The Luminati Family

Day by Day

2012-01-30T08:14:00.005-05:00

As we inch closer to February, I wanted to post what the girls are up to.

Kate asked me to come in to her room one day and see something. "See, Mommy" she said to me, "I made a chalice." (Well, that's just what I was going to call it!)

They love their matching shirts from Great Gramie and Great Papa. We miss you, Great Papa, and sure do love you, Great Gramie!

Blowing kisses, mid-blow.

They set up their own "hotel room" in our guest bathroom. Basically they brought all the toys from the lower level and all the jackets and shoes from the foyer and put it all in there. How proud they were!

As Ellie continually battles bronchitus (or forms of bronchial infections) we have added a nebulizer to our daily routine. We call it "Ellie's mask" and (thankfully!) she likes breathing into it.

Sissy even gets to help out.

Kate took this picture and it reminds me of the following one:

...when Ellie was in the German hospital last March. She was so sick with pneumonia! We used a nebulizer then too, and it was awful. Thankfully it's not that bad this time and we are grateful for all your prayers as we battle yet more illness! There may be something to be said for "Germ"any. :) Just kidding, Germany!

Photo Shoot

2012-01-21T12:52:00.003-05:00

Our aspiring photographer went on a photo spree a few days ago. I wanted to share what I thought were her best shots.

The thing I love most about this (besides the fact that I am cosily reading in bed!) is Ellie's eye in the corner.

Excellent shadowing.

I never knew our walls were this interesting.

Don't you just want to know what she's looking at?

Abstract and random.

There were a LOT of shots of the family videos playing while she did her photo shoot. I tried to narrow it down to the best.

And the gorgeous view out our bedroom window!

What we're up to

2012-01-17T14:22:00.004-05:00

The girls have been enjoying a few weeks of their new dance class. It's called "Team Dance" which means the team is the child and the parent. We have a big team. The teacher is really great and she plays some fun songs that have lots of movement in them. It's not a ballet class at ALL, but they like to wear their ballet stuff anyway. It's great fun for the whole team.

Rockin' out.

Here are the girls and Jon making pancakes and sausage. It's one of our favorite breakfasts when Daddy is home on the weekends. K is a tad camera-shy at the moment.

Daddy gave the girls new "guys" (as we call the stuffed animals et all that the girls sleep with) and these are the ONLY "guys" who will make the flight with us when we go visit Daddy in late Feb. See how excited they are? Oh yeah, they were distracted by the pink forks. Who wouldn't be? :)

And this one just makes me laugh. They love the tent (thanks AJ and UA!!) and the CD player (thanks Gram and Pops!) It's on at least once a day. Oh, and for those of you who sent us presents, I promise it won't take as long to get the thank you cards as the birthday gifts did. Hee heee.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T07:54:00.012-05:00

We hope you and your family had a great New Year's day--fireworks and all. We had a wonderful time with some new friends who live in our town and it was great getting to know them better. Having no idea how enthusiastic Germans are about New Year's, we were shocked to see so many fireworks going on all over town. People were shooting them off in the streets! When we drove home (with the girls around 12:30) we had to move debris out of the street so the car wouldn't run over it! It was fun and so memorable. Like much of this past year!

We wanted to share some pictures of our final visit to some Christmas markets. Sorry--there are a lot of pictures! But the markets were so quaint that it was hard to pare the groupings down more than this. Enjoy!

Our first stop was Strasbourg, France. I (Jen) was particularly excited to see it because I'd visited this town almost 20 years ago while on a missionary trip. Of course that was in June and I was 15, so things look a bit different.

One of the personality-filled streets lining the canal.

The dark building on the left is one of the neatest buildings we saw in Strasbourg. It's the Kammerzell Hotel and it was originally built in the 11th century. The stone above the door said 1052. !! It's right across from the cathedral in the main square, which was completely filled with little Christmas market stalls...and everyone's best friend, a huge gingerbread man.

Jon and Ellie, enjoying some of the sights in the cathedral. It had the most amazing atomic clock inside...but we arrived just when the daily video talking about the atomic clock started, so that area was mobbed. But it was still cool.

Lunch in an atmosphere-filled little restaurant down on of the side streets. We find this a classic picture of our girls: Kate, having been asked to look at the camera begrudgingly pleasing us while Ellie simply continues what she was doing. Which, at this point, was putting a pretzel on her nose.

To get the girls more interested in the Christmas markets, we instigate a search for the carousel. Success!

Riding back to the car on mom's shoulders. (Thanks for keeping my hands warm, Ellie.)

The next day, we went back to Strasbourg's Christmas market because we had two girls who wanted to ice skate! We found the rink just before leaving the day before, and since they both wanted to try it and we had time, we obliged. Honestly, we were thrilled that BOTH girls wanted to try it (one being more hesitant of trying new things than the other) and they both loved it. What a fun little rink just for kids with plenty of things to hold on to and play around with. (Mom and Dad included!)

A huge 12th century castle on the hill that you see from the freeway, driving from Strasbourg south to Colmar. It's Haute Koenigsbourg, another sight I saw oh-so-many years ago. We didn't get a chance to go and revisit, but will definitely do so on another trip to the area.

An unexpected surprise as we entered Colmar.

Colmar is our new favorite town to visit. Everything about it was quaint, adorable, lovely, cute, expensive, and French. Some things were better than others, but if you come visit us for any length of time we will probably want to bring you here. It's amazing!

Maybe a distant relative?

Remember what we have the girls search for at each market? We were not disappointed in the turn-of-the-century carousel of Colmar. We all oohed and ahhhed. It looked like a birthday cake and was perfectly situated for our needs...right near our parking garage. Perfect way to end the day in our new favorite town.

We spent this second night in a nearby village called Turksheim. Another gem!

When we finally build our dream home, my windows will look like this: coke bottle glass--my favorite. Isn't it warm and cozy? Makes me want to sit by the fire with an eclair. Or a glass of wine. I'm not picky.

Our last market was kind of an afterthought, but we were so glad we stopped. Munster! Yes, THE Munster, home of the cheese. The market was small, but the gluhwein and the cheese were awesome. Here I am, teaching the girls how to warm our hands at the fire.

A view of the small yet quaint town. See the storks in their nests on top of the building? A symbol of Alsace and quite fun for the girls to see. Ellie saw them and exclaimed, "Flamingos!" That made several people around us laugh. (Truth that French people DO speak English!)

Thanks for touring with us! Come and visit sometime this year--we'd love to show you our new backyard.

P.S. A word on the girls' hats--they were a Christmas gift from Jon's cousin, Sally. Thanks, Sally for the fun hats! The girls love them and they photograph so well! And bravo to Jon for taking such great pictures of our trip using his new camera lens. Way to go, honey!

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T11:25:00.008-05:00

Merry Christmas from the Luminati family. We're so excited to have spent our first Christmas in Germany. We only wish that we could have had some more family around to help celebrate. (maybe next year ... hint, hint). The girls are in their beautiful Christmas dresses. Hopefully we can re-brand them Valentines dresses to get another round of wear out of them.

More pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses. It's a minor miracle to get them looking in the same general direction at the same time ... thank goodness for digital cameras where you don't have to pay for each picture you shoot waiting for that illusive simultanous glance at the camera.

Dancing together in front of the Christmas tree. Ellie was convinced that her pink Princess Aurora shoes were the right complement to the dress. She was also mortified to learn that we wouldn't let here wear them through the ice and snow on the way to Chistmas Eve service at church.

Here are the girls watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Mommy and Daddy are quite happy to have the excuse of "Christmas is over" to preclude any more viewings of this for the next eleven months.

Here's a look at our decorated tree with all those presents. Strangely enough most of the gifts were for the two smallest people. Not sure how that happened. Incidentally, the big present on the right is a whiteboard/easel for the girls. We haven't had any stray markers on the walls yet. I'm thinking we should keep track like signs they have out in front of a lot of military units that talk about the number of days since the last DUI, "It's been 4 days since the last dry erase marker on our white walls ..."

The girls waited semi-patiently for the gift opening to begin. We ended up letting them open all of their presents before Mom and Dad opened theirs. That way Mom and Dad actually got to look at some of their presents while they were opening them while the kinder were off playing with their new toys. For once there were so many new things that for a few minutes they weren't even fighting over who was playing with what.

Even though this was technically a gift for the girls, Mommy was very excited to see a copy of her favorite Veggie Tales episode ... a spoof on Star Trek where the gang all climbs aboad the USS Applepies. We watched this many times on our post-Christmas trip to France (more on that in the next post).

Proof that Daddy was actually there at Christmas, pictured with his new camera lens. Technically he picked this out himself, but Jen did suprise him with a new Kindle too. Now he doesn't have to carry 50 lbs of books with him when he travels (and Jen can take up all of the extra space on our bookshelves).

One present the girls loved was a CD player with some microphones to sing along. They've really never been that vocal about singing, but that has all changed now that they can actually hear themselves over the speakers. No one is ready for American Idol yet, but maybe in a few years.

We hope you had a great Christmas too. Post a comment and let us know how things went for you. More to come soon on our post-Christmas dash through France.

Christmas Preparations

2011-12-24T06:51:00.012-05:00

December has brought our first Christmas in Germany, and we found time to renew some old traditions and celebrate a few new ones. Hope you enjoy the few images below showing our preparations for the big day.

Daddy's aversion to the Euro exchange rate and Mommy's aversion to stray pine needles convinced us to purchase an artificial tree this year, but one thing that doesn't change is the tradition of Daddy's lion as the first ornament on the tree ... only now he gets a little helper.

Here are the girls opening the first presents of the season ... Christmas dresses and a new seasonal wall hanging from Gram and Pops.

Unfortunately, after that, Daddy was off for a two-week trip. In the interim, the girls passed the time by making Christmas cookies and getting ill. We'll only include pictures from the more fun tradition.

Mommy and one of her helpers in the Christmas cookie manufacturing gig.

Here they are taking a much needed break between rounds of cookie decorating. Don't worry Kate's tongue is very clean.

Kate posing by the plates of cookies she decorated for all her teachers.

All three girls at Kate's kindergarten Christmas party. Daddy was sorry to miss this one.

Here are Kate and Ellie decorating "Welcome Home Daddy" signs for his return ... thankfully just a couple of days before the winter weather really started to set in.

The day after Daddy got back, one of our friends had a birthday party and the girls got their first chance to go bowling. They had fun for two or three frames and then scampered back to the play area.

A couple days later we got our first real snowfall of the season. Daddy got sent home early from work and got to pick Kate up from Kindergarten. They spent the next hour together in the front yard ... Daddy shoveling the sidewalks and driveway (you can get a ticket in Germany for failing to do so) and Kate asking Daddy when he was going to be done so they could build a snowman.

After Ellie's nap time, everyone ventured outside to build a snowman, have snowball fights and enjoy playing in the snow. Some of our neighbors joined in too. Here's Ellie helping Daddy pack more snow on the snowman. Kate has already moved on to snowball throwing.

Ellie proudly standing next to the completed snowman. Next it was a series of lessons on the differences between clean and dirty snow, focusing on which kind could be eaten.

Christmas Eve morning Ellie helped Daddy make pancakes. Christmas Eve dinner will be French bread pizza followed by our traditional Christmas morning breakfast burritos. Why is it the majority of traditions seem to center around food?

We'll sign off for now but will be back soon with more about the coming week. There's Christmas Eve service (hopefully with some pictures of the girls in their dresses) then Christmas morning, of course, followed by a trip to Strasbourg and Colmar, France for some last minute post-Christmas Christmas market shopping. We'll see if Europeans have after-Christmas sales like us wacky Americans. Merry Christmas!

New Beds and Chocolate Festival

2011-12-05T09:34:00.005-05:00

You may (or may not) have heard that we got the girls some new beds. It's true! It was quite a find. Jon ran across an ad at our church for a free double bed (just pick it up) so we called and checked it out. The German idea of a double bed is to screw two single beds together (so there's still a space between the mattresses), which works well in our case because we unscrew the beds and voila--two singles. They're pretty big--the size of an extra long twin--and they just barely fit in their room.

Here's Jon, assembling and rearranging. (Kate's helping)

Kate was pretending she was Noah in the ark. The crown is from church that day.

The completed set. Don't ask how long it took to get the sheets, duvets, etc but we did and here they are. Kate loves her bed but Ellie is taking a bit longer to adjust. I can't say I blame her--her bed is easily twice as large as her crib was. But here are our two big girls in their big girl beds. Now please pray they can get more sleep in them! :)

This is just for fun--they've been watching a lot of Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving so Kate put together their indian costumes. Ellie supplied the feathers with a craft from Sunday school.

This past weekend, we went to another Christmas market, this time in one of our favorite towns, Tuebingen. Here's a look down one of the streets in the alstadt (old city)

Some decorations for the fest. It's well-known because it's the only chocolate festival in the country--as far as we know. It's called Chocolart, or the Schokoladenfestival.

Jon and Ellie, taking in the delicious sights.

Enjoying some Daddy time too.

Here's an idea of how crowded it was. VERY. Jon is attempting to give the girls chocolate while holding on to his mug of gluhwein. He's such an expert! We also met our friends the Gallaghers there (Siobhan is in the green coat, off to the left) but I didn't get a good picture of them. In fact, we forgot our camera, so all these shots are taken with my phone.

Ellie, missing her nap but enjoying the outing. (Lovie's having a ball as well.)

We didn't get too much chocolate, but a good time was had by all. What a privilege it is to spend Christmas time here in Germany and experience these fun sights!

The Days are Just Packed

2011-11-28T07:54:00.007-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you had a wonderful time celebrating with family. We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving here in Germany...but I'm getting ahead of myself! Let's back up to earlier this month....

We enjoyed Lauternenlauf (Lantern Walk) with Kate's German kindergarten. It's a fall tradition here, so it was wonderful to join in with all the other parents and kids. The kids hook a lantern that they've made up to a pole and hold them out while we sing songs. Lots of older siblings had their lanterns and some adults did too. Kate is the first kid on the left.

Now this was funny...in typical German fashion, this tradition includes getting outside. So we walked around the park that backs up to the kindergarten, stopping periodically to sing songs. It was definitely chilly but lots of fun. (Except for poor Daddy and his kidney stones...he sure was a trooper!)

And just before Jon went back to the hosptial to get his stones out, Nana came to join us! Here we are at the obligatory bakery visit.

