Project 365: Week 26

Amaia Week

Anticipation and Arrival--that pretty much sums up our experience.
For four days I worked steadily on all fronts: sprucing up the outdoors, planting flowers; sorting through piles and boxes, throwing, recycling, rearranging STUFF; preparing the rooms; planning. When I went to write this post, I could not believe there were NO photos on my camera for the beginning of the week. Maybe I felt like I had done something because in the midst of it all, I was working on old photographs for a memory post. This paragraph will have to suffice to document those days. Never fear, the other days' photographic contribution more than make up for the lost days, at least quantitatively.

My first break, it felt that way, came Thursday morning when I met a former colleague for breakfast at Cracker Barrell. That seems to be a very convenient way to connect with friends from near and far as we live close to one of the restaurants and it is next to a major state highway. My all-time favorite menu choice is Uncle Herschel's breakfast with the grilled catfish!

That evening we were off to the Fort Wayne airport to pick up our Basque teen, Amaia.

The next day was spent getting better acuainted and experiencing new things.

We looked at her home town Hondarribia on Google Earth and also our house in the woods.

Mike took the girls for a tour of the land on the four-wheeler.

After the welcome dinner at the church that evening, the young people played a fun game called Signs.

The night was still young, so Mike had the girls attempt a pottery creation.

Saturday was equally full. In the afternoon we all went to Malachi's last baseball game where he made his first hit of the season and Amaia met Sam's family. We took dinner to their house after and there Elijah showed her his room and arranged a photo op.

The day was not yet over, on the way back we came across more learning opportunities for our young visitor--a cruise-in, miniature golf, and ice cream place all on the same corner, called Vanilla Greens. We had to check out all three, of course. If you happen to be in the area, take a look at the art on the wall--wooden sculptures of nature themes--incredible!

Finally, we were ready to call it a day.

However, I cannot close this post without mentioning our own local ice cream shop of international fame. We took Amaia there the first day, how could we not! A few years back I was asked to write an article for the paper. Here it is, our own Ivanhoe's! If you are in our area, it is a MUST! Let us know, we might take you or meet you there!

And you blogger friends need to go visit Sara's circle this week, and see how many have made it to this very important milestone, the half-way point of the year!