At Aunt Jeanie's House

 

Because I have lost the ability to pick out just a few photos to post, here are a ton of photos from our visit to Aunt Jeanie's two weeks ago. Jordan was a tad bit jealous of Madeline when we first got there.

Pretty sure Ben was pointing to Jordan's awesome train set.  Maddy was thrilled to be with the kids.

I think this is a Daddy smile.

Rachel can hold Maddy longer than most people can.

See?  Still not crying.  She's even smiling!

It was sometime during that week that Maddy finally got her foot into her mouth.

The boys had a blast in the backyard.

I'm really glad the cousins had so much fun together.



At Mary & Dan's House

 While we were in PA a couple weeks ago, my cousin Mary and her husband Dan had a family get-together at their house.

Everyone inside because of the rain :(

Miss Maddy hanging out on the floor.

Being a tough audience for Aunt Janie.

With Nana and Aunt Jeanie.

 

At first she wasn't so sure about the pillow Mary laid her on, but then she realized how awesome it was. 

She didn't want to let go of her new Nemo toy.

 

Ben harrassed just about everyone there for their electronics.  No laptop or phone was left untouched. 

I remember when Ben was Cooper's age and just starting to walk.  He got into a lot less trouble then.

Speaking of getting into trouble...he snuck upstairs, burrowed through some of Mary's things, found some Christmas tinsel and dragged it down the stairs, through some rooms and into the kitchen.

He was pretty proud of himself.  I was kind of mortified.  It's a good thing he's so cute. 

Visiting Lancaster County

 Hanging out with Aunt Janie.

 Madeline playing with her cousin Sophie.

Playing with cousin Cooper.  He's such a cutie!

 Ben's first visit to Chocolate World at Hersheypark!

 The free ride at Chocolate World, with Aunt Katie and Sophie.  All the kids had a good time.

 At first it was hard to tell if Ben liked the ride.

 He was so quiet and serious.  But as soon as the ride was over he asked to go on it again!  And that was before the free chocolate at the end.

 With Nana at Aunt Janie's house.  We spent a lot of time there.

 Relaxing at Chris and Rachel's house.  They  were unbelievably kind to us and invited us to stay at their house for the week.  It was so much better than staying at  a hotel.

 

My parents sold their house and the closing was during the week we were there.  But their friends Terri and Tony from the old neighborhood invited us to bring the kids over to use their pool.

It was Madeline's first time in a pool.  She did not like the sun.

She was fine as long as Mike kept her in the shade.  Ben had a blast with his floaties and the pool noodles.



All the sun and pool time wore out both of the kids.

Photos from the family get-togethers coming!

Leaving Germany

Before the movers came to take our household goods, we moved into a hotel.  Ben packed up a few toys and books to take along.  He was really excited.

 Our first night in the German hotel.  We ordered schnitzel for delivery but got spaghetti for Ben.

 After a mixup with our reservation, we ended up getting adjoining rooms like we requested so there were two separate sleeping areas: one for me and Maddy, who still wakes up a lot at night, and one for Mike and Ben (he slept on a couch).

 There wasn't a lot of space, but it was so much better than all of us squeezing into one hotel room.  And the main room had a kitchenette which made keeping and making food for the kids a whole lot easier.  But keeping Ben occupied was a challenge.  He didn't care about the TV because all the channels were in German, and he got pretty stir-crazy.  He did look forward to the hotel breakfast every morning.

 Waiting at the passenger terminal the morning of our flight.

 Still waiting.  They finally let us through security so we could wait at the boarding gate.  We waited over an hour past the boarding time because of a delayed fuel truck.

 Once we finally got to our seats, we waited again to take off.  All told, we were delayed two and a half hours.  At least Ben was happy to be on an airplane. 

 Before takeoff.  Madeline may look happy in her car seat on the plane, but I can assure you that this is not representative of what the flight was like.  She was not a happy camper.

 Shortly after takeoff.  Ben was pointing to a map that showed the flight path.

Many, many hours into the flight (it took about 9 hours).  Maddy desperately wanted to lie down flat so  I tried to make a little bed for her with my sweater and her blanket and teddy bear.  She only slept for about half an hour the whole flight.

 We landed in Baltimore, and my parents were waiting for us with a rental SUV big enough to haul all of us and our luggage to Pennsylvania.  The drive took about 90 minutes and Ben slept for a good bit of it.

Maddy was thrilled to pieces to be off of that plane.