Hi folks,  Hope you all had a great Easter.  We made it back safely after our whirlwind trip. It was great that Seth only had to take 2 days off work when paired with local holidays but I think we may have been a bit too eager to take advantage of his days off.  We drove over 1300 miles, went through 6 countries, filled, spilled and refilled a zillion snack cups, had the privilege of seeing both of our kids throughout each night,  and made lots of memories.

So as not to overwhelm you all in one day I thought I would share pictures from each stop. First stop was Ramstein Air Force base. It allowed us to have a stopping point to break up the drive and we were able to get groceries to make easy dinners on our trip. We also enjoyed the boys first trip to a bowling alley. They both acted like they had bowled a million times before.  We stopped in at the Chili’s before hitting the road to Brussels. It’s funny because so often I think we could say that we are fine without American restaurants but it sure was fun to order in English and have a big glass of ice water.  I have to say just being in a place where they brought the kids crayons and paper and the kids had options on their own cheaper menu was a treat! And while I shopped in the store I heard an announcement IN English that the Lady Bears had won!!! It’s the little things!

this pic is a shout out to Bo and Leigh!  We were so sad to not swing by and pick you up!

On Saturday we spent the morning with other Embassy families on the Ambassador’s lawn participating in a “Spring fling”.  The boys had fun hunting for eggs, doing a bunny hop sack race, racing with spoons on eggs and all kinds of fun games. Our Community Liaison office did a great job.  Here are some pictures (excuse the huge sun spots, we roasted hot dogs over a fire by the river the night before and I forgot to clean my lens. Oh well.)

Jackson with our neighbor Dominic

Owen proudly craddled his egg and spoon the whole way!

bunny hop

In other news, we closed on our house last night! here is it for those who haven’t seen it on facebook yet!

We popped a bottle of bubbly and had some chocolates to celebrate! Looking forward to seeing it for the first time in our jetlag fog on July 2nd!!

We are all packed and heading out after Seth gets off work today to take a family road trip. We have some foreign service friends that live in Brussels and they are away in London for the week and have offered their home! So, free lodging and some time away!    We are going to drive tonight as far as the base and spend the night their. We are hoping to take the boys bowling and for lunch on the base before driving on the Belgium. We are not super spontaneous so planning this a few weeks ago is kind of pushing my spontaneity level. These family road trips tend to be quite refining but I think a little family time might be just what the boys need. We have been packing our schedule way too tight with playdates and have had little time just the 4 of us! So, here’s hoping for the best…6 hours each way! 🙂

We hope that you all have a blessed Easter!