Germany Day5

Chloe heading out for her last day of site seeing in Germany.

Chloe with Doug and Dylan. I love this picture. Look how tall Dylan has gotten. This is in Offenburg.

Chloe helping push her stroller to Petite France in Stausburg.

Petite France. It was amazing.

The church in Stausburg. It was amazing. It was called Notre Dame of Strausburg. There was a memorial inside to US soldiers for helping save it. Chloe was so tired at this point. A week of no naps and only 10hrs of sleep had really caught up with her. She was ready to head home. It was a great time.

Germany Day 4

On the 4th day Dylan's Oma and Opa took us on a great tour of the Black Forest. Here we hiked down along some waterfalls. It was raining a bit. I carried Chloe down (she is hiding behind me) and Doug got to carry her up. It was really steap so glad he got the way up :). In the red jacket is Dylan's host mom, Renate. To her right is her son Dennis and to her left is her mother in law, Oma (Annie).

They packed the back of the car with pretzels for everyone and drinks. So after we had toured the lake we went back to the cars and had a little picnic.

Dyland Chloe are working on blowing some dandelions. It was so dang cute.

Dylan carrying Chloe. We were walking part way around the lake that you will see in the next photo.

Dennis, Chloe and Dylan. Chloe really liked Dennis. When we would arrive at the house each morning she would yell out: Dennis. It was cute. Here they are sitting on the bow of the boat that took us around the lake. The lake was another lake that was formed during the ice age. It was gorgeous.

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, :)