A Load of B & S

Flashback

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:03:00 +0000

So I was going through our Halloween pictures, and I ran across this photo of Colby at the zoo. We went to Boo at the Zoo again this year -- although afterward I questioned my sanity. Colby is not an early riser and we had to get up early to make it before the huge crowds of people descended on the zoo. By the time we were done, however, it had gotten pretty warm and Colby was sick of his Wolverine mask sitting over his eyes. So we stopped to sit and he pushed his mask up, and I ended up taking this picture.But as soon as I saw it, I was instantly reminded of this one from his very first Halloween. Yes, his face is skinnier, but those cheeks look pretty much the same! I still have a hard time believing, even after 6 years, that this adorable kid is mine. Let's hope his little brother follows very closely in his footsteps!

I'll update soon....I hope...

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:22:00 +0000

I'm finally back at work, which is good and bad. I really love my job, but since it requires me to stare at a computer program for hours on end, by the time I get a break I have to give my stomach a break and stay away from the computer screen! I have lots of cute pictures from Halloween though, so I need to update! This weekend, I promise...

Lovely Fall

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Fall is by far my favorite season. There's just something wonderful about the leaves changing color, the smell of pumpkin and spices, the increase in storms, my cute Halloween decorations. Sometimes I wish Christmas was in November or October so I could combine the two! Although I have been trying my best by listening to Christmas music for the last week (don't tell Brian).

I'm especially grateful this year because I'm finally feeling well enough to participate in some our October traditions. I just realized last week that this is the first year Colby has spent Halloween in the same place as last year, so we actually have traditions to follow this year! We had to start with a visit to Thanksgiving Point for the Barnyard Boo. This year was even better because Grandma got to come. Colby had way too much fun, showing Grandma around the farm, showing off his horse-handling skills learned from horse camp this summer, and trying to make sure he did every activity twice! But my favorite part by far was his choice of face painting. The lady who does the face painting there, and she was there last year too, is amazing. Colby loved being a pirate for a day!

She lives!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:17:00 +0000

Yes, you've heard it right - I am finally off the IV fluids, weekly visits to the doctor, and the plethora of other fantastic medical procedures that have been the staple of my life for the last four months! I still have to take wonderful, life-saving Zofran to keep food down, but compared to a few months ago....I'll take it. But, most important of all, I can finally look at a computer screen for longer than 3 minutes without feeling sick! Much rejoicing.

This is an upgrade?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:13:00 +0000

So I've been upgraded. Usually that word implies something positive. A bigger hotel room, a nicer seat on the airplane. Something good. But that's the word my doctor used when he said I am no longer a nausea/vomiting pregnancy. I've been "upgraded" to hyperemesis gravidarum. That's Latin for "pregnant woman who vomits up everything." Now I'm hooked to an IV at home most of the day to treat my dehydration. Staring at a computer screen for longer than a few minutes just makes it worse, so don't think I hate you if I don't comment on your blog for a few months. I just want to keep my vomiting to a minimum. On the funny side though, Colby has a charming way of announcing what's going on when I make a dash for the bathroom by yelling, "Look out - she's gonna blow!" But then he did pick out some roses for me at the store the other day.

P.S. And before you suggest these, know that the following do not work: ginger, crackers, preggo pops, not thinking about how horrible I feel, getting out and walking around, motion sickness pills or bracelets, water, popsicles, or any standard anti-nausea medication. The doctor tried all of those before he resorted to a PICC line (long-term IV) and at-home IV fluids and vitamins. Sorry if that sounds grouchy, but after being told for the nth time that I really need to try ginger and crackers, I thought I'd just head that off at the pass. If you would like more information, a really good website is www.hyperemesis.org.

Plus one?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:11:00 +0000

Why yes, that is a second line on the test! And it was confirmed with a blood test at the doctor's. For those of you who don't know, we've been wanting to add to our family for about three years, so we're really excited! Colby has been telling his primary teacher for the last few months that after he turns 6, he's getting a baby sister. I'm not sure how accurate he is about the sister part, but my due date is March 12. The kid has amazing faith. I hope he gets his sister!

Hats Off to the Chef

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:01:00 +0000

So the other day I was making dinner and Colby decided he needed to help me. It's always nice when he chips in, although this time he announced that he would cut up the vegetables and meat, because, "I do it on Cooking Mama!" After lots of overprotective leading on my part and protests that he could do it himself on his part, we finally got the cutting done.