Baking cookies to bring to Daddy in the hospital.

Visiting Daddy in the hospital the night before his surgery.

Very thoughtfully, the girls pelted him with "medicine" from the syringes the nurses gave them. I'm sure he felt loads better after this, especially after being treated on the cafeteria floor.

Nana was a tremendous help while Jon was in the hospital. Because she was with the kids, I was able to help get him checked in (a process that took most of the day) and also to stay with him before, during, and after the procedure. Praise the Lord everything went really well and he's recouperated so fast he was up and around just 24 hrs after leaving the hospital. Now he's stone and tube-free and we're all so glad! Also, he missed two business trips while he was sick, and though we'd rather he be well, it was great having him around the extra time. And thanks a MILLION to my wonderful MOPS ladies who brought us meals for a whole week! Talk about spoiled.

We spent Thanksgiving at Jon's coworker and her family's house. Gwen, Jeff, and their two kids were such fun. Of course, I don't have a single picture of the day, but rest assured there was plenty of food, pie, and seconds! Gwen and Jeff's daughter is also 4, so she and Kate ran around and played together while Ellie tagged along.

We got to do a few other fun things before Nana left, most importantly was visiting Stuttgart's Weihnachtsmarkt. (Christmas Market) The Weihnachtsmarkts sprout up all throughout Europe during the season of Advent and run through Christmas (some even later). We hope to visit several, but it was great to get to visit our first one with Nana.

Riding the train into the city.

The main entrance just off the Schlossplatz.

The booths that make up the market are just astounding. I have since learned that the vendors are responsible for decorating their own booths. And boy are they elaborate! If we had been there at night (the day was cold enough!) it would have been a veritable fairyland. If you can see, this booth boasts one of the legends of the Weihnachtsmarkts--Gluhwein. (glue-vine) Doesn't sound so good but boy it sure is! You can buy food, trinkets, candy, kitchen gadgets, toys, Christmas ornaments, etc. The possibilites are seemingly endless.

And this is a new favorite--cheese fondue with our own baguette. Ahhhhhhh.

Riding the train home after a long but fun day.

Nana, we miss you already! Thank you for the selfless giving of your time, energy and sleep to come visit. We loved our time with you!

Here's to you, Daddy!

2011-11-19T09:05:00.004-05:00

Recently (as of yesterday) poor Jon had to deal with the effects of kidney stones. It came upon him rather violently (if you've had them you know what I mean) and he's been struggling with pain and discomfort since. We are SO thankful that the painful discovery of the kidney stones came THE DAY he arrived home from a trip. Thank the Lord it didn't occur while he was away! Our awesome neighbors came over in the middle of the night to be here for the kids so I could drive Jon to the hospital. The stones were discovered, and he had a stent put in. Then...two weeks elapsed until the drs thought the removal of the stones could occur. And THursday, it did. We are thrilled to announce that Jon is home with us and is stone-free. Oh, and he's tubeless, according to the discharging dr. There's an enormously funny story about Jon trying to communicate his level of pain to the attending nurse...you'll have to ask him about it, though. Heee heee.

For those of you curious, here's the view out of Jon's hospital room. (This is the first time he was admitted. The second time he had a joint room and his bed wasn't near the window.)

The fall colors were glorious! It was sad we had to view them from the hospital, though.

Hanging out with Daddy.

What a trooper he is!

And since we got to prepare for his surgery for the stone removal, we flew my mom out to be here with us. She is such an incredible help! Mom, we couldn't have done this without you. And we have the double happiness of having you here with us for Thanksgiving. Thanks to all the Lattimer/Axline family for lending mom to us. Especially you, Grandma Doris!

And thank you to all the wonderful friends and family who have prayed for us, called, brought meals, posted on our facebook walls...you are an incredible encouragement to us. And as this first year in Germany comes to a close, we reflect that two of the four of us have had to stay in the hospital since we arrived...and we pray that is the end of that!

Don't freak out, Gram!

2011-11-06T09:17:00.003-05:00

This may make Gram sad, but we are happy that Kate has had her first haircut! I realize boys go through this ordeal MUCH sooner, but now, at 4 yrs old, we have a stylish new do. (Well, it got all the old hair cut off anyway...I don't pretend to know much about being stylish!)

The required ice cream cone while waiting. She was surprisingly excited to get her haircut.

While her barber didn't say much, he was very efficient. She did great in the chair. (See all that long hair in the mirror!)

And because I wanted to be THAT mom this time around, here's a video. :)

You look great, sweetie!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T15:59:00.006-04:00

For our first Halloween in Germany, we didn't really know what to expect. And true to form, things didn't happen in ANY way we'd expect! (more on that later)

Here are the girls, dressed in their Halloween finery for our AWANA Fall Festival. At the 9th hour, Ellie nixed the butterfly costume she'd been planning and decided to go princess. (We weren't totally surprised.) She was joined by her fairy princess sister. (And those wings you gave us oh-so-long-ago, Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Al, are still a hit!)

After consulting with our German neighbors about the scarcity of candy-ready homes, we decided to play it safe and trick or treat on post. Here's how most of our evening went:

Yes, Ellie is racing ahead with Kate and mommy in tow.

The kids did a great job saying trick or treat and thank you, and Kate especially loved seeing all the other costumes that kids were wearing. She'd say "Hi, Batman!" and "look, a scary mask!" Neither seemed afraid of the scary costumes, which was great. At the AWANA festival, Kate saw a girl dressed as Rapunzel. Kate made her night when she got Rapunzel's attention and said "Rapunzel, we have your movie at home."

Even toward the end, the pattern continued: Ellie, Kate, Mommy.

Showing off the chosen piece to accompany them home.

And here's Daddy and Ellie before the AWANA festival. Like I mentioned earlier, things didn't pan out as we'd expected. Poor Jon: on Friday night he was admitted to the hospital with kidney stones. Turns out he has two stones that will need to be removed by a procedure mid-November, and he is really hurting. So he had to stay home and take it easy while the girls collected their loot. But the certainly were excited to show him (as he was excited to see) when they got home. Thank you to EVERYONE who is thinking of and praying for us during this unexpected illness. We are so blessed by you! And Daddy, you are our Superman!

Center Parcs Normandy

2011-10-24T08:28:00.007-04:00

Warning: Lots of pictures!
Last week we came back from a great vacation...one we didn't even know we were going to take. Let me explain. We booked a cabin at Center Parcs, thinking it was in Lorraine, France. We were scheduled to check in at 3 pm Monday, Oct 10. When I checked on our reservation Friday afternoon (Oct 7) I realized that we hadn't, in fact, booked at the Lorraine Center Parcs. We had booked at the Center Parcs in Normandy. Instead of an easy 2 hr car ride we were looking at a an 8 hr (with no stops) car trip driving us across northern France, through Paris, to Normandy. We were in serious shock. What to do? We decided to go for it. We bid Gram and Pops goodbye on Friday, said hello to Caitlin and Artur on Saturday and headed out bright and early on Sunday to Normandy.

Crossing the Rhine...our gateway to adventure.

We spent our first night in Reims, France. It was raining, but the kids hung in there, especially after five hours in the car. We went to visit the amazing cathedral in Reims (pronounced Rance, as in rhymes with France). Now there are cathedrals and there are Cathedrals. This was the latter. All the French monarchs were crowned here, starting with Clovis, the first king of the Francs in 509. This is a look at the ornate front door.

...and the rose window dating back to the 13th century is still on display. We were there in time for Reims to celebrate the Cathedral's 800th anniversary. Wow.

At the back of the nave are these three stained-glass windows designed by Marc Chagall himself. They were absolutely incredible and depict several Biblical scenes and scenes from French history. What a sight to behold!

Being in the heart of Champagne, we toured one of the many champagne caves in the area. The girls loved seeing the "sleeping" bottles. On our tour with us were two couples from Albuquerque. Small world!

Our arrival at Center Parcs. Here's the view from our breakfast buffet.

One thing that surprised us was how many people didn't speak English. In Germany, most people speak SOME English but in the region of France where we were, there seemed to be fewer English speakers. What good practice to dust off our high school French and see how it worked!

Our cabin had a few issues, but we were pretty comfortable there. It was right in the middle of the woods, the leaves were changing, we had a nice walk to the pool/eating area each day...it was very relaxing. Of course, the girls had been talking about going to "the pool in France" for weeks leading up to our vacation. Because why else does a 2 and 4 yr old care to visit France? :) The pool was awesome. See the smile.

Playing in the kids' area. There were also small jacuzzis (that Kate named the "turtle pool") and several water slides. Just to the left of this picture is a huge "Water Tree" that dumps 900 liters of water on all around...very safely, of course. The noise was incredible. The girls loved every minute, and with their differing personalities there was always one ready to go on a slide and one ready to relax in the turtle pool.

Another highlight--throwing acorns into the pond that our cabin backed up to. They could have done that for hours!

We went to visit the horses one day and saw this amazing house that stands at the entrance to the Center Parcs grounds. It's very typical of the Normandy-style houses and we were disappointed that we couldn't go in and see it. But when you have a big stick and the sun is shining, who cares about a big ole' house?

One day we broke ourselves away from the pool and acorns and drove the 2 1/2 hrs to the Normandy beach area. First we visited the American Cemetery that overlooks several beaches. There are over 10,000 soldiers buried here. It was incredible.

I think the most moving moments for me (Jen) were when we stood on Omaha Beach. To think of the enormity of the task before the soldiers who stormed the beach along with the incredible number of men who gave their lives on that day... and today we hear the peacful cries of the gulls alongside the gentle swells of the ocean and my children run about, collecting shells....the history is palpable even after 65 years.

Standing on Point du Hoc between Omaha and Utah beaches. This German stronghold was stormed by a ranger battalion of 255 men who scaled the cliff to overpower the Germans and take out the guns. At the end of two days, the 90 remaining men succeeded.

When we moved to Germany, we didn't think we'd be able to make it to the beaches at Normandy. After all, there's so much to see in Europe and so little time...we are so grateful to have been able to spend even one afternoon at such an inspirational and moving place.

After our week at Center Parcs, we piled back on the van to Nancy, France. We spent the night here before finally making it back home. Nancy is such a delightful place! And amazingly enough, isn't even mentioned in Rick Steves' France. He's missing out--we think we need to write him. Our kids nicknamed it Fancy Nancy Francy.

Enjoying the obligatory French pastries on the steps of the basicila in Nancy.

Sadly, the Basilica (which was an incredible sight) was closed. We never found an open door, no matter how hard we tried.

Here's the 16th century gate to the old city.

Sitting alongside the locals (who occupied all the other benches) in the park on a fancy Nancy afternoon.

The gate between the park and the Stanislas Place (a gorgeous square near the ducal palace of the Lorraine nobility. Also notable, this is where I had quiche Lorraine in Lorraine!

Our vacation was relaxing, fun, and sweet. Great family time was had by all. Now back to the real world!

Quick Visit

2011-10-21T07:41:00.003-04:00

We've had to say goodbye to a lot of family and friends since moving overseas. This is the first time we've been able to say hello to friends we're now closer to. And what a blessing it was! A huge thanks to Caitlin and Artur and two of their three girls who made the hike out to Heidelberg to see us before they all drove back to England.

Why else does one visit Heidelberg? (To have Starbucks, of course.)

It was fun to see our girls finally meet. Kate and Lael are the same age and so are Ellie and Gabby (not pictured). So many sweet girls!

Fast friends.

And Artur, it was wonderful to finally meet you as well. Thanks again to both of you for squeezing us in to your trip. I know it wasn't easy and we greatly appreciated even the short time we could spend together. Love you guys!!!

Gram and Pops!

2011-10-20T07:40:00.007-04:00

The days are just flying by! I'm a bit behind on blogging, so here's my attempt to catch up.

We had a wonderful visit with Gram and Pops this month. Thanks so much for coming!! Here they are headed to the chocolate factory with the girls. This is one of the many things we did while they were here.

Of course, Gram leaves us stocked with cookies (and spaghetti sauce--yay!)

This was our first year to enjoy the Pumpkin Festival that was nearby and we all loved it. What wonderful weather we had too! (Kate's enjoying it more than the rest, I think.)

This whole building was surrounded with pumpkins that had where they were grown and what they were called. It was so neat!

We also got to enjoy a friend's Superhero birthday party with Gram. Here's Ellie trying out her mad muscles!

And Kate enjoying some tasty cake.

Pops even got in on the action a LOT--he had to escape to his room quite a bit. :) What a trooper he was...especially when Jen had to go to a meeting at Kate's kindergarten and all the neighborhood kids descended upon Gram and Pops. Of course, they kept everyone happy!

Since the weather was so nice, we drove through the Schwarz Wald to Baden-Baden, which was a beautiful little resort town. Here's Jon and the kids enjoying the rose garden.

And walking along near the super-chic shops.

Enjoying lunch at a local Kebap place. Of course, Betsy busts out with her Turkish and the owner was so pleased that he gave us free Turkish tea and dessert. What a great lunch!

One morning while Jon went to work, the girls and I took Gram an d Pops to a nearby castle. While they took the tour, the girls and I enjoyed "lunch on the terrace." Not too shabby.

Definitely a highlight was being invited to our landlord's home for kaffe und kuchen. Their daughter, our friend Ellen, joined us and bridged the language barrier. It was such a wonderful experience and the conversation was lovely.

And certainly NOT to be forgotten...Gram and Pops escaped from our house for a few days and celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in Paris. Congratulations you two!! What an inspiration you are to us. Here are just a very few of their pictures of grand ole' Paris.

(The pipe, the Seine, the wine, and Rick Steves. Just what every traveler in Paris needs!)

Oh la la!

Again, congratulations to you both. We love you and miss you already. Thanks for spending time with us!!

Kindergarten Kate

2011-09-27T02:32:00.005-04:00

Just a few years ago, this handsome young boy started preschool. Any guesses who he is?

Well, what a guesser you are. Here is that same handsome young boy (now a man!) holding his oldest daughter on her first day of German kindergarten. (the American preschool equivalent)

Here are a few thoughts before we walked to school.

We are so grateful that her response to going to German kindergarten is one of excitement and anticipation. She was thrilled to head out this morning.

