Sixteenth & Seventeenth Week in Germany

The beginning of the week was spent getting ready for Linda (Greg's mom) to come. We tried to tidy up a bit and make sure everything was fairly organized. Linda arrived on Friday morning. Greg picked her up from the airport and they met Avery and I at home. Bryn was taking her nap so it was nice for Avery to be the first one to see Nana. She was very excited, she spotted them outside the window and went running outside. It was nice to be able to show her around our place so that she could understand what we have been talking about all of this time. Greg and Linda went to pick Bailey up from school. Bailey was very excited as well. We walked downtown Bad Godesberg and had some spaghetti ice. Then we took the train to Bonn, and walked around the fussganger zone a little bit. We returned home on the train to the tune of Bailey singing in German and Linda singing in English, "Love is Spoken Here." We returned home and Greg cooked up a great dinner with steaks on the grill, sweet potato fries, and one of his signature salads. We ate on the balcony by candlelight after the girls went to bed. It was very peaceful.

Saturday, we decided to drive to Maastricht, Netherlands. We heard it was a cool town. When we got there we walked around town for a while. It looks like a great place to shop, although we didn't do too much shopping while we were there this time. We saw some ruins left over from the 1300's. We stopped and got the girls McDonalds for lunch, they can spot them a mile a way. For us, we tried a sandwich place that was really good. We left and continued on our journey for the day to Monchau. Linda loved it. It is a quaint little German town. We bought some printen which is like a gingerbread/licorice cookie that has different frostings.

Sunday, we went to Church, where Bailey and Avery had their first primary program in German. Avery held the picture of Christ with the children while each child in her class said something. Bailey sang every song in German and when she had to say her part, she said it in English. We were extremely proud of both of them for participating as much as they did. Linda was thrilled that she could be there to see them. We cooked up a regular German dinner for Linda, complete with Hanchen Schnitzel and spatzle.

Monday, Greg took the day off. We started the day by going to Siegburg, which has one of our favorite childrens' stores in the area. We did a little monetary damage there, but we found a few presents for Bryn's upcoming birthday. We walked around the city a bit and by that time, we had to go back to school to pick Avery up. We picked her up and went directly to Koln. We got Linda her first Doner Kebab while we walked through the shopping area to the Dom. Unfortunately it took us too long to walk all the way there and we were afraid that if we climbed to the top, we would be late picking Bailey up from school. So, we skipped climbing to the top. I felt bad because this is the second time Linda has been there and not climbed to the top. Next time, it will be a must! Linda spent some time with the girls playing when Bailey got home from school. We arranged to have a babysitter so that Linda, Greg, and I could have a nice dinner out with some adult conversation. We were tentatively planning on going to a Biergarten for dinner, but because of the German food the night before and the fact that we were in the mood for something familiar, we ended up at Vapiano. It is a nice Italian place which Greg and I have been to a couple of times.

On Tuesday, it seemed everyone was very tired. Avery stayed home from school because she had some leg problems in the middle of the night and didn't get much sleep. Linda didn't get much sleep either as Avery was sleeping with her. So, we just stayed home in the morning. In the afternoon, Avery was feeling a bit better with a little help from children's motrin but Bryn went down for a nap and slept a really long time, so we were stuck at the house most of the day. Greg was disappointed in our lack of sightseeing activities. But, I think we made up for it the rest of the trip.

Wednesday, Linda and I had the girls and ourselves ready to school when we dropped them off for school. We went directly to a little pottery town called Adendorf. We found a really cool topferei and the gentleman that worked there was very nice. He was speaking to us in German, but he spoke very slowly and enunciated so I could understand what he was saying. He took us on a tour and showed us the back room where the pots were drying and even the Kiln that was in the process of firing. We went into several other shops but we both agreed that we liked his work the best. Linda bought an ornament in his shop and I plan to go back when I have some money on me. we stopped at the backerei in town and purchased some croissants, brot, and a mandel hornchen. Very sweet but very good. We picked Avery up from school and went to a refurbished old train station that is now a museum and a bistro at Rolandseck. It had a beautiful view of the Rhein River, but lacked the kind of food the kids were looking for. I think they would have been happier with McDonalds. It would have been very pleasant if the girls would not have been with us. But, we made the most of it and Linda got some great pictures from the experience.

