A quick family update

Elliot is in the final phase of his high school. He received two conditional acceptances to his choice schools in the Netherlands. He should hear in a month if he’s been accepted. They are limited on the numbers accepted, so even though his predicted grades are excellent (43) there’s a chance he could not get in. That has him a bit tense.  Meredith has just returned from a school service trip to Mumbai, India. It was life altering for her. She’s taking a very active interest in her finances and is hustling for babysitting jobs. Meredith decided to dye (temporarily) her hair blue. Both kids need their passport renewed, and that means Elliot now gets an adult, 10 year passport. He also had to register for the civil service back home now that he’s 18.  Larry continues to be recognized at Akamai.  And I am very busy with volunteer work, part time work at the school, and all that goes into our own strategic planning and operational requirements. Our hosting season and travel season quickly approaches, and I am very excited (and a little nervous) at what the next six months have in store for us.

Egypt: Trip Summary

I’ve been remiss in keeping the ol’ family blog updated. In some cases it’s the same old domestic banality just in a foreign land and language (where hilarity and daily doses of humiliation ensue).  In other cases, it’s trying to respect my kids’ request for privacy (soooo hard and sooooo boring). More often, it is a overabundance of blessings that keeps me from documenting every single trip. But Egypt was different. It was different in so many ways. And even though I could write for days on our very short time there, I will start with a brief overview and some pictures for posterity.

a simple night I don’t want to forget

We just had dinner, just the four of us. A simple meal made up of all vegetables and mostly leftovers. It’s been a beautiful, busy winter break full of family and friends and travel and adventure, but this evening felt normal and quiet and wonderful. Just us. We talked as a family about travel, and the pros and cons of where we might like to go over Easter break. We laughed. A lot. We shared wish lists. We talked and researched and would branch out to converse two-by-two, but then pull back to all four. We dreamed together. The kids morphed to a geography memory game (and actually did pretty well). Larry and I started looking at my two favorite websites in the whole world:  Google Maps and Google Flights. While talking, Larry cleaned the kitchen. While researching, I hung laundry. Elliot cracked jokes. Merrie shared images of amazing locations. Simple. Happy. All present. Such a present.

Summer visit in New England

Our family popped back over the pond for a two week visit to our New England homes. We spent a week in New Hampshire with family; I spent a weekend in Maine with my #Magpies; we spent a week in Massachusetts catching up more with family and friends; and we had a last hurrah evening eating at one of our favorite restaurants, then watching one of our favorite bands in a very intimate setting with some of our favorite friends. Every chance we could we ate seafood and looked at the beautiful ocean.

New England is nothing short of stunning in the summer. We had amazing luck with the weather and got to spend time with many (but certainly not all) of the people we hold near and dear. The kids got to spend time with their friends, and most importantly, we got to spend time with Nana, Doodles, and Lilly.  In no particular order, here are a few highlight photos from this trip.

 

The Paris of books, art, and color

Meredith and I were fortunate enough to take a lightning-quick trip to Paris for a couple of days. It was hot, and it was crowded, and it was — and still is — one of the most amazing cities I’ve had the pleasure to visit. We loved the Latin Quarter and we loved wandering the streets and the museums. We were each moved to tears at the chance to walk among some of the world’s most cherished works of art. 

Somehow I skipped Sicily

In my spurt of catching up on the blog I realized I never got around to posting here about our family’s vacation to Sicily this spring. It was one of few full-week vacations we’ve ever taken to a destination that wasn’t considered home (Salem, NH, Tennessee). And it was amazing. Time was such a luxury for us that it almost felt like multiple vacations, not just one.  

April’s weekend road trip

It’s a pity how poorly I’ve been keeping up with the blog. In many ways Facebook has been the quicker solution to capturing some of our happenings, but it lacks details. So here’s a few posts, out of order, but still worth keeping for posterity.  This one is about our family’s weekend getaway in April to a few cities close to us: Augsburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Nürnberg.

February Break, Alps and Florida

For the February break, we opted for a divide and conquer approach. Larry needed to work for most of the week, and both Elliot and Larry wanted to learn to ski.  Merrie had no desire to try the slopes, and both she and I wanted some sun and warmth.  It had also been too long since I had seen (in person) my mom and dad. So the boys headed to the Alps and Merrie and I headed to Florida.

Lisbon 2017

I finally managed to do something I always intended, but never quite accomplished: keep ongoing notes for posterity about a trip while it’s happening. (Let me tell you, it wreaks havoc with verb tenses.)  So below are the writings and notes, with very little edits other than back filling in the names of restaurants and locations (warning, it’s long).   Here also are a small set of pictures. The full album is on Facebook.

One year later – a post for posterity

Looking forward to 2017

Well, as has happened in the past on our family blogs, I’ve paralyzed myself with a backlog of good intentions. I thought I would be able to go back a give a proper summary to the myriad activities and visitors we enjoyed since July.  Nope. I just can’t keep up, and it’s been keeping me from posting anything else. So I hereby declare Blog Bankruptcy (again).  Instead of beating myself up I will take this opportunity to summarize our first year in Munich.  One year ago today, we left Salem.