Dutch and Such (clever, right?)

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Morning.

Saturday, July 30. We went to Scherpenzeel to pick up our Oma at her sister's house. It was fantastic to see her again, and we had desserts and drinks in Tante Joke's (Yo-keh) beautiful garden. We headed to Sneek (Snake) in the afternoon and found a small, basic, internet-less campground. We brought Oma to Tante Harmke and Ome Wiebe's house, then returned to the campground. It was very cold so we went bowling. Mom won.

Sunday, July 31. We listened to a sermon and headed into Sneek to Dad's cousin Dieuwke + Nico's. They are super nice people and have a lovely house. We eat and go for a ride through the canals and lakes around Sneek. We saw the house where my Pake was born and Dieuwke lived, and Dad did a bunch of reminiscing of playing by the water. If you're interested in a story about a large rock, ask him. That evening we got some fantastic Indonesian food for supper (Nico is Indonesian). We have a nice, quie evening and Dad and Nico stay up talking till Monday.

Monday, August 1. We hung around in the morning, went a time or two into Sneek to get supplies, and tried to help Dieuwke organise for the Tuinstra family get together. People started coming a little before 3, and the first to arrive was Nico's daughter, Sanne, who spoke very good English and was really helpful in translation and stuff😊. There were 31 people there including us, and it was a nice, warm day for it. We had barbecue and ice cream and met people we never knew existed.

Tuesday, August 2. We walked to town to do some sightseeing and birthday shopping in the afternoon, after seeing Sanne off with an invitation to Canada. After supper, Mom, Tia, Tara, and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie, finally. We watched till intermission, but they couldn't start the movie up again D:. We got a refund, but I was very sad. Meanwhile, The rest of the family plus Ome Wiebe went out for croquettes. We parked the motorhome outside of Tante Harmke & Ome Wiebe's because Dieuwke and Nico were getting ready for a sailing vacation.

Wednesday, August 3. In the morning, we say tot ziens to Tante Harmke, Ome Wiebe, Dieuwke and Nico, and head south with Oma over the Efsluit Dike (No idea of how to pronounce it, or if I'm spelling Dyk wrong...) which is a 30-ish km long dike between the sea and the lake. at one point, we couldn't see land because it was raining. We arrived in Lunteren and went to Tante Greta's house. She fed us a delicious supper and we left Oma there and went to Tante Nel's farm house. It's been 7 or so weeks since we saw her, so it's nice to see a familiar face. Their house is very traditional, with a thatched roof. We stayed in the motorhome near their apartments.

Thursday, August 4. Today it's Tia and Tara's 13th birthday! We had some relatives over in the morning for cake, then headed out to Ikea for a few hours, which was very exciting. Today, we hope to go to the Pancake House and hopefully watch Harry Potter. Again.

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