Europe Day 3- Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Day three was one of my favorite days on our trip. I was really looking forward to visiting this town, but had a few questions as to if it would be too touristy. Rothenburg is the most preserved medieval town in Germany, and the first stop on the Romantic road.  Did you see I said medieval? We saw dates on houses that went back to before Columbus discovered America! This is just a tiny example of what draws me to Europe, the history is just unbelievable!

We boarded a train and took the 2 hour journey to Rothenburg. I knew the moment we stepped out of the train station that this was going to be a good day. We weren't even to the old town city walls and everything was already adorable. The moment we walked through the city walls it felt like we were walking in to a fairy tale, or story book. Everything was PERFECT! And there weren't a lot of people there which made it that much better! We walked though the town with no agenda but to explore this adorable little city. At one point we were walking down a main road and I started noticing bubbles floating in the air. I asked Bryan if he saw them and after a while he did. He suggested that there must be a bubble machine somewhere, and I ignored that idea and chose to believe we were in a magical fairy tale land where bubbles floated free down the streets :)

After a while, we decided to go up in the walls and walk around there for a bit. This was Kade's favorite part of the day. He thought it was so fun to "explore"! This was tall Bryan's least favorite part of the day, he spent the entire time ducking down!

We stopped for a little lunch. Let me just paint this picture. We sat outside to eat, the weather was perfect, there were bubbles floating through the air, the town looked like a story book, and a man was just down from us playing Ave Maria on a violin. Seriously? Someone pinch me, this can't be real life!

After lunch, Ella napped and we walked around some more. We explored every nook and cranny of this adorable place. It was really the perfect day. Everything just kept getting better and better all day!

 

Do you see Bryan carrying Ella, and Kade pushing the stroller? It's nice having two boys in my life :)

 

Later this day, we took the train back to Nuremberg. We walked around a little more before stopping at a biergarten for dinner. Beer, sausages, and pretzels to end a perfect day? I think so!

Europe Day 2- Nuremberg

On Day 2, we arrived in Germany!!! Our delay caused us to miss our connecting flights, so we took a train from Frankfurt to Nuremberg. We were totally ok with this because it was a faster option than our two other connecting flights. Once we arrived in Nuremberg we quickly dropped our bags at the hotel and went out to explore. This day is always the hardest on these kinds of trips. You are so tired from not sleeping all night but have to fight through the day to get on the new time zone. It balances out because you have a lot of adrenaline so its not too bad. We went to the old town of Nuremberg and explored the Imperial Castle and just walked around all the adorable streets until dinner time. We had a wonderful dinner in the cutest square imaginable and headed off to bed to get caught up on sleep!

Europe Day 1

We just got home from a whirlwind 9 day, 3 country trip to Europe. It was seriously the best trip we have ever been on. I have been wanting to visit Germany for a long time and it did not disappoint. It was so much better than I could have ever imagined. Every place we went to I felt like I needed to pinch myself because it just didn't seem real. I am breaking the trip up into posts by days like I normally do because there is no way to possibly combine all this in one post.

Day One. The dreaded travel day. Long flights are never fun, and long flights with two small children seem like a daunting task. We arrived at the airport three hours early, mainly because we were ready and bored, and we thought we would grab some lunch and just hang out until it was time to go. Well, I am soooooooo glad we got there early. When we arrived we noticed the check in line had so many people. We quickly learned that American Airlines had a system wide shut down. All computers were shut down and all flights were grounded. They had no clue when everything would be up and running again. All I could think was "our long day just got longer". We sat in line and waited for THREE and a HALF HOURS! 3.5 hours with a reallllllly excited 3 year old and a realllllly hungry and tired 1 year old. And I really can't complain. They were so good, they ate some pb&j's I had packed, watched bubble guppies and mickey mouse, and after a while Ella fell asleep in the baby carrier. It wasn't terrible and to give AA some credit, they did a great job of keeping everyone informed and passing out waters, etc.

Once we made it through check in, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to our gate. Our flight was delayed 2 hours but by the time we made it to the gate we only had to wait a few minutes to board. The flight was about half empty so we bet a lot of people missed it because they were still standing in the long line to check in. We were just so thankful to be on the flight, and with good seats! We had 4 bulk head seats! We took off, they served dinner, I changed the kids into their pj's and said it was bed time and they both slept for the next 7 hours straight and woke up an hour before landing. The steward slipped Bryan and I some extra wine because he said we needed it, so we toasted to a great trip! And a great trip it was!

 

Off we go on a crazy adventure!

Had to document the fact that our delay made CNN's front page. 

EC goes to the ER

I feel like your child's first visit to the ER is baby book worthy. All parents end up taking their kid to the emergency room for one reason or another. Luckily we have only had minor trips to the er.

Last Thursday, Ella was pretty sick and in the evening her fever spiked to 104.6. That scared me to death, I called the on call nurse and she told us it would be best to take her to the er due to high fever and a few other things. So we dropped Kade off with my parents and off Bryan and I went to Cook Children's. When we got there it was a MAD HOUSE. We waited and waited and literally in the time we were sitting there Ella was getting better and better. After 4 HOURS in the waiting room we talked to a nurse who checked her oxygen levels and lungs and said she was fine. So we left. They said we were at least several more hours away from seeing a dr.

Bryan and I just decided that since she was better and her lungs were clear there was no reason to wait hours longer to see a dr. It was awful. I'm just happy my little girl is fine. I will not go back to Cook's er. They need to do some major reorganization of their ER. It was pretty ridiculous.




Bless her heart!

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Some pictures from the week

We have been super busy lately but with just errands and getting things done. April is a BUSY month for us this year. I have so many random pictures on my phone, so here is another phone dump!




He woke up from nap with some bedhead :)




I spent some of my birthday money getting the kids a picnic table for the backyard. Typical right?










I also gave Ella an at home pedicure on my birthday. Sister loves to get those toes painted!







Blurry, but I made that dress for the little E!




Silly girl




I was gone this past weekend so when I got home I spent some special time with my big boy. He requested ice cream!







Goodness I love those two! We have entered into this really great new phase. They are really becoming friends and while they still do their fair share of fighting, they really love to play together as well. They have become the best little friends and for the most part play together all day long!







Pallet, popcorn, and Horton hears a Who is just what we needed this afternoon!




Kade's Spring school picture. He looks SO big!! :(

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