A year in review...

I am looking forward to keeping this blog so that it may be an instant "year in review" for next year. Plus, perhaps it will inspire us to get out and do more stuff. I assumed that getting out and traveling in Europe would be totally easy, but it hasn't come easy to us. The normal day-to-day activities have really slowed us down in terms of checking off countries we've visited. In some ways, I am fine with that. There's no need, in my mind, to have said that I have visited every country or city in Europe. I want to go to places and really get a feel for them. I guess that's why we have visited some of the same areas several times. We also like staying local and getting to know our community. In any case, even though I posted about all of this stuff on Facebook, here's what we did last year...

January -

We rang in the New Year at home. Just like Americans, Germans adore fireworks for their New Year's celebrations. Fireworks do go off all day sporadically, but when the clock strikes midnight, you'll hear a constant popping of fireworks for at least an hour. It's a pretty spectacular thing to see. Unfortunately, both the kids had fallen asleep by this point.

February -

Phoebe turned four, and we visited Das Praehistorium again. In fact, we are going there for her 5th birthday as well. It's a wonderful animatronic dinosaur "museum" type place with a playground. There are several rooms and a "time travel" area that are decorated in unimaginable detail and feature really clever animatronic dinos. We enjoy going once or twice a year.

March -

I began taking prerequisite courses for a degree in Nutrition with the goal of becoming a registered dietitian in the (distant) future. My first course (after not having had biology since 2004) was Microbiology. It was incredibly difficult, and I had to study several hours per day, but I ended up with an A. An A+. Montanna and I also traveled to Strasbourg for a weekend alone, which was great!

April -

School continued for me, and we decided (against all better judgment) to get a puppy! What were we thinking?! It's a well known fact that I am not a dog person. I can't say that almost a year later that I am much closer to being a dog person, but I suppose he can continue living here. We named him Siegfried after a famous German legend.

May -

School finished! Ahh, what a wonderful relief! Montanna was also given the opportunity to be commander of his squadron for a few months while we waited for his incoming commander to arrive. All in all, I would say it was an experience that will aid him in the future. We kept it local for the most part. I took some pictures of the girls in harsh and terrible lighting for Mother's Day, and we visited some of the local festivals that were beginning now that the weather was warming somewhat.

The yellow flowers are canola. Easter/Mother's Day dresses provided by Montanna's mom.

June -

So, I have an incredibly supportive, wonderful husband who works tirelessly, usually over 50 hours a week, yet never hesitates to put the kids to bed, give them a bath, make them dinner, etc. We usually don't do big gifts or anything for Father's Day, so I thought it would be the perfect time to surprise him. There just so happened to be a Belgian beer festival taking place in Antwerp, so I set up child care (thanks, SL & J), did a ton of research on the beer, made sure that he could leave the country, and reserved us a spot on a bus headed that way. It was a fantastic success, though it perhaps left us with a few blisters and a bit of a dehydrated headache. We heard a lot of hype about German beer before we moved here, and I can't say that I appreciate anything aside from the size of German beers. Once you've had a few, you've pretty much had them all. Belgian beer...well, it hardly ever disappoints.  We have been able to visit Gent, Brugge, and Antwerp, and I have loved all three cities. Montanna liked his Father's day trip.

 This statue commemorates the slaying of the terrible giant Druon Antigone who illegally levied a 50% tax on ships that wished to pass. The figure depicted, the hero Salvus Brabo, heard of this terrible giant and sought to put an end to his tyranny. After several days of fighting, he managed to slay the giant, slice off his hand, and throw it into the river. You can purchase chocolate hands at nearly every chocolate store in Antwerp.

Montanna is pre-gaming a beer festival with beer, and I decided to have a coffee.

This is the daily menu from a local beer bar/restaurant. Billie is the charming French bulldog who will greet you when you pass by on the street and invite you in; however, he will ignore you once you become a paying customer. The food at this establishment is probably the best I have had in Europe.

