Back in Action

Hello, hello, everyone. Happy New Year. I bet all of you are in full swing in this new year. We are. Stefan started his new job with Myngle on Tuesday and Arden started a new School on Monday. We are adjusting to those new changes and are looking forward to what this year will hold. As of now, we are staying in Ablasserdam. We are hoping that our landlord will give us another 6 months to stay put. This would give us a chance to have better ground to make a decision about a longer-term living situation. But, we have yet to hear "officially" from our landlord. So, we continue with life as if we have a "yes, you can stay" in our bag.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Italy. We stayed with Stefan's parents for two weeks. Arrived just after Christmas and left on the 9th of January. We were able to celebrate the New Year with his parents and Peter, Annarita, Nicholas and Claudia. We also hosted some new friends from Stefan's school. One of our friends, Yang Yang, just so happened to be traveling in Italy over the holidays. She and her mother made there way over to Pollenza. During this trip to Italy we may have seen some of the grayest days possible in Italy, but we were with family and ate, and ate some good food.


Our last meal. So very appropriate that it was pizza.


Arend and Jeanne are situated in an amazing location. They are on the eastern side near the Adriatic. They are about 20 minutes from the sea and an hour from ski slopes.

Claudia started walking on this vacation. It was one of the highlights of our trip. Always a blessing to be able to witness one of the major "first". Go Claudia go.


We took a day trip to Assisi. A very beautiful city, well known by the famous saint, Saint Francis. After touring the amazing basilica, I tried to get a picture of the kids near the arched walk way. Near impossible to do, without extras in the background.


Some of the unbelievable views that people live with everyday. I took this picture because it shows you what you could have right outside your window in Italy. This home had a view of the entire Basilica, it's well groomed lawn and the rolling landscape that out stretched beneath the hill upon which the home and basilica were perched.




Loving this picture. Those Schafers . . . they are everywhere. We have always been well known for our passion for sanitation.



Just being boys. Stefan, Ian, Peter, and Nicolas.


I have no funny caption for this shot. Stefan could not be any less Italian in this picture.

IL MARE (scream it at the top of your lungs and with an Italian accent)

Photo below: (Nicolas 'cousin', Arden and Ian)


The Sea! As we approach the water everyone in the car says, "Il Mare." Ian says, "Aqua." Close enough. This was Ian's first visit to the beach (I still call it the beach, even though there was little sand). It was a rocky, pebble beach. Not feet friendly, but easier to clean than fine sand. It was so beautiful and each day we went Ian got more and more daring. We would have to hold him back from plunging into the water--- carefree. Talk about scary. . . a toddler with no concept of fear. (Nicolas, Arden and Ian) Hmm. . . we slid the floaties on his arms and he was off. There was a lot of squealing and thrashing about. Every once and awhile he would rest and just float peacefully and then the trashing would commence. He was having so much fun and wearing us out. Arden on the other hand was happy and content on the shore or maybe with her feet in the water. She knew how far was too far for her and was not going to budge. At one point we were trying to coax her in further and she put her hand up, shaking her finger saying, "I am not going in with you, with Mama, with you, no one, not now, never." Okay, okay! Point taken.

Photo to the right: (Kelly and Ian after an exhausting swimming/thrashing session)