Summer Fun!

Hallo from Bonn! It was a busy June for us. I went back to work part-time and we hired a nanny to watch Reed. I wasn't too excited about leaving Reed with someone else, but my Mom and Dad were still visiting us so they helped ease the transition. We also used them as our "nanny cam". Turns out, Maribel is like the Baby Whisperer with Reed. He adores her! In fact, he acts like he never noticed me being gone when I come home 9 hours later. I guess that's a good thing???

We went to Paris for a long weekend to visit my mom's cousin, Janie, and her family. The four of them flew from Phoenix and enjoyed a two week stay in France. Janie's son-in-law is a French enthusiast and was a great tour guide. We went wine tasting with them and had a great time. Neither Rich nor I remember all of the things we were supposed to retain for future wine conversations, but we do remember the taste of the wine getting better and better with each glass. One bit of information that we did remember the next day was that the average price for a bottle of wine (from the supermarket) in France is 3 euro! The next day, Rich and I took a trip to the supermarket to confirm this. Sure enough it was true! So we packed up the car with several bottles of wine (and Mom, Dad and Reed) and headed back to Bonn. Below is a pic of us eating at a cafe by the Eiffel Tower.

Mom and Dad offered to watch Reed for another long weekend (gotta love these German holidays) which coincided with my birthday, and we gladly accepted! We drove down to Lake Como in Italy and spent three days in Lenno lounging around the pool, exploring the lake via ferry, eating great Italian food and drinking Italian vino. It wasn't all play though, we did go on a few challenging runs through the hills. I spent most of the run trying to catch up with Rich. I like to point out to him that if I had longer legs, I would be able to run the same speed. For some reason, it makes me feel better to say that while we're running. ;-) When we left Como we agreed that we could spend the majority of our traveling time in Italy. You can't beat the scenery, food and fun people. Below is a pic of Bellagio which is one of the little villages that sit on Lake Como. For those Vegas lovers, the design of the Bellagio Hotel is based on this village.

Mom and Dad left at the end of June after a 7 week stay. We were definitely sad to see them go! The picture below was taken at a beer garden in a park near our house. Reed had a lot of fun with them and was so comfortable with them that we think he was confused as to who his real parents were by the end of their trip. :-) It'll be good to see them soon. Speaking of which, we don't have any big travel plans in July but we are going to be spending the first two weeks of August in Ohio. Rich's kids will be joining us during this time as well. We are very much looking forward to seeing family, friends, relaxing and enjoying the high humidity of the Midwest!

Cruisin'

What's cruisin? We were. Life is too. Time is flying, Reed is growing, will everything just SLOW DOWN?? Well, since we all know the answer to that, we better take advantage of every chance we get to have some fun! And that's what we did at the end of May.

As you know, Pam & Gary have come out for a 7 week visit. Bonn isn't that big, and there's no way 7 weeks of pushing Reed around the same city center would cut it, so we decided to take a 7 day cruise through the Adriatic & Aegean seas. We left from Venice, stopped (in order) at Dubrovnik, Athens, Izmir, and Split, plus had a couple of days at sea. It was incredible! Made more so because the adult-to-kid ratio was 4:1, meaning Makayla & I had a few dinners out alone, and a couple hours of relaxation on the pool deck! Ahh....

Before you shut your browser in disgust, I'll stop waxing on about how amazing our holiday was, and jump into a few pictures with the highlights.

Venice was gorgeous. I took this picture as the ship was leaving the city, it gave a great perspective on just how big Venice is. We had just one evening there, but were able to get a taste of the good, and bad, that it has to offer. Great food, unique character, and on Saturday morning, huge crowds.

This is a view of Dubrovnik, Croatia, as we were pulling in. We anchored off shore here, and rode small boats into the harbor. You can see the walls around the old city (middle left of photo), which is where we spent the afternoon exploring. We roamed the side streets and discovered the wonderful character of the city away from the tourists. We even stopped for a drink at a literal hole-in-the-wall, where we stepped outside the wall and sat for a beer on the edge of the cliff. Dubrovnik was the pleasant surprise of our trip!

Greece. Athens. Acropolis. Parthenon. Need I say more? I think we were all in awe of the beauty and ancient architecture at the Acropolis. It's one thing to read or study about the skills of the ancient Greeks, but it's another to see it up close. The weather was hot, so we all stopped for a cold drink in the city as well. We also bought Reed a new sun hat at Mothercare (Andrew I had no idea Mothercare has expanded to Greece?!) since he managed to outgrow his old one half way through our trip...

