'Boomkes' back to NL

Jos and Henk Vandenboom (and Henk's wife Toos) flew back to Holland yesterday after a few weeks vacation in Canada. They are two of the three sons of an older brother of Opa Vandenboom. They stayed a few days with Joe & Marcy in Sarnia + a few days with Sue, Ralph, Mary and me in Fonthill. Last Sunday Sue & Ralph organized a picknick along the Niagara River.

They played one afternoon a few games of Rummikub, Opa's favorite game. Lots of laughter and jokes in the dialect of Brabant, the province where the Vandenbooms have lived for generations. The nickname of 'Boomkes' is also in the Brabant dialect. The profile photo below shows that they come from the same gene-pool. It was fun to have them here for a few days.

Fathers Day in the park

Today was the annual national Fathers Day in Canada and we had three visitors from Holland: two sons Henk and Jos from Joe (Jos) Vandenboom's older brother Jas (+ Toos, the wife of Henk). Sue and Ralph organized a picknick lunch in the park along the Niagara Parkway near Niagara-on-the-Lake. So we had three Jos-persons there today.....

The Parkway is a 40 kilometer stretch of national park grounds along the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. A popular place for families to hang out together during weekends. This was the first time we did it with the - extended - Vandenboom clan. Behind the tree line is the river and across from there you can see New York State.

Wil had his first experience to barbeque on coals, supervised by Joe and Mark (for whom this was a first as well). In the background the rest of the gang around the picknick table with food. Afterwards we enjoyed some exhibition 'spike-ball' games by Joe, Spencer, Wil and Mark. Kudos to Joe to keep up with the young dogs.....

The Dutch visitors - after a ten day tour through parts of BC - spent a few days with Joe & Marcy in Sarnia, where Henk competed with Joe in making the best Dutch style 'pannekoeken' (pancakes).

During the past weeks Mary has been recovering from her knee operation and one day she ventured with her Dad on two scooters (Mary on an old one we have stored in our garage). Too funny a sight..