Castles.

We got to go see two of King Luewig II's castles while we were in Germany.  The first day of castle visits we were caught in a snow storm.  You can't drive up to any of the castles and have to park about a 15 minute walk away.  Luckily we got to ride on a horse carriage up the hill to the first castle we saw, but the horse carriage was done for the day once we headed back down.  All of us, well, not Owen : ), were soaked by the time we got down the hill.  The castles were both beautiful though, so worth the wet feet.

Castles Day One:

Sitting on the horse carriage.

Walking back down the hill.

Castles Day Two:

His garden.  Apparently in the summer it's beautiful.

Snow.

This was the first snow and our first experience in the Alps in Austria as we were headed to Germany.  Did you know that you have to drive through Austria from Italy to get to Germany?!?!  I didn't, and Brian has not been impressed with my geography knowledge since moving here ; )

We were supposed to go to the Zugspitze while we were in Germany, which is the highest peak in Germany.  Unfortunately the weather was really bad at the top while we were there, so we decided not to go all the way up. We did go half way though and JJ had a great time playing in the snow.  Owen fell asleep in the Ergo during the gondola ride and slept through almost the whole outing.  Luckily he woke up extremely happy at the end of the day so he could be in some cute pictures too : )

Verona.

JJ is just like his grandma . . . he can never pass up gelato!

Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?  Yes, that's the balcony!

Our amazing tour guide : )

Verona, Italy was the first stop of our road trip.  Like most Italian cities, there was lots of old stuff!  Haha!  It was a really pretty town and fun to be able to see the Romeo and Giulietta stuff.  The night we were there they were having a big Renaissance street parade right outside our hotel.  Too bad we didn't know about it until the kids were in bed and we were upset with the incredibly loud music!  

We had a good time walking around the city though and ended up going to the museum and Tomba di Giulietta, which unfortunately was a big disappointment.  You walk through a pretty good museum with artifacts from her house as you follow a sign to the tomb, which is a big empty sarcophagus in a graffiti laden room underground.  Apparently everyone feels the need to write their name on the wall near the tomb with a heart around it.  Brian and I are not impressed with how disrespectful people are towards ancient buildings in Italy.  We were glad that we went here though and it's just one more thing that JJ and Owen can brag about when they're learning about Shakespeare someday!

We're Home.

We're back from our 8 day road trip, which was probably 1 day too long!!  Here's just a couple pictures of the conditions we were in for a couple of those days.  I'll be posting more this week with LOTS more pictures : )

7 Months Old.

He really wants to be crawling.  He does a face plant about half the time now once he's in the crawling position.

Owen's now 7 months old.  Not a lot has gone on in the last month with him.  He's eating a lot of solids now, sitting up all the time, and still laughs at JJ the most.  We leave tomorrow for our big 9 day road trip.  I'll post lots of pictures when we get back!

Days Off.

What do we do on the two days during the week that JJ doesn't have school, you ask?  Well, actually no one asked, but I thought I'd share anyways : )

JJ colors a lot.

And builds forts.

When it's nice out, we go for walks.

And sometimes even stay in our pajamas all day.

We also feed Owen lunch.

But my absolute favorite activity is when the boys play together.

And when JJ entertains Owen.

Owen thinks JJ is hilarious.

Batman.

Soooo, this is Batman.  Our puppy for 13 hours.  Yes, we had a puppy last weekend for a night.  Long story short-ish. . .  On Saturday afternoon, Brian and I decided to get a puppy.  I've been very lonely since Michael, Krista, and Tristan left, so obviously a puppy is the right thing to fill that void?!  

After JJ's nap, we went to base to pick one out.  JJ kept saying that he didn't want a dog, but we knew once he saw them he couldn't resist.  Sure enough, this is the puppy he picked out.  So, after purchasing $100 worth of new puppy supplies, we put the dog in the car and headed home.  It started POURING down rain, Owen was crying because he was hungry, I was driving and the car kept hydroplaning, Batman (named by JJ) threw up in Brian's lap, then JJ projectile vomited all over the car which caused him to start screaming louder, which caused Owen to start screaming and crying even louder.  Brian then started yelling at me to pull over, we were about 10 minutes from home, so I did, then he yelled at me not to, which then made me start crying.  

Once we finally made it home, Brian threw JJ in the bath and I fed Owen.  Everyone was calm and ready to play with the puppy.  JJ started "loving" on Batman and was letting him lick his face and rubbing his face and was so happy, but within about 5 minutes, JJ's face broke out into an allergic reaction.  We immediately took the puppy away from him and watched to make sure he was still breathing and ok since along with the obvious symptoms, swollen face, itchy/watery eyes, runny nose, JJ's tongue also swelled a little.  Thankfully we didn't have to use his epi-pen, but I got really nervous.  At this point, it was very evident that we would not be keeping the puppy : (  

In the morning, Brian had to take the puppy back.  When Brian called the lady to tell her, she said there was a family that wanted a black puppy and would come look at him before they went to church, so luckily he quickly found a new loving home.  JJ was incredibly sad when Brian took the puppy away though.  

On top of all the puppy drama, I ended up getting mastitis.  It's horrible.  On Sunday, I was in really bad shape and couldn't get out of bed almost all day.  Before Brian took the puppy back, he was taking care of JJ, Owen, and the puppy since I couldn't get out of bed.  Brian said he thinks JJ's allergic reaction might have been a blessing in disguise since it was the longest 1.5 hours of his life handling all three of them!  Last weekend was very emotional, so this weekend we just did absolutely nothing.

Lessons learned = if it starts pouring down rain, everyone in the car is crying and/or puking, and JJ keeps insisting he doesn't want something (he tried to refuse peanut butter for the first time but we forced it on him, and he refused to eat some pasta when M, K, and T were here that turned out to have walnuts in it, so apparently he has a sixth sense about his allergies), then God is probably telling you that a puppy is NOT the answer!!!

Relaxing after a long day.  Poor JJ was very sad.

JJ's new puppy, in a basket : )  Definitely going to be a lot easier addition to our family.