NM Canucks

Christmas in New Mexico! (2007 version)

2007-12-26T18:22:00.000-08:00

Donkersloot family Christmas 2007. (Katy courtesy of Skype)

Katy Intently watching the events of gift opening etc over the web cam.

So it was very odd and sad to not have Katy here this year. As you can see by the group picture, however, that we still found a way to keep her in the mix so to speak. A fun time was held by all.

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and happy new Year!

Charity Invitational September 21, 2007

2007-10-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Nick and Becca with us the night of the Charity Invitational banquet. During the day I played in the golf tournament and our team came in first. Trust me it wasn't because of my golf game!

Pictures from our trip to Vancouver: September 07

2007-10-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

So we had the wonderful opportunity to head to Vancouver from September 8 - 16 to attend Carver Christian High School's retreat at Camp Malibu. The picture above is from the camp. Pretty hard to beat the location of the camp! Of course we did a few other things while we were in Vancouver...

...... Like celebrate with Anton and Jacquie !! Tacos on a Saturday night at their place......

......and particpate in a murder mystery with our Bible Study group in Whistler........

Don't the men look distinguished??

Don't mess with these women......

The Vancouver Donkersloots at Paul and Deirdre's place. September 9, 2007

Rehoboth House going, going .....gone

2007-09-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

So our house that we lived in for five years on the Rehoboth campus has been moved! It was quite the venture. A family from the school purchased the house and then set about moving it off the campus. Here are some pictures of the event. The picture of the house above and below are basically of the house before too much was done. That's Katy's bedroom window on the second floor in the picture below.

The basement has been gutted to get ready for the move.

Here I am setting the house down carefully on the truck girders!

The truck getting ready to haul it off.

This was the evening before the big move.

The house under the I - 40 overpass

Traveling down the road. (notice pyramid in the background)

Last view

Katy on the stairs to the basement after the house was gone.

Summer beach fun!

2007-08-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

Katy and I went down to California to meet Anton, Jacqueline, Aaron and Erica. We spent a day at the beach and we had a blast. Ruthie and Bethany and Lindsey also came down to spend the day with us. We had a blast! Here are some of the pictures. This was on July 20. I know it took some time to post them but so be it!

A beached whale.....

Anton and Ron catching a wave. Erica is wondering if she'll get hit...

Anton and Ron riding it in...

Waiting for the waves..

After riding the waves

Katy and Jacqueline catching up on news!

We are back in the USA

2007-07-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Europe is done, however, our trip home is not yet done. We had a marvelous time in Europe and we are now staying for the day at Tim and Sharon Vanderkodde's in Grand Rapids while we rest and get ready for the drive back to New Mexico.

Here are some promised pictures........

On Saturday we had a family reunion with all of our Dutch relatives. There were about 85 people there and that was not all of them! It was a fun day but rather overwhelming for some who had not met them before. Here is a picture of the Canadian group that was there.

On Sunday our last full day in Holland we went to church with Stephan and Rochelle and family and then spent the day with them. We had a great time visiting but it was too short! Next time we'll stay longer, we promise.

We left Holland via ferry and took the ferry to England. This was all a last minute decision but a good one as it was relatively inexpensive and quite relaxing and enjoyable.

Our final parting shot of Holland as we leave on the ferry.

The Stenna plus lounge on the ferry was well worth the extra cost. The ferry trip was really a lot of fun.

Getting ready to board our train in London Paddington station. Some of the old train stations in Europe are really great!

Wine on the train is always a good thing! The train trip from London to Cardiff was lovely but not cheap.

Cardiff Central train station. Our trip began in Cardiff and now ended in Cardiff. We had a lovely time and I would recomend Cardiff to anyone thinking of going to Europe.

Parting view of British security at the airport.

2007-07-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

We are in Cardiff ready to head back! We'll post more pictures when we get home. (next time I'm taking a laptop....)

More..

2007-07-03T09:30:00.001-07:00

Pictures from Wales and Holland

2007-07-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Cradiff Castle. We actually had sunshine that day!

Holland #2

2007-07-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

So we are now in Leiden after visiting Lisse where Mary Lou's grandfather was born. Very lovely city! We really had some fun being there. Having Katy with us who is an experienced world traveller has helped immensly! She has great instincts about the transit systems down here. I will try to post pictures if I can from this internet cafe.

We are actually staying in the wodds at a place close by Otterlo in central Holland. We have each day planned out already so we will be busy.

Driving in Wales was a real adventure. I did not have any accidents but it sure was pretty crazy to throw out all of your instincts. We let Dad drive once and that was it. That was way too crazy an experience. Learning to use a roundabout as well as driving on the left along with shifting (yes we had a standard) was indeed a challenge!