However before we could continue to the next step, Colby stops and says, "Mommy, you just be the girl chef and I'm Linguine (from Ratatouille)." Fine. I can go along with that, so I spout off a couple of lines about keeping your sleeves clean. Apparently that just doesn't do it, so we had to stop all dinner preparation and make chef hats for both of us. Then we finished making dinner. I really love his imagination!

Disclaimer: Skip this if you're squeamish

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:50:00 +0000

I pride myself on my iron stomach. As long as I'm not pregnant, I don't really get that grossed out by things. Blood. Guts. Nothing fazes me.

And then I woke up yesterday morning to find these in a Rubbermaid container on my kitchen table.We came home from a weekend away to find our sprinklers inexplicably turned on in the evening. After an hour, we decided there was something wrong with the timer. After Brian got the water shut off, he cracked open the timer box and we immediately backed off because there were hornets everywhere in there! It was still pretty light and warm, so Brian waited a few hours before going back out to kill them off (thank you, thank you, thank you wonderful hornet killer spray). I didn't really think about it after that.

And then I found them on my kitchen table. That's exactly what you want to see first thing in the morning, right? After trying really hard to make appreciative noises while Brian excitedly showed me the dead larvae (ugh!), I made him take the container to the garage because apparently we can't just toss them in the garbage. He wants to keep them. And he took pictures. Unfortunately for any who are interested in these things, I made him take them outside before he got a picture of the container. These are the moments when I realize that all men never really get rid of that inner boy who loves bugs.

Picture Vomit

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:56:00 +0000

Sorry for the gross title, but it seemed rather appropriate for the amount of catching up I have to do. I promise we haven't just been sitting around twiddling our thumbs for the last two weeks! Brian took advantage of the break in rain to finally wash his motorcycle and recruited Colby as a grunt to dry it off. I don't think Colby minded, though. He was pretty proud that Daddy finally let him touch the darn thing!

But on to the big news -- Colby finally sat through a haircut for the first time in 2 years without screaming. Thanks to the very helpful hint from a friend of ours, we took him to Cookie Cutters (http://www.haircutsarefun.com/). Thank goodness for those wonderfully talented people with the motorcycle seat and the video games! He got an actual haircut with layers blended, instead of the all-over buzz we had to give him when we had to hold him down and put safety goggles on him so the hair wouldn't get in his eyes. Trust me, it was a huge ordeal, so we all wanted it over as quickly as possible.
But I think he looks pretty dang good with the new one. Based on the pose, I think he thinks he looks good too. He's trying SO hard not to smile!

His other highlight was a day camp at Thanksgiving Point on horses. When I first asked him if he wanted to do the horse camp, the answer was an emphatic "No!" so I didn't really think he'd enjoy it - but he totally did! They brushed and combed a pony, toured the tack room, learned about saddles, rode on a pony and did some crafts. We're doing frogs next month. That should be interesting.Now the motorcycles and horses are really cool and all, but they can NOT compare to what is coming up next. That's right, the big event of June was. . .I learned how to use my Cricut to cut out vinyl letters!
Isn't it adorable? Colby has one for his art supplies too. I'm so in love with them. I love them almost as much as I love my bookcase. It was kind of a letdown, though, because now I really want to cut out some cute sayings for my walls - but I don't want to waste the effort since I want to move soon. So. . .maybe I should because I know as soon as I make my walls all cute, we'll have to move. Hmm. Food for thought.

Up, Up and Away!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:07:00 +0000

I'm not sure why, but during June most of the towns in Utah have city celebrations, and Springville is no exception. For the last two weeks our town has been celebrating Art City Days with lots of fun events like baby contests and children's parades and art contests. However, the top of our list for Art City Days was the balloon race. Colby and I had never seen a hot-air balloon up close, and Brian has been regaling us with tales of the one in New Mexico for years, so we definitely had to go check this one out.Ah, but notice that fake smile. We got tickets to take a tethered balloon ride and Colby was having none of it! Watching the balloons fill and take off was pretty cool, though, so we had to satisfy ourselves with that, albeit from a safe distance so Colby couldn't hear or feel the fire :)
The giant piggy bank balloon from the Bank of American Fork was my favorite by far, and now I'm really excited to see the balloon festival in New Mexico because Brian told me they have a huge cow, which I'm sure is really funny to see next to the giant hamburger balloon.Colby finally got excited just as we were leaving, after all the balloons had lifted off, when he noticed the face painting booth staffed by.....Springville High School cheerleaders, of course! I was surprised that he requested a balloon, but I think what really made him smile was how many times this one cheerleader told him he had adorable cheeks (he really does - they're so kissable!). What a fun morning!

