Church at the Darmstadt Branch

Sunday was another wonderful day in Germany. We got to go to Teresa and Steve's branch (congregation) for church. It was very small and very nice to be there with them. Teresa ran the primary while Steve taught a joint Relief Society and Priesthood meeting and I took over the nursery. I love the feeling of a branch! We then had a really good sacrament meeting in which Teresa spoke and gave a fantastic talk. We enjoyed it all.

Afterward we waited around outside the church forever because Steve and Teresa had more branch business to tend to. You really get to do your part and serve when you are one of just a few members. We just got to play.

{We tried to get a cute picture of the kids before church. Who knows why, but Brie just started crying. I love this picture though. I think it is hilarious how Jacob is looking at Brie like, "What is wrong with this girl?"}{Alicia, Brielle and Scott in front of the church building.}

{Snack time in the nursery. Yep, that's it. Brie and Jacob and one more kid. Jacob LOVED snack time!}

{Brie being tossed in the air by Scott as we played in front.}

{Jacob and Brie sharing a dandelion. Jacob says he is going to marry Brie when he becomes a Mommy. He says Brie can be the Daddy.}

Spring Festival

That same evening (after the castle tour and naps) we went to the town's Spring Festival. It was like a county fair without the animals. They had all the rides and food that you would hope for. We were mostly there for the food and boy was it gooooooood. Teresa, Scott and I had crepes with nutella and bananas for dinner. Scott and Steve took the kids on a few rides and they all loved them. We didn't get the kids in bed until 11:30pm, but I think that is what helped Brie sleep all night until 10:30am this morning. Yahoo! We had a great time at the festival.

{Jacob, Brielle and Steven with their hats on ready to go to the festival.}

{Steven, Scott, Brie, Steve and Jacob on the giant slide. I'm not sure why Scott looks the most scared.}

{This cracked me up. Brie will rarely ride in her stroller if there is a lot of stopping and starting. She wants to be down, but Jacob on the other hand, is always ready to take the offered ride and be pushed. So Brielle pushed him.}

{Teresa showing off our DELICIOUS banana and nutella crepe.}

{Steve, Steven and Nathan getting ready for a fast spinning ride that I would never dare to go on.}

{The end of the night at the festival. Look at those tired faces.}
{Bonus picture of Jacob's busted up face. I think he rode his bike into a wall.}

Auerbach Castle

Our first day of seeing Germany was absolutely wonderful. The weather was perfect and everything was green and gorgeous. Teresa and Steve took us to the Auerbach Castle. We roamed around the castle ruins with them and the boys and then had lunch on the patio overlooking the valley below. {The entrance to the castle}

{Brie climbing the castle steps}
{Scott and I at the top}
{The view}
{Scott up in the tower}

{Lunch on the patio. We had noodles and soup and all kinds of good German food.}

{We were so nervous the whole time about keeping our kids quiet and under control. They were the only children. Then Brie decided to entertain the boys by diving into her food.}

{This is Brielle completely delighted that she is making the boys laugh so hard.}

Our First Night

Our first night in Germany went . . . . well, as expected. After I wrote last, Scott and I went to bed at about 11pm and exactly 43 minutes later Brielle woke up and was totally awake! I figured out that she had taken her afternoon nap. She slept for the amount of time and at the time that her afternoon nap usually is. Great.

We went downstairs and Brie played with all of the toys while I sat on the couch exhausted. Scott soon joined us and was thrilled to find the Red Sox vs. Yankees game on TV live. Sweet! So Brielle watched Kids Songs on our portable DVD player and Scott watched baseball and I went back to bed thinking that everyone would be back to sleep soon. I was wrong. Brielle played and played and played until Scott finally got her down again at 5am. We were all very tired the next day, but we are adjusting. Brielle (and us) slept through the night the second night and that was much better.

{Scott and Brie watching TV}

{Foosball at 3am anyone? She loves Jacob's backpack.}

We're Here!

We made it! Yahoo! Scott, Brielle and I are in Germany. We are so happy to finally be here with Teresa, Steve and the boys.

The traveling went incredibly well. I am so glad! I was so nervous, so I brought a bag full of snacks and food and toys and books and DVDs and we barely even got them out. We started on Thursday with a flight to Chicago. Brie fell asleep as we were taking off and took her afternoon nap. Perfect! We then boarded a flight to Frankfurt and had a problem when we had to sit on the runway in the rain for an hour, but finally got to take off and then all was well. We watched a video, ate dinner and then Brie slept soundly on a cozy bed of pillows and blankets on the floor at our feet. Again, perfect.

