I honestly don't even know how to try and write about traveling for 26 days with two kids and seeing your husband after 7months, then having to say good bye and come home and deal with "normal" life again. So I'm going to try my best and give you all the high lights and of course there are a TON of pics to look at. Ready?...
Denmark was truly wonderful. It was go great to spend time with our relatives, all 3 generations of them. Zerrell loved meeting all of her cousins that are around her age. One cousin, Zenia, is Zerrell only Danish. They both started talking to eachother a mile a minute and then all of a sudden realized that they weren't speaking the same language, Zerrell turned to me just as Zenia was turning to her grandpa and they both said "i don't know what she is saying."
Bierta and John treated my kids like their own grand kids, whom they love and adore. Nothing my kids did shocked them, bothered them or made them mad. They just went along and respected all of their different moods, antics and silliness. And in return Harper and Zerrell feel in love with both of them. It rained almost the whole time we were there but it was a nice change from the drought in California.
On my 30th birthday we took a short plane trip to Berlin where we met Ted. I cant even express to you how wonderful it was to see, touch and be with him again. Zerrell wouldn't let him out of her sight and Harper couldn't believe that he was in front of him, as opposed to on a computer screen.
We spent the rest of the day just staring at eachother, it was like a dream that we were all finally together again.
I have to say that if it wasn't for my mom, we probably would have seen very little of Berlin and although there were some not so pleasant moments sight seeing with two small kids and mostly an exhausted mom(me), i am glad she was there to push us to see all we got to see.
We stayed at a wonderful house that had a 3 bedroom apartment up stairs, it was so nice to have all the space. it was in a suburb called Kladow. Each day we would make the almost mile walk to our bus stop to catch the 134 or the X34 into the many different areas of Berlin. We soon came to realize that Berlin is HUGE, it really is! id say its about the size of the whole bay area( san fransisco, oakland, berkely, marin, etc). Our house was about 2 blocks away from the water and we had a great view from our kitchen window. it was so nice to return to the quite peaceful, dark suburb after being i the bustling, noisy and bright city all day. it was truly a retreat.
So some of our high lights:
we went to starbucks alot. yes we are starbuck fans but it was mostly Ted who(poor guy) hasn't been in a REAL startbucks in 7 months, so it was wonderful to see him enjoy himself, although he was a bit disillusioned of "enjoying coffee and the newspaper" with two small energy filled children. I told him that one morning he could wake up early and go down to starbucks all by himself so he could enjoy his coffee and paper. He chose a sunday morning and got up at 8am and headed into Berlin, well like most of Europe Sundays are lazy days. Starbucks didn't open till 11am!!!!
Hot dogs! honestly, they are NOTHING like any hot dogs we have here, and they are so very very delicious. i miss them!
The wall, it was amazing to see parts that are still standing and the marker that runs throughout the city. the history behind it and the fact that it was as simple as a wall, that caused such conflict.
Harpers birthday, he turned 1 while we were there. we had a nice dinner with some friends of ted that are doing missionary work in Berlin and we found a small carrot cake for Harper to enjoy(1st birthday family tradition). he loved it!
Weihnachtsmarkt ( christmas market) Its a German tradition. Every little neighborhood has their own with all these little wooden booths selling crafts, foods, drinks and rides for kids. They were SO much fun, just eating ALL the different yummy food and sweets. we went several different times.
A BIG NON highlight:
The place we stayed had NO dryer! Yes you heard me right NO dryer, i guess alot of people in Germany don't have dryers ad with the cold weather it took almost 3 days to dry our clothes, talk about having to really plan, I still cant get over it.
Berlin was wonderful, the weather wasn't too bad and it was so great just all being together. I could tell you several more stories and if we get a chance to talk ill tell you more, but i am too exhausted to try and write about it all.
We have been having a difficult time since we have been home. The absence of ted is even more pronounced and Zerrell is really stuggling, as we all are. Please keep us in your prayers, most especially zerrell.
enjoy the pictures
