Monday, May 11

Hello All!
Hope everyone had a great day :-) We had German class this morning and then a pretty quiet afternoon. It rained some this morning - looks like the future forecast for here has rain in it every day :-( Hopefully, we will still be able to get out and explore some - at least it makes it easy to search for snails, lol!

We got out for a nice long walk this afternoon after Brenna's nap - the weather was nice and warm - we were all warmed up by the time we got back to the apartment.

Mom and Brenna made some light catchers today - mom made several during Brenna's nap - she was very excited to see them when she woke up.

Here are a couple more flower pictures from yesterday - the Gerbera daisy was from our mother's day bouquet :-)

Take Care!

PS - Happy birthday Joanna - hope you have a great day!

Sunday, May 10

Hello All!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all mother's out there today - hope you had as nice a day as I had :-) Dustin and Brenna gave me a very nice necklace that we got in France yesterday.

We drove to the lake at the top of the hill today - very nice to walk around it :-) The path was closed so we had to take a hike up to a service road (not good in the dress shoes I wore today, but at least no one slipped, tripped, or fell - o.k. - everyone was the most worried about me falling...hmmm). We found some cute souveniors for mom, and had fun looking at the stuff in the shop. We did a driving tour of Baden-Baden and Bühl (and looked at where our landlord has his vineyard - very nice and very large!). Our landlord was having a birthday celebration today, so we all went down to toast him (Brenna accidently got a big flower "bouquet" that she pulled off there plant - oops!). We will be trying a couple of the specialty wines we purchased (got to see what mom should take back home to dad!)

We continued our search for snails (not so much slugs) in our area - I found the biggest one so far - hope you enjoy the picture! Also, had to get a picture of Justice enjoying the search! I love

all the greenery here (look at all those ferns and moss) and the flowers - this one was from one of my favorite gardens in the area.

Well, that is it for today - I'm bushed from all our exercise this weekend!

Take Care!

Saturday, May 9

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. We went to Strasbourg, France today. It was a very enjoyable day and the weather was very sunny and warm (I think I got a little too much sun when we sat outside for lunch). We went in the Cathedral there - the glass windows were very pretty - they are very serious about everyone being quiet though - heard "Shhh" lots of times (luckily not directed to Brenna - she was really, really good - I think I was louder in there than she was!). We bought Brenna an ice cream cone which they made into a rose - almost tried to take a picture - but decided the "fight" wouldn't be worth it (all the stuff in our arms, lots of beggers) - much better just to enjoy it. Almost wish I would have had Justice to keep the beggers away from us...

Brenna and mom road on a double decker merry-go-round - first one of those I have ever seen.

Yesterday, after the rain storm we saw the local neighborhood "Snail party" - more snails than I have ever seen (I'm sure there were over 100) - Brenna loved them. Not sure how many times we heard "He's so cute!", but man can her and Dustin spot them all! It helped Brenna keep moving on the walk to look for the next ones. We had to come home and look some information up on snails on Wipekedia - pretty interesting for our area - I didn't know that slugs are pretty much the same as snails, but without shells (which is interesting from the "eww" reaction to the "He's so cute!"). I only saw one snail on my walk this morning, but he was the biggest one out of all the ones we saw - guess I needed Dustin and Brenna's help to spot them (only slugs this morning). I found myself watching my feet for most of the walk though as I really didn't want to be smushing the slugs (or stepping on any "cute" snails).

Mom and I picked out some pretty Gerbera Daisies this morning - we have a very pretty bouquet here (my other flowers bit the dust - glad to dress up the apartment with fresh new ones :-)

I got to pick out my own mother's day gift today in France - maybe we will get a picture tomorrow - it is a very pretty necklace :-) Hope you enjoy Brenna and mom's necklace project from yesterday.

Take Care!

