Historical Castle Festival in Manderscheid

The girls first time on a shuttle bus.

Manderscheid Castle

Looking out the window.

Alyssa climbing up the stairs.

Taking a short break on the way up.

We made it to the top!!!
In the background is another castle in a different town.

Another break on the way down.

8/31/08
Back on the ground after a long climb.
This was officially our first day trip to a festival and it was only about a half and hour away. We all really enjoyed ourselves.

Our first bike ride on the trails...

Bill and the Girls

The view from one of the trails.

The Girls having a snack.
We believe this is an old bomb shelter, there was a sign in German.

Hot air balloons everywhere...

Last night when I went upstairs to close all the shades I noticed all of these hot air balloons just outside our bedroom window. We still do not know what was going on, but there were probably 50 or more of them all over.

How easy is it to remember this...

So this is our license plate in Germany and it is not specially made.
BIT stands for Bitburg
GF stands for Grand Forks
701 is the area code in ND
I thought it was pretty neat and I just had to get a picture to share with all of you.

Recent pictures...

Here we are by our street sign just down the street from our house.

The front of our house.

Hannah, Alyssa & Daddy looking at a slug they found in the grass.

The back of our house, it also shows the lower level apartment under us. We have the top two floors, which were originally two apartments now made into one.

This weeks update:
Monday: Bill pretty much just started back to work since we got here, now that we now have a house, life is a lot easier.
Tuesday: Alyssa had her first doctor's appointment in Bitburg, as that is where all the children are seen.
Wednesday: I finally got to take my driver's test and passed with a 94%, I was just hoping for an 85%, which is passing. Once Bill got home from work we all headed to Speicher and went to a German store and Grocery store for the first time ever. That was very interesting. I have to tell you they had a box of Pop Tarts for 6.50 euros, which is about $9.00 for one box. I thought that was just crazy. We ended up purchasing 2 different chocolate bars at the grocery store. At the other store the girls each got a baby doll, a package of bath toys and a 5 pack of doorstops, which cost about 6 euro. I just had to tell you all about our very first experience in a German store/grocery store.
Thursday: The girls and I ventured out by ourselves for the first time. We went to the base and ran a bunch of errands. I have to take advantage of that while I can as we will only have one vehicle as of next Thursday when we return our rental car.
Today: We met Bill at the PowerZone on base then all went to the grocery store. After supper we went for a long walk in the town we live in. We found the soccer field we were told about and a easier way to the walking paths from our house. Tomorrow we are planning a bike ride on the walking paths.
I will update with older pictures from the last two months as the days go on. Oh and we have a very active little boy, he is kicking and wiggling every chance he gets. Neither one of the girls were ever this active and I am only five months along. One last thing before I forget our shipment should be here on Tuesday and we will be able to schedule for everything to be delivered hopefully sometime next week!!!

We are in our new house!!!

I just wanted to let all of you know that we are now officially in our new house as of this last Thursday. The mover brought our early shipment on Wednesday and we also got our loaner furniture that day too. Wednesday evening we spent cleaning all the bedrooms upstairs.

Thursday we went to our first WIC appointment and got a brand new stove as the prior renters ruined the one they had, which was fine with us a new stove is better anyway. Bill and I spent Thursday and Friday getting just the kitchen cleaned up the prior renters were pretty gross people according to the landlord.

Friday we went to my first doctor's appointment in Trier, Germany. We waited an hour and a half before we got in, and that is a normal wait. My doctor is German, but she does speak English very well. We both really liked her a lot. It is different for sure as the doctor did my blood work, ultrasound and everything else. The ultrasound doubled checked that we are still having a little boy!!! Friday night ended at about 2:30 in the morning for Bill and I as we cleaned late and then realized that our refrigerator was keeping the food cool enough, to top it all off we had just gone to the grocery store and stocked up on groceries. Bill ran to Spangdahlem to the Shoppette to get ice.

Saturday started with a brand new refrigerator!!! It continued as the last three days with cleaning. Needless to say the girls have been watching a lot of movies on the laptop the last three day. We ended the evening going for a walk in Herforst, which is the town we live in. Just down the street there are three walking paths that go to other towns in the area. We live in a very small town and like the neighborhood a lot, it is very quiet!!!

Today we spent the morning cleaning and organizing what we have so far. Then after lunch we played with the girls for awhile before putting them down for their naps. While they were sleeping we actually got ready, that didn't happen yesterday, as we were to busy cleaning. Once they get up we are planning to go do something, not sure what quite yet. I will keep you all updated and post pictures of the house once we get it all cleaned and get the rest of our stuff.

