Traumland

After a long week of Miles being sick with bronchitis and a double ear infection, we decided to do something different and fun for him this weekend. We went to Traumland (which means dreamland in English). Half the fun was driving there. We drove through huge mountains where all the leaves were in the middle of changing and passed 2 castles. One of them was Lichtenstein, a castle we took my parents to a couple years ago.

Little did we know, this place was on the top of some huge mountain and it was only 40 degrees (according to our car and numb fingers). We were not dressed properly at all. Nevertheless, it was a great time and it was nice to take a long drive and see more of Germany.

At the top of a ferris wheel. Man, I hate heights.

They had all these little houses that represented the old fashioned- German fairy tails. Can you guess what this one is?

Another miniature house... the story is inside this time.

Piano Tribute Players

I have a newfound love for piano since discovering the piano tribute players. These guys have taken almost every song out there and remade it on the piano and it makes my ears melt. They've done everything from pop, country, Christian, rock...everything. I find myself listening to them every night while I do my math homework. They even re-did Katy Perry's stupid song California gurls and made it sound great.

Here's one of my fave's: How to Save a Life.

Ludwigsburg PumpkinFest 2010

We came back to the pumpkinfest this year to see what it was all about. This year: Marine life! It was pretty cool to see all the things they came up with.

Notice the sea turtles below the trees.

Wave surfer

Shopping for pumpkins. I ended up buying an assortment for a Euro each. I threw them al into a a glass bowl and made a centerpiece for the living room.

Beautiful gardens of Ludwigsburg palace. This is where I took the pictures of the flowers yesterday. A picture just can't give this place any justice.

Same bee...different picture. He was HUGE!

Happy

I'm enjoying the last few weeks of Germany's gorgeous flowers before Fall takes over. By the way... I took about 20 shots of that bee and ended up royally ticking him off. Perhaps too close for too long? He chased after me in a crowded garden. I made a complete fool of myself screaming and pushing people over to get away from his rage. At least I got my shot. :)

Sunflowers galore...

We've been doing a lot of bike riding lately and discovered a family farm flower patch. They have a drop box and ask for donations for picking flowers. This place was so neat (minus the bees). We picked our own little bouquet today! Sunflowers are my favorite so I was in luck. :)

This is the one!

Our bouquet!

Fun with snake

We went to the zoo the other day and what normally is a 20 minute drive turned into 2 hours. Miles did fantastic sitting all that time in his carseat though. No complaining or crying, just a happy Miles. So to reward him we took him to the gift shop and let him pick out a stuffed animal...a snake. Here's what our zoo day was like.

Hey we can strangle people with this thing!

including myself!

Or stick it in monkey's cages...

Look...a real snake

Let's crawl all over the zoo floor with our snake!

Our only snake-free picture

What's new.

We've finally adjusted to life back in Germany. Here is what we're up to these days.

5. Miles is now fully potty-trained. This is so nice and stressful all at the same time. It's great when we are home because I change no diapers anymore. Stressful when we're out because you have to pay to use the bathrooms in Europe. This can be difficult when Miles is not sure if he has to go or I KNOW he has to go and he won't admit it and we have limited change. Bathrooms are also few and far between. What to Germans do with little kids?? Oh that's right, they don't pro-create here.

4. School has started (for us). Brad is taking 2 full-time condensed classes and me part-time. Although my class feels like full time. I'm taking a math class (something I haven't taken and actually passed since highschool). However, I'm learning that math is actually kinda of fun if you take time to understand it. This is something I couldn't fathom my freshman year of college (with an old boyfriend sitting next to me.) That's probably why I flunked that one.

3. No German kindergarten for Miles. I'll probably kick myself for this 10 years down the road, but frankly I'm just not comfortable dropping him off in a foreign environment where I can't even communicate with the teacher if I needed to. The German's approach towards kids is just too much for me to swallow. (That's a whole other post). I've just heard one too many horror stories from my friends who have put their children in kindergarten. So instead...

2. I joined MOPS and enrolled Miles in gymnastics and kindermusik. That's 3 programs a week. We also still have our bi-monthly playgroup. That should be enough to help us survive our winter...right?

1. We booked a trip to London, England! We've been to London once for a total of 7 hours and saw the city through a speeding bus. Most of my pictures are of me and my camera reflecting off the bus window. It's really been the only place that I've been dying to see since before moving here! My aunt and uncle might be joining us as well so it will be a great time! We're going October 8-11. Crossing our fingers for no rain!