Tuesday, April 20 2010 @ 08:44 AM CEST
2010 Update
Finally, an update on Locke.DK!
Sorry it has taken so long to do this. Motivation has been the reason behind the delay. We are doing well over here. The girls are doing well in school.
Caroline is a freshman in High School (9th grade), where she is on the varsity gymnastic team, which is normally made up of juniors and seniors (11th and 12th grades). She has had several competitions so far and placed within the top six each time. She is competing in three disciplines out of four now: Vault, Floor, and Beam. I have been filming her and the team and the videos are in good quality on YouTube. They are linked on this page.
Clara is doing well in the fifth grade here. She just had a talent show where she stood on stage and sang Taylor Swift's I'd Lie in front of a couple of hundred people, where she received lots of compliments. The video is linked on her video page linked here. She is also in the school band where she plays the clarinet. In summer, she went to summer camp in the local mountains with the Girl Scouts of America.
In March, I was on a field trip with Clara's class, where we spent the night on an old ship from the 1800's. We had to 'crew' the ship for about 18 hours, including a one and a half hour shift in the middle of the night. I did not get much sleep that night. We are still waiting for those pictures, but we took another trip to the museum and those pictures are here.
Marius turned five in March and has recently learned to swim. Some video is on his video page linked here. He has also been spending a lot
of time learning the alphabet and numbers. He is learning in both languages, thanks Rikke for sending the DK workbooks:) All three of the kids are doing real good with the English language. It is amazing to hear them talk and switch between the two languages.
Nina has started as a volunteer assistant trainer for Caroline's gymnastic team. She has experience doing that kind of gymnastics. She has been going three hours a day 5 days a week. She has also joined a fitness center and started running.
We have taken a few road trips over the last few months. We drove up to northern California, where we visited my brother near Eureka. The drive down the coast on Highway 1 was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever taken. We then spent a couple of days in San Francisco near the wharf and took a tour to Alcatraz Prison. The pictures from that trip are here.
A few weeks ago we took a drive out to the local desert, Anza-Borrego, to see the desert blooming with wild flowers and cactus flowers. Clara and I researched the web for all the types of flowers and then took pictures and labeled them. The gallery is here.
The Easter Bunny showed up at our house again for Easter Sunday. He took a picture holding a drawing that Marius made for him. Lene and Anna came over to hunt eggs and then we went of to Tom and Roseanne's (Phillip's parents) for a nice family Easter Sunday. We experienced a fairly large earthquake on that day, where the water in their pool moved back and forth for a long time. Since that day, we have had over 1000 small earthquakes in the
region. I expect to see a large one to hit further up the fault line, near Palm Springs.
Last week we just took a trip out to Arizona. We stayed in Laughlin, Nevada and drove to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Jerome, and Lake Havasu. This is the area where I grew up. Pictures from that trip are here.
We are doing well. We have rented a three bedroom apartment in a nice part of town. The complex has a nice pool area, fitness room, and steam and sauna rooms. There is a two car garage, which has most of our stuff in it, since the place is much smaller than our five bedroom house. Since there are only three bedrooms, Marius and Clara have to share a room, but they are sharing quite well.
We have had great weather and we are enjoying the beautiful outdoors here. We frequently take day trips to the beach for walks or take drives along the coast.
I have not found a job, which has put a strain on our savings. I have started my own consulting company, and have done a few consulting jobs, but that is not enough.
In January, I decided to go back to school to complete the two year degree, which I did not complete before I moved to Denmark in 1993. I finished an eight week health/fitness course in March, but still have a Sociology class and a Computer class to finish by end of May. I have started doing a lot of training including a lot of racquetball, biking and work outs. I am in the best shape I have been in for years.
Take care everyone!
Rick Nina, Caroline, Clara, and Marius
*** Note: On the video pages, there is a playlist button next to the play button. So click that to see if there are more clips.
Caroline is a freshman in High School (9th grade), where she is on the varsity gymnastic team, which is normally made up of juniors and seniors (11th and 12th grades). She has had several competitions so far and placed within the top six each time. She is competing in three disciplines out of four now: Vault, Floor, and Beam. I have been filming her and the team and the videos are in good quality on YouTube. They are linked on this page.
Clara is doing well in the fifth grade here. She just had a talent show where she stood on stage and sang Taylor Swift's I'd Lie in front of a couple of hundred people, where she received lots of compliments. The video is linked on her video page linked here. She is also in the school band where she plays the clarinet. In summer, she went to summer camp in the local mountains with the Girl Scouts of America.
In March, I was on a field trip with Clara's class, where we spent the night on an old ship from the 1800's. We had to 'crew' the ship for about 18 hours, including a one and a half hour shift in the middle of the night. I did not get much sleep that night. We are still waiting for those pictures, but we took another trip to the museum and those pictures are here.
Marius turned five in March and has recently learned to swim. Some video is on his video page linked here. He has also been spending a lot
of time learning the alphabet and numbers. He is learning in both languages, thanks Rikke for sending the DK workbooks:) All three of the kids are doing real good with the English language. It is amazing to hear them talk and switch between the two languages.
Nina has started as a volunteer assistant trainer for Caroline's gymnastic team. She has experience doing that kind of gymnastics. She has been going three hours a day 5 days a week. She has also joined a fitness center and started running.
We have taken a few road trips over the last few months. We drove up to northern California, where we visited my brother near Eureka. The drive down the coast on Highway 1 was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever taken. We then spent a couple of days in San Francisco near the wharf and took a tour to Alcatraz Prison. The pictures from that trip are here.
A few weeks ago we took a drive out to the local desert, Anza-Borrego, to see the desert blooming with wild flowers and cactus flowers. Clara and I researched the web for all the types of flowers and then took pictures and labeled them. The gallery is here.
The Easter Bunny showed up at our house again for Easter Sunday. He took a picture holding a drawing that Marius made for him. Lene and Anna came over to hunt eggs and then we went of to Tom and Roseanne's (Phillip's parents) for a nice family Easter Sunday. We experienced a fairly large earthquake on that day, where the water in their pool moved back and forth for a long time. Since that day, we have had over 1000 small earthquakes in the
region. I expect to see a large one to hit further up the fault line, near Palm Springs.
Last week we just took a trip out to Arizona. We stayed in Laughlin, Nevada and drove to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Jerome, and Lake Havasu. This is the area where I grew up. Pictures from that trip are here.
We are doing well. We have rented a three bedroom apartment in a nice part of town. The complex has a nice pool area, fitness room, and steam and sauna rooms. There is a two car garage, which has most of our stuff in it, since the place is much smaller than our five bedroom house. Since there are only three bedrooms, Marius and Clara have to share a room, but they are sharing quite well.
We have had great weather and we are enjoying the beautiful outdoors here. We frequently take day trips to the beach for walks or take drives along the coast.
I have not found a job, which has put a strain on our savings. I have started my own consulting company, and have done a few consulting jobs, but that is not enough.
In January, I decided to go back to school to complete the two year degree, which I did not complete before I moved to Denmark in 1993. I finished an eight week health/fitness course in March, but still have a Sociology class and a Computer class to finish by end of May. I have started doing a lot of training including a lot of racquetball, biking and work outs. I am in the best shape I have been in for years.
Take care everyone!
Rick Nina, Caroline, Clara, and Marius
*** Note: On the video pages, there is a playlist button next to the play button. So click that to see if there are more clips.