I Have a Blog?!

I know, it truly does seem like I forgot, and I keep thinking I'll get back to it, but never seem to have the time. I really want to catch up and not leave things out, but frankly I'm beginning to forget what all we've even done since last fall!

End of 2010 review...We had guests from Tremont, Brenda and Rebekah Baer, here just before Christmas. It was fun to have a little taste of home through them and also fun to show them around Grenoble and the local Christmas markets. They were fabulous shoppers, I mean guests! Then we spent Christmas day skiing at a small resort near our home. After Christmas, we headed out to Slovakia to visit our dear friends from Tremont, Ed and Wendi Rumbold, and their family for the rest of Christmas break. They are there serving with Josiah venture, here's their blog where you can see what they're up to. It was freezing cold, actually below freezing, which we're not used to anymore! We stopped in Budapest along the way and enjoyed the city and had some great goulash. We loved hanging out with the Rumbolds and seeing what their life is like there in Slovakia. We could relate to the language struggles and the love for the Europeans we live amongst.

Then 2011 has been filled with travel and guests and just the general busyness of life. Kevin was in IL in January for 10 days for work, then we spent the first two weeks in March, our late winter break, just hanging out here at home and also took a long weekend trip to Venice because it was basically spring here by then! I hate to admit what a warm and balmy year we have had so far since most of our family and friends are still having a cold and wet spring. April brought Kevin's brother, Ryan, and his wife, Hannah, for a 10 day visit. They spent the weekends with us and traveled to northern France, Belgium and Netherlands during the week in between. It was great to catch up with them again and I think they enjoyed their trip without kids (who did excellent with their grandparents, always a blessing). They left, we celebrated Easter with friends, and our oldest's 9th birthday... and then Kevin's parents arrived for almost 3 weeks! We had an amazing time with them, traveling to Switzerland to trace family and church history while the boys were on spring break, and then home for a few days while Kevin and Roy, his Dad, traveled to Sweden for Roy's work. We went to the south and spent some time at the Mediterranean Sea, and I also took them for a day trip to Paris (because we can! we are so spoiled!), and finally a wonderful and much needed weekend away in the south sans enfants for Kevin and I while his parents spent some time with the boys here at our home.

So that's the short story, I truly hope to fill in the details and post pictures some day. It may even happen :) But if not, at least you all have a quick glance of our life for the past 6 months! We're looking forward to my neice Sarah visiting in a couple weeks along with her fiance and another friend... and then school will be out before we know it and we'll be on summer break. Our plans are to head to the US mid-July to mid-August. If you're in the OH or IL areas, we hope we have a chance to catch up with you. We'll send an e-mail with our schedule when we know when we'll be where.

Meanwhile, we'd love to hear from you and we'd love it even more if you have a chance to visit. I will try and continue by finishing our safari pictures and Kenya trip wrap up soon, then fill in details on the above activities!