Who needs room to work? But, books - they need their space.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:05:00 +0000

Plainly, I love books. I'd buy a book a day if I could, and it absolutely kills me when I have to get rid of one. As you can see, that doesn't happen too often :) It does mean that I ran out of room in our bookcases. We had two 5-shelf bookcases, side by side, in our office, and there was absolutely no room to add another magazine, let alone another book. To make matters worse, the shelves were starting to bow in the middle. So I've had my eye on a new bookcase for a while, and on Saturday we were finally able to go get it!
We got this at IKEA, and Brian finally got it assembled at about 9:30 Saturday night. After another 2 hours of rearranging and measuring, we finally decided on a spot for it in the office. I had to sacrifice my scrapbook table, but it's worth it because....... I have room for more books! You probably can't see but most of these shelves have books stacked two deep, but there's actually room to spare! This made my week.

Mother's Day Flashback

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:19:00 +0000

My Mother's Day this year was completely awesome...I just didn't have time to blog about it. Technically I still don't have time to blog about it, but I'm trying to develop my multitasking skills. Brian and Colby put in a lot of effort to make my whole weekend great, and I want to make sure everyone knows how wonderful my boys are!

They started first thing on Saturday morning with a great hike up to Timpanogos Cave. I had never been there, so Brian wanted to make sure we went at least once. Colby was really nervous about actually going in the cave, but he warmed up once that wonderfully patient guide got him his own flashlight to carry. He is still talking about how his favorite part was the Coldstone (some rock formations that look like an ice cream sundae) and Daddy liked the rocks that turned green with the flashlight behind them.

Their big surprise for Sunday was this. Brian made sure there was one waiting for me in the morning, and then kept them coming all day!

I found 10 of these posters throughout the day (the one below was my favorite, though), and all of them were complete surprises. Brian and Colby even made dinner and I got the wonderful luxury of taking a nap :) Now my big worry is how to top this for Father's Day!

Thanks!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:15:00 +0000

I was listening to Colby say his prayers tonight and I realized that I really wanted a record of how he does that at his point in his life. It's actually a great example to me because Colby never asks for anything in his prayers. He'll ask me during the day for certain things (a little sister is the most common), and I'll tell him that he needs to ask Heavenly Father for that, but invariably his prayers are full of "Thank thee"s: Thank thee for our house, Thank thee I could go to Zach's house, Thank thee I can help Mommy and Daddy, Thank thee I can play. The list just goes on and on, and he thanks Heavenly Father for everything he can think of. It's absolutely adorable! He's so awesome.

Bakugan Whats?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:17:00 +0000

Colby's new toy rage is all the Bakugan Traps. And, yes, I realize that unless you have a boy older than 3, you have no idea what a Bakugan is, let alone the subcategories. Suffice it to say (I love that phrase), they're really awesome toys that little boys love.Colby has been saving up for a Bakugan Trap for a while with his extra chore money. We have one "extra" chore he can do each day apart from his regular chores and he gets paid for those. He's actually getting pretty good at cleaning his bathroom by himself. This morning he finally had enough to go buy his trap. I've never seen him put his shoes on and get in his booster seat so fast before.

So he picks out his Trap, and marches up to the register to hand it to the cashier, along with his wallet. I had to stop him and tell him that she needed the money out of it instead. He proudly presents it to her, saying, "I have eight dollars!" and gets his receipt and promptly asks me to open the package, which I do once we get to the car.

The best part was when he got it open and played with it for a minute or so, he piped up from the backseat: "This is. The. Best. Day. Ever!"

Gotta love that YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:16:00 +0000

I'm a huge YouTube fan. If I have a few minutes of free time, I love looking up videos. I've even found whole movies to watch! Jeff Dunham, This is Why I'm Hot (deployed style), David after the Dentist. They all make me smile.

I found a new funny one this morning that brought back lots of college memories, called Sexy Stache. It's definitely worth a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdgFisYCPHs

The other one, that just made me beam and brightened my whole day, was of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. I've had quite a few people tell me I needed to see her performance, and I finally got around to it this morning. It was amazing. Not only did she sing one of my favorite songs, but I was so thrilled to see part of her dream coming true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

Where did April go?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:03:00 +0000

I just realized today that April is almost over!! Why does time always seem to drag when you don't want it to, but when life is really good, it goes by really fast? One of those great mysteries I guess. At least we've had a great month, filled with lots of friends and activities.