We found Teresa at the airport and she brought us to her house. It is so nice to be with someone who knows everything about the area and can just take care of us. We got to have lunch, take a shower and then go down for a short nap. We had a fantastic German dinner of bratwurst and rotkohl! It is now 10:15pm German time and 2:15pm Utah time. We are exhausted and Brie went down for the night 2 hours ago. We're heading to bed ourselves, but we'll see if we are all wide awake in a few hours.

The picture above is of Brie's first experience with a bidet. She went diving in as soon as she saw it. She is pretending to be washing herself. Smart girl.

Salt Lake City Marathon 2007

Saturday was the SLC Marathon. No, we did not run in it, but seeing all those other people doing it really makes it look fun. We did, however, go out and show our support through cheers and water!

Scott gets so excited about the marathon. Last year he set up a water table because the runners go right past our house. It was a lot of fun to cheer them on and offer water. This year was the same, except we were more prepared. We bought cups at Costco (used 800) and borrowed four water jugs and a table. At 5am they were out setting up the mile markers and cones in front of our house. Shortly after that Scott was out setting up his "unofficial" water table. He watched the bikers go by and then the wheel chairs and then I joined him. We got to see the Nigerian elite runners and then came the masses of runners.

The runners have to come up quite a hill and then they turn the corner on to our street and are SOOOOO grateful to see water. Most were very grateful for the support and the water. There was only one exception. One lady said to Scott, "You should be handing these cups out!!" Scott was so shocked he didn't know what to say. Hey, we're doing this out of the kindness of our hearts lady! We could still be in bed!

It was a fun morning of cheering the runners and helping them make it past Mile 9. The coolest part was that all the neighbors started joining us and then . . . . get this . . . . a Mariachi band showed up! Can you believe it? They stood behind our table and played and sang all morning. What a party!

Scott's Mile 9 Unofficial Water Table

Brielle quenching her thirst after a few laps around the table. Brielle and her friend Zoey in front of the Mile 9 sign.

Scott Has A New Job!

Scott has taken a new job! He is now a power washer/handy man. He has been working so hard around the yard and house. This was his project this morning. He power washed the whole fence and wow, what a difference! Brie only lasted as his helper for a short while.
He has also taken a new position at Fidelity! This is the REALLY EXCITING news. The story is that he was in a position last year that he enjoyed, but everyone kept telling him he needed to be in more of a sales position. So, he took a new position (that some might say was a step backward) in the hopes of this position leading him into the one he really wanted. We also had to endure the Sunday - Wednesday, 12pm - 11pm work schedule. It was great in some ways. Having all morning together has been perfect for Brie, but I hated going to church by myself (Scott would go to his parent's ward in the morning).

Well, Fidelity posted for the new position he wanted and he applied, but then found out that training would be while we are in Europe!!! Everyone told him this would make it really hard for him to get it and we were very sad and disappointed. We actually talked about canceling our trip.

He interviewed and told them about the trip and then we waited and hoped and prayed. On Wednesday he was offered the new position and that they trust him enough to not have to go through training!!! Yahoo! We are sooooooooooooooooo excited. I am beyond thrilled. His new schedule will be Mon. - Fri., 7am to 4pm. How perfect!

Advice From Traveling Moms

I'm coming to all of you moms (and dads) for any advice you can offer for our upcoming trip. We fly to Germany next Thursday!! I'm trying to get us ready to go. I am so nervous about trying to contain Brielle on a flight that long. I need advice from you on things that you have tried or would suggest on how to keep a 16 month old happy, us happy and all of the other passengers on the plane happy on our flight.

I did schedule the flights so that we fly to Chicago during her afternoon nap. We then get out for a while and then get back on the plane to fly to Germany at her bedtime. So, hopefully, she will sleep.

What toys, candy, bribes, drugs do you suggest???? Please help. Any ideas on how to make the transition to an 8 hour time difference easier?

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

It's a GIRL!!Scott and I went to have another ultrasound this morning and found out that our baby is a girl!! Yahoo! We are thrilled. We really wanted another girl for so many reasons and we are very pleased that it is. The picture above shows that she is a girl if you can possibly figure it out. I was right there watching as he showed us and I can hardly tell what the ultrasound picture is showing. Good luck. We got a lot of really good looks though because she was moving around and it was quite obvious to us all that she is definitely a girl!

