Die Groot Trek!

These pictures were taken the week before we left Clear Lake by Arthur's babysitter Megan and she did a great job.

It has been an eventful past 2 months. Crazy is the only word that will sum it up but we are safely here in Delmar and very happy in the new house. Deon feels settled ( as much as he is comfortable with) in his work and the house and environment is slowly but surely starting to feel like home. After 2 months of things just feeling like it is some days too much to handle (especially with Deon in Catskill and me and Arthur still in Clear Lake it has gone very smoothly since we have started our journey to Delmar almost 3 weeks ago.

A friend asked me to join her biblestudy group and we started today. I loved that I could be there for the beginning of this session and it is a nice group of woman. They do have nursery for Arthur and he did great in the new environment. Tomorrow I will be going to my first mops meeting and feel like I am starting to fit right into a schedule here. The house is unpacked and we know where most of our belongings are. ( The moving company did a great job at moving us) We love the area and it is very beautiful here. ( It helps especially because I do miss all my friends and church in Clear Lake very much.) It does feel easier to adapt though now that we have a child. It took me a lot longer to participate in things before we had a child. Now for Arthur's sake I just jump right in. Still deciding on a church. Have visited two and like both but will let Deon decide.

Me, Arthur and Mimi in Central Gardens, Iowa

Arthur loved helping me clean

Our last night in Clear Lake at the Meyers house.

(Beth, Tim and Thomas Meyer)

On our last night in Clear Lake Deon and Arthur spend the night in the hotel and me, Roscoe and Amy stayed at the very empty house . We left Saturday morning at 5 am and did 650 miles the Saturday and 650 miles the Sunday. Both Arthur and Roscoe did very well on the trip and we arrived in Albany NY 3 pm on Sunday afternoon. We closed on the house on Monday at 12 while the movers started unpacking. They were done unpacking and assembled all our furniture by 9pm Monday evening. We officially moved in on Tuesday.

On our trip. Picture below is of the boys in the back. Although the box in the middle is marked books it was much more precious cargo. It was all our bottles of liquor(the moving co. is not allowed to move any alcohol) The stepstool was for Roscoe to get in the car. ( lifting a 135 pound dog in the car is not my idea of fun)

We went to a cat auction the first Sunday here. ( It is all cat statues that artists from the area paint and is then auctioned off in October. All these cats are displayed in main street in Catskill during the spring and summer) Very pretty all of them. The cats end up going for between 300 and $7800 dollars .


The picture below was taken of Deon at the cat auction while looking over the Hudson River.

Our first breakfast in the new house.

Deon had last week off and we went to Thacher park and look at all the pretty trees.

They are everywhere even along the highway it is just trees everywhere.

Us at Thacher Park

The front view of the house.

Arthur and the dog loves the fenced in back yard. The soil is a lot looser than in Iowa and they BOTH like to dig in it very much. ( You win some you lose some I guess)

Will post some pictures of all the rooms in the house soon. Deon is currently putting laminate wood floor in the basement and I am finishing painting in our play/sewing room.

Talk soon and Hugs from all of us.

Arthur likes to play in the new house but our sleeping schedule is not going so great. He doesnt want to take a nap in the afternoon although he is exhausted and usualy end up falling asleep on the couch or in the car. In the evenings he wants to sleep in the BIG BED ( like he likes to put it) with mom and dad. I am going to paint his room like in Clear lake with the hope that he will fall in love with his bed again like he used to . The below video is of Arthur being stubborn wanting to watch Arthur and refusing to take a nap.)

Update for August:

We can finally say where we are going and as most of you know Deon has accepted the Plant manager job in Catskill, NY. Although the plant has many challenges that he will have to face he is up for the challenge and we are excited about the move.

We will all miss Clear Lake very much. We have made wonderful friends here and hopefully the friendships will last forever.

It has been a challenging month because Deon had to start his new position immediately in the beginning of August and Me, Arthur and Roscoe had to stay behind in Clear Lake. There was just too many things to do and the temporary housing in Delmar , Ny does not take a 140 pd dog . But God has been good and we found a house that has everything we want in the area we were looking for. It is in Delmar and Deon will have a 30 minute drive to work but it is better situated for us to do things and socialize. I will post pictures of the house as soon as we are moved in. Delmar is about 2 hours drive from NY city, 2 and 1/2 hour drive from Boston and a 3 hour drive from Montreal. We have not taken a vacation in quite some time because of all the things going on at the plant and are hoping to take a week in October and go explore upstate New York.