Pictures to come.......

Ron

In Holland!

2007-07-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

The internet access in Wales was off for the weekend so we could not post! We are in Holland at an internet cafe. We will post more pictures etc when we can! Suffice it to say that the wedding went great and the whole adventure was really a blast! We highly recommend Wales to you all!

More later!

Ron

Pictures!! (Start from the bottom and work your way up)

2007-06-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

Breakfast this morning at the B&B. The Welsh do amazing breakfasts!

The Welsh mens choir of Penarth, Wales. This was fun to see them rehearse!

It was quite the sight and we were both glad to have been able to have come. Having a car made this possible.

Yes, I am driving a car here in Wales. It is pretty crazy but there seemed to be no way around it. I have lots of stories to tell about the way they do things here.....

??????

I thought this sign was funny. It was in the Cardiff train station....

Here we are the day my parents and Katy arrived. We went to another Castle that day. Apparantly Wales has more castles than any other country in the world. I would not doubt it!

These pictures were taken on the day we arrived. No one else was here yet. Picttures of Roman barricks from the town where Lyn is from and then pictures of the castle where they are to be married on Saturday. Caldicot Castle is the name.

The day we arrived.....

OK a new post!!

2007-06-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

Nick, check for my response to your last comment on the posts. To all of the others I will say that internet connection is difficult here in Wales. The library has a great setup but you have to be here when the library is open! Today we are waiting for Paul and Dierdre to get in so we have some time.

Keith and Nina arrived safely yesterday. A day later than they were supposed to but they are here now.

Yesterday we went to StoneHenge. I hope to post pictures on the next post. It was really fun. Then last night we went to see a Welsh mens choir rehearse. That too was a blast. They treated us wonderfully! I suspect that Katy being with us had something to do with that. It has been fun to have Katy with us. We are staying at a marvelous B&B along with my folks, Keith and Nina as well as Paul and Dierdre. Tonight is the "Hen and Stag" night so we'll see what that is all like.

Tomorrow we go into Cardiff again to see a organ concert at Noon in the big church in town. The rest of the Holland family come in tomorrow. Today is the one sunny day that we have had so far. It has gone up to 17 C today. I am wearing shorts becuase it might be the last chance that we have to do so! The rains come back tomorrow. It really is beautiful here!

More later!

Ron

Safe and sound!

2007-06-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

After a very long travel day on Saturday, we arrived in Cardiff Sunday morning at 10am. We managed to stay awake until 7pm and then I slept for 12 hours (Ron could not sleep quite as long). We are in a very lovely b&b in Caldicot, close to the castle where Annette and Lyn will be married on Saturday. Ron's folks (and Katy) come in this evening -- so the fun will begin! Stay well, everyone! (ML)

We are writing this at the Cardiff Visitor's Centre. It has been a very rainy day, but we have see Cardiff Bay and are on our way to see the Cardiff Castle. Not sure if we will be able to find a place to post pictures -- but we will try! There is no internet access at the B&B, or even in the town, but we will try. Ron

Off to Europe!

2007-06-22T12:46:00.001-07:00

So today we begin our trek to Europe. Tonight we stay in ABQ and then tomorrow morning we fly out to Wales. It is a 22 hour trip all told becuase of the various stops at airports that we need to make. We'll try to keep you all posted as to what things we are up to! We are looking forward to seeing Katy in a few days.

It is cooking hot down here right now so some cooler weather in europe won't upset me. (I'm not so sure about Mary Lou)

Naked House

2007-06-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

So this is how our house looks without a tree in the front.....

What hath the wind wrought??

2007-06-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is an example of what 67 MPH gusts will do to trees....

Michael and Aubrey's wedding

2007-05-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

So after Katy's grad party we then went to Grand Rapids to attend the wedding of Michael Kingma and Aubrey Sikkema. Once again a wonderful time was had by all. The wedding went off without a hitch and there is a new Kingma couple. Here are some pictures of the event!

You can only imagine how long it took Mary Lou to find Darren and hold him.....

The New Mexico Group at the Vancouver/Grand Rapids wedding

Katy, Nick, and Caitlyn...........( I wonder where their desire to hold babies comes from??)

Katy feeding Darren

Nick's toast to the bride and groom brought tears to everyone's eyes.

Proud parents of the groom!

The inevitable Bible study skit!

What is Michael doing with his hand??? Does he not know what this leads to??

