Prague Blog

One of the highlights of our Summer was going to Prague two weekends ago to visit our dear ole pals the Hunts. As you recall our friends moved to Prague five or six months ago to be missionaries with World Harvest. We have missed them greatly and it was such a blessing to be able to share a weekend with them and see there new European lives. And to say that Maggie was excited to reunite with her pal Sam may be the biggest understatement I can muster. But, the rest of our excitement levels were right there too.
Our weekend trip started with a Friday train ride. It was a beautiful trip filled with amazing country side views, lakes, rivers, castles, fields, old villages and just cool European type things that I'm not used to (including a 70ish yr. old man gardening in his briefs). I could/should dedicate a post just to the trip because it was just so fun.
This is one of a few castles we saw while on the train. Upper right hand corner on the hill.
Family shot of us in our seats right before we got to our final destination.

Reunited and it feels so good...Jake met us at the station and then drove us back to there place. Immediately the kids started playing dress up, Maggie looked desperately for the Princess outfit but came up empty handed. She was content with this dragon suit and Sam in his high-water elephant garb. In this pic it looks like Sam is trying to peer pressure Henry into dressing up too, "come on Henry all the cool kids are doing it."
We had lots of reunion type stuff to take care of off the bat. Maggie insisted on holding Foard as soon as he woke up from his nap, and of course anything big sister does Henry wants to do too. So here is a picture I like to call "little guy holds little guy."
Maggie and Sam were pretty darn cute and aside from a couple of age appropriate injury related incidents they were very excited to be together again.
When we weren't out sightseeing pretend was the name of the game. They played "puppet show," cars, built pillow forts and here they are pretending to take a bath (note the hair washing).
We spent most of Saturday checking out the sights. Before we went to Prague everyone gave me the same response when I told them I was going there for the weekend. They'd say "oh Prague is beautiful." I really thought they just couldn't think of a better description, but it's true the place is beautiful.
We went to old towne square first and ran into these guys. And I think Sam's response was most fitting he said "look those guys are pretending to be animals."
Here's a panoramic of the square with a cute little Sam to the right.
And, here we are on the Charles bridge getting our picture taken by a complete stranger who clearly had issues with babies/toddlers because Foard barely made it in and Henry got cut out altogether. Geesh...he did however capture our amazing hosts and so we'll keep it. (P.S. Melissa didn't get the memo that we would all be wearing "Euro Gray.")
After we had done quite a bit of walking around we thought a nice boat ride through the city would be fun. So, we bought our tickets from some guy dressed like a sailor (who clearly knew the waters) and followed him down a dark ally to (thankfully) this cute little place, complete with live accordion music, ice cream and beer for the whole family.
Henry had just woken up from a stroller nap, I think this picture shows just how confused he may have been feeling.
Enjoying the boat ride.This is Sunday morning tea and movie time. The kids watched Pinocchio for the first time and the two big kids were quite enthralled with it, I think we lost Henry after Jimney Crickets "When you wish upon a star."
Sadly the weekend came to a close and we had to leave. We had such a great time and even though the Hunts now only speak fluent Czech we felt like it went well. The good news is that they are coming to Berlin next weekend to visit us Berliners. So, the fun isn't over and perhaps that's why it wasn't nearly as hard to say good-bye this time. Stay tuned...

Family fun

We're still here in Berlin, but our time here is getting shorter and shorter. This makes me sad in a lot of ways. I will miss my quick walks to the neighborhood grocery store (Rewe), the beautiful weather (which yes even includes the sun that shines from 4am-10pm), the beautiful buildings, the quiet atmosphere, our European flat/home with the playground and fountains across the street, the bakery below us with delicious fresh pastries and breads baked to German perfection. The organic ice cream shop that beckons us at least twice a week will leave and ache in my sweet tooth. And, I will absolutely miss our Saturday family days where we tour around the city and discover all the perks that come with being in such an historical, eccentric, bustling place. My new German friends have made a permanent place in my heart and I will miss seeing them as well (this is something I don't even want to write about yet). Yes I will miss it here, but I still have a few more weeks and I plan on enjoying every little piece of this place that I can. And, of course I do miss you USA but that's for another posting...Two weekends ago we headed to the East side Gallery and checked out the wall art that resides on some of the last remains of the wall.
The gallery sits directly beside this little river, and the view is pretty fab. This picture was taken on the bridge that connects East to West.
And across the bridge we found a quaint little "farm," situated in the middle of some random place in East Berlin. We never would have found it without the recommendation of our local pals.

And right behind the farm was a park the kids indulged in after we ate our picnic lunch.And, of course no trip is complete without riding a train or several throughout the city. This is one of Henry's favorite parts of Berlin. It never gets old for that kid.
Here's Henry enjoying a late afternoon snack of milk and cookies. I had to get a picture of his little black/chocolate tooth, it was even funnier in person.

