March 2023

 For the past couple months, I have been training with my friend Toni for the 400/1000 pound challenge. We only got together about 2-3 times a week depending on my work schedule and her kids schedule. Sometimes we added a swim day depending on how sore we were feeling. Toni has way more lifting experience, so it was good for me to be coached on my form. She also pushed me to lift heavier than I've ever lifted. Her goal was to make it on the board at the gym. My goal was to complete the challenge. Ha! I ended up lifting 555 pounds (110lbs bench press, 215lbs squat, 230lbs deadlift). 

My neighbor was in the community theatre musical Curtains. My neighbors and I went to the show to support her efforts and it was such a fun experience! 

Kate had her birthday party with some of her good friends from school at the local ski resort. They went snow tubing and created such fun memories!

For spring break, we traveled to Utah to visit and go skiing with family. Our 15 hour trip turned into a 19 hour trip because I-80 closed down due to high winds. Everyone was detoured to I-70 through the canyon, which made for a really, really long trip. Luckily, it was all worth it because the snow was incredible this year!

We got to visit with our newest nephew/cousin. Stratton and Jenny welcomed a baby BOY earlier this month- first AHLBORN so it is quite a big deal!

We played pickleball with grandma, grandpa, Kim, Zander, and Norah at the church.

We celebrated St. Patrick's day with green cinnamon rolls and skiing at Park City. We threw a bunch of green beaded necklaces in the tree to commiserate their mom being 60% Irish (found out recently with 23&me).

We invited Rachel and her family to decorate sugar cookies.

Kate learned how to successfully backbend kick over with McCartney's help.

Howie is now a daddy! Ruby had 8 puppies at the beginning of the month. Funny story: The plan was to make 1-3K dollars per puppy, but because of inexperience and poor planning only 1.5K was made from 2 puppies. The other 6 were given away for free!

We went to a Maverick Hockey game in Kansas City with some of Bryan's friends from school. We were hoping to see blood and fights. That didn't really happen. Ha!

For date night this month, Jane and I went to get a pedicure and then went to a little art studio in town and painted some gnomes for the garden. I love this one on one time with the girls. So glad we decided to do this. Bryan took Kate to the arcade in town. 

Kristi's Visit

It was so much fun to see my little sister over President's day weekend.  She was out here for a bobsledding competition and then stopped over on the way home.  We went skiing in Soll, Austria again.  Our cousins also came down for the weekend. 

 We went to Munich and watched the Glockenspiel chime,

  ate lunch at the famous Hofbrauhaus, 

 and watched the surfers at English park. 

 The weather was fantastic.  We went to Therme Erding, the largest indoor water park in Europe.  We had too much fun to take pictures though!

My girls love Aunt Koko!

January 2017

We started to year off right- Jane got hand, foot, and mouth disease. Yay!

We finally got some snow! Kate and her friends went sledding in our backyard.  Jane wasn't too sure about this stuff.

After some time, we convinced Jane that winter is awesome!

We went with some friends to Soll, Austria and skied our hearts out.

Kate took some ski lessons too.

My happy.

At the end of the month, we spent a whole week on one of the Canary Islands- Fuerteventura- with our cousins.  

 We biked along the rocky coast. 

 We went nude at some of the beaches.

 We jumped off sand dunes.

   

We rode a 4-person bike with the girls.

 We enjoyed much needed sun and sand.

And we rode on camels!

Rome and the Almafi coast, Part 1

We left for Italy on a Tuesday.  We played at the airport playground until boarding time.  I love the airports in Germany, very kid friendly.  I am not sure if other airports in the EU have playgrounds at the airport.  

 We flew into Rome.  The pilot gave us a great view of Rome and the ocean.  We were super excited to start our adventure! After we landed, we had to catch the train to Naples.  We took the ICE train and it was about an hour and fifteen minutes.  It was such a beautiful ride.  Bryan and I were super careful about pit pocketing.  We heard it was especially bad on the Almafi coast area.  After a whole day in traveling, we finally made it to our apartment were we met up with Rachel and the kids.  The apartment wasn't quite like we expected.  Four beds in one room and no crib! We made the best of it and Jane might have slept in the closet...

