On Thursday, we ventured up Germany’s tallest mountain, the Zugspitze and it was absolutely amazing. We did not climb it as it is still covered in snow and even through from the peak we were warm in short sleeves, there were plenty of people still skiing. If only Abe wasn’t 2! Before I tell you about the day, late me start by saying that none of the pictures I took saved to my camera. When we got home last night, I was heart-broken! So for my story, I will use other people\’s pictures to help illustrate the day.

We got up and decided to go hiking around a lake called Lake Eibsee. This lake is an alpine lake and it was just beautiful. The water was crystal clear. It was mating season so we saw plenty of wildlife which was just awesome to watch. The boys loved the lake and loved seeing so many animals.

Here is the lake with the Zugspitze in the background:

After about 90 minutes we decided we wanted to go to the top of the mountain. So we rode this lift up to the bottom and saw the most incredible views. Because we were on the highest point in the bavarian alps, we could see everything. It was Ian’s favorite part of the vacation. Here is a view of the lake from above:

and a view from the top:

After all of that, we decided to go down these alpine slides. You sit in a toboggan looking thing and it takes you to the top of a hill and then you control how fast or slow you go. If you to too slow, it generally pisses off the people behind you, but at first it’s scary! Ian and I went together and Drew and Abe were behind us. The slide takes you through all of these twists and turns. It was so much fun. For the second time, Drew and Ian rode together in front of Abe and I. Ian apparently told Drew, “Mommy screams like a little girl!” He left off the part that he does as well! We rode that about 10 times that day. It was a blast.

Being that we live in Europe and we are within reach of so many great places, I decided that we needed to get out and explore… and explore we have! We decided to fly to Salzburg, Austria for our trip. The airfare cost less than $300 for 4 round-trip tickets. How could we NOT go?!?! Now when we arrived in Salzburg at 8am today, we rented a car and drove to Germany. We wanted to go into the Alps for some fresh mountain air. If we left today, I would feel content. It was a 2 hour drive so when we got here, we had plenty of time to kill so we decided to go hiking and playing in the Alps.

Here is the view from the car on the way here (yes I held the camera outside of the window!):

Luckily we had prepared ourselves for the Alps by watching the Sound of Music this weekend. The mountains were sprinkled with edelweiss and when we reached the top it was gorgeous. At first we all sat down at the top and just looked around. We didn’t have a whole lot to say as the sight was incredible. Words wouldn’t do it justice. That lasted about 3 minutes when Abe decided he needed to find some sticks. So boys being boys decided to have a sword fight while I watched it all

Here is another picture of the view. The building on the left is a beergarden which we visited before heading back down!

I’ve mentioned before that since arriving in Belgium, we routinely stumble upon parties and parades here! Well, this past St. Patrick’s Day was no exception.

We looked for any festivities in the area, but we couldn’t find anything so we decided we wanted to explore a city that we hadn’t been to yet, Tournai. Tournai is the oldest city in Belgium and really doesn’t get much attention from foreigners or travelers which is a shame. Tournai is considered to be one of the most important cultural sites in Belgium. The mixed Romanesque- and Gothic-style cathedral of Notre Dame de Tournai and the belfry, the oldest in Belgium, have been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

As soon as we leave the car, we start hearing music playing and at this point we are about 1/8 of a mile away from the city center. As we get closer, we can see people are dressed in costumes and it’s ironic that the first group of people are dressed up as Smurfs, considering the smurfs are a Belgium creation. And yes, that is beer in their hands.

At this point we still have no idea what is going on, so we just decide to make our way to the Grand Place which is the city center. There is confetti all over the street and people adorned in various costumes. The food and beer is plentiful! As we’re walking, we come across the gorgeous cathedral. This building is just overwhelming in size and presence.

The streets are getting more and more packed as we wind through the cobblestoned streets to the Grand Place.

We finally make it to the square and it is just one huge party. People of all ages are there and we are in the minority because we don’t have costumes on!

The boys had a blast and so did we. It was quite an unexpected surprise. We didn’t even get to really explore the town or the sights as we were too busy having fun!

There was a huge parade which was great to watch.

And here is another view of the town:

Tournai is only about 20 minutes away so we will go back one of these weekends.

Little Mister “E” and I recently went to Euro Disney for a school trip. As the title of my post demonstartes, it actually isn’t called that. It also isn’t called the big name I gave it, with my stunted French comprehension. I will say one thing about Euro Disney… it’s huge.

I actually felt bad for Ian and the other kids as they trudged across the park and its expanses. I felt like I had been walking through the woods all day by the time we went back to the buses. But, all in all, it was a good trip.

Ian beagn his photographic career by taking this picture of me in the Grand Mall (pronounced ghrannd! mahl)

I hope he keeps with it.

