Seven is heaven!

My little boy is now (drum roll please) 7 yrs old.

His actual Birthday, we went to dinner at Wingers as a family.

His birthday party is today. He has invited 5 boys to go bowling, eat pizza, and then back to our house for a SLUMBER PARTY!!!!!

The cake

The boys

Bowling

Wii

Movie time

ASLEEP!!!!!!!

I fell asleep before the boys did so......... I didnt get a pic.

Breakfast

Fruit loops, oranges, and toast. Yummy!

Another party done, another year older.

Happy Birthday "Buckbeak"!

(In case you didnt know this is Parkers "newest" nickname. Its starting to stick!)

wii

We got a wii for Christmas (thank you Laura) and although I have never been one for video games because they rot your brain, this system is the greatest!!!! We get exercise and family time. We are learning to cheer each other on and be good sports(even though I ALWAYS lose) and the best part is there is NOTHING vulgar or violent about it and we can laugh together as a family. We play it a lot right now because it is to cold to go outside and run around. Its really funny to watch the kids play. Sarriah's hind end wags back and forth. It is teaching her a few things about coordination. We like the bowling game the best. No matter how the kids through the ball, the get strike after strike and Trav is talking about how you have to have the right technique. I swear you just need to be a kid. The tennis game kills your arms the first few times you play which happens to be why I'm typing left handed. J/K!!!!

All in all I think this ones a keeper.

Winter fest

Tonight we went to Winter fest at the kid's school. The PTA makes it really fun for the kids. They have games, prizes, food and candy to keep them busy.

This is Sarriah and Arianna. They are the best of friends and to prove it the got matching face paint. Parker and his friend got snakes SSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

"Tape the carrot on the snowman's nose" notice the orb in the pic? Spooky. LOL.

Stack the oreo's. They got to 20.

My personal favorite. I LOVE bingo! It reminds me of Grandma and Grandpa Ogden's (Grandma and Grandpa horsey as they are called at our house) house.

Sometimes I really miss getting together with the whole fam and playing a good ol game of bingo.

They had a cake walk and a book walk. I wasn't quick enough with the cam to capture those.

We are back.

This blog is going to be huge, but I hope you all enjoy it.

Week 1

We left Germany on Dec 15th 2008. We flew from Frankfurt to Madrid. That flight went smooth. Our flight from Madrid to Monte video Uraguay was cancelled and we had to spend the night in Madrid.

We didnt get to see much in Madrid but what we did see was beautiful.
We arrived in Uruguay tired, a day late but excited. we spent the rest of the first week(Tues-Thurs) with the fam, walking down the beach and getting ready for great grandmas 90th birthday party(Friday).

The party was so much fun!

Week 2

We visited a few beautiful cities in different patrs of the country.

Colonia, Paysandu, and Salto.

Colonia.....

Paysandu.....

Salto......

The hotel in Salto was a spa with natural hot springs. The pools were wonderful and we got a great massage!

The bridge goes over the Uruguayan river to Argentina.

Our rental car has a few nick names..... The green goblin, hilk vomit, buggers.....

People would stare when we drove by. Trav thought it was ugly but I kinda thought it was cute.

Week 2

We went through old town in Monte video, celebrated Christmas with the whole family, went to the beach,(but didnt really play in the water) drove through Punta Del este and over the roller coaster bridge, rode a small ferry run by a motor boat across the river to Cobo polonia to see the sea lions. You have to take a big truck ride to get out to the point where they live. You can get within a few feet of them. They are really cute in real life. We ate lunch and played in the water for awhile before driving to Chuy, a border town between Uruguay and Brazil. Our hotel was an old fort that they fixed up. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The next day we shopped in Chuy(great deals!!!!!) then drove to Santa Teresa beach. Parker and I had a blast playing in the big waves. At one point we both rolled up the shore. After the beach we went to Fort Santa teresa. The kids enjoyed running around peeking out all the peep wholes where the soldiers would have stood. The next morning we drove to Punta del Diablo. My FAVORITE beach. We shopped at the stands and ate really good empanadas. Yummy. Then we drove to Playa Verde to see Jose Luis and the fam and check out our beach house rental. While walking back to Jose Luis's we saw a big hairy nasty spider!!!!!! Can you say turantula. EEEEEK!!!! Then we drove back to Monte Video. Grandpa Steve went home the next day so we had a big fairwell lunch for him at the port. Then off to the beach house for the rest of out trip.

