good food, dinners at wineries, farm visits, fall colors and a wedding that doubled as a great party.
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| From Marissa's Wedding |
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| From Marissa's Wedding |
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| From Marissa's Wedding |
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| From Marissa's Wedding |
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| From Marissa's Wedding |
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Candy's visit
Aunt Candy came out for a great visit, Friday through this morning. She even came prepared with plans for all day Saturday- spending it at the Frederick Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids. We had a great time and were very surpised at how impressive these gardens were! In addition to some great sculptures, they have extensive tropical, arid, carnivorous, wetland, and perennial gardens. It was a lot of fun walking around there. It was too bad she couldn't stay longer, but we're really glad she came out.
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| From Candy's visit; trip to Meijer Garden |
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| From Candy's visit; trip to Meijer Garden |
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| From Candy's visit; trip to Meijer Garden |
Monday, July 27, 2009
Garden around the house
I'm not going to name which one, but one of our mothers requested more garden photos. So, I went overboard and took more than 40 pictures to give her a good idea of what we have around the house. We just planted some ajuga, goldilocks, and asiatic lillies tonight that some friends gave us at our house warming party this weekend, but we don't have photos yet.
Here are a few of the highlights:
Here are a few of the highlights:
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| From Garden around the house |
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| From Garden around the house |
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| From Garden around the house |
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Trip to Israel
Aimee's dad, Dave, was in Israel for 3 months on sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, and her brother Art has been living on a kibbutz with his fiance Luda for 5 months. We were able to take a trip over there with Lucy, complements of Dave's frequent flier miles, for a 10-day vacation.
We saw some awesome stuff while we were there. We scuba dove and snorkeled in the Red Sea from Eilat. One of the days was at a dolphin reserve, so we were underwater with the dolphins. It was fun watching and hearing them swim by playing. The clicks and squeaks were very loud.
We took a day trip across to Petra, in Jordan. That's where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed, where they found the Holy Grail. We hiked about 1 1/2 hours down and up a canyon, seeing tombs and carved idols along the way. At the bottom, there were the most impressive structures, all carved into the rock. The Treasury (pictured) was believed for a long time to house treasure, but it turns out there isn't any there. Along with that, there is an amphitheater, some palaces, some more modest homes, and many tombs.
We drove back north toward Rehovot, stopping at Mt. Masada along the way for a brief stroll up the hill. It was supposed to take about 45 minutes, and didn't take much longer, but even starting at 10 A.M., it was extremely hot. There was practically no shade, and the heat just bounced off the rocks all around. At the top, we saw ruins from the settlement of Jews who were surrounded by Roman troops and committed suicide to avoid becoming slaves.
We had a couple days of rest at Rehovot, where we swam and walked around the Weizmann. We also spent a fun afternoon in the Garden of Science, where they have a lot of large science demos to teach some basic principles.
We had a full day guided tour of Jerusalem, which was fantastic. Everywhere you turn, you're looking at something historical. The current street level in many parts is 30 feet above what used to be the roads. Civilizations just keep building on top of whatever was there before. We took a couple tunnel tours: one of a water stream people used to have to walk through to get their water safely; the other of the Western Wall, most of which is under the Arab quarter.
After that, we had a day in the ports of Joffo and Caesaria. The latter is a big deep water port built by Herod, that has the most impressive ruins still standing that we've seen.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip!
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| From Trip to Israel |
We saw some awesome stuff while we were there. We scuba dove and snorkeled in the Red Sea from Eilat. One of the days was at a dolphin reserve, so we were underwater with the dolphins. It was fun watching and hearing them swim by playing. The clicks and squeaks were very loud.
We took a day trip across to Petra, in Jordan. That's where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed, where they found the Holy Grail. We hiked about 1 1/2 hours down and up a canyon, seeing tombs and carved idols along the way. At the bottom, there were the most impressive structures, all carved into the rock. The Treasury (pictured) was believed for a long time to house treasure, but it turns out there isn't any there. Along with that, there is an amphitheater, some palaces, some more modest homes, and many tombs.
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| From Trip to Israel |
We drove back north toward Rehovot, stopping at Mt. Masada along the way for a brief stroll up the hill. It was supposed to take about 45 minutes, and didn't take much longer, but even starting at 10 A.M., it was extremely hot. There was practically no shade, and the heat just bounced off the rocks all around. At the top, we saw ruins from the settlement of Jews who were surrounded by Roman troops and committed suicide to avoid becoming slaves.
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| From Trip to Israel |
We had a couple days of rest at Rehovot, where we swam and walked around the Weizmann. We also spent a fun afternoon in the Garden of Science, where they have a lot of large science demos to teach some basic principles.
 |
| From Trip to Israel |
 |
| From Trip to Israel |
We had a full day guided tour of Jerusalem, which was fantastic. Everywhere you turn, you're looking at something historical. The current street level in many parts is 30 feet above what used to be the roads. Civilizations just keep building on top of whatever was there before. We took a couple tunnel tours: one of a water stream people used to have to walk through to get their water safely; the other of the Western Wall, most of which is under the Arab quarter.
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| From Trip to Israel |
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| From Trip to Israel |
After that, we had a day in the ports of Joffo and Caesaria. The latter is a big deep water port built by Herod, that has the most impressive ruins still standing that we've seen.
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| From Trip to Israel |
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| From Trip to Israel |
All in all, it was a fantastic trip!
Getting settled in
We finished moving our stuff over a couple weeks ago, and are doing pretty well putting things away. We haven't stopped enjoying the summer though, so we have a lot left unplaced. Instead, we've been biking, going to yoga, taking care of the garden, and relaxing with friends. There will be plenty of winter to spend putting things away.
We don't have any recent photos of the place with furniture, but here are a few (and more in the album if you click the link) of the house and relaxing with friends at the house.
We don't have any recent photos of the place with furniture, but here are a few (and more in the album if you click the link) of the house and relaxing with friends at the house.
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| From Getting settled at the new house |
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| From Getting settled at the new house |
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| From Getting settled at the new house |
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