The day before Easter we had dinner with some friends, and the kids got to color eggs and then have an Easter egg hunt together before dinner. Their middle son Zack is just about Colby's age, so of course Colby was thrilled to share that with his friend.
Easter Sunday was beautiful. Brian sang bass in a quartet during sacrament meeting. They had been practicing like crazy for weeks, and it turned out really well. I got compliments throughout church on my husband's great voice :) Colby's thrill of the day was his letter from the Easter bunny informing him that his Bakugan trap was on its way and the mailman would bring it to him soon (yeah, trying to get that on time was an adventure in itself. Who bought all the Bakugan traps in Utah county, anyway?). Oh, and the Ben 10 DVD was pretty cool too....
Another big event this month was . . . dum, dum, dum: Brian's Birthday! We finally got to go on a date, and I took him out for lunch at Tucano's Brazilian Grill. That place is awesome! If anyone loves meat of any sort, you need to try it once. They have a buffet with sides and salads, and then they just bring out spit after spit of grilled meat, pineapple and vegetables that the waiters take around to all the tables and ask if you want any. Word of warning: don't bother ordering an appetizer. You won't have room.

He also got his favorite cake this year - German chocolate. He got the whole thing too, since Colby and I don't like coconut. Yuck!

But the part he was really excited about was his present. Actually, this is his birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Father's Day, etc. present for the last year and the rest of this year (and maybe a little longer). That's right. It's a 2009 Harley 883 Sportster Low. He's completely smitten with it. It kicked my car out of the garage. Everyone who thinks Brian has the best wife on the planet, please raise your hands :)

While You Were (not) Sleeping

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:59:00 +0000

I have to admit that when I was a kid I snuck out of bed a time or two. Usually it involved trying to see what Santa brought me and it was about 3 in the morning. So I never really gave much thought to what goes on in Colby's room after I tuck him in at night. Sure I've found cars and Bakugan balls in his bed in the morning, but nothing really major. And then I checked on him last night.
Now I know. He has a secret life as an adventurous archaeologist. He's got to be pretty good if he can get back in bed before I notice, though. What a kid. (cue Indiana Jones theme music)

Oh, it gets better. He had it on again when he got up this morning. And thus went the conversation:
Me - "What's with the hat?"
Colby - "My head was cold."

Still 24

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:48:00 +0000

I have to say that our Wii is up there on the list of my favorite purchases (my Cricut and Garmin are up there too). Getting a Wii Fit has just moved it further up the list. I love, love, love our Wii fit - mostly because it tells me (on occasion) that my age is still 24. One day I was even 20! The boys are getting into it too, although Colby mainly "plays" the Wii by watching Daddy. He follows along while I do boxing and step aerobics, and does the strength training with Brian.

But my favorite part of this whole Wii fit thing is watching Colby do yoga. It's hilarious! Especially when he pulls into the tree pose while he's brushing his teeth. I'm glad he's learning how to exercise at a young age!
Ah, the video. Well, the video is just an extra treat showing Colby learning how to play his new game, Ultimate Band. He hasn't quite got the hang of it yet - but I'm getting pretty good on the drums! And advance apologies about the aspect - I'm just an idiot when it comes to working our camera....

Update #2 - Disneyland!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:42:00 +0000

Thanks to some very lovely connections and lots of wonderful people, we were able to drive to southern California to visit Brian's grandmother and spend 3 days at Disneyland. And yes, I do realize that we just took Colby to Disney World in September, but this was too good of a deal to pass up.

Our first day at the park, Colby got absolutely soaked on Splash Mountain. It was actually pretty chilly and windy, so we ended up needing to buy Colby a sweatshirt and strip off his shirt until it dried. The poor kid's teeth were chattering, so that's why he's so bundled up in all these pictures. We spent the whole first day at the Disneyland park, and I think we went on every ride. Colby even dared to try Space Mountain, but was decidedly against doing it a second time!

