The long-awaited update on Jen Lancaster!!

So I saw her nearly two months ago, for shame. But I swear I've been super busy. Reading her book, changing our picture to my cover photo on Facebook...and you know, work and the plague. But in a nutshell, she. was. AWESOME.

I headed to Charlotte on a cold afternoon after work and met up with my little sister Leighton for coffee at Starbucks. It was so good to see her face! We have both been busy and hadn't been able to catch up since her wedding, so it was great to see her.

After a quick coffee I headed the long way through Charlotte *I hate being a tourist* to the Barnes & Noble. I'd brought along with me six copies of her new book (for me and my wine club) and seven of her other books. Thinking that might be a bit much, I agonized and picked three of my faves because nine isn't too many, right?

I got it and got our three seats and our tickets and sat down impatiently. My friend Amanda joined me soon after, and then Jen walked in!! It was like seeing someone famous because, well, she is. But she was so laid back and fun, and maybe even a little nervous? She started by saying she didn't want to being the program early, but it was cool if we just wanted to chat. So we got to ask her about Fletch, Barbie, the Thundercats, her house, etc. And it wasn't at all like talking to someone famous.

Admittedly, I was nervous that with all these best-sellers and fame, she'd forgotten the little people. But she mentioned that her readers didn't like her fiction work, that it was too similar to her real life. So her new fiction book? No resemblance to her real life. Her readers didn't like paying for a book that they'd read 75% of online. So her next new book? None of the stories are on the blog. I loved that she admitted her negative feedback, and did something about it. Faith restored!

She read a chapter out of her new book, Here I Go Again, and then took questions. She was so funny, and not at all pretentious or snotty. Sassy maybe, but not snotty. But that's what her readers loved about her. I loved the chance to meet her in person because while she's exactly the same as she is in her books and on her blog, she's also totally different. She's a person. Who gets spray tan.

We were among the last to get our books signed, and when I mentioned I thought 13 too many to sign, she insisted that I go out to the car to get them. "I'm here, you paid for them, why not??" was her response. So my sweet friend Stephanie went out to the car so I wouldn't miss a minute with my fave author (and new bestie).

I was so excited to finally meet her! I missed her for four years while we were in Germany, and she hasn't been back to NC since I moved back (for shame). But you can bet if she's within 4 (okay, 6) hours of me in June for The Tao of Martha, I'm totally going to see her again!

A Trip Down South

When we found out Megan and Jake were having a party, we jumped at the chance to head to Georgia to see our old Army family. We packed up the kids and Onyx (Oscar spent a relaxing weekend at home) and headed to 85 South. I was terrified of the trip, as Lila is not known for enjoying long car rides, and Hayden is a talker. I was pleasantly surprised when Lila slept for almost the entire trip, and Hayden of course, talked nonstop.

Meike was excited to finally meet Lila! And we finally had a baby for those pink socks ;-)

And *I* got to meet baby Blake! He is so sweet and adorable, and is a little mini-James. I adore this little guy!

And then there was this sweet girl, a nearly exact replica of her sister, and at the same age as I last saw her sister! She was a sweet baby and opted to sleep for much of the party.

Blake is soooo lucky we didn't get the picture of him trying to put his hand up Lila's dress!

Yeah nothing has changed since we left in 2010.

The kids had a blast helping Uncle Jake with the fire pit! Hayden said it was "too hot on my face" but he still had fun helping and sitting around the fire.

Jay obviously stands out as the "one who doesn't have to shave", and Gabe is nearly as tall as I am. Give it another year and he'll tower over me for sure!

Lila got a little bigger from the last time she saw her uncle Jake in May!

The next day we headed on post to see the Pollards, the Bakers and the Millers. I forgot what it was like to live on post, but then again I never lived on post in the states so it's definitely different.

Lila and Jade are about three weeks apart, and Jade was born on my birthday!

After we hung out a bit, we headed out to get something to eat. Our group of four families now numbers 17, with one on the way (Sam, not me!) and I laughed because normally when I go out to eat with 16 other people, there's a week of planning and an Evite involved! But on this lovely Sunday, it was just lunch with my family.

