Obstacle Course

Sometimes, you just have to wonder if all the things that go wrong are just mere chance, if Murphy's Law is indeed a law or if there is a God with a twisted sense of humor.

Today I had to drive my sis-in-law and her 2 kids (ages 6 and 4) to the Detroit airport (for their 2-months trip to Hawaii). Since Henry had to go to work and then play with my brother and his friend at King's Island, I had to take Sophia and Alba with me on the trip. No prob! We're experienced long-trip travelers - what's 3 hours out and 3 hours back in one ride? Nothing really. Unless...

you already start off by leaving a bit later than you had planned, then start the car just to notice the battery is dead, and silently thanking the heavens that your husband is still home with his car, then taking off for Detroit, to have one of the kids start asking how much longer the ride is 30 minutes into the drive followed by some comments on how she's feeling sick and might throw up, then having your own kid in the very back start crying, and looking kind of sick, then missing an exit and getting lost for a while wasting more time, and making you run even later, then having to stop because your kid actually DID throw up, which now means you're basically out of wipes because you tried to clean up everything as quickly as possible, now moving on with your hands smelling like barf, and ohhhh, now you're stuck behind every slow driver in Ohio, and you can't pass because of constant traffic (we're not on the free-way yet, but still in back-country Ohio), then you finally make it to the free-way, hoping to make up some time, but then you hear more crying in the back, and a glance in the rear-mirror reveals that your kid is barfing AGAIN, and much more, so now you're out of clothes for kid as well, and all you've got to cover her with are her barfy pants and a jacket, and you can't stop to clean her up because you're trying to make it to the airport on time, so sis-in-law cleans her up unbuckled while you keep driving, and then the other kids start whining again (the movie isn't loud enough, when are we there, wanting music on/not wanting music on etc.), and then, you notice you're out of gas, so you pull over at the next gas station you can find, which happens to be in the middle of nowhere and whaddayaknow - they don't have any gas! Yes. None of the pumps have gas, so you're back on the road, and before you know it, you're missing the next gas station right by the free-way, and then you have to take the next one, which happens to be off the beaten path in some little town, but you make it, and you get gas, and when you ask where the exit for the airport is you find out it's the next one (yipee!!!!) and that you can take a shortcut by not getting back on the free-way but just keep driving on the road you're on, and then take a right turn. So, we go for the short cut, but when we turn right at the correct road...a train is stuck on the crossing, and we have to turn around, drive all the way back and take the free-way after all. At this point, I've pulled out my last strands of hair, but as we get on the free way and then promptly exit, it turns out we are only 2 minutes away from the airport. Which is great, because at this point Alba has also woken up and decided to make her justified hunger known by loud crying. Ahhhhhhh...

Anyway, we made it with 1.5 hours to spare, which I figured should be enough time. I hung out at the curb side drop-off for quite a while trying to clean up the car a bit. Then we took off, and stopped at a store to get some non-smelly clothes for Sophia, some wet-wipes, and also a nail clipper, since I somehow tore a nail while at the airport, and it was bleeding, and getting stuck on stuff, and driving me nuts. Alba got fed, and we were on our way to peace and tranquility and showers at home. We had no more problems other than the usual slow drivers, and Sophia's unchanged diaper leaking  majorly. When I pulled her out of her seat at home, the whole back of her pants was completely drenched. But alas, what's a bit of urine on top of lots of barf, right?

I think Sophia, Alba and I will go to bed early today.

Oh Canada!

