Ahhh...back in Wimberley

Amelia and I are back in Wimberley...and who better to greet us than the deer! Oh, and did I mention how much she loves being barefoot? Whenever I bring out the shoes, she runs away...too cute! She was greeted by the deer. She loves the deer.

Houston Fun

In Houston, we got to see some friends (not as many as I'd like to have seen, but hey, we were only there for 2.5 days...and we were extremely jet-lagged...). It was quite nice to see all of them again. First off, we stayed with our friend Liz. I lived in her garage apartment when I was studying at the University of Houston and besides that, she's my mom's best friend. She's pretty awesome, too.

The first night we met up with my bff4e&e for dinner...she brought along her man of the moment (and that moment is now over which we're not too sad about). It was great Mexican food at one of my fav restaurants. However, I would have enjoyed it more if I had not been up for the past 24 hours. I was at that stage where I was seeing double and everything was starting to sway. Like I said in the previous post, Amelia was such a trooper. She did pretty good at the restaurant, but then started to get SUPER tired, so that is basically when we called it a night.

Mornings at Liz's are great. Coffee, bread of sorts and the Today Show. Nice and laid back, just like I like it. That was really nice. The second full day we were going to go to the Children's Museum in Houston, but I was just so tired, so I settled for Target!

Liz had this great little chair from her mom...Perfect Amelia size.

Mardi Gras Beads!!! They were a definite hit!

I have to mention my absolute LOVE for Target. Well, my love and just about any American Expat that I know! Markus was quite surprised that I didn't go there on the first day...I just needed to savor the moment...and yes, I did hear angels singing when I walked towards the building...it was epic. I got Amelia a Faschings costume and Charlie one too! You'll see those more around Fasching...

Melissa, Amelia and I at Empire Cafe!

Thursday night, we stayed at mom's other friend Poppy's house. I love Poppy and Mark. They are two wonderful guys and nights and morning at their house are just as laid back as at Liz's. It was nice and relaxing and a great way to help get over jet-lag.

Lounging on the bed with Mark, Poppy and the pups

Amelia decided that the dog bed with their toys was a great place to lounge...

Friday morning, Emily took me away for a mani/pedi which was MOST needed. Mom stayed with Amelia and when we were done, mom, Amelia and I hit the road. We are now in Wimberley and we are most enjoying this AWESOME Texas weather...it is mid-high 70sF every day and SUNNY! I can't get enough of the sun! It is really great.

More of our adventures to come....

TEXAS!

Amelia and I are in Texas for Halloween and Thanksgiving...that's right 5 (!!!) weeks! It is freaking hot! End of October and it is still 90 degrees Farenheit! That's crazy! And me being a genius, forgot to bring shorts...at least I remembered really warm weather stuff for Amelia!

"There's our plane!"

The flight over was GREAT! Despite the fact that we had to leave the house at 4:30am to be at the airport by 5:30 to catch a flight that was at 6:50, Amelia did surprisingly well. She slept most of the first flight, which was only about an hour, was pretty much awake and in a great mood while we had our layover in Amsterdam, and then passed out after take-off on the long-haul flight. This flight was pretty good. We had an ENTIRE 3-seat row to ourselves! I made a little tent type thing for Amelia so that it would be a bit darker...it was darker than in the photos since in the picture I had to use the flash... She slept for about an hour and a half the first time (enough time for me to eat the meal and watch a movie!) and then was up for about 3 or so hours and fell asleep for another hour and a half. I tried my hardest to sleep too, but it just didn't happen for me.

Amelia's tent

When we got to Texas it was awesome! It is HOT! I mean, seriously...I think it wasn't even this warm in Germany during our hottest days. This is great! Amelia is loving running around barefoot and being able to be outside without having to be packed into loads of clothes. And did I mention being barefoot? This is her new favorite thing. It is cute to see her feel new textures with her feet. When she got into the grass for the first time, the look on her face was priceless...and then being able to go and play in a puddle at the park...great!

Feeding the ducks with Mommy!

Today we were at the park all morning to feed the ducks, splash with our hands in the water look at stuff, and most importantly, soak up some rays...this always helps with getting over jet-lag. I think she is doing really well though. Last night, she went to bed at around 7:30pm, slept until about 3am, was up for an hour and a half and then slept until about 7:15. I consider this a success! I, on the other hand, am not doing as great. I was up from about 2-5 and couldn't really sleep, so as soon as this post is done, I'm taking a nap.

One cool duck!

Feeding the pigeonsThe squirrel wanted in on the bread action too...

The train at Hermann ParkPuddles!!!

A couple of videos too from today...

So, so far, in the first 24-hours, things are going great!

