Finally.. after more than 38 weeks, the twins are here! Our son Kaya and daughter Liz were born on July 8th 2008. We’re so proud.. (and tired.. haha)

Liz, on the left, was 2590 grams and Kaya, on the right, was 3102 grams

For those who wonder: ‘kaya’ is the Malay/Indonesian word for ‘rijk’ (= rich). So we decided to name him after his dad, granddad etc.. after all, but in a not-so-traditional-way. The name Liz we just liked

A new area in our life has begun.

Welkom op de web-log van de twinz van Ruth & Rijk-Jan.

And we do too..
The obvious thing has happened: new life is on the way!

Do you see what surprised us as well?
Yep, TWINS!
gotta do what you gotta do right..

We’re very happy of course and since that first ultrasound the babies have grown into real people.

Here they are at 20 weeks. (and yes: boy & girl, hurray!)

So now we’re waiting for them to really show themselves, somewhere at the end of June, beginning of July.

It’s been a while and we’ve been married for almost 5 months now! The party in Belanda was very nice, over a 100 people showed up, which was a big surprise for us. And hard work as well, we were busy welcoming people, chatting and saying goodbye. And WOW, we got spoiled.. a lot of presents and a lot of sponsoring for our new espresso-machine.

So here it is! Stylish black and useful for coffee as well. We like!

Of course you saw just a few pics from our wedding in this wed-log. Well, here it is, finally: the link to some great pictures of our trip to Indonesia and the weddingpics from Merijn. And some pics of the beachparty in Belanda as well (thanks to Maria & Jan and Brigit!). Enjoy!
 Indonesia  weddingpics  partyBelanda 

So here it is, finally: information about our party in Belanda (Holland):

Friday September 14, from 17h00 until about midnight. The party will be at the beach in Utrecht. Yes, we do have a beach after all!
Go to Strand Oog in Al to look for directions.

Remember that the weather can be very.. well.. not like Indonesia. So check the weathersites and bring a sweater if you think you’ll going to need one. It’s also possible to sit inside and the terrace has big umbrella’s if needed.
Dress casual and colorful or any way you like! Oh, and bring your loved-one too..

Please let us know if you’re planning to come to the party: ruthandrijkjan[at]hotmail.com or phone us! Before august 31 if possible.

And for all those people asking us what they should give us… Well, first: you ‘shouldn’t’ give us anything Second: just a little envelope… We are planning to buy a nice espresssomachine and other toolies & stuff for our house. And please remember to come by and enjoy a nice cup of coffee at our new dinnertable then!

Hope to see you all September 14!

And isn’t that a nice picture… thanks to Merijn who took about 300 pics at our wedding (take a look at his website:Merijn )

For the ones that prefer reading in Dutch, here it comes..:

———- NEDERLANDS ———-

We vieren ons trouwfeestje op vrijdag 14 september, vanaf 17.00 uur tot ongeveer middernacht. De lokatie is het strand van Utrecht: Strand Oog in Al , op hun site kun je ook routeaanwijzigingen vinden voor auto, OV of fiets.

Denk eraan dat het weer in NL nogal wisselvallig is, we hebben geen garantie dat het een stralende nazomerdag wordt.. Dus check de weerberichten en neem een trui of andere warme kleding mee als je denkt die nodig te hebben. Er is een strandpaviljoentje waar je ook binnen kunt zitten en het terras is overdekt indien dat nodig is.
Kleed je kleurrijk en/of zoals je wilt, en neem je lief mee.

Laat ons liefst voor 31 augustus weten of je komt, via ons mailadres ruthandrijkjan[at]hotmail.com of een van onze telefoonnummers.

Voor al die mensen die vragen wat ze ons moeten geven: Als eerste: je ‘moet’ ons niets geven; Ten tweede: het envelopje.. We willen graag een espressomachine kopen en andere leuke spullen voor in ons huis. Vergeet ook niet een keer langs te komen daarna voor een bakje koffie aan onze nieuwe eettafel (en de nieuwe stoelen die we dan eindelijk hebben uitgezocht..).

Hopelijk tot 14 september!

———- EINDE NEDERLANDS ———-

just to give you an idea about this wedding and the fun we had, here some video’s to enjoy. Again, thanx to witness nr. 2

Well, finally! We’re almost back home, but thanks to witness nr 2 (that’s what it said on the certificate..), Corine, we are now able to show you some pictures of the wedding.

This is our walk down the isle.. they know how to decorate in Indonesia! Although the ‘orange’ theme didn’t succeed, but who cares.. it was orange, yellow and pink, wow!

After the religious ceremony we have to do pictures with the minister and the little girls.

Husband and wife in the cidomo that would take us for a ride around the island. Well, not around, just to the north and back. There were probably 10 or 15 people taking photographs at the time, lots of them we didn’t know..!