 Me trying to take cool pictures of Niagara Falls

 Family shot

 A casual kiss by the waterfalls

 Me trying to take cool pictures of my sister Meike

 Bambi and Elephant at the CN Tower

 View of Toronto from the Ferry

 Sophia collecting rocks

 Sophia playing in the leaves

 Sophia playing in the water

 Another family shot

 "I love to see the Temple, I'm going there some day...to eat," as Sophia usually adds

Well, I guess this won't just be about Canada, but I had to choose a title, right? What have we been up to? My sister Meike was visiting us for 10 days or so, and therefore, I've been busy having fun/doing stuff versus wasting away in front of the computer. One of the things we did was finally get out to Toronto. It was nice to see a new country, have speed limits in km/h and walking on continuous sidewalks - we loved it. And Sophia very obligingly would also burst out on a regular basis the first words of the Canadian National Anthem "Oh Canada". We also got to eat nice food. Meike generously invited us to dinner in Toronto and we enjoyed some nice Moroccan food. Lovely. So, we had fun.

While Meike was here, we also threw Sophia a little birthday party. For the most part, it was just food, and a bunch of kids running around in our friend's backyard while I ate almost all of the little pizza pockets I had bought for the occasion. Sophia opted for the blueberry muffins I made her. But, there were also some presents, which Sophia by now understands are cool, and loves to open. I conveniently asked my friend if we could combine her son's b-day party with Sophia's. Very smart. She takes excellent pictures, and I was lucky to have her take some cute shots of Sophia.

Also, did I mention that little Miss Sophia is now 35 inches tall? That's tall - 90th percentile to be exact. They say that if you double your child's height at age 2, you'll get the height they'll be when fully grown. I don't know if that's true, but it would put Sophia at 5,10. Another elephant. Or giraffe rather, since I doubt she'll be as, urm, sturdy as her mom. Well, it wouldn't surprise me. I'm 5,9, Henry is 6,3 and everyone on his side is tall (women included). Sweet. No midget offspring for us.

Life is good. I don't know what else to say right now. I actually kind of hate the travel posts/up-date posts. I could mention that we've been having the lovliest weather - all the trees are in beautiful fall colors, the sun has been shining pretty much every day, and it's been in the 60s/70s almost every day as well. We keep trying to decide on what to call little Alba Zoë. Sophia started calling her Zoë Alba...I sometimes call her Alba, Henry is leaning towards Zoë again. Haha - what a mess. I keep worrying if everything is ok. I don't feel her move a lot yet, or rather I usually don't feel anything. Then I panick, but try to stay calm and reasonable. I couldn't even feel a thing with Sophia until about 23 weeks. And then even when I was farther along, I often didn't feel much. Probably because Sophia was being Sophia and just sitting tight in one spot, thinking, singing, reading, or something - anything but moving or making a mess. Maybe Alba Zoë is like that, too - mellow and sweet. I really, really can't wait until I can hold her in my arm, and we can all meet her. February still seems so far away.

The other thing I've been thinking about has been, urm, ...me. So exciting. I dug out my old journals a while ago. I used to be a really faithful journal writer pretty much from age 8 till the end of my mission. Then I quit. I still kept track of my life/feelings by keeping copies of letters and emails and all since then, but I haven't written in a journal. Anyway, so I dug out my old journals, from when I was 12-13. And then also read some from later on (like 19/20ish). It was rather telling to see one theme occur over and over and over and over and over again - no matter what my age. It seems that for as long as I can remember, I've longed for what I'd like to call 'deep connections'. I've always had friends. I also had a lot of fun. And a lot of drama. And teenage angst. And teenage stupidity. And a lot of fights. But amongst all of it, I kept longing for being deeply connected to others - to have 'true friends', people who know me inside out, etc. Whatever you want to call it. I realize not much has changed about that. I've always struggled with simple, somewhat shallow friendships. I don't mean to use 'shallow' in a derrogative way, but rather to indicate the lightness of the relationship. Instead, I think, I always want to be known, completely, and be able to be me, completely - while also knowing the other person in the same way. I simply don't enjoy relationships very much that don't seem to include much depth or connectedness - that are merely a result, maybe, of common hobbies or interests. 

