Entering first grade

In the middle of August Thomas started his first day back to school. He was not as nervous as last year and mostly excited to start first grade. We had gone the previous week to see his classroom and was able to meet his new teacher. 

 As with last year I always drive Thomas to school and he was more concerned about having a new backpack and lunch bag so school shopping was pretty easy :) This year he went with an Angry Bird Star Wars backpack and a T-Rex lunch bag. 

 The first day of school we can you child and walk with them to their new classroom. But this year he was able to have his own locker. He was pretty happy about this. We walked and found his name and I showed him how to open and close it. It was a pretty big deal for him. 

Thankfully he had the same bus and bus driver so it was nothing new on the way home. He had a good day and continues to well in school :)

Fishing in Indiana

After we got all our fishing stuff and Eric and I got our fishing licenses, we were ready for our first fishing trip. The boys were pretty excited to try it out. 

 It was a pretty warm morning/day but the clouds made it a little more pleasant. Eric found a fishing spot just a little bit north of us. After finding a few different spots this was the one we chose first. 

 The boys didn't have a lot of patients but after a little bit Thomas did help to reel in his first little fish. Because we were just fishing for fun, it was just catch and release. The size didn't seem to matter as long as there was a fish at the end of the hook :) 

 After a little while we headed over to a different spot. This one was a little more successful. The boys were both able to catch a few fish, and had a fun experience with it. 

Fly tying

For the later part of the Summer Eric wanted to try and take the boys out fishing. They were pretty excited to try this out and Eric was able to find his fly tying stuff. 

 Sup was a little to young to get the fly tying lesson from Daddy but Thomas really wanted to make his own. This way he could try to catch a fish with a fly that he tied by himself. 

He did a very basic one and you can hardly see from the picture, but he was able to tie most of the yellow around his hook several times. He was rather proud of himself for learning a new skill :)

Back home

After several weeks in Germany/Europe it was time to come home. The boys had a lot of fun with my parents here in the US, but I think we were all ready to come home and see Daddy. For me after flying and riding in a car for so many hours I was very happy when we pulled into our drive-way.  

When I was in Germany I was not feeling very well and when I came home I went to see the Dr. I soon found out why I was not feeling well. This would be why:

Thankfully I am feeling better now, but this little one had me down for most of the summer. I was sick probably up to the 15th or 16th week. We are now 25 weeks and everything seems to be going well, and we hope it stays that way! As with our boys we didn't find out what we are having so we will find out at the end of January :) 

Paris: Part Two

A popular thing in Paris is the section of town where you have artist lined up either wanting to sell their paintings or to hire them do to a portrait of you. This is a very popular tourist thing to do. 

 I was not really interested in doing this, but Eric said he really wanted one of me. So after a lot of debate I decided it would make a nice gift for him and went ahead and did it. 

 Kris had scouted out the many artist on the street and haggled with a few of them and we went with this guy. The drawing was actually quicker then I thought and all and all I think it turned out pretty nice. 

 Our next stop was the Arc de Triomphe. We were able go inside where they had all French generals that fought in the different wars engraved within the ceiling and walls of the Arc. 

 Our last stop was of course the Eiffel Tower, being probably the most recognizable site in Paris. When we first got there there was some march for something or another, but after that it was not too bad. They had a stand on each side that you could by food from so I thought it would be fitting to get a crepe :)

It was great weather and it was so nice just to sit and look at the tower, eat my crepe and enjoy my time there. It was an awesome afternoon!

Paris: Part One

It is hard to believe that I did Paris in a day! But yes Mark had things all nice and planned out and I was able to hit some of the popular sites. 

 Frist thing when we arrived in the city was stop at Notre Dame de Paris. It was not too busy when we first got in, and we were able to go inside and see the church. At this point in my trip the weather finally turned warm and there was just a little cloud cover in the morning. So no coat or umbrella in Paris!

 Eric had heard/seen of a place in Paris where you can bring a lock and hook it on to this little bridge. It was right behind Notre Dame and Mark knew right where it was. 

 On one side of our lock I just put our families first initials and the year 2013, and on the other side I put  Eric's and mine first name with the year we were married. After finding a spot (there are both sides of the bridge that are pretty covered with locks) you hook your lock and then throw your keys to the lock in the river. 