After lunch we headed back to 85, but northbound this time. We made pretty good time, and the kids were awesome on the way back. It was good to be home, but I missed my Army family so much. There are a lot of things I don't miss about the Army (field training, deployments, dirty boots) but I really do miss the people. Luckily, they're just a phone call, email or 8-hour car ride away!

Great Wolf Lodge

I had a conference to go to at the Great Wolf Lodge, so Jay and the kids came along on Sunday before it got started to enjoy the water park! Hayden was excited the WHOLE way there, and could barely contain himself when we pulled up. By the time we got down to the waterpark, it was just too much for him. I thought he was going to burst!

Lila was so super cute in her little bathing suit! She had outgrown hers for the summer so I got one SUPER cheap on clearance from Carter's. While Jay and Hayden did water slides and the wave pool, she was content to sit in knee deep water, walk a little and be held. The water wasn't as warm as I expected, so I had to take her out about every half hour to warm her up...those little lips got blue!

After a few hours of water sliding and fun, Jay and the kids headed home and I went to bed to get ready for my conference. On Monday night, we headed out to dinner with colleagues, former colleages, one Salem girl who works in financial aid at another school, and one Salem friend from the area. It was a great night! We went to Tsunami, which is the place Jay and I ate on our wedding night in Charleston, SC. We had drinks and hibachi, and I had some great sushi.

Tuesday night we rented out the water park for our conference and I got to go down the water slides. Crazy! We had cupcakes and drinks and rode the slides a few times before heading off to bed. I had a great time and enjoyed not getting up at 530 for a few days, but I sure did miss my family!

A weekend in the District

I had the opportunity to head north a few weekends ago for a multitude of celebrations. I started my trip in Greensboro, with a lovely lunch with my husband. This so rarely happens, just lunch for the two of us on a weekday, so I didn't mind getting on the road later than expected. I loaded up the car, gassed up and headed north on 85. Driving up that way always brings back fun memories, particularly of the Fall Break I went up to see Lizard and we walked around DC, a mere month after the attacks of September 11th. We saw the giant hole in the Pentagon, with an even bigger American flag hanging beside it, and the whole city had a somber, hollow feel to it. Luckily this time was a different experience.

I arrived at Lizard's house early in the evening and got to meet her sweet new puppy, Ace. She and Matt were busy prepping for his birthday party the next day, so it was fun to just hang out and catch up. We went out for dinner at a fun mexican place and the food was wonderful. The drinks were overpriced, so we headed back to the house for wine and fun with friends. What a treat, to see my favorite newlyweds and some new friend I made at their wedding. I went to sleep alone for the first time in a long time, since Jay and Hayden were back in NC. It felt strange to wake up at 7, realize I had NO early morning obligations, and go back to sleep until 9!

After a series of long, convoluted phone calls, Liz and I finally had a plan. She was in town from the Pac-Nor, and staying with Melissa and Dan. I picked her up at their house and we braved DC traffic to visit the FDR Memorial. I had never seen it before and it was Liz's favorite so we found an unheard-of parking lot and set out to explore in the drizzly weather. We did stumble upon the George Mason memorial on the way and then proceeded to the FDR. What an inspiring place that is! It's full of his memorable quotes, bronze statues and water to represent the different stages of his terms of office. We decided against much exploration, as we had a full day ahead of us in Maryland. After a serious search for parking and a bathroom, we headed to the hotel.

We called ahead and requested early check in to get ready for the wedding. Imagine our surprise when we were at first denied that check-in, and then almost immediately granted said check-in. After the valet whisked away my car and the bellhop whisked away our bags we were finally in our room getting ready. For two females trying to put together two STELLAR outfits, I'd say we made pretty good time. We headed to Sandy Spring, MD for the wedding. We had arrived early in case our assistance was needed with the final touches, but mostly we wandered around taking photos and enjoying the atmosphere. Shortly after 5, the brides walked down the aisle.