Dance Fest on HufelandstraBe!

Montag

I think I mentioned in my last blog that Mondays are our family days. The days set aside for our family to be together, and as of late we have been using them to tour Berlin. So, last Monday we headed into the heart of the city and visited the Berliner Dome (pictured above).
We enjoyed a latte in front of the Brandenburg gate, surreal. Maggie and Henster enjoyed apfels.
We went to Humboldt University too (all of this is within walking distance from the other landmark). This is one of the campuses Tyler and the interns are doing research on while we're here. I (Carrie) actually got to take a tour of it Saturday with the interns and found out some interesting facts about it. For example it used to be a castle and it was the most prominent Univ. in Germany before WWII. After the war many of the Jewish prof.'s had been forced out and of course it was pretty much destroyed during the war (along with most of Berlin), so it lost its standing as the leading University. Today it has been rebuilt and is thriving once again. Also you should know that Einstein taught here and I went into the very auditorium where he once taught E=MC2. And I feel a little bit smarter for having done that.
Okay back to Monday, we toured the Reichstag. From wikipedia it is the Berlin location where the German legislature met from 1894 to 1933 and again since 1999. It is a massive building and at the top is a clear circular dome that you can walk up and around in and see the neighboring buildings and the Berlin skyline.
Maggie, Tyler and myself opted for the free auditory tour.
Right outside the building stands the holocaust memorial. It is like a labyrinth and very easy to get lost in if you aren't careful.
This is the bird's eye view of a part of it.
Then we walked over to Potsdamer Platz for lunch at the Sony Center.
And then finished the morning with a stroll through Tiergarten and then quickly headed back for naps. And we didn't make it back before Henry conked out on Tyler's shoulder, but he was transported all the way home and into bed for a gloriously long nap. Partly in thanks to our full full morning and his early rising.

Guten tag from Henry!

A.K.A. Cutest little 20 month old ever!

My Girl

Or alternate title "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..."

Spaß in der Nachbarschaft

It feels like once we arrived here in Berlin we haven't stopped going at full speed. It's been great and we are so excited to be here and experience as much of the culture as we can in our short time here. I still have that "I can't believe I'm in Germany" feeling, not sure when or if that will go away. But, routine is starting to take shape and I really enjoy being here. It's so nice being able to walk to the grocery store, church, the playground, restaraunts, coffee shops, bakeries, art exhibits, friends homes, etc. The buildings are beautiful to look at and the people are so helpful and many speak English...not all (and that makes for interesting interaction). But, God is good and our time here has been rich in so many ways, and we still have much to learn and we have many areas to grow in. So, here are some snippets from the past few weeks.

We started our time here by helping out with a family festival. There were games, face painting, snacks (delicious ones), balloon animal making, and more.
Henry doing his thang at the craft table. I believe he was painting a beautiful paper plate.
Henry enjoyed being rolled around in this barrel by his friend Grace.
Tyler's main role was schmeiken (face painting) extrodinaire. He did a really great job.
The final day of the festival was rained out so we headed back to the family center to finish it with fellowship and some more "grown up" schmeiken and balloons.
Tyler and I bravely let Maggie paint our faces, mine was quickly washed off but Tyler wore his proudly.
We visited the Berlin zoo last week and enjoyed ourselves despite the overcast weather.
It was an awesome zoo, there were animals we didn't even get to see.
This is still inside the zoo, it was such a beautiful zoo.

Since we were close to this landmark, near the zoo, we took our picture here. Not even sure what it's called, but we had this inner tourist feeling that we should be taking our picture with it.
These are our three interns, Andrew, Seth and Joseph they are great guys. They joined us on our little adventure and we are so glad because there's no way we could have handled two kids and a stroller and several trains with just the two of us, seeing as how our kids refused to ride in the stroller for most of the day. This is the guys with the kiddos in the train station, it's how we get around anywhere outside of our neighborhood.
Back home, Maggie has been working on her photography skills. She took this picture of Tyler in front of the Baal fountain in front of our flat.
Henry is trying his best to blend in with the locals, in both fashion and speech. He's been known to say "Tschüss" (pronounced like "choos") which means bye and "danke" which means thanks.

Last week RUF and MTW sent a vision trip team to Berlin for a few days and one of the many perks of having them here was that the kids and I got to join them for some delicious traditional German cuisine. Shown above is a cabbage roll (not sure what it's German name is) and schnitzel (breaded pork).
While here in Berlin, Maggie has had to take on some more sisterly duties. Like changing "doo-ties," sorry I couldn't resist. Truly the most impressive part of the above picture is that Henry is letting her help. Usually this guy is trying his darndest to escape during a diaper change.
We've been frequenting all the nearby "spielplatz" (playgrounds).
And, we ended this weekend by participating in a neighborhood arts festival. There were art exhibits and music at different locals in our hood.' It was a lot of fun and a great way to wrap up a beautiful weekened.