Does that title sound too cheesy? I'm thinking about changing our blog title to something a little catchier than "The Clarks"... Suggestions? Anyone? Please?
Okay, on with the post {because I'm sure you guys want to see some pictures :)}
Here are some pictures from my actual birthday-day. We played at the park with our friends, the Klucks. Skylar is a few days older than Abigail (we met during "baby class"), and it's so fun watching them interact. After a few hours at the park we went back to their house to cook out and enjoy some birthday cake!!
Abigail climbing stairs to...
The slide!
She loved the slide, I think we could have went up and down all day long!
Attempting to feed the ducks!
But they were full...
here Abby is very disappointed they didn't want her crackers.
Friends!
Abigail and Mommy blowing out the candles!
Up until the rain started this last week, Abigail and I have been spending a lot of time outside, and I've been loving it! The other night I made Abby come in, because the wind was ridiculous and we were getting pelted with little helicopters (the seed-pod thingys, not real helicopters gone wild), and she threw a tantrum. That's becoming the norm... throwing tantrums when we have to come in from outside. She just loves it, which makes me really happy, but can cause obvious problems at times!
When we play outside Abby loves to blow bubbles (actually she loves them in the house, too) and explore...
Holding bubbles while playing with rocks
"Uh oh!"
she got caught playing in the dirt!
Checking out my tulips!
"Enough with the pictures already, mom!"
Last weekend we had a bachelorette party for my friend Sara {who I went to HS with, who lives just around the corner from us, and who is a great babysitter!}. Okay, "we" didn't have it, but "I" attended it. Friends from home came down for the party and we had a great time! Don't worry ~ we were very responsible ~ there was a party bus that took us everywhere, so no one had to drive (definitely the way to go, by-the-way!).
Abigail and I before I left...
She was less than impressed, I think
WCHS Class of 2001
Okay, that's it for tonight! Remember... I need help with a new blog title!
Sunday morning we woke up, reluctantly, and headed for Dachau. It wasn't that we didn't want to go to Dachau, we did, but that we still weren't feeling 100% and it was rainy. I don't watch the news here in the states, so why would I act any differently on vacation? Because I didn't check the weather, I didn't realize that it was going to be overcast, rainy, and down right cold on Sunday. When we got on the bus for Dachau, it wasn't terribly cold, but it was when we arrived!! Our tour guide left something to be desired (a lot to be desired!) and it was lightly raining the entire time. Abigail started balling about half way through the walk down to the eternal flame, so we left the camp area and headed to the cafe to warm up and grab some lunch.
Dachau wasn't an execution camp, but a work camp, hence the "Albeit Macht Frei" at the gate entrance - "Work Make Free". This was, of course, a lie, but something that the Nazis used to improve morale, if that was possible. Dachau was the first Nazi camp in Germany and was used as a model for many that followed. After the American's raided Dachau, in 1945, much of the camp was destroyed. The barracks that is currently standing was later rebuilt after being destroyed. A lot of what is there is memorials. There is a museum that contains a lot of pictures and Jordan watched a video (I had to stay outside - in the museum - with Abigail).
I had been to both Auschwitz and Dachau before and, have to say that, to me, Auschwitz is much more striking. Of course, Auschwitz was an execution camp, so its story is a lot more inconceivable and heart breaking. I think that Jordan was left wanting more, and said that it didn't hit him like he thought it might (in other words, he didn't have a whole lot of emotions while there). I know that might sound harsh, but it's one thing to look at pictures, and a building that looks fairly new. However, that night he couldn't sleep very well and was up thinking about what he saw. He stated the next morning that it took awhile for him to process everything.
The Holocaust and Nazis are something that has always fascinated me. In my line of work I see hate. Real, true hate. And, I don't understand it. Any of it. What Hitler did and the kind of hate that he had to feel toward another human being is truly incomprehensible for me. I've done research papers on the Holocaust and Auschwitz (another reason I may be partial to Auschwitz over Dachau) and that is something that I always struggle with. The hate.
