Paris

The first trip that we took once my Dad and Aunt got her was a train to Paris. We took the high speed train into the city, it was quite an experience going over 300 kph through the gorgeous countryside. 

The first day we went the the Eiffel tower and as soon as we got there is started pouring down rain. As we were standing under cover waiting for it to stop, Kaelyn naturally started licking it off the of fence, and catching it out of the sky,

When Nick and I came in January, we didn't go up into the tower, so it was a fun thing to see this huge, historic city from so high. 

And of course, any carousel needs to be ridden, so the kids got to have a little of their own fun before we headed off to find some dinner.

The next two days we took a bus tour that allows you to hop on and off at any of their stops so that you can see the sights, while they explain the history of all of the buildings you are passing.

We passed so many beautiful buildings, but honestly I don't remember anything about most of them. They were pretty to look at though.

We did go to the Louvre, which is wear the original Mona Lisa is housed as well as many other famous pieces of art.

There is always a huge crowd in front of the Mona Lisa, so I stayed back with the kids and had a snack while they squeezed up to the front to get a picture and a better look.

William absolutely loves going to museums and looking at art and statues, so they really had a good time.

The best time though was going to Notre Dame. 

Right outside were probably a hundred pigeons, which put Kaelyn in heaven.

There was a man there with a bag full of bird seed, he would give it to the kids for them to feed the birds. After a couple of times he put it on William's head.

We spent a good hour or two before and after touring the chapel playing with the birds.

Kaelyn, as always, was extremely popular with all of the tourists. Any time we are out, all of the oriental women want to have their picture taken with her. There were a couple of brides there having pictures done and one of them came to ask me if they could have her in a couple of their pictures. I thought it was strange but I told Kaelyn that she was a princess so she went along with it.

The chapel was amazing, so beautiful inside but to me the truly amazing thing was the outside of the building.

On the last day we went on a boat tour down the river. Because the water was so high from all of the storms and flooding they had had, some things were cut out but that meant that we were able to go farther down the river in the other direction and see the mini statue of liberty instead.

The kids are always all for boat rides.

After lunch, ice cream is always a must, we usually have it every day when we are traveling as a family. We are really going to miss the ice cream here in Europe/

Before heading back for the night to get all packed and hop on the train, we spend some time hanging out by the river, chasing birds and throwing leaves in.

It was a great start to their five weeks here, everyone had so much fun, and we made so many memories. 

34 Weeks With Baby #3

33 Weeks with Kaelyn

33 Weeks with William

Everything is still going great, fortunately I don't seem to have gotten any bigger. The doctor says the baby is about 5 lbs 17 oz and thriving. I'm all registered at the hospital and getting things ready for this little ones arrival. It's been tough doing all of the traveling with the family while so pregnant but totally worth it. Only about 6 more weeks till we get to meet the newest addition to our family!

34 Weeks With Baby #3

River Cruise Down the Rhein

My Dad and Aunt Penny came for a fun filled five week trip to our house, we had so many fun things in store for us but the first thing that we did was take a river cruise down the Rhein River to see the castles.

We grabbed some lunch while we waited for our boat to get back, and my Dad the flirt that he is, was talking up the cute little waitress the entire time.

We saw so many beautiful castles, most of them are now bed and breakfasts or castles although there were a couple that are privately owned and lived in.

Most were built high on the mountain of course, but there were a couple that were on islands. A lot of them were either built or restored by Neapolitan.

This one still has a pretty good size section of a Roman wall surrounding it.

This little white one was on a small island, called the mouses tour. It is said that a counselor or someone with status had their home invaded by mice so he swam over to this castle and locked himself inside to get away from them. Unfortunately the mice followed him and ate him before he could get away.

Jousting at Ronnenberg

Ronnenberg is one of our favorite castles to visit, so when we heard they were having a jousting tournament, we knew we had to go.

Of course, there are always other fun things to do in a mid evil castle.

William was so excited to try the armor on, and of course anything to stick your head in is a must.

They had a whole festival with booths, food, and rides so we let the kids each pick one ride.

Kaelyn of course picked the horses, and in true Kaelyn fashion, started licking it.

William picked the Ferris wheel which was worked by hand, he was all smiles.

The tournament was fun to watch for a bit, basically a battle between good and evil. It was all in German, we understood the gist of it and bit and pieces.

It didn't turn out to be exactly as we though it would, it was a competition to win something so they had different tasks and forms of jousting they had to complete, but not going against one another like you would think.

We watched probably half of it, William said he was done so we got up to find Kaelyn rolling around in the grass and chasing a dog around.

It was a great way to spend the day, we are really going to miss things like this when we have to leave Germany.

Military Child Parade

April is the month of the military child so Kaelyn's class made cute patriotic shirts and got together with all of the other classes to go on a parade through posts.

They had noise makers and windmills, all sorts of things to have fun with.

It ended up being quite the walk, and most of the kids were pretty tired by the time we got back to the meeting place. They were rewarded with waffles and ice cream though, so I would say it was totally worth it.