The next day, we headed to Sorrento and Capri.  Kate is standing at the train tracks with Mount Vesuvius in the background.

The city of Sorrento has beautiful coastal views.  We are headed down to catch the ferry to the island of Capri.

Jane's first beach experience on the island of Capri.  This island is known for capri pants and capri sandals.  

Kate is not a huge fan of cold water.  But I think this will be her first memorable beach experience.  Rachel's boys really enjoyed the cold water, jumping off the rocks, and finding sea glass. 

 We took the funicular up to the town and walked through the small streets.  It was funny to see all these small cars driving through the narrow streets.  The views were amazing and the lemon gelado was even better!  While we were walking through the town, both girls feel asleep.  It's too bad we didn't have a stroller for poor Bryan.  Kate can get heavy after a while.

The ferry ride back to Sorrento wasn't nearly as bad as the ride to Capri.  It seemed to be faster as well.  Here is the whole gang overlooking the coast!

 Look at the size of these lemons!

 On Thursday we headed to Pompeii and Herculeum.  We paid to have a kid friendly tour guide in Pompeii.  I would highly recommend some type of tour.  She used all sorts of learning activities to keep the kids (and adults) interested.  They played searching games and trivia games, and won treats and prizes.  I think not having a guide would be difficult to really understand the significance of this area.

 Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius in the background.

Jane and mommy in Pompeii.

 Our next stop was Herculaneum.  This is another city that was frozen in time from the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  Supposedly it is better preserved because it received the heat blast, not the ashes and lava.  To the bottom left of this picture is were 200+ skeletons were found of people running to the docks to get out of town.  And of course, Mount Vesuvius is in the background.

Rome and the Almafi coast, Part 2

Thursday evening, we took the ICE train back to Rome.  I am so glad we did trains instead of renting a vehicle.  Parking and driving in Italy would have stressed me out!  Plus, the kids got to move around, eat, and use the restroom on the trains.  And bathrooms seemed to be difficult to find in Rome...we did and almost had many accidents...

The Colosseum was packed and the lines were awful.  Do not buy your tickets beforehand. You will still have to wait in a line to collect your ticket and then wait in a line to go into the Colosseum.  Glad we did this first and got it out of the way!  The trick is to have a small child needing to go to the bathroom- then you can just get in for free and skip all the lines!

 Jane at the Colosseum and happy to be out of the carrier.

 Bryan at Palatine Hill.

 Trojan's Column

 Jane happy to be out of the carrier and crawling around the apartment.

Oh no! Another line.  Getting into St. Peters Basilica was not nearly as bad as the Colosseum.  It is unfortunate that security scanners are needed at every major attraction.

 Pieta

 This might be forbidden in the basilica, so I had to document.  I felt like Jane was starving the whole trip!

Climbing up to the top of St. Peters dome.  The stairs just got smaller and smaller.  Kate said we were climbing up Rapunzel's tower.  Everything is related to a princess in her mind these days.

 Views from on top were amazing!

 There might have been limited bathrooms, but the water was plenty in Rome.  My mom warned us not to drink the water.  We did, and nobody got sick.

The Vatican and Sistine Chapel.  The little ones feel asleep before we entered the museum, but woke up by the time we reached the Sistine Chapel.  Lots of people, lots of art.  Bryan is getting good at this modeling stuff.

 Ponte Sant'Angelo- the bridge of Angels.  Also, the movie setting for Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn.  So beautiful.

 Love this picture of Bryan at Trevi Fountain.

She will be back!

 Piazza Navona with the cousins.

 The Pantheon.  Sad we were not able to go inside because a church service was being held.  

 The Spanish steps were under construction, but that didn't stop us from having a good time.

Our favorite place.  I think we went 4 times.  For two euros you get white or dark chocolate drizzled from a fountain inside of the cone, two flavors of gelado, and whip cream on top! It also happened to be 50 meters from our apartment and the most famous in Rome...

 Piazza Bernini

Villa Borghese

We finally found a park in the area (last day).  However, parks in Italy and way different than parks in Germany.  Rome is definitely not geared for little children.  Jane got tired of being carried all day.  We had fun, but we are glad to be home.