Monday, July 12

I can't believe we have only 3 weekends remaining here in Germany before we fly back to Ohio!!!! How our time here has flown by (even when I am complaining about my 94 degree apartment - that was the temperature in my apartment on Saturday - yuck!!!). So, I'm sure there will be lots of pictures in the next 25 days (I know you are all surprised, lol!). We (or probably me to be more correct) voted to go to Disneyland Paris one last time - this is really my favorite vacation here in our time - I loved all the cities, but as a parent I love someplace that Brenna gets to pick what we do and is constantly entertained :-) We found Minnie twice at the park (I think it is great that she wanted to see Minnie this time over Mickey - we had her select which mouse she wanted to see first this time and she chose Minnie :-) - she did a great job with both and even wore here Minnie ears both times (she actually smiled great with all of the characters, but she unfortunetly didn't want any pictures with Dustin or I...). I made her this summer dress - it has dog paw prints all over, but it sure looks great with Minnie ears :-) The dress is a simple wrap dress - I was impressed that I made it from a German pattern (although I did make my own motifications as reading a German pattern is a pretty big challenge for me...)

The picture below makes me laugh - Brenna was being silly and moved toward the camera right before I took the picture - it just looks so cute to me :-)

Brenna's favorite ride - the teacups... My stomach is still recovering from Dustin and her spinning it so fast, lol!!!

Today, Brenna had her school field trip. It was a hot day for the hike in the woods, but I think the kids did pretty well. Brenna was probably the luckiest as both Dustin and I went and Dustin let her ride on his shoulders for a large portion of the walk. (o.k. - note to Americans, a short hike in German terms and my terms are two entirely different things - I know the kids can handle it, but it was still pretty challenging to have a group of 3 - 6 years hike for 2 1/2 hours in 90 degree heat - everyone was really ready for the ice cream treats at the end that is for sure!)

I loved the signs at the castle this morning (that was our meeting point) - the top is the name of the Castle - Burg Windeck and the bottom sign asks that you please keep your dog on the leash.

Brenna playing with sticks with one of her best friends right before the hike started (the kids played for about 2 hours before the hike - I'm sure most will sleep good tonight)...

the view of our town

the view of the castle - oh, finally, the walk is almost done. (We were lucky enough about 30 minutes from our cars to meet a group of men trimming trees in the woods - they gave a small group of parents (and kids) a ride back to the cars and then they came back for more kids. The teachers and I finished the whole walk rather than ride - it was my last opportunity to walk it and I'm glad that I got a chance to enjoy more of the views even in the heat.)

Uh, oh - the result of all this heat and so much hair - another hot spot on Justice and this time a cone on his head - poor guy. I had hoped he would stay cooler at the kennel - but I know he misses us when we are gone (not sure what his biggest cause of hot spots is - I do think he digs more at himself when he is bored or anxious, but I'm sure all the hair and heat don't help him out).

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! Things are still hot, hot, hot here. Tomorrow looks to be promising for some cooler weather, but it looks like Wednesday will heat right back up again (they are predicting almost 100 degrees) :-(

Yesterday, we all enjoyed a very enjoyable day at Disneyland Paris. Brenna was great all day - behaved well on the train ride, in all the lines, and loved all the characters. The characters (especially the princesses) amaze me always with their language skills - we stood in line for an hour to see a princess (Belle) and watching the princesses, I think they talked with all of the kids and I know that there was french, spanish, and english in the line. The photographer at the princesses even gave Brenna a front of the line pass for the next photo line (those things are awesome - wish we would have had one to jump the line at the princesses!). So, after the princesses, we walked over to Woody's Roundup and found Minnie, Mickey, and Woody - awesome (especially with Brenna's pass even though there wasn't really a line...) I think we managed to slow Brenna down with some frozen treat breaks in the day, but it was still hot at the park (but not as horrible as I feared, especially when we found an airconditioned restraunt in Frontierland - can I move there until the heat wave ends???) We caught the English version of Playhouse Disney after seeing Minnie in the morning at Walt Disney Studios - Brenna just loved it (we only caught the French one last time). Here are a couple links to our video of her at the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfZMhLnRcJM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtshBcWfB5I

After lunch at Walt Disney Studios, we jumped back over to Disneyland Park to see the princesses and ride on the teacups (Brenna was our guide - can you tell??). We rode most of Brenna's favorite rides in the afternoon (although she chose not to ride the Carousel - I can hardly believe that happened!). We had a chance to ride on Dumbo (we missed it the other two times - although I still didn't ride it, my stomach was toasted by that point - Dustin and Brenna did me in at the teacups (or maybe the heat did it)).

We didn't get a chance to stay for the parade this trip, but Brenna didn't seem to mind (what a little trouper).

This morning we all went on Brenna's class field trip. It was a "small" hike through the woods. I am impressed with how well all the kids did hiking - I think today's walk was long for the adults in this heat, let alone the small kids (although I can't say the hike was really that much different than us spending all day out on Sunday at an amusement park - there were breaks and plenty of water was drank by all). The kids were all re-energized after their ice cream break at the end of the day, so I would say the walk was successful.

Well, I think that is about it for the last couple days. Hopefully, Justice will recover quickly so that we can enjoy our upcoming weekend travel (we are planning to take him with us this time).

Take Care!