After a beautiful ceremony, we headed inside for cocktail hour and mingled with friends and family. The brides and bridal party were off taking pictures and we were busy creating the weekend's signature drink. When we came back outside, the tent had been transformed into two rows of tables for our splendid dinner. We ate, we drank, we laughed and celebrated the love of these two wonderful people. It was such an amazing event, to be surrounded by so much love and support.

Sunday morning I also woke without a little person tugging at my arm and asking for juice, which is pretty strange for me. After a quick bagel and coffee at Panera, I was back on the road and headed home to my boys. I had such a great time with old friends, but there's no place like home!

The Lone Star state

Texas is yet another state that has avoided my visit for too long. Our good friends The Flemings moved there in 2008, just days shy of Hayden's birth, and we haven't seen them since. We had some time to fill in January and no New Year's plans, plus Tommy would soon be deploying so in October we decided to book tickets to go visit them!

I booked our flight super early Thursday morning to maximize our time with our friends, which proved to be a serious error in judgment. I forgot what leaving the house at 4am with an exhausted toddler was like! Between that and stopping for gas, the cold cold weather, the park and ride, the buses that didn't STOP to pick us UP at the park and ride, and EVERY other person arriving early and American Airlines closing the flight early, we missed our 6:20am flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth. I was so bummed! I have been flying 18 years and have never missed a flight! (Though nearly, one time when Gene took a shower in PA, but that's another story) We were put on standby for the 7:45 am flight and waited at the gate. Luckily we had a fully charged portable DVD player for Hayden, who was really more interested in running amok through the terminal. Wild man.

7:45 came and went without us on a plane. The next available flight wasn't until 10:20, which means we had a good three hours to sit and wait. And hope. Hayden and Jay ran around, I texted Dandy to keep her updated with our current situation, and I hoped and prayed to be on the next flight. I don't know how much longer I could have hung out in the airport! Luckily, there were seats available for us and a young man even switched seats with Jay so we could all sit together. However, this was only getting us to Dallas and from there we would be on standby again for our flight to Austin. Dandy decided instead to make the 2+ hour drive to Dallas to pick us up instead of us waiting around all day for her to possibly have to do it anyway. We didn't have bags to check, thanks to my light packing (for once) and Texas' mild winter weather.

Dandy and Cali were there to pick us up, and Hayden was excited to meet Cali and to ride in Dandy's truck. We rode down from Dallas to Ft. Hood and noticed that Texas is very brown and flat compared to North Carolina. We stopped at Whataburger, something we don't have here and have heard a lot about. We were at Dandy's house in about 3 hours and Hayden was really excited to be out of his carseat! The Flemings have a swingset outside that Hayden was really fond of, so we spent much of our trip pushing him outside on the swings.

We didn't have much planned for the trip, other than ringing in the New Year and seeing old friends. We spent time hanging out and catching up and letting the kids play and of course, eating Texas food! We had a ton of mexican food and if it were up to me, we would have had more! The kids had a great time getting to know each other and playing games and being outside. I can't believe how much they've grown! We got to see some old friends from Germany who are still in the Army and are in the continuing cycle of deployments. That was definitely a contributing factor to Jay's exit from the Army, so we know what they are going through!

We went after dinner one night to see the lights at Belton Lake, which are very similar to the ones at Tanglewood but with a Texas twist! We visited Ft. Hood and saw the memorial to those that lost their lives in the November 2009 shooting. We saw where Cali goes to school, and Dandy & I took the girls to see "Tangled", which we all enjoyed.

On our last day, we packed up and headed to the airport extra early to avoid our earlier fate. We were checked in and sitting at our gate 90 minutes before our plane was scheduled to leave. Hayden had a great time looking at all the airplanes taking off and landing, and of course, running around the terminal. We arrived safely in Dallas and quickly boarded to go to Raleigh. We arrived at our car in the park and ride just after 7pm as scheduled, and headed back home. We were definitely worn out from all the traveling, but so glad we were able to see our old friends!