We had the pleasure to walk to kindy with our next-door neighbor and his mom. He is 5 and a regular at kindy, so he was full of first day tips. We also have three other kids from our street in the kindy, actually in Kate's class, so she already knows several kids. Since everyone speaks German at German kindergarten, that's our biggest hurdle and concern--that she won't be able to communicate with the kids. Most of the teachers speak English fine, so they can communiate with Kate, but part of the reason for putting her in German kindy is so that she can learn German. So it's a different dimension to the first day of school.

Ellie didn't really understand what was going on, but she was happy to be a part of it all. Kate is looking a bit cold because it was chilly this morning!

All smiles as Ellie and I kissed her goodbye and left her playing in the little kitchen.

And now that her first day is over (she attends from 8-12:30) she is tired and happy to be home. The teachers told me there were a few tears in the middle of the day but she got over it and since Ellie and I picked her up, she's been happy and willing to talk about her day. It will take some getting used to, but we're positive this will be a great experience for our little girl. We are so proud of you, Kate!!

Coming Up

2011-09-26T08:25:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow we have a big event in the Luminati household! Stay tuned.

Until then, here's a recent video of the girls at the chocolate factory near our house. Gram and Pops are visiting and we're enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon at the factory. Until Ellie spots this fly...

Random Pics

2011-09-06T07:15:00.003-04:00

I have some new favorite pictures and wanted to share them.

Ellie is starting the long road to potty training and here she is sporting her new "poofy" panties. She loves it. (She thinks that smiling with her eyes closed is a BIG smile.)

Showing me her new panties. (I just love her cutie-patootie legs!) Note the footwear. Her choice.

Later, her footwear changed (as did her wet panties). Here she is showing me her owie. Yes, this is the pic on the side but I wanted you to have a chance to see it bigger because this is so indicative of her personality. Lots going on, excitement about everything, loving to interject her opinion, choosing her footwear. And once you kiss her owie it's all better. :) What a sweetie!

And I had to include this beautiful picture up close because I can't believe how big she looks here! And we are THRILLED to say that she's completely potty trained--no diapers at all, not even at night. WHEW. We're so proud! Great job big, sweet girl.

Birthday Video

2011-08-31T09:01:00.003-04:00

And here's a video to accompany the post below.

Happy 4th Birthday, Kate!

2011-08-31T07:55:00.005-04:00

Happy Birthday to our big 4 yr old girl! We had a great time celebrating this last weekend at the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart. It was the first time we'd made it there since we moved here and we're so glad we did. Despite the rain (torrential at times!) we had a great day.

The birthday girls at the zoo

A carousel that captured their attention for quite a while (understandably!)

We made it to the polar bear exhibit just in time for their feeding. It was amazing to see these huge bears jump in their lake! What a fun show. Here's how close we were.

Everyone was excited to find a bit of home at the zoo. Yes, these are California Redwoods. Kate even remembered seeing the grove in Big Basin, CA when we visited it last year. I think the Germans thought we were a little crazy to be so excited to see big trees. :)

This elephant was UN-believeable. He is trying to reach his trunk out to pick grass and is bracing his weight to keep from tumbling forward. He worked really hard!

On Tuesday (the 30th) we had Kate's cake and presents. Here are the girls on their special day.

The Rapunzel cake Kate asked for. She loved it! (NO, I definitely did not make it.)

Having some cake with Dad.

She opened this and her first response was, "Where's Rapunzel?" :) (It's Flynn, from the Disney movie "Tangled" if you have no idea what I"m talking about.) And Ellie, delightfully digging in to some presents for herself. (Thanks Gram and Pops and Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Al!)

All unwrapping ceased when she opened her Berenstain Bears books. (Thanks Gram and Pops!) She had to page through at least one before continuing. Yes, she is definitely a Luminati and a Minnery.

They both loved picking the matches out on your card, Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Stuart. :)

And her big gift from Mom and Dad....

We were a little concerned at how she'd react to getting a bike, but surprisingly she was thrilled. She took it out immediately and Jon helped her go up and down the street. She made Jon hold on to her neck (she INSISTED that he hold her neck, not her back) and declared she wanted to ride it everyday. Hurray!! Not much fear from her, and we're so happy. Ellie also took a turn on Kate's bike and was content to have Jon push her while she held up her feet. Fun times! Happy Birthday to our sweet and wonderful big girl!!

(Jen's celebration to come on Friday. Might as well spread out the fun, eh?) :)

Happy Birthday, Kate!

2011-08-30T01:09:00.004-04:00

Happy 4th Birthday, sweet Kathryn! We are so blessed that you are a part of our family. Who knew how our lives would change when you entered them...and it's been a wonderful difference. We continue to pray that you would grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God our Savior.

We love you so much!

Mommy, Daddy, and Ellie

Stift Melk

2011-08-23T07:28:00.009-04:00

Warning: Lots of pictures! (And it was hard to narrow it down to these.)

On another day during our trip, we took the train out to the incredible Abbey in Melk. (Stift Melk). It's about 25 km outside of Vienna. Here are the girls with their "tickis" or Kinderfahrkarten, tickets just for kids. They loved them, Ellie especially. She carried that thing around most of the day. (Until she dropped it in the Danube--something she still talks about!)

An hour and two trains later, we arrived in Melk. The abbey is an impressive crown on the hill. If you're interested, check out their website HERE where you can see more pictures and get mor information. The abbey itself is huge--nearly two football fields in length. (That is American football, not European football.) :) It was built in the 12th century.

I love this picture because here is Ellie, flanked by an incredible example of architecture and what is she centered on? Her snack. Way to keep your priorities, Ellie.

Here's where the Abbot would greet you, on the balcony ahead (just above the doorway) flanked by statues of Peter and Paul.

Inside there are several rooms that you can tour. You can also take a guided tour, but we had learned (even this early on) that guided tours were not intended for 2-3 yr olds. (Who knew?) It's also incredibly important that we could move at our own pace. Haa haa. Here's something I think Indiana Jones found once before....

And actually, during the tour we took, it was wonderful to see the gospel clearly presented. Jesus is thanked several times for being the sacrifice that saves us from our sins, and we loved actually seeing that in a place of worship that has been around so long and has seen so much. Once you make it through the first several rooms, you come in to the Marble Hall, where guests were greeted. The ceiling has been painted to look rounded, though the corners are actually square. And there are an impressive number of allusions to the Greek gods, which I believe are to appease the Habsburgs (the then-ruling family of Austria) because they saw themselves to be appointed to rule Austria by God.

Checking out the marble hall.

A view from the abbey toward the Danube and the town of Melk.

This is how Ellie gets around Europe--by backpack. And one must have gummi bears on hand to make the backpack successful. (Don't tell the abbey we actually fed our child in their library...they might die of shock.)

Of course, this is the second most important part of the abbey--the library. I can't begin to explain what it was like, standing in this astounding place of learning and power (as it had once been in it's height). It's understandable to see how abbots were kings of their own kingdom--and how the spiritual condition of a particular abbot directed the workings of the whole abbey and all who were associated with it. In fact, Melk was so important that they once owned their own Gutenburg Bible. But they sold it to Harvard in the 80's to fund their restoration. (Money very well spent, as you can see and will see in the next pictures.) Today, Melk is still responsible for 23 parishes and runs a secondary school.

Once you leave the library, you enter the church. It seemed everything in this church glittered, so much of it was covered in gold. This is the high altar, in the front of the chapel. You can see the two middle statues are Peter and Paul, greeting each other for the last time before they head off to make disciples and become martyrs. The huge crown above is the papal crown with the world above and God (whom you can't really see) sitting on top of the world. I told Kate about God sitting there on the globe and she looked up and considered. Her response to me was "I don't think God has a mustache."

This is the ceiling in the chapel, looking toward the pipe organ.

And of course, the chapel isn't complete without a little Baroque creepiness.

We bought a piece of artwork in the gift shop and headed to the abbey garden for lunch. Here's where we parked, far enough away from the all-too-tempting fish pond.

After lunch, we caught the boat for a cruise down the Danube.

This city is a major sight of the Wachau Valley (the part of the Danube we cruised down). This castle (see the remains on the top of the hill) held Richard the Lionheart as prisoner when he was returning home from the crusades.

We were so thankful to be on the boat and not riding bikes or walking as it rained quite a bit during the cruise. But praise God, when we landed the rain stopped! We walked into Krems, had dinner, and saw two other churches that were impressive but certainly not as impressive as the church from which we had just come. Here's one of the streets of Krems and it reminds me of why I will never mistake Europe for America. They just look nothing alike.

We didn't make it home until after 8 that night. The kids were a wreck. But it was worth it! What an amazing trip on top of an amazing trip. Thanks for taking a look back with us!

Walking around Vienna

2011-08-20T13:04:00.007-04:00

As I said before, we have so many pictures of our trip that it's hard to decide where to start and where to draw the line. So I'll just start with day one of our adventure and go from there.

Any good trip starts with a good cup of coffee...and so we started ours at Starbucks. I was particularly excited as I had't had Starbucks since we left the States in January. So it was a memorable cup of coffee.

Our train tickets weren't valid until the day after this, so we spent our first day in Vienna walking around the city center. There is amazing artwork on many of the old buildings. This is just one of so many that we saw.

We stopped to visit the heart of Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral. It's in the center of the old city (the Ringstrasse) and was built starting in 1137. A great picture of the amazing tiled roof can be seen HERE. We had rather poor weather so the tiles don't show up very well. Also, there are 23 bells in the towers at St. Stephens and since we were there at the call to worship on Sunday morning, we got to hear them all in person! It was incredible! The tolling went on for over three minutes (I have most of it on video) and the sound was deafening. How beautiful it was to hear.

This is one of the statues on the outside of the church, depicting the triumph of Christendom (in Vienna) over the Turks in the middle ages. (Can you see the Turk being stepped and speared in the side by the victorious saint? Such a wonderful picture of Christian love.)

As we left Stephensplatz, we walked along Kaertnerstrasse, THE place to shop inside the ring. The shops were amazing and we heard so many languages!

The shopping district ends (or begins, depending on how you enter Kaertnerstrasse) at the Opera House. One could only enter by going to see a show (somehow we thought even tried-and-true Viennese might disapprove of a 2 and 3 yr old at the opera) or by taking a tour. So we just toured the shop inside and the amazing architecture outside.

Continuing our walk, we headed to the Hofburg, the winter home of the Habsburgs, the former ruling family of Austria. (They were in power over 600 years!) This is in the Burggarten, a pretty park near one of the Hofburg entrances. Note the satute of Mozart, who performed for the Empress and Emperor when he was only six. (He was from Salzburg, but the city seems to gloss over that small fact.)

We had lunch at the Stadt Park closer to our apartment, but walked back in to the Ring for the obligatory kaffee and kuchen (coffee and cake) snack. Here's Jon, enjoying his Mozart kuchen. I had Sacher Torte and the kids decided they wanted ours instead of eating their apple strudel.

We dashed home in the rain and prepared for another day of adventure.

Vienna!

2011-08-15T08:37:00.004-04:00

We had an amazing trip to Vienna. It was busy, fun, exhausting, exciting, wonderful! Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite for the blog postings to come. We were there a week and have over 700 pictures--so there's a lot to go through!

Jon and Kate as we're preparing to take our cruise down the Danube (Donau) River.

Leopold Mozart's violin (Wolfie's father) in the Kunsthistoriches Museum (Art History)

Ellie listening to her audio guide in the Ancient Egyptian section of the Kunsthistoriches. (Don't be too impressed...that only lasted about five minutes.) :)

The incredible Abbey in Melk (about 25 km from Vienna)

Jon and the girls on the U-bahn. The girls LOVED riding the train, and whenever Ellie was in the backpack in the train she insisted on holding the strap above her.

The heart of Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral.

And there are PLENTY more to come.

Welcome Home, Daddy!

2011-07-31T07:39:00.002-04:00

After a three week TDY, our Daddy returned home to us this weekend! We are thrilled to have him back. (As one military friend commented, one month away for the AF is like 6 months to the rest of the military!) I really hate to complain about his being gone because in the grand scheme of things 3 weeks is hardly a sacrifice--especially in light of what other military spouses have to deal with! But even so, we are all smiles here now that Daddy is back.

A Day in the Life of a Squashy Princess

2011-07-25T08:23:00.006-04:00

During her quiet time, Kate usually plays with what we call her "squashy princesses." She loves dressing up and setting up these little movable princesses and usually when I come in to let her out of quiet time the princesses are set up in the most interesting ways.

Here is the whole gang (squashy princesses and friends) set up around her bed and on the window sill.

When Nana and Grandpa were visiting, my mom took this picture of the squashy princesses facing away from Kate...who was napping at the time. It was very generous of them to give Kate some privacy.

This day, all the friends were having a picnic. (On the pad that protects the diaper changing table...yummy)

I asked her what they were doing here and she gave me their names. Usually she doesn't name them (besides using their traditional princess names.) From left to right: Nicholas (I had to stick you in the crib, Nicholas), Savannah (the red hair sure is fitting), Aunt Cheri (Sorry, Uncle Greg, you didn't seem to make the grouping), No name--but she is flying, Ellie, Daddy, and Kate.

Today's creation: "They've been captured by Maleficent!"

This one is my favorite. "What are they doing, Kate?" "Praising the Lord" was her reply. Obviously!

It's so much fun to see her imagination at work!

Odds and Ends

2011-07-16T08:46:00.005-04:00

Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to lately.

In the last blog post, I was remiss not to include the picture of our newest acquisition--curtains in the toy room, thanks to Nana! She made this while she was here and it's awesome. Thanks so much!!

Also, while we were at Mainau Island (see previous post)we visited the Schmetterling haus(butterfly house) and it was phenemonal. There were so many butterflies all over that we had to be careful where to step. I was able to coax one on to Ellie's finger, and she was transfixed. Every time she sees one now she asks for it to be put on her finger.

Daddy found the perfect picnic spot in the woods near our house so we hiked out and enjoyed the summer sun. (And I tried really hard not to think too much about ticks.)

Any idea what they called themselves? You guessed it...potheads.

A favorite place to play. (For those of you not familiar with European showers, this is our only one and yes, it's just that big.)

We found a baby store in a nearby "mall" and the girls fell in love with these Sonnenbrillen (sunglasses). Now they don't go outside without them.

