London--November 2008

 Day #1:  The Tower of London.  Not at all stroller-accessible, so we took turns exploring while Toby stayed out.  For the most part, Thomas saw everything twice.  The weather was pretty nice this day.

Toby enjoying a pretzel while waiting outside and bored to tears.

I did finally let him run a bit.  We were in a corner kind of to ourselves, so he wasn't bothering anyone.

I could not believe how much the Logan LDS temple looks like this!

This could have been our "Christmas card pic" if only Toby would have cooperated!

Day #2: we walked A LOT this day, seeing all the city sights.  It was much colder this day.  But still manageable. We wore our coats.  This part of London reminded my of NYC.

This boys & I with a horse guard.  I know the pic is a little fuzzy.  It's the only one I have.

The "London Eye".  We didn't ride on it.  It wouldn't have been any fun with Toby. It takes thirty minutes to go around once.  Need I say more?

The Parliament House

Big Ben

Harrods.  It was CRAZY!  But, nothing like the next day when we went to Hamley's.  Hamley's is a huge, famous toy-store in London that is five stories tall.  We went on a Saturday.  It was like when you're exiting a basketball game or concert and there are people everywhere but you are trying to shop and you have two kids.  It was a nightmare and I will never return.  We had a much nicer experience shopping at the Hamley's kiosk at the airport on Sunday.  Harrods was fun, though!

Day #3: It was bitter-cold, we wore our coats, layers, hats & gloves and still we froze to the bone.  Makes me cold just thinking about it.  Toby took his naps regardless, when he did, we brought his bundler up over his nose.  Did I mention it was cold?

Buckingham Palace

James, Toby and Thomas taking a ride on his buggy board.  It's a little contraption that hooks onto any stroller, so he can have a rest.  He may be six, but we walked a ton, and it was worth cutting down on the whining.

This is Carnaby Street.  It is a major shopping district.  Again, wall-to-wall people.  I had a friend in my German class that was going the next week with her three kids and I advised her to stay away from this area on the weekend.  I did think the snowmen were really cool.  My lungs feel like they are crystalizing as I am looking at these pictures.  We did quickly go into GAP because we decided that Thomas had outgrown his stocking cap and I just wanted to see what their clothes were like.  We don't have GAP in Germany.  Thank goodness for online shopping, but it isn't the same.  Well, I found really cute stocking caps for both Toby and Thomas but then the kids were breaking down and there were the crowds so we decided to leave without even looking at my section.  I thought, no big deal, I'll just go online.  Only problem: GAP London's clothes are totally different! 

A Horrible Ending to a Fun Weekend

Well, we're back from London.  I will post all about it later on, including pics, but as we were leaving the Frankfurt airport there were snow flurries, as we kept driving the snow got worse and, thus, the roads got worse.  We got off the autobahn, made our way to our neighborhood and as we turned into our neighborhood, we lost control of our car and hit the median pretty hard.  There were already three cars off the side of the road and some of those people were waving at us not to hit them.  Not that I wanted to hit them, but I would have rather gone into the ditch instead.  We're fine, but the car wouldn't make it up our hill, although I'm not sure it would have anyway in these conditions. It's making a funny sound and not steering right but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out how much damage has been done.  This happened when it was pitch black outside and our car is dark grey.  James thinks it's the alignment and perhaps one or two of our wheels.  I've got to admit, I think it's worse, but I hope he's right.

Until later,

Emily

Let's Hope...

That Toby doesn't go on a 2-year milk strike the way Thomas did when he threw up milk out of his nose when he was about the same age (Thomas was just past two, Toby is almost two)!  And let's cross our fingers that the throwing up in over now.

Until later,

Emily

More Teeth Drama!

What would my blog be without a post about teeth at least once a month?  Toby is still getting in those bottom eye-teeth...boy are they killing him!  The top part of the tooth is out on both of them but I think right now the widest part is coming up.  He walks around with his middle finger and index finger in his mouth all of the time...or he'll spontaneously just start chewing on household objects.  I actually thought maybe he was working on his 2-year old molars, but I'm pretty sure he is not. However, when trying to get Toby to open his mouth wide for me, I had Thomas be my example and then we discovered that he is getting one of his 6-year old molars!  I thought that was kind of funny since Michelle W had just told me about them a couple of weeks ago.  Thomas got all excited because he thought that meant the Tooth Fairy was going to come visit him but I had to explain that first he had to lose a tooth!  Luckily, Thomas' new tooth is not bothering him.  Toby, on the other hand, is hardly eating and looks kind of hammered.  I don't know why my children basically stop eating when they don't feel well...but they do.  It's been going on long enough with Toby that James and I commented last night that he looks skinnier.  Then James made the comment that, "Too bad I can't get 40-year old molars." He said it...not me!

Until later,

Emily

Happy Birthday Grandma Kay!

My Grandma Kay turns 95 years old today! She is such a special person in our family. Happy Birthday Grandma Kay! We love you!

Until later,

Emily

Happy Birthday James!