More traveling!

After our whirlwind day in NYC, we decided to take yet another road trip. This time to DC's outskirts to visit Lizard and Matt. Hayden in tow, we loaded up and headed across the bay to see her new house! I had just seen her for her wedding of course but she hadn't seen Hayden since Reunion Weekend '08 and Matt and Jay had never met. We made great time until we hit 95 of course, where we were reintroduced to stateside traffic. Ugh. By the time we got there we weren't up for much, which was just fine with our hosts! We settled in with the wine cube from Target, some steaks on the grill and some movies on demand. Our kind of night! Hayden fell asleep upstairs, leaving us a little time to catch up. Not long after, Jay fell asleep during the movie and I dozed off here and there. Traveling is hard work!

We just went up for the night, and then were planning to do a bit of travel in the DC area. We rode around looking at things for a bit, and decided none of us were really up for another day of sightseeing, so we headed back to the eastern shore. We said a quick goodbye to the Washington Monument, promised Lizard and DC we'd be back soon, and that was that. I figure our nation's capitol has been around awhile, and I'd much rather visit in springtime without scarves, hats, gloves and windburn!

The Big Apple!

Of all the amazing places I've seen, New York City has eluded me. I've been to country after country, great city after city in the states but never the Big Apple. So on November 27th, Jay and I woke up extra early to be out of the house by 4 to drive to Milford, DE to catch our bus up there! Jay's Nan goes up every year after Thanksgiving to do her shopping and invited us to come along this time. We were so excited! We left at 4, headed up to Delaware and boarded the bus along with many other excited shoppers. We had done some pre-planning and changed our minds a few times on what to see and how to get everywhere, but by the time we arrived at Rockefeller Center we had a good idea of what we wanted to accomplish. The bus dropped us off at 11 am and would be departing at 7pm so we didn't have much time to dawdle!

We took a walk around Rockefeller Center and the surrounding area first to get our bearings, and to see the holiday decorations. NYC seems to sparkle for Christmas! The tree wasn't lit yet but there were plenty of other decorations to get excited about. After a few minutes, we headed to the subway and went south. We really wanted to see Ground Zero. From where we were we couldn't see a whole lot but construction, but it was just amazing to see how much has to be done 9 years after the attacks. We also took a look at the church across the street from where the towers stood, St. Paul's. It's the oldest building in Manhattan in continuous use and has seen the Great Fire, Washington's Inauguration and the attacks of September 11th.

After that we headed down to the harbor to catch the Staten Island Ferry. We really wanted to tour the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but that would have taken up most of our 8 hours in the city. Instead, we took the ferry across to get a good look at the old girl and promised her we'd be back soon to properly introduce ourselves! It took a little longer than expected, because our first ferry was delayed due to medical emergency. That meant we missed the return ferry completely and had to wait another 30 minutes. Just enough time to grab a hot dog! We did a little more exploring uptown and bought Hayden a t-shirt and a sweatshirt for me.

From there we took our time wandering through Times Square. I could spend all day there! There is so much to see and everything is bright and shiny and lit up and entertaining. We ran across the Naked Cowboy and the Naked Cowgirl, took a quick trip inside Toys 'R Us, checked out a few shops and took a ton of pictures. From there we headed to Top of the Rock, where we got SUPER discounted tickets for being military ID card holders. Woohoo! We waited for our turn to go up and were not disappointed by the amazing views. We saw the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Central Park, Times Square and more at night. It was incredible, and definitely lived up to my NYC ideas.

After all that it was time to find our bus and head back home. We saw a ton in 8 hours and are already planning our next trip to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, do more shopping and eating and see more sights. After all the travel we did in Europe, we found that the shortcuts are just as helpful, there are just as many people not speaking English and the subway is virtually the same everywhere.

