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| Beth and Tim in their souvenir shirts from Greece, enjoying the view from the balcony of our flat in Liptovsky Mikuláš, just before leaving for Vienna and our flights home. |
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| Juraj, Katarina's brother, was our chauffeur to Vienna. Here we are after loading the car on Tuesday afternoon. We stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport since we had to be there so early for our 7:40 a.m. flight to London, then Chicago and on to Des Moines. |
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| Beth and Katarina on the bus to the terminal in London on Wednesday morning. For those of you who don't know, Katarina is a teaching colleague, dear friend, and one of our two 'Slovak daughters', who came home with us for her very first trip to America!! It was such fun traveling with these brilliant and beautiful girls! |
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| Welcome to America, Katarina!! Here we are at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, before our flight to Des Moines. We were sooooo excited about being this close to Iowa!! |
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| And this is the Welcome Party at the Des Moines International Airport on Thursday evening!! Lute and Paul were waiting to greet us with these awesome signs. The hugs were wonderful too!! |
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| Lute is the maintenance guy at Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp this summer, so he went into Art Fun Time that day and asked the counselor (a former student of mine at Ankeny!) and campers to make signs for us. Becca and the H.S. week campers did a super job!! |
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| When we were back in Slovakia thinking about all the wonderful places to take Katarina in Iowa, I checked online for the Iowa Cubs baseball schedule. They were to be out of town for the rest of her time here, so we went directly from the airport to Principal Park for an evening I-Cubs game the very first thing. No jet lag allowed - just good old American baseball, with a supper of hot dogs at the ball park!! :-) How's that for a welcome?? |
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| Cubbie Bear even came over to welcome Katarina to America!! :-) |
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| The game wasn't super exciting, and we were getting a little tired, so we finally left after 8 innings with the score 1-0. Katarina remarked that it seemed like people weren't really all that attentive to the game, just relaxing, talking, and enjoying the evening outside. Exactly!! We had a fun time explaining the game to her, but she understood instinctively that baseball is as much about the experience of being at the ballpark on a summer night! |
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| When we got home about 10:30, there were more 'Welcome' signs waiting on the front porch. Our favorite neighbor, Curran, and his family made us signs too! How sweet!!! |
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| We were so excited to be back home!! The Anlikers also left a sweet treat on the porch with the signs --- some amazing banana bread which we had for breakfast our first morning back in Iowa --- YUM!!! |
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| After a great night's sleep, the first thing in the morning we met Curran, his mom Julie, and his sister Kelsey to thank them for the posters and banana bread! |
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| Katarina and Beth shucking sweet corn purchased from the back of a farmer's pick-up truck. Now, Katarina finally understands why we never even tried sweet corn in Slovakia, because she has tasted IOWA sweet corn and knows the difference!! (No offense meant for Slovakia of course - sweet corn isn't the same in other U.S. states either - Iowa's sweet corn is by far the best anywhere in the world!!) |
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| Lute asked us if it was O.K. to invite the Riverside staff over for dinner Saturday night, so he took charge of grilling the hot dogs for about 35 of us. |
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| It was a beautiful evening for the gang to all be outside on the patio and in the yard. Lute got everything all set up and organized - he's a great host!! :-) |
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| More Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp staff members enjoying supper at the Olsons' house! It was such fun having everyone there. |
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| Carly and Ellen - friends of Lute's from Hope College - were on their way from Michigan to visit more Hope friends in Colorado. So of course, Ankeny is the perfect overnight stopover, and we had arranged for their stay back in Vienna when we saw Ellen there! Katarina and Ellen already met in Liptovsky Mikuláš, so they immediately renewed their friendship too. The whole party kind of evolved because of getting together all the Hope folks, since some work at Riverside too. Go Hope!! :-) |
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| Lute had gotten out gloves and baseballs, a football & a basketball, and frisbees, so there were kids all over the yard and driveway after supper playing all different games. Katarina commented that she is really learning how big a deal sports are here in America. We Iowans love to play! |
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| Ellen taught Katarina how to play catch with a baseball and glove, and Ellen pronounced Katarina "a natural" because she caught on to it so quickly!! |
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| We were so glad that Ellen and Carly visited us!! We love Hope College visitors!! :-) |
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| Saturday morning meant a trip downtown to the Des Moines Farmers' Market for the famous (and delicious) Breakfast Burritos - YUM!! |
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| At the Farmers' Market with the old Polk County Courthouse in the background. |
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| We all laughed so much when we saw this item on sale at one booth. Tim says this EVERY DAY in our office at school in Slovakia!! This one is for you, Janka Kusa!! ;-) |