Goofing around!!!

Here are a couple pictures of the girls playing with some packing paper. Things like that are always better than toys. We ordered each of the girls a toy online once we got to Germany and they came in today!!! The box that it all came in was way more fun than the toys that they got.

Bill's last day of work at GFAFB...

All tied up!!!

A little tighter.

A nice shower to top it all off.

Bill ended up with yogurt on his head too, I guess they look in the refridgerator and put whatever they can find on the person leaving. They got him pretty good.
Enjoy the pictures!!!

Fertile Fair pictures...

Posing for the camera.

Goofball eating a mini donut.

The girls with Marissa.

Cheese!!!

Crusing around in her stroller.

Thanks for the pictures, Mom.

If anyone else has any pictures of the girls, just send me an e-mail with them in it and I will get them on the blog. As I will not be able to post any of my own until we get our desktop computer back next month.

Our first visitors...

I forgot to mention in my last post that we had our first visitors last weekend. Uncle Ben and his girlfriend Jody (or Erin as Alyssa kept calling her). We went and saw the two of them today in Ramstein. We spent the day running around with Uncle Ben, then went to Jody's house for naps and supper. Jody had to work most of the day, but we did get to spend some time with her too. Uncle Ben moves back to the states next week sometime, but at least we got to spend some time with him before he had to go. We are hoping that he will come back to visit since Jody will still be in Germany for another year or so.

Our first week in Germany....

We pretty much spent the first week adjusting to the seven hour time change. I think all of us are pretty much all on track again. Hannah has been getting up in the mornings at 7:00 and Alyssa will sleep all morning if I let her. Alyssa has been having trouble getting to bed at night, she has been wanting Bill or I to sleep on the extra bed in her room. Tonight she was very tired, I think that is due to getting up at 7:30 and only taking at very short nap this afternoon.

We decided to turned down on base housing as it just wasn't what we wanted. We were given three places to look at a three bedroom apartment, a four bedroom apartment, and a four bedroom duplex. That was very stressful as now we have to find a house/apartment/duplex off base to live in. So, far we have looked at two places off base. Both of which were in Herforst, Germany, which is only about three miles from the Spangdahlem base. One was a six bedroom apartment and the other was a three bedroom apartment. We found out today that they will only pay for us to live in TLF for a total of 15 days, more stress. That means we have to find a place by the 21st of August.

Saturday we decided to venture out into the city of Trier, that was a bad idea, as we had nothing to go to and just ended up driving around the city. Thank goodness for our GPS that we decided to purchase with the European maps on it. Driving can be a little crazy especially since we don't know German and all the driving signs are in German. It was just interesting to see another city.

Sunday we decided to check out the Protestant service and it just happened to be a Contemporary service outside, but it is normally a traditional service. We really enjoyed the service, but would like to check out the traditional service as well. They usually do the the Contemporary service in the evening on Sundays, so we will have to check that out one week too.

Besides that we have made several trips to the Commissary for groceries as the TLF we are staying in is apartment style, which is great. We have gone to Bitberg base a few times to look at housing, check out the bigger BX, and get groceries at the bigger Commissary. Bitberg is about 10 miles from Spangdahlem base. We checked out an Itailian Ice Cream shop in Speicher yesterday and got to use our first of the Euros.

So, overall we are having a great time. We will just be better once we find somewhere to live, get our own van back, purchase a second vehicle and get all of our personal belonging back.

Day before leaving...

We spent the night at the North Country Lodge in Minneapolis on Monday before we left. We went out to eat at Q-Cumbers buffet, Uncle Nate's choice. Both Grandma and Grandpa's came along with Nichole, Pete and Nate.

Tuesday we spent the whole day at the Mall of America with Grandma's and Grandpa's, Nichole, Pete, Nate, Nancy and Sandy. The girls went on some rides and then all of us went mini golfing at Moose Mountain. Then we said good byes to Grandma and Grandpa M., Nichole, Pete, Nate, Nancy and Sandy:o( Grandma and Grandpa G. brought us to the airport to see us off, which was a great help, as we had a lot of stuff to check and bring on the plane. Then we were off to Germany after saying good bye to Grandma and Grandpa G.

I forgot to tell all of you what Alyssa said once we were up in the air. She said " Are we going to see God up here?" I just thought that was adorable. So we went on to explain that God was higher up than an airplane could go.

Week prior to Germany...

