It's a BOY!

We've known for a few weeks now that a baby brother is on his way- but it's taken me a little while to accept that this is for real. Well, the picture from the ultrasound is pretty clear that he is a he and I wanted to share some pictures! Baby boy is healthy and growing well- he's at 27 weeks gestation today, and we expect to meet him around the beginning of July!

If you're wondering, we're registered at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/baby/3UFOPYBZB9IP

http://www.cottonbabies.com/6095.php

http://www.target.com/registry/baby/1QON5VQ85BE3M3D view of his face

No, that's not the unbilical cord...

Oregon

So, it’s been a while. We’ve been out and about, and I’ve left you in the dark- no posts, no emails, nothing. It’s like a relationship that’s gone sour, but I’m here to do my best to make it sweet again.
It’s been over a year since W. and I have seen the US, and we were feeling a little homesick, and a little lonely for the company of our family. Lufthansa had a pretty good deal on tickets from Frankfurt to Portland, so we took them up on their offer, and headed out west- 13 hours west, to visit Oregon.
W. did wonderful on the plane. She is still two- and only had a slight bruise from bouncing off the seat onto her head, but we made the trip will little incidence. We were greeted with a warm welcome by Nana and Papa at the airport and whisked off back to my childhood home. For two weeks we were able to relax in the company of friends and family. We visited the Salem carousel, ate at Taco Bell and took the dogs to the park. W. and I had a great time- especially when shopping and W. had Nana wrapped around her finger. Can you believe that W. has a new spring wardrobe from the three shopping outings she took with her grandma?!
W. and I also had a visit to the hair stylist. Now that she’s almost 3 we decided that it was finally time for her first hair cut. (She now finally has some hair to cut!) She did wonderful- she was told that she was the princess, and she loved the pampering. After the cut was finished, she wanted another! I too had a hair change- I’ve wanted to donate my hair for a long time to Locks of Love, http://www.locksoflove.org/ : and my hair was crazy long- so I did it! W. and I are both very happy with our new appearances.
We also needed to visit family in Idaho, so we hopped on another plane and were able to sojourn at Great-grandma Noni’s in Twin Falls for a few days before heading out to Homedale to see our friend Helen. In all, we were in Idaho for a week- rode horses, saw lots of cows and I reconsidered my retirement choices. I forgot how cold the desert can be!
Back to Oregon for 10 more days to catch up on zoo life in Portland, check out all the restaurants that we missed the first time, and fill our bags with ‘American’ things before heading back home. We had a wonderful time in the states, and we really enjoyed being able to spend so much time with our friends and family. It was very difficult to have been gone from Daddy for a month, but we were fortunate to have good long distance and SKYPE.
Since we’ve been back, we’ve been trying to get back into our routine, and settle in for the little BOY who is to be joining our family in July. Now that things are settled here, expect to see more travel posts!

Prague and a spot of Nuremberg

Happy New Year! So I'm a few weeks late putting this post out, but lately I've been having a hard time concentrating on even brushing my teeth, so a vacation post was way over my head. I think I can do it now.... so again, Happy New Year!

For the past few New Years celebrations, it's been the same for us. We're usually too tired to stay up until midnight let alone go anywhere. Last year we were rocked out of our bed by the Germans bringing in 2008. This year we decided to change our ways. J. has a college mountain climbing buddy that has recently relocated to Europe from the US. A bonus for us is that this buddy has family in some cool places, and we were welcome to join them. For New Years, Prague was the destination.

I am a little timid about traveling in the car for any kind of distance with an almost 3 year old. It's not fun. However with the help of Disney and the Golden Arches, our trip on the road wasn't bad at all. For 8 hours of driving, there were few tears, and the only complaints were from me to pull over to use the facilities. I didn't think we could make the journey in one go to Prague so we booked a night in the historic city of Nuremberg. We were comfortably situated with in the old city walls and our hotel was extremely nice for what we are used to.

Nuremburg has a rich and colorful history dating beyond the 11th century. It was interesting for us to be able to walk in the old city walls and see what life is like today and try to sympathize with the city's past. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg Arriving on the 28th, we were a few days too late to catch the Christmas markets, but we were able to see where they were and what they might have been offering for future trips. Nuremburg was a nice little stop on our way to the Czech Republic.

Arriving at our destination, I was surprised that we were in a post Soviet controlled area. The little village on the edge of Prague could have been any little suburb in the US. Minus the tiny little cars and road signs that made no sense to me. I was expecting all buildings to look like Moscow apartments and for there to be little difference between houses. Lucky for us, this was not the case. We were invited into a spacious family home that was warmly filled with another couple and their child, and our friends. There was room for us all to have our own little space, and plenty if room for W. to play and explore with her new found Czech friend.

The first full day we were in the Czech Republic, we were taken by our hosts to a glass factory in a nearby town. We were able to watch the men make the glass articles that this area is well known for. Next we were taken to another small town where the children were able to stretch their legs and breathe the cold winter air. For lunch it was a treat. A neat little restaurant tucked into a town that we'd never heard of, and we had the area to our selves. We dined on local foods and beverages and were able to relax. Best of all, having a host that has a child with the same age as yours, nap times are always figured in. Perfect! That evening we were taken to down town Prague to see some city life.

