Germany

OK, so I'm very far behind in blogging. Life has been so busy!!! Please bare with me because these pictures are going to be backwards. I am stealing a few minutes to catch up a teensy bit and don't have enough time to fix the order of the pictures. These first few are Jansen & Julia's apartment in Wurzburg. These pictures were taken on Sunday, the day before I left.Their kitchen

View from their balcony

Living Room

The next set of pictures were taken in Potsdam. On Saturday, Julia's parents, Heinz and Angelika, Jansen, Julia and I went to Potsdam. It was a very neat town and I had a good time.

I had some real German gingerbread!!! It was very good.

Potsdam

The grounds of the castle

Heinz, Angelika, Julia and Jansen on the grounds

Jansen & me

me

I like windmills (well, the old style, not the new ones)

Friday evening, we went to the Open Markets in Berlin and then to a little bar.

Julia and me

Jansen and me

Heina and me at the Open Markets

The next pictures are of my hotel room in Berlin.

On Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at 6 PM, my plane left Houston to fly to Germany. I arrived about 11 AM on Thursday(about 4 AM our time), made it through customs, found the trains, got on my train, got off because I was in first class and everyone was staring at me, went to find 2nd class and the train left. For anyone who ever plans to travel to Europe and take a train. . . DO NOT GET OFF THE TRAIN! They only stay about a minute, two at the most. I was supposed to walk through the cars to get to my area. Live and learn, right? So, I waited an hour, got on the next train and and arrived in Wurzburg, Germany at 3 PM (for us, it was 8 AM). Jansen and Julia picked me up at the airport and we started the 5 hour drive to Berlin. Then, I checked into my hotel, and went to Julia's parents house for dinner. I was about to sleep on the table I was so tired!

Friday we drove by the church Jansen & Julia will get married at and met Julia's friends Nina and Laura and had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant where we all got to visit and chat. Friday evening we went to the Open Markets in Berlin and had a nice evening.

Saturday we went to Potsdam and that night we had a nice dinner at an authentic German restaurant and I had the best chicken and noodles. It is so easy to dry out chicken breast but this was wonderful! And the noodles were in a creamy mushroom sauce and it was delicious!! Saturday night I got to go out with Jansen and Julia and meet many of their friends. I had a very nice time meeting everyone and it was nice to remember that I'm a real person with thoughts outside of being a mom. None of the people we were with had children other than me, so we talked about so many other things. It was strange to me, but a lot of fun!

Sunday, Jansen and I drove to Wurzburg and had dinner at my favorite German restaurant, Auflaf!!! I also got to meet Jansen's friends and had a very nice time.
Monday morning, Jansen and I got up super early and he drove me to the airport in Frankfurt and I flew home. I was so happy to see my family that I started crying like a baby in the parking lot. I had a wonderful trip and am so happy I got to go!

Halloween

We had a nice Halloween. During the day, Heather and I helped the boys paint their pumpkins and while the boys were napping, Heather and I carved our pumpkins.

Zachary (and Heather's) pumpkin

Caleb (and my) pumpkin

My carved pumpkins

Heather's pumpkin

Heather's other pumpkin

For dinner, our friends, the Thorntons, invited us over for dinner and we had delicious homemade pizza! We had a wonderful time and are so thankful we have nice friends to spend time with. After dinner, we came home and helped the kids change into their costumes. Heather decided she was "too old" to trick or treat this year, so she stayed home to pass out candy.

I tried to take Zachary trick or treating, but he wasn't sure of the whole concept just yet. He mainly wanted to run in the street. If he did go up to a house, he wouldn't hold his bag and he would try to reach in the bowl and grab a lot of candy. At one house, he dumped his bag out on the driveway. So, I ended up going home with him while Paul and Caleb went. Caleb apparently had his first big scares this year. A man was wearing a skeleton costume that apprently was made to look like a stuffed one sitting in a chair. The pretend skeleton was sitting next to a woman who was passing out candy. When Caleb went up to the lady to ask for candy, the man jumped up and terrified poor Caleb. At another house, they had some spooky decorations that made it appear that something was hiding in the bushes waiting to get you. Paul thinks it had some type of motion sensor that made the bushes shake and the lights go on and off. Caleb wanted nothing to do with that house. After Paul and Caleb got home, Heather came in and announced that she wanted to go, as she had seen many of her friends. We weren't comfortable with her going out by herself in the dark, so we told her she could on the street. That made her happy enough for this year. Next year, she plans on going with her friends.