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| It's crazy how this photo looks like it's been photo-shopped, but it's authentic, and taken at the downtown Des Moines Pappajohn Sculputure Gardens. |
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| On Sunday we took Katarina to Paul and Alana's church service at Cornerstone in Ames, because we wanted her to experience a uniquely American mega-church style contemporary service. Afterwards, we all went out for lunch at Hickory Park for barbecue. Front = Alana, Grammy, Katarina, Paul Back = Michelle, Papa, Beth, Tim |
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| After our ice cream desserts at Hickory Park, Paul and I taught Katarina about tying a maraschino cherry stem with our tongues, inside our mouths. Yeah, one more totally trivial American concept!! LOL!! |
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| On Monday, Tim and I took Katarina hiking at Ledges State Park near Boone. |
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| Here we are atop Table Rock, overlooking the Des Moines River valley, on our nature hike. |
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| Our next big outing was to the Iowa State Capitol, where we had the best tour guide ever - my brother, Edward! |
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| The girls by the cornerstone of the State Capitol in Des Moines. |
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| Edward explaining some of the history of the building. |
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| My brother arranged things with the Governor's staff so that we could meet with Governor Brandstad in his formal office. It was a surprise for Katarina!! :-) |
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| All those colors on the wall behind their chairs are different types of marbles. Our Iowa Statehouse is such a beautiful building!! |
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| With Governor Brandstad in his office!! He was so gracious and kind to us, and we had about 15 minutes to visit with him. Thanks Edward!! :-) |
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| The former Supreme Court room in the Capitol (now used as a conference room.) |
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| As part of our Statehouse tour, we even got to go on a special trip up to the very top of the cupola on top of the dome. |
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| The views of downtown were really impressive from atop the Capitol! |
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| On the staircase leading to the famous painting "Westward" above. |
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| Outside the capitol after our wonderful tour and meeting with the Governor. Yes, we were all the way up inside that tiny cupola at the top of the golden dome!! WOW!! After the tour, we all went to the East Village for lunch at Zombie Burger ---- YUM!! |
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| Katarina loved all our wildlife in Iowa. Our critters here aren't as shy as they are in Slovakia. Here is a chipmunk who sometimes comes up onto our deck. |
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| Visiting my parents' townhome in West Des Moines. Grammy gave Katarina a Garfield dictionary with cartoons for some of the definitions. (Judith's lilies were so pretty!) |
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| Then we went to the lake at Jordan Creek Mall - Papa with the girls! |
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| Grammy and Papa often feed the ducks and geese at the lake, so they gave the girls a couple bags of bread to use. |
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| There were even some big goldfish trying to get in on the action. |
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| We enjoyed the beautiful day outside by the lake! |
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| This Canadian goose was eating right out of Katarina's hand! |
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| Our next stop was Scheel's hunting department, where Katarina met this buck! |
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| And an American moose too! |
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| Taco Tuesday at the Yankee Clipper --- a tradition with the Green and Linden families!! It was so good to get these dear friends from both sides of the Atlantic together!! (Kristina L., Dawn G., Michelle, Katarina, Nancy L.) |
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| Beth with the guys at Taco Tuesday!! We didn't get a picture of Erin LaBelle - bummer! (Chris LaBelle, Beth, Tim, Jeremy Green, Tanner Linden) |
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| Saying goodbye to our neighbor, Curran, who wore the Slovakia T-shirt we gave him! Then we met Tim's mom at Perkins off I-35 in Clear Lake so that she could see Katarina again here in Iowa. |
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| We had a lovely picnic lunch near LaCrosse, Wisconsin, overlooking the Mighty Mississippi River on Thursday before sending Katarina on the next leg of her journey. |
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| We met Carol Anderson, one of the two lectors we replaced in Slovakia, at LaCrosse. Katarina visited Carol, then Kathy, both in Wisconsin. We were sad to send Katarina off after our whirlwind week in Iowa!! |
We have had several chances to get together with family and friends in the past few days, helped Paul and Alana move into their new apartment in Ames, celebrated Alana's birthday, Tim played his first round of golf in a year with Paul and Alana's Dad, and I went to the Riverside Bible Camp Quilt Auction and spent some time with Lute. This morning we were incredibly blessed to worship at our home church - Immanuel Lutheran again. It was awesome being back among our church family!! This afternoon we took my folks up to the Black Family Reunion in Manson, so we had a great time catching up with aunts, uncles, and cousins by the dozens! And on the way home, we stopped and spent dinner & the evening with the Swensons in Boone. Such a good time!! We are serious about trying to see as many people as possible during our short time in Iowa - it will be a magical month here!!
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