The Journey Home

Our last days in Germany were quite chaotic, trying to get everything in place for our big move. We had boxes to ship, suitcases to pack, floors to clean and goodbyes to say. That’s the hardest part of course, leaving the people that become your family overseas. My last day of work was on Wednesday, which turned out to be a half day! They owed me a half day vacation and realized it that morning. What a nice surprise! All the girls brought in food for a potluck lunch and man, what a great idea! We should have started doing that months ago. We had some great stuff, and said our goodbyes.

Wednesday night we had dinner with The Pollards at the Stables, one of our favorite restaurants in Schweinfurt. They serve greek food and love the kids. We had a fun dinner, and will really miss eating there! Thursday we had our housing inspection that we spent days preparing for. We took out so much trash and recycling and donations and consignments. We scrubbed and swept and mopped and cleaned until our fingers were shriveled and our house sparkled. For once, I remembered to CLEAN the oven after spraying oven cleaner instead of cooking it! We moved appliances, scrubbed baseboards and lime-awayed until we were green in the face. I was a little nervous, but knew we had 2 days to fix anything that wasn’t up to par. Wouldn’t you know the inspector spent about 90 seconds in that house and didn’t even open the fridge! We hadn’t taken Hayden’s border down in his room, but other than that he didn’t need to see anything. All that work!

Hayden was in school right up until the last day we were there, to keep him on his schedule. We picked him up just before dinner Friday night and let him say goodbye to all his classmates. What a great experience this had been for him! We headed to dinner with the Kings, Stockdills and Williams for one last round of bruschetta, pizza and tiramisu at Rimini’s. We had a great time, told some old stories and said goodbye to some really good friends. Luckily for us, they’ll all be in the states soon enough! We spent our last night in Germany with the Pollards, to make things easier all around. Jay went out with the boys while Amber and I hung out with our little guys. We stayed up too late of course, instead of being smart and going to bed early.

6am came pretty early for us and we got our bags ready for the trip. Ryan came to get us and we loaded up the van for the ride. We stopped for breakfast and Oscar’s benadryl, and we were on the road by 8 for our ride to Frankfurt. Luckily we used Jay’s new shortcut and saved ourselves some traffic. Hayden was uninterested in sleeping, which we thought would bode well for plane napping. We got all 7 of our checked bags, Hayden and his carseat and stroller, Oscar and his crate and us with our 3 carry-ons into the airport.

After waiting in the ticket line, we were told we had to get in the other line to purchase Oscar’s reserved ticket. 30 minutes went by with us in line and no movement; we sent Ryan away, anticipating a longer wait. Good thing, since we were waiting over an hour. What a mess! They were unprepared for Oscar apparently, and it took forever to get a vet there to approve everything. We thought we were finished, but then they told us we had to wait for security to come over and check out the crate. They sent me and Hayden through security and “hoped” to have Jay and Oscar ready for our flight in time to board. Hoped?? Yikes.

Luckily our flight was delayed boarding so we all made it. We got settled into our seats and I told Jay, “Wow I was so worried about Oscar getting on the plane I didn’t even have time to worry about the plane crashing.” Needless to say, Jay was not pleased. We watched “Despicable Me” on the plane and Hayden and I ended up watching it three times. We love it! We can’t wait to pre-order it for its release on December 14th. Hayden fell asleep about an hour into the flight and we thought we were home free. Not likely. He slept 30 minutes of our 9 hour flight. Yikes! He just wanted to run and play and I can’t blame him. He was a typical two-year-old which means he was kind of loud and a little pushy but everyone around us had kids as well so no one seemed too put out.

We arrived on time to Dulles Airport in Washington, DC and had to get all our bags and Oscar to be re-checked and clear customs. It wasn’t too much of a hassle surprisingly, and soon we were waiting at our gate for our flight to Raleigh. That was a short hour, but Hayden slept the whole time! Bless his heart he was too tired. Once at RDU, Hayden and I left Jay to get the bags and Oscar and we picked up the rental. After playing a little Tetris with all our bags and Oscar’s crate we were on the road for the hour drive to Greensboro. We arrived around 830pm and stopped to grab some food for us and some food for Oscar and then we were HOME. What a long, long day to get us back to where we grew up but it was worth it!

