Europe Day 19/ Part 1

These pictures were actually taken last night.

Our bedtime routine has obviously been a little bit wonky since leaving home.

When we're away, we just "go with it."

Last night was precious!

Dinner,

Splashing Bathtime, 

Reading Books with Daddy, 

and lots of Snuggles!

"Just a second Daddy,  I'm not quite ready yet.

 I need a quick finger suck and ear tug first."

"Okay, now I'm ready."

"Night, Night, Mama."

Liam and I headed out bright and early this morning.

We walked a little over an hour (I thought it was only going to take 30 minutes)

to get to our destination.

Along the way, we passed:

The "Football" Stadium...

And this!

Liam and I have tickets to go on a tour tomorrow...

Recognize the building?

Does this help?

I was AMAZED at how beautiful the grounds were.

Are they called gounds...not sure... just go with it.

A while ago Clint and I saw a really cool excerpt on T.V. about how they make cars in the 

VW factory.

It was AWESOME!

I'm actually a little giddy to be able to see it first hand!

Clint's nerdy-ness is slowly rubbing off on me...

Oh, wait...I think I've always been a geek.

Yep, I have.

Anyway...

Clint, you can live vicariously though us.

You have to work so Liam and I can pay to do all this cool stuff.

We finally made it to our destination!

The Dresden Zoo!

I didn't think Liam's very first trip to the zoo would be in Germany of all places, 

but low and behold here we are.

He was super excited.

Can't you tell?

For the first hour, Baby Fin napped peacefully in the stroller while I snapped pictures of random animals. 

What the heck is this beast?!

It looked like a GIANT gopher!

I'm always amazed at how tall these guys are.

Especially when you see a zebra and think, 

"Wow, they are bigger than I thought."

Then they walk over to their giraffe friends and look puny!

Someone's got to do it...

Glad it's not me!

Until today, Liam only knew 2 animal sounds.

"woof" and "roaaaaaaar."

He ALWAYS woofs when he sees a dog.

Probably because of Lindi...

In his mind, everything else roars.

HAHA.

BUT...

Today, he learned that Monkeys go "ooo-ooo--ooo."

He made the noise at several different species, so I think he got it!

I'm so proud of him for learning new things :D

The elephants were being forced to take baths and were making quite a noise!

I couldn't tell if they liked it or not.

I actually jumped when we walked by and then saw a young girl come out of the building holding her ears and crying.

ooo-ooo-ooo!

More to come.

Again, too many pictures to download all at once.

And just think, you've seen maybe 5% of the pictures I've taken...

maybe...

Probably more like 2%

That would actually be an interesting statistic...

I think I'll figure it out tonight.

There I go with my nerdy-ness again.

Europe- Day 18

Fewf-ta!  

What a day!

It began bright and early at 6 am with a family breakfast, 

followed by MAJOR Daddy withdrawls from Liam (and me too)

(see earlier post), 

and then...

a 5 HOUR NAP!

Liam was acting EXHAUSTED at 9 am, so I laid him down for his morning snooze a little earlier than usual.

He didn't wake up until 2 p.m.

Wowza!

All this traveling may be catching up to our busy-body.

When he finally woke up,

we had lunch, 

played Pipe Cleaner Mustache Drop for an hour,

(I just named the game that Liam found so hilarious)

walked to the grocery store and back, 

then headed to Pirate Park.

I don't know the actual name of the park, 

so I took the liberty of naming it myself.

It is a park with "ship wreaked" toys and sand...

Seemed like an appropriate name to me.

I've seen this park from across the river during many of our river walks, and have been wanting to take Liam.

Today was perfect!

It was really our first summer feeling weather since we've been here.

It felt like it was around 80* today.

I'm not sure what the actual temp was.

Liam loved the sand...

...and of course we brought his new ball to play with!

Don't let the seriousness fool you.

He had a blast!

There were so many people out and about today!

Lot's of kids swimming in the river, 

people sunbathing, 

biking, 

people walking, 

playing at the park, 

it was a mad house!

Although we had fun at the park, 

there was a bit of a downer...

Most of the kids that were playing were quite a but older than Liam.

They weren't interested in playing with a baby.

Liam was a loner...

And he REALLY wanted to play...

...with someone other than mom...

It broke my heart a little that he was all alone...

actually A LOT!

He actually tried going towards the other kids, and they would run off.

Finally, another baby came!

Whoopee!

BUT...

the little guy tried picking up Liam's Da Boe, and his parents freaked out a little.

I tried to tell them it was okay, 

but they picked him up and carried him off...

So we were all alone again!

Oh well...

We had fun anyway.

Liam looking at the big kids wishing he could play too!

Liam overheats pretty easily.

he also is going through a phase where he refuses to wear hats of any kind,

So after about and hour we had to leave.

Many injuries were to follow:

Big bonk on the head, 

Fat, bloody lip, and 

a injured elbow and knee...

