Schiermonnikoog Island–April 1, 2013

 

Just north of the Netherlands there is this really cute island called Schiermonnikoog.  After a few days of rest, we decided to drive up there and take a ferry across to discover what it had to offer.  We were not disappointed…

Noah’s Ark & Amsterdam–March 29, 2013

 

Day 2 of our trip we woke up in Belgium and drove to the Netherlands.  In one day, we saw Noah’s Ark, went to Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam and then drove to our temporary home in…(I don’t remember where, but it was two hours north of Amsterdam).

Apparently my memory is horrible after almost a year.  I really need to stay on top of documenting family moments as they happen.  Too bad life just doesn’t seem to want to slow down.

Dreilandenpunt (Point of 3 Countries) - March 28, 2013

 

I cannot believe I am finally posting last year’s spring break only a few months before this year’s spring break!  I have no idea if I’m even going to remember what these pictures are all about, but lets give it a go anyway…

 

My parents (Grammy & Grampy) came out to visit us last year during Ethan’s spring break.  We decided to take advantage of the time and spend a week in the Netherlands.  On our way there, we stopped at Drielandenpunt which is where three different countries meet at one point:  Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.  We had a lot of fun braving the cold, winter weather while placing our bodies in all three countries at once and going up the big tower to look around.

America!!

Last October we visited the great USA for three weeks.  We were able to attend Anna (James’ sister) and Austin’s wedding, finalize Ethan’s adoption and spend time with both sides of the family.  It was fun for Tybee to get to know family she’s never met before.  I lugged my camera with me all of the way over there and forgot to use it much.  So unfortunately I don’t have many pictures, but we did have a great time there.

Day 5: Nuremberg, Germany

On our way home from Prague, we stopped in Nuremberg for lunch, since it was the halfway point.  We weren’t sure what we were going to find there, but there happened to be this fun percussion band playing outside of the visitor’s center.

Day 4: Prague, Czech Republic

I’m back for a bit again…after 3 weeks in the states and 2 weeks of recovery…I’m ready to try and finish documenting this 5 day adventure.

Day 3: Vienna, Austria

Day 2: Salzburg, Austria

5 Places in 5 Days–Day 1: Legoland

Trier and Saarbrucken

 

I am finally back again and am posting on a little trip we took that was soo long ago (middle of May) that I now cannot remember all of the details of it.  So lucky for you, you pretty much get to look at a bunch of pictures :)

Garmisch Part 3: Alpspitz

During our “free time” we decided to head to the top of the Alpspitz which is the second tallest point in Germany.  The Zugspitz is the tallest, but it cost 3 times as much to go to the top of it and there isn’t anything to do up there.  At the Alpspitz they have hiking trails and activities for kids.

Garmisch Part 2

During the day, James and I had classes we had to attend and so we took Ethan and Tybee to child care.  Ethan had a blast at his.  They went hiking, saw a “candy castle”, rode up a ski lift, went to Munich to see some animal town, watched movies, etc.  He didn’t want to leave he had so much fun there.  Tybee, on the other hand, did not have the same joyful experience.  This was her first time being left with someone else for an extended period of time.  I’m not sure who it is was harder on, us or her, but she did not enjoy it.  However, some good did come out of it because she now goes to other people a lot easier than she did before.

Garmisch Part 1: Tybee’s First Swim

At the end of August our family was lucky enough to go on an all expense paid trip to Garmish, Germany for a marriage retreat.  It was a lot of fun and very profitable for us.  The resort/hotel had an indoor pool that we decided to take Tybee to for her first experience of swimming.  Unfortunately they had a rule that she had to be wearing a flotation device.  She did not like this rule.  As you can see in the pictures we eventually took it off because she was really not liking it.

Rothenburg

Not only was last Tuesday Tybee’s 2 month birthday, but it was the 2 year anniversary of mine and James’ first date, which was on Tybee Island in Georgia.  That was where and when our life together began.  So we thought it very fitting to name our sweet little angel after a very significant and beautiful place.

To celebrate this anniversary of ours we wanted to take a day trip somewhere and so we decided to head to Rothenburg and invited some friends of ours, the Meyers family, to join us.

Luxembourg

Two weekends ago there was a father/son campout at the US Military Cemetery in Luxembourg.  Since my parents were here at the time, James, Ethan, and my dad went camping while my mom, Tybee, and I stayed in a hotel.  Then the next day we explored Luxembourg.  It was a fun little excursion since none of us had been there before.  That was Ethan’s first camping experience too and he loved every minute of it.  He now wants us to go camping as a family, but I’m so not a camper :/  We’ll see if he catches me at a weak moment on that one.

Here is the cemetery where they camped.  It is very eye opening seeing all of the graves.  This is just a very small portion of the soldiers that died during WWII.  General Patton is buried here as well.

 

Here are some pictures from the beautiful city…

This is outside the Grand Duke’s Palace.

I guess there were underground tunnels built in 1644 called Casemates.  Unfortunately they were closed when we tried to go in them.

We really enjoyed Luxembourg…the people were really friendly and it was a clean, beautiful city.