Downtown Prague is beautiful. The Velvet revolution happened here, many great rulers have called the city home, and it has some of the most impressive sites in Europe; the caste and the Charles Bridge are a couple of examples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague It is a must see for anyone wanting to spend some time Europe. On another day we were able to walk around the castle grounds, stroll through the city and sample the local foods. Lucky for us the Christmas markets were still up and running and were kept satisfied with hot wine (and chocolate) and lots of tasty treats- my favorite being a dough that was wrapped around a hot iron to cook it, then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar... yum!

I enjoyed every bit of visiting Prague- the people are very friendly with most speaking English, and there are so many interesting things to see. I would bring more clothes next time I go though- that is one cold place!

Here's a link to our pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=c41lnrbo.bxqb9q5w&x=0&y=fbq8ng&localeid=en_US

Happy Holidays!

Herzliche Weihnachtsgrüße!

We hope that this holiday season finds you and your family healthy and happy. For us, this has been a wonderful year with lots of happenings. We have been able to watch W. grow and become quite the independent little person and sadly we have seen the remnants of her babyhood slip past.
J. has been to many exciting new countries with his new job and has had the chance to experience a variety of different cultures- not to mention new beers! We really are fortunate that we are able to have this opportunity to live abroad and do so many things as a family.
Speaking of family, we will be adding another little one to our brood in July! Baby Archer is expected to arrive on the 2nd, but I know with Archer and Whitney genes, it’ll probably be later rather then on time… especially if baby’s anything like my mom… (Love you mom!) keep checking the blog for more up dates.
Well lucky for me, and for you, I’ve been keeping up, pretty much with our doings here in Germany for the past year on this blog. Hopefully next year we’ll have many more adventures to add to our story…

Fröhliche Weihnachten,

The Archers

St. Nicholasbahn

Last Friday we took a special holiday steam Christmas train ride- St. Nicholasbahn trough our village with a few friends. The train is from the 40’s and very vintage. About 10 minutes into the ride St. Nicholas came on the train with Black Peter (he reads off all of your bad deeds over the year) and handed out treat bags to the children. The bags were filled with a bread man, chocolate Santa and a licorice flavored cookie, along with some Clementine oranges, which are very popular right now. W. was feeling under the weather, but really enjoyed the ride. It took about 2 hours, with the train traveling about 5mph. We stopped for an intermission ½ way through, got off the train and had sausages and hot chocolate at one of the depots. The children were then able to see St. Nicholas personally if they wanted to. There were no 2 year olds that volunteered. For more info (in German) go here: http://www.selfkantbahn.de/ Here are a few photos from our trip:

She ate the whole bread man!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

For the past few days we've been experiencing a change in the weather. Usually this time of year in Germany brings lots of cold blustery days filled with rain. The kind of weather that makes you hurry from the car to the house, or to the closest warm shelter available. It is still cold and windy here, but the rain is what's been missing. Snow has taken its place, and in that, a special spot has been filled in the heart of a young girl. A spot she didn't know that was available for weather. Snow has become the rage in our household. It's good for everything- throwing, kicking, stomping and eating. Even in the dark of night, a little voice cries out, 'Mom, can I have my boots to go outside in pleeze?' And so the love affair begins with the cold white stuff. Soon I know that I'm going to be hearing, "Mom, I'm going to climb this mountain now...' I wonder where she gets it...

Brugge and the English Channel

This past weekend we packed the car and headed out once again to Belgium. Our destination only 2 ½ hours away, and a place where old Europe lives. Brugge, Belgium is about an hour from Brussels situated in the northwest corner of the country. The old part of the city is a beautiful reminder of times past where the streets are all break-your-neck-cobblestones and the roads have no discernable pattern. The houses are small but built well, and the churches are magnificent. There are several squares and many more chocolate shops. There are also horse drawn carriages that will take visitors around the old city and give a limited tour of what old Brugges has to offer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges
Being the horse lovers that W. and I are, we opted for the buggy ride, and J. didn’t object. This time of the year day light is of limited quantities- because of the latitude and because of the constant cloud cover. Our ride was at twilight, the city shops were lit up and there were oodles of pedestrians out strolling the city streets. The experience was very fairytale, and W. and I enjoyed ourselves very much. J. not being much of a horseman was gracious the half our journey it took to tour the city.
Accommodations in Brugge are expensive, but we were able to find a reasonable hotel at the Hotel Groeninghe using a Rick Steve’s recommendation: http://www.hotelgroeninghe.be/ This hotel included a great European breakfast and was centrally located. The only disappointment I would point out was that you have to park your car at the train station and have a ten minute walk back to the hotel. But not that I’m complaining…
For us, a complete day was enough to see in Brugge, so we loaded back up into the car and drove another 20 minutes away to the Belgium shore town of Oostende which over looks the English Channel. This cute little town was once the vacation hotspot for royalty, but now is open to all sorts of tourists. The beach reminded me of an Oregon beach- cold and windy with drizzly rain. There were no boulders sticking out of the sea, but there were loads of misshapen rocks (small enough to fit into your hand) and all the sea shells a girl and her mom could carry. Belgium: a very fun place to visit!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oostende