Needless-to-say, he was tired again!

We both celebrated when Daddy got home after a 12 hour work day.

One drawback to overseas work...

Long days!

Tomorrow is Zoo Day!

Should be lots of fun.

Ciao!

A Break from Travel Blogging

I can't believe how big this guy is getting!

(Photo:  First expereience with chocolate mousse)

Where has my baby gone and who is this toddler invading his body?!

I may need to start calling him "Toddler Fin," but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Maybe I'll start referring to him as Mr. Toddler...

...or Mr. T!

What is Mr. T up to these days?

Well, he is finally mastering the skill of walking.

He even seems to enjoy it now.

Whoa, hold the phone!

Spoken in the words of Clint:

Discovered walking in the US...

...Mastered walking in Germany.

Laim is still in love with Bananas...

Hands down, his favorite food.

He would be on a monkey diet if it were acceptable to me.

He had his first lolly pop (and LOVED IT) during the precursor to a meltdown on a Castle tour in Fussen, Germany...

I swore I'd never bribe my kid with candy...

We'll that really seemed to work out well :/

Pipe cleaners, and books with some sort of flap are amongst his favorite activities.

We've started working on fine motor skills using intentional activities and games.

 He seems to enjoy it a lot.

Liam prefers Lemon gelato to Chocolate...

Finally something that resembles his Mom instead of his Dad.

I knew there had to be SOMETHING ;)

He really is a happy, easy going guy.

A trait attributed by Dad.

I can be a worry wort and drama queen at times...Boo!

Liam is getting more curious about and proficient with silverware.

He still loves music and dancing.

While on our trip to Germany, Baby Fin is sharing a room with Mom and Dad.

Being the light sleeper he is 

(another Daddy trait), 

he wakes up with Clint at 6 a.m. every morning.

(and begrudgingly me as well)

The good part about it is we get to eat breakfast with Daddy before work.

However, this has also made Daddy's departures quite miserable.

As Clint gets ready to leave, 

Baby Fin crawls after his Daddy 

as fast as his little legs will take him, 

with arms outstretched, 

shouting whine/crying, "Dadddy, Da-Da,"

Buries his face in the floor,

(a bit dramatic...maybe he got that from me too...shoot!) 

and weeps until I can detract him with something really cool

like pipe cleaners or bananas!

Here's to the life of and 18-month-old.

Cheers!

Europe- Day 17/ Part 2

Alas...

Here's what we did after filling our bellies...

We decided to walk up the river to some of the museums.

However, we didn't go into any this time around...

We just looked at some cool architecture, people watched, 

and let Liam play in the grass for a while.

There were some really pretty ladies to the left of Liam, and he WOULD NOT take his eyes off them for a second to have his picture taken!!

One of ladies saw me struggling and walked behind me to try to get Baby Fin to look my way.

His eyes followed her the whole way,

so I snapped a picture quick!

I guess Liam has a thing for older women...

She was about 9.years-old..haha ;)

"oooo...how is this happening?!"

Clint and I took a picture in front of this fountain about a month after we got married.

I didn't think we'd be back 6 years later as a family of 3, 

but here we are :)

Liam "accidentally" stole this pamphlet from the church pictured below...

Confession:

I'm hoping they were free, because we didn't go back...

Liam is obsessed with the camera remote!  

I thought it would be genius having it for the trip, 

but every time we use it, he looks like this.

There are some amazing acoustics in the cathedrals. 

You can hear everyone trying to be all quiet and whispering...

Then there's Liam...

Letting out random squawks so he can hear the echo!

Bahahahaha! 

Loved the clouds today!

I bet this kid had at least 50 euro in his case...

Helps to be 10 years-old and cute as a button :)

"You don't want to mess with this."

We left Liam's Da Boe in Bayerisch Eisenstein by mistake, 

and have been looking for a replacement ever since.

THEY WERE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.

Finally, we found one that cost 3Xs as much as the first one...

YIKES...

Baby Fin agreed no to eat for a couple days to make up for the cost. 

*wink*

He was ONE HAPPY DUDE!

I need to find out what this sign says.

We headed back to the rose garden so Clint could check it out...

... and so Liam could get out and play.

Only way to get Liam to smile at the camera...

throw his Da Bow right before the click!

Liam giving his Da Boe a hug!

Liam SO badly wanted to play with this little boy, 

but the little boy was NOT interested.

After chasing the afore mentioned boy for about 20 minutes, 

Liam looked a little something like this...

We took the opportunity to go wine tasting :)

We finally made our way into the Fauenkirsche...

...and then back to the apartment.

It was a LONG, FUN Day.

Too bad the weekend is over.

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho

Back to work Clint Goes...

This week we are going to the Dresden Zoo, and to the "Pirate Park."

We will be headed back to the US on Friday.