While at Erou Disney, we got see the most important thing ever… Buzz Lightyear

The head moving around and the talking in multiple languages freaked me out, but Ian was happy as could be. We shot up Zurg, although it is important to note that I won on the points tally.

Finally, we rode the tea cup ride. Three times. The last time Ian said he was going to barf. It’s great being a dad.

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Last Friday we took the train and rode into Brussels to see Dave Matthews perform live in concert. The show was amazing. It was just him and Tim Reynolds playing an acoustic set. Some friends of ours watched the boys and we had an awesome time. The city was so alive. Every time we go down there we see things we hadn’t seen before. I can’t wait to go back to that part of town and just enjoy the night life.

The next day, the whole family went up and explored the city some more. We started off in what is called the Grand Sablon. We walked around a nice antiques market they have every Saturday and Sunday and stopped by a famous chocolatier, Pierre Marcolini.

The chocolate is some of the best I’ve had and living in Belgium, I think I’ve tried the best! Afterwards we walked down to the main square in brussels called the Grand Place. On our walk we stumbled across an interesting parade and I have no idea what it was for. People painted themselves with black and wore pink and black while carrying this little baby. This isn’t the first time we have stumbled across interesting things like this in Brussels. I still have no idea what it was for, but it was interesting nonetheless!

We just wanted to wish EVERYONE a very merry christmas! I hope Santa treated you all well this year! I would like to thank you all for your cards, gifts, and phone calls. It is definitely different being away from the states but you are all in our thoughts!

We had a pretty good day yesterday although after drinking in the middle of the afternoon, a few hours later I remembered exactly why I don’t like champagne. Today will just be spent together; a sharp contrast to last year. Drew will work this week, but next week we will taking a trip to Prague which is going to be awesome! I will take tons of pictures!

I hope you have a wonderful day and end the new year right! We miss and love you!

It seems like the last month has been non-stop. Our weeks have been very busy and on the weekends we are trying to just chill out but there is so much to do. We haven’t really done anything cool to tell you about.

I finally found a hairdresser thanks to a friends recommendation. So, I got my hair cut and highlighted and I couldn’t be happier about it. We will try to take some family pictures soon.

We put up a christmas tree last weekend and this weekend I baked some. This week I am going to be brave and take some cookies over to my neighbors. I have yet to meet them and I’ve decided that armed with goodwill cookies, I will go with me my two words of french and a well-crafted note to introduce myself. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes

Oh… and those Xmas cards i was preparing a couple of weeks ago.. yeah.. they are still on my desk. So, it looks like you will get them after christmas. Better late than never I suppose.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! Our Thanksgiving was as typical as it can be for living in a country that doesn’t celebrate it!

Our day started by getting up early as usual and taking Ian to school. No, he doesn’t get the day off. Drew took him and I cleaned the kitchen from the night before (we baked coffee cake and pumpkin cheesecake ahead of time). It is a real pain in the ass to cook over here b/c our dishwasher does not work and our sink is tiny and we run out of hot water pretty easily; so it seems we wash dishes all day long as the hot water returns.

Anyway, after the dishes I started getting ready for the day. I decided to make an apple pie so I peeled apples and had enough to make two.. so two i made

The next thing I need to make was rolls. They don’t have rolls here like we do in the states and a baguette of french bread really isn’t the same. I have never made rolls before so I knew it was going to be an experience; but what the hell. So, I got my yeast and made my dough; i thought i was pretty cool kneading my dough (just call me Sara Crocker). I made my balls and set them down to rise. An hour later I go to check on them and they haven’t risen. Not one bit. sigh.. I decide to cook them anyway. They rise to about the width of a golf ball and about half the height. They look really cute :). Luckily they taste fantastic, so I guess in this case, size doesn’t matter.

We deep fry our turkey and it turns out perfect. There is no way the turkey could fit in our oven. It is tiny! But we had a good day and just hung out together.

I hope everyone else’s day was good. I’ll be sending out Christmas cards on Monday so hopefully everyone gets them in time.

I just checked this site in the new Internet Explorer and it is very broken :S

I will work on this and get back to you. In the meantime, why don’t you non-tech people download a much better browser: www.getfirefox.com

Something we’ve definitely taken advantage of here in Belgium is the Child Development Center (CDC). Almost every friday night they have a “parent’s-night out” where they will watch the kids from 7pm-midnight. We’ve used it 4 times already and will do this at least once a month. It’s so nice to have because when you are new somewhere, you don’t know anyone to watch the kids, but you still want to get out and go to a bar or a museum, etc.

My goal is to get Drew to take at least one day off each month while the kids have school and he and I can go venture around town doing grown-up things. So far so good.