Last updated: 16/12/03

Welcome to our 2003 webpage. We thought it was time again to tell (and show) you how we are. And we especially wanted to show some of you abroad our "holiday" pictures, as many of you helped us to have a great summer. Onze excuses dat deze pagina niet in het Nederlands is, maar alles 2 keer intypen is echt iets te veel. De Nederlanders begrijpen vaak wel Engels maar andersom meestal niets.

Sabbatical leave at NRAO Socorro

Huib went to Socorro first, spending the first 3 weeks there alone. Here you see Phebe and Toine on arrival at Albuquerque. They look quite fit after the long journey, the accompanying adults, Lisette and her sister Dionne, could not be photographed...

We lived the first 4 weeks in the NRAO guesthouse, enjoying the friendly atmosphere of Socorro and meeting many old friends. Huib was working on his astronomical research for a change. It was hot, very hot, but the local college swimming pool came to the rescue. In fact Toine learned to swim in this desert place!

From Socorro Lisette, Dionne, Phebe and Toine took many day trips. Here you see them outside the Pueblo Indian village of Acoma. Many famous Western movies were recorded here; our kids are just acting like it is realy hot in New Mexico

And they are not enjoying the snow here. This is Lisette's prize winning picture of White Sands on a two day trip into Southern New Mexico. Still, when crossing the mountains an hour later the background thunderstorm caught up with them and they saw some real hail and snow!

We had a party at the van Moorsels house (many thanks!). It was a good moment to get together with old friends. Fortunately for Lisette some salmon managed to find its way to Socorro, so she too could enjoy the barbecue that was held in honour of her birthday.

Many days ended with some sports on Tech field. This is the only time of the day one (could possibly) feel like running at this altitude and temperature. Here Huib and Lorant have decided to leave the game because they felt very social...

Long weekend to Santa Fe

With Dionne we spent a long weekend in Santa Fe, visiting various places in Northern New Mexico. Here you see us in front of one of the earliest churches in the US. Yes the car seats 5...

Below you see us at the Santa Fe market. Yes, some jewelry was purchased. Then there is a photo of Santa Fe at night. It almost looks like a Christmas card!

We took a tour of Bandelier National Monument, a shallow canyon with Indian ruins. It takes 10 little bottles of water for a 3 mile hike.

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

With Ylva's help Toine and Phebe had some real cowboy experiences. This had such an impact on them, we had to go and find them an appropriate outfit afterwards!

The last week we had a tour of Northern New Mexico, Western Colorado and the SouthEast of Utah. Our first stop was Durango, where we stopped to hike in the mountains. Toine did some rock climbing at a ski-resort. We visited the old mining, new tourism town of Silverton, where the men visited a saloon. Then we stayed in Montrose and visited the magnificent, but less known Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Trip to Colorado and Utah

On we went to Utah, for 3 nights in Moab. There you can visit Arches national park, with arches and this magnificent balanced rock. The sites of the arches are often quite a walk from the car park and by the end of the day there were not enough bottles of water left for the entire family to reach the famous landscape arch. Huib made it and some other tourist took the picture. The hat was really popular that day.

Also from Moab you can tour Canyonlands for a day. The agreement was that the kids did not have to hike that day. But Phebe still managed to get into the sun for a picture in front of this Canyon.

Finally we stopped in Cortez for a visit to the ruins in Mesa Verde. Then we went to Albuquerque and back to Socorro for a day to pick up our lugage. Return the car, and then back home. We had a great time (we have 340 more fotos to prove it if you care...).

2003 in Hoogeveen

Finally a few fotos from back home. This autumn was Toine's first season as a Soccer player. "De Weide F7" lost the first few matches, but then they started to get into it and had a few spectacular draws and wins. There is also a very nice foto of Toine's birthday party, where some of you may recognize the local kids (if anybody reads this far). Phebe has picked up piano playing and has made great progress. She gave her first concert in a local church for a benefit for a school in Gambia. She looks a bit nervous, but every key was hit right!