On July 1 - Chad, the boys and I headed to the airport to fly to Germany! We arrived at the airport early in order to eat at the Pappadeaux that Uncle Jason is GM for at the airport. The boys had yummy virgin strawberry daiquiris.
The boys did a great time pulling their own suitcases around. Carter only handed his off to me when we were going up or down escalators.
Both boys did amazing on the 9+ hour flight to Frankfurt. Carter feel asleep almost before we took off. Riley slept a bit. I think I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep and about the same for Chad. Thankfully, Katharina picked us up from the airport so we were able to doze on and off on the 2+ hour car ride to her house.
This was our amazing "suite" at Katharina's house. We were on the top floor and had our own bathroom up there also. It was like a little apartment. The boys slept in the living room area and Chad & I had our own little bedroom area. We had the windows open A LOT because the temperatures were amazing.
We spent the rest of our first day getting settled and visiting in the front courtyard. We gave Katharina, Lucas and Hannes all gifts from TX. Hannes liked his American flag!
Our first meal was fried chicken from our favorite little restaurant around the corner from Katharina's followed by gelato for dessert. It was only a 2 block walk to the gelato place so we ate gelato almost every night.
Day 2 was spent at our favorite playground. We sat with Hannes under a tree in the shade while the boys played. It was heavenly.
Luckily we brought the boys swimsuits so they could play in the sand and water.
Carter was very worn out and feel asleep in my arms that afternoon.
Every morning we would walk to a little bakery a block away to get fresh pastries for breakfast. The boys were very sweet to each other for a lot of the trip and held hands a lot. Adorable!!
We went to the roman baths on Day 3. The boys had a blast running around the baths, through the tunnels and checking it all out. This is one of my favorite places to take photos.
We also spent time outside the basilica where Chad is obsessed with the below set of stairs. He even brought a tape measure with him so he could measure the stairs and draft them. They are pretty cool.
Day 3 night was a World Cup game night for Germany and they had a small watching party at their house.
The boys hit up a toy store before we headed home to watch the game and Riley saved his money, but Carter bought a small set of wooden groceries and also a small dinosaur that you can excavate the bones. He was kind enough to let Riley be the archeologist while he looked on.
Day 4 we hit up the Deer Park. The boys got to feed boars, deer and goats. It was raining, but we still had a blast!
Chad took the boys on an adventure before we left to the "dark forest." They felt very cool and adventurous.
Carter took a lot of little naps on vacation. The jet lag combined with the walking we were doing, just made him need small catnaps occasionally.
Riley's favorite thing about Katharina's house was the front door on the street side that led into the courtyard. He would kindly hold the door for everyone any time we went in or out.
Day 5 we went to a little resort called 3 Lakes Resort where there was an alpine roller coaster. The views at the resort were beautiful - vineyards climbing mountains in every direction. The alpine coaster was pretty cool too. The boys rode it 10 times or so.
After the coaster rides and lunch we walked down to a mini golf course and Chad & the boys played a round. It was so bright and sunny this day that it was very hot if you were not in the shade.
We ended Day 5 with a trek to a statue high up overlooking Trier where we looked out over the City and took our traditional photo from atop the City.
We have taken pictures on these steps every trip I have taken to Trier: May 2005, October 2008 and July 2014 shown below.
While at the resort I noticed that Riley had what looked like hives on his face, ears and backs of his legs. I worried he was having an allergic reaction, but they were not itching and he was not in pain. After sending the photos to my mom and a nurse friend, we determined that we thought Riley had Fifth Disease. It's a viral infection, but by the time the rash presents itself you are no longer contagious. We worried that Riley would get others in the house sick, but there wasn't much we could do.
So we spent Day 6 relaxing at the house with me reading Harry Potter to Riley. We read for so long (3+ hours) that we finished Book 3!!
So Chad downloaded the 3rd movie on iTunes and we watched it together that night.