Oh yes. Early last month, our ab-fab landlords and a really nice neighbor gave us the fruit of their labor (literally). We had easily three pounds of cherries, so I decided I'd make a real cherry pie. 5 1/2 cups of pitted cherries later, the pie was made and set to bake. (My fingers were stained for weeks after this.) I figured I'd never had a fresh cherry pie (have you?) so we were going where no one had gone before. (No one in this family, anyway--hence the decoration) And considering how much our household loves cherries, I wanted to see if a real cherry pie stood up to the awesomeness produced by Comstock. The result? THE most delicious cherry pie I've EVER had. Seriously. Comstock can't hold a candle to real cherries. Now I'm REALLY in trouble...have I unknowingly started a tradition? Ah well, there could be worse things to make year after year.

And this is a view of the sunset out our guestbathroom window. So now you'll have to come visit so you can see it. (Just so you know, you'll have to stand on top of the toilet to get this view.) C'mon over!

Nana and Grandpa come to visit

2011-07-09T08:16:00.005-04:00

(Warning: lots of pictures! :)

A huge thanks to Nana and Grandpa for coming out and staying with us! They spent some time in Normandy before heading our way and their experiences there were amazing. Be sure to ask them about it!

After they arrived and unpacked, we headed out to see the sheep. Unfortunately, the sheep didn't make an appearance, but shoulder-rides certainly did. Grandpa got very familiar with our "country roads" and ran out there quite a bit. The ladies cheered him on from the house. :)

Just as Nana and Grandpa arrived, Jon's work schedule went crazy, so the poor guy had to work a ton. Thankfully, he didn't have to leave until after they left, and he was able to enjoy some time with the fam at a favorite spot...the bakery.

And at a new favorite spot, Mainau Island, on the Bodensee. What a beautiful place! It's a private island on the largest lake in Germany, and the flowers and greenery around were wonderful. Grandpa thought it was so beautiful he even took a picture of the trash cans. (Ask him about those, too.)

Playing around in the kids' area (complete with small lake and boat...which we tried hard to steer Ellie away from. It worked.)

One thing Ellie was particularly excited to try was the pony ride. She loved it! (Gram, this movie's for you!) Kate wasn't interested in riding herself, but she cheered Ellie on.

(Yes, Grandpa, you DID make the blog!) :)

For another day trip, we headed south again to Bebenhausen, which boasts an incredible old monastery that dates back to the 12th century. (It blows my mind that it existed before Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales!) Here are Grandpa and Ellie, in a spot she created for herself.

And the girls enjoying the beautiful gardens at the monastery. We paid for the tour and were thinking we'd be handed some information printed on English (as all tours are in German), but lo and behold, we ended up having our own private tour in English! We asked a ton of questions and the guide was wonderful, excited that we were excited about learning more.

Nana and Grandpa braved the children alone as Jon and I went away for a night (and day) out. Everyone enjoyed the ice cream, bakery trips, and market trips the time with Nana and Grandpa afforded. And Jon and I had a great time hiking, going out to dinner, and exploring some ruins at our own pace. Delightful!

Keeping cozy on the way into town.

We also visited the Rittersport Factory, which is a chocolate factory just about 15 min from us. What a fun place! There's not a lot to it, but the girls discovered this little gem and we realized why Pavlov was so successful at training his dogs. :)

Celebrating the 4th! Fun times had by all. Thanks, Nana and Grandpa! We miss you already!

P.S. And I couldn't help but include this shot of the number of wine bottles consumed while our guests were in town. Granted, two bottles are unopened and one was bottled water, but I think that is an impressive amount of alcohol consumed! (Especially as they were here only 10 days.)Those who thought Nana and Grandpa didn't drink, behold! Germany is wearing off on them. :)

Catching Up

2011-07-06T07:28:00.002-04:00

We had a great visit with my parents this last week and a half. It was wonderful to have them here and to share what is now our home. I want to post about their visit, but there are a million pictures to sort through, so I'm still working on it.

In fact, while I was downloading pictures yesterday, I heard some thumps and bumps from the toy room (spielzimmer) above me. K and E were both up there but there wasn't any crying, so I didn't think much about it. A bit later, K comes down and wants me to come up and look at the big mess they'd made. I said sure, once I finish with the pictures.

THEN...I went upstairs. Needless to say, when I saw what they'd done to the toyroom, I had to get the camera. (After I threatened them with losing some of their toys if they ever made such a big mess again.) And aren't there times you wish you could just put up a little sign that says "half an hour later" or "after such-and-such is over" and poof! whatever unpleasant thing that stands before you is completed--just like in the movies? Well, here it is...

Ordinary Things

2011-06-15T07:37:00.004-04:00

I found some pictures and videos on my phone the other day and realized I wanted to post some of them. Here is what we do on normal days--when we're not galavanting around the continent.

Watching a video

Hiding in dress up clothes (usually from the wolves)

Shopping at the commissary with my helpers

And on Monday, we braved our daddy-less situation and headed to a nearby festival. The girls were entranced. It was busy, lots of stalls, and there was a small carnval section. Kate in particular loved watching the carnival rides. It was fun to explore (especially as one child was firmly ensconced in the stroller and the other I held by the hand. Then it started raining, and I had two kids, an umbrella, a stroller and rain to juggle. Not one of my finer moments. But we tried to make the most of it anyway.

Ellie, trying her first crepe. They realized they LOVED the Nutella on the top better than the applesauce in the middle. (Yes, that is my finger, pardon me. See excuses above and add crepe and camera to what I was juggling.)

Of course, the most fun part about rain is the puddles!

Expressing her displeasure at there being no more Nutella. She is taking refuge under a stand-up table. (Stand and eat, no chairs)

Probably the most fun was seeing and hearing the band play. We tried to get dinner in this huge hall, but I just couldn't figure out if we were to sit and wait for the servers to come to us or if I was to go somewhere and order the food. (So we left and ended up with crepes.) But while we waited, the girls loved watching and listening to the band.

I find this video indicative of their personalites. One savoring the moment and enjoying life as it comes and the other taking stock and analyzing, learning, thinking. See if you can tell which is which.

Elefun

2011-06-08T02:47:00.002-04:00

Through the years, we have received a lot of love from Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Stuart. They are always faithful with birthday and Christmas presents, and as Aunt Bonnie is a retired elementary school teacher, the presents are always lots of fun.

Here's the latest--Ellie's birthday present. The girls adore this game and Kate is working on letting her sister get a few butterflies herself. Thanks Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Stuart! (I know you're reading this even though you don't comment....:))

Bernese Oberland, Switzerland

2011-06-04T07:12:00.006-04:00

Warning: Lots of pictures!

Over Memorial Day, we went to the Bernese Oberland, an area in southern Switzerland. The scenery was phenemonal! What an amazingly beautiful place. We stayed at the Hotel Eiger, which is named after one of a few prominent mountain peaks in the area. The area is criss-crossed with mountain trains, gondolas, funiculars, other trains, and chair lifts. These forms of transportation are the best way to see the area, so we parked our car and got on the train!

Here's the view from our hotel balcony. This is the southern edge of Eiger.

The first day, we decided to avoid the crowds (large groups from Japan and Amway delegates from India) and take the mountain trains down into Lauterbrunnen, a little town in the neighboring valley. From this picture, it's waaay down there, in the middle of that very narrow valley.

After two trains, a bus, and two gondolas, (all meticulously planned by Jon!) we arrived in the town of Murren, which is only accessible by gondola. (no cars allowed) We ate lunch and started on our first hike. Just to give you an idea of the magnificent scenery, here's Jon, taking pictures from an overlook.

The girls, enjoying the walk downhill from Murren.

The next day, we took the train to Jungfraujoch, the highest point you can go in Europe. (Also called the Top of Europe.) It's 11,384 feet high and amazing! This is a picture of the biggest glacier in Europe, stretching toward Italy. Actually, that is Italy.

Back down from Jungfraujoch, we ate our lunch and the girls admired the pretzel man. He was welcoming visitors outside one of the restaurants. A few days ago I asked Kate if she missed being in Switzerland, she thought for a moment and said "I miss the pretzel man." So he made the blog.

After lunch, we went on another hike, from Kleine Scheidegg down to Mannlichen. Well, it was mostly downhill. :) Here's Jon, hiking on the ridgeline, carrying Kate.

As she did the previous day during our hike, Ellie fell asleep during the hike. It was so funny to hear her snore while we walked!

Resting in Mannlichen before taking the gondola back to our homebase, Grindelwald. Kate is playing on a playground and you can see me in the background, sitting down, with Ellie still conked out in the backpack. (I've covered our heads.)

Kate and Jon, playing at the playground. Yet another stunning view!

I thought the girls might be a little anxious about the four-seater gondola we took down the mountain, but they LOVED it. Ellie still likes to tell us "I love gondolas!"

Here's Jon and his two little helpers, taking our stuff back to the car on the day we checked out.

The last day in Switzerland, we drove down to Interlaken and walked around before catching a boat. The girls enjoyed looking at all the touristy stuff to buy. Jon ended up buying two carved models of Brown Swiss cows and a cowbell. (All the cows we saw had big cowbells around their necks and so the clanging of bells rang ceaselessly during our stay. It was fun to hear!) Another thing about Brown Swiss cows, Jon's mom's family is known to have brought the first herd of Brown Swiss cows from Switzerland to America. His maternal grandmother was raised on a dairy farm. Seeing some of them really brought that home!

On the boat, touring the Thunesee. (Tun-a-Zee). The alpine views never stopped. The girls charmed everyone on the boat--making friends with a couple from Darbyshire, who were on holiday. They did a great job going to and fro all the activities!

This is the town of Spiez, where we got off the boat and walked around a bit. There was this amazing castle (of course) with an incredible church--dating back to 700 AD. To get back to our car, we hauled everyone up a BIG hill all the way to the bahnhoff (train station) and took a fast ICE train back to Interlaken. All in all, an incredible weekend, and we are so thankful to have been able to see such amazing examples of God's beautiful creation.

Say Cheese!

2011-06-01T08:08:00.004-04:00

Don't worry, posts of Switzerland coming soon! But in the meantime, here is something that we, as a family with small children, struggle to overcome each time we want to take a picture.

The moment--Daddy and Kate together on the train. Hey, you guys, smile!

Nope.

Hmmm. Let's try again.

Nada. Ok, Daddy, keep up that fantastic smile (isn't he handsome??:)) Kate, look here!

Not quite. Jon, keep holding still...

and voila. It only took four attempts to get Kate to actually smile AT the camera. She usually likes sticking her tongue out but I think forgot she wanted to do that when I took their picture. I know you parents know how we feel! Meagan just posted about it on her page too. (Click here for the link.) So glad to know we're not alone!

Don't even get me started on trying to get BOTH children to look and smile at the same place at the same time...it takes a miracle.

Sparglecremesuppe

2011-05-25T07:26:00.002-04:00

A while ago, I was encouraged by some facebook friends to take advantage of the fresh spargel (asparagus) that's in season and make a German traditional meal--spargelcremesuppe. (My recipe printed it all one word, so I will do the same.) I decided to take them up on the challenge.

The girls and I stopped at one of the many spargel gazebos that have popped up all over the place. We also got some strawberries because that's what they sell at the spargel gazebos--spargel und erdbeeren (asparagus and strawberries). The lady spoke no English, but seemed to realize my attempt to say "halb, bitte" (half, please) meant I wanted half a kilogram. Success! The kids were excited (and so was I) to get started.

Here we are, spargel and recipe at the ready.

Chop off the ends and peel the spargel, then boil the scraps for 20 min. This forms the base of the suppe. (By the way, suppe is pronounced "zoo-puh") At least, that's how I say it. :)

Then you chop up the spargel into equal pieces and add it to the base, after you toss the scraps. Again, boil for 20 min.

Here's the kitchen as I work. See that bag of pasta in the corner? That's the other part of our dinner! (more to come)

Add the rest of the ingredients and boil for (any guesses?) 20 min. There is a little pepper, salt, heavy cream, and a bit of lemon juice in the suppe. It smells awesome! Viola! (Oops...I mean da ist es!) Ladle in bowl and serve.

Alas, I don't have a finished product picture, but let me assure you it was delicious! Very smooth, creamy, and subtle in flavor. My vegetable-ly challenged family didn't care too much for it, but did a good job trying it. Since I was attempting to make a traditional German meal, I went a little crazy and bought huhn (chicken) from the geflugel man (poultry man) who sells his roasted chickens from a truck in the parking lot of our town's grocery store. (He took pity on me and spoke English. That was nice.) I added the chicken to another German tradition--spaetzle. (That's the pasta-looking bag in the kitchen picture.) Just boil the noodles, add some cheese and chicken and bake in the oven for about (Yes!) 20 min. Tasty!!

Thanks again to all who encouraged me to try this. As the transition to living here has been hard, it's wonderful to have success at something! I enjoyed figuring it out (oh, I didn't mention my recipe was in metic so I had to convert the whole thing...that took a while!) and serving it to my family. Hopefully there'll be more to come...Schwarzwalder kirschetorte anyone?

Herzlichen Gluckwunsch Ellie und Herzlich Wilkommen Beth und Evan

2011-05-20T07:44:00.012-04:00

Happy Birthday, Ellie! (Herzlichen Gluckwunsch in German, though forgive me--I don't know how to put the umlaut on my U. If you can tell me, please do!) And welcome, Beth and Evan (Herzlich Wlilkommen). We had a wonderful time visiting with Beth and Evan and celebrating Ellie's 2nd birthday last week.

Here's the whole fam (minus me, taking the pic!) having Ellie's birthday dinner. By the way, we are so excited--we finally found a good pizza place nearby. Ja!

Older sister can actually anticipate the presents and cake that are forthcoming--the birthday girl is blissfully unaware.

At first, she's dainty with her cake--using her fork and chewing.

Later, the joy of simply eating cake takes over. You go, Ellie!

Here's the cake and along with it the 100 yr old cake turner (on the table in front of me) that's been in Jon's family for three generations.

Ellie received some wonderful presents including these matching dresses from Baby Gap in Milan, courtesy of Aunt Beth and Uncle Evan. They are adorable!

And a huge thank you goes out to our friends the Winters for shipping us princess dress up shoes all the way from Michigan! Thank you!!

A requisite trip to our town bakery. We fill the entire eating area but sure enjoy going for a visit.

Also on Ellie's birthday, we drove down to Legoland Deutschland. Uncle Evan had already visited Legoland in Denmark and he and Jon were particularly excited to go see what this Legoland had to offer. It was such fun--a great park for kids and adults alike. Ellie has such fond memories that every now and then she just shouts out "Legoland!" for the fun of it.

