The Baptism

Keira and Lennon were baptized on Sunday, January 4th. There are a few extra pictures in this post, since that was the main point of the whole trip.

This is Iria's 500+ year old church.

Inside, Keira takes the plunge.

Lennon did great, until he discovered a fun new toy in the form of the pew's creaky coat hook. Sounds can carry in that old church :)

Lukas and Katharine got a kick out of seeing Jesus in "his underpants" on the cross. It was the first time that our kids had ever seen a crucifix, and I don't think that they really quite understood what it represented. That aside, it was still a really nice service that was capped off with a fine rendition of "We Shall Overcome" (all the more impressive considering that most of the congregation spoke little to no English).

We had lunch at the church's reception hall across the street. The one Wi-Fi spot that I ever found in this town was in the far corner of this room, and it would sputter in and out if you weren't facing in the right direction.

Thorsten- Lennon and Keira's very cool godfather.

Keira slept, so Lennon was the center of attention.

Anna and Katharine had a lot of fun with the flowers that they got from the ceremony.

Thorsten's wife and mom decorated the baptism candles, and Iria's sister Anita made the baptism cakes. The candles are a big tradition in Germany, and they become little family heirlooms.

Lukas liked the deserts (especially the cheese cake).

Katharine liked posing.

After lunch we took the kids outside to a small castle that was adjacent to a playground. Europe is so cool...

I think Lukas started to get tired of posing, but that in itself makes for some fun pictures.

The Walter family: Stefan (older brother), Linda (mom), Anita (younger sister) and Iria.

Oma with Lennon and Keira.

Iria always jokes that she never gets to be carried, so after a few Swabish beers I swept her off her feet and got the photo to document it :)

Happy Birthday, Katharine!

This post will read as the 22nd, but since I have not officially gone to bed yet I'm going to still consider it the 21st :)


Happy Birthday, Katharine!

Ludwigsburg

We took a trip to Ludwigsburg early on, which was only a 15 minute train ride from Linda's house. The kids loved the train, and Iria and Katharine loved the shopping :)

Iria and Katharine returned to Ludwigsburg near the end of the trip to tour the castle/palace. We had planned to bring the boys, but Lukas had an inopportune temper tantrum which cost him (and Lennon and I) the trip. Maybe next time... I hear the gardens are amazing in Spring/Summer.

New Years

On New Year's Eve we all enjoyed an enormous "New Year's Pretzel" and then had some champagne. I succumbed to jet lag and fell asleep early, only to be roused from my bed at midnight by the sound of fire works. They were setting them off in the streets, and it felt like we were in the middle of an enormous fire works show. Very cool.

On New Years Day we visited Iria's sister on her farm in the country. Cousin Jacob immediately bonded with Keira, cousin Anna became fast friends with Katharine (dolls appear to be the universal little girl language), and Lukas took a walk outside with a barn cat.

Christmas

Lennon was still jet-lagged on Christmas and woke us up at 4:30 AM, but after that the day was a lot of fun. We opened presents later that morning, built snowmen after lunch, and then had a 'Jesus birthday cake' that my Mom made to finish the day off. Katharine's favorite presents were her 'Wizard of Oz' dolls, Lukas's was his pirate ship (we would end up lugging that thing to Germany), and Lennon loved his toy balls (he is easy and cheap to shop for).

Here come the pictures...

I took a ton of pictures on the trip, and then busted both my video and digital camera (suitcase casualties). I just picked up a new Sony HDR-SR11 that saves the footage to a hard drive (so maybe I’ll start posting more videos), but the Nikon D300 that I have been eyeing is still a bit out of reach. I’ll see what I can do with my iPhone and Iria’s pocket camera for the time being.

But back to my main point… I took a lot of pictures but I’m going to try and limit each post to ten pictures for now. I'm pretty busy at the moment, and that should leave me with a lot of fodder for future flashback posts.

Christmas week with Mom and Dad

The first week of our trip was spent at my parent's house in Newburyport, Massachusetts. There had been a big snowstorm the weekend before we arrived, so there was a lot of snow on the ground to play around in. Inside the kids read books, climbed furniture, played with toys, colored... and oh yeah- celebrated Christmas (but that is another post).

We're back

We got home tonight a little after 9 PM.

Much fun was had in Massachusetts and Germany, and pictures and stories should come shortly.

Bon Voyage!

We are off early tomorrow morning. Internet connectivity and the well being of my old laptop will determine how many posts I make from the road... so already it is not looking too hopeful.

Happy birthday, Lukas

Lukas turned 3 today.

I know this photo is a little blurry, but I accidently left the camera on manual and the flash didn't go off. Realizing my mistake, I started to pull the camera away during what had to have been a 5 second exposure. The photo should have been a blurry smudge of orange and red- but just like Lukas, it offered up an unexpected surprise right when I was least expecting it. We love our little guy.

Lukas:

- loves to play with cars, Batman, and dinosaurs
- loves sharks and crocodiles (or “croc-o-dagles”)
- loves to talk about his friend Aiden
- loves working on puzzles
- doesn’t like to share with Lennon
- sings Abba songs
- is left handed
- resides in what Katharine calls “Lukas Land”
- Describes ET as “just a little guy…”
- loves to follow Katharine around
- talks really well for his age
- shows absolutely no interest in the potty…
- yet will need to change his shirt whenever water drips on it
- drinks a glass of chocolate milk every night before bed

- loves eating edamame, broccoli and spaghetti

- loves reading Todd Parr and 'Cars' books

- sleeps sideways

- likes to catch the cats with Katharine and then she put them in her closet (she just told me about this one...)

Night and day

We went from 75 degrees to 25 degrees within 12 hours, so the kids ditched their swim suits and t-shirts and broke out their winter gear that we will be taking along with us on our upcoming trip. Keira loved her bunting (who wouldn't?) and Lennon hated his new shoes and coat (he had to waddle around rather than walk).

The last shot has nothing to do with this post, but it's cute so I added it.