I guess I should finally begin posting...

Now that Kai is putting up pics on the website, I have decided to use those to job my memory and post about our vacation. Let's being, shall we?

1st set of pics: Cleary this begins with us leaving for the airport. We flew out of Boston, with a layover in London. I insisted on having a layover in an English speaking country. Yes, I AM that American.

We ended up taking an air "limo" (and by limo, I mean van) from my dad's house, b/c it is closer to the airport. When Kai checked online he read that it would be significantly more expensive to take it from our house, so off to my dad's we went. Come to find out it really would have only cost us $10 more, but in the end I was glad we took it from Beford, as opposed to Pepperell. More on that later.

I must say, Ben was not a fan of the van. The second we tried to load him up he freaked. Apparently he thought we were sending him away with some crazy old guy, b/c he was NOT happy. Thankfully, after the van set off, he calmed down. I, on the other hand, did not.

The driver looked like this nice, calm, chubby old man. Santa without a beard, if you will. My first impression of him was way off. Now, he was nice. That wasn't the issue. The death ride to the airport was the problem. He brought this van within centimeters of other cars, in rush hour, on rte 2...he swerved in and out of traffic and I, be the type who can barely walk without feeling ill, became terribly carsick. I spent the whole ride willing myself not to throw up and praying we would make our flight in one piece.

I was never so happy to see the airport. The ride there took away all my anxiety about the actual flight.

Actually, it isn't the flight I was anxious about. It never is. It is having to go through security. It really is a crapshoot whether or not you are going to get through easily, or be taken aside...whether you get a friendly rent-a-cop or one with a stick up his/her butt. When you are traveling with children and a ton of stuff, being pulled over and screamed at to make sure your 3yo stays on the particular line they want her on, b/c she might just be a suicide bomber, kinda sours the whole airport experience. (Do you hear me RDU?!?!)

We were lucky, though, and made it through without incident and walked off to our gate. It was of course the last gate in the airport, but that is typical for us. We spent a while trying to keep the kids occupied while waiting to board, but when that time finally came I was pleasantly surprised. Why? Because there were TELEVISIONS on the back of each seat. I didn't know this beforehand, and was ecstatic to see them when we got to our seats. That meant I didn't have to stretch the small amount of children's toys/coloring material I had bought. Even though it was an overnight flight I didn't expect much sleeping.

When we finally took off the tv came in handy. Even Ben watched some of Horton Hears a Who, and Katie watched every kid thing they had. Ben ended up sleeping a good part of the trip, which I attribute to him being a good sleeper in general. When we traveled to Germany when Katie was 15 mo she didn't sleep, but at the time she didn't sleep at home either.

This trip she slept a little, but at least she is 4 1/2 so she can understand the need to keep seated and I was able to ply her with snack and, um, sprite.

It took us 6 hrs to get to Heathrow, 6 more hours to get to our gate at Heathrow, and then 1 1/2 hrs to get to Berlin. Heathrow is too big. I don't care to take a shuttle to our next gate, and it was freaking driving on the WRONG side of the road and thinking we were about to crash. And, on top of that, I didn't see one celebrity. Total. Letdown.

The trip to Berlin did not provide us with a tv, but at least it was quicker and the kids did sleep most of it.

Now, to everyone out there thinking of going to Germany, don't fly to Berlin. The airport sucks. I was super air sick for most of the flight and immediately sought out the bathroom once we landed. Well, when you get off the plane you get off into this restricted area that closes once the plane is emtpy...so I was hurried out of the bathroom by Kai and some psycho airport worker...not cool. There is another reason I didn't like the airport, but we won't address that til my blog post about our trip home.

Needless to say both kids were happy to be off the plane. Too bad we had to take a slow ride back to Kai's town. Yes, folks, Germany is home to the Audobahn, but Kai's family aren't Audoban people, I guess...it was slow going. I ended up sleeping most of the ride back since I was exhausted, but it was slow nonetheless. Twice I have been to this country, and never have I gone over 80 kph...not cool.

Once we got to Kai's parent's house the kids were excited to take a dip in their pool. That responsibily fell on Kai, as the pool was cold, and I wasn't in the mood for a dip. I don't adjust well to time change...or foreign countries...

So, we spent a day with his family and then that Sunday we went to a nearby indoor water park. This is something I love about Germany...you can't walk 5 ft without slamming into an indoor "spa"...something the US needs to catch onto.

The trip to the water park caused a bit of controversy as Kai's mother has been at a residential treatment program due to sleep issues since having surgery in April, and we didn't get home before she left. But that falls on Kai, not me. Although in their minds it might have been my fault...who knows!

The kids had fun at the water park, though, and it was nice to get out and do something. It is hard when you go anywhere that isn't babyproofed (my parent's don't have babyproofed homes, either) and it is SO much work and hassle trying to make sure the kids don't destroy something, so getting out is always good.

The last few pics are at a park/playground near Kai's house. We biked there since that is just what you do in Germany. We did get caught in a downpour on the way home, but what can ya do. His parents let us borrow bikes and got us a trailer for the kids for our RV expedition, which came in very handy. I think being able to ride the bikes so much helped me not gain 100lbs since our diet for the month mostly consisted of carbs, carbs, and more carbs...

Anywho, that about explains the story of picture set #1. I am tired so tomorrow I shall continue on with set #2.

Goodnight!