Easter Break Part 2 - Trier, Bruges and a bit of Luxembourg

Let's see where were we...oh yes, on our way to Bruges! Everyone we'd spoken to about Belgium said Bruges was their favorite city, including Rick Steve's travel guide, so we decided to take advantage of being closer to Belgium and drive to Bruges.  On the way, we stopped in Trier, Germany, as it is a short drive from Michaele and Josh's home.

Trier is the oldest City in Germany, founded in 16 B.C. b Augustus, and was an ancient Roman capital . It is situated close to the border with Luxembourg, and while we wanted to take a trip much to do in the same day as Trier. We made it late morning and parked near the Porta Nigra, the remaining Roman gate to the city.

To the right is a church that was added to it, which is possibly was it was saved from destruction during various wars. 

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Photography by Emmy

Happy girl at lunch.

We walked down to eat lunch at a restaurant that had been recommended to us: The Potato Restaurant, Kartoffel Restaurant Kiste. It was yummy!

The Basilica is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

As we left lunch, rain had begun to fall again. We walked over to the Basilica of Constantine, which is the oldest Christian church in Germany.

Outside of a restaurant, I just love Europe for all of it's charm. When the weather warms up, this place will be amazing. 

Plan showing the original plan of the church.

We were back on the road fairly quickly in order to get to Bruges by suppertime. We had arranged to rent a flat from a lovely couple who runs a B&B and have recently remodeled a couple of flats nearby.

Walking to supper, one of the lovely canals in Bruges

We were a little later because of construction, so we checked in, threw our stuff in the flat, parked the car (parking is tight in the city, one reason we picked this place is they offered secure parking a couple of blocks away that our big American car barely squeezed into), and went to eat at the closest restaurant recommendation to our location from Rick Steve's guide, a delicious Italian place called Carlito's. Fortunately we got a table and the kids, while tired, did not embarrass us too much while we inhaled food and got out of there. Ha! I always feel a bit self conscious taking the kids out to eat in Europe. I'm not sure about Belgium specifically, but eating out in Poland is expensive for Poles, so you don't see children out as much as were used to.

YUM!

The next day we slept in a bit. The time did not change here until Easter weekend, so we were all adjusting and sleeping in later, which was pretty glorious. Our goals for the day were to cover the basics: Belgian beer, chocolate, waffles, and fries. We ate a small breakfast and took off for the city center in search of our 2nd breakfast: Belgian waffles!

After waffles and walking around the square some, we opted not to climb to the top of the tower so we could make the brewery tour at 11 am. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of recommended chocolate shops for some Belgian chocolate, of course!

Belgian Chocolate!

Brewery tour! One of the best we've ever been on. 

Learning all about the different grains used for making beer and how they add flavor.

After climbing a lot of stairs, we made it to the roof of the brewery. 

These are the tanks they used to ferment the beer in. 

Belgian Beer! Beer tasting after the tour.

Emmy enjoyed hot chocolate instead.

Matthew enjoyed playing around. 

After the brewery tour, it was time for some lunch, to include Belgian fries, of course! 

Belgian fries! 

Sharing a delicious piece of chocolate.

Beautiful statue of the Madonna and child. 

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Canal boat tour! It rained on us off and on, but we enjoyed it. 

The next day we had to pack up and start the trek back home. We made a quick stop for Belgian beer, then headed into Luxembourg. We'd hoped to go into Luxembourg City for lunch, but time was tight making it to our stop for the night, so we opted to stop at the American Cemetery instead.  General George Patton is buried there. We walked around a bit before heading back to the car to make it to Ramstein for the night. 

On the way out of Belgium we had to stop at a grocery store so Charles could fill the car with beer. 

We barely fit! 

American Cemetery in Luxembourg. 

General Patton's grave

Emmy loved the fountains.

We spent the night back at Ramstein AFB (well, just off base this time) so we could pick up a few more things at the commissary, then we headed home the next day. It was a wonderful trip!

Guest post by: Emmy

Getting ready for skating lessons 

Emmy and I started this post together a long while back.   She helped me pick out some things to share. She has rather lost interest in helping me with it further, so I'll share some other fun Emmy stories and news.

First time on the ice in new skates! 

Emmy's class started swimming lessons in January, finally! She loves to swim and she has been waiting for this all year. She likes going under water and she says she can now float on her back without her floatie, she has learned how to relax herself. (As of late February, I'm sure there have been a lot more strides since then!)