I love this doctor's visit because it's so exciting to find out the gender of the baby, but it is also so nice and so relieving to have the doctor go through each part of the baby's body and make sure all looks good and is progressing well. The brain looked good, the spine looked good, the femur measured well, the heart was beating at a good pace - everything is good! Yeah!! We left so happy.

Scott took me out to lunch across from beautiful Liberty Park and then we went to pick up Brielle and tell her she is going to have a baby sister. What a wonderful day. We are so happy.

BOY or GIRL?

Tomorrow is the big day when we hopefully find out the gender of our baby! I can't believe it's already that time. We go in at 9:45am for another ultrasound and if all goes well we will leave knowing if this baby is a girl or a boy! I am so excited. We both feel like it is a girl. We both would love to have another girl for practical reasons - she could share a room with Brie, she could wear all of Brie's clothes, it would be nice for Brie to have this one as a sister because they are close in age, etc. We would both be very happy and pleasantly surprised though if we find out it is a boy. Then we would know that at least we have the boy we want. It really would be great fun to have a boy.

Please cast your votes and tell us if you think it will be Ava Elizabeth or Alexander Scott. We'll let you know tomorrow!

Easter With The Fam

We were lucky enough this year to have some of my family here for Easter. It was so nice to spend the weekend with them. Mom, Dad, Tawna and Krista drove up from California on Thursday and stayed until Monday. Bryce came from BYU in Provo to join the party. It was a fun, fun weekend! I am so glad we get to see them so often.

We ate in Emigration Canyon at Ruth's Diner out on their patio on a beautiful day, we went to a Bee's baseball game, we walked around The Gateway and ate at McGrath's, we went to the ward Easter egg hunt, I took Mom to The Quilted Bear, Krista took Brie swimming and we hung out at the house talking. I'll share some (a lot) pictures of our Easter together.

On Saturday morning we all walked up to the annual ward/neighborhood easter egg hunt. There were a lot of kids and it was a fun time. Brie didn't get the whole "find the eggs" concept. She found a dog to play with and then finally was thrilled with finding a sucker on the grass! When she did discover that the eggs had candy inside, she was much more excited.
Tawna and Krista really got into Easter morning. As you can tell, they could hardly wait to see what the Easter Bunny brought them.
We started an easter egg hunt around the house. Pretty easy huh? Brie found her eggs and each one had one Jelly Belly in it. Perfect! That's all the candy she got and she was VERY happy.Brie figured out really quick that each egg had candy and made sure to double check each one. Here she is with her basket.Brie and Daddy reading one of her new books together.Everyone with their easter baskets or cake pans filled with candy. The Easter bunny had to get creative I guess.Brie got smart. She started filling her little bowl of jelly bellies with Krista's candy.We all had a delicious easter breakfast of crepes and strawberries and bananas.Brie didn't eat all weekend, but certainly enjoyed her breakfast of whipped cream that morning.Me and Brie after church. She doesn't pose for me EVER!After church, Fred and Rama joined us for Easter dinner. It was so GOOD! We made turkey, baked yams, green salad, fruit salad, asparagus and rolls. We love having Mom here! We had a very nice time with Fred and Rama and were glad they got to join our Easter dinner, even though Scott didn't.

Opening Day!

Yesterday, as college basketball ended - - - baseball started! It was Opening Day! We are never without a sport to follow at this house. Opening Day is the most exciting of all though. I think it is so exciting because Scott counts it down and is such a THRILLED fan when baseball finally begins again. It's here until October. Baseball means cheering on the Red Sox and summer nights at the beautiful Bees stadium in Salt Lake City. For me (being pregnant all summer), it means "nasty nachos" (I really love them) at the stadium.

In the excitment of the day, Brielle and Scott wore their Red Sox shirts proudly to Kindermusic and everywhere else. I'm not sure anyone else realized it was Opening Day, but we sure did. Happy Opening Day to you and yours and Go Red Sox!

This is Brielle last year on Opening Day. How cute!
Brielle and Scott excited together that baseball is to begin for the year.
Brielle's Opening Day this year.
Scott and Brie on Opening Day.
( The photo shoot this year was MUCH more difficult than last year. Actually it was a joke. I'll post pictures of that later. Too many distractions now.)