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel with Lilo, Stitch and Daisy. Colby wasn't very happy with us for waking him up so early, so he was not enthused about the three characters who were trying so hard to get him to smile. He finally decided just as we were leaving that he wanted pictures with the three of them, so we had to go hunt them down. Silly boy.We spent the second day at Disney's California Adventure park, which was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. Other than the huge roller coaster (it's awesome!) and the Tower of Terror (not even Brian could talk me into that one after I tried it in Florida), we went on every ride there. Much to my surprise, Colby's favorites were this really jerky roller coaster called Mulholland Madness and the giant swings inside of an orange (only in California right?). We went on the roller coaster and the swings 5 times, and the last two times on each, Colby started holding his hands in the air and yelling "Wahoo!" while assuring me that it would be okay. Apparently my squeals of delight had him worried for my sanity. The kid is turning into quite the daredevil - as long as there is plenty of light. Pirates of the Caribbean freaked him out, but the zip line at California Adventure didn't faze him.All three of us had a great time. We stayed at the Paradise Pier resort, so it was really easy to walk to all of the parks and Downtown Disney (where there was a Lego store, much to Colby's delight), plus we had a great view of the fireworks from the hotel pool. We had a blast on this vacation. It was great to just get away as a family, but it's nice to be back home. I guess at this point that anything we do as a family is heaven!

Update #1 - Colby's an unbelievably old 5

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:34:00 +0000

Due to the rather, ahem, exciting event that occurred at the end of February, I've been much less attached to my computer than usual. Alas, this has resulted in a dearth of blog posts, which are woefully behind our extremely newsworthy lives. Consequently, we'll have to tackle this one event at a time. First on the list, chronologically, is Colby's 5th birthday!
His birthday is March 1st, so we had lots of family in town that weekend. He got a special dessert at our family dinner on Friday night, a birthday cake at another dinner Saturday night, and Sunday was stake conference, so we did his presents at home with just the three of us (I love saying three now!). He's been slightly into Ben 10, but I have to say the highlight of the presents was the Bakugan set from Grandma and Grandpa. Sigh. A new obsession has begun. The actual birthday party was on Tuesday at Jumpin' Jacks in Springville. It's one of those places that has a bunch of giant inflatable toys and slides indoors. All of the kids had a fabulous time, if I do say so myself. They pretty much just played around on the toys until we practically had to force them to come eat pizza, and then they played until their parents dragged them away. We all had a great time just watching the kids play and getting to know some of the other preschool parents better. It's quite the thing to have a birthday party this year, I think. Colby's party was one of four so far this semester!

More updates are coming soon (hopefully tomorrow). We still have Disneyland to cover after all!

Brainwashed

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:42:00 +0000

So I've been on a scrapbooking kick lately. Once in a while I'll just be really creatively inspired and crank out page after page. That doesn't happen often enough unfortunately - I'm still finishing up pictures from 2006!

Anyway I ran out of room in Colby's album on Monday, so we ran over to Robert's to get a new one. Colby asked me where we were going and I told him the crafts store. He accepted that until we walked up to the door. Once he saw the store, though, he announced that this was not the crafts store -- this was the Cricut store. Now I'll admit that I love my Cricut, but I guess it rubbed off on Colby more than I thought. I really need to start playing with action figures instead of scrapbook machines!

Uh....Pictures. Right.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:56:00 +0000

So things have been slightly crazy since we got home. Not only have I been frantically trying to catch up on stuff (read: scraping the ice that built up in my driveway over 6 weeks), but I've been really sick. I love winter. That was sarcastic in case you couldn't tell.

Anyway, that means this isn't going to be funny or fancy or anything. I'm just putting up pictures from our trip. Enjoy.
Why, yes, that is me lifting the Christmas tree over my head. And, yes, I am that buff.

These are all pictures from a Christmas market we went to. I really can't remember the name of the town at the moment, but I do remember we had to drive through a village called Frankenstein to get there. It was SO much fun, though. The food they had there was delicious - Colby especially loved these marshmallow-filled chocolates and the potato cakes (like hash browns, but deep fried). I got a couple of Christmas ornaments and Colby got a couple of wood-carved toys. They had rides there as well - and, amazingly enough, all these trees that look just like the Whomping Willow!Colby had a blast hanging out with all of his cousins, and I was really happy to see how much he liked Valery, the baby. Of course, he never called her that. She was just "The baby."

On the other hand, being in a house that belongs to three little girls and only one boy, I should have seen this coming. Colby loved playing with the girls' toys a lot more that the boys. At first the whole wearing fairy costumes and princess dresses was funny. But after the third time I caught him stripping down completely in order to wear said dresses and tutus, it was time to pack them up.
Christmas Eve and Day were great with all the kids. The top picture shows Colby opening up Mario Kart, a game in which he thinks the point is to drive off as many cliffs as possible.

