Budapest and Christmas Markets

Day 1: We drove into Budapest late into the night.  Great idea.  Kids slept great. No traffic.  

 Day 2: Walked to St. Stephen's Basilica.  Largest church in Hungary.  The Christmas market was being set up, including an ice skating rink.

 We climbed up to the top of the Basilica.  Beautiful views.  Beautiful day.

 Sweet Jane loved walking around the top and pointing at the people or birds.

Then we walked over the the Parliment building.  But first, a stop throwing rocks into the Danube river.  

 

Parliament Building.  Gorgeous.  My pictures just suck.  

A view near the Parliament building.  Statues of shoes in memory of the Hungarian holocaust victims. And chain bridge in the background.  

Day 3: Szechenyi Baths and Pool.  It was fun to imagine this being what the Romans did way back in the day.  Lots of different pools with varying temperatures.  It would have been more fun without the girls, just because of the extreme heat temperatures and some pools containing lots of minerals.

Here is my little fish! Can't believe how much Kate has improved in her swimming.

 Afterwards, we took the funicular up to Buda castle for the views and beautiful tiled roof churches.  Bryan with Fisherman's Bastion in the background.  Then we hit up the Christmas markets!

Day 4: We met up with our friends, the Walker's, and spent the day with them.  We checked out the Central Market Square.  Lots of food and souvenirs!  

Some of the crew.  Kate, Rebekah, Jane, Sophie, Makenna, Chloe, Penny, and Merrick.

Quick stop to the second oldest Synogogue in the world- Dohany Street Synogogue- where there is also a statue of a weeping willow tree in memory of the Hungarian holocaust victims.  Each victims name is written on a leaf.  There were lots of holocaust memorials in this city.

Lastly, we went to the St. Stephen's Basilica Christmas market and consumed one of the best ice creams ever.  It was shaped into a flower.  It easily could be one of our favorites, and we have had a lot of ice cream over here!

Day 5: Driving home and hitting up the Vienna Christmas markets and Straubing Christmas market.  

 Rathaus.

 The ice skating rink was a trail.  It would have been fun, minus the ice was really wet because it was 40 degrees!

Loving the kinderpunch!

Becky

While in Athens, Becky came to watch the girls for us.  I was a little worried about giving them one day to warm up to her, but they did just fine.  In fact, Kate never asked about us and Jane quit asking about us on the second day! Becky took the girls swimming, hiked up to a castle ruin, and helped out with Kate's lantern festival at kindergarten (St. Martin's Day).  

Day 1: After we returned home, we packed up to head to Cologne and Amsterdam.  Bryan decided to put air in our tires and accidentally broke one of the valves.  It was too late to fix, so we just drove slowly to Cologne.  The next morning, he went to a tire shop and got the valve replaced.

Cologne

Day 2: As we were pulling into the parking garage, Kate complained of tummy pain.  We didn't really bother with her complaints, because they are often.  As soon as I pulled her out of the car, she threw up breakfast.  We moved our car a little farther down.  Bahaha.  We continued on.  We weren't to the Cologne Chocolate Factory.  Super fun! and yummy!

Kate, Jane, and Myra watching the chocolate running through the tubes.  And then Kate threw up. Again. All over the factory floor.

We continued on.  We walked through the Christmas markets and the Dom and the souvenir shops. Then we got in the car and traveled to Amsterdam.  Not even 30 minutes into the drive, the tire goes flat.  Bryan and Becky quickly switched to the spare and we continued on.  We stopped at a nearby shop, but they didn't have our tires. So we drove very slowly to Amsterdam.

We finally made it to Amsterdam (we got lost)!

Day 3: And the next morning, we bought new tires and drove into the city center.  We were pretty tight on time, as I had scheduled the Anne Frank House tour.  But we made it (or at least they just let us slide by).  Thank goodness!

The Anne Frank house and museum was wonderful.  Definitely worth the visit.  We also checked out the Pancake House and Cheese Museum nearby.

Rachel holding Myra, Bryan, Kate asleep in stroller, and Becky

                                          

Myra finally warmed up to Bryan.

No throw up today...well, until that night.  Jane threw up right after dinner and pretty much all night.  I couldn't wait to take a shower in the morning.

Day 4: The next day we went to Haarlem and Zaanse schans.  We got to go into the Corrie ten Boon house, but it was definitely not exciting.  Children under 4 years should not be aloud and it would be a lot better not to have to hear to whole story of her life.  I just wanted to see the hiding place behind the wall.  Afterwards, it rained and hailed like crazy.  For quite some time too.  I have no pictures of this day, but when we finally got home and I pulled Kate out of the car, she threw up all over me.  Blah!

Day 5: We toured the castle Der Haar.  The last residents were in 2005.  The castle was built on old ruins.  It would have been lovely in the summer.

Bryan, Jane, and Kate sleeping in a royal bed!

