In our California Vacation a few months ago, we ate fast food enough to make me happy to postpone our next road trip, but the kids did not mind at all. Someone is taking liberties here... The Cooks (we had a wonderful time at their lovely home!) And at a childhood hangout of mine... the Bambauers! The old home is gone, except for the guest house (we heard about Uncle Ernie's engineering abilities) but the pool is the same, the river still rolls by peacefully and the loving, warm hospitality and sense of home-away-from-home is still the same. Marc's parents are soaking up the sun! This was Santa Monica Beach Aunt Lou and Uncle Phil teach and entertain the twins to no end. Here an Archery lesson by Uncle Phil and a lesson in German pronunciation by Aunt Lou satisfy their curious hearts. The lesson here is in the use of Braille. The bookshelf contains the entire Bible. Brother Graham's reading and writing skills held a lot of fascination for the kids. He was gracious and gave them each a card with their names and the alphabet punched in them. Kathy and Annie really hit it off! (but what would you expect? two of the world's nicest people meet...) We did Sea World, visited the Brockmeiers and Hemet (really enjoyed that Lord's Day very much.) and saw the spectacular fires that made our trip back to Burbank VERY SLOW. Little Miss William Tell shot a lemon straight out of Aunt Lou's lemon tree! (That's not to say that's what we were aiming for though, now, is it.) Santa Barbara San Simeon Hearst Castle... honestly, I think that's one of the prettiest places I've ever seen. The inside of the Castle is a little strange with its over-the-top roaring twenties european-wannabe slathering Randolph Hearst wealth, but the grounds and location is something you have to see to believe. The picture is lovely, but being there is really something. The famous Elephant Seals! The wind blew strong which was good because they, uh, they don't smell so good... The scenery was spectacular! We went up the coast and profited from every stop. Haven't even gotten to show Big Sur or San Francisco yet!

Belgium and Paris pictures

Notes on the following pictures (Half a year ago now!) Fondue evening! Victor's representation of the Nativity is the most unique ever: Maria, Jozef, baby Jezus, gifts for the baby and animals.... there is a manger in the center and please notice the yellow balloon being held by the occupant of the little blue manger because there is a new baby and its a party. Thirdly, a scene from the fields behind the house

Next, waiting for a train to Antwerp, visiting Sam and Cherie Pomeroy in Leuven, and the antithesis to McDonalds

Next,J-man dares to eat caviar and swoons in the attempt

Next up: Paris Our train Seth and Shawn ordering lunch ....our family album this year will probably be titled "Seth and Shawn in Paris" They were pretty good sports about how many pictures I wanted to take. That sandwich was my own lunch: it is chicken with dried apple. It looked intriguing and it was very good. The bread in Paris can only be beaten by Aunt Mary Jane.

Stay tuned.

Belgium - part 1

"Who wants to go to Belgium???" ...And this shows a few of the answers!

We could not have asked for better flights over: on time, much of the time smooth, uneventful. Indubitably boring, yes, but with that much continent and Ocean to cover, there is not much more to expect. The kids are used to it now, thankfully. Lots of waiting.

The first flight a baby started crying shrilly right off the bat. I glanced back and saw a nicely dressed gentleman shifting uncomfortably in his seat while next to him a young mother juggled a toddler and the noisy baby. I knew that if I sat by her I could help keep the baby quiet, and that he was a stranger to babies. "Do you want to trade seats?" I asked him. He looked like he won the lottery or something. He was almost in my seat before I was out of it. I did help keep the baby quiet during our first five hours flying, and was able to enjoy talking to the mother as well. The next flight was an overnighter, but with the fine entertainment system on the new 777, we slept little. Not to say we did not try, but wow, it's cramped. We were glad for the movies, they made time pass easier. Lukey was very pleased with one or other of the movies, and somewhere over the dark north Atlantic his laughter was echoing all over plane. We had to remind him to keep it down a little, but at the same time thankful it was noise resulting from a merry spirit, not from fussing. (Let's not talk about travelling with twin toddlers! Travelling with our family six/seven years ago was no picnic.) Fast forward: We met our loved ones in Brussels! here is the first picture of us together in an elevator. I am in the picture too, behind the flash!

The best way to deal with jet lag: Jommeke comics

The next week afforded us lots of cousin time!

The littlest cousin gets a dolly house, and here I believe, the dolly is coming out to meet her for the first time...

Here is a photo of a game we played at the family party... Pieter reads two addends, and you must run around and find the correct sum posted upon the wall, which you then whack with the fly swatter before your opponent does. Reese and Teo are pictured here, with Reese seeming to find that Pieter himself is the correct sum.

Another game we played: "tiddlywinks tennis tournament," created by British branch of our family on an adorable tennis court, and with real tennis scoring and a tournament chart. These family games all have one prize for one winner, which may partially account for the absorbing interest of all those present. (-This, I assure you, is the ONLY time you will ever catch these two playing tiddlywinks. Pa normally does not play games, and Marc normally plays games with less randomly generated results.)

We then make it to the resort in Lommel where we most of us get the aches and colds and coughs flu... but end up rallying enough to still make it worth our while!! Notice (by the palm tree in the dome) the outline of Luke in a pipe up by the ceiling.

J-Man looks out for anyone who might be after him on the rope bridge high above during a game of hide and go seek tag. This is truly the best place to play tag ever! With life-size "sunken pirate ships" a cave, and a real river flowing through a sand bar and slides with stop lights and live parrots flying around... a waterfall maze and a raft to float on and a high rope bridge that spans the vast room, there are endless places to hide.

The following picture is not to demonstrate any particular photographic quality but is just there to commemorate a spectacular ride to the station. The Belbus driver was satisfyingly violent, especially when there was a speed bump involved. We all completely left our seats while the bus went over each one with a terrific bang. I am sure the driver has no idea what it is like to ride in the back of the bus over one of those bumps. If he did, he probably would go even faster so we could go into orbit.

...more another day!!

On the Prairies - Road trip part 3

Here is yet another installment of pictures for the Debu Tribune There is the last couple of pictures from the conference... Adin and Callie and Amber play ball... saying goodbye to Adele Denzin... visiting the old Tregarva prairie cemetery. Pretty much everyone who is there I think is going to leave those graves in the rapture, the return of the Lord Jesus for His saints on earth: the evidence of faith is on nearly every stone. I thought about all the time these graves were covered with snow this past winter. The place is so open and sunny now. You can see for miles. We visited the old Craven meeting room which you can see a ways off from Ben and Susan's home.(can you imagine 200 people in there knee to knee on the benches? My grandfather spent a lot of time here at the conferences, although I think the building was moved: this is not the original location. I was so happy to go inside. I have heard my father speak of it often, and I was there as a young person myself, but only briefly. Davy and Peter have high hopes of catching up with the kids who are running for exercise. I was not running that time because of a nasty wasp sting on my ankle. Keeping it still was the only way of coping. It was like the world's worst mosquito bite. The happy home where we were staying the last two nights of our time in Saskatchewan is in the distance. There you had the mirror in which the ladies coming in for meeting in the middle of the last century would most certainly have peeked in to check that their pillbox hats were at just the right angle... and a bird's nest settled happily near the ceiling. Harriet's Garden Brethren dwelling together in unity This wall cloud kept producing quiet little fingers of cloud wisping out the bottom of it, dipping down halfway to the ground. A tornado touched ground 45 minutes west of there that day. This was a really wonderful part of our trip. The hospitality and kindness we received and the time spent with those who really took the time to be with us was a real encouragement and joy. The Lord is good. More later...