Kayleigh and Taylor caught on video

I didn't tell Nick and Robyn about this video because I didn't want to get the girls in trouble. Since it's been a couple of days and we're far away, this is what I caught the girls doing before we left on Sunday.

Weekend with cousin Taylor

This weekend, aunt Val came over and we went to visit Nick, Robyn and Taylor. The girls had fun playing together. We got there on Friday in time for dinner. On Saturday morning, we went to an outdoor mall that also has some fountains that the kids can play in. Kayleigh and Taylor had a blast in the water, and it was a great way to keep cool in the hot sun. Unfortunately, there were also big kids running around in the area, and neither big kids nor small kids are good at looking out for each other, and Kayleigh collided with a boy. She was knocked down but bounced back like a trooper. Taylor was smart and stayed closer to us adults. On Sunday morning we went to church and after having pizza for lunch, Kayleigh, Valerie and I headed back home. Valerie spent the night and let me go to the doctor's office to get my gestational diabetes test done. It was so nice to be able to do it by myself since it takes an hour and would be a little torturous to do with Kayleigh.

Doctor's appointment

I had an appointment and ultrasound today. I was very nervous about my appointment because I had to take Kayleigh with me. If I have her for the appointment it's not a big deal since it doesn't take too long, but I had the ultrasound, too, and I didn't know if she could handle sitting in a chair the whole time. She was a PERFECT child! I was so proud of her and her behavior!! She sat in the chair playing with her magna-doodle, and got up once when it fell on the floor. When I asked her to climb back into the chair she did it without hesitation. The next time she got up was when the nurse turned the volume up so we could hear the heartbeat. Kayleigh was amazed by it and then for the next 5 minutes repeated over and over, "I hear baby brother!" It was very cute! When we got home, she called Erik at work to tell him. His voicemail picked up, but she doesn't know the difference and kept repeating the same phrase. He got a kick out of it.
Oh, and we double checked--we're definitely still having a boy!! :)

"Mommy, Ginger's on the floor!"

While I was making dinner in the kitchen last night, Kayleigh made that comment to me. That really wasn't a big surprise, because there are only a couple of other places Ginger could be. She then said something about wanting to be on the floor, too. If I had posted this last night I could have come up with the exact wording. Imagine the look on my face when I turned around to see Kayleigh lying on the floor next to Ginger! I begged her not to move so that I could get this picture. Thankfully, she cooperated.

Morning conversation

While I was upstairs with Kayleigh hanging out in her room before she was ready to get dressed in come downstairs, we had the following conversation:
Kayleigh: "Kayleigh's pretty!"
Me: "Yes you are!"
Kayleigh: "Mia's pretty!" (That's her cousin)
Me: "Yes, Mia is pretty, too! Is Mommy pretty?" (Why oh why did I ask this question?!?!)
Kayleigh: "Ummm...no"

I kept asking her until she finally said yes...And, in case you're wondering, Chat you're pretty and Grandma (mom), Kayleigh said you're pretty too. Kayleigh came up with Chat's name on her own, and then I kept going through girls that I hoped she would say were pretty until I figured she had said yes enough times that she would say yes for me, too!

Pictures of Kayleigh

Because I'm afraid that people are going to get mad if I don't put up some pictures of Kayleigh soon, here are a couple from our day at home yesterday. We were just playing around. The first picture is of her ponytail. Isn't it getting long???






















This next one is of her taking a bite of her muffin:


















Finally, look at how much she got in her mouth!

Vacation pictures

Here are a few of the pictures we took on our trip. I broke them up by city so if you don't want to look at them all at once, it'll be easier for you to come back to them.

Washington DC:

Amsterdam:

Munich day 1:

Munich day 2:

Prague:

Krakow and Auschwitz:

Warsaw and wedding:

Poland

We went to two different cities in Poland, Krakow and Warsaw. Krakow was a day trip, literally less than 12 hours. The main goal of going there was to see Auschwitz and it's sister camp, Berkinau. I really don't know how to describe our time in Auschwitz, other than amazing and awesome. I don't mean awesome in the "cool" way, either. It was just amazing that people lived through (and died in) such a terrible camp, and all because of their religious background. It was a gloomy day, which just gave it a more surreal feeling. I am SO glad that we went, and would recommend it to anyone traveling in that area of the world.