Here are the girls with Jon and Uncle Ev after being drenched on one of the water rides. It was supposed to be an inocuous boat ride but ended up being a water fight. All handled it pretty well, despite the look on Kate's face.

The other sisters, at Legoland!

Hangin' with her favorite aunt.

And before leaving, Aunt Beth and Uncle Evan graciously enveloped the girls in a Nielsen sandwich. Thanks so much for coming to visit us--it was wonderful to see you both again! We miss you!!

Ellie's Second Birthday: Part 1

2011-05-13T16:04:00.006-04:00

Today was Ellie's Second Birthday. We're all tired from a very fun and very long day, so we'll save more pictures for the next post. But we did want to share a before and after photo to show how much she's grown in so short a time. We love you Ellie.

Weekend Away

2011-05-09T12:59:00.001-04:00

We had a busy but fun weekend driving around! We started in Germany, headed to the Austrian Alps, then up through Germany again and back into Switzerland. It was a slightly circuitous route based on a hiccup with the GPS...but it ended up great. The weather was wonderful and everyone did a great job traveling in Cooper (our mini-van).

Check out the link to the facebook album here for pictures and more info! Beth and Evan arrive tomorrow...we're so excited!

Easter Part II

2011-05-06T06:43:00.005-04:00

As promised, here are a few more pictures of our Easter celebration.

I love the look on her face--rarely do we get to capture a REAL smile. She was so excited to open this dress from Grandpa and Nana.

And we're trying to get them to smile in their pretty dresses from Gram and Pops. Two sets of fun dresses and they were thrilled to wear them both!

Chicks (all three)

I had to include this because I could not find Cadbury Eggs over here this Easter and I was so happy to receive some! And the peeps were awesome too. :)

Cozy with Daddy.

Here's our friend's son, Aidan. He made sure to show the kids how REAL Easter egg hunting is done. Doesn't he look like Harry Potter? Funny thing, he is a huge HP fan. Hurray!

I'm not sure what Kate's praying for here, but it's so sweet! And it's fun to see Kate and her buddy Declan play together. They enjoy it so much.

Happy to share her candy. Want a bite?

We had a great Easter and a fun time with our friends. How thankful we are that Jesus gave His life for us so we can celebrate life in Him! Also, it reminds us of how thankful we are to be healthy and to continue to adjust to life in Germany. We're hitting the road this weekend, so more pictures next week!

Happy Easter (Part 1)

2011-04-27T07:35:00.002-04:00

He is risen! He is risen indeed. Happy Easter! It's always so wonderful to be reminded of the true meaning of Easter and to spend time thinking about Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. We tried to emphasize that more with our girls this Easter (as they're getting older) by using the Resurrection Eggs (the Easter story parceled out in Easter eggs). The girls loved it. In fact, Kate took to it so well her imaginary play consisted of dying (frequently) and then rising again. It was cute. Strange, but cute.

The girls received some beautiful Easter dresses from their grandparents and wanted to wear them both on Easter Sunday. It was a tough decision! But we really enjoyed having our sponsors and their sons over for Easter dinner. Their boys get a long very well with our girls (even though their oldest is 7) and it was fun to see them hunt Easter eggs and play together.

Probably the funniest thing was seeing them hang out after dinner. They were all coming down from a sugar high and some handled the crash differently. I'll post more Easter pictures soon, but this video needed it's own post. They are starting a Veggie Tales video and I think you can tell our girls have seen just a few in their young lifetime. (And I hear some of you singing along, too!)

Burg Hohenzollern

2011-04-19T08:16:00.006-04:00

We had a wonderful trip this weekend to a castle less than an hour from us. (How convenient, eh?) Of course, before starting off, we nod to a Minnery tradition: doughnuts for breakfast. Despite Ellie's expression, the kids were thrilled. (So were their parents.)

Here we are driving down the autobahn. See the castle? The view as you drive up to it is amazing.

Thank goodness they have a shuttle because did you see that hill in the previous picture? 30 min steep walk--not optimal for two kids under the age of 4. Also, one is sporting her Snow White dress and Burger King crown (because, after all, we are visiting a castle!) so walking would definitely cramp her princess style. Where the shuttle drops us off is the main entrance, and where we purchased our tickets. We met some really nice Americans from upstate NY so that was fun.

One of the NYers offered to take our family picture and this was the result. Hmmm. We're guessing he didn't attend Cornell. (Just kidding)

Ok, about the castle itself--it's home to the Prussian royal family. Neither Prussian prince lives here now, but it's their ancestral home. The foundations go back to the 11th century but it was totally demolished (except for some of the chapel) by the beginning of the 19th century. In 1842, King Wilhelm IV commissioned artists to rebuild the castle. It was finished in 1867 when Wilhelm was Wilhelm I (king of all Germany, not just Prussia). He never lived in the castle, but wanted it rebuilt anyway (he lived to be 90!). The crown of the Prussian family is on display (one way we kept Kate interested in the inside tour was to search for the crown...it worked for a while) as well as some amazing artwork and craftsmanship. We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside, but it was just as impressive as the outside. In fact, if you come and visit us, this is a definite easy and fun trip--keep it in mind--we don't mind returning. And of course, I asked the question that was most on everyone's mind--was Prince Georg Friedrich invited to the British Royal wedding? They guide said yes. (WHEW)

Here is the courtyard, where we spent most of our time while waiting for tour in English. The chapel is off to the left. Our tour commenced at the top of the stairs that you can just see beginning on the right.

Here's a closer view of the canon. But of course, to our princess, the canon is her carriage. See them riding the carriage together.

The casements (catacombs, basement of the castle) was open to explore. The openings and doors were really small and narrow. Today, this area houses the royal plate and china. And here's the princess, waiting to be rescued by her hero, Daddy.

A view of the outer ramparts.

After our tour, there were lots more people, and better yet, the ice cream stand opened! Three of us picked schokolade and one erdbeer (can you guess the flavors? It's your German lesson for today.) Ellie had never tried ice cream out of a cone and I could not get her out of mine. Literally, she was diving across me to lick the cone. So funny.

Even though the castle we saw was never used for defense of the kingdom, it looked combat-ready with guard towers, a winding, narrow, underground entrance up to the inner courtyard, and several portcullis. All in all, a definite thumbs up from all of us, especially the princess. And her sister was a good sport, barely making it through the guided tour through timed offerings of fruit snacks. Whewwww. Of course, we had the only kids on the tour. But they did as well as could be expected. Maybe next time we go, Jon may even get to hear some of the tour. :)

And here's a movie for your enjoyment. Wait for the screaming pink banshee to run across the courtyard at the end...I wonder who that kid belongs to? Sheesh, those parents should pay more attention.

23 months and counting!

2011-04-13T07:41:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that Ellie will turn two in one month! So much change in such a short time. In the picture below, she's enjoying one of her more favorite playthings at the park nearby--the hammock.

And of course, I couldn't leave out big sis.

Springtime

2011-04-04T13:24:00.007-04:00

Jon is out of town this week, which is not fun, but the weather has been really nice, so we're trying to get outside more. The trees are in bloom and spring is well underway--so it's gorgeous. On Sunday, we walked to the nearby park. Here's Kate, walking down our street. The entrance to the park is between those two buildings at the middle of the picture. The cherry trees--almost as nice as the Tidal Basin. (Not really...but still beautiful!) The park is quite large. Here is the gazeebo and little pond from the hill we walked up to get to the play area. You can't see it from this picture, but the park was packed! The Germans certainly do love to get outside--a trait I hope to follow! Ellie, enjoying the sand. A little while after this picture she was dumping sand directly on to her dress and laughing out loud. It was great. Kate, grinning against the wind, in a little playhouse. The lady you see on the bench behind the house was very nice and talked with us for a while. She's originally from Croatia--which seems so far until I remember it's much closer than I realize! Heading out, Kate picked some "daffys" (taking after her Pops!) to bring home. She carried them all the way, only dropping one when she discovered a bug in it. (That's my girl. :)) But the bug flew out and now the daffys are brightening our kitchen table. A nice view of the park as well as something you definitely don't see every day. Yes, those are nuns. Hurray for spring! Hurray for the reawakening of the earth, plants, trees, and life. We have been healthy now for a solid three weeks and it's wonderful. Thank you again for your prayers!

Here at Last

2011-03-23T16:20:00.005-04:00

Aaaaaaaaaaand we're back. Whew.

If you had told me our family would have such a hard time with health when we arrived here in Germany, I would have seriously doubted you. I mean, Kate had a few croup episodes and one ER visit after the unfortunate accident in the fountain, but they don't get SICK. This month, however, they were. I feel like we're still just getting on our feet because we don't know what "normal" life will be here yet. Hopefully, it won't be like this past month!

Here's our sweet Ellie, the day she was admitted for her pneumonia.

Afternoons at the hospital became routine for Kate, and when Ellie was feeling better, they liked to watch movies in her crib together.

The day she was released was the day Gram came to help us out. (see previous post) What a blessing she is to us!! A million thanks to Pops (and Great Gramie and Great Papa) for loaning her to us. Ellie was released on a Sunday. Our household goods were delivered the following Wednesday, and a whirlwind of unpacking and setting up began. We worked hard the rest of that week (and were completely blessed by two meals brough to us from our sponsors and Jon's boss. It was awesome!). So that weekend we decided we'd have some fun. We headed out onto the autobahn (yes, there really is no speed limit in parts) and drove to the Black Forest. It's only 1 1/2 hrs away, so the trip was nice. We went to Triberg (pronounced Tree-berg), the town famous for making cuckoo clocks. What a fun day!

On the main street, at the cuckoo stores. The entrance to the waterfall hike is just at the end of the street, on the right.

Here we are at the waterfall. It was amazing because it had just rained. I was a bit nervous about the lack of safety rails/guards on the sloping trail that drops off near the plunging waterfall, but the kids didn't seem to mind. :)

A view of the town as we hiked down from the waterfall.

Enjoying lunch. I ordered a salad and got potato salad underneath my green salad. Interesting. Yummy and interesting. Gram got a very German lunch--two sausages and a load of potatoes. Way to go local, Gram!

One neat thing about the towns in Germany is they are connected by large, open fields. It's no the sprawl you see in the states from one populated area to another. I don't know how they keep the land open for fields, but it looks wonderful. And thus, there are lots of walking paths around these fields. We went to check ours out after Jon told us there were sheep nearby. And he is right--only about five minutes' walk away are sheep.

Here are the girls enjoying their snack and watching the sheep. We heard some indignant bleating once the sheep realized the girls weren't sharing.

Indicative of car size around here, Ellie is standing in front of the "baby car" as we call it to show actual size. Driving our minivan around here is like driving a tank. But we manage. I don't know how the Germans function with no trunk space.

As invaluable as Gram is, she was to head home on Saturday. Of course, true to form, someone got sick. On Friday morning, Kate came down with a high fever and congestion. Jon was scheduled to go out of town for work on Sunday. We didn't know if Kate's fever was a short-lived thing or what, so Gram (and Pops) graciously changed Gram's ticket so she stayed with us until Wednesday morning. What a blessing that was, too, as Kate's fever didn't break until Sunday morning. We were all prepared to take her to the ER Sunday morning (as the post clinic is closed on the weekends and we're very familiar with the hospital!) and Jon was prepared to cancel his trip. (He had cancelled his first trip when Ellie went into the hospital.) Praise God, her fever broke. With Kate obviously better and Gram here with me, Jon went on his trip. On Sunday, Kate had a terrible night. (Not that she had slept well during her fever--but this was different.) She was screaming about her ears and couldn't sleep. As soon as the clinic opened on Monday morning, I called and praise the Lord, they had an open appt. We saw the dr and started her on four medications for her congestion, slight fever, cough, and double ear infection.

In the midst of this, our internet was to be activated (finally) on the 19th. I can't tell you the depth of our disappointment when the tech arrived and told us sorry, no internet, there's a problem with your line. I'll have to tell your provider and they'll have to set up another appt for a different tech to come check it out. (Talk about a low point--after all the sickness and loss of sleep and not being able to talk to our family and friends for so long--we really had our hopes pinned on it working that day.) But, Jon worked his magic from his TDY and I spent about 40 min on the phone with an English-speaking tech (it's amazing how we take for granted the ability to be understood in the language that we speak). And the phone and internet finally worked late Monday afternoon. Only two days later when we had already waited 20 days for activation! We were afraid to learn when the "next available appt" would be and lo and behold, activaction so soon. Yet another reason to be thankful!

And now, Gram left this morning. Kate's ears are much better, she's sleeping in her own room again (she had taken up residence in my bed, as Jon's place was empty). Currently, we are laying low until Daddy comes home on Friday. It's been crazy, but the Lord has definitely provided for us and on those mornings when one (or the other) of the children hadn't slept well and I felt exhausted before the day even began, He provided Gram to lighten the load. Thank you so much, Gram! Your generous nature and servant's heart are always an incredible testimony to me. We'll miss you--but are glad you'll be able to get home to that lonely Pops. :)

The adventure continues--and we've only been here two months!

Finally!

2011-03-21T14:41:00.002-04:00

I am thrilled to announce that after much waiting, anticipation and disappointment, we now are back online. And we even have a (working) landline! Praise God. I will be updating the blog soon with what has been going on, but again, thank you to all of you for your prayers for us. Our rough transition continues as Kate now has a double ear infection, but thank God we were able to get her an appointment today and she has already started on medication. Jon is TDY but not too far, and Gram is here until Wednesday. Whew--typing all this has made me tired. :)

Almost!

2011-03-15T06:03:00.003-04:00

Hello! We are almost set up with our internet at our new house. It's been crazy to think that it seriously has taken our internet provider 20 days to set it up. If you think you are tired of not hearing from us...think of how frustrated we are! I am sitting with Gram Luminati and the kids here in the base library, using their internet. It's the first chance I've been able to get over here and get online since we moved out of the hotel on the 1st.

So a long post is coming, but I wanted to update you on a few things--first of all, Ellie's health. Thank you ALL for your prayers for her especially during this "blackout" time. Ellie ended up contracting pneumonia and was hospitalized for five days. This happened the day after we moved into our house and THE day our unaccompanied baggage was delivered. Jon's work was incredibly understanding and allowed him to stay home with Kate during the week Ellie was in the hospital b/c I mostly stayed with her there. The care was wonderful, though the language barrier was difficult at times.

