What a Weekend!

We are now in Cologne ... home sweet home! I spent many a summers here visiting family and friends. We are staying with some very good family friends right across the street from the bar and distillery my family founded in 1903. Literally, the view from the room we are sleeping in looks down onto the bar and window that my brother and I used to sit in and people watch for hours.We arrived here on Saturday afternoon after having lunch at my grandparents in Horrem. When we arrived we had a cappucino and cake up on the roof deck of the house we are staying at - so cool! You can see the entire Cologne skyline from up there and we also witnessed a wedding that was happening at the medieval gate across the street from the house.
Later that night we met up with my dad's side of the family at a restaurant named Haus Scholze and even my friends Sarah and Deaner who came to Cologne for the weekend met up with us there. We had a great time catching up with everyone and it was fun to see all the little cousins (Mia, Sofie and Leoni) play together. I have definiteley realized my daughter is by far the most active at the bunch ... she was the only one who could not sit still at all during dinner. After dinner we brought the kids home and some of us (as seen in the picture below) went to my familys bar for some drinks ... it was a great time for all!
Sunday was great too - we had breakfast with Sarah and Deaner and the Niedecken's on the rooftop and then went to lunch at another friends house. I feel like all we do here is eat and drink! I guess thats what vacations are for!! I will upload pictures later today as we are due at my grandparents in thirty minutes!

This Week in Germany!

Ok - I know I have not been great about posting this week - but its been a bit of a whirlwind and we have been out pretty much all day, getting in late at night which does not leave time for much posting. However, here I am to fill you in on the past few days in Deutschland. Wednesday was our first real day in here as Tuesday was pretty much a wash with the amount of jet lag we had. So, Wednesday morning after sleeping in until 10:30 AM (yes, even Mia) we packed Mae up in her fancy red Recaro car seat (which we rented through our rental car agency) and headed in direction Wiesbaden to visit my good friend Sarah who recently moved there with her husband. We had such a great day with her! She showed us around Wiesbaden where we saw amazing churches, beautiful market squares and lots of Americans! Ha! There are about 35,000 Americans living in this town and it seems like everywhere we were we ran into them. After Sarah showed us the highlights of Wiesbaden we drove to a small town in the Reingau where Sarah and her husband Richard have bought a home - Daniel and I were so impressed! Its such a cute little town and I can't wait to come back and visit them when they are all moved in so we can go down to the Weingarten - yes, that's right! Instead of a Biergarten its a Weingarten, right on the Rhine River. Amazing! After that we drove back to Wiesbaden to meet up with Sarah's husband Richard for dinner - we had a great dinner on a pedestrian only street so while we ate Mia did a little window shopping which was fine with me because it allowed us to eat in peace and kept her occupied!!!!

Yesterday (Thursday), my aunt and her boyfriend Wolfgang took us to the Opel Zoo which was a lot of fun. It was more of a petting zoo with animals like deer, donkeys, pigs, goat, sheep, fox, ducks, etc. Mia had a blast feeding carrots to all the animals. I was amazed that they allowed dogs on leash at the zoo! Can you imagine? Tucker would have gone crazy had he been there. After that we went home so Mia could nap and then went to dinner at a place called Flamms, which serves Flammkuchen, a traditional meal from the Elsace region. It was delicious!

Today we are back in Wiesbaden ... after a nice hike up to Neroberg, we saw a beautiful Russian Orthodox Cathedral and took a funicular back down the mountain. Lots of fun! Now, we are off to a big festival in town that we saw being set up two days ago - looked like a party! Hope these pictures upload soon! Tomorrow we are off to Cologne - will update you all once we are there. Hope everyone back home is doing well! We miss you, but sure are having fun!

Wilkommen in Deutschland!

Hi everyone ... we made it! And Mia did remarkably well on both flights ... I am so proud of her. We even managed to stay out of the aisles pretty much the entire time. On the first leg of our flight from SFO to Boston we were lucky enough to have a row of three to ourselves which made it really nice and far more spacious than we were expecting. Mia even made a friend named Brynn who was sitting in the row next to us. I will post pictures of them as soon as I figure out how to log onto the internet from our laptop. The second leg of the flight (Boston to SFO) was even better - we managed to get a row of four all to ourselves - luck was on our side. It allowed Mia to stretch out inbetween Daniel and I and take a 2 hour nap ... I of course did not sleep because I was afraid she would roll off the seat! We arrived in Frankfurt early - 5:10 AM - our bags were one of the first off the baggage belt, we breezed through customs and arrived at the rental car counter before its 6AM opening! Wow! I think our rental car may be one of the ugliest cars I have ever seen - looks like something from the moon, but hey - its roomy and pretty much brand new. We are now winding down from a pretty mellow day about to have spaghetti bolognese prepared by my aunt! I promise to post pictures as soon as I figure out how to access internet on our laptop - bye for now!

