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…

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.

Feeding the Geese and Visiting the Garden

Another fun, family walk we took about a month ago.  I’m slowly catching up!  I wanted to test out my birthday present that had just come in the mail (a new lens), so beware of the many pictures.

Marksburg

We were really lucky on Monday because both James and Ethan had the day off.  Two separate holidays, but the same day.  Yay!  This rarely happens, so we decided to take advantage of it and go see a castle about an hour up the river.  It was a little chilly, but perfectly sunny and beautiful.

 

Halloween Festivities

For our “mommy/son date” on Friday, Ethan wanted to carve pumpkins.  This really isn’t something I enjoy because it requires creativity and makes a huge mess, but I couldn’t say no to him, so that is what we did.  Luckily it ended up being more of a family affair, so I had help with the clean up and more supervision of the knife usage.

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.

Tybee Lily

Oh, wow!  It has been 3 1/2 months since I posted last.  So much has happened since then, but the biggest one for our family would be gaining a new member…Tybee.  She was born on May 5th (Cinco de Mayo), weighing 7.55 lbs., 21 1/4 inches long.  She is the sweetest, most beautiful baby (ok, tied with Ethan of course) and we are all in love with her.  Last night she even let me get about 6 hours of sleep, so I’m feeling really good today.

Here are a few pictures taken of her when she was a week old…