Europe Trip

Ok!  We came home with over 2400 pictures from an AMAZING 2 weeks in Europe, so get ready for picture overload!!  It’s kind of overwhelming to think about blogging the whole trip, but I know we are going to be so glad to have it all documented . . . . so here we go!

Let’s start at the very beginning . . . . a very good place to start.  (haha . . . . more on the Sound of Music later:)  It all started a year ago when the Johnson family (Dan’s sister) moved to Heidelberg, Germany for 3 years (Chris is a radiologist in the US Army).  My grandmother grew up in Germany, and I have always wanted to visit, so we knew we wanted to go while the Johnsons were living there.  We decided that this spring would be the perfect time to go.  I wouldn’t be pregnant and James is old enough to leave (14 months).  We asked my mom if she would be willing to watch our kids and she said, “Are you kidding?  I’d be thrilled!”  Ok, then . . . . all that was left was to convince someone to come with us:)  I talked to Scott and Elisha during our Christmas trip in Vancouver and by February the four of us had booked our flights!  Yay!

Dan and I had so much fun planning and preparing for our trip.  We spent a lot of time reading travel books, deciding where to go, looking for hotels, researching sites we wanted to visit, etc.  At one point I said to Dan, “I think we’ll be spending more time planning for this trip than we’ll actually be there!”  But we loved the anticipation, and it was so much fun doing it together.  And before we knew it, we were off!   

On Friday, May 20th, after Dan got home from work, we drove the 4 hours to my parents’ house to drop the kids off.  Two weeks in Europe sans kids definitely sounded fabulous, but it was still sad to say good-bye to them.  Luckily the kids were so excited to be at Grandma and Grandpa’s for 2 weeks, so it made it much easier.  Our flight was bright and early out of San Jose on Saturday, May 21st.  We had a layover in Dallas, where we met up with Scott and Elisha for the long 11 hour flight to Frankfurt.  It was so fun meeting up with them and going on this adventure together . . . . it was the first time to Europe for all 4 of us!

We arrived in Frankfurt at 7:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. our time) and needed to stay up all day (through our night and then some) in order to get on Germany time.  And this is all going off our 4 hours of sleep the night before at my parents house.  Needless to say, we were soooo tired.  We took a little 2 hour nap at the Johnson’s house before going to their 1:30 p.m. Heidelberg Ward. 

We BARELY made it through Sacrament Meeting, so we thought it was best if we skip Sunday School and take a little walk around town:)  Haha . . . . we were really just anxious to get out there and walk around Germany!!

We walked across this metal bridge over the River Neckar. 

The Johnsons live in this great little 4-story duplex . . .  although it’s much larger than it looks.  They have plenty of space for all 6 kids, lots of storage room, and comfortable accommodations for all kinds of guests:)

A view down their street:

The view the other way, towards the fields.  Their house is on the left.

Beautiful farmland surrounds their little town of St. Leon, about 15 minutes south of Heidelberg.

Sunday evening was spent hanging out at the Johnson’s house . . . . eating dinner, tickling little nephews, learning the Johnson’s new favorite game, Dominion, trying to stay awake, skyping our kids, and getting ready for our 3 day trip to Paris!

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day was great.  Dan and the kids made me waffles for breakfast, gave me homemade cards, got me flowers and a balloon, got me a sweater and necklace from Ann Taylor, and made a delicious roast dinner.  I love Mother’s Day!  Because I love being a mom, and I’m so blessed with 3 adorable little kids.  And I’m so blessed to have such an amazing mom and mother-in-law . . . . Happy Mother’s Day!  I love you both:)

We also got to participate in the family Skype call with Elder Brian Walton!  There were 6 households involved in the call.  So fun.  Especially good to see and hear Elder Walton . . . . he has less than 2 months to go!

After School

The girls have gotten into a little after school routine lately since the weather has been so nice (we were in the low 80s today:).  Right when we get home from picking Annie up from kindergarten, the girls ask for a popsicle as their after school snack.  They take their popsicles out back and swing on our little porch swing.

They love to be together again after spending a few hours apart . . . . how’s it going to be for Leah next year when Annie is in school full day?

Then they usually spend some time marking up our patio with chalk.

Today they drew the characters from Despicable Me.  Do you see how Annie brought the DVD case out to copy?  Leah is working on Vector, with his orange warm up suit on.

Annie drew the three little girls in the movie.

And a minion!

Then they take a spin on their scooters!                                                                       

Oh how we love warm weather!!

On a different note, we hit another parenting mile stone as Annie was invited to her first slumber party tonight.  Really?  At six years old?  Are we already to that point?  I’ve had conversations in the past with good friends about slumber parties and many of my friends have a no slumber party rule.  I decided awhile ago that that would be a good rule for our family as well.  It’s kind of funny, because today I was thinking about how as a youth my leaders would always tell us to make hard decisions ahead of time, so that when we are all of sudden put in a situation or faced with a difficult decision, we will know what to do.  For instance, we decide ahead of time that we will never drink alcohol, so that when we are faced with that decision, it’s not a matter of deciding what to do.  We already know what to do . . . say no.  It makes it easy.   Now I’m not trying to say that if I had allowed Annie to go to this slumber party that that would have been some terrible thing.  I mean how much trouble can 6 year olds really get into?  But having made the decision awhile ago that we’re not going to do slumber parties, it made it easy for me to immediately explain to Annie that I would let her go for most of the night, but when all the girls start to go to sleep, I’ll come get her and she can just sleep at our house.  Consistency is what matters through the years.  Having family rules and sticking to them.  I went and picked Annie up at 10:00.  I felt a little bad because they were just starting the movie, Tangled.  But she had been there for 5 hours, and she is only 6.  It was definitely kind of weird having her gone all night on a Friday night!  Like a little glimpse into the future:)  And one more funny thing . . . . as I was doing her hair to get her ready for the party, she seriously asked me if she could put on some makeup!  Ahhh!  Don’t grow up too fast my little Annie!  (BTW, cousin sleepovers will be the exception:)

A Tender Moment

I yelled at Leah today.

About something so dumb like getting her second pop tart of the day right before dinner without asking me and about how we eat way too many snacks in this house and about some ridiculous idea of how we are going to get on a strict eating schedule like the kids I used to nanny in San Francisco and about how our pantry is just a free-for-all snack shack. 

I made her cry.

And then a few minutes later I was still feeling so bad about it that I went into the pantry and ate some Easter chocolate.  No joke.

I came out and discovered she had found comfort in her blanket and Annie, who was curled up on the chair reading The Friend.  She looked so sweet.  They both did. 

And I cried.  And then repented.