Ellie was released on Sunday, Mar 5th, which was the day Gram Luminati arrived to help us. She was the representative sent by all four parents to be a helping hand to us, and she has been amazing. We know all four parents (and a particular aunt and uncle from CA) wanted to come and help us during our time of need, but unfortunately, not all could. So they sent Gram and we have been so thankful.

They tried to deliver our household goods while Ellie was in the hospital, but that was just too much for us. So we took delivery on Weds, Mar 8. And now we are settling into our new German house and are so thankful that everyone is healthy and that we're together under one roof. (And it's not the hospital roof!) Our internet and phone service will be turned on Mar 19 (Praise God!!) and we will again be connected to the world. Look for a posting this weekend...as Gram Luminati goes back home and Jon goes TDY for a week, starting Sunday. Whew! Never a dull moment.

Again, thank you SO much for your prayers for us during this rougher-than-expected transition. We have been blessed during this trial and God has (as always!) proved Himself faithful. More posting to come!

Before we go offline for a while....

2011-02-28T09:30:00.003-05:00

We move in to our house on March 1st! We're thrilled. So that means we'll be incommunicado via internet until we get our internet set up. A bit uncertain about how long that will take. So in the meantime, here are a few pictures to keep you all happy. And thanks for the comments--it's wonderful to know people are actually reading this blog! :)

Kate, beaming after she won at Chutes and Ladders.

Every sci-fi princess needs her own steed. (She's trying to peek at me under her "Geordi" visor, that's why her face is tilted like that,)

This is to ask you to please pray for Ellie. I ended up having to take her to the German ER this afternoon because of her high fever. They diagnosed her with a bacterial infection so we have antibiotics, eye drops, and tylenol to give her. Thank the Lord she's ok, and I'm so thankful we were able to get her seen. It's a crazy story about getting to the ER, but the craziest part is when Jon tried to join me from work his "new" car broke down. So now we're dealing with that as well. We really do appreciate all prayers!

Kate and Mom, horsing around.

The girls' new favorite game: flips. Daddy is the best at it and they love it!

So long to the hotel which has been a great temporary home (despite all the illness). Again, we are so excited to get in to our own house and have our own "stuff" around us. We'll be back when the dust settles and the internet is hooked up.

President's Day Weekend

2011-02-25T07:54:00.006-05:00

For our first long weekend in Germany, we wanted to get out and see something. (Hurrah!) We decided to see some of what will be our "hometown" and get to know Stuttgart a bit before beginning to branch out and see more of what Europe has to offer. Our first stop? A water park! I realize when one thinks of sightseeing in Germany one does not automatically go to "water park" but when one has two little ones who need to be gradually introduced to touring around Germany, we thought a water park would be a great way to start off. I don't have any pictures of the park--they're still on Jon's camera--but suffice to say it was an adventure. Everyone undresses in the same place (they have family stalls that can accommodate more than one person) then you can shower in a gender-specific room if you so choose. (Just know "herren" is not a bird--it's the plural form of "men." ) But the kids' area and the water park were great and the girls loved it. Wonderful way to start off our adventure.

On Saturday, we took the train into downtown Stuttgart. Jon had taken a trip as part of his inprocessing, so we followed our fearless leader and enjoyed our trip. Of course, we missed the first train we wanted to take because (darn it) all the signs are in German and we weren't exactly sure where to park. (And not all words on signs are in our little dictionary!) But Jon found where we could leave our van (dwarfing the cars next to us) and we headed down to the platform.

Here's Kate waiting for the train.

Here's the main government building in Stuttgart. It's really neat and looks to be gorgeous in the spring/summer. It looks cold and yes, it was cold!

Here we are with the castle in the background. This is now a museum which tells the history of Baden-Wurttemburg, the state in Germany in which we live, with Stuttgart as the capital.

We went to this museum because Jon had been there before and it has lots of neat stuff. We found this in the section of the Iron Age. As soon as Kate saw this statue, she said: "Daddy, look, there's a statue of a chilly man." (Is that my daughter or what?) In case it's hard for you to see, the "chilly man" has his arms wrapped around his middle.

We saw this and had to take a picture for you, Great Papa. This is a calculator, circa 1700. You can see the modern equivalent to the left, and one of your favorite tools (a slide rule!) to the right. This made us think of you--love you!

Kate was ecstatic to see the crown jewels of Baden-Wurttemburg. Here she is in front of the princess crowns. If you can't tell, they are completely made out of diamonds. The king's crown is just as amazing--and beautiful.

One of the floors was completely filled with glass and beautifully worked pieces of china, etc. It's hard to tell, but there are etchings of people on these glasses. Amazing!

In Germany, there is no requirement for handicap access (or for our needs, stroller access) to many public areas. So we left the stroller and carried the kids down several flights of windy stairs. This lead us to the basement of the castle where an amazing clock display awaited. Most of these clocks are circa 1600--just around the time Jamestown was founded. Astounding! (Yes, that is an ostrich in the background. It's being lead by a monkey.)

This totally blew my mind. It's a globe, circa 1495. If you know me and how I love maps and globes...well, what more can I say?

Here we are in the inner courtyard of the castle.

And yes, Jon was there too! He and Kate are posing in front of the main S-bahn terminal in Stuttgart. Kate is helping keep daddy's ears warm.

Here's Daddy and two happy girls on the way home. (We were bribing them with gummy bears at this point.) They really liked traveling on the train and really did a wonderful job walking and riding in the stroller as we "met" Stuttgart. What a beautiful place!

Sunday was a down day and we just hung around after church. On Monday we were going to check out the Ikea in Sindelfingen, but a more pressing matter arose--our need for a second car. So Jon went on the hunt and the girls and I stayed home. We actually will bring home our newest family member (our new-to-us car) this afternoon. Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday, Jon!

2011-02-21T07:14:00.005-05:00

Last week we celebrated Jon's birthday. As the designer of the birthday celebration, I can tell you that it wasn't what I'd pictured Jon's birthday to be like, but it certainly was memorable. Several obstacles tried to derail the celebration--no oven (to bake his birthday pie), limited access to presents (what to give someone when you're living in a hotel?), limited time to celebrate on the day (he gets home from work around 5 and the girls go to bed at 7), etc.

So Kate had the idea to do a surprise party. I was able to procure decorations and a few fun surprises for Jon, and we told him he needed to call us and let us know when he'd be getting home from work that day. He knew something was up (obviously!) but I think he enjoyed the suspense.

After naps, we got to work. Here are the girls helping me blow up balloons and decorate.

We hid in the girls' room and Kate wanted to shut the door and turn off the lights and hide behind E's crib--I thought Daddy would never find us! But he did and we had a great time surprising him when he did open the door and turn on the lights. Ellie wasn't a fan of the hats, so she dissected hers.

If you know Jon, you know on his birthday he gets his own homemade cherry pie. As previously mentioned, this presented a problem as we don't have an oven in the hotel. So I improvised with a mix of cherry desserts: Jello No-Bake Cheesecake (which reminded me of you, Shari!:)), a pre-made tart w/ German cherries (I had to look up the word for cherry and scour the market), a chocolate cherry roll, and last but not least, cherry toaster strudel (not pictured). Here is the birthday boy about to dig in.

Kate showing off her excited-for-dessert face.

Of course, when you're the parents of a preschooler and a toddler, there's never a lack of people wanting to help you open your presents.

The birthday boy and Ellie (wearing the hat for .7 seconds)

Happy Birthday, honey! I love you so much and am incredibly thankful that we are on this adventure together. You are the best.

New Home!

2011-02-10T08:08:00.005-05:00

I am absurdly pleased to tell you that we finally have a house! It seemed the scouring of the available homes and attempts to schedule viewings would never end, but haha, they have! Finally our free time is our own again (relatively speaking). Jon signed the lease today and we're set to move in 1 Mar.

A few caveats before you see the photos: 1, they were taken with my camera phone. 2, they were taken in a hurry. 3, they were taken while the previous tenant (who talked at length with us and is really nice) was moving out their stuff and the landlord and tenants were hanging out in the kitchen, so no kitchen pictures.

Here is a view of the front--it's a duplex and we're 25/1 (instead of the other side of the duplex which is just 25). It's the far side of the house. Funny enough--we passed by this duplex early on in our search but were unimpressed with the outside, so we didn't schedule a viewing. Now, almost three weeks later, we're going to live here. And the other side of the duplex is owned by our landlords and has recently been rented (to an American military family) as well.

Enter in and the kitchen is immediately on your right, 1/2 bath on left, then space for coats. Walk forward, staircase on your left (you'll see Kate coming down it in the picture) and enter into the dining room, past this glass wall. (Which I love.) Downstairs are two more storage rooms (that could be bedrooms but the windows are small) laundry, and "furnace" room.

Looking to the right of the previous picture is the living room which opens out to the back yard. (not pictured, on the right) No, the monitor isn't ours, it's out-going.

Up that curvy flight of stairs that you saw Kate coming down is the bedroom level. Three bedrooms on this level and one full bath. What will be the girls' room is straight ahead as you look at this picture. Our room is to the left and the third bedroom (office) is farther to the left. Bath room on far right.

Up one more flight of stairs to the "attic." We found in German homes that they are not able to count space that is decreased in size by the sloping of the roof in the "liveable space" of the house, so when you see the house's stats on paper, this whole floor (besides the 1/2 bath) doesn't count at all. But this is a huge room (that I couldn't do justice w/ my camera phone) that wraps all the way around the house. It will be the guest room and probably a play room for the girls b/c...

...I also love this view from the top window. Most German homes (that we saw) have a lot of windows, of differing shapes and sizes. Because the homes are so closely placed together, the windows also often look on other homes, your neighbors' lawn, carports, the street, etc. Actually having some sort of view (this looks out to the fields that separate our town from the next) is a total bonus. Again, the photo doesn't do it justice. But you get the idea.

As I said before, we also have the added bonus of being in touch with the previous tenants (who had to move b/c of DODDs schooling issues, not b/c of the house or anything) so they are helpful in hooking us up with who their internet service was, phone, how to handle the heating oil issue (which is new to us and is a very big deal b/c it's tax exempt but we have to follow strict rules when filling our tank with oil). The normal tax on heating oil (and all utilities) is 20%, so we're VERY happy that it qualifies for tax-exempt status (for us, as part of the US service living in Germany). Our landlord's daughter lives three doors down and she told us there are a lot of kids on the street, so we're excited to get over there and meet them. Thank the Lord that this part of our move is over--we'll just kick back in the hotel for the next few weeks and finish inprocessing. Hurray!! Thanks to all of you for your prayers for us as we made this important decision.

And here are Jon and Kate, happy that we no longer have to delve into the depths of someone else's drippy basement or pile into the car after naps to go see another house. Actually, the girls were great sports and Kate seemed to look forward to seeing more homes. She hasn't asked to see any more, though, and we don't mind at all.

2011-01-30T13:10:00.002-05:00

Wow, the days are flying by! We are ending our first week in Germany and feel like we've come so far. Then again, sometimes we feel like we're still at square one, so it's all good. Jon was successful in getting us some cell phones (handys, they call them here) but that experience is another post I'm urging him to do. (It'll make you tired just reading it!) But he was successful and it took only another few hours to figure out how to get those phones to display in English instead of German. Whew!

The girls are doing well--liking being in the hotel. They also have the bedroom to themselves while Jon and I sleep on the pull-out sofa, so that's a great deal for them. We went to the post chapel for church today and they almost made it through the entire service in the nursery. It's an encouraging start, for sure. Jon has successfully achieved his driver's license and--ta-da!--our car has arrived, so we're thrilled to be able to drive ourselves around. We've looked at a few available homes and will see more tomorrow, but we continue to pray about where to live and all the details. We're also hoping to move into a larger hotel room this week--if the financing works out with the temporary living allowance. We'll let you know. We have been truly blessed with the nice people we've met so far. Our sponsor's wife (and her two boys) drove us to our first house-hunting appointment, and another couple (who picked us up from the airport) invited us to their church for a potluck and then over to their house for dinner. How nice to be out of the hotel and not eating out! Thanks for following us as we take this adventure as it comes--one day at a time!

Kate, not long after our arrival. She's totally out, even though Ellie is trying to wake her.

The girls hanging out on our bed.

Running "home" down the hallway to our room.

Finding places to play wherever they present themselves.

This one's my favorite--Ellie, hiding.

We made it!

2011-01-25T13:38:00.002-05:00

After an amazing amount of time in airports and waiting (besides spending more than 12 hrs actually on planes), we've made it to Germany! The girls did awesome, considering the situation, but we were all thrilled to have the journey over. I don't think Jon or I got more than a hour or two on the red-eye across the pond. The girls fared a little better, but not much. We were totally blessed to have the people at Delta Sky Lounge allow us to use their facilities to hang out in during our 5 hour layover. That was a huge blessing--we didn't have to lug all our stuff (and the girls) around the airport, nor did we have to campout at a gate.

When we did arrive in Germany, a guy from Jon's office was there to meet us, and all our stuff arrived! That too, was a blessing. He picked us up and drove us to the post where our hotel is, as well as drove us around the post so we knew where important places are (commissary, PX, bowling alley, etc). :) Also, during our nap that afternoon while he took Jon over to check in, we had a laundry basket full of stuff delivered to our hotel room, welcoming us to Germany. It's from a spouse of a guy JOn will work for. It was incredible! Even in my jet-lag stupor I could see how awesome that gift is--food, diapers, wine, magazines, toys for the kids, stuff about living in Germany, a quick language guide, a bath mat--amazing. So the Lord is looking out for us (no surprise there, eh?) and I can't wait to meet the very nice people who put that together.

So we are here, check out the link (Click here for the link) to some pictures I posted on Facebook. They aren't that great, but at least it gives an idea of our trip. It's snowing outside and we are car-less, so I don't have any pictures of Germany itself, but they will come. Oh, and our car is going to arrive this week! Hurray! We're getting moving on housing as well, but nothing to report. (Except for the fact that we're living in a VERY small hotel room (with one separate bedroom) so that will factor in on our decision to get more room sooner as opposed to later.) Anyway, thank you to all for your prayers and well-wishes. We are certainly thankful for them!

More Pictures of Monterey

2011-01-15T16:05:00.002-05:00

There are more pictures we wanted to share of our time in Monterey, but they wouldn't fit on the blog. So click here to see them on my facebook page.