Today, James is "officially over the hill", yep, he turned 40. I didn't have a big party at all. Not his style and as he told me last week, he's a bit depressed by this birthday. James had the day off so that was nice for him and we took Thomas and Toby to the doctor. Thomas went for a check-up and Toby for the first half of the flu shot. Then, we went to the commissary and bought a car load of groceries. We came home, put away the groceries, and I whipped up dinner. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't get a cake made. But, in my defense, I didn't get a cake at all on my last birthday! While at the commissary, I kept pointing out all these frozen cakes and pies in the freezer section, but James didn't want any of them. Actually, if he just wanted a cake, I could have made one of those in the morning, since we sent Thomas to school for two hours. But, no, he wants a pie or lemon tarts, two things that don't come easily for me. Honestly, I've never made tarts but now he has his grandma's recipe and his mom brought him a tart pan last month so now I get to experiment.

The kids and I bought him a new camera, he wanted a slim one that he can take with him when he travels for work and some new work shirts. He also got some jerkey and some money.

Until later,

Emily

Burg Trifels

James and I decided about a month ago that one Saturday in November, before we got wrapped up in the holidays, we were going to get a babysitter for the day (8 hours) and just “go” without our kids.  Today was the day! Our destination ended up being Burg Trifels, which is located in Germany but very close to the French border. All in all, we spent over three hours in the car, so really all we did was go to lunch, hike up a massive hill to this castle and then tour the castle. But, it was a really beautiful day and we had a great time.

Until later,

Emily

This is the restaurant that we ate at. It was a tourist trap as it was right next to the parking lot that we had to park in and if you paid the 1.50 euro to park you could then go into the restaurant and get 1.50 euro off your bill. I was starving by the time we arrived, and although James could have waited a bit longer to eat, one look at that massive hill that we had to hike and he knew better. The food was actually quite tasty and we had a view of the castle while we dined.

This monument tells us that the English king Richard the Lionheart was held here in 1193.

You can see where there used to be ancient Roman vineyards on this hillside.

Not Even the Celery is Safe at Our House!

I went grocery shopping today, and when I got home, I thought I removed everything that Toby could destroy quickly...as in eggs, anything glass or things with fragile packaging, such as yogurt. So, I thought I was "safe" and I was wrong, yet again, as you will see!

Until later,

Emily

Waking Up to the News

Now, I'm not an overly-political person. I know a lot of people enjoy talking "politics", I do not. So this post isn't meant to be my first attempt at a political post. Since Germany is six hours ahead of the East coast and nine hours ahead of the West coast, we went to bed hours before the election was called. I even thought that maybe when we got up this morning, we still wouldn't know the answer. But, I was wrong. Barack Obama is our new president-elect. I'm going to be honest, he's not who I voted for! I have this heavy rock feeling in my stomach this morning as I am trying to digest that the one that I didn't want voted into office did just that...uugh...

On a lighter note, over the last couple of months, the German radio station I listen to has reported a lot on the US Presidential campaign and they can't pronounce Barack's name the right way--they pronounce it like "Derek" only with a B. (Not like I don't completely slaughter nearly every German word I say!)

Until later,

Emily

Anticipating London...Three Different Perspectives

Today, during Sunday dinner, we had the following conversation:


James: Thomas, we're going to London this month and when we do, we're going to get to see lots of cool things...

Emily: And hopefully we'll get a really good picture, with all four of us in it, with a cool London background that we can use for our Christmas card this year!

Thomas: Yeah, and maybe I'll get some really cool toys!


Until later,

Emily

Halloween 2008

Halloween started out like any normal day. James went to work and Thomas went to school. They did not dress up at his school although from what Thomas brought home from school on Friday, I could tell that his American born-and-raised teacher did what she could to "celebrate". As soon as we got home (3:30 PM) Thomas wanted to go trick-or-treating. I convinced him to pick up the living room and then fed Thomas and Toby an early dinner of cold cereal. Then, they began getting dressed. My mom had sent out some Halloween makeup as I was really hoping to draw some facial hair on Thomas and a little black nose on Toby. Thomas actually absolutely hated the makeup, but he did look pretty good. My parents and Kurt got to see him (through Skype) also wearing his eye patch, but by the time I took pictures (about 5 minutes later) there was no talking Thomas into putting it back on. I changed my mind on the black nose on Toby since he is once again a snot machine (I think I'm going to try to take him to the doctor on Monday).

James got home just in time to take the kids out trick-or-treating. He went with some of the other American dads in our neighborhood and the wives stayed home and handed out the candy. We didn't get nearly as many trick-or-treaters as last year! That was kind of disappointing. Both boys came home with a lot of candy and I have a lot of leftovers too.

As a little side-note, it was quite chilly on Halloween night. Toby's costume was all warm and furry, so he was fine wearing "normal" clothes underneath since his costume was sort of like wearing a light snow suit. Thomas' costume was paper-thin so he wore sweats UNDERNEATH his costume. But, then, I looked back to my own childhood and how many Halloween costumes had to have a thick, winter coat over them (thus totally ruining the great costume!)and I thought to myself, "Boy, how lucky are these two?"

Until later,

Emily