Germany!

Hey all! We made it here to Germany all in one piece! It has been quite the adventure already! Our original plans were to fly from Salt Lake to Atlanta on Thursday morning at 9:45am. We got the the airport early to check in and when we got there the gate agent informed us that the flight was overbooked and there was no chance of us getting on. Bummer. Mitchell got on the phone with Delta and they were so great! They checked all of the available flights and rerouted us to a flight to Minneapolis then on to Frankfurt. We waited at the airport and by the time everyone boarded the flight we were told, again, that the flight was full. Fortunately, Audrey was an angel and waited very patiently and Mitchell called the Delta people again. After a what seemed like a pretty long time Mitchell came back grinning. Our adventure would continue! We ended up flying to Newark, NJ and staying the night in a hotel there. It was a long day but we were excited to have made progress and we actually had quite a bit of fun with all of the changing plans. At the hotel that night Mitchell and I both wished there was some way to effectively reward a newborn because Audrey was SO good all day. She was calm and content and slept the whole flight. **Thank you Linda for recommending that I take a Boppy pillow on the plane! It was great, she slept on it and my arms got a break from holding her.** Then on Friday we maneuvered a series of trains from New Jersey to New York and flew out from JFK airport to Frankfurt. Again, Audrey was an excellent traveler and slept a good portion of the flight. She charmed everyone who saw her and made everyone who saw her smile. After we took off one of the flight attendants asked if we wanted to use the bassinet. We didn't know there was one but we gladly accepted. It was awesome! We happened to have been assigned to the row directly behind the bulkhead and there was a wall in front of us. The infant bassinet attached to the wall and Audrey slept in it great. We encountered so many very kind people in our travels who really helped it to be manageable and even enjoyable. Mitchell and I were able to sit together on each flight thanks to the kind gate attendants who assigned our seats. We really feel like there were angels looking out for us on the trip!

Once we got to Frankfurt we were able to take a train from Frankfurt to Wittlich, which is closer to where John and Claire live. It was an adventure navigating the trains and we only made one real blunder. The seating is all marked in German and we accidentally sat in 1st class instead of the family seating. Oops. We chatted with a German couple and had a very enjoyable ride on the train. Of course jet lag was starting to set in as we had been awake for over 24 hours and by the time we got to John and Claire's house it was so hard to stay awake! We tried to stay awake until at least 7pm, which would have been over 30 hours but we couldn't make it! By 3pm we were napping.

Sunday we went to church and enjoyed the afternoon playing games and enjoying the nice weather. ...and we took naps, we still weren't over the jet lag completely.

Monday we decided to go see a castle. We chose the Burg Eltz (Eltz Castle). It was built in the 1100's! The castle was amazing and we learned so much! In the 1400's they had flush toilets in many of the 20 bedrooms of the castle. They collected rain water from the roof to flush. The castle was really neat and many of the rooms and features are original.

Today we went to Belgium to see what it is they are famous for...CHOCOLATE!! We went to a chocolate factory and saw how they make chocolate of different types. Jack was especially interested in how the chocolate bars got their wrappers. Of course we stocked up on delicious Belgian chocolates. Yum!

Adventures planned for the week: tomorrow we will check out Luxembourg and later this week we are off to Munich! Next week: Berlin too! Lots of great adventures to come!

This is the view of our little town from the backyard!

Uncle Mitchell reading with the kiddos

Views of the Eltz Castle

Another First for Audrey

Audrey has started being a lot more alert lately and it is fun for us to get to interact with her a little bit! She also continues to sleep like a pro and we are definitely enjoying that! Yesterday I decided to see what she would think of some toys. Up to this point we hadn't introduced any toys because she mostly just ate and slept throughout the day. Yesterday afternoon I set up a little mobile like teepee thing with hanging stuffed animals. It came with her portable crib but I set it up on the floor over her blanket. I think the stuffed animals were a hit! She loved them! Haha, actually she just stared at the giraffe and then at the zebra and back to the giraffe but she was content. A couple of times her hand happened to hit one of the animals and cause it to swing and move. That caught her attention and she would stare at it. I have included several pictures so the grandmas and great grandmas will be well supplied.

She is giving that zebra quite the stare down!