Grandma Is in town!!

Almost a week ago now, my mom flew to Germany--all by her self!! She hopped on the train in Frankfurt and stopped in a small town called WEimar, switched TRAINS and then ended up in Naumburg (About 15 minutes from us) where we picked her up. Before she came, she got everything situated with her phone so she would be able to use it here in Germany, HOWEVER, when she got here it didn't work. Matt, Colton, and I drove to Naumburg to get her, and a train pulled up about 3 minutes before hers (we thought it was hers) and NO Julie...I wanted to start crying, I knew what it felt like to land in another country and not be able to read signs/ talk to people, and I was sooo nervous that she was lost somewhere! Anyway--we asked a guy and he said, no her train will be here in 3 minutes (wow, they are on time here) Anyway, sure enough-3 minutes later, she arrived! Colton instantly went to her and has ever since. I always thought moving here would make him a mama and daddy's boy, but nope, he will go to just about anyone. Maybe he is sick of just seeing his mom and dad!

Anyway, it was like Christmas when we got back to our apartment!! She brought lots of new fun clothes for Colton and lots of toys, but for some reason her magazines seemed to be his favorite :)

The day after she got here, we went to the NOVA EVENTIS mall that is about 20 minutes away because it was rainy. SOoo..they have some great looking ice-cream, and she got to taste the Amazing Shokolade EIS for the first time, yes, she said it was the best she had ever tasted!!

One of the main stores around hear is named Chelsea-I've seen it in every mall. We had to snap a picture by it!

Look at this dang cute outfit my mom got. I love the waffle long sleeves from Children's place. She brought all 18 month old clothes, and they are a tiny big (how dad likes it), and will last!

CheeseR!!

My mom is loving how snuggly he has become..only at night!

So, Matt went out of town the morning after my mom got here, and so after our day of shopping we headed off to the Freiburg Temple. My mom (so nice of her) stayed in the nursery while I went in and did a session with the Albrechts! There were a few couples who spoke English who were working in the temple so that was nice. It had snowed where the temple was because the elevation is so much higher, kind of crazy.

So..after the temple, we went on the most Beautiful drive!! From Freiburg to Meissen, we drove on the skinniest rode--(Every time a card would pass, I basically had to pull over) BUT--it was the most beautiful country side, and we would pass through villages with gorgeous houses. Even though it had snowed so close by, everything was still green! They say it stays green all winter too. I wish I took more pictures of it all, but I was concentrating on driving!!

Because I am kind of from IDAHo? And my family is from IDaho--I took this picture of the Potato House! I really should have gone in, however!

After our beautiful tour, we ended up in Meissen, Germany. A cathedral in the center of town.

A small restaraunt we thought was cute!So, we began our hike to the Albrecht Castle in Meissen. We had to go visit it with the Albrecht's--Kind of cool. Anyway, we had 5 kids, 3 strollers, and we walked up and up and up (including carrying the strollers up stairs) for about 20-30 minutes. At last, we made it to the top! Look at this view. Wow, it was beautiful.

Here is the Albrecht castle. The view from the opposite side of the river was even more beautiful. We drove over there, but didn't get a picture. Just imagine, all of the red roofs, with the river, AND the castle. Amazing.

The castle was very cold. They said when they actually lived in the castles and used them, they had no glass on the windows, so it was freezing! Not the idea I had of living in a huge castle!

There was a room that they had just refinished the floor, we had to put on special slippers to go in there, it was very slippery, so we had a party sliding all over the floor, so did Colty.

By the way, about a week ago, Colton started crawling!! Woohoo..kind of funny, he has been scooting this whole time, and finally realized it was easier to crawl!

Ok...so Monday morning (After matt got home) we headed off to Berlin. He had a day and a half off, so we decided to stay up in Berlin to have more time for sightseeing. These are random, but this was in the mall's food court. What food court looks this amazing?? And EXPENSIVE!

Colton has once again been a TROOPER! We have been on the go, and he just hangs out in his stroller and enjoys all the action around him!

A cathedral in Berlin that had a bomb go straight through the middle of it, but is still standing right there in the middle of all the shopping. I love this picture!

A lovely fountain with basically non-clothed people! This girl was the most modest, so we snapped a picture of her!

KaDeWe..the largest shopping center in Europe (yep, we shopped for 2 days and still didn't see it all) Matt was thrilled :)

They did have a Niketown though!

I secretly really like Kobe.

So..after shopping for hours and hours, we were on our way back to the hotel and stopped in this lovely little Eis Cafe. They had soft couches to sit on, it was warm, and beautiful! And...delicious!

Matt did get saved about half way through the day when, Max, a friend of one of Matt's friends from Pocatello. Max was a foreign exchange student in Kansas a couple of years ago, and spoke English great. It was fun to be with him for the day because he has lived in Berlin his whole life, and knew quite a bit about everything.

Look at his Masterpiece!!

