Ballet

Emmi started her Ballet Class a few weeks ago and absolutely loves it! She surely doesn't get that from me since I am definitely not the Ballet kind of girl. We went to watch the Nutcracker last Christmas and and I have to admit I got a little bored in the second half watching it, but Emmi absolutely absorbed it and has been begging to do Ballet lessons ever since. She loves classical music (She calls it: "The music that sparkles.") and we have watched her perform the Nutcracker again and again since last year. Today we got to watch her class and take pictures and her big first recital will be in June.

Christmas Time

It is almost December and Christmas seems to be right around the corner. I decided to take a teaching job at a catholic Kindergarten only a five minute bike ride from our house. I had originally planned to teach younger kids at a different pre-school, but will now be teaching the 3-6 year old classroom.* It is the same school I went to as a child and we are getting a spot for Emmi starting in January and for Lily starting in September despite a long waiting list. One of the perks of being a teacher! I am really looking forward now to teaching again!

Emmi is super excited about starting Kindergarten and she is also very excited about Christmas. The Christmas Markets opened on Friday and we took a little trip downtown visiting a couple of them on Sunday. Emmi and Lily split some chocolate covered strawberries and Dugan and I have to come back by ourselves to enjoy some hot wine :) .

Emmi has been busy adding lots of things to her Christmas list and Lily doesn't really care as usual. We'll be celebrating Christmas with my parents and then go up to visit my grandparents over New Years.

Until then we'll be busy visiting lots more Christmas markets, baking Christmas cookies, doing arts and craft projects and (re-)learning lots of Christmas songs.

I love Christmas!

Dugan has started his language class last week and has already improved a lot after just one week! I bet he'll be pretty fluent in less then a year. I am so proud of him!

*German preschools are all age mixed and divided in 0-3 or 3-6 year olds. They go on to 1st Grade at 6 years old. Preschool education is heavily subsidized by the government and being a preschool teacher requires 5 years of schooling. The curriculum mostly emphasizes creative thinking and independence instead of academics like I have seen a lot in the States.

MIA

Our life has been crazy busy those past few weeks. I quit updating, but we did eventually finish our camping trip after four weeks and 6023 miles on the road and we could have easily added a couple of weeks. It was the most awesome trip we have ever done! We returned to Austin for a few days to wrap up some last things we had to do there and to say good bye to our friends. Telling her best friend Lena good bye was the hardest part for Emmi and at that time I think she actually realized what a big move we were making. From Austin we headed to Houston to spend a couple of weeks with Dugan's family. Dugan got to go duck hunting for a week with his Dad and Uncle up in Canada and we girls had many fun adventures hanging out in Houston with MeMe and KayKay. October 25th was finally the day. It was sad and exciting at the same time. It's hard at times having a marriage with family divided between two continents. Whichever way we go we are always leaving behind people we love and who are devastated seeing us leave, while we are greeted just a (long) plane ride later by our other side of the family just beyond happy seeing us arrive. So wherever we choose to go in the future we will always cause sadness. But we believe we just have to make the decisions that we think are best for our family and for the moment we feel the best place for us right now is in Germany.

And from the minute of arriving we have been busy settling in and organizing our new life and we have been quite success full so far. Only three weeks since arriving Emmi has started a ballet class that she has been asking for since last Christmas, Dugan got his three year work and residence permit, I have had two job interviews and two job offers, we have hunted for a preschool opening for Emmi and have finally been success full, Dugan's german has already improved a lot and he is starting his german class at the goethe institut next week, we have received our container last week and have unpacked all but a couple of boxes already, we have bought a new kitchen (which unfortunately won't get here until January) and we have decided not to get a puppy for now. Seems like our life is crazy enough as it is :) !

I realized yesterday how much I am dreading going back to work though. Now that the date is moving closer (January 1st) I am slowly beginning to panick. I know that the kids will be just fine. Emmi is going to love her new school and Lily gets to stay with my Mom all day. But I don't know how I am going to manage not seeing them until 4 pm most days, after up to now spending almost every moment with them since they were born. I know I am being a cry baby and I realize how fortunate I have been to get to spend this much time with my babies but it's still hard. And I will miss them. But until then we got more busy times ahead! I'll try not to go MIA again and update more often! A big hello to all of our friends in Austin!! We miss you guys!

Santa Cruz, CA

After spending the day in San Francisco we drove to Santa Cruz to enjoy a beautiful sunset and some beach time for the kids.

And all it took to turn this sad face....

...into a happy one...

