Birthdays and Homecomings

Arrived in the harbour of Bristol, RI on the morning of the 29th and threw out our anchor close to the Toad.  Toad is the sail boat that my brother and his wife lent to us to cruise down the coast of Maine for our honeymoon five years ago.  Jen and Rhys (sister-in-law and nephew) came down to the dock to greet us and we practically danced the five minute walk up to their house.  Emma and Macsen were thrilled to be on land and Ems was particularly excited to spend some (long long awaited) time with her cousin Seren.  Seb and I were pretty chuffed to have made it to one of the key places that we had been targeting for a year (some people travel more slowly and less directly than others) and were looking forward to some quality hanging out time with Booh and Jen.

 My parents arrived on the 30th and we celebrated my birthday on the 1st with a combined super present-festival for all four of the kids (and quite a few for me too).  Whew...that was a lot of excitement for everybody and it was all concluded with surprisingly few tears and a lot of laughter and squeals of excitement.  

After and excellent week we packed our bags again for a flight back to Amsterdam for Jop and Miriam's wedding on May 21st . Our 2,5 week visit passed in a flash of gatherings with family and friends (and some less pleasant but useful administrative sorting).  Seb and I took full advantage of the happy grandparents and left the kids to celebrate and see friends in Amsterdam.  Wow, Amsterdam can really be fun when you have no responsibilities and no job. Jop & Miriam's wedding took place at her family home The Bockhorst in Spankeren. This was a beautiful location and Seb, as best man, and I were honoured to be included in three days of family activity surrounding the wedding.  It was a wonderful wonderful wedding and super gezellig to spend so much time with the newlyweds, family and friends.  Being back in the Netherlands felt very natural and we were surprised at how easy and comfortably we picked up our old lives.  Seb and I stopped  to visit our house in Amsterdam and had a nice chat with the family who is renting it.  They have done wonderful things with our garden (especially the ponds).  It was sad once again to say good bye to family and friends.  

Our next stop was a visit to my Gu in Hereford, UK.  She took excellent care of us an stuffed us with three three hot meals a day (plus elevenses and tea).  We had good chats and solved some more of the worlds problems.   We were also lucky enough to catch “Great” Uncle Owen and Aunt Jenny and two of my three English cousins who are both starting families of their own.