Last Days in Germany - April 2011

Caleb having some lunch while in Heidelberg. 

Kleber

Downtown Kaiserslautern, De

The camera before the gate to Vogelweh ... always scared me ;)

Caleb's "oats" on the way to Sembach.

The road that leads to Sembach.

Deer in the field before th gate into Sembach.

The town of Sembach.

Trier Trip - April 24, 2011

We decided to make one last trip over to Trier since Caleb and I were both sick the first time we went. Trier is probably one of the prettiest cities in Germany and I was so excited to be returning for a better look. The drive over is so nice and relaxing. The majority of it is country side with farm fields full of cows grazing or flowers growing. Just a pleasure to look at and a nice break from the city. 

Just a glimpse of the vineyards that line the hills.

Love all the flowers that grow in the Spring. The fields were full of them on this trip. 

Once we got into the city we parked in one of the garages and walked downtown to the Porta Negra (Black Port). It's an old Roman port that's open for the public to walk through and has a small museum attached to the side. We ended up skipping the museum since we had walked through it once before and I didn't want to have to keep Caleb from touching every single thing. Instead, we hit the walkplatz to see some of this things we hadn't gotten to see the first time.

Caleb and Jensen sitting outside the Porta Negra

Loved this house.

Aaron and Caleb walking around the city.

We stopped for some lunch halfway through our day and Caleb got to chose so of course it was McDonald's. Aaron and the cashier had a slight misunderstanding and we ended up with 4 happy meals instead of the 4 piece chicken nugget happy meal Aaron thought he was asking for.

Caleb wasn't even sure what to do with all of them.

The boys were so good on the trip and we ended up getting to see all the big cathedrals and beautiful architecture I'd been hoping to see.

Aaron and Caleb outside of a huge bookstore downtown.

Roman Baths 

Such a beautiful cathedral.

BBQ time

Aaron has been dying to grill something, so last weekend we grabbed some meat at the commy and a few potatoes and hit the little covered area outside our building. Everything turned out great and it was nice to not have clean a million dishes afterward.

Aaron at his post

Handsome little man

Turns out Caleb really likes sour cream ... he ended up putting it all over his chicken as well as his potatoe. 

Nice end to our weekend.

Chicks and Eggs

Since it's been so nice out and Easter is just around the corner, I decided I'd try to get some Eastery pics of the boys. The only place I have to work with for the time being is housing. Hopefully we can take a drive this weekend and find a better location for some more.

This is about as close to holding Jensen as Caleb gets. He was not thrilled about him touching him and kept yelling "I"m stuck!".

Caleb was excited that I finally broke out the plastic eggs. He's been itching to get his hands on them since we bought them a couple weeks back.

Jensen was loving the grass and the weather

Spring has Sprung!!

It's finally feeling like Spring!! As much as I love snow during Christmas, I get tired of it quickly, so I've been dying for some green and pretty flowers around here. Caleb is defiantly enjoying the warmer weather since it means going to the park more and getting to run around outside.

The lilac bush outside our apartment building is starting to bloom and looks so pretty!! I'm going to miss it when we move.

Gartenschau

April 1st was opening day for Kaiserslautern's Gartenschau (garden show). I've been dying to take Caleb back since he was so little the last time we went. Along side the pretty flowers they have massive dinosaurs, most of which you can actually climb up and play on. Caleb loves dinos so I thought he would love getting to go and touch all of them and run around. Turns out he was more interested in smelling all the flowers and wasn't too fond of many of the dinos. We ended letting him play on the amazing little parks they have and walking the path that leads you past all the dinosaurs and eventually back around to the bridge that takes you back to the entrance/indoor Easter display. We grabbed some ice cream (probably Caleb's favorite part) before leaving and took a quik trip to the local zoo.

Jensen was so smiley that day and he loved sitting like a big boy in the stroller and being able to see everything.

Caleb was all about his ice cream. He was not very happy when Aaron tried "helping" to keep it from dripping by licking the sides, though he was pretty happy that the stick part had little hard candies for him to munch on when he was finished with the ice cream part.

Caleb and Aaron playing at the water part of the park.

Standing next to one of massive dinos. Caleb was a little intimidated by how big it was and it took him a while to actually walk over and touch it.

I love the parks at this place! I've never seen any like them.

Big Changes

I can now count on my fingers and toes how many days we have left in Germany. It's scary and exciting all at once. On one hand, I'm excited to be going home to see everyone and have all the convinces of the States back. On the other hand, I'm seriously going to miss Germany and all the wonderful friends I've made here. It's crazy to think we won't be coming back after our "vacation" back home but we plan on requesting it again in future.

This week we sign over our van and scramble to get rid of everything that we are not having packed and shipped to Georgia. I didn't think we had so much junk in our tiny apartment but I'm starting to see just how many useless things we've acquired over the last 2 and a half years. We've been busy sorting through papers and clothing, trying to figure out what we will need to keep with us and what can go in a box. We are still waiting on Jensen's passport and birth certificate to get here and I am hoping it gets here within the next couple days since my passport is also with it. Aaron is going to be busy clearing his company and turning in gear before we leave. It feels like we have tons to do and hardly any time in which to get it all done.

Aside from running around like crazy trying to get things around the house finished and still looking for a place in Ga I've been stressing about what in the world we would drive when we get back. We decided to sell the van since the tittle was never switched over and there are so many fees to switch it over, register it in New York, and then change that to Florida, and then find another car until the van is shipped that it's just not worth the money or the hassle. We searched the adds for cars and found nothing we really liked that was decent (or cheap) enough to get us from Tampa to Ft. Stewart. Lucky for us, Aaron's sisters had a car that was sitting unused due to a brake issue, which Aaron can fix with minimal work/money so we got it super cheap. It's a huge relief knowing that we have something waiting for us when we get back. Now we just have to focus on finding a house ...

This is what the car we are getting looks like. It's a 2000 Kia Sephia. Adorable and much better on gas than the van. Can't wait to get back and drive it!!

This is what we were told the interior looks like (obviously not as new and pretty but I'm still happy). We should be getting pictures of the car itself from my SIL soon.