Summer Holiday 2009 - Denmark, USA, Mexico, Turkey

What a summer!  We were all scattered in different parts of the globe, and experienced some pretty amazing things.  I took a summer course at the Spanish University in Cuernavaca, Finn, Simone and Philip went to Turkey, Daniel and Nanna traveled to Paris, and Philip went to Greece with his mom:  It was pretty crazy trying to find a reasonable time zone to know when to skype everyone, but somehow we managed!  Bailey Max and Sophie, spent time with their dad in Altlanta, MI at the "White family" cabin, and I had the pleasure of staying with good friends and my family too.  My sisters and I stayed up late watching crazy shows, and eating snacks, and I had the good pleasure of spending extra time with Maddie and Louie. ( My wonderful niece and nephew) Finnie and the big kids celebrated his 45th birthday, in good style with good food at Svend og Lydia's and after video games at the house!  Bailey got a new hair cut, and some giggles with Angie, and we were lucky enough to see Pilar before she headed out on her own little European tour!  Grandma Koval was wonderful as usual and gave out hugs and kisses...and some fun beach towels too, and Grandma Sandy shared her musical talents with the grandkids...each one of them!  Uncle Brad provided safe rides in the Jeep and Lauren and Adrian, Lexi, Kenna and Brynn provided lots of laughs at the cabin! There was an authentic game of ball in the backyard that included Brynn and Sophie for the first time ever...with just a few minor errors!   It was a great summer, that like all great summers...went by too quickly!  We have learned a bunch of things this summer, mostly that while exploring is good fun, it is much better when you can share the experience together! Thank goodness for Skype! 

They actually sometimes show that they love one another!

                                                                                                                                                                                    Bailey and Maxie were sooo very proud of Sophie and her recent lost tooth!   They kept looking at her and winking at me, because they thought she was so cute!  They just can't believe that their lil sister is getting older.  I guess I forget sometimes that she is their peanut too.  :)

Struer

Frog hunting girls.   They found bunches that weekend!  Perfect weather for it really, cloudy and overcast.  They never did catch the biggest one there, he was simply too fast!  But I can verify that he was huge!  I saw him too and he was GINORMOUS!! :)

The first weekend after school started we headed out again, this time to Struer.  Our friends Jan and Malene were so kind as to allow us to escape for a mini-holiday and test out their sommer house.  It was fantastic!  The weather wasn't at all stellar, but we didn't mind at all!  There were frogs to be found, shells and rocks to be collected and delicious food to be eaten. All in all it was just what we all needed to slow down and gear up for another school year!  One evening Simone and her friend Sare ( ? sp) stopped by for dinner, and a game of charades.  It was really fun and worth the almost two hour drive!

Looks like the hand from the Robots movie but is really supposed to represent tree roots...we liked it as a hand better. Apparently there used to be an old tree in the town that eventually died and so a local artist created the sculpture to memorialize it.  It is his head on its side in the accompanying photo with Sophie.

Finnie's yummy dessert