A fun way to wake up...

Yesterday morning we woke up to find an organic street market right outside our front door. Apparently this happens every Saturday. The entire street is blocked off and vendors sell items from flowers, fresh produce to childrens clothing and fresh fish. It was completely unexpected, by me, but so cool to find first thing in the morning. The picture doesn't really do it justice. I wish I could somehow post the atmosphere better. But, this will have to do for now.

Ja!

"Ja" means yes in Deutsch in case you, like I, didn't know. It is also a highly popular generic brand name for groceries here in Deutschland. So, many of my groceries say "Ja" on them (pronounced "yah" to help those of you, like me, that have a limited German vocabulary). I just think that it is one of the greatest brand names ever. I also think that it is pretty cool that you can get an okay beer here for .29 euros and a good beer for .55 E at that same grocery store. And, that an excellent bottle of wine there is only 4E! No wonder it is the drink of choice here. I made Tyler take the above picture after my first grocery store trip, with Stephanie, the first night of our arrival. I purchased a few other items, but these were some of my fun "I can't believe we're in Germany" buys. The wunderbar made me think of you Mom, and I couldn't resist it at the check out line (and yes it was).
The TV Tower at Alexander Platz is within walking distance from us, well it's a short jog, Tyler jogged there the second day we were here. I still stick to the park because I'm afraid if I get lost I'll never find my way back through the many streets... with hard to pronounce names. Maybe I'll be braver in a few weeks, we shall see.
and the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) too Ja!

Off and running...

We've arrived and we have been adjusting and enjoying our new Summer home all at once, quite the multi-taskers. Here is a peak into our life for the Summer. ( Where we are staying and what nots. ) I keep having these moments like "I can't believe ____." For example today we visited a memorial site with remnants from the Berlin Wall, and the monument sits on what used to be called No mans land, (the space in between East and West Berlin), and my kids took off running and playing with the Elmerick's kids and I thought, "Wow...my kids are playing in what used to be such a dangerous place, and there they go completely safe." It was a little strange like we shouldn't be there or at least not running around and having fun. Then other times like at dinner we were enjoying some Beer and Bratwursts and it felt surreal and oh so "German." The above picture shows the space in between the walls (no man's land) that the kids played in today.

The fam in front of a portion of the wall that still remains on exhibit.

The playground that sits right across the street from our apartment.Our apartment building for the next few months.
These are a bit out of order, but here are Tyler and the kids with all our belongings for the next few months. Maggie and Henry are still in their pj's from our night flight. I'll continue to keep you posted as I can, and I look forward to hearing about your Summer fun as well.

We're here!

Hey everyone, we made it safely to Berlin, praise the Lord! We left Charlotte May 21st at 5:30pm, but didn't actually get off the ground until around 7pm, needless to say we missed our flight in Munich and ended up with a six hour layover once we arrived in Germany. The kids did sleep on the Charlotte to Munich flight, Maggie slept for quite a bit, Henry only slept for about three hours! They both slept in the Munich airport and were exceptionally well behaved during both flights, which I accredit to much prayer and a very gracious heavenly Father. We are still trying to get used to our new sleep schedule. Maggie is having a much easier time of it than Henry. Tyler and I are doing great, and are quickly trying to learn as much German as we can to get by. There is a beautiful playground right across the street from our apartment and everything is within walking distance. There is a central-park-like area less than a mile away with even more playgrounds and running trails (which makes me very happy). Many folks around here speak English, which is very helpful, but not all. I am a little nervous about my first trip to the grocery store alone, but we are very thankful for our host family, the Elmericks, whom have been extremely generous, helpful and hospitable to us so far. Thanks for checking in and I'll hopefully post some pics soon, please continue to keep our family in your prayers!

It's never too late...

to tell your Mommy (ies) you love her. So, happy late Mother's Day to my Mom and to my Kansas Mom. I love you both so much and I am so grateful for everything you do and have done for me/us. You are the best two Grandma's in the world and we are blessed beyond words by you both. And, hope you continue to enjoy this blog dedicated almost entirely to you two... no offense to our other two readers.

Happy Mother's Day

Our mother (Carrie) is fantastic! We praise God for our Mommy! She is a major bigtime blessing to our family, and the bottom line is that we love her sooooooo much!

Cousin Fun

We love love our cousins Brody and Evan, and a few weekends ago they came up to play with us. We went to Discovery Place, but really we didn't need to do or go anywhere, because just being together is such a blast. And we are trying to get in as much time as possible with them before we head to Germany for the summer and miss out on invaluable cousin time.
When the Tylers come you get to play fun sword fighting games with your Uncle, as shown above. I think Tyler enjoyed this the most.

Your younger, yet stronger and bigger cousin takes you for horsie back rides which is always fun.
And of course it doesn't hurt that when they come the cuteness factor is off the charts.
We love you guys, come anytime...how about this thursday?