So, I've been pondering my past, and been thinking about my future. I'm grateful for having found Henry. He's taken away so much of the lonliness I often felt when I felt surrounded by crowds of people, yet completely isolated because there was no real connection. But then again, I still long for those deep friendships now. Sometimes I miss the goofy nights I had with girlfriends, talking till the wee hours of the morning, or just sharing all the intimate, detailed pains and sorrows of our lives. Sometimes I enjoy the solitude of being out for a walk with Sophia, chasing my own thoughts, but often I desire to be connected to others. Weird? Maybe. At least, I'm glad to gain a better understanding of why I do some of the things I do. Doesn't it at least shed some light on why I write so much on my blog? :)

Florida Continued

On Monday, Henry started his contact lense seminar for which he came out to Florida, which was an all day (and evening) even. Therefore, Sophia and I were left to our own devices again. We had some storms coming in on Monday that cut our beach time short, and we instead ended up exploring St. Augustine, a city build in 1565 or so and supposedly the US's oldest city. It was actually a really neat little town, and it was fun to see some nice architecture and real history. :) Ok, it wasn't that exciting. But, it was really neat to see some seriously old buildings in the US. St. Augustine has a lot of Spanish influence, and it shows in the architecture, which made it quite lovely. I always start feeling at home in a place that has some of the European elements of architecture, and it's such a tragedy to me that most US city designs (and architecture in general) are, for the most part, just ugly. Sad. However, St. Augustine is pretty cute, and I loved walking through the streets with Sophia, eating ice-cream, enjoying the sunshine, smelling the ocean, and traveling back in time a little.

Sophia not only found this little chocolate store all by herself, she also ran into it all by herself. Then she stared at the chocolates for a looong time. Unlucky for her, mom refused to buy her any chocolates. But, big blue eyes get you far in life, and the nice lady at the counter ended up offering her some for free. Once she got some chocolate she walked out of the store, by herself, happy as one can be.

St. Augustine College

The streets of St. Augustine

Here you see the old city gate entryance, and then Castillo de San Marco, and some random old building that I thought looked pretty cool - clearly, my picture of it is not so cool

Cumberland Island

On Sunday we went to Cumberland Island, Georgia. We took a Ferry over to this beautiful, secluded little island. Cumberland Island used to have a few cotton plantations, but has since been abandoned, and turned into a national park. There's no traffic there (no cars), no roads, and actually no one living there either. Instead you get wild horses, amardillos, wild turkey, and the like. And beautiful, untouched, empty beaches. Unfortunately it was Sunday. So, Henry and I didn't swim, but we let Sophia have some fun - naked, of course. After all, I'm still from Europe. Anyway, here are some pictures of our excursion. If you click on them, I think you can see them bigger with the zoom or something. If not, you probably don't want to look that closely anyway.

These are the wild animals we saw - an amardillo, horses, some funny green lizard, and a turkey vulture

Cumberland Island Wilderness and Beach - in the second picture, you can see the beach through the trees. It's crazy to me how there was lichen, tarzan-like vines, brush and palm trees, and then the beach right in front of it. Beautiful!

At The Beach

Do you see a pattern here?

Of Course!

I think it would have been presumptious to think that Henry and I can just fly to Florida and actually have some nice, well-deserved (in my opinion) fun family time. It would just be too good to be true.

Well, don't get me wrong. I'm in Florida alright, at our hotel, and it's nice. It's just that Henry isn't here. The deal with his free flight was that an agency would book him on whatever was the cheapest for them, which happened to be a Delta flight. For me it was Southwest though, so we decided to fly seperately. No biggie we thought. We'll just meet up in Jacksonville. He was supposed to land one hour after me. But, by the time I landed in Jacksonville, he was barely leaving Columbus. The culprit - Delta Airlines. First his flight was delayed indefinitely because of bad weather in Atlanta, where he had to change flights. So, eventually he managed to get rebooked over Memphis. He made it to Memphis on time. But then the plane (the last one, naturally) couldn't leave because of technical problems. So, instead of landing here at 6.30pm, he may be here tomorrow at 11.40 am - if we're lucky. However, I doubt it since he has to fly to Chicago (from Memphis) and then from there to Jacksonville. Really?

