Ellie’s First Birthday

This picture was taken on August 16th Ellie’s official birth date. We were in Brugge Belgium the day she turned one so we celebrated Ellie’s first Birthday a few days earlier with the Frandsen’s and their neighbors Freddie, Claudia, Michael, Monfred, and Erika. Claudia’s Mother Annalee and her husband Victor were there as well as some friends. We had a BBQ German style. Freddie has a great set up for BBQ, he has a big cast iron bowl that he made the fire in and a tripod which the grill hangs from and he swings to avoid any hot spots. Freddie and Claudia are excellent cooks. We all contributed with salads and such and Mark grilled Salmon or Lox as well. It was a fabulous meal to say the least with good food and good company to boot.

I did get a little teary eyed while singing Happy Birthday to my baby girl. I can’t believe it has been a whole year. She is a toddler now not my wee babe. Well, she is still a little wee… but you know what I mean. I’m so glad that we timed it right so we could celebrate with the Frandsen’s. I thought that it was appropriate because they have not had a chance to get to know her yet and vise versa. So thanks to Leslie, Mark, Bailey, and McKenna and their neighbors and friends for making Ellie’s day very special for her.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDstjrMQwoI[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46QqNUTTaNA[/youtube]

If you would like to check out more videos there are plenty here

and if you would like to see more photos there are a bunch here

On the Blog Again

Just can’t wait to get on the blog again… I’ve missed all my blogging buddies! Feeling a little melancholy though after saying goodbye to my sweet sister and her family. The Frandsen’s were very gracious hosts to us and we really enjoyed spending our time with them. Bailey and McKenna are great girls and fun companions for us and Ellie on all our adventures.

I’m planning on putting up quite a few post over the next few days because one post about our trip to Germany would be extremely overwhelming. So to start it all off here are some photos of The Barfuspfad and the Medieval Festival that I talked about in the previous post.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBx970cSr4Y[/youtube]

for more pictures of the Bare Foot Park go Here

And the Medieval Fest…

and for more pics of this day check it out here

Hallo Von Deutschland

Everything is going great. Busy busy. We plan to catch everyone up soon. But haven’t had a chance, yet. I have so many photos but no time to download and such. I’ll have to put up a photo post when we get back to the states.

So far we have visited the Barfuspad (Bare foot Park) Where we got our feet wet, muddy, and lets say worked over. The kids were troopers and walked the whole thing, even Ellie demanded that she walk some as well.

Next up was a Medieval Festival in a village about an hour away. Where we were able to enjoy a jousting tournament amongst some feuding knights. We also enjoyed some authentic German Brats and picked up a few souvenirs.

We celebrated Ellie’s 1st Birthday a little early with the Frandsen’s German neighbors. We had a German style BBQ and Ellie had her first taste of cake followed by her first taste of brats as well.

We went to Heidelberg Monday on our own. By train, then bus. Good adventure. Train ride was about an hour and a half.. and was a challenge getting the city bus to where we were going for the day, from the train station. Once there walked around Castle ruins.. originally built in the 12th century, but vacant since 1619. Then toured the huge “Walkplatz” (walk plaza – shops, etc.) with Ellie in backpack.

While we were gone Leslie got everyone caught up some on her blog, she has some photos, here’s the link:

http://mlfrandsen.blogspot.com/2008/08/bright-sunshine.html

Tomorrow we plan to do a Rhine River cruise, but am afraid Ellie has hit a wall this evening. Seems to be running a low grade temperature. We’ll cross our fingers and hope some rest will take care of her. She has really been a wonderful baby so far as usual she is wide eyed and absorbing as much as she can take in.

We are also looking forward to a weekend trip to Brussels…

More soon..

Love, G/D/E

Curious Moose

A few days ago we woke up to this guy in our drive way once we got ourselves together and gathered up Ellie he decided to have a face off with the baby swing. We just got the swing from our friends (thanks you guys E love’s it). At first we thought he was using it to scratch his ears or something but then he became a little more aggressive with it perhaps because it was swinging back at him. Shortly after the video taping Gary started talking and this seemed to upset him more he snorted and moved into the open space in front of the house and did a few stomps and stared Gary down into submission and quickly coming back in the house. Don’t worry he was safely on the porch the whole time. We didn’t want to upset or stress the big guy any more though. This is the most aggressive Moose we have met in TL. I’m glad we introduced ourselves from the secure and safe porch rather than crossing paths on the TL roads.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95v1IJdRqS0[/youtube]

Ellie’s Latest

I’ve been trying to capture Ellie mimicking her Lady Bug toy for a while now. The wheels squeak and she has found she can copy the squeak quite well. Listen close. We love it. The video also shows her talents of pulling up and trying to walk. Her legs are still wobbly but she is getting better and stronger each day. It’s bitter sweet she is quickly growing out of the baby stage and into the toddler stage. I know we will have our work cut out for us chasing her all over.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1s8w-5WN6o[/youtube]

She has also mastered clapping her hands as of three days ago and she seems to be very proud of herself as she smiles and gets excited every time. Another achievement this week is saying “Woof Woof”. We have a stuffed puppy her Aunt Danielle gave to her that she is very fond of and we have been calling it the “Woof Woof” of course. We are pretty sure she has picked up on it. Does that count as her first word? We will try to get a video of this as well then you can decide.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zitUSkH3JkI[/youtube]

More Summer Time Stuff

Ellie has Allergies….
This is how we feel about it…

But we are dealing with it.
Poor Girl

On the bright side, we had another beautiful sunset
Gary took the pics this time

We love our camera.
On a side note, I met up with a long lost good friend from High School and beyond today, Angie Hamond and her three cute kids. Turns out we don’t live very far from each other. Unfortunately I forgot my camera 🙁 We had a good visit though Ellie took to her little girl Brooke and they had a hug fest at the end of the visit. It was pretty cute. Anyways thanks Angie and hopefully we can get together again soon Husbands and all.