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Monday we did a lot of hanging out. We made a trip into Garmish to shop and we went swimming again. We ate at an amazing restaurant that had great, authentic, food. It was highly recommended and we would also recommend it!
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After Jordan and Abby were swimming Abigail made a be-line for the arcade. According to Jordan, she headed straight for the flying game and climbed in the seat (I was doing laundry, so I missed that part).
Dada tied her towel around her waist ~ doesn't she look like a big girl?!
Some beautiful things on our walk in town
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Our awesome food at Zum Wildschutz
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Tuesday we went into Munich. We had the greatest tour guide and had a wonderful time. Abby and Jordan got to watch the Glockenspiel for the first time and we learned how the Oktoberfest came to be:
In 1810, King Ludwig I (then only a prince) married {this was a big deal, because he was a major bachelor (bachelor = player)}, and they had a huge celebration. The citizens decided that this should continue every year and it still does today! Kind of a cool story, I thought. I'm not sure how much of it is true, but I like it!
Munich, in a nutshell
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I just loved this picture... you can't get pictures like this around here (with those kind of buildings in the background!)
Wednesday we did some more hanging out and went into Garmish again. We ate at a cute Italian place for lunch and later that day had our family picture taken (I'm still waiting on that 8x10 to arrive). That night we had an "anniversary" dinner at the Pullman Place (I know daring, right? after getting food poisoning there?). We ordered some chocolate fondue for desert and Abigail loved it. She's really gotten into dipping lately and it was adorable!!
Her and her dada (in her dress, which he loved)
Dipping in the chocolate!
Thursday it was time to leave... we took the train into Munich to get on our plane. We arrived over two hours early, but I waited in line to check our luggage forever. When it was finally my turn, the lady told me we needed to be making our way through security because our flight would board in 12 minutes. Seriously?! Needless to say it was a very emotional good bye for Jordan and I. Once we boarded Abigail asked for dada, and I had to tell her (while trying to maintain my composure) that we had to tell dada bye bye. She waved and said "dada?". It brought me to tears and take off was a bit rough. After we were in the air for a little bit, the girl next to me (she had the window seat, and I had the isle seat) moved, so Abby and I had a little "nook". It was great, though we spent most of our time walking the isle. Abigail barely cried at all, but stayed awake for the entire international flight. Once we left Chicago for KC, however, she was out. She slept for that entire flight, but woke as we were taxing and cried and cried, nothing would calm her. Once we were finally in the car on our way home, she fell asleep again and slept until we got home (refused to eat dinner) and slept all night.
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Our trip, if you couldn't tell, was amazing. We miss Jordan like crazy ("dada" is literally the first word out of her mouth in the morning, and the last before she falls asleep at night), but, since it's almost May, we only have 4ish months left!!
No, that is not a joke. Ashley, at Lil Blue Boo is giving away a custom dress. All you have to do to enter is go here and leave a comment telling her what t-shirt you would send for her to use if you win! So simple... also, if she reaches 2000 facebook fans during this giveaway, then she'll give away two dresses!!
I decided to take a break in the vacation posts for the moment...
We had a fantastic Easter! The weather was beautiful and Abigail had her first haircut! It was basically a bang trim, but it counts. We went to Shear Madness in Olathe, and it was so neat. First, Abigail sat in a car to get her haircut, and they had movies for the kids to watch (seriously, they had their own screens!). Abby didn't watch her movie (chipmunks) but tried to start her car, and pretended to drive it. It was really cute.
We're going to call this her "before" picture because you can see how long her bangs are.
(she was eating chocolate chips when I was making cookies)
These are the "during" and "after"
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She looks like such a big girl now, no longer a baby. I know this is the cut that every little girl gets, but I'm not going to lie, I'm not really a fan of the straight across bangs. I wish she would just let me put a clip in with them brushed to the side. But, she won't and she is still beautiful, so until she's old enough to choose her own hair style, mommy gets to pick!