Ephasus, Turkey. We docked at Izmir, the second largest port in Turkey after Instanbul, and a guide drove us to the ancient Roman ruins of the city of Ephasus. We were blown away by the scale of the city. We wandered down Roman roads, with homes and shops along each side, photographed a massive library, and posed for this picture in front of a huge amphitheater. With so much of the city preserved you could get a real sense for life at that time, it was quite humbling. Before arriving at Ephasus we stopped at a small chapel built on the foundation of a modest house that is believed to be where Jesus' mother, the Virgin Mary, lived out her last years. Regardless of what your beliefs, it was a somber and emotional place, and I'm thankful to have seen it.

No vacation is complete without a little holiday romance, right? Well, ours was no different. On our tour at Athens we sat next to some girls from Texas & New York, and one of them took a fancy to our son. Needless to say, the feelings were mutual, and the pair were seen together quite often during the rest of the cruise! Here is a picture of Reed & Erika in Split...

One more thing every vacation has is an ending. And after a final night spent in Luzerne, Switzerland on our drive home, ours ended as well. I returned to work last Monday, and Makayla returns to work tomorrow, after about 8 months off. Reed will be in good company, staying at home with a nanny on the 3 days each week that Makayla is in the office. Wish us all luck with the transition!

~Rich

Family Time!

Reed and I spent the last two weeks of March visiting friends and family in Ohio. It was great being home and Reed really enjoyed being spoiled again. He spent a large portion of his time being carried around on his "throne" listening to Motown music with Grandpa Gary. As you can see from the picture below, he could only make it through a few songs before falling asleep in his furry, Ohio State blanket. I spent a lot of time eating, shopping, catching up on sleep and just hangin' out. It was so nice to relax and be home although we would have enjoyed it even more if Rich could have been with us! We're hoping to head back for a couple of weeks in August.
The day after returning from Ohio, Rich's brother, Andrew, his wife, Katherine, and their almost 2 year old daughter, Parker, came for a visit from Seattle. We spent the week hanging out with them in Bonn. While the first couple of nights were a little rough (Reed and Parker were quite jet-lagged and spent a few hours taking turns waking each other up), we had a great time touring new places around the city and soaking up the April sun! Below is a picture of Andrew "chillaxin' with Parker and Reed" at a beer garden along the Rhine river. Parker was kind enough to allow Reed to borrow her shades for the picture. Also included (big surprise!!!) is a pic of Rich's lunch. Once again, the Germans are making a good impression on Rich with their currywurst specialty!

We spent a windy afternoon in Cologne as well. Katherine and I are standing in front of the famous Cologne dome which is one of the only landmarks that remained standing after the WWII bombings. Most of the city was destroyed during the war. We're very proud to say that Reed held his bottle by himself (well for 20 seconds!) for the first time in the local Kolsch beer pub. What better place to hold your own bottle for the first time?!
We just found out that next weekend is a four day weekend for Rich because of Easter. It's safe to assume that we would have known this if our German was better and we could have read the email communication including this info. ;-) Not much time to plan a big trip, but we're hoping to get away for a couple days to explore a new city. Stay tuned!

Boring Can Be Good

I'll start this post off with a warning: there isn't much happening here in Bonn right now. Nothing exciting to report, no big adventure we've just returned from and, thankfully, no new injuries! Basically, we're living life, but in Germany.

So what has happened since our last post? I took a 10 day trip to the US, which was a good mix of work and family time. We celebrated Clara's birthday while I was home: pizza and cupcakes..the girl is easy to please (sometimes!). I spent almost every evening with the kids, which left very little time to see anyone else. I did manage to have a nice evening with Sara, James & Tim (Brian was in Costa Rica) where we enjoyed home made sushi courtesy of Sara, and some excellent chicken & gambas (prawns) whipped up by James & Tim. I brought my smiling self & a bottle of vino.

Instead of staying in a hotel, I shacked up at my brother's place. It's much more fun to stay with Andrew, Katherine & Parker! My little niece has turned into quite a charmer!! In return for letting me impose, I took A&K out for a great dinner at Crush on my last night in town, and billed it to the company. Travel for work does have its perks!