Right now, to say that I'm p***** would be an understatement. I was so looking forward to having some play time tomorrow and Sunday, to hang out at the beach, to be together. Now we're not, and simply because Delta is so inept to manage to get a flight from Columbus to Jacksonville. It's ridiculous. And there are hardly any words for my frustration right now. Anyway, I guess I'll head back to my room and keep watching TV. I'm so glad I get to pay money for THIS! Argh. I understand when stuff like this happens with bigger flights, but a little 3-hour hop to Jacksonville shouldn't involve that much drama. Phhhhhhhh....I've really started hating to fly.

Winter Joys

Ahhhh, where is the time flying so fast? The last couple of weeks have gone way too fast for me. I feel like I haven't had a chance to sit down and take in the Christmas spirit, which makes me oh-so-sad and missing home. But, no time to dwell on that. Here is the quickest up-date what we've been up to. When I get to it, I'll post some pictures.

• Thanksgiving we had family at our house week we had family at our house
• The weekend after, we drove out to St. Louis for my bro-in-law's graduation, and helped them pack up their house (Henry helped more, but I carried out quite a few boxes, too:)
• Then Henry had finals all week
• On Dec. 11 I turned 32 - unfortunately, I hadn't reached my goal of being down to 175 lbs by then. At this point, I've just given up on the whole thing completely and try to just maintain. Unfortunately, since we've been so busy with...stuff, we didn't celebrate much, but we did go out for dinner to a very nice Mediterrainean restaurant.
• Dec. 12 we had our ward christmas party for our little 400+ member ward. Henry was in charge, and so we both ended up doing a lot to get all that set up. It turned out fine, even though I'm not a fan of the 'Christmas dinner gorge and leave' kind of party. I find it rather unfulfilling, but oh well.
• The next week, even though school was over, Henry had to see patients every day, for reasons I shall not disclose publicly, but we both felt very stressed. It wasn't much of a break.
• On Saturday morning we left for Texas (by car). We packed everything on Friday, and hopped into the car Saturday morning. Unfortunately, when we walked out at 6.30am Sat. morning, there was snow everywhere. Not a great start to a long roadtrip.
• Roadtrip continued bad when at mile 37 Henry tried to pass a truck, and kept losing his traction and sliding. At mile 45 Henry tried to move into the very left lane, lost traction again, kept sliding sideways until we were almost off the road. The sound strip saved us. At mile 48, while passing a truck, we almost got run off the road by that very truck...I guess he was sliding, or maybe he didn't see us. After all that we decided it was time for some extra prayers. We called Henry's parents, and told them to pray for us. The weather got a little better soon after, and once we were out of Ohio, the roads/weather were fine.
• We stopped in Kentucky and saw Abe Lincoln's birth place. There wasn't much to see, but the little visitor center had the finest public restrooms I've ever seen.
• We stayed the night in Nashville, Tennesse. Our hotel had an indoor pool we took advantage off, and all the comforts you'd expect from a Marriott (minus the Marriott price thanks to priceline.com). It was great. Oh, we also checked out the Opry Hotel gardens. Craziness.
• Sunday we took off to Birmingham, Alabama. We visited the Civil Rights Center in Birmingham, which was very well done, and worth seeing. It really made us think about a lot of things. Then we drove on to our hotel in Hattiesburg, Mississipi. Oh, I should mention that driving in Alabama was sure bliss. I was pretty convinced that no matter where in the US you drive, it's horrible. But Alabama was a great surprise. Not only where the roads in great condition, and the speed limit 70mph, but people actually moved back to the right lane after passing, moved out of your way when you were going faster, and...best of all, everyone was going 80mph on average anyway. Lovely. Alabama rocks. It also looked really pretty.
• Not much to report on Mississipi.
• Yesterday, we stopped in New Orleans. It was worth stopping, but I wouldn't want to live there. We had some gumbo and jambalaya, but passed on the muffaletta. Then we drove on to Houston, and got there late Monday night.
• I should mention that, once again, Sophia has been the perfect road trip baby. Whenever we would leave in the mornings she'd doze off for a 2-3 hour nap, and then for the rest of the drive she'd quietly and happily play in her car seat. Lucky. And all that while being sick, and having some nasty diapers we didn't even notice for hours.
• Today we took it easy, until I figured I need some things from the grocery store. Yikes. I will not leave the house again until Christmas is over. Everywhere was a mad house. Literally.