On to Warsaw and happier times! We got to Warsaw around 9 PM Friday and just relaxed on Saturday before the wedding. I think we would have done more on Saturday, but it was cold and rainy, and I just couldn't make myself go out and enjoy myself. I HATE cold weather, and I think our time that day once again made Erik realize that I will never be able to move up north with him! Of course, I'm sure it would have been better if I had more proper clothing, but don't remind Erik of that fact! :)

A Polish wedding is an all night affair. Let's start with the church where our friends, Matt and Karina, got married. It's a church that was built sometime during the 1300s, and on the weekends, it does nothing but weddings. Every 30 minutes, a new wedding party comes and goes. The entire ceremony was in Polish, except when Matt answered with a "yes". We kept teasing him later that he committed to something other than our American vows, but he doesn't care since they'll have to get married again here in the USA, and he'll understand the proceedings. (America doesn't recognize Polish marriages...Well, I'm sure they do, but not in this case. Trust me on that one if I've lost you.) Moving on...The ceremony was nice, and afterward, we walked a couple of blocks to an old fort for the reception. Polish weddings are "supposed to" last for 12 hours, so you know all of the Americans that showed up--if you tell them they have to stay and drink that long, they'll do it just to show that they can! Since this post is long enough already, I won't tell any embarrassing stories. I will say that it was uncomfortable sharing a unisex bathroom! There were 5 stalls, and sometimes open stalls were actually being used by a man who didn't think it necessary to close the door. We left the party around 3:30 and slept in until 11.

On Sunday, Karina's parents had a dinner in her hometown at a restaurant near their house. There were probably 30-40 people there, half who spoke Polish and the other half speaking English. The food was good, although another girl and I just split a pizza. Polish food didn't seem to sit very well with me. After dinner, we went to Karina's parents' house for a quick dessert and then our trip back to Warsaw. We got home around 11 and had to finish packing up for our trip home!!!

We were so thankful to have gotten to Tampa on time, especially after our flight being delayed in Warsaw and having to run to our connection in Denmark. We made the flight with minutes to spare. Unfortunately, our luggage didn't. On the plus side, it's being delivered to our house today! The bag only had dirty clothes and our toiletries, so it wasn't a huge deal. We had a couple of clean things at my parents' house, so we were safe. Kayleigh was excited to see us, much to our relief. I was afraid that she would be shy, but she came right up to us and said, "I miss you!" I still don't think that she fully understands that phrase, but we'll take what we can get!

Tuesday morning we drove home and were very excitedly greeted by our dogs. Ginger even tried to give Kayleigh a hug, which surprised her as much as it did us! Our lovely floors were covered with a layer of dog hair, so I swept up some so that I could take my shoes off and walk around comfortably. We were happy that Kayleigh took to her usual bedtime routine quickly. I knew she must have been tired when she started to tell me she wanted to go night-night. I think we're going to have to really work on the potty training again. She was doing really good for my parents, but after we got back, she didn't want to go on the potty. I know she can do it, and I'm not letting her off the hook that easily! Let's hope she gets back into the swing of things as easily as she adjusted to life with my parents.

Prague

Prague day 1 continued--After trying to decide what to do, Erik and I did not take a tour of Prague yesterday. We bought a book on Prague and did our own thing. I think it was a better idea because we could go at a slower pace and stop when I needed to. We saw one of the castles, walked across Charles Bridge, and ended the day with the fountain show that I wanted to see. I'm sure the show would have at least been more colorful had we done it later in the evening, but I was already tired, and it wasn't close to our hotel. The sun doesn't go down until later, and we went to the 8:00 show of the dancing fountain. I thought that it would be a big deal, but there were about 15 of us in the stadium. When we got back to our room, we decided to get room service for dinner. It was after 9, and I didn't want to have to walk anywhere else! I told Erik a couple of times that I wanted to cut my feet off and throw them away. I'm not used to all of this walking! Luckily my legs are fresh by morning and I'm ready to start over again.

