Europe - Germany Part 1

A little over a month ago, Stu informed me that he had to make a trip over to Paris and Germany for some meetings, and that it would probably be for around two weeks that he would be gone.  Fortunately that statement was quickly followed by, "Do you think we could all go?"  Yep!  We had in depth discussions that our youngest is perhaps the world's worst night sleeper, and we wondered what the consequences would be with transporting her across 8 time zones.  Couldn't be too much worse than it already is, right?  :)  Famous last words... It actually hasn't been terribly bad.  You can't really expect a 9 month old and a 3 year old to fully understand the concept of time zones and jet lag.  I will say that I do not have any immediate plans to do this trip again.  I even sent an e-mail as to why I don't want to make super long trips to Stu that I told him he has to save for the next time I get the urge to go.  Abbey has been awake since 2:00 this morning and Amelia was up for I think 4 hours in the middle of the night.  It was still worth it.  

The first bit of excitement we had was during our connection at Washington Dulles.  We decided to have dinner at a restaurant near our gate.  As I sat down, I looked at the table next to us and I leaned over to Stu and said, "That lady looks a lot like Betty White."  Sure enough, it was!  I didn't want to ask for an autograph or take a picture.  So alas, no actual tangible memory of it.  She was very, incredibly nice, though.  As we were leaving the restaurant she said something very nice to us about the girls.  

Back to the trip.

Snuggled into bed to watch Dora after a long day, night and day of flying and driving:

 Jet lag snack.  Taken at about 1:00 am.

 One of my favorite pictures from the trip...

 We were able to get together with a bunch of friends during our time in Erlangen.

We were glad to meet lil' sis Tess!

 Bretzel!

 One of my roommates from college recently moved to Germany... she made the drive from Stuttgart to come visit us for part of the day (so thankful she was able to... thanks, Stephanie!).  It was so nice to see her and meet her little guy!  

 I am pretty sure that everybody that came to visit us while we lived in Germany has eaten at this cafe in Nuremberg...

 We made the hike up the hill to the castle in Nuremberg.  It was pretty warm, and the hill is very steep.  That stroller is heavy, too.

 I love this picture:

 Went to visit our old neighbors... funny to see these two together after a year and half!

We drove to our friend Anja's village to have lunch with her and her daughter:

 More play time with Luna...

Luna has an English accent... after the few times that she and Abbey played together, Abbey had developed an English accent.  Another of our favorite things was when we had lunch with some English friends, Abbey was playing with their little girl and said, "Hey girl! (American accent) Here's your ball! (English accent)."  

The huge Bierfestival in Erlangen started while we were there, so there were lots of people in their Trachtenmode (traditional Bavarian dress).  This felt so very German to me:

 Better go get some rest... Part 2 coming soon...

Cabin

My parents have a cabin in the mountains that is about 2 hours from our house.  This weekend Stu, Abbey and I made the trip up there to have a nice relaxing weekend.  This was Abbey's first trip there, and our first trip back in 3 years... we have really missed it!

There is a stable with horses right behind the cabin so we went to go see them.  Unfortunately I was moving when I took this picture, so it's a bit blurry.  She was a bit uncertain about the horses...

We went on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  The trail where we started is at an elevation of 9450 feet (~2880 meters for my metric friends).  As you can see, there is still quite a bit of snow, but it was so warm outside!   

The top of this sign would normally come about to the top of my head!

We had a nice picnic by the river when we were finished hiking.

Abbey loved her newfound independence while we were up there.  We would be sitting on the deck and she would get up and say, "Be right back" and in she would go to get a toy.  

An American institution... S'mores!

Abbey loved it so much that she cried when we got home.  She wanted to go back to the "new house."  Stu and I are glad that she is of a like mind when it comes to the mountains and the cabin!

Frogs and Hogs

Okay, so there are really no hogs, but I liked the ring to it.  "Frogs and Farm Animals" didn't sound as good.  A small museum near us had an exhibition with exotic frogs.  Abs saw the picture in the paper and got very excited about it, so we went to (in her words) "See frogs!  See frogs!  See frogs!"

The town we live in isn't very big (less than 50,000) and it is surrounded by ranches and farms.  There are a lot of horses and cows in this region.  Another thing we saw in the paper was an ad for "May Days."  It was sponsored by an agriculture group in our area and was held out at a farm about 10 minutes from our house.  Abbey has a healthy respect of animals.  She loves them, but tends to prefer them with a piece of glass between her and them (see above) or about 10 feet.  It took about 30 minutes and some very cute ducklings to get her to warm up to the farm animals at May Days.  She didn't want to leave.

Notice the duck to the left in the pond.  Abs is doing her best to mimick them.

If I lived on a farm, I would like to imagine it would be something like this one.  Less than 10 minutes to our downtown, close-by neighbors...

with a nice view of Pikes Peak in the distance.  Living on a farm seems like a lot of work.  Maybe I could have an acre or 2, though.

Abbey made sure the sheep were a healthy distance away before she started running after them.



Riviera Maya, Mexico

This last week we spent 8 sun (and fun!) filled days at an all-inclusive resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico.  Our resort was between Cancun and Playa del Carmen.  I am sure all-inclusive resorts are great for everyone, but let me assure you of this... when you are 17 weeks pregnant and your cumulative weight gain during that 17 weeks is minus 1 pound, an all-inclusive resort is completely fantastic.  With the exception of not being able to have a glass of wine or 2, and having to limit my caffeine intake somewhat, I ate to my little heart's (and baby's little heart's) content.  I think I even came home with a pound or 2 to prove it.  That and about 475 pictures.  Stu's parents came along and we enjoyed being able to spend time with them.  So here are some photo highlights of our trip... one photo subject is of course more frequently highlighted than any other.  Sorry about the high number of pictures.  I should have broken this into 2 blogs.  

The week of sugary treats started with ice cream at the first meal:

The hotel we stayed at was a European-based hotel, so there were a lot of different cultures there.  I loved seeing German again.  I didn't know that "Kein Obenohne" was how you said "No Topless."  Once upon a time I spoke some Spanish and understood some as well.  Most of my Spanish was replaced by German over the last 2 years, so this week my Spanish turned out something like this: "Le gusta un poco de Cafe und ganz viel Wasser."  So the first half of the sentence in Spanish and the second half in German.  It was either that way or when I was asked a question in Spanish, I would respond in German.  

More sugary goodness!

I don't know what this thing was, but they were everywhere!

Abbey really loved the sand and the first few feet of the ocean.

Surfer girl!

The after-effects of a morning at the beach...

Watching the Teppanyaki being prepared...

Mariachi band...

Yet even more sugary goodness... chocolate on top of it!

The last morning... just about all the fun we could have.