The primary grades also had three skating lessons. The first time we sent her with money to rent skates at the skating rink, but the skates hurt her feet A LOT. So, off we went to the sporting good store to buy her a pair of skates. They are white with pink and blue and she liked skating a lot better with her own, more comfy skates. They are adjustable, so she can wear them for a couple of years.


Recent school field trips included a trip to the candle making factory, and as a special end of term treat, the movies! The kids movies here are always dubbed, since most small children cannot read, so we don't get to take her to the movies.  The school arranged with one of the cinemas to play The Good Dinosaur in it's original language. It was a fun treat! Emmy says she really liked the movie. They also have been to a Lego exhibition where she saw an 11 meter model of the Titanic and a science exhibit. She really enjoys all the field trips.

Ready for a sleepover (18 Jan.)

Her best pal is Freja, her Danish-American pal. She is about 6 months older than Emmy but a grade ahead. They get to play together during their breaks, and since her mom, Sarah, and I are good friends (and her dad is Charles' Danish soulmate), we spend a lot of time together outside of school, too.  She also enjoys having friends in her class from all over, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, and China!

Masks her class made for Chinese New Year.

Emmy's dream catcher.

One a recent visit to Emmy's school, her teacher showed me a a project the class had just completed making dream catchers. She pointed out how nicely Emmy had done hers, how she had carefully wrapped the wire. After she was finished, she had helped some of her friends finish theirs. She really does love doing art projects! For her birthday this year, we are having an art birthday party. It is going to be a lot of fun to plan.

Emmy is apparently a rock star speller. It was a bit tough getting used to spelling words each week when that was added to the "schedule" mid-fall, but now she pretty much memorizes all four on Monday and we just review them through the week. It's impressive!

The whole class of completed dream catchers. 

Emmy still loves babies and playing with her dolls. She loves being a big sister, and she really is a wonderful big sister. She and Matthew play together, she shares with him so well. As a parent, it is amazing to watch. I love how much they love each other and I pray that their relation will continue to grow and they become good friends. 

When baby-lover and good big sister meet: baby-wearing her little brother.

Baby wearing duo on the way to supper the last Sunday in February.

Holding our friends' baby girl, Hannah. 

I don't have any pictures to share yet, but Emmy is in a drama class at the barracks this spring, and in June they will be putting on a play, an adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. She seems to be enjoying it very much. In addition to getting ready for the performance they do crafts.  It has been a fun extracurricular activity. Hopefully we'll add in some gymnastics or ballet again, soon, too.

It's hard to believe that in just four weeks this girl will be seven years old. Six has been challenging, but then we did go through a big transition. We're all working on listening more and being patient (and by all of us I mean Charles, Emmy, and me).  She is funny, smart and stubborn always keeps us on our toes!

Matthew is 18 months old!

Matthew is 16, 17, 18 months old!

So, as usual, I began this post weeks ago, preparing to do a nice little update on our little dude. Fast forward, and he turned 18 months old this week!

Adorable bear outside my window one cold January day. 

I love morning snuggles with this boy. They don't happen so often any more now that he is not nursing.
It is a bittersweet end. 

He frequently joins us in the bathroom and sits on the step stool.

He went through a phase in January when he'd learned how to turn the lights switches off and on, so he did it frequently. A friend kept him one evening for me and she said our neighbors must have thought we were trying to communicate through Morse code. 

Dying laughing at his sister. No one can make him laugh quite like she can. 

This captures his personality so well. 

Sick baby snuggles. He brought me the wrap so he could have ups. 

Why yes, that is a bag of dog food he's spilled on the floor. At least he tried to help clean it up? 

Shopping at Castorama. 

He loves the playground at Emmy's school. 

He has been such a good baby and now toddler, but like all kids, he has his grumpy moments.

Being silly with Daddy.

Friday night pizza and movie night. He looked so grow up to me on this night, sitting on the footstool and eating his pizza like a big boy.

Baby-wearing. He's going to be such a great daddy some day! He loves to play in Emmy's room with her dolls.

"Helping" with the laundry. I had brought his hamper downstairs to wash and it was in the hallway and he emptied it and brought his clothes into the living room. He kept putting the clothes on the little footstool and they kept falling off. 

The boy loves a hat. Even fancy pink hats. 

He gets in the the pantry and rearranges things for me. Clearly, it needs some help. 

I found him adding pepper to his snack. 

Then he climbed on up onto the table, of course. 

I adore that I caught this face. 

So silly. 

I rock him to sleep as often
as he will let me. 