Katy's Grad party

2007-05-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

So we had a great time on Friday night with Katy's housemates and parents celebrating their graduation from Redeemer. Although Katy did not actually attend the grad itself this party the evening before was well worth the trip for us! The picture of the girl that the girls are holding is of Stacey who was one of the housemates that was unable to attend. The second picture is of the parents and the girls. (Nice sunset reflected in the window eh?) A great time was had by all! Mary Lou and I did go to bed fairly early as we did not get alot of sleep the night before. We are very poud of Katy! She leaves for Europe tomorrow!

30th anniversary

2007-05-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well it has been an interesting 30 years to say the least!

Today to celebrate our anniversary we climbed up pryamid rock trail, had a picnic and a bottle of wine. It was a fine time. Nick, you will notice that we kept our clothes on as opposed to other people I know.

To all of you who have been a part of these 30 years a heartfelt thank you for all of the great memories and for the joy that you have brought us.

Thank you!

Guest room!

2007-05-20T17:01:00.001-07:00

As promised here are some pictures of our guest room! It is open for business! However, it is temporarily full as Nick and Becca are moving in with us for the month of June and then we are gone for part of July. It will be open for guests starting in August! Start your planning now! First come first serve!

Cinco De Mayo??? or Winter fest????

2007-05-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

Well you would have to see if to believe it but we have had two days of snow these past two days! Really quite interesting! I woke up Saturday morning to snow and we went to church in a snowstorm today. Quite fun really, By this afternoon the over 30 soccer team I play on had the opportunity to once again get pasted by a latin american team. The snow had all melted by then. Still it was rather odd to get snow in May...

It occurs to me that I have quite a few "snow pictures" on our blog. I think I simply enjoy it when it snows and we get so much sunshine that I find it rather fun when we do get snow. Katy thought the idea of snow in May sounded quite horrible but she is reflecting an Ontario bias!

Hope everyone had a great Cinco De Mayo!

Leo and Janet visit!

2007-04-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

So Leo and Janet were here for the weekend! We had a great time. Did some hiking in the spring winds but it all worked out great! I even put Leo to work, he helped fix the roof where a shingle blew off in the wind.

We also went to Albuquerque for the day on Saturday and spent some time with Nick and Becca. We really had fun.

Becca by the way has accepted a job at Rehoboth Christian High School teaching High School English. So Nick and Becca are moving to Gallup. They are planning on living on campus which is only a mile from where we live so we'll see them a fair bit.

In the next blog I'll post a picture of the guest room to entice you all to come!

Rich and Elsy visit

2007-03-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Here we are with Rich and Elsy having a wonderful glass of wine from Chile courtesy of Carlos and Carmen. Thank you Carlos and Carmen!

We had a wonderful weekend with Rich and Elsy. They approve of the guest accomodations! (Hint)

House pictures Part II

2007-03-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

So here are some pictures of the inside of our house now that it is completed. This first picture is of the original living room in it's completed form.

This next picture of the dining area and then going into our family room or entertainment room. (For those of you new to blogs if you click on the picture itself you can look at the full size picture if you so desire)

Another view of our family room from inside the room.

The master bedroom upstairs. It really is fabulous to be in a bedroom where you actually can walk around the bed without having to turn sideways!

Birthday stuff

2007-03-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

So here are few pictures from my birthday, Two of the pictures are of how my staff decorated my office and the other one is of the birthday present that Mary Lou gave me. Two lounge chairs and the small table. Perfect for the deck!

I can't imagine.....

2007-03-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

.........How at street sign from east 2nd ave ended up on our deck but there it is! I'm betting that this is the only Vancouver street sign in New Mexico! I'd ask that our Vancouver friends not tell city hall about this.....

Breakfast on the deck.

2007-03-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

This is one feature that we look forward to having with our friends that come to visit. Cal and Jeannie had breakfast with us yesterday on our deck. We just need to make sure that we are out there when the wind doesn't blow......

Front is done!!

2007-03-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Well the front of our house is now done so the builders are now offically done. We signed the final papers for the Mortgage this past week so it has all come to conclusion. I can now retire by the time I'm 81!

I posted these pictures primarily so that our kids can see for themselves that it really is all done!

To say the least we are very thankful!

We are looking forward to Rich and Elsy being here in a few weeks and then Leo and Janet a few weeks after that! Hotel Donkersloot is ready for business!

Kids back home

2007-02-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

Well we were finally able to have our kids come home to our new remodeled house. It was very exciting to have them all here. It was disappointing that Nick and Becca were not able to be here as well but we all were together in ABQ (sort of). We never were actually all togeher at the same place and same time but we were close! Allyn stayed a day longer in Gallup before he came down to ABQ so by the time he got there Katy was already on her way back to Ontario. At any rate now our kids have all seen the place. It is now time for others! Our thanks to Phil and Jamie for taking such a fine family picture! We are standing infront of our wood pellet stove and Jacquie almost burned a hole in her pants. (It does get rather warm which is wonderful in the winter) ..... Oh by the way for those of you that think I am obsessed with weather it was very windy here in new Mexico today.