On with Easter... after getting Abby's haircut we came home and my mom got right to work cooking Easter "dinner". We had decided to have dinner Saturday night with some close family friends, rather than doing a large brunch on Easter morning. After Abigail's nap we got out her four-wheeler power-wheels that Grannie and Papa gave her for Christmas. She loved it! She still doesn't quite get the concept of holding the button down to make it go, but she thinks it's pretty cool when she makes it go!
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Chatting with grandpa
Our family friends have two little girls (almost 3 and 20months) and are expecting a little boy next month. We were thrilled to have them over and I loved watching the girls interact. They sat at Abby's little table for dinner, which was adorable. I was really impressed with how well all three of them did.
Abigail and her friends at their dinner table!
The next morning the Easter Bunny had came. He brought Abigail a John Deere sleeping bag, some clothes and, of course, some candy. After hunting for eggs, and going to breakfast at Bob Evans, Abigail got to open the gigantic Kinder Eier that we brought back from Germany...
In case you've never had a Kinder Eier before, it's simply a chocolate shell (shaped like an egg ~ usually the size of a real egg) with a toy inside. The chocolate is really good ~ Abigail loved it (as you can see above) ~ and the toys are usually something small and silly. This was a really big, the size of my hand, and the toy was a little box, that locked with a lamb on top. Kind of cool, really.
After the opening of the Kinder Eier my family headed back to Nebraska, Abigail took a nap and we went to my kickball game. We had a fantastic weekend and can't wait for next Easter, when daddy will be home!!
Wednesday morning we checked out of our hotel (leaving a lot of things there, so we didn't have to attempt to travel with everything we had brought) and boarded a train for Salzburg, Austria! The total ride was supposed to take 3 hours and we had to switch trains in Munich and only had 15 minutes to do it. Never having been in a "real" train station before, I had no idea what we were in for. There were lots of people everywhere and we had to almost sprint through the station to make our connection. But, we made it, with about 5 minutes to spare. I had a lot of anxiety about traveling with my adorable babe, and for the most part, it was all for nothing. The people we met along the way were all very kind and didn't seem to bat an eye when she would start to get fussy. The only real issue we had was that she wanted to be down and walking around. And, that's understandable, I think we all did!
Traveling (click to enlarge)
The bottom, middle photo is a child seat in a cab - the regular cab seat just folded into this amazing child seat, and Abby loved it!
Tuesday night we stayed up pretty late trying to plan our trip to Salzburg... trying to find a hotel and figure out what sights to see and restaurants to eat at. We found the perfect hotel through Trip Advisor. We stayed at the Wolf Dietrich Hotel and Residence. It was the picture-perfect European hotel. I loved it from the moment we entered the door. We had a "king" sized bed for Jordan and I (two twins pushed together ~ I love it!) and Abigail had her own nook with a twin sized bed. It was perfect! (Okay, the "king" sized bed things was a little annoying, but it was still cute) It was only a 5 minute walk from the Old Town and the most recommended restaurant was just around the corner. Oh yeah, and they had cake and coffee every afternoon!
Our hotel ~ after they made up our beds with Abigail's stuff
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We checked into our hotel and relaxed a little (Abigail tried to make some phone calls - as pictured above - this happened so much I unplugged the phone) before setting out for dinner. We decided to check with the front desk (and Jordan wanted to grab a cup of coffee ~ apparently the best coffee ever!) to ask about a restaurant that had "authentic" Bavarian food. While we were in the lobby/sitting room we met a great woman named Claire. She is Irish, but from England now, and we had a great time chatting with her, and ended up inviting her to dinner. Dinner was... okay. It was the most recommended restaurant on Trip Advisor and the one our concierge recommended, but it was just okay. I ordered the bratwurst and sauerkraut and the brats were okay, but the sauerkraut was really good.