Now, I shall go and spend some time with family. I hope I'll get my Christmas letter posted before Christmas. If not, let me say one thing (or two): well...I don't have any good words right now. I just love Christmas so much. When I sing a lot of the religious Christmas songs, I feel like I'm singing what I feel in my heart all the time. Christ truly is the light of the world, and I love to think how much hope there is in my life because of him. I feel so blessed.

Old Salem

Well, last week when Henry had a few days off, and I was anxious for a little fun trip, we did NOT end up where I thought we would. I had a trip planned for Toronto/Michigan. But Henry wanted to go see family...again. So, we headed out to Henry's parents in Virginia, and went on a little day trip to North Carolina. We decided to see Old Salem, a 18th century town founded by the Moravians, in Winston-Salem. The weather was perfect with sunshine and temperatures in the low 70s. We particularly enjoyed a walk through an old Moravian cemetery. The Moravians were from Czechoslovakia, but I think there must have been a lot of German influence since they called this cemetery a 'Gottesacker' (God's Acre) and a lot of the graves had German names. Every grave had the same grave stone (because they believed wealth/poverty or status shouldn't matter in death), and all graves were sorted by gender and date of death. It was pretty cool, and we loved the serenity of this particular place. Anyway, even though the trip entailed a lot of driving, we had a good time, and also were glad to spend some more time with Henry's parents before they move out West.

Good News and Bad News

Nope, this is not about someone getting the Nobel Peace prize and that someone being Pres. Obama (and just in case you wondered, despite my liking the guy, I think this was a very undeserved prize).

This is about airlines. The good news? My sister just arrived for a visit from Switzerland.
The bad news? Up to this point, most American airlines still let you check your luggage for free on international flights (or at least transatlantic flights). Not anymore. Now you can check one bag for free, and a second one for only $50. Yeah. I'm thrilled. Seriously. This may seem insignificant to you. But considering that we are planning on traveling back and forth between the US and Germany for the rest of our lives, and for a big part of our lives with a bunch of kids, and not just for a 1-week stay, traveling with just one suitcase per person (oh wait, it's not only 1 suitcase, you're also limited to know more than 50 lbs per suitcase, which, trust me, is not a whole lot) is just not feasible. In other words, in most cases we will need 2 suitcases per person, which I guess means that from now on, we can add $100 to each ticket. I think seeing my family has just become a lot more expensive and complicated. Needless to say, I'll now be looking very closely at which airlines I'm flying with - chances are good that if I can help it, it will not be an American one.

