Our Journey to Germany

I have been prolonging this post because I feel like there is so much to say about this whole experience. We have almost been in Germany for 2 weeks now, and I feel like so much has happened! First, I am going to start with before we left! We went to the zoo a couple of days before and here is Matt as our tour guide:)
Carli (Tyson's girlfriend) with a little girl that she was babysitting for the weekend. Carli is an awesome girl, and just as I was getting to know her, we left! Hopefully they don't get married before we get back;)

Tanner and Colty:) I felt really sad when Colton had to leave all of his uncles. They Always makes him smile and give him all the attention in the world. It is so cute to see them with him!

Grandma and Colty! I think my mom has a special attatchment with Colty because she was there when he was born, and for the first 3 months of his life when Matt traveled. He loves his grandma and all the attention he gets of course!

Here began our journey. The night before we left we all sat down as a family and talked and cried (of course). I had mixed feelings about the whole thing, I guess I still didn't think it felt completely real that we were leaving. I was nervous about the plane ride with Colton because I have heard horror stories from everyone that has flown with a baby. So- the next morning we were off! The first flight was to Chicago (About 3 hours) Colton played for the first hour and then fell asleep in my arms for the rest of the flight. That wasn't the flight I was worried about. Our next flight was 8 hours long!! We got on the plane and Colton once again fell asleep and slept in this lovely bassinet that was provided for him for a couple of hours. It was soooo nice! We were in seats with a lot of leg room and the bassinet was right above our legs.

Anyway, then Colton woke up and ate and played and we decided to try something. We all had TV monitors right in front of us, so we put the headphones on him and let him watch for 45 minutes he sat there staring! I was amazed. Once he got a little bit fussy, we fed him and put him back in the bassinet for another 5 hour snooze until we landed. I don't think I could have asked for a better baby on this trip we were making across the country. The last flight we had was about an hour and he was the squirmiest on this one, but only because it was 3 am his time and I think he really just wanted to go to sleep (as did we). Anyway, we finally landed and someone picked us up and we got in the car and Colton fell right asleep, Matt fell right asleep and I just layed there looking at everything around me. Everyone was going soo fast down the autoban and I felt like I didn't want to miss anything. I was nervous, excited,and sad to be gone all at the same time!

Anyway, since that day SO much more has happened. We arrived at our apartment and Matt left quickly with the guy that drove us. He left me with no phone to contact him, No food and we hadn't eaten in forever, no money, and it was the middle of the night for me in a new world. I started balling laying there with Colton and he just kept looking at me smiling. I was soo grateful right then for my little baby who has been such a blessing in our liveS! Matt got home a couple of hours later with our new car and some money! Thank goodness. We went to the market (which you can walk to from our house) and tried to find something to eat, but it was harder than we thought! We figured out enough for the moment and decided to go to McDonalds which is down the road from us. It was about the same, but not exactly. One of the first things we noticed here is that they don't have water anywhere! No water fountains, no regular water at the store, anywhere! It is all bubbly water...so we searched everywhere and finally have found some normal water!

So- Sunday came around and we went to find our church. I was really excited to see what it was like and to meet some new people. We borrowed a GPS from someone and ended up driving around for 2 1/2 hours and NO CHURCH! The destination took us to a downtown street of a nearby city. Anyway, it was frustrating,and we began to question what we were doing here, why had we decided to come? It was a hard day for us. I think Iwas sad because I missed home and was SHOCKED at how different everything was/is. Matt hated seeing me upset and felt that it was his fault for bringing us here! I had emotions I hadn't felt before, although I moved across the country away from my family after high school, being in this country not able to speak to anyone where everything was different was on a whole new level. HOWEVER- we made it through that first week! Matt left for his training camp on Tuesday and that night I was supposed to have a phone but it didn't work so I layed here in the apartment alone and told myself if Icould make it through this week with no communication then everything would be fine! Well, sure enough the week went by quicker than I thought and I was able to meet some Awesome awesome people which I will talk more about later.

Here are a few pictures I have taken: This is Colty before Matt's first game this past weekend. He was in the Czech republic all week and we met up with him to go to his game and then he came home. I spiked his short hair and thought it looked soo cute!

At a friends house in the bean bag, which he loved!

It took him a few days to get used to his new bath (for some reason he was scared of it) and now he loves it again!

This is Sylke. Matt called her the Weissenfels Angel the first day we got here. SHe came to our house and took us to IKEA and helped us with everything! The week Matt was gone she cooked some amazing meals for me! I learned that German food is actually good if you know what to buy! She also showed me the "Ice Cafe" which is an ice cream shop basically in a garden--soo pretty! This is the only picture I got from it. They make their own homemade icecream and decorate it to look Really cool. MMmmmm...and since I am obsessed with ice-cream it was DIvINE!

Here is the river that runs through our town! I have been Walking Everywhere! We walked to the ice cafe and it took us an hour to get there, but I have plenty of time on my hands and might as well enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery!

I took this picture because I am fascinating by the way some of the buildings look. I wish I had an amazing camera so I could really capture what everything looks like!

This is from our apartment down to the town, the walkway.

Sylke pushing Colty:) He loves her already!

Before Matt left to his training camp we went to a basketball game where the German national team played Serbia!

The little family:)

He fell asleep even though it was SOOO loud in there! I think those first few days we all couldn't quite catch up!

Me and my baby:)

Colton met a Russian friend. One of Matt's teammates and his wife have a baby who is 5 months old. His wife speaks Russian and some German and even less English. She seems so nice, it is just so hard to communicate with the language barrier, but we try:)

So if you walk down the road a little ways from our apartment, there is a look out and it is such a beautiful view of Weissenfels!

All in all, I am starting to feel like this is home and obviously will be my home for 9 months! It is a beautiful town and the people are very friendly (or they seem if I know what they are saying) I think it will be a great experience for Matt and I. I think we never realized how much we needed each other until we are here and felt completely alone in the world. Anyway, I am thankful thaT I have him..and especially Colton on our journey!!