It may be cliche and I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I cannot believe how fast they grow up. Maybe it is because he is my last baby, maybe it is partly because of losing Sara Hawley, but I'm extremely emotional about this boy growing up. Plus, he's really sweet and I want him to stay this way FOREVER.

So, at now 18 months, Matthew loves balls, balloons, playing outside and picking up rocks and tiny pinecones.

He loves his red shoes! 

He adores his big sister.

He loves the dog.

He loves his red shoes.

He likes to wear hats, and he wears them well.

He does this adorable little shoulder shimmy shake when he asks to watch Bubble Guppies. 

He loves to read and he will happily sit there while you read to him.

His love of balls shines when he shows off his throwing and kicking skills.

He gives really great hugs.

He loves putting on chapstick and hand lotion.

Bedtime stories with Daddy 26 Feb.

When Charles went away in February, all of the sudden he
became VERY clingy to me. At first I did not realize why, but now I'm pretty sure it was because Charles left for a week, then another week, and then he was gone again in March for a week. It has gotten better, but it was to the point that even when the baby-sitters came (whom he adores) he would not stay in another room and play with them while I did some work. It made getting anything accomplished difficult. Fortunately, it is a lot better now.

He is in LOVE with his DaDa. He always has been happy with either of us, but he seems more enamored with Charles lately.  Whenever we drive onto the Barracks for any reason, he realizes where we are and he immediately says DADA!! When Charles came back from one of his trips, he arrived back at work around midday, so he changed into his uniform and worked until we came to pick Emmy up from the bus. He was so happy to see Charles, and when Charles started to head back into his building to change into civilian clothes to go home, Matthew SCREAMED. He had to go in with Daddy, would not let him out of his sight. Most nights we tag-team bedtime and I read a chapter book with Emmy and he puts Matthew to bed. The other night I decided I wanted some Matty snuggles at bedtime and tried to put him down and after a few minutes, it was obvious that I would not do, Daddy needed to come. He is happy with me all day, he goes down for naps just fine for me, but at night if Daddy is home, he wants only Daddy!


He has been signing for several months, and he signs more, milk, water, please, down (when he wants you to put him down or to go downstairs), bath, sleep, Mama, thank you, book/read, all done and probably a few more I'm forgetting.

He is definitely talking a good bit and repeating things. "Ball" was his first word besides Mama or Dada. Then came balloon, Rags, Emmy (or what sounds kind of like it), more, bottle ("ba-ba"), please,, this. We know says outside, shoes, "Bubbles" for Bubble Guppies, his favorite show, hat, book, eyes, hair, and he repeats things frequently. More and more there is something new that we can distinguish that he says independently. Charles says his Southern roots show when he manages to make one syllable words, like "ball," multi-syllabic.

He also says "tak", which is Polish for "yes", and instead of saying no, he says "naj", which is Danish (sounds like n-eye). Remember, his best pal Claire is Danish! He has also picked up "mere" which is "more" in Danish and "den der" which is "that one".

He has entered that toddler phase of not eating much, or at least not eating consistently. This is super frustrating, but I guess we should not be surprised. He has gotten a little pickier, so we hope this will level back off and not be come as bad as Emmy (who will not eat any vegetables, and rarely wills he voluntarily try something new/ prepared differently than she is used to).

I would say his favorite foods are clementines, peanut butter, spinach (when he's in the right mood, he does love the spinach pizza from our favorite pizza places and spinach pierogis), eggs, beans, mushrooms, jam or jelly, and ketchup. That's not all he eats, mind you, but those are his faves. I think his absolute favorite food is probably ketchup, which should make Aunt Mary Ann proud.

He does not seem to be a big fan of potatoes, so Charles and I are not sure he is really ours. Ha! Matthew's current has reminded us of how much we dislike this age when it comes to eating. I asked Charles what foods Matthew really doesn't like and he looked at me with a blank stare and said "it varies from one bite to the next, you know that."  I laughed, but it's true! The boy will eat something for a few bites, then decide a bite is no good and spit it out, which is so annoying. I do not like the spitting out food phase.

Just hanging around in a fun new t-shirt from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Lucas. 

Oh how this boy has my heart! 

Talking on his new "phone" (it's really a remote control) that Aunt Beth and Uncle Griff sent him. 

Picking up pinecones and handing them to Mama.

He likes to take bottles out of the pantry, then put them back in. 

Fancy hat and necklace are appropriate snack-eating attire.

It's been a delightful 18th months with this boy so far. A piece of our family will always be missing, but Mr. Matthew certainly has filled a huge void and brought us so much joy!