I know this is weird, but almost the greatest part of the day was in the hotel at night! 1) It felt like we were in America just a little 2) Colton absolutely loved the hotel room, and was crawling around exploring everything 3) Our bed didn't squeak and 4) After Colton fell asleep, Matt and I watched an AMerican MOvie..a NEW movie that is, we got to watch The Proposal, In english! I LOVED LOVED LOVED IT. I have been dying to see it, as well as many other movies that came out after we moved, and it was really fun to watch it. I know that is lame, but when you don't have those things, you want them so much more!

Colton in his Halloween PJ's my mom got for him..sooo cute!

The next morning, we got up and went to good old McDONALds! I know..lame, but I am going to be dramatic about this, those McGriddle's are soo soo good! And again, maybe it is because I haven't had pancakes since we got here, but Holy cow. They have the perfect amount of syrup in them, I ordered 4, and was going to feed Colton some but was feeling selfish to feed him any because I wanted to keep eating them. ANyway, this was kind of a rough looking picture, but we did just get up, and had walked a LOT the day before!

About to leave our wonderful hotel!

Okay, so on the way home I was a little sad. Basically, going to Berlin kind of felt like going to a New York City/ Atlanta/ Chicago for a day. I felt like I was in America! Every single person that we came in contact with spoke English, and good English. The shops all felt like American shops, and we watched an English movie. It was really a refreshing 2 days, thanks mom! However, as we were going 180 km (Matt flew the entire way, going between 100-110 MPH the whole way, WITH cars flying past us, and cops NOT caring) I was excited to get back to my little German town!

The past couple of days, we have relaxed a little bit more. We showed my mom Weissenfels (and both of us forgot our cameras) and have hung out playing with Colty. I took lots of pics..here are some of my little man!

He is getting way to brave standing on his own!

Polaroid

I thought these were kind of cool...now if I could figure out how to write on the bottom white part... anyone know how?

The simple life

I think every week that we are here in Germany, we like it more and more. I have never been very big into history (at all), but it is something Matt LOVES. ANyway, I am kind of starting to really really appreciate history and finding everything about Europe/German history is really fascinating. I also can not believe that we have been here for almost 2 months.
Once again-there are a lot of pictures, but this is my journal/scrapbook of living here!
Last week, we went to the bowling center in town, Matt's team was there to sign autographs, eat, and bowl :)

It happened to be his birthday the day before so Katrin brought a cake, and we all sang Happy Birthday!

Missy brought her baby Zeke out, so we all got to see them! He is soo cute, and has the longest toes and fingers-looks like another basketball player! Colton LOVES being around little babies, and he squeals in delight and can't stop smiling at them..it cracks me up!

Here is part of them team and some fans...

Me and Colty :)

So- I bought this outfit from Old Navy last year when he was first born-it is 12-18 months, thinking he would AT LEAST be able to wear it until he was a year. Nope- I put it on him for the first time last week and he will probably only be able to wear it a few more times-kind of sad.

I get so distracted at Matt's games to take any pictures, I have to make sure Colton isn't climbing up the stairs, grabbing someone's hair in front of us, throwing his toys at someone, and just make sure he is happy :) He loves watching up until about the 3rd-4th quarter and then he is about ready for bed! So- anyway, I did manage to take some pictures AFTER the game, but only a couple. Here is Alex, trying to be like Colton with his chubby cheeks

Colton and Daddy. It's so cool, after the game all of the players walk around the gym and give everyone high fives, so Colton and I patiently wait for Matt to make his way around to us, and as soon as Colton sees him, he starts flapping his arms and squealing- he LOVES his dad :)

My boys (I made them take a little photo-shoot together)

Colton in his new jacket that is also 12-18 months...and the sleeves aren't quite long enough!

Colty and I

Matt had a day off Monday, and usually we go see some place cool or do something, but since my mom is coming in a week and we will be doing plenty sight-seeing-and we had been going going going all weekend, we decided to just hang out. (Plus, Colton took 2- 3 hour naps- Wonderful:) So--anyway We decided to go for a walk- which turned into a 2 hour walk, through the park and in the woods (they have trails all over the place).

This nice little park is only a few minutes from our house, and Matt insisted that Colton tried out every toy. Soo- hE LOVES to hang on poles, I really don't know why, but he will NOT let go. It is so funny, last week, we went to a gym and he hung on the pole for a long time, so I had to show Matt his Strong son. Of course I was there waiting for him to fall!

Then there is this building next to the park, and we have yet to figure out what it is. One of these days we will try and go inside of it or something...maybe?

So- our walk turned into 2 hours because after we followed the trail down, down, down, we see these stairs and they didn't look so bad

But...after those stairs- we came up to these, and believe me-they went on forever! (with the stroller)

ANother one of my favorite houses here in town!

Even after Colton took his 2-3 hour naps, and slept for 12 hours the night before- this was him when he was awake-poor little guy!

Sylke and Christian came over to play games right before Colton went to bed, and he was still soo cuddly! He let Christian hold and cuddle with him which is very UNLIKE Colton. It was kind of cute and I had to capture it.

My mom is coming to visit us in a little over a week, and we are so excited! I can not wait to show her all of the amazing buildings/places we have seen, and for her to experience a little bit of the true German culture here in Weissenfels. I love that we are getting this opportunity because, unlike being a tourist, we are living the life of a German--kind of crazy!