Saying Goodbye

2011-01-14T15:59:00.005-05:00

It's so hard to believe our time in Monterey is already over. Usually our assignments are 3-4 years, so when we found we'd be going to CA for just 15 months, it seemed like such a short time. But now, as we transition to our next assignment (that we are very excited about), we think back over our time in Monterey and thank God for how full, rich, and rewarding it was. Thank you to each of you who befriended us and spent time with us despite our short time to stay. What a wonderful group of friends we met and each of you will be missed! I couldn't possibly get a good picture of everyone, so here are some of our dear friends that we feel we are not leaving behind but are just entering a new stage of friendship.

Warning: Lots of pictures!

Jeff and Rachel and their sweet baby, who are our Germany gurus (having moved from Germany to Monterey). Thank you for your friendship and guidance!

Fellow OCF ladies at our Cookie Exchange. What a fun group you are--we miss you!

Julie, who fell in love with our kids. She is the sweetest lady--go say hi to her for us. She works at the bagel shop in Sand City.

My dear friend Hannah--what can I say? Thank God for you--you are such a blessing to me!

Not only were you a blessing, Hannah, but your kids were too. We already miss hanging out with you guys. Here's Ellie trying to hug Celia. (See-yah is how Ellie says it.)

And the older ones, of course! Such a good influence on each other. :)

My fellow Air Force wives, Cath and Stephanie. Thanks for the playdates and time together! It's hard to imagine us being further apart than we are now. (Well, once we get to Europe, that is.) Here's to hoping we'll get stationed near each other again.

My fellow PWOC board members. It has been such a blessing working together in PWOC. Thank you for your support and love! I definitely will miss being part of such a wonderful group.

We also leave some family behind in CA. Jon's Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Al, who were our family away from family. Thanks for hosting us, coming to see us, and being so interested and involved in our lives. We will miss being just a (semi-long) drive away. Love you!

JoAnn and Alan's daughter, Jennifer, one of Jon's cousins, who we also got to see before we moved. We're sorry we missed seeing Jen's husband, Gabe, but...

...we got to see their sweet boys and play with them one more time. The girls loved it.

Thank you, thank you. Most importantly, we thank the Lord for His provision for us in taking us to Monterey (when we didn't expect it) and for blessing us with such an amazing time of friendship, transition, school success (for Jon) and family growth. As we look toward our next adventure, we know that the experiences in Monterey will help prepare us for whatever is in store. And as we know Who orchestrates each adventure, we anticipate His blessings on us in what lies ahead. Be sure to join us--we'll definitely be keeping up the blog.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-30T16:53:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas from the Luminatis. We had a nice, quiet Christmas here at home--except for the sickness part. Jon was sick Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and Jen followed suit on Christmas Day. Thankfully, I didn't get as sick as Jon, and we were able to take turns with naps and child-watching, so we made it through ok. But we don't have a ton of pictures of our day because we never got out of our pjs!

Here's the tree, set up and ready for unwrapping:

And Daddy (a few days later) with his girls. Kate is sporting one of her favorite gifts--a princess nightgown.

One tradition we've started in our house is making Jesus a birthday cake. Here are the girls helping me decorate it. (THAT was fun--they really enjoyed that part.)

And the finished product. They were pretty proud and even managed to get most of the decorations on the cake.

I really wanted to show you some video of our day and some other fun videos, but I realized the program I need to compress the video to make it small enough to download to the blog is on our OTHER computer--which is on its way to Germany. So I'll have to try to figure something out. That or I'll just have a ton of videos to publish once we get our computer back. We'll see. Anyway, keep checking back! Merry Christmas to you--we hope you had a wonderful season with family and friends, making sure to celebrate the real reason for Christmas--the birth of Jesus!

December Visits

2010-12-24T17:28:00.007-05:00

Merry Christmas Eve! I know I"m dreadfully behind on posting, so as my poor sick hubbie recovers and the girls nap, here's an update on what's been going on with us this last month.

We had the tremendous blessing to visit with my dad's brother and his family--whom we haven't seen since my sister's wedding in July of '09. They spent a short amount of time with us, but we loved all the time we got!

Here they are enjoying the sights of Fisherman's Wharf:

We saw this otter swimming around among a ton of jellyfish--it was amazing! (See the pink splotches in the picture--those are jellyfish.)

Thanks for taking time out of your quick trip to CA to visit us--We love you!

Another memorable occasion this month was Jon's graduation from the Naval PostGrad School. (More on that in another posting.) His aunt and uncle from LA drove up for the occasion and it was great to see them too:

And last but certainly not least, the Luminatis came out to see Jon graduate and to spend some good Christmas time together before we move. Here's Gram and Kate:

And Ellie with her new best friend. It was funny--Ellie LOVED Pops. (Who doesn't? :) She would wake up and call for him, and she adored having him chase her down the hall. It was so cute to see them play together! She even took him on a long walk. He needed a nap after that.

And Gram helped keep the tradition of sugar cookies alive in our house with her two little elves:

We opened presents before they headed back to Colorado and one of their thoughtful gifts was this book. It's a wonderful story recorded in their voices that I know we'll cherish when we're across the pond. Thanks so much! We love you and enjoyed all our time with you.

Gram and Pops watched the girls while Jon and I sorted stuff in preparation for the move next month. Our unaccompanied baggage has already left and we're only in Monterey for a few more weeks. It's hard to believe the move to Germany is almost here.

Grand Winter Ball

2010-12-06T17:19:00.002-05:00

Jon and I had a great time at the Grand Winter Ball this past weekend. We got all dolled up and hit the town. Kate was sure to give me her advice for the ball: I was to make sure I ran away and dropped my shoe at midnight. Noted!

The hotel was beautiful and packed! There were two horse-drawn carriages outside the main entrance that you could get your picture taken next to (but not ride). Also, they carted in snow which they placed on the stairs (not where you were supposed to walk) and around the flagpole. We met some really nice people who donated quite a pretty penny to be at the ball, and it was a great opportunity to mingle with other members of the community. All in all, a good time was had by all.

Check out this link to my Facebook page for more pictures:
Share this album with anyone by sending them this public link:

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving and Passing the Torch

2010-12-04T00:45:00.002-05:00

We had a fun, low-key Thanksgiving at the Luminati household. Our friends, the Warners, came over with their little 8 month old and we celebrated together. An incredible blessing is before they came to Monterey they lived in Germany, so they've been an invaulable source of information and help. They even recommended to pack my cleaning supplies in the unaccompanied baggage so I have something to to clean our house with (when we finally get in a house). Genius! And by the way, they're scheduled to PCS in two weeks, so we're going to miss you guys!

Here's the girls, hanging out. Of course, they must occupy the same space at the same time.

Sweet smile and a sweet Snow White.

A well-earned break after some hard playing.

And of course, it can't be Thanksgiving without the home-made pie! Love you, Hubby. :)

Last but not least, I have to share with you this video. We am just so proud, we may burst. (Blythe, get out the kleenex; Scarlet, you're already rolling your eyes, I know.)

Running and Visiting

2010-11-22T17:08:00.007-05:00

Congratulations to the finishers! Jon and both the dads ran the Big Sur Half last weekend, and did a fantastic job. The weather was beautiful, the scenery extraordinary, and the runners motivated. Mom M, the girls and I saw them all as they finished. You should be proud! I can't even fathom running 13.1 miles!

After the race, Pops left us to return home, but he and Gram will come back again next month. So we look forward to that. But Nana and Grandpa stayed a week with us, and what a week it was. Here they are, enjoying a moment together on the beach.

And posing with the most accommodating children on the beach. :)

And did these kids keep the grandparents busy! Grandpa watched them both one morning while Mom and I went to Bible study. Then both Nana and Grandpa watched the kids so Jon and I could get away together. Also, poor Nana did more sewing than she bargained for! Thank you! And Grandpa worked his heart out trying to get our car windows clean despite the sandy and salty wind. Both grandparents were tremendous sports as they were "asked" to play part after part in princess play. We have one cute (but kind of demanding) little princess. And Ellie, not to be outdone, is always ready for her share of attention from doting grandparents--whether out to take a walk or to sidle up to you and read a book. Thanks for all the love!

Nana asked Kate to "look over her shoulder" at the camera so we could see her dressing up. Here is her interpretation of that request.

Hanging out with crazy Grandpa.

Thank you for a wonderful visit! We will miss you this holiday season, but are looking forward to seeing you in January. Love you!

Ellie at 18 Months

2010-11-12T23:14:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe our little Ellie is already 18 months old. She is such a joy in our household--and there's never a dull moment when Ellie's around. Just this week she bonked her head on the desk in the living room, slammed her thumb in the door, dropped magnets down the heating vent, lifted UP the heating vent to get aforementioned stuff, pulled out all the spoons in the silverware drawer, tried to climb up the bookshelves, and learned to climb up on our bed. She goes a mile a minute and is intensely curious about life, her surroundings, birds, and airplanes. Nothing escapes her notice, and as her vocabulary expands, I'm sure she'll be letting us know what she's thinking. Her laugh is infectious and she loves to be tickled. Oh, and she is a great kiss-giver but if you're smaller than she is, watch out--she likes to butt you with her head as a kiss.

We love you , little Elliana Hope! We thank God for the joy you bring to our lives.

Ellie began waving to Daddy as we drove past his work several months ago and I just now got it on camera. Usually she doesn't need so much prompting, but I think the camera is distracting her. Ellie LOVES her daddy and will stand and wave and yell bye bye from the door as he walks to his car. It's so cute!

This was taken just the other day. Ellie pulled her own pants off and decided she wanted to have a dance party in just her onesie. So we did!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-02T16:31:00.005-04:00

We hope you had a great Halloween. It's becoming more and more fun as the girls get older and we get to see them experiencing things and understanding things for the first time. This Halloween was no exception!

Daddy found a great farm nearby for us to go and pick out our pumpkins. The kids also really loved the corn maze. They ran around that thing forever! Ellie cried when we carried her out.

They both chased each other and wanted us to chase them. Fun times.

Here we are with our wagon, looking for the perfect pumpkins. We found them! :)

Of course, Ellie wanted to pull the wagon herself. Her sister wanted a ride, but we nixed that idea.

It only took me three tries to get this picture. At first she wouldn't go near the pumpkin because she thought it was dirty. I wonder where she gets that??

Daddy and Kate, carrying our loot back to the car.

(P.S. Kate later named our carved pumpkin Sheila.)

Here is Ariel and the butterfly (Thanks, Nana!!) getting ready to go to the Chapel for their Halloween program. We had a lot of fun, and were especially happy our international student from Serbia could join us. He really enjoyed seeing how crazy Americans go over free candy. :)

After the Chapel party, we trick or treated home. At first, Kate was very skeptical and shy about going up to other people's houses. Then, after she realized what happens when you do this, she was gung ho. And naturally, Ellie followed where her sister went and even paved the way a few times. She also loved her costume and wore it all night, vision imparing and all. Kate woke up the next morning and wanted to put her costume on and go out all over again. I had to explain that it was only one night a year--and that night was over! Now we get to enjoy the spoils.

Last but not least, I wanted to share this wonderful picture. Kate really likes watching The Talking Word Factory, and she usually does this while I make dinner. When I took this picture, she came into the kitchen and said "I'm going to spell cat." C-A-T. I looked on the refrigerator and lo and behold! She had spelled cat. Way to go, big girl!

2010-10-20T16:22:00.005-04:00

The days just seem to be careening by with the holidays (and Jon's graduation!) coming ever nearer. Also, our move is right around the corner! But here's what we've been up to lately.

The girls having their snack together. This is the first time I've let Ellie out of her feeding seat to have a snack. Don't they look sweet?

Anything to keep from going to bed. (She's trying to hide in the closet.)

Ellie sporting a beautiful dress given to her by my Aunt Sandy. Thank you!!

And every parent's favorite--the sibling choke hold.

Ellie's vocabulary continues to expand on a seemingly daily basis. She'll repeat any sounds and more words are coming. Here are a few of her most recent acquisitions.

Those of you with boys will laugh at this next video, but this is how we swordfight in a house of little girls. (If you aren't familiar with your princess-lore, Malificent is the evil fairy/dragon in Sleeping Beauty.)

Hangin' with Gram and Pops

2010-10-12T00:08:00.008-04:00

Thanks, Gram and Pops, for the great visit! I didn't know one could pack so much into one single week. Activities included:

lots of coloring... (Kate's newest favorite activity)

...and checkups, of course...

...playing on the wii... (Ellie jumped on as soon as that board hit the floor)

...aquarium attractions...

(Both girls enjoyed the touch pools. Ellie loved it--it was her first experience with the starfish and kelp. Kate asked the volunteer who was standing there to "move that fuzzy stuff" so she could touch the starfish below. )

...visiting our favorite clownfish... (She made sure EVERYONE nearby saw Nemo in his tank.)

...and camping! The big excitement this visit was Kate's night with Gram and Pops. They camped at a nearby RV site instead of staying at our house, and Kate talked about "camping" with Gram and Pops all week long. Unfortunately, she needed to come back home around midnight, but it was a great attempt at her first night away from home. Way to go Kate (and Gram and Pops)!

One day, we headed south a little to Point Lobos, a nearby state park that was on our "to do before leaving Monterey" list. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed the hike along the seaside.

Here's the beach where we played for a bit before heading back for lunch. The girls were troopers--especially Kate, who walked most of the time. And then so was Jon, who carried both girls (at one point or another) in the backpack.

We miss you already! See you next month, Pops, for the half marathon!

Yosemite 2010

2010-09-27T11:33:00.008-04:00

If you have never been to Yosemite, there's just one word to describe it--superlative. The scenery is amazing, the mountains dramatic, the valley picturesque, the bears plentiful. (Thankfully, not on this trip!) God certainly created one fantastic spot and we were so privileged to see it in person. There was even a full moon, and let me tell you, Half Dome by the light of a full moon--breathtaking.

Here is our campsite in Lower Pines. Yes, that is one huge tent. We've nicknamed it the Taj Mahal.

As you can guess, it was rather chilly at night. However, the girls found the warmest spot in the tent. Fortunately for Jon's sleeping quota, he only let them join him in the morning.