I have been training for the past 2 months for a 5k race and was able to finish it in 32 minutes ( no walking.) The bug has bitten me and I am continue training and hoping to run another 5 k before the winter moves in. Here are some pictures of the past month Enjoy them!

Group picture at the Agape church.

My first 5k. I was very proud of myself.

Arthur playing at the splash pad at city beach.

This was taken at the Northern Iowa fair 09. They had\

really fun things to do for kids at this farm area.

BBQ festival "09

This is one of their favorite things this summer. Going for a bicycle ride after work or on weekends. I even join them sometimes and we go up to the lake and have dinner in the park.

Beth and Thomas at Garner pool.

Arthur has a fascination with eggs lately so I let him help me make scrambled eggs in the morning

and he does pretty good. He loves helping me cook

God bless

the van den Berg's

4th of July

Pictures of the 4th of July weekend:

Summer update

father and son watching penguins.

A favorite-Elephants ( a shame dinosaurs are extinct)

Ronel seems to think this looks like Deon!

this was taken on the train. The face says it all.

On the Carousel.

family maybe?

Thomas and Arthur outside the butterfly display

Arthur loved the butterflies but wasn't so sure about this one and being so close to it.

Its been a while again. Seeing that Arthur is still sleeping I will try to catch up. We have been enjoying summer but I have to say our weather has not been too warm yet. Arthur loves to go to the outside pool but we have only been able to go once since it opened. Either weather or schedule conflicts. We went to Omaha last weekend and we had lots of fun. We went on Thursday evening. Friday we went to the Henry Doorly zoo and saw lots of animals. We went on the little train and skyfari ( This was very impressive but kinda scary for me - Its like a ski lift that goes over the park and you can see the different animals from air.) Arthur found it so soothing that he fell asleep on it. We spend the whole day there and did lots of walking. It was good seeing all the animals and made me think of South Africa a lot. The dessert display had lots of similar vegetation and birds that we have in the Northern Cape and I thought about the farm a lot. They even had some meerkat's. The evening we went for Mexican food and to the water park at the hotel. Needless to say we were all pooped by 9pm.

Saturday Deon and Tim went to play golf while Me, Beth, Arthur and Thomas went to the children's museum. Arthur was fascinated with all the interactive things they had. We were impressed with the whole setup. Went home for a nap and after the guys came back from their golf ,me and Beth were off to shopping and a wonderful dinner at the Melting Pot (fondue) with some chocolate desert. The guys stayed at the hotel with the boys and took them to the water park.

True farmer milking the cow

He was very intrigued with taking the leaves off and taking out the corn.

Got to do some shopping too.
EAT

DIGEST
POO ( so true but equally disturbing)

He liked this ball contraption - He liked putting in the balls and followed it wherever the wind blew them through pipes.

Beth and Thomas in the sesame street display

On our way back from the museum to the hotel. Both happy boys.

Sunday morning we went for a swim at the hotel pool and packed up. We went to Cheesecake factory for lunch and some shopping and we were back home by 7. Deon went to go pick up Roscoe while me and Arthur just chilled at home. We really did have a good time and it was a good break for us.

Mom and Arthur in the pool.

This was taking at 10am on Sunday morning. Both were exhausted after all the fun of the weekend and just wanted to chill in bed .

Taken at Cheesecake factory in Omaha

At the home front things are still going well. We are still not sure where or when we are moving but will probably know in the next 2 weeks. I have signed myself up for a 5km run here in Clear Lake and have been training 3/4 times a week for it. Pretty excited about it. The other thing I have been up to is making bags. I have sold quite a few and the Clear Lake Arts center has asked me to make a few to put on display there. Deon is still very busy at work. The final close date for the plant is August 12 and it's round the corner. A small team will stay on for mothballing.

One of the bags and diaper wallets I made for the Clear Lake Arts center.

Today we are off to the carnival at noon for some July 4th fun. We are hoping for good weather , so far so good. The weather is sunny and not too hot.

Love you all and be good

God bless
Carin

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