Germany Day 3

Sorry this first picture is actuall from Day 2. We went up to a Castle and Chloe just loved the rocks as you can see by her happy dancing. Day 3: Dylan was actually with some family friends so we went with Niklas, Renate and Dennis to France to see some monkeys and a castle. No I am not joking. And yes we had a great time.

This was in the castle (Schloss Haut-Koenigsbourg). Doug and Niklas are playing with Chloe. The Castle was pretty amazing.

This was at the monkey place (Montagne des Signes). There was this mountain where they let these monkeys roam free within a huge compound and people walk through on a path. You can walk right up to the monkeys and you can feed them popcorn. It was pretty neat.

Chloe and I feeding the monkeys.

Chloe and Doug feeding the monkeys.

Germany Day 2

Sorry these pictures are all out of order. I will at least try and post the pictures according to the days to make it somewhat organized. On the first day we arrived in Germany we were able to meet up with Dylan when he got done with school and then we went to meet his host family. These pictures are all from the second day. Yes we did all of this in one day. The above picture is Doug and Chloe playing on a castle wall. We were able to eat a snack and have some coffee at the castle/mansion. Apparently some really rich guy had had the mansion built for himself and later it was turned into a hotel. Some very important guests had stayed at the hotel and Niklas (Dylan's Host Dad) had been there to provide security.

The next three pictures are of us making our way around a lake that was formed by ice during the Ice Age. There is a myth about mermaids and the lake but I didn't catch all of that. As you can see Dylan and Chloe wasted no time getting to know each other again. She sure does love her older brother.

In red is Renate, Dylan's Host Mom and in front of Doug and Chloe is one of Dylan's brothers, Dennis.

Doug and Dennis playing around. Chloe loved it.

This was the site of a Hurricane (yes hurricane) that struck the Black Forest. It is now a tourist stop and has trails you can walk on. This picture is of Dylan and Dennis standing on the roots of a tree that was destroyed in the hurricane.

This is all of us walking on the paths in the hurricane area. Chloe is in the pack.

The Play Structure

Well as most of you know Doug decided he needed to build Chloe's play structure from scratch. So here are some photos of his work. He isn't quite done but as you can see he has come a long way. It is pretty darn impressive. This first picture is where he began: with an isosceles triangle to support the end of the swing set portion.

This is the structure at the end of day one.

On day two he added a roof.

The slide started off attached to the platform, but when Chloe went flying off of it due to the steepness, well we had to work out a different plan, so now there is a second lower platform off to the side.

And this is what it looks like now. He added railings and the rock wall yesterday. He was building the rope ladder when I woke up this morning so, I imagine that is going up before he leaves. Pretty impressive.

Spring 09

Our little budding artist. Chloe definately had more fun playing with water than painting.

Chloe learning to drink her smoothie from her Chloe mug.

Yep, got to tip your head back.

Ahhhhh Freedom from the sippy cup, isn't life grand!!!!

Easter09

Chloe at her first Easter Egg Hunt. She really was quite happy with just one egg, that is after all, all that you need for a good shaker, ha/ha. She had a great time and got to sing songs with the Easter Bunny. Our good neighbor Miss Stephanie went with us, she is in the picture below. We had a great time.

No idea what Chloe and I are talking about here but, it must have been pretty important, :)

VT Feb 09

Echo Park

Bridget and Chloe

Chloe with Joe's Trucks

So Chloe and I headed to Vermont this winter to spend some time with Reyna and the kids while there were on a winter break. We had a great time. Chloe got to go ice skating, they wouldn't let her on the ice with just her shoes and the smallest skates they had were over double her size but that didn't stop us, we laced her into those puppies and got her out there. Her Aunt Reyna did most of the work and Chloe was demanding, she wasn't happy unless Reyna was going fast :0.

Chloe also got her first exposure to the snow, while she wasn't a fan of being bundled up she did seem to like playing in the snow. Not sure how much she liked the cold thing but, she isn't really used to that level of cold. At the top of the page you can see her playing in the snow with some of Joe's trucks, that was by far her favorite thing to do outside. The other picture is of Bridget giving her a ride on the sled. The other pictures are of Chloe and her cousins at Echo Park, where they got to play with a Water Table go on a Archaeological Dig and see a bunch of animals. Chloe made a point to wave and say Hi to as many of the animals as she could. It was really cute. Overall we had such a great time and Chloe just had a ball with her cousins. Bridget is awesome with her, she was constantly watching out for her and helping her with different tasks, it was great to watch. The three kids at night were hilarious in the bathtub for some reason Chloe thought it was hilarious to put her face in the water and then she stood up and yelled dance and of course her cousins obliged her with a good dance, it was hysterical, not sure where she gets her moves but she can booogy down with the best of them. I think Reyna and I had the best time watching the three of them.

Pensacola

At the beginning of February Chloe and I got to head over to Pensacola and visit the Brachers. Somehow I failed to get a picture of them with Chloe but, I can say that we had a great time. On a walk down to the beach we even saw a snake, thankfully a nice man willingly threw him off the trail for us. Sunday afternoon Mrs B, Chloe and I headed down to the park that Mr and Mrs B helped build and let Chloe have some fun playing on all of the equipment. The visit was too short but we will be back. On our way home we had a one day excursion to New Orleans where we met Doug and there too we had a great time. Chloe was a real sport about the crazy route home.