A weekend away

Thanks to our good friends the Bakers, Jay and I got to spend a weekend away in Paris! We spent the night at Ramstein and got to stay in the new KMCC, which has a new hotel with fancy rooms. No kids allowed, which is why we've never set foot in it up until this point. We enjoyed a little dinner at Mac Grill, a movie at 8:30 (wow!) and dessert in the room. Not a bad start to our vacation!

We got up early and headed to Paris. We've now decided there's never a good time to drive into or out of Paris, but we still had a good time. We got checked into our hotel, did a bit of exploring and enjoyed a lazy, leisurely afternoon walking around the city of love. We toured the Louvre and the Pantheon, and barely missed the catacombs; they stopped taking people in while we were in line.  I even had time for a bubble bath before we went to the Eiffel Tower! These are things a working mom only dreams of. We had 9pm reservations for the tower, so we took an evening stroll to see it, all lit up and pretty. We made our way to the third level, despite my recent fear of all things cable car, and were nearly ONE THOUSAND feet above solid ground at the top. Insane! It was pretty amazing to see the city all lit up at night, and to be doing it without the fear of my toddler tumbling over the side. There are just some things kids are not meant for; mainly, moms with overactive imagination.

On Sunday we set out to visit the beaches of Normandy, which did not end as we expected. We got very close, but after a day of train travel, we arrived an hour after the buses stopped running. Any other means of transportation would have made us miss the last train back to Paris, so we turned around and went right back. Another reminder that in travel, it's not the destination but the adventure you have along the way and who you have it with! We made it to the Hard Rock and after a midnight stroll down the Champs Elysees, managed to catch the very last subway and bus back to our hotel. A little luck was nice after our long day.

Meanwhile, Hayden had a blast with the Baker girls! Despite an impending ear infection, he had a blast traveling and even went to a football game! The girls spoil him with love and attention, and I'm certain he didn't miss us at all! After we picked him up he fell asleep instantly in the car and slept the whole way home. I think this may officially end our travels in Europe, as we're about to leave! We pack our household goods and ship our car soon, and we'll be back in the states for good just in time for Thanksgiving! We have had an amazing four years here, but we're ready to get back to the good ol' USA!

Channel hoppers

Last weekend we took our very first visit to London! We were excited to get away for the weekend, especially to somewhere they speak English! We flew Ryan Air for the first time, which is one of Europe's low-cost airlines. Not a bad way to travel for three of us, definitely saved us about $200 on tickets. We headed out early Friday morning to drop off Oscar at the farm and head to Frankfurt Hahn. We arrived, in the rain, and found parking after about 20 minutes. 20 euro for the whole weekend? Yes please! Only because the 10 euro lot was full. We headed in, checked my bag (hey, it was for me AND Hayden, I couldn't carry on), checked our passports and got through security seamlessly. An hour-ish wait and we were on the plane!

Hayden was a lap child for this flight, and did very well in his special seatbelt attached to daddy's. One quick hour and we were landing in London. Most excitingly, they still stamp passports in the UK so Jay got his first stamp (!) and Hayden and I got one as well.  We figured out the train pretty quickly and took the 40 minute ride to London proper at the advice of some friends that had flown into London Stansted before. Thanks Jaime! Once at Liverpool Street station, finding our hotel was a bit tricky but as usual we prevailed. By 4pm we were checked into our hotel and unpacking. Well, two of us were; one of us was jumping on the bed. Three guesses.

After our long day of travel, we decided against much sightseeing and opted instead for dinner across the street at a cute little pub. I had fish & chips, Jay had chicken and a Guinness and Hayden had a blast! We got in bed early and woke up early to our little alarm clock (Hayden) at 5am. Breakfast was a wonderful event in the hotel and Hayden enjoyed baked beans with his breakfast. Silly Brits. We took the Overground to the Underground to get our train tickets and soon were on our way to Salisbury in southern England.  While waiting for our train, we did get our first glimpses at the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the Thames river and the London Eye. The weather in London was gloomy and wet but we were pleasantly surprised by the sunshine in Salisbury.

