More Parks, More Playing and a Trip to the Wine Festival in Stuttgart

Cool Hammock swing

Sarah was such a good sport

Spider web rope jungle

Silly kiddo

Climbing the bridge

The park even had a steam engine train you could ride for 1 Euro on Sundays

Then we rode the train up to Stuttgart with another family to walk around the wine festival. It was the first weekend we were there and we had a great time. Everything is just so beautiful!!

Let Me Start From the Beginning . . .

O.K. the time between August 26th and December 11th has disappeared into a land far, far away. I think I am just so overwhelmed by all that we have been doing, seeing, and experiencing I have verbally shutdown. I can't even begin to tell you how much I LOVE living in Europe, but people, it is no easy task. We were a one car family for FAR TO LONG. God bless you folks out there that can hack it as a 1 car family but clearly I am not one of those people. Anyway, to give you a glimpse into our lives here let me start from the beginning.

There is a beautiful park near the hotel that we spent a lot of time at. They had hundreds of different birds that were kept there. Plus a good restaurant and a playground!

They had an awesome slide that for some reason our kids were terrified of in the beginning but once we shamed them into going down it we couldn't get them off. They loved it with such passion that Eric pushed a little German girl down it because she apparently hesitated at the top and Eric was ready to GO!! You're welcome!! 

Lightning McQueen is EVERYWHERE. Almost more than America. This is at a grocery store in the area.

Our first German candy goodies! 

And God bless the Schnitzel!! The boy's love it and it always comes with pommes (fries).

Onkel Otto's in Sindelfingen. Home of the MONSTER SCHNITZEL that is bigger than your plate. No we did not order that. Their regular schnitzel challenged the edges of our plates. Yikes!!

Them we hit Hoffmeister, which is a huge furniture store like Ikea that always has some sort of entertainment in their parking lot. In September they had water boats . . . 

Choo Choo Trains . . .

And cute little girls . . . Oh wait that one is ours!! Hi Sarah!

We did A LOT of walking because our van hadn't arrived yet and we hadn't gotten our German Driver's Licenses yet either. It was good for us and really forced us to brush up on our German and get to know the area. The first place we ate was Burger King and I ended up eating some sort of chicken sandwich with curry sauce on it because I didn't know the words at the time to order it without sauce. But, like I tell the boy's "a picky person is a hungry person" You just have to roll with it. 

Best 25¢ I Ever Spent

Well, after we all went to the new movie "Monster's University" we decided to eat at "Jessie's". I look over while we are waiting for our food and see the vending machines have stick on mustache's . . . . let the crazy ensue!!

VERY nice Troy!!

Eric you look dashing in your blond 'stache!!

Why Sarah, props on the mustache!!

Rockin' the blond stache like nobody's business!!

Ooooh Eric I like that one too!!

Then it got a little creepy!! I'm not to sure about this look.

Notice we have one member of our family MIA? All of this was to much for stuffy old Jacob. How dare we partake of such sophomoric silliness. We love you but LIGHTEN UP kiddo!!! When you least expect it you will get 'stached'!!

So the morale of the story is, the next time you go to "Jessie's" pick up a mustache or 6 and have a good old time!!

Sarah's 1st Tooth

Sarah got her first tooth on Father's Day at 6 1/2 months! She's on her way to a toothy smile!

A Well Deserved Tiny Vacation

We have been meaning to visit Biltmore Estates for years. The house and gardens are absolutely beautiful!! What a treasure! 

The Biltmore Babe!! LOL

The Biltmore was just amazing everywhere you turned!! You aren't allowed to take pictures inside so you will have to see for yourself how gorgeous all 250 rooms are!!

Then we headed over to the Biltmore Barn. They had an animal petting area, a blacksmith, a woodworker, a playground, a maze and a vineyard.

The boy's loved every minute of that!

The next day we headed south to check out Chimney Rock

Jacob walked by and saw they had opportunities to rock climb and said "I want to do that" We didn't skip a beat. If he felt up to the challenge we say go for it!!

and off he went. . . 

up, up  . . . . .

a quick lesson in coming down . . .

and off he went!!

Wow!! Way to go buddy. Although I would be lying if I said it went off without a hitch. During his descent he got to a ledge and looked over and said "o.k. I'm a little scared now" The instructor climbed right up and brought him down, coaching him the whole way. She was amazing. What a great experience!! I'm so proud of him.

Next we climbed up Chimney rock. It is a 315 foot monolith and it is 495 stairs to the top. That was Eric's moment to shine. He made it to the top first!! Then we all rode the elevator down!!

Me and My little Lady

My men!!

What a great couple of Days!! And a huge thanks to Aunt Cher for flying out even though our moving plans got changed. We had a fantastic time and we're so glad you came and we hope you had as great of a time as we did. I will never forget Jacob whispering in my ear "She's the greatest" about his sweet Aunt Cher!! We all love you to pieces!!

6 Months

Sarah turned 6 months last week. I'm getting a little behind on pics since the moving news!! She likes her rice cereal but is not a real big fan of carrots or pears. The boy's both loved carrots right away so I will have to be creative with her. Praying for a non-picky eater this time. The boy's weren't picky at all when they were babies and now they are terribly picky. Maybe Sarah will be the opposite, picky baby food eater but not picky later. Riiiight......we'll go with that theory. I'll let you know how that pans out. 

Rice cereal pics to come. : )

Where are we moving this summer?

Well, if you would have asked me that 5 months ago I would have told you "Yakima, Washington and we are so excited". Well, those orders fell apart.

If you had asked me 2 months ago I would have said "we are moving to Yuma, Arizona and we are so excited"!!

Even if you would have asked me yesterday I still would have said "Yuma of course. The packers come next monday silly."

Well, what a difference a day makes.

Now ask me where we are going now that the position in Yuma has magically evaporated in the desert heat? (Yep, those orders got trashed too.)

Today, as of 2 hours ago, I get the honor of telling you to "go ahead and look us up the next time you are in Southern Germany". I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. We are beyond excited. What a thrill and chance of a lifetime. We vacationed in Germany 3 years ago and LOVED every minute of it but to actually live there. . . . WOW! It is a dream come true. I'm jumping up and down with excitement even though my insides are having a panic attack about moving all this stuff and 2 kids and a baby to a country where we don't speak the language. LOL!! That's all small potatoes, who cares we're moving to Germany!! We'll figure it out! August can't come soon enough. Off to our next adventure!!