London, day 2

The photos are up, the words will follow eventually. We are enjoying a laid-back Mother's Day.

Ok, I'm back to update this post. We've been having many adventures that will be recalled in future posts, I'm sure.

We became pretty comfortable with the Underground while we were there. It was a fast and easy way to travel, though apparently it was quite boring for Zach. We had intentions of going back to the hotel for him to nap each afternoon, but it never quite worked out, and this was a familiar sight:


We also got really good at carrying the stroller up and down short flights of steps--pretty common in most of the stations. And taking the stroller on escalators, some of which were probably the longest I've ever seen.


Saturday morning we headed to Harrod's Department store. I'm not sure of all the history behind this place, but it's been around for a really long time and is so huge that we got lost and couldn't find our way out.

While in the store we visited the toy section, where Zach took a liking to the remote control cars. Go figure.

By the time we found our way out, Zach was asleep. It was nice when that happened, but it never lasted for too long.

We couldn't resist a phone booth photo. I don't know if Zach approved.

Lunch was at Hard Rock Cafe. Good food, but pretty crowded as expected. Zach now appreciates the crayons that come with kids' menus.

Buckingham Palace. What can I say? It was big. They don't give tours this time of year, but I would like to go back and take one sometime. We had great weather and the London marathon was the next day, so there were lots of people around.

Right next to the palace is another large, beautiful park. Time to let the monkey RUN!

Saturday evening was our big planned event: going up in the London Eye and taking a river cruise.

The Eye was actually a lot more spacious than you would think...each capsule holds 25 people. We took turns chasing Zach and taking photos.

He is very interested in the cameras (always has been, because it's something with buttons), but now he likes to help take pictures and look at them after.

Spectacular views. Many, many photos taken of basically the same things just because it was so pretty.

We were so busy looking out the windows that we almost forgot to have someone take a photo of us together.


Daddy had to calm him down with puffs during the cruise because it was getting late and a bit chilly.

We saw some buildings during the cruise, but the best part were the bridges. Tower Bridge was the fanciest, by far, and London Bridge is rather plain.

The rest of the photos coming soon :)

London, day 1

We took a fun and exhausting trip to London a couple weeks ago, and here's the proof! No, really we took sooooo many pics that I'll have to split this up into at least 3 posts (and that's just the highlights).

One of my and Frank's favorite parts of the whole trip was the train ride. We bought first-class seats, which meant more room and food :) On the way there we were almost alone in our car, so we didn't have to worry when Zach got up and walked around. Frank claims that the train stop in Lille, France on the way there and back counts as him having visited that country (we can check it off the list), but don't think I'm letting him get away with it!


Zachary just loves those puffs. He also ate bread. Not very well-rounded, but at least he sat still for awhile.

The two hours on the train went by quickly, then we were in London!

We navigated the tube (the Underground) to a stop near our hotel and had to walk a few blocks.

We knew that even a Best Western would be a little different in Europe. Little was the word for it.

We were staying close to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, so after resting for a bit we went back out to explore. This is one of the entrances to the park, and the panorama in the last post was taken later in the weekend from inside that pavillion.

We sought out the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground because Zach was just dying to get out of the stroller. Little did we know, though we should have guessed, that this would become a recurring theme of the weekend. We didn't stay long, because there were like a million kids there, and most of the equipment was in sandpits, but he did get to play some.

We took a lot of photos in the parks we visited in London--so beautiful! We ate near our hotel, then went back and put Zach to bed, not minding the early curfew one bit :)

Experimenting with Blogger

Just wanted to see how big this panorama would show up in the blog. I made it in photoshop from a bunch of photos I took of Hyde Park in London.

See our little tyke slide

Wow, two posts in one day... I forgot that I've been wanting to show you this short video of Zach on the slide at playgroup. It has quickly become one of his favorite things there, and he can almost get all the way up and back down by himself.

Documenting this pregnancy

With yet-to-be-born Zach, we took belly photos nearly every week, in front of a white door in our apartment. It was the only blank space we really had, and it seemed to work. Occasionally I was disappointed by shots out of focus, or a big shadow behind me and my growing belly, but I had many more things to be concerned with at that point.

Now, this second time around, I don't have quite as much to do, and I know more about photography. We started out pretty much the same, picking a blank spot in the house and shooting away. But the results just aren't doin' it for me. Such as this one at the six-week mark:

So we've been trying to take advantage of nature and light to take my belly pictures. And no, I'm not lifting my shirt up outdoors, but I am much happier with the results. Here are the photos from the last two weeks (13 and 14)-one at a park in Brussels and one in our backyard.

I'm happy to have the spring and summer weather and the backdrop of some travels to look forward to...we should have a pretty interesting collection of belly photos by the end!

Eventful yesterday

First of all, the most exciting event yesterday was the birth of Jen and Andy's twins! They were delivered by C-section at 12:24/25 pm, Maggie first at 4.5 lb. and 17 inches, and Ben weighing 5.5 lb. and 18 inches. Last we were updated they are spending time in the special care nursery, but everyone is doing fine. I'm sure pictures will be up on Jen's blog soon!

We had a day of errands, but we ended up taking lots of photos, so I thought I'd post some.

We had a bunch of things to do at the garrison. First was Zach's haircut. I had trimmed the front once since his cut in January, but it was difficult and the back was getting really long.


After the haircut we had to wait a bit for the food court to open, so we enjoyed the sunshine and the 70-degree weather. A couple of kids had fun running around with Zach.


Our lunch was messy, messy (well, just for Zach) pizza.


After lunch we looked around the consignment shop at the garrison, and bought a few clothing items, a pregnancy yoga DVD, and a Fisher-Price popper for Zach. Here he is this morning in the new pjs.

Our last stop was the shoppette for a few groceries, mainly milk since we go through so much. I bought a Germany travel book--so excited for our upcoming trip with the Paulicks!

Zach napped when we got home, and I was able to catch Jen on Skype before she left for the hospital. She had seen her doctor the day before and they had scheduled the delivery, so she had the evening to prepare and finish packing. Lucky duck! You can read more about it in her recent blog post.

After dinner we took a walk around our neighborhood. I wanted to practice for another photography class I'm taking. Zach enjoyed running around some more.

When we got home Jen called from the hospital and told us all about the babies. We are traveling to see them soon and I can't wait!

Me and the baby

At 12 weeks and three days of pregnancy, here's your first glimse at the new little one.

We don't know if this is a boy or girl, but we do know that little baby is very active! We got to see lots of arm and leg movement and just general squirminess on the monitor during the ultrasound. We also saw the heart beating (and heard it-160 bpm), the brain, and the spine. Everything is looking very normal.

They gave us half a dozen pictures, but only a couple are easy to see:


This one is a closeup of the head:


And this one looks kinda like a skull and crossbones to me, but I think it is the head in the bottom right, the arms up to the head, and the big blob is part of the body. But don't hold me to it.


As for me, I found some decently flattering new maternity jeans, so I thought it was about time to put a photo up: