Germany Trip

SUPER LONG POST!

Our trip to Germany was so fun! Not only did we get to see some amazing things, but most important, Tom won his meet and did GREAT!

The first challenge once we landed in Frankfurt was to catch a train and go to Cologne. We got our luggage, bought train tickets and made it to the platform for our train.

Here is Kinley on the way to Cologne - we are a little bit tired.

This is a shop right by our hotel. Kinley and I liked to look at all the animals out on the street. She would even give them all hugs and tell them bye when we left.

After a short nap, we went to the Dom Kolner. This is a huge, beautiful Gothic cathedral that is right down by the major train station. We got to look inside and it was amazing! There were gorgeous stained-glass windows, beautiful paintings, a mosaic tiled floor and just an overall beauty to the entire church.

On our walk back to the hotel, we decided to stop at Hard Rock Cafe' for dinner.

Kinley was getting tired and didn't want to eat or take a picture with me.

After I let her get down and dance, she perked up for a bit.

The next day we ventured out to the Chocolate Museum. There was a whole history of when people started using cocoa and how its harvested, and our favorite part...the chocolate factory! We got to sample the Lindt chocolate from this fountain. Again, Kinley not into the picture.

This is the "train" we took from the chocolate museum back to the cathedral so we could get back to our hotel. Kinley had been seeing these and was so excited we got to ride in one.

From here, we took a couple trains up to Marburg where the meet was held. Tom had been at the track, so by the time we got to Marburg, checked in our hotel and then walked down to Tom's hotel, he had been there only a couple of minutes.

We hung out for a little then went with the team to a restaurant where the athletes got to eat free all week - good food for us! We said our goodbyes and then went back to our hotel for a good night's sleep.

We got up a little early and met Miss Reva for a day trip to Kassel. One of the reasons I wanted to go here was because this is where the Grimm brothers (of the fairy tales) grew up. I am somehow related to them (Great-Great-Great Uncles or something).

Outside the museum by a poster.

We only got to see the floors of the museum about the fairy tales because the floors with the life and work were under construction. I took this picture of some artwork by the 3rd brother before I was told no pictures - oops.

The town of Kassel was interesting because it wasn't really very old. It was bombed during the war and most everything looked like 50's architecture when everything was rebuilt. We took a little tram to the edge of town to look at 2 different castles.

The first was Lowenburg. It looked great, but was too far away to walk up there. The second was the a very extravagant castle with an aqua duct system coming 1.6km down from it, and there was a big statue of Hercules on top - I think he is a symbol of the town.

Lowenburg


Schloss and Hercules (there is scaffolding on the left of Hercules)

Cute girl in a tree

One of the pools that the aqua ducts ran through.

I don't really know what this building was for, but now its an art museum. We went up to the third floor to see a few Rembrandt and Reuben paintings. Pretty amazing how detailed and long lasting some of them are.

Now, on to Marburg.

We took a tour of the city to see the Landgrave's castle and Elizabeth church. We also found out many other neat little facts about the town. All through town there were different reminders of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. They would come to Marburg and occasionally stay.

Kinley by the little fountain in the center of town

The seven dwarfs on one of the walls of the castle

Up by the castle overlooking the town. See how the spire is leaning. Its so if it would catch fire it would fall away from the church.

This is Elizabeth church. Our hotel was less than 100m from here, so we walked by at least a dozen times on the way to and from Tom's hotel.

Elizabeth hospital. Elizabeth built this hospital to help anyone in need, and the medical industry is still one of the major industries in the town.

After the meet (I'll post more on that later) we spent the next day at a Roman military base first built 2000 years ago and then in Frankfurt.

The gate of Saalburg. This was rebuilt in the 1800's and they weren't sure how it really looked, but it looks neat now.

The family picture

Frankfurt main train station

Reva and I got caught in the rain storm

Tom and Kinley stayed dry at the cafe'.

This trip was amazing! I had such a great time and I think Kinley did too. I have many pictures of the meet and other things dealing with the Thorpe Cup, but I'll do a separate post about all those.

Perfect Sunday

Nothing is better than napping with Daddy!
(can you tell they're "watching" golf)

Lots of Fun and a Little Drama

Kinley and I ventured down to Texas last week for my cousin's wedding. We came in early and surprised my mom. I always love to see if we can truly pull it off. We did some painting at my sister's house, played at the "cool pool" got lots of play time in with the cousins, and went to the wedding. It was really nice and everyone had a great time - especially Kinley...

My aunt and uncle had a pool party/BBQ at their house the night before the wedding. We all had a great time. Kinley absolutely loves the water and never wants to get out. She thinks she is so big with her floaties!

Just a warning...here comes a picture of my big belly! I wish I had measured my tummy with Kinley just to compare, but here it is with a little over 3 months to go...






