Photos, photos and more photos!

I have finally updated some of our photo albums!  I have added a couple of new folders too.  There are finally some pictures of Hannah's 7th birthday celebration.  We had a couple friends over to help us break open a pinata and play games.  We also went on a trip to the Hagenbeck Zoo here in Hamburg and there are some fun pictures of us feeding animals.  Lastly, there are also some pictures of Heather's recent trip to Poland.   Check out the birthday girl to the right decorating a crown of jewels for her birthday!

Hallo!

Greetings from Deutchland!  Well, it has been a long couple of months, but I have finally found the time to sit down and go through some of the photos we have taken.  The pictures I have posted are from Ryan's camera - I have some on mine that haven't made it to the computer yet.  There are pictures from the two castles we visited (Heidelberg and Manderscheid) as well as Hannah's first day of school at ISH (International School of Hamburg).  Ryan and I also took a trip to Neuengamme which is a concentration camp located in Hamburg.  Also, I finally loaded some pics of our short trip to Chicago in July!

Hannah and Daddy at Heidelberg (notice the "just married" car in the background)

   

Hannah's first day of school.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our German adventures thus far!

Guten Tag!

Yahoo!  we have made it to Germany!  we have actually been here for almost a month but have had limited resources to communicate to the "outside" world.  this has been an interesting adventure (to say the least).  it has by far been the most stressful PCS yet, but we are still having lots of fun.  We moved out of our apartment house a little over a week ago and have been living on the floor of our new German house.  Our landlord was unwilling to push our move in date until we got our household goods.  fortunately we have some beds and plates.  We are expecting another week of bare necessity living and then our stuff should FINALLY get here!  We ( by we I mean Ryan) is also working on getting us internet, phone and tv service.  Things don't happen quickly in Deutchland!

At any rate, we have visited neat spots.  we have seen a large part of the country driving back and forth to Ramstein (about an 8 hour trip including pee and food breaks).  we have also visited Legoland in Denmark and another amusement park called Hansa park (which had the scariest roller coaster I have ever been on but Hannah thought was "totally awesome.") closer to our house.  This week we are going to tour a castle and visit another amusement park.  Next week is a big one - we have several orientations at Hannah's new school as well as our household goods delivery.  Can't wait to stop living like squatters!  I am having a hard time posting picks from this cell, but as soon as I can will start posting!

Tschus!

Lots going on

We are still wrapping things up in the Monterey area, but that doesn't mean that fun isn't being had!  So far during the month of June we have finished the 1st grade, sent our Household goods on its way, put our car on a boat, visited a Horse Ranch and lost tooth number 2.   I know, crazy!

June 8th was our last day of 1st grade...Hannah of course past with flying colors.  It was a fun school year and we are anxious to see what the International School of Hamburg has in store for us.  Here is a picture of Hannah and Ms. Uyeda on the last day of school.

We also had the opportunity to visit a friend at a ranch on Crazy Horse Road in Watsonville.  It was so much fun to visit the ranch and see all the horses.  Hannah got to feed some apples as well as take Justin for a ride on an ATV.  It was lots of fun.  Thanks Justin and Sharon for sharing your home with us, we had a great time!

Some new pics have been posted to the right of all the craziness!

The Beginning of the End...again!

As I write this, the movers are up stairs packing up the last of our Household Goods.  We will soon find ourselves en route to Germany.  What a fast tour!  However, we are all really excited to get over to Europe and do some exploring.  I have tons of pictures to share, but they are on a computer that is sitting in a "do not pack" pile.  So, I will share just a few of our last days here for now, but look for more later.  One is of Hannah and Daddy having a great time at the new "super park."  This probably has the tallest play structure I have ever seen.  The other is of a family that lives two doors down.  They are from the UAE and Hannah has become friends with all of the wonderful kids.  Muhammed is pictured with her.  One great thing about Monterey is the diversity.  There are so many different countries represented here and we have been blessed to get to know people from all over the world. Sometimes military life is hard, but it continues to provide us with such unique and life changing experiences.  Can't wait to see what Europe has in store for us!

Winter Fun!

After a great Christmas visiting our Chicagoland family and friends we came back to warmer weather and lots of fun.  Our first stop was ice skating!  Hannah has been begging to go ice skating for quite awhile.  Believe it or not, Monterey has a little outside rink (only open for a few short weeks) which we were able to practice our moves on.  She had tons of fun and wishes "we could go ice skating everyday!"

To celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr's. birthday we hit the slopes of Dodge Ridge.  It gave Mom and Dad the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the pain of snowboarding while it let Hannah get her first taste of skiing....and like riding a bike, it took her about 10 minutes to master it!  Take a look at the pics and movies (once I figure out how to post pics again)!