We spent the week prior to coming to Germany with the Gruenes side of the family. The girls had a blast at Grandma and Grandpa's house and enjoyed spending time with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

We all went with Grandma, Grandpa, Joann, Alex, John and Matt to the Stern's County fair in Sauk Center. The girls got to go on the fairswheel with Grandma and Grandpa for the first time ever. Alyssa went on several rides with Alex and had a whole lot of fun!!!

The Saturday before we spent the day with family and the girls got to go to their first parade in Albany. Alyssa didn't get into the candy thing to much, but Hannah just had a blast and she was a pro at the candy picking up.

Sunday we went to lunch at the church in Albany and they also had a kid's carnival going on. It was Grandma, Grandpa, Nancy, Kevin and Cousin Nick with us. Alyssa played lots of games, along with Nicholas. Hannah just had fun running around the playground and eating a sucker with Aunt Nancy!!!

We all had a very busy week. The week ended with supper at Sandy and Brady's house, which we finally got to see. We all enjoyed spending time with everyone.

We made it to Germany!!!

I just wanted to write a little to let all of you know that we made it to Germany safe and sound Wednesday and on time. Yesterday we got our rental car, very expensive over $300.00 (actually ended up being $450.00 with the insurance tacked on) for one week, we are hoping that our van gets here by next Thursday, so we don't have to use it after that. We made it to Bitberg to look at a three bedroom apartment yesterday and also went to the bigger Commissary to get some more groceries. I was surprised that the prices were pretty much the same as in the states. Bill is bring in a copy of my medical records today to the housing office, so we can look at a four bedroom instead. We are still thinking we are going to live off base, as we can make more money that way. I am going to go as I have a bed awaiting me for a nap. I will write more later.

The Girls

ADORABLE!!!
Here are the last of the pictures that we had taken last week. I can't wait to get the pictures back and share them with everyone!!! We have to have my Mom pick them up for us as they do not come in before we leave for Melrose, but we will get them back before we leave the US. Enjoy as I probably will not have anymore pictures to post before we get our desktop computer back the middle of August. Unless of course anyone decides to e-mail me some pictures.

Hannah Ellen-17 months

Here are Hannah's year and a half pictures. She did a great job!!! Now both of the girls just have to have their pictures taken yearly.

Alyssa Nikay-3 years 4 months

Here are a couple of pictures that were taken of Alyssa. It wasn't her time to get pictures taken, so there are not a whole lot of her by herself.

Weekly update

On Wednesday Bill, the girls and I spent most of the day at Splasher's at the Canad Inn. Alyssa went on all the water slides that they had. Even the "toilet slide" as she called it, which was a whole lot of fun. Hannah also enjoyed all the slides, except the toilet slide as she was not old enough. We floated down the lazy river, hung out in the hot tub (when the girls needed to warm up), and spent a whole lot of time just splashing around in all the water.

Wednesday evening we went over to my friend Kristi's Dad's house. Kristi, Chris, Tyler and Emma were in GF visiting from England. The kids had fun playing together. We will get to spend a whole lot more time with them when we move over to Germany. We are very excited about that.

Thursday Uncle Nate made it home to visit from Minneapolis. The girls enjoyed spending the whole weekend with him and can't wait to see him again in Minneapolis before we leave next week.

Yesderday (Saturday the 26th), my Sister and Mom had a going away party for us. That was a whole lot of fun for everyone that was there. We had great food, played games, and visited with family. That evening Mom, Dad and Breanna watched the girls for us so we could go on a party bus. Alyssa really liked having Breanna spend the night with her, it was like a sleepover. My Uncle drove the bus for us along with my Aunt LouAnn, we all had a blast hanging out together. It was Nichole, Pete, Nate, Deb, Sam, Brenda, Bill and I that all went.

Our Family Pictures...

So, here are the family pictures that we had taken last week. And to answer my last post we are going to be having a baby boy!!! We are all very excited and would have been just as excited if we were told we were having a little girl. It will definatley be a new experience for everyone. Auntie Nichole got to tell Alyssa and she was so excited that she was screaming and laughing up a storm. She has wanted a baby boy since she found out that we were having another baby. She said his name would be Aladin Vladimir Gruenes. We had to let her know that we would not be naming our little guy Aladin, so she was not disappointed when the baby arrives in December.

We're having a Baby....

So, we had our ultrasound today are there any guesses on the sex of the baby??? The heart rate was in the 140's. I am going to keep all of you guessing until I post next, so for those of you that know don't give it away.