...was this delicious pizza :)

San Francisco, CA

This Tee Pee on a campground on the Mendocino coast in northern California would have been fun to sleep in. Except for the fact that the flap for a door wasn't really sufficient in keeping the wind out and the hole in the top may be beneficial if you are having a fire burn inside to let the smoke out, but without a fire it is also really beneficial for letting more cold air in. Even the fact that we already paid for it couldn't convince us to spend the night here. So after cooking some dinner we packed up the kids at nine o'clock at night and headed out in search for a better sleep accommodation. In case you didn't know (we certainly didn't) the northern California coast is not exactly smothered with little beach towns with lots of Hotels and Motels. So we ended up driving two hours along the coast in the dark on Hwy 1 and then on windy roads with lots of deer crossing through national forest to get to the outskirts of San Francisco. And since we didn't want to be stuck in morning traffic trying to get into SF we kept driving to stay in SF. So on my third visit to SF I finally got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.... at 1 AM in the morning, frantically calling Hotel after Hotel to find a reasonably priced (under $250 that is!) Hotel for us to finally get some sleep. We made it and we did enjoy a nice day at Fishermans Wharf and fortunately the kids slept through all of it and woke up in beautiful SF in the morning totally oblivious of their parents nightmare the night before.... And hey, at least it makes for a good story to tell!

Redwood Forest, California

We felt like forest fairies sleeping in this cabin in the redwood forest in northern California. The tree STUMP next to it was about the same size as our cabin!

Emmi loved it. She literally thought she had magically turned into a fairy.

We drove through the National Park and the Avenue of Giant.

Looked for fairies...

...and wouldn't have been surprised if a dinosaur would have pocked his head around the corner of one of those gigantic trees.

Did you know just the bark of those trees is up to one foot thick which makes them almost undestructible even by fire?

And how about a tree house INSIDE a tree?

Lily is such a polite child....

Me: "Lily, do you need to pee?"

Lily: "No thank you Mama!"

Me: "Lily, can you please stop doing that?"

Lily: "No thank you Mama."

Me: "Lily, stop pouring out your drink!"

Lily: "I'll be very careful Mama."

....except when she is not...

Lily: "Can I watch a movie?"

Papa: "No, we are done watching movies."

Lily: "But I want to!"

Papa: "No, not now."

Lily: "Hmmmm, I am NOT gonna play with you!!!!"

And she sure gets her feelings hurt easily...

Papa: "Lilian, do NOT take your sisters toys!"

Lily (in tears): "Mama! Papa is making me SAD!"

Oregon Coast

We spent a couple of days driving down and exploring the rugged Oregon Coast. We realized on this trip that if we hadn't already decided to move, we would now. We just love to be around so much nature! Oregon would be high on our list on our places to move to. There are state parks everywhere, the air is fresh and clean and it just seems like a great place to live and grow up in.

After running down to the water on Beverly Beach we got our shoes and pants wet with the first bigger wave rolling onto shore. Beach rookies! It's been way to long since we've been to the beach!

Afterwards Lily was afraid of the water. She insisted on being on higher ground (or a plastic box for that matter) so the waves couldn't get her. She screamed with every wave coming in: "Mama! The Water is coming! It's gonna get me!"

Whoever knows Lily knows that being afraid of anything is not really like her at all!

We stayed in a cabin in Newport for one night and then enjoyed a night in a Hotel in Coos Bay.

Emmi can't decide if she likes campgrounds or hotels better. She enjoys the comfort of hotels but really likes that most of the campgrounds come with a playground and s'mores in the evening. Life is hard ;)

We found another beautiful picnic spot...

...and Emmi and Lily found...

...some snails and started a snail farm that they are planning to take to Germany with them.

Columbia Gorge, Oregon

We have been so lucky with the weather!

The kids got to go on their first boat ride in style with a brunch on the Historic "Columbia Gorge Stern Wheeler". It was a buffet, so Lily obviously loved it and so did we. Except for the fact that it reminded us of why we usually don't do buffets. People will load their plates with 20 strips of bacon and then get upset if the kitchen is not fast enough filling up the bacon again when they come back for seconds! But we can't judge, since I am sure they reconsidered letting two year old's eat for free, once Lily got through Breakfast.

Afterwards we drove the Historic Route 30 along the Columbia and visited the most beautiful waterfalls ever.

And can you see the very top of that waterfall?

Yup, we hiked all the way up. Dugan carried Lily (who was asleep and about 3 pound heavier after her breakfast buffet) and Emmi walked about two thirds by herself and I carried her the rest. And luckily it was totally worth it!

We then drove on, by more scenic views, through Portland...

...past several roadside stands selling any kind of berry you can imagine...

...and made it to the Oregon coast just in time for sunset.