SIDE STORY: On our way to dinner we let Abigail walk - she was learning that she had to hold onto Mommy or Daddy's hand if she wanted to walk and not be carried or in the stroller. Well, there was another little girl (who we later learned was almost exactly Abby's age) walking, too. The girls locked eyes and ran, literally ran, to each other. They held hands and took off walking down the street!! It was adorable!! We only got one picture and it doesn't come close to doing the moment justice ~ it was so funny!
~ Lily and Abigail ~
Later that night we put Abigail to bed and watched WALL-E (did I mention our awesome hotel had movies you could borrow?!). I had wanted to see this movie since it came out and it turned out to be a really cute movie. Jordan and I both enjoyed it (don't tell him I told you that!).
Thursday morning we started our day with a traditional Bavarian breakfast ~ breads, deli-style meats, Nutella, yogurt and coffee (or in my case juice, and Abigail's milk). Abby really liked the Nutella with bread, and I really miss their rolls now that we're home. {I actually tried to bring two home with me (from Germany, not Austria ~ that would have been pushing it) but they didn't fare too well.}
Once we ate breakfast we set out for a walking tour of the city. Jordan had copied a few pages out of a buddy's travel book that had a self-guided walking tour of Salzburg spelled out. We attempted to follow it the best we could, but we skipped over a few things. For example, Salzburg is Mozart's birth place. Okay, well, we both enjoy Mozart's music, but neither of us have a real desire to dig too much deeper, so we skipped some of the Mozart stuff.
{Side note: We took the Kelty Tour backpack carrier for Abigail and it was wonderful. I can say that because Jordan carried her, but she loved being up high and never whined about having to be in it. I was able to check it as a "baby item" on the plane, too, so it was free. I would highly recommend it ~ I bought mine from a co-worker, so I don't know that they actually make this style anymore, but I do know that Kelty's are the best!}
Here are a few pictures from the beginning of our day. If anyone is interested in all of the places we saw, let me know and I'll try to get another copy of the pages, so I can get the names of everything correct, we gave our copy to Claire on Friday morning.
The city of Salzburg, Austria
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In the morning we explored the city (via the walking tour) and then went up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. We took the little tram-thingy {yes, that's the technical term :)} up but walked down. The views from the top were amazing and I took a lot of pictures. We took a "guided tour", which translated to "here's an hand-held audio guide, walk around", and Abigail loved it! She loved it because she had a hold of one of the audio guides at all times (or she would scream), and got to learn all about the fortress.
On our walk down the hill/mountain from the fortress we found an Amber shop and went in to browse. Jordan found some Amber that had a mosquito in it that wasn't horribly expensive, so we now have an ancient mosquito in our house and I'm thinking of bringing back the dinosaurs ~ anyone want to help me?? :) Anyways, while we were in the Amber shop Abigail fell asleep in the backpack and it was so adorable!
Our Sleeping Beauty
We made it down the hill/mountain, grabbed a pretzel and finished up our walking tour of the city. We wanted to rest up a little bit, and hopefully let Abigail continue her nap, so we made our way back to our hotel. Well, we rested, sorta, and Abigail called home. Don't worry, the phone was unplugged, but I don't think she slept for one minute, and spent most of her time "calling" people.
We realized, after our nap, that we didn't go to the Gardens in Mirabell Palace. It wasn't really near the other sites we saw during the day, so we decided that would be our next destination. I was slightly disappointed because we could tell that in a few weeks the place would be breath-takingly gorgeous. There were tons of flowers planted everywhere, but nothing was blooming yet. Here are a few pictures.
The Gardens in Mirabell Palace
Abigail had her first gelato cone on one of our walks, too. We ordered one scoop for the three of us to share, and sat down to enjoy it. A few minutes later the lady brings a cone that she had just barely dipped in vanilla out to Abigail. We let her go to it. It was really funny because she thought she should eat the point first! There wasn't anything inside the cone, so I didn't think anything of it (she was sitting on Jordan's lap) well... they both ended up a sticky mess and Abby got a new - and very expensive - shirt out of the deal.