Last Week

I am trying my best to get all of you caught up on what we have been up to. The pictures of course will come later, unless some of you e-mail me some that I can post. We are just leaving all the pictures on the camera until we get our desktop computer back the middle of August. It's just easier that way.

Anyway, Bill, the girls and I spent 5 days at the Holiday Inn. Alyssa and Hannah really enjoyed the water park there and they can't wait to go to Splashers in the Canad Inn.

We finally decided that we need to do a family picture before we move, so we got Hannah's 17th month (suppose to be 18 month, but oh well), pictures of the girls together and our family picture. We had to do them in two sessions, two different days. I figured we would not be doing professional pictures again until we are back in the states again, so why not. The family pictures didn't turn out the best, but at least we got them done. The girls didn't want to cooperate.

Last Friday I went to the casino in Devils Lake with my Mom, Dad, Sister and Brother-in-law. I didn't make any money, but I had a good time just spending time with my family.

Last Saturday was Bill's going away party with his shop. We all met at Buffalo Wild Wings, as usual, then went to a few bars afterwards. I went back to Mom and Dad's and gave the girls a bath and got them to bed, then I met up with Bill and some other people from his shop.

Yesterday Alyssa, Grandma, Auntie Nichole, and I all got haircuts. I can't wait to post a picture of Alyssa's new haircut. She got it cut to her shoulders and it's just adorable. We finally got to save a lock of her hair for her baby book, she has only gotten it trimmed in the past. Thanks Kaylie!!!

The Fertile Fair

Bill, Alyssa, Hannah & I headed for Fertile Fair last Friday, the 11th. We spent the afternoon/evening with LaVonne, Bruce, Marissa & MarJenna. The girls had a blast feeding the animals and eating all that fair food. We spent the night in Winger, MN with the McWilliam Family. Saturday afternoon we headed back to the fair. Alyssa & Hannah were in the 4-H Fashion Review with Marissa & MarJenna. They spent the rest of the afternoon on fair rides, a first for both of them. Needless to say Alyssa fell asleep in my lap eating ice cream, that's a first. So, since the weather wasn't the best anyway we decided to head back to Grand Forks.

July 7th

I just wanted to let all of you know that my cerclage was put in on the 7th and everything went as planned. I had a little more spotting this time, but everything is now just fine. I have an ultrasound and doctor's appointment scheduled for next week and that will be my final appointment until we get to Germany. Bill and I are hoping that they will be able to determine the sex of the baby. The girls spent the day with Auntie Nichole & Uncle Pete and had a blast as usual.

4th of July!!!

Bill made it home safely around 1:00 on the 4th of July. Bill, Alyssa, Hannah, Mom, Nichole, Pete and I spent the rest of the day celebrating the 4th of July. We went into downtown Grand Forks where the girls got to each ride a pony, go through the petting zoo, bounce in all kinds of bouncy castles and Alyssa also went on a horse carriage ride with Grandma, Auntie and Uncle. We got to eat Uffda-Taco's, elephant ears, cheese curds and mini donuts, yummy (our afternoon snack)!!! We went back to the house and grilled out then headed back for the 4th of July fireworks show which finally started at 10:30. Needless to say the girls were sleeping by the time we got back home at 11:30. We all had a very fun filled day!!! I will post some pictures later.

Update

Well, we are all officially moved out of our house. They came last Tuesday and packed up the majority of our stuff. Wednesday they finished packing and put everything in to wooden crates and sealed it all up. We spent the rest of the week cleaning our house all up. Monday the other movers came and packed up our early shipment, which we should get just eight days after we arrive in Germany. Everything else should be there sometime the beginning of September. Tuesday we passed our housing inspection and Bill headed to his parents house to get our van to St. Louis. Bill and his parents made it safely to St. Louis and dropped the van off this morning, which we should get by the end of August. Last time I talked to Bill they were stopping to eat and had just three hours to go to get back to Melrose. So, Bill will be home tomorrow to spend the 4th of July with us!!!

I'm not sure how often I will get pictures on the blog, but I will try to keep you updated on our moving/baby status.

Happy Late Father's Day!!!

Daddy, Hannah & Alyssa

When we went to Melrose we forgot to bring Daddy's gift along. Alyssa got to pick out Daddy's gift this year herself. She choose Goldfish crackers, which Daddy likes a lot. Mommy picked out something, too.

Happy Father's Day Again!!!

Helping Grandpa open his present.

More Cousin pics

Anna & Hannah after a bath.

Jonah & Alyssa playing Candyland.

Eli & Alyssa

Anna, Alyssa & Jonah