Christmas Eve

Monte video

Double click on this pic to see it bigger.

Ok so the rest of our time was spent celebrating New Years, and Wise mans day with the fam in Playa Verde, shopping in Punta Del Este, and playing on the beach's. Our last day we went for a stroll on the beach and to some tide pools that are really close, we found lots of crabs and even one that jumped at Sarriah. Scared her to death! We left Monte video without any problems, It was a lovely 95 degrees. We landed in Madrid and it was like 5degrees below zero. I was wearing flip flops!!!!!! We had a bad experience waiting for our next flight in Madrid, people were angry. Yelling, and making threats because the airline we flew cancelled all their outgoing flights. If that wasnt enough they had been doing it for a week. So we had people who had been sitting and waiting for a week to fly home, their weddings, vacations, or funerals. It was a scary nine hour layover. But we landed safe in Germany. The best part about coming home was our beds. We really missed them.

The kids wise mans day gifts.

We just really had a blast. We really love all our family in Uruguay, they are so great! We loved playing with Clara, Emma, Diego and Olivia(the kitten). Thank you Laura!!!!! We really loved it!

I'm sure I will add more to this in the next week or so. I took over 1600 pics and its hard to choose which ones we really want up. We also had so many fun experiences down there that its hard to get them all on here and in order. Please be patient with me. this one is a work in progress.

Uruguay.

We re having a wonderful time here in Uruguay. Look forward to the longest post ever because I have over 1000 pics and lots to tell you all about. Happy New year!!!!!!

Merry Christmas...... Santa agreed to come early.

Our super cute FAKE Christmas tree. The kids were not very pleased with me. Thank you so much Lisa. This was much easier.

Sarriah. santa brought her yet another Bratz doll.

Parker and his little stocking from Grandpa.

New P.J.'s. Super girl for Sarriah, Penguins for P man.

Cookies for Santa, Carrots for the reindeer.

Castle in a town we dont know. We drove forever to find it.

This is the view from the unknown castle. BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!

Weinheim Rathaus. Really cool.

We had our Christmas today due to the fact we will be on vacation for the rest of the month. BEACH HERE WE COME!!!!!!!

We got the kids up @ 6:30 am. They were more then excited! They had a blast opening their presents and showing them off to grandma on the web cam. They say they got everything they asked for and even say they heard santa setting everything up last night. We have eaten munchies all day. All Trav's fav's. Clam dip, lil smokies, chicken bacon wraps, veggies and dip, cookies ect..... Later in the evening we drove around to find new castles, just to get out of the house for a bit. Now we are hangin out watchin movies just enjoying our day.

Since we wont be around for the real Christmas.....

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We love you all!!!!!!!

My dad's visit

The Christmas Markt

Bad Durkheim Castle

At the Speyer cathedral

So the first night we went to Heidelburg, but dont think for a second we stopped the fun there. Monday I ran him ragged. We went to Speyer in the morning saw the large cathedral, walked the town where we found the coolest landscaped yard, dad loved it. Then we went to a smaller gothic cathedral. Very beautiful. Next we drove through Mannheim since there isnt a whole lot to see, but it is a really fun city and we feel lucky to live here. Next stop was Trav's office where we got to go out on the flight line and look at the helicopters up close and personal. Then off to get DONERS!!!!! Yummy. Dad got to meet the kids Teachers when we picked the kiddos up from school. We drove to Bad durkheim where we were yelled at by a grouchy German lady before we got to the castle that happened to be closed. Next we drove to Worms to see an even bigger cathedral and it was closed as well. Ya know though..... even with all of the closed attraction's I had soooooooo much fun just being with my dad. I really needed the one on one time! That night we went to the Christmas Markt in Mannheim where we had winzersteak, chocolate covered fruit, and Dumfenudle to bad the rolls were cold. I was picked to be in a AFN commercial, to be seen on TV next week. I'm famous, J/K!!!!!



I really really enjoyed having you dad. It was hard to see you go. I cant wait for June. This was such a special weekend. Thank you dad! I love you!

Thank you Kar for letting dad cross the big water to come visit me!