Chestnuts

You may be wondering what I did with all those chestnuts that Amelia and I collected...well, I decided that we had enough to fill up Amelia's little splashing pool from summer. So, that is what we did. It is on our balcony since she tends to throw them around everywhere. I can't take the credit for this idea though...I borrowed the idea from Schneckenhaus, her future daycare. They had it in their playroom and I thought it was such a great idea, especially since Amelia had loads of fun with it. :)

A Great Hiking Weekend...Part II

On Sunday, we went on a little hike with my in-laws and Charlie. It was nice, and not near as steep as the hike on Saturday. Amelia was once again on the shoulders or walking around a bit. Once again, she passed out after about half the hike...so once again, we were carrying a sack of potatoes. :)

Asking Amelia how big she is...Sooooo big!!

Passed out princess...

Charlie going after a stick in this very lush field...he had a blast!

Afterward, we went over to Markus' Uncle's house who has around 50 cows (he's a dairy farmer). Amelia was in heaven with the cows. All she wanted to do was look at them...and of course go and pet them, but, yeah...mommy didn't want that...and the cows probably wouldn't be too thrilled to have her go and "pet" them, which to Amelia is basically some hard patting. Charlie and Findus are used to it...these cows not.

Amelia and the cows!

With cousin Robert :)

Then after the farm, we went to get coffee and cake at Gasthof Kopf, where Markus and I had our wedding reception. They have WONDERFUL food, not to mention cake. And they have a great playground in the back for the kiddos. It was absolutely gorgeous outside so that is where we sat.

All in all, it was a great weekend! I hope to have a couple more like this before we go to Texas...then we'll be having really nice weather...hopefully.

A Great Hiking Weekend...Part I

Markus and I had a wonderful weekend of hiking. On Saturday we went to an area close to us that was supposedly voted the best forest in Germany...I think that the local forest club got together and rigged the vote. It was nice, but I've seen better. We decided to leave the stroller in the car since it probably wouldn't be able to handle the paths. We had Amelia on our shoulders or she walked around a bit. By the middle of the hike...after a really steep part, she passed out. We were only half way through...great...we're carrying a sack of potatoes the rest of the way. Markus remembered a shortcut he saw on the map, so we took that. It got us back to the main road pretty quick.





Luckily, right when we got to the road, there was an overgrown parking lot (since they just built a new one up the road where we were parked) and there was a bench...kind of a rotting bench, but nonetheless a bench. So, Amelia and I chilled on the bench and Markus walked along the road to get the car and pick us up since she was totally passed out and I didn't feel too safe walking along the road with Amelia.



Funny thing happened when Markus came to pick us up. I guess a police car drove by. They were turning around at the parking lot where we were parked and then noticed Markus walking towards the car. They stopped him and asked if "that lady and baby belonged to him". He responded, "Yes, the little one just fell asleep and I am picking up the car." I like that the police are very perceptive and were going to come and ask me if everything was ok. Polizei, dein Freund und Hilfer!

The Park and Chestnuts

A big thing to do here when fall arrives is to go an collect chestnuts (Markus said that when he was a kid, a hunter in his village paid the kids 10 DM per large bag of chestnuts they brought him...awesome for the kiddos!). These aren't the kind of chestnuts that you can eat, these are just the decorative kind. I don't know if I'd go around collecting the other kind...the one time I ate them, I almost gagged...but that's besides the point. When we got to the park, we were just going to go to the playground and have a good ol' time, but then I saw a family out collecting chestnuts and I thought that Amelia and I could give it a try. She got the basic idea, but wasn't too thrilled by it. She did pick a few up and either a) threw them or b) actually put them in the bag. It was quite sweet. Then she got distracted by flowers. I don't blame her. They are much easier to see.

"Woohoo! The Park!"

Picking up chestnuts...Inspecting the chestnuts...Daisies are much more interesting"Ohhhh look! A playground!"

After about 45 minutes on the search for chestnuts (and 2 large poop bags later...I only had poop bags on me to put them in...another plus of having a dog!), we finally made our way over to the playground. She loves this playground. There is a slide, rocking things, a rope tower thing for climbing and, of course, loads of sand.

Trying to decide which thing to play with first...

The rocking things won...Then the rope climbing toyThen, of course, the sand..."Look mom! Sand!!"One of my favs of her playing in the sand...

When we came home, it was time for mommy to have some coffee...a cappuccino to be exact. I got mine and Amelia got her kinder cappuccino, which is just frothed milk. She loves those things (even though in this picture, she looks a bit in shock...I just distracted her from playing with her spoons long enough to take the picture...not the best, but pretty cute anyways...).
All in all, we had a pretty good day. Markus called to say that he would be home late...like 7 or 7:30...so I planned on taking Amelia back to the park, but someone decided that she would rather take a nap...which was fine by me! But she did go to bed an hour later than usual...