Vancouver House

2007-02-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

We had always wanted to put a deck in the back of our house in Vancouver but we never got to that point of remodeling. However the new owners have done just that. Allyn took a picture with his camera and I thought we would post it on our blog. It is a pity to see the kitchen windows with all of the metal bars to keep the thieves out but once you do the deck you have no choice. That was probably another reason to not do a deck in our mind. Anyway seeing the back of the house still brought many happy memories. (I see the garage needs painting again)

Lost Dutchman 8 K 2/18/07

2007-02-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

So we decided to run in an 8 K race down in the Phoenix area. (Apache Junction to be precise) The kids had all flown down the day before. Mary Lou and I ran while our friends Steve and Sandy and Jeff and Julie decided to walk the same trail. Mary Lou ran it in 45 minutes and I ran it in 50 minutes. (I'm no longer speaking to her) The first picture is of the six of us before we start the race. The second one is of me contemplating my defeat by my wife. The third one is of the fine breakfast (including breakfast burritos) they feed us after the race and the last one is of the whole group just before we head to Gallup. It doesn't have the same feel as the Sun Run or the Flatlands but I can tell you that we sweat just as much!

Yikes!!

2007-02-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

So we had a snowstorm that caught us completly by suprise today! It is only four days before the kids come home and it looks like this! We had no idea that the storm was coming. That's what happens when you get Canadian Satellite TV.......

Sunny Deck

2007-02-11T21:35:00.000-08:00

So our remodel is pretty well done. We love what has happend so far! I won't show any pictures of the finished product until after the kids get here next week. We are excited to see them all!

Here is a picture of Nick, Becca, and Mary Lou on our deck on Super bowl Sunday.

Pretty awesome deck! Especialy with the sun......

The carpet is in!! Wow!!

2007-02-01T22:25:00.000-08:00

So we now have our carpet in. It looks like we have a brand new house! We are excited. The kids come on the 17th and Steve and Sandy come on the 10th. We can't wait to show you all the new house! The top two pictures are of the upstairs and then going down the stairs into our new family room which used to be the garage! Some of the panes of galss on the French doors still have protective covering on them and that is why it looks rather odd. The last picture is of our wood pellet stove in action. Pretty awesome.

Exciting!!

Snow in New Mexico!

2007-01-14T17:50:00.000-08:00

We woke up today to beautiful snow and nice cold air! Mary Lou and I went for a walk this afternoon in the sun and the cold and it reminded me of walking in the snow in Manitoba. I had to squint it was so bright. The pictures aren't great but they give you a sense of what it was like. The last picture is of our backyard just as the sun was rising. The first picture is out of our current bedroom (soon to be guest bedroom) window. The other pictures are from our walk. They are taken right by a place called "Resurrection Rock" by the Rehoboth cemetery. This will mean something to our kids and to the others that have been here but perhaps not so much to the rest of you. No we did not get a dog by the way we simply had a tag along from Rehoboth that wanted to join us in our walk.

French doors - before and after

2007-01-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

So we are getting closer to having our darn house remodel done! Here are some pictures of the current dining area before we put the french doors in and then after we put the doors in. We are getting close!

Hockey lives in New mexico!

2007-01-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

Lest you all think that Hockey does not exist down here.............

Here we are at the new Mexico Scorpions game. They lost 2 - 1. It is the last night before Katy leaves for Ontario. It is colder down here than it is in Ontario or Vancouver! Tonight it will go down to -10 C.

It was fun!!

NM Canucks Christmas

2007-01-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

It seems appropriate that we start our Blog with a group picture of the Donkersloots that were in New Mexico this past Christmas. It was a smaller group than we are used to but we were grateful to have Katy, Nick and Becca with us!

This picture is taken in our new (soon to be finished) family room. We are standing in front of the fireplace hearth that will hold our wood Pellet stove.

As time goes on we will post more pictures of the house and the remodel. For now you will have to simply wait! We are very excited to have the house done as it has taken much longer than we had hoped. People work here in New Mexico at a very different pace than one might be used to in other parts of the world. I do think it is realistic to expect that it will be done by the end of this month, however.

Our Christmas break was very relaxing as we did not travel at all during the break. Our kids got sick during the Christmas break but we managed to avoid the plague ourselves. There are some other pictures of our Christmas at the end of this. More later!