Our first stop was the bus stop, literally, to Stonehenge! We rode through the town of Salisbury on a bus with commentary to fill us in on the history. We were dropped off at Stonehenge and fast-tracked through the line to get in. What a magnificent place to visit! Hard to imagine that these stones have been around for thousands of years and are still in pretty good condition. Hayden enjoyed a little run through the grass and took our audio guides to talk on the "whoa" or the phone. After taking as many pictures as possible we headed back to the bus and went to Salisbury.

Salisbury is home to a 13th century cathedral and also the best of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta. We weren't allowed to photograph it, but it was amazing to see. The cathedral has the tallest spire in England, and the spire itself is actually leaning 29 inches to the west! No worries, it doesn't look like it will fall any time soon. It was beautiful inside and out, and the grounds were full of people just enjoying the August sunshine.

We awoke early Sunday to take our trek around the city. By then, we were pretty good at the Underground even with its construction and re-routes. We headed to the Big Bus to take the tour, and Hayden fell asleep in about 20 minutes. We toured London and Westminster with another set of audio guides, and got to see most of the big sites. We stopped off at Buckingham Palace to see the famous guards, but missed the changing of the guard as it only happens every other day from spring to fall. We went to the Hard Rock for lunch, and headed to the Tower of London. There we saw the 1000-year-old White Tower as well as the rest of the fortress. We also got to see the Crown Jewels of the royal family and boy was I disappointed that this was another photography-prohibited site. They were amazing! Glittery and sparkly and gold and jeweled...my kind of place!

After the Tower we headed down to the pier to take a cruise down the Thames River. We saw some great views of Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theater and much more. We were heading to see Westminster Abbey when Hayden got a little sick, so we decided to end our tour for the day and head back to the hotel room.

For our last morning, we got up and packed and ate breakfast and headed to the nearby Abbey Road, made famous by the Beatles. I walked across the intersection along with the rest of the tourists, and that made our trip complete. Soon we were making the return journey back to the hotel, the train station, the airport, the parking lot and finally, home! We had an amazing weekend and I wish we had enough time left in Europe to go back!

Weekend getaway

The week after Jay got home, we had a spouses retreat scheduled down in Garmisch. He got to come with us! So while I was in the sessions and Hayden was hanging out with the other kids, Jay got to relax and even get a massage! He and Hayden spent one of the morning sessions together, which was fun for everyone. Since we had so much free time built into our schedule, we got to do a few things I'd been wanting to do for awhile.

Our first stop on Friday was Munich for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The place was nearly empty, so the kids got to play and have balloons and eat fun food. We had a nice relaxing lunch before getting back on the road to Garmisch. An hour later we were checking into our hotel and enjoying another weekend down in the Alps. Traveling is always more fun with friends, and Amber and the kids and Mandie made the road trip down with us. We went to our evening session and were done and enjoying some time together by 930.

Saturday morning we had our sessions and then finished up in time for lunch. We headed to the Linderhof palace to see the gardens, which weren't really in bloom yet but we did get to see the fountain! I had been in December 2007 but it looks so much different in the winter! We bummed around and enjoyed the beautiful weather before heading back for dinner. We tried to go to the pool but Hayden was not too pumped about it. He spent most of the time wrapped up in a towel sitting with me, but he did test the waters a bit. Hopefully some more pool time this summer will clear that anxiety right up!

Sunday morning we had more more session and then lunch and back on the road! This time we made a pitstop at the Herren Chiemsee palace, King Ludwig II's summer palace modeled after Versailles. You have to take a boat to get to the island, which was a ton of fun. We spent a couple of hours walking the grounds and admiring the work put into this place! Hayden of course went straight for the stairs, up and down, up and down, but how cool that he spent his weekend climbing in the footsteps of kings at two royal palaces!

We had a great time, as we always do down in Garmisch, and learned a few things as well. We could not have asked for better weather, or better traveling buddies!