The wedding cake.. it was a really nice one. And Sophie: we put your ‘couple’ beside this one after we unwrapped your present!

The wedding party, 10 people! More than we expected We thought it was awesome that they decided to come. Thank you guys!

This is how it looked at night. We were having a private romantic dinner there.

I think they had a good time in Indonesia..

That’s it for now! We will bore you with lots more when we’re back home. Now we enjoy our last days of holiday here in Indonesia, on Nusa Lembongan. Saturday we fly to Singapore, where we will spend 1 day, and mondaymorning we’re back in Utrecht..
Bye bye!

We do, we will, we are… just married!

The day was really relaxed and wonderful. We had the whole morning (and part of the afternoon) to do some snorkeling, getting massage and facial, arranging some last details (music), rehearse and get ready. There were 2 little Indonesian girls in traditional clothing (apart from the cute little sneakers that one of them was wearing ) to accompany us and there we were, in front of a lot of people.. At least 8 of them we actually knew, the rest was just passing by, having a break from plunging in the hotel-swimmingpool or well.. we don’t know where all these people came from! We do know that they were all making pictures…! And why isn’t there a picture in this wedlog? We don’t have them. Yet. Bummer! So, just to give you kind of an idea: Rijk-Jan was wearing light-brown trousers and a fancy white blouse, Ruth had a white (what??! yes.. white..) dress with some batik details and *blingbling* white shoes.

And: we said "yes I do" and "yes I will" and we’re really happy!

Tomorrow we leave Gili Trawangan, back to Bali. First do some last paperwork in Kuta and then we start our honeymoon. Don’t know exactly where we will spend the rest of our time in Indonesia. Will keep you posted again.

Thanks for all the best wishes in this log, via sms, special delivery, fax or email!

Time flies… we’ve been in Indonesia for almost 2 weeks now. And, more important: 3 days away from the wedding. Getting nervous? Well, a bit. But today we arrived at Gili Trawangan, with a transfer from Vila Ombak (a nice speedboat, now we’re really getting off the backpacker-track..), and it looks great We’ve also done our first dive here around the island, actually not our first dive in Indonesia, because we’ve done 2 dives in Tulamben, where you can find a nice shipwreck. On Bali we’ve also been to the little town Tirta Gangga, with beautiful views on mount Agung and the ricefields and a nice royal waterpalace. Done some walking and hanging around and then went back to Kuta to pick up friends and family. There was a nice big surprise for us when Merijn showed up in Kuta as well! So it’s a party of ten in the end after all!

Gili T. is more crowded than 3 years ago, which is good news for tourism here, but apparently not good for sleeping, the party goes on all night. And then there’s the mosque.. That’s a big difference from Bali ofcourse, Lombok is mainly moslim. We recognize lots of bars and places and people and we love it. We’re in a homestay right next to the little beach and right next to a new hip bar. RJ hates it, Ruth loves it, we’re obviously made for eachother.

Since yesterday morning we are finally ready for the wedding: Rijk-Jan has found his wedding-flipflops! Getting to Gili was the hard thing to do because the direct Peramaboat that we wanted to use had broken down. So we had to do the bus-ferry-bus-night in Senggigi-boat-thing after all. Made us miss one dive, so that’s not too bad. And we met some nice people who might want to crash a wedding party at the 5th of June

We would love to show you some pictures, but that would take too much time. The sign of this internetcafe says ‘broadband internet’, but really… I’m doubting it. So this is it, for now. The next message will probably be about the wedding. Cheers!

We’re in Indonesia again! Excellent! Weird, but when we get out of the plane en step out of the airport, the smell of kretek, sate and tropical heat is enough to get us right back into the Indo-mode. Although the traveling is different now, because we have lots to arrange: we’ve never been in so many taxi’s. Very-not-backpacker-like… Oh who cares, we’re getting married. We’ve been looking for dresses, shirts, rings, accomodation, arranging photographs, documents and stuff for 2 days now. So we’re ready for some relaxing time. Tomorrow we go to Amed or Tulamben, to do some diving and relaxing. Sunday we come back to Kuta to pick up 3 friends and get the (pre-)party started. On monday RJ’s parents arrive and his brother with girlfriend will join us the beginning of June. Will they like Indonesia as much as we do??!!
You want more details about the wedding? Well, today we talked to miss Lia from Vila Ombak about some details: colour of the decoration (not telling yet), text for the weddingcake (no, not telling either, but it’s nothing too kinky..), favorite flowers (not telling because I don’t know the name, but there’s also some jasmine involved) and the cidomo-ride around the island we’ll get after the wedding. And Ruth is fitting her dress next monday (DEFINITELY not telling!), RJ is still in doubt about his outfit (so really not able to tell you), finding rings is a drag (it’s getting boring, nothing to tell!), but Ruth found some flipflops (but.. are they for the wedding??).
Wow, that’s really no information at all, is it..? So: stay tuned for more stories!