Happy Birthday Mama!

Today is my mothers birthday so I would like to take this opportunity to wish her a very happy birthday! May next year bring you much happiness and most importantly HEALTH! We love you very much!

To help celebrate her birthday, our close family and friends trekked up to Sonoma and had a Birthday Picnic at Bartholomew Park Winery. We had such a nice time!! Everyone brought something to share - we had chicken salad, breaded pork cutlets, artichokes, pasta salad, potato salad, yummy cheeses and delicious carrot cake cupcakes! Oh yeah, and some of the delicious organic wine the offer at Bartholomew Park. Here are some pictures of the afternoon taken by my mother-in-law (Ya-Ya) who is a great photographer.

So, tomorrow is the big day. We leave for the airport at 3:30 AM - hard to believe. I am hoping we have everything packed and that I have not forgotten anything major. The next post will be once we arrive in Germany and I will be sure to update you all on how Miss Mia did on the journey. We are really looking forward to this trip but will miss everyone back home! Keep checking our blog for updates on our adventure and see you when we get back!

Going to miss our Pup-Pup!!

Well, today I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to finalize everything for our trip. I think I am 90% there now and though we are going to miss everyone here at home, we are really looking forward to some time away! I think Mia will miss her Pup-Pup the most - she is so crazy about him and he is so tolerant with her! Below is a video of Mia and Tucker a few days ago.

This weekend is going to be pretty busy - tomorrow Mia has Little Gym in the morning, I have a wedding shower to go to for my cousins' fiance and Sunday is my mom's birthday and the entire family is heading to Sonoma for a Birthday Picnic! Should be lots of fun! I will be sure to post pictures Sunday! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

This and That

Hello All! Sorry for the delay in my posting - today was quite the busy day. This morning I dropped Mia off bright and early at her Aunty Kristin's house so that I could get my hair done (THANK YOU K!) ... I decided to go brunette! I know - its pretty shocking to see at first, but I think I kind of like it?! I needed a change and was sick of having to maintain highlights every six weeks! I will have Daniel take a picture of it when he gets home and post it so that you guys can see the change and will definitely let you guys know who has more fun - blonde's or brunettes!




After the hair appointment I had to take Miss M to her 15-month check up. She is growing like a weed, although she is still only in the 5% percentile for height and weight. She weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz and was 29 inches long. Way to grow big girl! I still HATE seeing her get her shots, and she always knows they are coming. As soon as the doctor walks out of the room she starts clinging to me because she knows the nurse is about to come in with the shots - crazy how they remember things like that.

Also, a quick update on our Tuesday Night dinner - we went to Buckeye Roadhouse yesterday and were a bigger crowd than usual - my husbands Uncle Scott and Aunt Linda joined us as well. It was fun to catch up with everyone and as always, the food at Buckeye was delicious. Below are some pictures from our night.






































I also wanted to say a big thank you to my parents who watched Miss Mae last night so that we could have a nice, peaceful dinner. THANK YOU! She adores you both and this morning brought me the phone and said "Moma - BOBA" ... she clearly wanted to call you! Love you guys!

One week from today!

That's right - one week from today, we will begin our LOOOONG journey across the Atlantic with my amazing daughter who is NOT able to sit still - not even for a minute, and DEFINITELY not while sitting on my lap. Whew - that's going to be one painfully LONG flight, but I know that my dear friend Sarah will have a nice cold glass of beer waiting for me in Frankfurt when we arrive! Right?? In all seriousness though, once we get there I know everything will be great and I am so looking forward to spending fun family time with Mae and D and also seeing all of our family and friends in Germany! Yay!

On another traveling note, my in-laws just returned from a 5-week motorcycle trip from Sausalito out to North Dakota and then back to Sausalito. They had a great time, but personally sitting on a motorcycle for 5 weeks straight sounds like torture to me ... my butt hurts just thinking about it! Regardless, welcome home Ya-Ya and Grandpa! Below is a picture of them leaving Sausalito at the beginning of their journey.