I got a haircut, my first one in Germany, and it turned out pretty good. It was just good to get it cut. Then, we raced over to school to meet Bailey and fill out Girl Scout forms. While Bay had girl scouts, the rest of us played at the playground. After Bailey was finished, we went downtown Bonn to see if the Beethoven House was still open. We made it with a half hour to spare. It was a quick tour because we had to be out quickly and the girls had had quite a long day. We went the the children's store downtown Bonn to get a birthday present for a little girl in Bailey's class and by the time we finished, the girls were very tired and very hungry. Greg was already home from work and made really yummy crepes for dinner. We had some of the crepes with egg, ham, and cheese, that we loved from Pittsburgh, and some dessert crepes - my new favorite is nutella, strawberries, and bananas, with a little whipped cream of course.

Thursday we drove to France. We got there around 2:00 pm in the afternoon. When the girls saw the sign as we were driving in, their expressions say it all. It was a really fun afternoon, full of fantasy. Bailey's favorite was the Peter Pan ride. Avery's favorite - the tea cups. Bryn's favorite was the flying Dumbo ride. Greg's was "It's a small world." I think Linda and I didn't really have a favorite, we just enjoyed watching the girls having a great time. We stayed pretty much until the park closed and then checked into the hotel. The Davy Crockett Ranch. It worked out really well for us because one room could accommodate all of us. They had a large pool that we went to which was fine. The girls seemed to enjoy it. We got home pretty late and were all very tired.

Friday morning, the park opened at 10:00 am. With our room came what I thought was an awesome continental breakfast. We had warm French croissants, jams and chocolate spread, a baguette, orange juice, hot chocolate, milk. It gave us enough of a start to hit the park pretty hard that morning. For lunch we had already made a reservation to eat at Cinderella's Castle, where we personally got to meet, take pictures with, and and get autographs from several Disney characters...Cinderella and Prince Charming, Snow White, Ariel, and two of the mice, Suzy and Perla. It was really fun for the girls. After lunch we decided to blaze into the city for an afternoon via RER. We took in a few Parisian sites - Notre dame, Musee D'Orsay, and La Tour Eiffel. We took the train back to Disneyland and the girls were remarkably chipper still dancing around on the moving walkways out to the parking lot.














Saturday morning our goal was to be at the park by 8:00 am when it opened to Hotel guests. We were a bit optimistic but still made it in pretty early. It was far more crowded on Saturday than it had been the previous days. We did a few things in Fantasy land that the girls wanted to do again. We tried a couple of new things. Bailey's new favorite was Big Thunder Mountain. I think that was her first real roller coaster. She loved it and went twice in a row thanks to our fastpass tickets. We ate lunch at the Frontierland Big American Barbeque, which was so good. We did a bit of Discoveryland in the afternoon, but so many of the rides had a hour or so wait that we had to pick and choose the most important to us. We finished the day eating Chocolate Brioche Mickey buns and popcorn and watching the Disneyland Parade which was a huge hit. We were in the front row and the girls could not get enough of the action. We made one last Minnie Mouse balloon purchase for Bryn and then it was time for us to be on our way. It felt like a long drive back but we made good time. Greg made Brats for dinner but I was so tired, I retired quite early.

Sunday morning, Greg made waffles for breakfast. The girls wanted to all go to the airport to see Linda off, so we left around 9:30am. We dropped her off. It was a heartwarming good-bye. It was almost harder than the good-bye when we left because that one was so rushed and chaotic. We so enjoyed having Linda visit and we hope she enjoyed her stay. We drove home and took Bailey to her friends Birthday party which was all in German. The mom said that she felt sorry for Bailey because it was clear that she did not always understand what was going on. But, I keep trying to tell Bay that that is how she will learn German, by playing with the German girls and listening to them talk. It is tough because the language can't come quick enough. We all want to just be able to speak it.