The Saturday after Christmas, Colby and I got up at 2:30 in the morning and drove up to an Army base (that's a very long and amusing story in itself - picture me trying to find a base at 3 in the morning in my sister's minivan in the middle of Germany), where we left on a tour to Bavaria to see a couple of castles. We stopped at a roadside cafe for breakfast on the way, where Colby quickly discovered that Germany hot chocolate is definitely not the same as American hot chocolate. You have to add the sugar to it. We eventually made it to the village that is situated in the valley between the Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles.Silly me, I was expecting it to be not quite as bitterly cold as it was. We froze! Colby ate snow off a who-knows-how-old-it-is-and-what's-been-on-it stone wall, and we braved death by climbing out on a very snowy and icy wooden bridge to get the picture from the side of Neuschwanstein. Colby had just enough courage to fake a smile, and then he was headed back to solid ground!

I took this picture from a window in the back of Neuschwanstein looking down on Hohenschwangau (on the right side) and the village in the valley. We had lunch there. I tried to be nice and ordered a sandwich for Colby, while I tried the lobster soup. Colby ended up eating mine though. I was really brave, though, and had wienerschnitzel for dinner. It was pretty good.

Okay, sad news. I'm out of energy for today. I'll have to post my videos from New Year's tomorrow. There's a funny story about almost burning down a neighbor's house with our fireworks that goes along with it :)

Home At Last

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:50:00 +0000

That's right. We finally made it home from Germany. A few of you already know what a feat that is. After hearing that we've been trying since last Wednesday, actually traveling since Friday morning, have been to 4 different Air Force bases and 4 different commercial airports, driven through 4 states (twice) on the eastern seaboard in 2 different rental cars, and gotten to know way too many cab drivers very well (Mohammed in DC and Jeff in NJ are tied for first) -- well, I think the rest of you will agree!

As with every difficult experience, I learned something: there are A LOT of good people in this world. I could start with my family - my sister put up with me calling the local air base from her house every two hours (yes, that included through the night) for two days while I checked on flights. My parents actually answered the phone at 2 am their time when I called after yet another flight was canceled and I got stuck in NJ.

Then there are the random strangers who are just plain awesome when it comes to helping another person. There's the soldier on leave who specifically checked on my flight for me during the night so I could sleep. There's the cab driver who didn't charge extra for following my rental car to a gas station 20 miles out of the way at 3 am. There's the retired Marine who gave us a ride from New Jersey to DC so we could try for another flight, and then gave us a ride to the airport when that didn't work out. Plus there are all the airmen and USO workers who put up with my endless questions and did anything they could to help, even if it was just giving Colby some cookies :)

So, yes, Colby and I had a hard time getting home, but we also had the opportunity to see how wonderful people can be. I'm sure I'll look back on this someday and laugh about all of our flights that were canceled two hours beforehand, but for now I'll just appreciate the fact that we're home and that we got to meet some pretty amazing people on our journey here.

Lions and Tigers and Boars...Oh, my!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:22:00 +0000

First of all, I promise that the pictures from Christmas and our forays into the world of German Christmas markets and castles are forthcoming. But this little bit of news is very exciting, so I thought it deserved a place of honor on the blog.

I saw my first wild boar today! Just laying there on the side of the road on our way back from the base! Apparently they're all over the place here, and are the primary reason Colby and I haven't taken any nature walks in the gorgeous woods around my sister's house. Melinda has terrified me with tales of "that one guy who was riding a dirt bike in the woods, got chased by a boar onto the road, and was hit by a car and died!" I was understandably a little nervous about venturing into the woods on foot, if some guy on a dirt bike bit the dust from the encounter.

But I'm happy I at least got to see one from the safe confines of the car. It still blows my mind that they just wander around freely. Reminds me of those wild turkeys in Monterey (side note: anyone know what a group of turkeys is called? I can't remember.) I will say that Germany knows how to make the outdoors interesting. Hiking is an extreme sport here with the boars wandering around. I'll need a big gun before I go hiking here.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

noreply@blogger.com (Brian, Stephanie and Colby) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:48:00 +0000

I got to cross an item off my lifetime To Do list today. Imagine the wind blowing through your hair, the speed, the adrenaline. . .the massive Mercedes semis trying to push you off the shoulder of the road.

That's right. I drove on the autobahn today. By myself. In a giant blue Dodge minivan. The last was courtesy of my I-have-four-kids sister. Colby and I went over to the air base for some last-minute shopping, and I took the autobahn back to her village. It was awesome. And that 130 speed sign in the picture above is totally true. Of course, that's in kilometers per hour, so it works out at about 85 mph. But still, it was a cool experience. And now I can say that I've driven on the autobahn. Yay!