 I have made and eaten many crepes since dating and being married to Eric. This is a big favorite among all his family, and mine as well. But since I was in Paris I had to get a crepe and have the experience. So we found a little cafe near by so I could have one :) 

 After my crepe was cooked we walked over a few minutes to a near by park. It was a beautiful day and I was able to enjoy my crepe with the sites of the city. 

Our next stop was the Lourvre. The pyramid has the point on the outside here as well as the upside down pyramid on the inside, it was pretty neat. With time I did not go inside and see the famous Mona Lisa painting (and don't think I'm crazy) but I am not big fan of the painting.  

Amsterdam/Holland

I had a lot of fun in Amsterdam. What was nice about Holland is that almost everything was in both English and Dutch. So I was able to read and talk with people in English. 

 We made it to the city in the afternoon and we were able to tour the Anne Frank house. This was something that I really wanted to do so but we were not sure that we were able to go in because it is a big attraction and there is usually a rather long line just to get in. I think it was because we were there later and when we got to the house it was only going be open for like another hour we were able to walk right in. We took the whole hour and I was pretty amazed with how big the secret annex was. Of course for all the people that were hiding in the small apartment and being cooped up without the possibility of going outside would have been very restrictive after a handful of days. 

 What I thought was amazing were the amount of bikes in this city! While I was in Europe many people use this mode of transportation but nothing compared to Amsterdam. I am standing on a dock that is between the ocean and the city with a place were I guess you could put your bike. It would seem that a car would be a nightmare and really a bike would be the best thing to get you around the city. 

 The next morning we were able to go to the Alkmaar cheese market. It is one of the oldest cheese markets that are still around. They still have people dressed up back when the market would have been set up for trading for hundreds of years. 

 They bring in these huge cheese wheels by boat or wagons and line the cheese up like this and then wait for the market to open. There was a lot of cheese!! We were able to taste some and it was yummy. 

Once the market opens the men toss the wheels of cheese on to this boat looking carrier and one gets on each end and pull the rope over their shoulders and trot over to the weighing station. Then they weigh their cheese and take it over to be sold. It was a very interesting process and pretty impressed with how light weight they made this cheese look. 

Turin

Turin was an interesting place to visit. I have always wanted to go and see an olympics games, so far it is still on my to do list but I was still interested in seeing at least some of Olympic District. 

 Here in Turin they still use the stadium for other venues so we were not able to go inside but it was fun for me to see the place and the building. 

 This was a very intriguing art sculpture they had out in front of the stadium. From all the different angles you could see different faces within the three towers. I think there were 30 some faces altogether. 

 Since I was there I wanted to have some authentic food. So I went with stromboli that night for dinner. It was pretty big, so I only ate half of it but it was stuffed full and pretty yummy :) The little red drink was given to us as a complimentary thing but no one was sure what it was so we didn't try it. 

On our way out we were still surrounded by the mountains. The had a nice little turn out at the border that we were able to stop and look at them and get some really nice views and pictures. 

Austria

Austria was pretty amazing, especially in the terms of views. Since I have lived in the midwest my whole life seeing mountains is always pretty breathtaking. 

 We were only in the eastern part of the country but we all had a great time here. The weather finally lighten up and we were able to see the sun and I was able to take off my jacket!

 The last few times that Mark and Kris were in the Alps it was pretty cloudy and they were not able to see much. I was fortunate that while we were there it was mostly clear and sunny. 

 Since my experience to seeing mountains are limited to the Rockies in Utah and Colorado I do not have much to compare them to but seeing the height and the size of these mountains I was pretty impressed and lets say my camera has many pictures of the Alps. 

 That night when we arrived in Austria we had an amazing view from our room. The above picture was the view that we had from the balcony. The house was rather high on the mountain and lets say the car's engine was a little warm when we finally made it to the top. I had this crazy idea to run after we got there, so Mark was a trooper an came with me. It was fun running down nice and easy but going up ... oh my we ran back up for a bit and then we were both pretty spent, but we still had to walk up, lets just say it was not my best idea.  

After we made it back it took me a while to feel better. But that night we spent the night out on the balcony drinking hot chocolate and playing games. And in the morning we all were eager to take our breakfast and eat out on the balcony before we left.