Week 7

This week was Spring Break for Connor so it was very busy. There was no way I was going to stay in our small room all day with all 3 kids so I had to plan lots of activities. Thank goodness the weather was beautiful!

This picture has nothing to do with our activities but I just had to put it on here. It's not even a very good picture but it's so sweet. Connor was being grumpy about something and pouting in the corner. Everyone was just ignoring him but Whitney went over and sat next to him to cheer him up. No one can resist her charm. So cute!



Here are some pictures of the famous water tower here in Mannheim. All this time we've been here and this was the first time that we actually went downtown.





Another day I decided to figure out the transportation system once and for all while Jeremy had the car at work. I finally figured out how to buy tickets (with a little help) and we all got on the train and went downtown. It was quite an experience. I was worried about getting on and off the train at the right places and being able to figure out when/where to catch a train back. But everything worked out perfectly. The best part? Pizza Hut!!! We were all incredibly thrilled to find a Pizza Hut.













Second best thing... Starbucks! :)



When we got home Jeremy surprised us with our van!!! I guess he knew it was coming all along but I had no idea. He said that he scratched the car so we went down to the garage to see the damage. I was totally surprised to see our van. OMG - it was SO wonderful to have our nice, big, beautiful van back! It makes it more difficult to drive on these small streets here but it is so nice when you have 3 kids in car seats!




The next day we drove our van to Heidelberg. This is the next bigger city close to Mannheim. This was our first time going here too. It's about 20 minutes away. We went to the Heidelberg Zoo. Lucky for you my camera ran out of batteries so we didn't take too many pictures. It is a smaller zoo, which was perfect. We spent about 6 hours there and had seen everything. It was really fun and perfect weather!











The next day we went to Ladenberg again, but this time Connor came with us. We decided to try a local German restaurant (which is always scary... especially with the kids). It turned out to be great! This was the restaurant:


















To end the week we went to Basel Switzerland. Basel was established in 44 BC. It is Switzerland's only port so it is pretty industrial. We stayed in what is called old town which is the oldest part of the city. Beautiful. It was only about 90minutes away from Mannheim so we thought it would be a safe, easy, first international trip..... and it was.

First we had to fill up. 53.37 Euro's (around $70) for half a tank (around 9 gallons)... Ugg!



Pictures of our hotel








Our hotel was right downtown so we were able to walk everywhere. We walked A LOT! The boys were troopers but ice cream breaks were mandatory.



We loved looking at all the little shops. This shop had all different kinds of Swiss Army Knives. Check out the HUGE knife in the middle. Yes, that's all one knife.





We thought this shop was funny because of the name. It is 46 letters long. All 1 word!



We "had" to get some Suisse chocolates!



The next day we drove to a small town about 30 minutes away and went Alpine Sledding. What an experience! The view was amazing and the sleds were really fun. These pictures just don't do justice to the absolute beauty we saw that day. It is a memory I know I will never forget!









I put more pictures of Switzerland in a slide show to save room. Thanks to Jeremy who planned everything. What a great trip!

Week 6

This week has been full of wonderful and terrible events. Starting with the wonderful... The weather has been beautiful! 70's every day and sunny!! Here are some pics of us enjoying the weather :)

This is the slide outside of McDonald's. It's 1.2 miles each way, but worth every step! :)



The back view of our boarding house





My Mom sent me a new baby leash since Whitney lost her first one. I had been looking everywhere here for a new one because it was soooo nice to have it. THANK YOU MOM!!!!!





Aiden was soooo impressed with these bugs because they were stuck together. He said "I know why they're stuck together... because one's the Dad and he wants to go to the bank and the other one's the Mom and she want to go to the grocery store". He carried them all the way home with us. Gross!



Connor dribbled his ball the whole way home!!



A nice guy from church brought this puzzle one day for the boys. Aiden was so proud when he put the whole puzzle together by himself.



I thought I would post some pics of some interesting things about the grocery stores here:



Shelf milk and shelf eggs: I still can't get use to the idea of them not being refrigerated. They even have colored eggs for Easter!





The dreaded laundry room....



I thought I would include a picture of the pop machine at our boarding house. If you notice you can get a (glass) bottle of soda for 1.50 Euro or a bottle of beer (bier) for 1.75 Euro. So funny!



The Easter Primary Activity





Now... the terrible:

As most of you know, we put Whitney back on the bottle for a couple of reasons. One, because of this big move. We thought it would make things easier (and it has!). Also, because right before we left we found out that she still has VUR and it's really important that she drinks a lot of water. She will drink anything out of a bottle! So... we let her have them again after completely weaning her from them. (Jeremy insists there is a third reason that has something to do with me not wanting my last baby to grow up.... he may be slightly right). I'm still glad that we have the bottles right now, but that's not the bad part.

Since we moved here I wanted a couple more bottles to have on hand. The store I went to on this day only had glass bottles but I thought that it was ok since this is the healthiest way to drink water, or any beverage, without the chemicals and toxins that plastic has. I bought 2 small glass bottles there. Well, on our walk Friday I had Whitney on the baby leash (which I LOVE!) so she could walk but I also brought the stroller for when she got tired. I grabbed the last clean bottle (one of the glass ones) on our way out and put it in the bottom of the stroller. During our walk Connor and Aiden started running down the hill in the wrong direction. I had to stop and turn to them to tell them to come back up the hill. While my back was turned Whitney found the glass bottle. As we started walking again she, of course, tripped and fell breaking the glass bottle and landing on it. As awful as it was, it could have been so, so, so much worse! The bottle did slice the palm of her hand though. She was bleeding a lot! I grabbed Aiden's coat and wrapped it around her hand. It wouldn't stop bleeding. I called Jeremy at work and realized I had the wrong number in my cell phone. I tried calling his boss and that number wasn't right either. I didn't have other numbers with me. So, with Whitney bleeding and screaming, both of the boys crying because they were worried about Whitney and pushing the stroller I eventually got all the kids back to the room so I could clean her wound. I was happy to see that she missed the major blood vessels in her wrist and she could still move her fingers. She cried so hard as I cleaned it that she wore herself out and fell asleep for 3 hours. By this time Jeremy finally came home with the car. When she woke up we dropped the boys off at the Primary activity and then went to the ER. The Doctor said that she did need stitches but that we waited too long and now she couldn't sew it up. Instead she had to put a splint on her to make sure the wound would stay closed and that bacteria would not get inside. Whitney was so brave even though her whole body was shaking. She would even say "Danke Shon" (Thank you) in between sobs to the Doctor and Nurse. I felt like the worst Mom in the world when the Doctor told me not to give her glass bottles! That was totally something that I would have normally predicted happening and should not have taken the glass bottle. I threw the other one away when we got home too. I'm sorry Whittie!! :(

My bandaging job



The splint



Saturday Jeremy stayed home with Whitney and I took the boys to Luisenpark in Mannheim. OMG! This park was crazy! It had everything there from a small petting zoo, aquarium, butterfly house to mini-cars, parks, boats, and the most beautiful flowers and lawns I've ever seen. It's know as one of the most beautiful parks in all of Europe. Instead of posting all my pics I thought I would try creating a slide show instead. Enjoy!