Lots of ups, and some downs...

In general life is really, really good to us. But sometimes, there are some downs as well. That doesn't mean things are not going well, but when it's a little tough, it's even more important to focus on the good and fun things.

So what is going really well? First of all, we had a somewhat surprised visit by my mom! She called out of the blue if we had plans for the following weekend, and after some minor scheduling, she arrived last Thursday for a weeklong visit.  We pretty much kept living our lives, which included Nolan being away at a conference for the weekend, but it was a really nice, low-key and comfortable. The weather in The Netherlands has been less than summer-like, and one of my mom's wishes was to have hot weather. Well, she got her wish. The day she arrived it was 34 degrees :) It wasn't that hot during the rest of her stay, but still very reasonable!

We didn't do too much while she was here, but went for a nice long walk on Saturday, and had Nolan's parents over for dinner on the Sunday. Nolan and I had to work some days as well, but still found time to relax, chat and catch up.

During our walk on Saturday, we saw four deer, all in different spots. Most of them were close enough for pictures, but I only captured one:

The last Wednesday morning we went out for breakfast, which was a real feast! It's also nice to see how Nolan and my mom get along so well :)

Another thing that makes me happy and proud, is our garden. Our hanging baskets are doing really well and are expanding nicely.

Our planters are also filling in nicely. Especially our roses are doing well!

The purple dahlia below is actually from last year. We dug up the roots, store them over winter, and then put them back in this spring. And it worked!

And then one of our other prides, our vegetable garden! All our vegetables are doing really well, and I think we'll be harvesting a surplus of tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers and strawberries. Nothing wrong with that though, we like our veggies!

Tomorrow is Canada Day, which we'll celebrate with our annual pool party with our running group. The weather is still nice and warm, so the pool should be nicely warmed up by now.

There might be some interesting times coming up, but we also have a vacation in our near future, which will hopefully allow us to relax and get away for a bit. But that being said, we are both doing well, and we stay strong!