Prague day 2--We walked to the Old Town Square this morning and watched one of the old clocks chime at the top of the hour. A rooster will crow and dancing saints come around the top of the clock. At 1:30 we caught a tour going to Kutna Hora. This is where they have a small chapel that is decorated with thousands of human bones. It's really weird and the guide told us that she doesn't like to be in there for long. You can tell that the people who lived however many years ago were much smaller than we are today because their skulls look like children's skulls. From there we went to the church of Saint Barbora. She is the saint of the coal miners and something else, I think. It was a really pretty church, and very ornately decorated. We also saw the Royal Mint that is still being used as the town hall, I believe. We saw a coin that was made in the 1200s! I can't believe someone kept a coin for that long! We are now back at the hotel using the internet, even though we have already checked out. Shhh!!!

In a couple of hours we will leave for Krakow. We'll take an overnight train there and walk around the city of Krakow, plus take a tour of Auschwitz. It will be a long day since we arrive at 6:30 AM and will take an afternoon train into Warsaw. Warsaw is our final destination. We'll go to Matt and Karina's wedding and get to relax some before heading back to the States on Monday.

We both say how much we miss Kayleigh, but we would not have been able to do as much as we have with her. We know she's in good hands and check on her every couple of days. Hopefully she'll be as excited to see us on Monday as well be to see her!

Munich and Prague

Munich Day 1--We took a day trip out to the Nueschwanstein Castle about 2 hours away from town. We thought that we could just walk right up to the place and book our tour, but it happened to be just the day that 2 schools had also booked tours. The guy at the office was very nice and offered to get us (and 6 other people) to the castle by train and still get us a guide. It saved us around $40 to book it that way, so we happily agreed to go by train. The hike up to the castle was supposed to be "steep for a little bit". By that, the guide meant to say that it was like trying to climb up the side of a mountain for 30+ minutes. I'm definitely not in the right shape for that, pregnant or not, but I would say trying to do it while somebody is taking up extra oxygen and much needed blood cells from my body didn't help my cause! We did make it to the castle and it was beautiful! We hiked along a bridge and saw a pretty waterfall where some people were swimming down below. The tour ended with an hour long bike ride. Instead of torturing myself any more, I let Erik go with the group and stayed at the cafe drinking a coke and reading a book. The hour went by quickly. We were exhausted when we got back to the hotel and crashed for the rest of the night.

Munich day 2--We spent today walking around the city. We ate lunch at Hofbrauhaus. I'm sure it's more exciting at night when all of the drinking happens. It was too much food for lunch, though. There is a little place where you can read about the history of the restaurant. I think if I had to do it again, I would walk through the place and eat lunch somewhere else. Oh well. It was an experience. We ended the afternoon in the English Garden. It's like Central park with lots of things to see. There is a place where people can surf in the river, but we never found them.

Train to Prague--We had to take a train to Prague this night. We were quite proud of ourselves for figuring out how to get here. We were nervous because it seemed like the train didn't go all the way to Prague. We were right, and about an hour or so into the trip, one of the train attendants finally told us that we would have to switch trains into Prague. When we got here, we didn't have a clue as to how to get tot he hotel. We asked a police officer who pointed us into the OPPOSITE direction of where we needed to go! After wandering around for at least 30 minutes, I found a nice looking group of Czech people who walked us all the way to our hotel. It did make us feel a little better that it wasn't easy for them to find either!

Prague day 1--We are going to go on a city tour today starting at 2. I'm too tired to try an all day tour, so this one should do me just fine. We hope that if we can find some places that we would like to check out some more, we can do that tomorrow. The other option is to go to Kutna Hora tomorrow for a day trip before our train will take us to Krakow, leaving at 9 PM.