The Northwest Trip

We're back. Yipee. We got back last night, and while we had a great trip, it's just nice to be back home in your own bed. But, let me jump right into the trip details. Here's our trip:
Last week, Wednesday, we flew into Portland Oregon. We stayed at a hotel, and then headed out towards Washington the next morning. As mentioned, we stopped in this tiny town on the way to Olympia to check out a practice, and got hi-jacked by the optometrist and his wife (more his wife) for several hours. It was kind of fun, but I don't think Winlock is for us. So, after hours there, and a free lunch on the optometrist, we drove up to Olympia. We stayed the night in Olympia, and enjoyed a beautiful drive the next morning around Olympia's little bay, and we enjoyed their farmer's market. It was pretty cool - all that fresh, yummy food. We loved it. Unfortunately we had to move on, and so we left driving out to Seattle. Seattle was cool, but we didn't like the surrounding towns we were checking out as much. However, we did go to Pike Place Market in Seattle, which was cool, saw lots of odd people, and had 3 crepes at this creperie Voila. Very tasty, too expensive, but still worth every penny. We stayed that night in Seattle, and then drove out to La Grande on Saturday. That was our longest drive, taking about 5-6 hours. We were glad we did it as it took us through all of central and some of eastern Washington to Eastern Oregon. It wasn't very pretty, but La Grande was actually a surprise and looked pretty green and foresty. Not what we expected. We stayed with friends who had just finished up at OSU Optometry and bought a practice out there. Henry was really eager to find out what the 'after life' could look like, and I think it gave us some good ideas. On Sunday we headed over to Portland. On the way, we stopped in Hood River for some food, and were suprised at how cool that little town seemed. We chatted a little with some guy we met in the Restaurant, who happens to be a science teacher across the river, and he totally sold the town to us. We'll definitely be looking onto Hood River. Portland was very beautiful, too. We stayed with friends of my sister-in-law, and they toured us around as well, fed us etc. Very nice. Monday we drove through Corvallis to Eugene. We were excited to see those cities, but actually didn't like them as much. Corvallis seemed really hippy, and we already knew Eugene was very...liberal. They just didn't look as impressive to us. Again, we stayed the night at one of my sis-in-laws friends house, which again was really nice. Tuesday was our last day, and we decided to head to Bend. Bend has been one of America's fastest growing cities in the last years, and supposedly has tons of great outdoors etc. It was a beautiful drive over there, through some beautiful forests and mountains, and lava country. Bend was really cool, too, but is a very touristy and 'hip' place. If we set up practice there (or bought rather) we'd probably do fine, but it was a little too 'cool' for us, and a little too remote from the bigger city and airport. We'll see. Again, we spent one more night with friends of my sis, which was great fun again. They told us more about the area of Portland they live in, and other nice areas to consider, and they fed us delicious home-made bread and jam. Awesome. We also walked around the Portland temple with Sophia, which was nice. Blablabla...so, there is our travel log.

Now here's the important part...what did we love and what did we not love:

The Pros of Oregon and Washington:
- beautiful scenery
- lots of great local produce
- great for gardening
- ocean, rivers, mountains
- cool major cities
- proximity from smaller towns to bigger towns
- very environmentally aware
- pretty bike-friendly
- major airports
- sufficient diversity
- lots of tasty foods (especially a lot of Thai and Indian cuisine)

The cons of Oregon and Washington:
- kind of far away from family
- SPEED LIMITS in Oregon (aweful!!!!)
- possibly a little too environmentally aware
- not that cheap for living
- traffic, especially around Seattle
- could be a tad warmer and sunnier in the Western part - but it's not a biggie
- Church possibly still too big for my taste

Result from our trip: We really really liked it out there, and it seems like it may just be the perfect place for us. Henry's sister in AZ really wants us out in AZ and we'd like to be closer to family, which is the major draw back about the Northwest, but we liked it sooo much and find so little things we like about AZ that there is a very good chance we'll end up in the Northwest instead of AZ. We will definitely be looking into places out there that are selling practices etc. We are also still checking out Austing TX in the winter. But, really, it's hard for me to still consider AZ. I really don't like it out there when I started thinking about it. It's a desert, very conservative, not that cheap to live in, and it doesn't have a lot of cultural things to offer (at least not where Henry's sister is), no major airport close by, not very diverse, and then still very Mormon-saturated. Basically, it has nothing of what we're looking for other than family...tough choices that we'll have to make. However, I think our inclination is to find the spot that's right for us, and not make it dependent on family because we don't want to move somewhere just for family and then end up hating the place.