While we were gone the new Diagon Alley opened at Universal Orlando - Harry Potter World and we watched a video of people going on the first day and in one of the clips these 2 grown girls talked about how their dad read the books aloud to them when they were small and it was one of their favorite memories. I hope that rings true for Riley one day as well.
Day 7 was a wet and dreary day so we went to an indoor playground that was AMAZING. It was like a huge medieval castle and there was a restaurant right in the middle where we sat at our table while the boys ran ragged and played. They loved it so much that they threw quite a fit when it was time to leave.
What they didn't realize was that we were leaving for a small piece of paradise: Katharina's Dad and step-mom's house. It is situated on the side of a vineyard and they are quite accomplished gardeners. It is one amazing place to be. Heinz, Katharina's dad, showed the boys "wild strawberries" that they could pick and eat and they ate a TON.
There were also lots of big snails in shells and Carter picked me a sweet purple "bell flower" and a cherry straight from the cherry tree.
Day 8 was another rainy day and we stayed at home most of the day, but went to Lucas' parents house for dinner. Lucas' mom, who is one stellar grandma, gave the boys coloring books so we sat and colored and visited before eating a yummy spaghetti dinner that made me feel like were were home in the States. She also gave the boys party noisemakers, which Carter loved. We knew when we first met Lucas' mom, Carmen, back in 2008, that she would make a great grandma, as Riley was 14 months old and she adored him the last time we were there. I'm so happy she now has her own grandson in Hannes to dote on.
That night Carter made one stellar gelato mustache. I love how serious he is when posing with ice cream mustaches.
Day 9 we went into downtown Trier to go shopping and we took some photos in front of the Porta Nigra. I am in love with all these shots, but especially the ones of the entire family.
After shopping we hung out in the courtyard at Katharina's one last time all together and had a great time visiting and enjoying the weather.
We had such a great trip and Katharina and I enjoyed sending each other photos we loved. It was hard to leave such a beautiful place and such good friends that we absolutely adore. We are so thankful to them for hosting us.
The flight home was a long one. Riley didn't sleep at all, which meant he had a mini-meltdown when we got home. Thankfully, this was quickly remedied by a nap.
Some sad news while we were away - Chad's grandmother Muzzie passed away. She was 86 years old. The visitation was the day we got home so we woke the boys from their post-airport naps and we went to the visitation. We stayed until Chad & I got a bit glassy-eyed, realizing we had been awake for about 22 hours.
The funeral was on Saturday and I got this cute shot of Haha and his grandsons before we headed into the service. The service was beautiful. Beautiful songs, great eulogies. It was amazing.
Carter's jetlag kept him from enjoying the funeral as he slept stretched across Chad's lap for most of the service.
One of the gifts I brought home for Liz were outfits from Zara Kids. She wore them both this week and looked so adorable!!
On Sunday the boys and I watched the World Cup final and were very excited when Germany WON!
We sent the below 2 videos to Katharina to show our excitement!
And to top off our first week back, it seems that Carter now also has Fifth Disease. I mistakenly thought he had it when he was 1 1/2, but upon looking back in my blog, I was remembering a different illness. So he now has the rash, which means he's no longer contagious. Thankfully, Fifths is like chicken pox, where once you have it once you are usually immune after that.
It's been nice to try and get back into a routine at home this week and just nice to relax at home. The boys have been in swimming lessons this week and I'll post some videos of that next week. I also am getting braces this coming Monday and this past Monday went through Step 1 of the process, which is to get records and separators. Records are just a bunch of x-rays and photos of my teeth and the separators are thick tiny rubberbands (see below photo) inserted between your back molars like dental floss that stays there until Monday when they will be removed and the braces placed. They have made my front teeth really hurt and makes it painful to bite into anything or to eat anything crunchy or hard. Thankfully I'll only have the braces for 12-18 months so I'm looking forward to getting it started soon so they will be off soon.
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