Moving Right Along Through June

June 11th was Allison's final orchestra concert for 7th grade.  I had posted the image below on Facebook.  It is amazing to see how much she has changed since her first year at ISB.  Wow!

That looks says, "It's embarrassing when you point that camera at me during warm up time!  Quit it lady!"

I just love that sweet face...

A little photo shoot with these sweet friends.  We had to say goodbye to them at the end of the school year, but we'll get to that later.

Preslee and Allison

Allison and Maddie

Jack and Thomas

Taking pictures of this cutie, and she got photo bombed!

You know how much I adore her. :)

He is such a sweetie, and I love those eyes!

Fierce

Always on a mission….

The kids were thrilled to find out we would be heading home for three weeks this summer. 

We have several ISB families who live in our town.  The moms enjoy meeting every month to enjoy good conversation and wine.  Our June meeting was a farewell for Heather.  She is the best neighbor, and we hate to see her go.  More on her departure later.

Saturday, June 14th, Allison was off to the Ardennes (the southern part of Belgium) for a camping trip. ISB offers so many terrific opportunities for the students. She had a blast!

 June 14th was also the International Community's Relay for Life at St. John's International School!  Our family was excited to be a part of it again this year. 

Nikki, our fearless team leader, did a fantastic job!

I walked during the day, but I returned to do the midnight to 2am shift.  It was very appropriate to start my walk at that time as it was officially Father's Day.  It was nice to be out there for my dad and father-in-law.  Oh how I wish we could celebrate with them.  They are missed beyond words.

That evening Pete and Jen returned to us from their Italian travels.  It was so nice to have them back.  We thought it would be fun to add one more country to their travels, so Sunday morning we were off to Monschau, Germany.  Just about 90 minutes from our house, it is the perfect stop when adding Germany to your list.

Enjoying some German beers!  Pete and Chris are really the perfect couple.  LOL!

Beautiful Monschau

And the gorgeous Smidts!

We climbed up the path around the town for a great view.

Happy Father's Day to these two!  Pete will be a daddy this fall.  So exciting!!!

Spending Father's Day with Dad!

Just relaxing.  Jen, Thomas, and I enjoyed ice cream while the guys enjoyed more beer.

Is that not the most perfect platz for this absolutely adorable momma with the cutest little baby belly!

That evening, it was so nice to have Allison back.  We went into Brussels for dinner.

Pete was in my second class at Lincoln School.  He's now a great husband, a dentist, and going to be a daddy.  He has always been one of the best.  At the risk of sounding cheesy, I am just so proud of him! :)

Thank you Pete and Jen for making our house your home base during your trip.  We loved having you!!

The June fun continues with Thomas's fifth grade band concert.  He is loving the baritone!

And, he's really pretty good at it.  Even after begging, neither one of the kids would play the cello, but I'm thrilled they found instruments they love.

They played "Born to be Wild"…what a cool dude!

There is now a Starbucks on the Grand Place.  Yes, that is blog worthy.  Funny thing is…I never drank Starbucks before moving here.  Now I can't get enough of it!  It's the little things.

 There is no better time to live in Europe than during the World Cup.  Thomas was ready for Belgium's first game.  We love the Red Devils!

Next up on the blog…we had a very special birthday on June 19th.  Stay tuned!

Until next time,

Wendy

Visiting Luxembourg!

Well, this blog officially just got WAY behind.  The last time I updated was May!  But, I have great excuses.  We have had so much fun entertaining visitors, the kids finally finished school, and I have been super busy with photo shoots.  So now, I am going to make an effort to get this little blog of mine caught up.  It could take a while so bear with me.

June 8-9 we headed to Luxembourg City in Luxembourg.  Yes, Luxembourg is a country and even smaller than Belgium.  Rhode Island is 1,545 sq miles and Luxembourg is only 999 square miles…so…it's really small.  Just two hours away (Brussels to Luxembourg City,) this little country has three official languages...French, German, and Luxembourgish.  But, when they spoke it was more like a combination of all three, so we stuck with English and managed just fine.  Luxembourg City is beautiful and incredibly clean.  We stayed in the business district for under 100 euros and could walk to the main parts of the city. On Sunday, we spent the latter part of the afternoon enjoying the city.

Can you see the kids way over there?

There they are!

The old and new

Daddy's girl

Nothing like enjoying some gospel music in the middle of Luxembourg.  They were fabulous!

We ate at Chi-Chi's….which is totally embarrassing.  But, it was so hot, they had one open table, and they serve margaritas that aren't terrible.  Sold!

Gelato break

Our walk back to the hotel involved crossing over this bridge.  Luckily, heights do not bother any of us.

Thomas was nicknamed "Stick" by the Kolvek family.  He could not wait to get on wifi and share this picture with them.

Fancy new elevator.  Am I behind or is this a new look?  I'm probably way behind.

Crazy people

Monday (a holiday in Belgium) we were off to the "Little Switzerland" area of Luxembourg.  This hiking area, just thirty minutes from Luxembourg City, came highly recommended from friends in Belgium.  We are always up for a good hike, so off we went!

Our route for the day.  It took about four hours total to complete the loop.  In Allison's opinion, that was four hours too long.  Ha!

First stop was the waterfall.

Lunch stop

Following the path markers.

Selfie time…pretending she's having fun!

Body language says so much!  Maybe you shouldn't drink your two bottles of fluids in the first half hour of the hike on a 90 degree day.  Just saying'...

Done…  Physical activity is just not her thing.  I wish you could have heard the commentary of this hike.  Her leg, knee, arm, and side hurt…sometimes all at once.  I'm not sure one positive comment left her mouth.  To say she was driving Chris nuts would be the understatement of the century. But we love her, and once we were in the air conditioned car eating Pringles, she was just fine!

We survived!  It was a great weekend, and we highly recommend this trip if you have a night to spare or even just a full day.  It's nice having places like this so close.  Stay tuned for the rest of June.

Until next time,

Wendy