Anyway, I was pretty camera-lazy during the trip, but here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Alive in Washington

Just in case anyone was wondering: We're alive. We flew out to Portland, Oregon on Wednesday night, and have been up in Washington State the last 2 days. Since Henry is waiting in our hotel room with 'dinner', I have to be quick. But, let me tell you this: It's absolutely beautiful here. I swear I feel like I'm in heaven. Our flight out here was pretty good. Sophia was really good for us, and on the second part of the flight we were able to have Sophia in her car seat on the plane. So nice! She just slept. On Thursday we made our way up from Portland towards Olympia and first stopped in Winlock - population 1200. Henry found on the AOA website a listing for an optometry practice for sale in a rural area in Washington and contaced the OD to see if we could see his practice etc. He said yes. When we got there, we got hi-jacked by Dr. Wong and his wife. Not only did we see the practice, but the whole (tiny) town, the Dr.'s house (personal bedroom and bathroom included), and the surrounding areas and they invited us for lunch. So, we spent a lot more time there than we were planning on. It was fun, but I don't know if I could go that 'rural'. It was seriously tiny. However, if you want to go rural this is the way to do it. Olympia, our next stop was only 45 minutes away, and Portland is only 1.5 hours away. Not bad for rural.

When we finally made it to Olympia, we thought we were in heaven. It's a beautiful city, and the area is just gorgeous. I am already feeling that it will be very very hard to find other places I'll find as lovely and beautiful. I keep thinking and feeling that the Northwest is where we belong. Anyway, we actually didn't see a whole lot on Thursday, because Sophia was burning up with a fever, and I was worried she had another ear infection. So, we took her to an Urgent Care. The ears are a little red, but nothing bad - yet. She was better today. Today we just drove around more in Olympia, and then drove around in the Seattle area. We liked Olympia the best for sure. But Seattle is also very cool, even though we saw some very 'unique' people and I didn't get to eat a crepe. Sophia, once again, has been an awesome baby. And even though she's not eaten much at all, I've done ok at not freaking out. Yeah for me.

Ok, dinner is waiting. So far we're just really loving Washington. Tomorrow we'll be heading towards La Grande, Oregon, and then on Sunday back towards Portland. Pictures and further reports when we're back on Wednesday.

I'm back...

from Chicago that is. I went to see my brother and wife with kids, which was fun. And I was going to take lots of pictures, and I even brought my camera to do it. But what do you know, when I pulled it out, and it wouldn't turn on, it turned out Henry had taken out the battery to charge it. No pictures. We had fun though, hanging out and it really made me want to do more to stay/be connected to my nieces and nephews. I really love them a lot, and realize how important it is to me to have a good relationship with them. I think my favorite thing of the trip was when I was sitting around the table for breakfast on Thursday morning with my 3 nephews and my niece, and I told each one of them things I remembered when they were babies (like Sophia - they were all over Sophia). They really loved hearing stuff about themselves, and how they were so loved, cute and special, and it made me wish that I had far more to tell than I did. Anyway, so it was fun to see them all, and to get to know my sis-in-law's aunts and uncles a little. On Friday, we went to Giordano's to have some Chicago-style pizza before I left for the drive home, and my brother and family left for the airport to fly back to Germany. Too bad I can't have hang out with my family more over here. :( Anyway, the trip was fun, and I should put in a little 'thank-you' here to my wonderful little Sophia, who was, once again, a true little saint in the car. I don't think it's easy for a 10-months old to sit patiently in the car for 6 hours. But she did. Thanks Sophia. I'm glad you're such a great travel buddy.

Speaking of Sophia, here are some more pictures of Sophia enjoying some food after 3 days of basically eating nothing but breast milk. She really didn't like the (nasty) jar food I brought for the trip, and so she didn't have much food to eat and choose from unfortunately (we were out in the middle of nowhere, with no store close by, and nothing really suitable in the fridge). She's been eating quite a bit since we've been back.

P.S. Click on the pictures for better quality viewing. :)