Sunday in the Netherlands

Whew! What a weekend! I forget what day it is, but I'm told it's Sunday. We spent yesterday in Amsterdam. We had a busy, although late, day in Amsterdam. We got to the city later than we had hoped because of an accident on the highway. We started with a canal boat tour. It was neat to see the architecture and houses from the water. They were mostly built in the 1600s, and people still live in them now. We walked around after that and ended up in the Red Light District. I didn't even realize where we were until Patricia told me to look at the lights. It's very odd to see the women in almost nothing standing in the windows trying to find customers. I definitely don't agree with prostitution in any form, and it was hard for me to think about what these women are doing to their bodies. The actual place with the prostitutes is only 2 blocks, so it's not a huge part of the city. We did smell some marijuana once and saw a plant growing in a store window. You can buy seeds to make your own garden. I won't tell you if we did or not until after we make it through customs! :) We had lunch in the Red Light District. I had a traditional hamburger and french fries. I guess that's more American than Dutch...We took a trolley to Anne Frank's house. I wish I had re-read her biography before we came. It was really interesting to see how and where she lived.
Today we went with Martin to Zaan something. It's another city that is totally different than Amsterdam. The place we went has been made into a museum. You can see how they make wooden shoes and cheese, along with a few windmills and what was made inside of them. The houses were completely different than what we saw yesterday. It's crazy to think of how different things can be, even though the two cities are only about twenty minutes away from each other.
We will have some food before Martin takes us to the train station. We'll leave tonight for 2 days in Munich. Maybe Erik will let me update Tuesday night before we leave again, but I don't think I'll be around a computer too much too soon.
I'm still tired, but am more on this time. Erik is doing great with the time change. I didn't sleep real well last night, mostly because I kept thinking about everything we had done that day. My body was tired, but my mind was wide awake! We will have little couchettes tonight on the train. I think we might have a 4 or 6 person "room". Maybe not everyone will show up, and if they do, hopefully no one will snore!

Amsterdam--day 1

I doubt I'll be able to get on the computer too much during the trip, but we are staying with friends for the weekend, so I have a little time now before Erik and I go to bed. We arrived here at 7:05 AM (6 hours ahead of Eastern time), tired but ready to face the day. Our friend, Patricia, picked us up at the airport and brought us back to the town where she and her husband Martin live. We chatted for awhile, and then Erik and I decided that we needed to get a little nap in if we were going to make it through the rest of the day. It was around 10:30 AM, and I could hardly keep my eyes open. I felt like I couldn't focus on anything very well. We decided to sleep until 12:45 and then be up for the rest of the day.
After our nap we had sandwiches here at the house. Then we went for a walk downtown where we watched a demonstration on how they blow glass into vases. We felt so bad for one guy who had worked on his piece for at least 30 minutes, only to break it at the end. How frustrating! We would love to buy a little piece, but I'm afraid of lugging it around Europe.
Tomorrow we will tour Amsterdam. Yes, we will go to the Red Light District, but Patricia and Martin say that it's more played up in the States. We will be there during the day, so I'm sure it's much tamer than at night. We will also go to Anne Frank's house, as well as another old house that has been turned into a museum. We have plenty set up for tomorrow, but will start with a little bit of an easy morning. I think we'll just relax and make our way over to Amsterdam whenever we're ready. It's about an hour drive from here, give or take a few minutes.
On Sunday we'll go to where the windmills are and tour that area before Erik and I take our night train to Munich. I'll try to remember my camera tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to post any pictures until we get home. I forgot my camera this afternoon and was sad that I couldn't take pictures of what we saw.
If you have decided to check the blog, keep checking every couple of days. I will update when I can and will ask Erik to spring for me to buy computer time if necessary. Luckily I am a fast typer so it never takes long to post, especially if I don't put up pictures.
It's 10:30 PM here and the sun is just going down. Our room is dark, so hopefully we'll be able to go right to sleep. The sun comes up tomorrow at 5:21, so it could be an early morning!

Kayleigh and Mumble

Here is the picture everyone is asking about. I took a few of them together, but this is the best one, I think.