Friday, May 8

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. We are very excited to have my mom here - Brenna didn't want to let her go yesterday - latched on at the airport and wasn't ready to let go from her stroller or when it was nap time. She was very excited that we made a welcome sign before going to the airport and carried it in with her. My mom said the flight was good and pretty empty which I'm sure made traveling somewhat more comfortable - she had the window seat and the aisle seat so I'm sure that was nice :-)

We went out for a long walk yesterday - Brenna fell asleep in her stroller (which didn't make for a real happy camper the rest of the afternoon). We found some very pretty flowers at the park (someone else had already picked and left) - Brenna thought they were very neat :-) Dustin has a ton going on at work, so even though he is back from his travels, we haven't seen each other much - just the time in the car yesterday :-(

We are hoping to go to France tomorrow and Baden-Baden on Sunday - unfortunately, it is calling for rain all weekend. Brenna was very excited with the art project work my mom brought - they got into the water paints yesterday (and today too) and made necklaces this morning. Hopefully, the "girls" will let me get some pictures of there fun soon! We all did some yoga this morning - Brenna loved it :-) (although, her flexibility gives her an advantage with a lot of those movements - mom and I were lagging behind on some!)

Hope you enjoy our park flower pictures!

Take Care!

Wednesday, May 6

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there! I can always tell when Dustin is gone and Brenna (o.k., me) are getting a little "crazy" in the house. Yesterday, we made a "fat-free, calorie free cupcake" (o.k., it is a towel hanger) - good...Today, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo (oops - day late, at least Brenna doesn't care yet) we made Sopapillas (We've watched too much Handy Manny here!) - yummy!! We sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar (and two with powdered sugar) - Brenna loved just licking off the sugar (go figure) - although she liked them well enough too! I was surprised how easy these were to make, although my choice of sunflower oil probably not so good... They still tasted quite good though! Gotta love All-Recipes (have you went there yet - if you are ever in need of a good recipe, they are bound to have one!). Brenna didn't want to have her picture taken with our creation - she did quite well with sifting the flour - but there is so little in these, that was about all she could do (can you see the missing spots where we ate two of our creations??)....I'm sure if we make these in the future we will try to have her roll them into the balls...

My mom comes tomorrow - yeah!! Can't wait to see her! Wonder if any of the Sopapillas will be left or if Dustin will eat them all when he gets home, lol :-)

Take Care!

Monday, May 4

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. We had a very nice weekend - weather was great and we were able to just relax for the most part. We went to the farmer's market on Saturday morning in Bühl - I was able to talk Dustin into getting me two very nice bouquets with bright pink and orange flowers (o.k., it didn't take much - "Hey can we get some flowers today?" "Sure")... It is nice that they are not too expensive - hopefully we can keep our apartment brightened with these all summer :-)

I took the dog for several long walks over the weekend - boy am I tired...I was going to get him one additional long walk this morning before Dustin left for work, but just couldn't talk myself out of bed. Hopefully, Brenna will enjoy some outdoor walks in her stroller so that we can get some decent walks while Dustin is gone. We made the "mistake" of stopping for ice cream on our way home from yesterdays afternoon walk and Justice was a horribly behaved. He goes for so long on our walks just plodding along (ok - he prances, he loves the walks) that I forget sometimes how food motivated he is - my arm hurt by the time we got home...

Dustin is off for England today :-( Hopefully, the weather will be nice for the next few days, right now they are not calling for rain which is good.

Alexis - hope you had a great first communion - I enjoyed all the pictures your mom shared! I was thinking about you guys yesterday!

Take care!

Friday, May 1

Hello All!!

Wow - can you believe it is the first of May already?? How time keeps flying by. We got Justice out for 2 long walks today (one by myself this morning and one this afternoon as a family). He loves them and you can tell he is enjoying the increased activity with spring :-)

We rented Marley and Me off of iTunes today - it was cute. The best part was probably Brenna kissing away my tears at the end (and wiping them off with her t-shirt) - she can be so sweet sometimes (o.k., I think most of the time). She loved seeing all the dogs and anyone who has a dog (or large dog) can probably relate to some of the movie. Not sure I thought the language was all great for Brenna (hopefully we won't start hearing some of those words around the house)...

Dustin had the day off today - amazing that lots of Germans take today to be an outdoor day - lots of people walking and riding bikes (and today was a beautiful day for it).

Thought I would post some pictures from Brenna's camera today (and she took these shots) - the world according to Brenna :-)