Back in Bonn, we took Reed in for his U4 this week (4 month checkup) and it turns out he's a 4 month old. Happy, healthy, and exactly 50th percentile in both height and weight. Truly unremarkable, which for a doctor's visit is perfect. The doctor did tell us that Reed is turning over the wrong way (stomach-to-back rather than back-to-stomach) but I'm thinking this is a German thing...

Not much else to report on. Dinner with friends tonight, then back to the grind. Oh, one thing to inform everyone on: Daylight Savings Time happens on different days in different countries. So while in the US this Sunday the clocks rolled forward an hour, it won't happen to us in Germany until March 27th!! So for the next 2 weeks we're an hour closer....

Tchuss!

A Major Milestone!

Yes, it's true. We are the proud parents of a baby who can roll over. We feel a bit guilty about the whole though because we've been doing "tummy time" with Reed on a blanket which we lie on top of our soft, thick, shag rug. I decided to lay his blanket on the hard carpeted floor today and 10 seconds after putting Reed down, he flopped right over. We'll have to remember to tell him when he's older that the shag rug was our way of showing him that "Life's not always easy." In fact, we may start teaching him how to walk in the snow so that when it melts, he'll be up and running in no time!

Parlez-Vous Francais? Oui! Oui!

We're not going to lie-it was really nice visiting a European country where one of us actually does speak the language--well, sort of speaks the language. We had a great time in Paris. The weather didn't cooperate, but we let that slide since everything else turned out great. I think we each gained a few pounds from eating crepes and chocolate croissants, but who can turn down those fabulous bakeries and food vendors on the streets!? Not us. We stayed in a hotel that was located a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. I went running one morning around the Eiffel Tower, over the Seine River and through parts of the city and I have to say--it was pretty cool! I couldn't have imagined myself running through the streets of Paris a year ago before we made the decision to move.

Here are some pics of our first day walking down the Champs de Elysees.
We woke up Saturday morning and decided to walk to the Louvre. It was raining but Rich said he remembered it only being a 20 minute walk from our neighborhood. FORTY-FIVE minutes and an inch of rain in our shoes/stroller later, we get to the Louvre. Per the wait sign, the line was over an hour long. Lucky for us, a guy selling trinkets walked over and told us we didn't have to wait in line if we had a stroller. We didn't believe him so we asked the people to hold our place in line. We owe this man!!!!! We walked to the front of the line and were escorted into the doors immediately! We put Reed in the baby bjorn and he managed to stay awake for the Mona Lisa. So the next time you're in Paris, make sure you go with someone who has a stroller!
Rich is in Seattle for the next week and a half for work. He's really looking forward to spending time with Clara, Elise and Ben and also seeing some friends while he's there. Reed and I are chilling in Bonn. I think he sensed that his Dad was gone last night because he was on his best behavior. We'll see if he keeps that up for another 10 days!

Au Revoir!

Back in the swing of things...

Now that the holidays and jet lag are over, we figure it's time to get back in the swing of things. For starters, we both need to hit the gym! Rich's surgery went really well last week and he's been given the "OK" to ride a stationary bike and work his way up to running in a few weeks. He was on crutches for a few days, but can walk without them now and feels pretty good. Our gym is at our office which means two days a week Reed gets to have lunch with Dad in the cafeteria while I go to the gym. So far it's been uneventful as Reed has slept through both lunches, but I expect a good story in the near future....

We're learning we're not the only ones who need a schedule. Reed is getting to the age (3 months!) where he needs to start sleeping and playing on a slightly more strict schedule. Up until this point, we've been playing "peek-a-boo" at all hours of the night. Although it's fun to watch him smile, laugh, and kick his arms and legs at 3am, it's not nearly as fun when he gets tired and cranky and can't fall asleep. We'd be lying if we said the last couple of weeks have been a piece of cake, although we may have made it through the worst part. He has been sleeping like a champ the last couple of days which has made all three of us much happier!

We are headed to Paris this Thursday for a long weekend. We forgot that Valentine's Day was this week so it will be the perfect way to celebrate. We weren't sure if Valentine's Day existed in Germany, but after walking through the city center this past week and seeing all of the stores with "Valentinstag" heart decorations in their windows, we're pretty sure they do. Since Germans are pretty generous with holiday time, we were hoping that Rich would get the day off work, but it doesn't seem that they've recognized it as a "national holiday" yet. :-)

Tschuss!