Yellowstone Park

One of the highlights of our summer was our trip to Yellowstone National Park and especially meeting up with the Merritts!

They moved to the States last year and it was so great to see them again.

We flew from Boston to a place called Jackson Hole in Wyoming. We rented a car at the airport and drove from there into the park.

Yellowstone was amazing and is a photographer's dream. It is just stunningly beautiful and of course there are lots of wild animals to view, which was very exciting for the kids too.

We were there for 5 days, but we easily could have stayed longer.

And yes....we did see a grizzly ( well at least I did.....Matt missed it...too busy picking flowers or something....)

Boy, these bisons are huge!

Most days we left our cabin in the morning and drove around the park for some hours had a picnic lunch and a swim somewhere next to the river. Off course we saw the 'Old Faithful' geyser in action.

Matt teaching Noah the 'art' of fly fishing.

Matt reading to the girls. Daily highlight for the little ones. Noah was probably out on a bear hunt.

You Beauty!

Ayla is taking a water break from another strenuous hike....

It was extremely hard for me to pick photoos. There were too many good ones to pick from. The ones that you see here are my favorites. I will make an online Kodak album later for you to view them all.

Outdoors

One of the good things about being in the States is the opportunity for the kids to be outside all the time. They go on walks with the dogs, we take them hiking, they swim in the lake, they pick berries with aunty Kathy, play at the playgrounds, etc...

Parks

When we are in the States we visit lots of playgrounds and amusement parks.

The playgrounds in New Hampshire are great. They are well equiped, well maintained and usually pretty clean.

On top of that we have Canobie Lake Park , an amusement park with all kinds of fun rides for the kids, around the corner from Kathy's house. We went here twice this summer...thanks to Sue's mum who got us all free tickets.

Needless to say that the kids love going to these places.

Water Fun

Noah and Ayla just love to play in and around the water. Whether it's the bath tub, the swimming pool or the beach.............

They can't get enough of it.
Fortunately the weather in New Hampshire was very nice most of the time, so we spend a lot of time at the lake in Derry and at Kathy's pool.

Ayla Loves Dogs

Ayla just loved to be around Kathy's dogs.



She would lay with them, walk with them, run with them, cuddle with them and to carry them around the house.
She even tried to trow them off the sofa on a couple of occasions.......

New Hampshire

When we are in the States we usually stay with Sue's sister Kathy. She has a beautiful spacious home with a big garden and a pool. She lives there with her mother, 5 dogs and a cat.

Our kids love staying with aunty Kathy and her dogs.
Noah's favorite part of the day was going to the forest with Kathy and the dogs to hike, explore and pick berries.


It's a great place for the kids to be active and to enjoy the outdoors. Something we do miss in Jakarta.

Here are some shots of our stay @ Kathy's.

Last Days in Holland

Our time in Holland has come to an end. It's always a bit sad to say goodbye, because we know that we wont see eachother probably for another year. Oh well....That's life! Fortunately my parents will come to visit us in Indonesia later this year.

The last 5 days of our stay in Holland it was just Noah and I. Sue and Ayla had already left for the States. We just wanted to see what it would be like to travel on a long flight with just one.( It was good and easy...we may do it again) and for Noah it was good for his Dutch language skills, not to hear any English at all for some time.

It was difficult for him to say goodbye to his mama at the airport. But soon after he had forgotten all about his grief and he fully enjoyed his last days in Holland.
He could now finally sleep over at Laurens and Eline's house. They are his 2 big cousins, who he adores.

We had a very good time in Zutphen(with opa and oma) and Apeldoorn(with Arjen and Truus), but for now it's goodbye to Holland....here we come USA!