We drove back down to Cologne and stopped at a playground.  Poor Myra threw up at the park.  And again at the restaurant.  And again at the airport.  Rachel decided to wait until she was picked up by her husband in London.  And Jane decided to throw up in the car on the way home to Parsberg.  Oh,... and we went an hour the wrong direction!

Although, you might be thinking this must have been an awful trip, it really wasn't.  It was definitely memorable.  Lots of laughs and lots of clean ups as were continued on!

Athens Marathon

We did it! We completed the original marathon in Greece.  We ran from Marathon to Athens, 26.2 miles.  It was 20 miles uphill and 6 miles downhill.  Bryan completed under his goal time of 4 hours and I completed under my goal time of 5 hours.  This may sounds silly, but I feel very accomplished and proud of myself.  I worked hard and I did it.  

 One more medal to add to the rack!

 We traveled to Athens without kids and enjoyed sightseeing the day before.  We had so much fun eating all the wonderful food and browsing through the markets.  Above is Zeus' Temple.

Bryan at some temple in the Agora.  

Halloween 2016

I love the fall.  And I love Halloween.  This year we planned on the "Peter Pan" theme per Kate's request.  It was unfortunate that our friend couldn't find her Peter Pan outfit and I had to scrounge around last minute to find something for Bryan.  It was also unfortunate that everyone around me seemed to do the Peter Pan theme as well, and much better than us.  Baha! Oh well.  We still had fun and the kids stayed warm while getting lots of candy.

I went to the Harvest Festival alone with the girls and this is about the only good picture I took.  We had fun and played games and ate cotton candy and took a family photo.  Not sure where that is?

Wendy Darling with her face painted.

I decided that painting our pumpkins was much easier than cutting and gutting them.  That way, both girls could participate.

 Bryan's work had a successful trunk or treat.  From left to right: Michael Darling, Jon Darling, Wendy Darling, and Captain Hook.  I made an awesome background last minute too!

Kate begged and begged to make a ghost pumpkin, so I finally caved in (after Halloween).  So much for less work with the painting theory. Haha!

Greek Isle Cruise

We have successfully completed our first family cruise.  There were many things we loved about it, and then there were some things we didn't love about it.  Overall, it was a great way to see the islands we wouldn't have otherwise been able to see.  We ported out of Venice.  I just loved this city.  It was so neat to see the way construction workers have to use boats to bring in concrete or how the trash is loaded onto boats or the water ambulance.  Plus, the views, architecture, food, and history.  

Kate loved trying on all the Venetian masks.  We took two home with us!

Jane LOVED chasing the pigeons at St. Marks Square. 

The gorgeous St. Mark's Basilica.

Build you own Magnum Bar.  Best idea ever!

And of course, a gondola ride! Checked that off my bucket list.  The girls did fantastic, and the ride was exciting as we had to lean to one side to clear the bridges!

On the boat, in the hot tub with a butterfly painted on her face. She loved the endless ice cream, flavored drinks, and swimming!

Making good use of the selfie stick! We went with some friends on the cruise,  which was definitely a plus.  The sea days can get long, especially with the girls.  Kate loved being with her friend Sami and we enjoyed playing games together after the kids went to bed.  Meal time was endless fun!!

First day off the boat in Corfu, Greece.  Rained cats and dogs until we got back on the boat.  I was not prepared for that!

So cold and wet!

My cute little Jane.

Our second boat stop was Santorini, Greece.  We hiked a volcano and swam in a hot spring.  Such gorgeous views of the volcanic island and white washed buildings.

My hiking buddy on the volcano.

Blue topped church. That is what this island is most known for.

Cutie Kate!

Our third stop was Mykonos, Greece.  These are the famous windmill churches.

Jane posing at the "Little Venice" of Mykonos.

We played in the sand at Paradise Beach.  The water was chilly and the wind was strong! But we enjoyed the views, the food, and the sand between our toes.

Our fourth stop was Athens, Greece.  We got a tour of the city on a hop-on hop-off bus.  Very big and very busy.  Half of Greece's population is located in Athens.  The lines were long because of all of the cruise crowds.  Definitely a negative for traveling with cruise lines.  But the Acropolis was pretty awesome.  Great views, great pictures, fun climbing rocks/walls for the girls.  I can't wait to check it out again next month!

It was also 80+ degrees! Missing the sun right now!

Kate and Sami loved the towel animals created by our house keeper.  He even showed us how to make a few.  Kate still asks if Sami can come over and play at her hotel.

Our fifth stop was somewhere in Croatia? We were supposed to go to Split, but the weather wouldn't let us port there.  We got off the boat for a little, but the city wasn't anything too exciting.  I am glad we were able to go to Croatia over the summer...

We very much enjoyed spending time together in our cozy little bedroom.  We enjoyed the endless amounts of food and not having to do dishes.  I am glad I didn't gain 10+ pounds.  Not sure about Bryan though....

Seven more years until our next cruise!