yikes! 6 months later!

Oh dear, I am sorry! I haven't posted since June, and it's December! I for one blame facebook, I put my pictures up there and update often, so I just stopped here. New Year's resolution! I'll post here at least once a month. Lets do a super fast update of the big events since June...

June- Went to London with Bethany, saw a parade with the Queen and the awesome show Wicked! and then school ended.

July- Aubrey came! Such a FUN time together. We did two weeks of summer school here. We also went to the largest carnival on the Rhein, showed Aubrey delicious korean food, and explored Koln a little. We went to the awesome kids museum, and even took a cable car ride and a couple river cruises. July was pretty much about exploring our local area.

August- We started off August in Venice! It was a fantastic family vacation. We camped near the beach, and went swimming almost every day. We took a ride on a real pirate ship and had a water fight out at sea. We rode bikes to the ferry to Venice, and had a nice day trip exploring the city on foot and by taxi boat. It was a lovely week.

September- School started again, Aubrey left, Chris turned 33 and Keira turned 5. We had a party for her at a real castle! We called it the "Princess and Queens tea party" and it was a blast. Some of my teacher friends were there, and a few of the little girls from the neighborhood and my school also came. The memories we made there will last a long time! We also met up with Becca for lunch when she was in Munich, and got to see Stuttgart when we visited Heather for a day.

October- My birthday treat to myself was a week long trip to Mallorca with my trusty travel partner and friend Bethany. We stayed in a great hotel near the beach. Our usual daily activity was "get book, get beer, go to beach, lay" with a little shopping and swimming thrown in. One of the highlights was the day long boat cruise we took to Formentor. The views were AMAZING, the water was a little rough, but surprisingly warm when we jumped in for a swim. We spent a little time on a private beach, it was a very relaxing week.

November- Nothing really memorable about November.. just chugging through to winter break.

December- Well, this is the fun part, we are going back to the states TOMORROW for 2 weeks! The kids are thrilled, Chris and I are excited to see everyone. We'll be ringing in the new year with our families, and coming back in 2010. At which point I will update about how the trip went.

Day trip to Koln

Today, I went with my friend Heather to Koln. It was her first time, and we had a fantastic tour around the city. We started out with a nice lunch right on the Rhein at the Lindt chocolate factory and museum.


After that, we walked to the Praetorium. It is an amazing underground historical site. There are ruins and artifacts from the ancient Roman governors mansion. The mansion was destroyed in an earthquake, which you can clearly see in the cracks of the foundation. It was such a thrill, and very interesting to walk around underground in these ruins.

The second part of the Praetorium was the old Roman sewage system. We took a walk through it, noting the usage of different stones and concrete, and it was well constructed.



After that, we went to the famous Koln Dom. This cathedral is said to rival Notre Dame, and construction started in 1288.

Rhine River Cruise

This weekend, my friend Heather is visiting from Stuttgart. We are trying to show her the most of the area in 3 days, and we figured a Rhine River Cruise was a great way to see Duesseldorf! On the way into the city we drove by my school and drove into Neuss to pick up Bethany.

We walked into the altstadt, had some ice cream on the Rhein Terrasse, and got tickets on a one hour cruise that goes up the river, shows the Media Harbor, and the down the river highlighting the historical buildings along the banks. I love that this boat is child and dog friendly, and it makes for a nice hour trip with many things to see. To top it off, there were boaters and jet skiers out on the water, along with the normal barge traffic. The kids were having a blast watching all the boats.


I also have to mention that Keira was wearing a lovely new dress from H&M, and wanted to pose like a model to show it off.

It was gorgeous day, with hundreds of people milling about along the Rhine. We had a wonderful time and we're so glad some friend could enjoy it with us!

Tomorrow, we're going to Koln, so I'll hopefully update after that with some more pics.

Brady's Birthday

Sorry I didn't post last week, it was Brady's birthday and we were having a party. Julia, Dirk, Stuart and Gabrielle came over to celebrate with us on the 10th, and then we had a school friends party on Monday at an indoor play area.For Sunday, we had Chicken Parmesean with angel hair and broccoli, followed by a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. I got to use the Brady candles I bought in the U.S. last year. Brady got some playmobil stuff (motorcycle cop and crocodile hunter set), an addition to his geotrax, a train for his megablocks set, two movies and an electric drum set.

Brady helped me clean up after icing the cake.






