Mom's Visit

My amazing mom came out to visit us and stayed 3 whole weeks! Ryan and I were on our cruise 12 of the days and mom watched Kherington for us.

We tried to pack in as much as possible while she was here...hopefully she'll come back and visit us again. So...what did we do? Well, here's out play by play with the pictures that I had on my camera.

Thursday - Mom arrived in the afternoon. We were able to snatch her just as she exited the baggage area which was very lucky.

Friday - Let mom adjust a little to the time change then went to Stockel market and had the BEST waffles made in Brussels.

Saturday - Day trip up to Amsterdam. Kherington had a nice nap in the backpack for most of our time there. Mom bought some tulips and planted some in our back yard AND weeded for us while she was here. We were in search of some German food and had seen a bratwurst stand at a market, so we found out way back there. Ryan made friends with the guy and found that he's a fugitive from Cleveland (haha)...he was nice and gave Kherington a free hot dog and bun.

Sunday - Church. Mom drove home...I must say I think having her drive in this crazy place is probably what it feels like to have a 15 year old first get behind the wheel. In the evening, we explored downtown Brussels.

Monday - Day Trip to Ghent. It was kinda sad that they were doing major construction around the main square and very interesting that the public walk ways went right through the construcation area where back hoes and whatnot were in use. On our way home, we stopped at the Neuhaus Chocolate Outlet.

Tuesday - We stayed around home and did the normal stuff to make sure mom would be okay while we were gone...that means grocery shopping (how to buy produce and how to actually use the debit card) and gas station (how to fill up the car).

Sunday - Mom picked us up from an airport that's about 45 minutes away. Kherington was VERY excited to see us :) and is much more cuddly than she was before (which still isn't a ton...she's an independent little girl).

Monday - Day trip to Colonge to got to the Christmas Market at the Cathedral. We made a pit stop in Aachen to grab a kebab from my favorite kebab place....if you're ever going through definitely stop because they are AMAZING! It was FREEZING, but they had some good food to keep up warm. I discovered that I do not like roasted chestnuts...I always thought they sounded cool because of the song, but I'll never buy them again. We also tried these deep fried potato cake things (like hashbrowns, but they have flour in it) with a side of applesauce to dip them in (Kherington enjoyed these), bratwursts and a mixed bag of sugar coated nuts.

Tuesday - Trip out to the Le Creuset outlet in France. Mom now owns a beautiful Blue Enameled Cast Iron Pot :). We also stopped at Flanders Fields on our drive out.

Wednesday - Mom decided since she loves the morning so much she would fly out at 6am...meaning her flight left at 6...which means we went to the airport before the crack of dawn.

We had an awesome time and can't wait for more visitors to come :)

Kherington - 19 Months

Kherington definitely has her own personality.

She loves the computer and music...we're trying to train her on liking movies to make long airplane and car rides a little more enjoyable but they still don't hold her attention. She loves shoes, laughs at almost anything, says no-no before doing something she's not supposed to, and says uh-oh after doing something she not supposed to. She like applesauce, pudding, hummus, guacamole and anything else she can dip something in. At thanksgiving dinner all she at was turkey and jellied cranberry sauce (and dessert). She loves going outside (too bad it is FREEZING here). She grabs your face when you're not looking at what she wants you to be and leads you to the correct location when she wants something that is locked up or she can't reach. Her favorite books are currently Ryan's college basketball magazine and Book of Mormon Stories. She LOVES her bears (brown bear and rainbow bear...rainbow bear is the favorite). She likes talking on the 'phone' meaning anything she decides to stick to her ear (domino, spatula, shoes...). She doesn't care for naps, but still has time in her room by herself (she can either sleep or play with two toys in there).

Here she is:

Kherington 18 Months

My how she has changed. She is between 16 and 18 months in all of the pictures below (pictures in age order). She is a silly silly girl and we LOVE her!

Cologne and Frankfurt

To celebrate the end of Ryan's busy season, we planned a short trip over to Cologne and Frankfurt Germany. Kherington and I were in the US until mid September, so we waited a while to make sure Kherington would be adjusted (happier traveler).

Day 1:
We left at 4:00am in hopes that we could just move Kherington to her car seat and have her go back to sleep, however she stayed up the entire drive. As with most trips, our plans once again changed. After getting out of the car at a rest stop just 30 minutes from Frankfurt, we decided to backtrack an hour and head to Cologne first because it was FREEZING and our plans had been to do a 4 hour outdoor walking tour. Everything worked out great.

We found parking directly under the Cathedral (made is super easy to find the parking garage when we were done). We decided to climb the tower with Kherington, but minus the backpack carrier. The ticket salesman was like you realize that is 523 steps (or something like that). Ryan was amazing and carrier her the entire way up the steep, twirly staircase. She was able to run around a bit before we finished the last 50 stairs or so to the bell tower area. The view was amazing! We then headed over to the Chocolate Museum. It takes you step by step through the chocolate making process (my favorite part was seeing the actual machines and mold making).

From there we made a quick stop in Bonn at the Haribo outlet store to stock up on gummy and marshmallows (who knew they sold normal 'campfire' marshmallows?). Then continued on to Frankfurt where our hotel was located just a short walk away from the temple. We had hoped to be able to have one of us do a session that evening and the other the next morning, but that didn't end up happening. We did go over and walk around the temple grounds.

We decided to eat at a mexican restaurant that was packed...I'll never do that again...my mexican food is way better than German mexican food...Kherington was sitting on my lap and helping herself to my food and I didn't see that there was a whole pepper in the salad. She too a huge bit and started screaming (oops).

Day 2:
Kherington was really happy to be in the car with her bears this morning. It was still a little chilly when we got downtown, so we opted for checking out the mall. It had an escalator that when up SEVEN stories and had some fun/artistic areas to relax in. Since we skipped out on the organized walking tour we just wandered around the until lunch time, grabbed bratwurst from the local outdoor market and headed home.

Kherington was very content with snacking on Cheetos the whole drive home. She learned how to pull the lid off of her snack cup so she could stash them away in her seat.