A HUGE THANK YOU!

We have to say a huge thank you to the Hughes Family. They were so incredibly good to us! We are so so so grateful for their generosity and hospitality. They are wonderful hosts. Teresa had a perfectly clean and organized house waiting for us when we arrived. She also went out every day sightseeing with us, even though she was alone with her three boys and she is 7 months pregnant. They let us use their car the whole time. That was HUGE. It saved us so much money. They had a very comfortable room for Scott and I and Brielle had her own room with a cozy crib and toys. They cooked delicious food for us. They took us everywhere we wanted to go. They always seemed excited about us being there. I know how hard it is to have visitors. Your daily routine is changed, you get tired out, it is expensive, etc. etc. We REALLY appreciate all they did for us.

Scott and I came up with our top ten favorite things about staying with the Hughes family:

1. It was about 2am. The whole house was asleep. I woke up to Jacob crying and yelling up the stairs to his mom. I heard him first so went down to see what was wrong. He cried to me that a monster had stolen his pillow. The story later changed to a lady bug stealing his pillow in the night.

2. Steven insisted on choosing his own clothes. Teresa let him as long as they weren't leaving the house. This was the outfit he wanted to wear so bad . . . much to Steve's dismay. The tights are German tights that the kids wear under their pants when it is cold. The wooden shoes were his souviner from Holland.

3. The boys all sing a lot. They had heard a country song that apparently stuck, because they all sang, "In heaven there is no beer. That's why we drink it here. So when I'm gone from here, all my friends will be drinking all my beer.".

4. We slept upstairs and Brie slept downstairs. I wanted to make sure to hear her if she woke up in the night so that she wouldn't wake everyone. There were several nights that I jumped out of bed because I heard her crying. I would go to check on her and she was sound asleep. We soon figured out that Steve's snoring sounds just like a baby crying.

5. Teresa and Steve had a much anticipated sushi night for us. I was so excited for this. They got out all the preparations and taught us how to assemble the California roll and then to roll it. It was SOOOOOOOOO good. Everything I had hoped for.

6. Jacob would always hold off going to the bathroom until it was an emergency. I don't know how many times I heard, "Mom, my pee is coming out." One time it really was, but it was poo. He pulled his pants down, bent over right in front of me and I had to witness him holding his poo in until Teresa rescued him.

7. The boys are definitely used to only being with brothers. They referred to Brielle as a "he" always. "He's laughing." "That's his toy." and "Where is his penis?" (They were watching me change a diaper on that one. We had a nice discussion on differences between boys and girls.)

8. The first thing Nathan said to me when we arrived to Germany was, "Your toe nails are beautiful!" He said it with such an impressed and amazed voice. They were painted red.

9. The boys say "I'm sorry" as an immediate response to anything they may have done. Scott walked into the kitchen and just said casually to Nathan, "What are you doing?". He immediately said, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

10. On our first day at Teresa's house she said, "You should know that Brielle will not leave here without getting hurt or bleeding at some point."

We LOVED staying at the Hughes house. They made us so comfortable. We liked just being at the house relaxing and hanging out with them. They were fun and helped us to have a fabulous vacation to Germany. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We love you.