On Monday after school, Brady's friends Noah, Anna and Niko came from his school, while Ruby and Max and Joshua came from my school, we met at the indoor playground OKI-DOKI. It is a fantastic place! They have a little kids play area, a HUGE big kids play area with slides, indoor go karts, (slow moving cars) trampolines, and multiple inflatable bouncy areas, even an inflated rock wall! We had chicken nuggets, fish sticks and fries followed by Brady's second birthday cake- this time yellow with chocolate icing. We'd only planned 2 hours, and we really need three at this place. The kids had a great time!

Cologne Zoo

Saturday, May 2 we traveled down to Koln and went to the zoo. This zoo is rated the best in Germany, and one of the best in Europe. After going, we could see why! The two biggest exhibits are the elephant area and the primate area. Each of these has multi sectioned houses to keep the animals, plus huge outdoor areas to enjoy.

The animals have all sorts of toys and devices to keep them entertained. The Elephant have holes in the wall with treats inside so that when they reach their trunks in, they can work for a treat. The primates area had multiple bridges for the primates to go outside with, and many ropes and swings to climb on.

The zoo has small fences and relies on natural boundaries to separate visitors from animals. This means you can see the animals, but also have space to take some great, clear photos! We were lucky to witness some animals playing with each other and we got to see the otters feeding time.

BBQ on the Rhein

The day after the Drag party, we joined friends Alex, Jan, Allegra and baby Adrian for a bbq in a large park on the Rhein. The park was long and thin, and has so much for the family. There are two dog parks, two playgrounds, a great view of the Rhein and currently a circus at one end.

We brought a small soccer ball, Jan brought a cool nerf football with a tail. The kids enjoyed running and racing, and having their shoes off in the grass.



We were there for a good portion of the afternoon/evening, and left at 8:30 Sunday night. The kids were beat and asleep before we were on the autobahn! We had such a great time, it made us want to move into the city!

What a DRAG

Last weekend, Stuart and Gabrielle graciously took care of Keira and Brady. Chris and I were invited to a birthday party- where the theme was Drag night!

I just wore a t shirt, jeans and chucks tennis shoes. I wore some manly sunglasses and a hat to hide my hair. Chris was a real prize jewel that night though!

Chris shaved, painted his nails (I painted his face with flamboyant makeup) and donned a velvet dress and gold wig! He looked fantastic and we got some stares while driving to Neuss! One guy at the gas station did a double and triple check, it was hilarious.

Having friends over

The weekend of April 17th, Julia, Dirk, Thomas and Caroline came over for dinner. We had a nice dinner of barbecue chicken, cucumber salad, potatoes and onion rings with brownies for dessert. I was a lovely dinner, with great conversations.

After the kids went to bed, we broke out the Wii, and competed in boxing, bowling, tennis and baseball. Chris currently hold the reigning boxing championship after beating Dirk. Caroline is great at bowling!

After we'd wiid enough, we played a little Karaoke revolution. We played girls against guys, and then picked and sang duets until midnight!

It was a great get together, one we'd like to have once a month.

Keukenhof

We rounded out our family vacation with a day trip to Keukenhof. It is a large park in the Netherlands with many MANY flowers, all types. Very famous for tulips and wooden shoes and waffles (all things Holland). We drove there after leaving the Center Parc, and took a chance that they would allow dogs, luckily we were right! It was doggy smell heaven!

We pretty much walked around, enjoyed the air and the sunshine. It was a warm day (mid 70s) and the flowers were beautiful. They also had a wishing well, fountains and a windmill that are perfect for pictures. Here are some from that day.

Spring Break

Over spring break, Aubrey came to visit us. We also took off for a family vacation! We found a great deal on a bungalow in a "Center Parc" resort in the Netherlands. They even let you bring dogs!

So, Monday morning we got ready and headed out. It was a 2.5 hour drive north to De Huttenheugte center parc.
Our bungalow was right on the lake, with gorgeous views. It was also right next to a playground, which was great for Brady, Keira and Aubrey.

Center Parcs are laid out as a village with a central area called the "market dome". This area has a large playground, little marina for paddle boats and canoes, petting zoo, mini golf, and climbing wall all outside.


Inside the market done is a large indoor water park with slides, wave pool, and kid pools. There are also four restaurants, a food market, bowling alley and live entertainment area. While we were there, the kids played bingo, Aubrey and Chris saw a show, we went to a kid's disco and of course we all went swimming!
Aubrey got to go "wild water rafting" on Thursday morning.

We had a really good week at the resort, swimming every day and getting some good family bonding time. I absolutely recommend a center parc vacation to families with little and big kids, they are all over Europe and UK, and totally worth it!