Thursday night we ate dinner at a little cafe that was good, but really slow. We were growing frustrated, because Abigail was getting restless, but it all turned out okay in the end. After we put Abby to bed, Jordan and I watched The Sound Of Music for the first time (for both of us!). It was a wonderful movie, and I'm honestly glad that I got to see the city of Salzburg before I watched the movie. It was so fun to watch it and say "I was there!".
My two favorite people drinking up!
{notice Abigail's adorable shirt : )}
Friday morning we checked out of our wonderful hotel (after another great Bavarian breakfast!) and took the train back to Garmish and our resort. We had dinner that night at the Pullman Place (the nice restaurant at the resort) and Jordan and I both ended up with food poisoning, so Saturday was mostly spent in bed.
Phew ~ that was a long post! Can you tell we loved Salzburg?!
Today I turned another year older... the big 2-7. I've never really been afraid of birthdays, and this year isn't any different. The difference between this birthday and my last few birthdays is that I have Abigail and I don't have Jordan. I promise this isn't going to be a sad post, but that is definitely something that is in the front of my mind today as I celebrate with friends.
My friends. I have realized, more than ever, this year how wonderful my friends really, truly, are. Yesterday I celebrated my birthday with some of my close friends here in KC. Amber, who I went to high school and college with (for those of you who don't know), set up a late, surprise, lunch for me! What a great friend, right?! She coordinated everything without me knowing a thing (other than we were having lunch, and I should have someone watch Abby). We met at 2 at the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza and ate outside. It was a beautiful day, and I should have known to put sunscreen on, but I didn't, and I'm paying for that mistake today :)
Anyway, here are some pictures from yesterday:
My Happy Birthday Cheesecake!
(Amber had coordinated this, too)
Me and Amber
"Us" in front of the fountain at The Cheesecake Factory
Later that evening Abigail and I had dinner with one of my other best friends from high school. She is in town for a conference for work and luckily we were able to meet up for a few hours. I don't have any pictures from dinner, but we had a great time at Macaroni Grill.
Today Abigail and I have a play date at Antioch Park with our friends, the Klucks. Then, we're going to their house for dinner and cake :) Then, at 8, I have a kickball game! Right now, though, I'm waiting for Jordan to sign onto Skype so I can at least talk to my husband on my birthday...
Jordan and I took Abigail to the daycare on post and went skiing, or should I say attempted to ski? Neither of us had ever skied before, so we decided that lessons would be a good idea. I didn't want to commit to too much, so I voted for the two hour lesson, and won : ) It was an interesting experience to say the least. I should start by saying it snowed, a lot. It was those huge clumps of really wet snow, too, which I'm told would have made things slicker for us. I can definitely say it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I'm not sure what I thought, but by the end of the first hour I was getting very discouraged. I learned that I'm very right leg dominant (which meant that turning to the right was difficult for me) and I wasn't very good at going slow (which I'm told was because it was so slick). Our instructor was really nice and told us that we made it farther than some of the 1/2 day classes make it, so that's good, right?
Jordan was much more into it than I was. He skied down the big hill seen in the pictures, twice! I didn't attempt it once. I was afraid I might just die. That might sound a bit dramatic, but I fell so many times, and felt my knee pop at least three times, so I was afraid that at the very least, I might lose my knees.
Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad we went skiing and it's an experience that I'm glad I can say I've had ~ I skied in the Alps! I'm just not sure I'll be making any trips to Colorado specifically to ski in the near future, that's all!
Our skiing adventure!
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That night, during Abigail's bath, she got a Mohawk ~ mainly to show dada how long her hair is getting...
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That's it for tonight ~ the next three days were spent in Salzburg, Austria, and I think that part of the trip deserves it's own post!!
Attempting to feed the ducks!