The first full day of our trip we hiked up Sentinel Dome. The guidebook stated it was a relatively short and easy climb for the gloriously panoramic view at the end. Yes, it was only over one mile, but the book didn't mention anything about how hard it was carrying two kids! But Kate loved her vantage point from the backpack and Ellie got so comfy that she fell asleep right in time for the ascent. Breathtaking!! (Every peak has a name, but I don't know them all. So all you get is Half Dome, just behind and to the right of Kate's head.)

On the way back down from Sentinel Dome, Kate walked most of the time. When we stopped at one point and found her trying to take a nap on a rock, we figured she'd had enough . So back in the pack she went. We got lots of "awwwws" and smiles from sympathetic hikers along the way.

Kate running down the street toward our campsite.

The last full day at Yosemite, we piled the girls in the new bike trailer and headed off for a ride around the valley. Despite the fact that I could have adjusted quite a few side mirrors as cars streamed past, the ride was beautiful.

(Doesn't it look cozy?) Both girls did a great job squashed in here. They only started complaining around lunctime.

One of the amazing meadows we passed on our ride.

We stopped for lunch at Cathedral Beach and Kate enjoyed tossing rocks into the pond. We had to keep both hands on Ellie or she would have been IN the pond.

And just so you know what you're missing and so you realize how much you need to go to Yosemite yourself and see God's grandeur, here's one of Jon's Ansel Adams-like photos:

(El Capitan on front left, Cathedral Rocks on the right, and Half Dome center back)

What fun and life-long memories were made this week. We are truly blessed to have spent time there. And it was a double blessing that our friends, the Wagners, were camping nearby at the same time we were. They had us over for dinner at their campsite and cheered us on as they passed us on our bike ride. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of us all but you can imagine the fun (and dirt) the kids enjoyed as they played together.

Anyone for winter camping? (JUST KIDDING.)

Never a Dull Moment

2010-09-17T11:34:00.005-04:00

As the title states, there's never a dull moment around our house. Sometimes Mommy in particular wishes there were! But with action comes pictures and video to share.

We got this dress, along with the shoes, at a recent bargain fair. Kate has hardly taken them off since. She is smiling so big because I asked her to show me her shoes. But her expression was so cute I tried to get it all in one picture. (Gotta take advantage of those good smiles when I can!)

After quiet time one day, she wanted to show me Mommy, Daddy, Kate and Ellie. Can you find them in this picture?

Our little scholar.

Yes, I'll admit. This is how I entertain the children while I attempt to make dinner. Usually one is more interested in what's going on in the kitchen and wanders in to help me. Can you guess which one?

This is a game Kate invented. Thankfully, she realized it worked better if she walked backwards instead of Ellie. Now Ellie is much more willing to play.

Kate already takes after her Grandpa. As you can guess, the key to preschooler joke-telling is just to laugh. (Sometimes this is true with Grandpa as well. :)) By the way, Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!

More Birthday Pics and Camping Dry Run

2010-09-12T23:25:00.007-04:00

As you all know, we celebrated two birthdays a couple of weeks ago and we thought everyone might like to see a few more photos. Kate wasn't really interested in a party (she's not a big fan of large gatherings). She decided she wanted to go to the Monterey Bay Acquarium. She's been on a Finding Nemo kick for the past few weeks so ID'ing fish from the movie is a big part of the excitement.

Here are Kate and Ellie looking at one of the exhibits.

The best part of the acquarium is the kid's area. Here are Mommy and Ellie on their way down the slide with Kate (dressed as a ray) lurking in the background.

Kate and Ellie posing for a picture in an oversized clam shell. It was amazing we got them to sit still for a couple of seconds.

The biggest hit of the day though, came on our trip to the gift shop. We promised Kate she could pick out a birthday present and she was ecstatic to find this huge clown fish. It's been with her for every nap and night since.

Back home again, we enjoyed some tasty cake before opening the rest of the presents.

Here's Kate digging into the pink flower on the top of her piece.

All in all it was a lot of fun. We also made a trip to Bubba Gump Shrimp and gorged ourselves on some tasty seafood (probably won't be much of that in Stuttgart).

Over Labor Day weekend, we also made a last minute decision to spend a day camping at Pinnacle National Monument. We decided it would make a great dry run to test out the equipment (and the children) before our multi-day trip to Yosemite next week. It was certainly a valuable expereince. We had some fun and we learned some, er, lessons, for making the next trip a little more relaxing.

Below is a picture of our campsite. We managed to get the last site and thankfully it was actually quite nice (except for a minor infestation of flies that got Kate screaming about the buzzing a few times). You can see the "Taj Mahal" in the background. It's a two-room, nine-person tent that's actually bigger than our bedroom back home. But it allowed us to keep the kids in one side while we slept in the other ... too bad the divider wasn't sound proof.

Here are Kate and Daddy pounding in the tent stakes. She was quite eager to help get camp set up.

Mommy and Ellie relaxing in the camping chairs. Now if we can just get Ellie to relax with a book for a few hours.

Of course we had to make some smores. Here's Kate enjoying hers.

The next morning we broke camp and had time for a short hike before heading home. Ellie was excited to ride on Daddy's shoulders ....

... at least until a bad night's sleep caught up with her. A few minutes after this picture we decided it was time to head home (by way of McDonald's of course).

All it all it was quite educational, and our backs and sleep debt recovered in only a few days. Kate woke up pretty much on the hour throughout the night. The most dramatic incidents occured at 3AM and 6:45AM, when she let out a series of blood-curdling screams that must have woken up half the park (and prompted Mommy and Daddy to make a few apologies to the neighbors the next morning). We think we've got some ideas on how to improve that for next time. We'll let you know how that goes. We'll turn everyone into good campers yet!

Happy Birthday

2010-08-30T09:31:00.003-04:00

Happy 3rd Birthday to our sweet Kate! We love you so much.

Here's someone else turning three on exactly the same day, oh so long ago. :)

Early Attempts

2010-08-23T17:54:00.002-04:00

Here is an early attempt at learning German. I think she gets more than she lets on.

Goings On

2010-08-13T18:14:00.003-04:00

Ellie is 15 months old today and Kate is almost three! Where does the time go? We are busy, busy, and mom is busy, busy, trying to keep up with my two vivacious girls. Kate is back in dance class and Ellie enjoys going and watching all the kids. Ellie is signing more words like food, more, water, milk, please, and a few times, thank you. She can also say more words, to include baby (her new favorite word) and bye bye. We're beginning to teach the kids (and ourselves) some German phrases (stay tuned for another video hopefully soon) and it's fun to hear Kate laugh at some of the crazy German pronunciation.

I often try to get pictures of Ellie. Unfortunately, she's so active that they turn out like this:

Or this:And while that's cute, it's hard to share a lot of those pics. And she clams up when the camera is around because she likes to stare at it and point, so it's hard to get her words and signs on camera. But I will continue to attempt!

Here's Kate, using her favorite bed and blanket. She did this of her own accord and even asked me to cover her up. So sweet!

And we had the privilege of my friend Jenn come visit! It was great to see you Jenn, and thanks for sharing some of your time off with us. Unfortunately, the kids don't look that great in the pic because Ellie was done (she's actually sliding off Jenn's lap) and Kate was moving around too much to look at the camera for three seconds. So there you have it!

Last but not least, here are a few videos to make you smile. They certainly make us smile!

The Air Force Changes its Mind

2010-08-01T16:04:00.005-04:00

Hello all!

For those of you that aren't on facebook we have some news to announce and more photos to share. First, the Air Force decided to change its mind. We're no longer moving to Belgium, but are actaully headed to Stuttgart, Germany! Although we were certainly excited about Belgium, both the job and the family environment seem to be an improvement with the new posting, so we're quite happy (now that we're over the intial shock). I'll be working in the Headquarters of European Command (EUCOM/J5 if that means anything to you) and helping coordinate US military interaction, training, and assistance to a number of countries throughout Europe. The only thing is I now have to try and exchange my French Rosetta Stone for German.

As far as the photos go, many of you know that I (Jon) was in Cambodia for 2 and 1/2 weeks during July. I was there to help run a UN peacekeeping exercise, training UN peacekeeping staff officers. It was a great experience where I got to see some of the best and worst of Cambodian history and culture. If you want to see some pictures, click on the link below to see the facebook album with some highlights (You don't need a facebook account to see them). If you ever get a chance to take a trip there, don't pass it up. But don't forget your Pepto Bismol and anti-malarial medication either. Incidentally, Jen and the kids went to Colorado while I was gone, and those pictures are on the posting below, if you haven't already seen them. Dankeschon!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063293&id=1066770597&l=41a4cf761d

Change of Scenery

2010-07-29T11:42:00.005-04:00

Warning: Lots of pictures! :)

We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends in Colorado earlier this month. We missed our Daddy, who was out of town and couldn't join us, but we took advantage of his absence and his three girls flew by themselves to Colorado. (Praise God we had great flights both times and the kids did fantastic.)

Here we are visiting Jon's grandparents. Four generations together!

Kate with Gram

Grandpa treated Kate and Mommy to the North Pole. We had such fun!

Our 8th wedding anniversary passed while we were apart. But it was fun to take the kids to the chapel where we got married. Ahh, memories! I love you, Honey!!

We were treated to a famous Colorado hailstorm--Kate's first experience with hail. She loved eating it off the deck.

Blythe and Aaron came to visit as well, and it was wonderful to catch up with both of them.

Scarlet and Cora came to play a few times and it was great!

I love this picture. I think it shows their personalities pretty well.

Cousin Riley was also there to visit with us! We loved seeing you, Riley. Here is Nana, posing with all her granddaughters.

Pops gave us a special treat--a trip to the Zoo! Ellie was thrilled to ride the carousel with him.

And a very special get together--if I do say so myself. Two of my three college roommates. It was wonderful to see you guys! Thanks, Shari, for driving down with your family. We missed you, Jackie!!

And here are the cousins, hanging out at Gram and Pop's house.

Again, thanks to all who came to see us while we were in town. We loved seeing you all, but are very happy to be one big family again. We'll be back around Christmas time (Lord willing!) so watch for us again in the Springs.

More Tahoe and Uh Oh

2010-07-10T11:31:00.004-04:00

Here are a few more Tahoe pictures:

Kate, giving it her best effort at a snow angel (in June) at High Camp, Squaw Valley. She really wanted to make a snow angel, but as you can see by her face, that's as far as she got. Great effort, Kate!

Daddy and Ellie taking a break from swimming at High Camp. Yes, we had the pool to ourselves. And considering how cold it was, we know why we were the only ones swimming!

Sunbathing, Squaw Valley style.

Last week, Jon's aunt and uncle came to visit for a few days. We loved seeing them--thanks for coming to visit, guys! One instance that bears mentioning during their visit was Kate's fall into the fountain at our mall. Jon's uncle did a great job of documenting the drama after Jon fished Kate out of the fountain (police, firemen, EMT complete with stretcher, trip to the ER, etc) and he shared the pictures with us. But instead of taking you through the drama, I thought I'd share how she's healing. Thank goodness she just banged her eye a little and was completely shocked to fall in the water, but she is well on the mend. Thanks to Al and JoAnn for all your invaluable help while we took care of our little swimmer. Now she says the next time we go to the mall she wants to wear her bathing suit.

Here is her eye the evening it happened, after the dr released us from the ER.

And here it is just a few days later, well on the mend.

And appropriately enough, Ellie wants to share her newest vocabulary acquisiton.

Lake Tahoe

2010-07-02T22:47:00.005-04:00

We had a fantastic time at Lake Tahoe. What a gorgeous place! It was awe-inspiring. God sure makes amazingly beautiful places here on this earth. I highly recommend you go see this one if you haven't already. Thanks to our friends the Winters who drove all the way down from Oregon to meet us there. It was a great reunion and a fun time for our kids to meet and hang out. And we adults enjoyed it too!

Our family expanded their knowledge in several ways during this trip. Ellie learned to gag herself and throw up (twice); Kate learned she was afraid of the dark and desperately needed a nightlight; both children realized their love of S'mores; Jon and I learned the incalculable value of the portable DVD player and a good night's sleep--which eluded us until well into the trip. But, we took our newly formed knowledge and transformed it into stronger character for future trips. And we had fun at the same time! So all in all it was a success. Oh, and strangely enough, we learned the destination of our next assignment on our vacation. It bears repeating that we were informed of our Monterey assignment while also on vacation. (click here to read) Interesting parallel! We loved Lake Tahoe and are thrilled to share some memories with you.

Here's our family at Squaw Valley, after taking the cable car all the way to the top.

Lake Tahoe overlooking Emerald Bay. The sun shone like this every day of our trip. What a wonderful restbit for those from the soggy Pac northwest and the dreary central coast of CA.

Just a bit further south from Emerald Bay is Baldwin Beach where we had a picnic. When we arrived we were the only ones in sight. Sand, sun, mountains, pine trees, snow, lake--everything you could need! (including sunscreen, of course. I was a sunscreen maniac since we were at 6200 feet.)

The town of Tahoe City had a playground right on the edge of the lake that we visited several times. Majestic, isn't it? That's Kate and Rachel in the foreground.

Reunited! What a blessing to see you again, dear friend. Thanks to you and your family for spending some of your valuable vacation time with us.

Kate and Rachel enjoying some S'mores on the back deck.

Reading in the sun of the living room. Joey was such a good sport--he sat and listened to princess books with the best of them. He also introduced Kate to Cars (the movie). She wasn't as good a sport.

Lake Tahoe from the summit of Squaw Valley. Breathtaking--and the sky really did look like this the whole time.

Quick Quiz

2010-06-27T16:00:00.010-04:00

What country is the home of fries ...

waffles ...

and NATO headquarters?

Answer ... Belgium. And in January of next year it will be home to the Luminatis too. Jon is being assigned to NATO headquarters outside Mons. We're all quite excited and hope you'll plan to stop by for a visit! Adieu ...

Just for Fun

2010-06-15T22:22:00.005-04:00

Here are a few recent videos of our cherubs. I hope they make you laugh as much as they do us.

This one is pretty self explanatory. I promise I did not coach her in any way, except that which you hear. (Blythe, this one's for you!)

This video is of Ellie helping me get Kate from her nap. Ellie usually wakes up earlier than Kate from their afternoon nap, so when Ellie hears Kate's voice, she makes a beeline down the hall to go get her sis. Listen to her saying "hi, hi" over and over again. Oh, and Ellie is now walking herself without much use of her walker, though she still loves to push it around.