Family Visits

Summer Picnics

In the past two weeks we enjoyed family visits. Tammo and Aafke arrived on Saturday, after visiting their daughters in Colorado. Sara and Josh and the grand-kids joined us on Sunday. We had a stretch of unusually good summer weather and everyone was playing outside, pic-nicking or looking for gold coins the gnomes had left for us. No-one has, as yet, swum in the lake though  Alexandra has had both legs dunked in to test the temperature of the lake. 

In Lake Oswego and in front of the Dutch Brothers' Coffee House.  

Hendrik Jan and Tine arrived the following Monday on the direct flight from Amsterdam. They had some delay at customs and an off airport car rental, but managed to make it to the house for beer time. 

It does not happen very often that all three brothers end up in the same place at the same time, so we were determined to get a photo record of this event in front of the Dutch Brothers’ Coffee House. The chance of getting all three brothers to flash a smile at the same time is about as good as winning the Mega Millions jackpot. Even the “Group Photo” app couldn't fix this. With or without the smiles, we had a fun time and were glad that we had the chance to be together

Stone Cliff Inn

Tammo and Hendrik Jan provided some free labor in the yard and with the help of my new Easter Chainsaw (it is yellow and I thought it was customary in rural Oregon to give each other chainsaws for Easter, so I bought one), fallen trees and dead bushes were cleared away, even though some of them were underneath a hornets nest. Hendrik Jan got stung, but the work continued. Thank you, the view of the lake has greatly improved.

Tammo and Aafke left on Thursday while Hendrik Jan and Tine explored the Oregon Cascades together. Fortunately the nice summer weather continued after a bit of rain and they experienced Crater Lake in full sunshine.

Gardening Outfit?

Jacqueline honored us by arriving Friday for a Father’s day visit. I asked her if that included a Father-Daughter activity in the yard and she responded that she had indeed brought her gardening outfit. I never knew Lululemon made gardening outfits.

On Sunday, we drove to Hillsboro for a Father's Day lunch with Sara and the opening of Peter Rabbit, a musical in which our granddaughter Alexandra had an important role. She was of course spectacular, and we enjoyed the play very much. This was followed by Alice in Wonderland for older kids, in which our granddaughter did not star. It was very well done but one and a half hours of sitting was bit of a challenge for our behinds considering a 55 minute drive home.