July --

The weather in Germany is fairly cool. November through February are generally cold with a little snow. The rest of the months, excepting a few weeks in July and August are also cool, with daily highs averaging in the 60s and 70s, and the warmer days reaching the low 80s. Nights in these "warmer" months are usually in the low 50s and 60s. NOT LAST SUMMER. Let me tell you. A few days without AC is fine, especially when you can open your windows at night and let in the cool 60 degree air. Last July and August we had weeks of temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s, and the lows stayed in the high 70s! It was horrible. I would find an excuse to drive somewhere in my car nearly every day just so I could blast the AC. We went to see movies on base. We bought a crappy pool for over 50 euros. We visited the fountains in villages. Anyway, it was hot, but that didn't stop us from enjoying our village's local chicken festival. It involves a ton of rotisserie chicken, liters of beer, and a band playing your favorite songs from the 80s and 90s. Super fun.

We got into a bit of a drinking contest with Germans, and let me say that I did not have this smile on my face the next morning.

Americans representing.

Such a good daddy.

 August --

School began again, and Sophie headed back to Texas. We continued along the festival circuit. We traveled to northern Germany to a town called Xanten to visit good friends. The kids had a blast, and the parents managed to have fun as well. We also traveled south of Strasbourg to do a little more exploring, and we discovered Cigoland, a super cute little amusement park, Monkey Mountain, and a pretty cool castle.

Xanten, downtown

I loved this picture of Vivi trying to eat her ice cream like Daddy.

We managed to get a picture of the whole family together, and in front of a windmill too!

A view of the town, Kintzheim, which is along the Route de Vins (Wine Road) in France.

The littles enjoying an amusement activity.

A view of Monkey Mountain.

September --

As it turns out, festival season never ends in Germany. Montanna's parents were able to come out and spend time with some of their grand children and see a few sights. It was a blast, but a bit exhausting! We managed to visit the Pumpkin festival in Ludwigsburg, which is the largest pumpkin festival in the world, and probably the prettiest, in my opinion. We also took the grandparents to Strasbourg, and we visited the castle Haut Koenigsbourg as well. Then, we visited the lovely town of Brugge, Belgium with our friend Matt.

Pumpkin festival in Ludwigsburg. One of the lovely sculptures.

Grandma & Grandpa with some grand kiddos & their #5 son

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids in Strasbourg, France

Father & Son & grands/daughters in front of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg

An art instillation in Brugge.

The horse-drawn carriage ride that has made Brugge the girls' favorite city in Europe.

The square in Brugge.

I took this beautiful picture with my phone! The water was so still this morning.

October --

We learned that we are expecting another baby! However, we kept   the news from our friends and family for a bit. We kept it local because of colds, first trimester pregnancy discomforts, and because we knew that we would be traveling a lot in November and December.

Montanna and I were Darren and Samantha from Bewitched.

Our little princesses for Halloween.

November --

Well, in November I was still taking Anatomy and Physiology. And let me tell you, enduring cat dissection during the first trimester of pregnancy was difficult. Luckily my lab partners sympathized with me and allowed me to read the directions most of the time instead of doing "hands on" participation. We told the world we were having another baby. We visited our friends in Xanten again for their annual Pie & Vine (it's a wine and pie contest, yum). And we enjoyed Thanksgiving with friends.

All the secret wines, lined up.

One of the beautiful pies.

Festive party-goers.

It's a baby! Sophie was thrilled too.

December --

Whoa, December was a whirlwind. We had the squadron Christmas party, we had a million colds. We traveled up to Xanten to see Star Wars and attend a birthday party. We visited a few Christmas markets. We had doctor's appointments. We went to Strasbourg again. We opened presents. It was a great time, but we definitely looked forward to the quiet of early January.

In the Netherlands, grabbing a quick pizza before watching Star Wars episode 7.

We're at a movie! Without children!

We took the kids to a children's Christmas circus in Xanten. They loved it and may want to be clowns and acrobats when they grow up.

Rudolph the red-nosed Herc.

The girls got presents from the Squadron Santa.

The German equivalent of boy scouts traveled to Israel (Bethlehem?) to light a candle, and they brought that light back to Germany. Here it is (in Xanten). Pretty cool.

Vivi had unmatched enthusiasm on Christmas morning.

And that's about it! A pretty great year!