E & E's Visit to Germany!

Our friends, Erin and Ethan Sea came to visit us February 10-15. We met Erin and her husband, Dan, back in late summer 2002 when Erin and I were in our second trimesters of our first pregnancies. They bought the townhouse right next to ours. As it turned out, our sons were born 11 days apart. It was a really special time. She stayed at home, as did I, and so we did a lot of things together, helped each other out, kept each other company, and a strong friendship was formed. Unfortunately when our boys were not quite two years old, Dan's work relocated to PA. Which was great for them because they could buy a lot bigger house there then in MD and as it turns out, they bought in Erin's home town where her mom and dad still live, but it was sad for us to see them leave. However, over the next three years we managed to still see each other every few months, the drive is only a couple hours long. They now have three children. As we have lived in Germany, Erin had mentioned coming to visit, possibly bringing Ethan. As our time here is coming to an end, I thought it might not happen, but then at the end of 2009, Erin emailed me and said she thought she could make something work out. Dan travels quite a bit for work and had a lot of airline miles that could be transferred to family members. Essentially, they flew over here, round-trip, for the both of them for about $150! Dan took work off to take care of the younger kids and Erin and Ethan came to see us for a few days! The weather was not great. OK it was downright freezing and snowed almost every day but we had a great time. Of course, time always flies when you're having fun and this was no exception. And I always hate goodbye's but we plan on seeing them in August when we move back to MD, so I reminded myself that this was only a "see you later" not an actual "goodbye".

Here are a few pictures:

I arranged to pick up Thomas from school right before lunch. Here

we are walking to his classroom.

Reunited after 2 1/2 years.

Let's fly how many thousand miles over the ocean so we can sit down and play the Wii?!

(kids!)

Rudesheim, Germany

Windy, freezing and nearly everything was closed.

Waiting for traditional German cuisine at the Brauhaus in Mainz Kastel.

Kinderfasching in Mainz.

Ramba Zamba--one of many indoor play places that have SOOOO many attractions that you would never find in the US.

We told Ethan we were going to see a castle. He didn't seem too excited. It wasn't until we arrived that he let on that he thought we were taking him to a "girly princess castle" like his sister would like. As it turned out, this was pretty cool! Too bad it was closed...so we could only walk around the entrance just a bit. This is the St. Goar castle.

The original four--back then life was easy, only we didn't know it at the time.

Nothing compares to Nintendo DS...not even cool castles all along the Rhine River!

Thomas had to go to school the day that E & E went home. So we woke

up Ethan right before Thomas left.

Outside of my house. There was apparently a snowflake on my

camera's lens.

Bidding them a final farewell!

Until later,

Emily