After that scary picture, here is one of the little angel. She is trying to wait patiently for the ceremony to start. This was the first time I had "trouble" with Kinley. She wouldn't be quiet. She wasn't being bad, but just kept asking questions and commenting during the whole thing. I kept having to hold her lips closed for her.



This is our attempt at a self-portrait. We set the timer and ran!



Now for the best part...

As soon as we got to the reception, Kinley took a sip of water and looked at me and said, "Mom, I have to dance." How hilarious! There was no one on the dance floor, no music and very few guests at this point, so I thought, sure why not. She loved it! She only took little breaks (for cheese and cake) and would try to dance with anyone out there.

Now, the bad part...

This might be a little too much, so just skip over if you need to. On our way home, we got bumped up to first class for our flight from Austin to Atlanta. Pretty cool.! In Atlanta everything went downhill - fast. We were going down the escalator, holding hands, and Kinley just started crying and screaming about her toe. When we got to the bottom, a lady said I should check her foot because the escalator cut her daughter's toe one time. Well, by the time I got out of the way of everyone else, there was blood dripping out of her cute little Croc. I carefully took off her shoe (which had black skid marks on the outside edge) only to find a huge gash (I say this because it wasn't a clean cut) under her pinkie toe around the outside of her foot. Luckily, a woman gave me a clean wash cloth to apply pressure, and someone called for help. An airport worker came over and radioed for the EMT people and then we waited. A really nice woman and her daughter stayed with us the whole time and helped clean up Kinley's shoe, the floor and just gave me someone to talk to. Kinley was crying to hard and telling me not to squeeze too tight, and thankfully she fell asleep. A short 45 minutes later, the EMT guys showed up, cleaned her foot a little and put a quick bandage on it. We followed them to a waiting ambulance that ended up being right on the tarmac with the airplanes (way cool for both of us). Its a little scary riding down the interstate with a big back door with a window right there at the bottom of your daughter's bed on wheels. We got to the children's hospital, filled out some paperwork, and went to a little procedure room. Eventually a doctor came in looked, said definitely stitches and x-rays to be safe (since we don't really know how this happened). We walked up to x-ray and I had to leave her with a nurse and her blanket (Purple). I could hear her talking and saying cheese for the camera. Let me just say now that had I not been alone I would have been bawling this entire time, but I had on my brave face for Kinley.

So, back to our room with the promise of a purple Popsicle when we were all done. The x-rays came back normal, so just the stitches to look forward to. When we first got to the room, the doctor put some numbing cream on a cotton ball and taped it to her toe. This was to numb anything it touched. Next, the nurse gave Kinley some medicine to calm her down and forget what was going on. We had to wait quite a while for this to fully kick in, but it sure was funny to see my 3 year-old trying so hard to put her finger back in a pulse monitor and missing by a mile! Finally the doctor and a nurse came in and set everything up. The doctor held her foot, the nurse was grabbing her leg and laying across them both, and I was practically laying on top of her telling her everything was okay. Once they started, I about lost it! Only the top layer of Kinley's skin was numbed, and because of the jagged shape and depth of the "laceration" the doctor had to stitch VERY deep. She screamed and tried to pull her leg away and was yelling for me to get off her. The whole time just looking at me to help her, and there I was holding her down telling her it was going to be okay. What a liar! After what seemed like a lifetime and 4 stitches later, she just curled up next to me and cried. This was a little strange because she was so upset, but so loopy she couldn't even sit up. When they finally brought her the Popsicle, she would take a little bite, but then just stare at it trying to figure it out.

We had to hang out for a bit to make sure Kinley didn't have any problem with the meds, so this gave me time to text with Tom. We had obviously missed all the flights back to Kansas City, so we needed to be confirmed on a morning flight and needed a place to stay. Tom took care of the flight, and when he called, they we going to charge him! Luckily, a different lady took care of everything and got us on the 7:30 flight in the morning. Jim got us a hotel and texted us the address, so when we were ready to go, I just had to show the cab driver and off we went.

Now, let me just add couple things although I know this is already so long.

1. I haven't eaten since having a soft pretzel on the plane we got while in Austin. Our flight was at 2:00pm. (oops, I forgot Kinley shared some of her Popsicle with me)

2. Kinley hurt her foot around 5:30pm Atlanta time.

3. We left the hospital at 11:00pm Atlanta time.

4. Once we checked in our hotel, I walked over to Denny's, carrying Kinley, and ordered us some food. Kinley was still so loopy she couldn't sit on a stool by herself!

5. When Kiney fell asleep around 12:15am I finally cried. Not just a few tears, but cried. Nothing is worse that your hurt baby.

Okay, so there was our trip. Kinley is doing great now. She doesn't remember the stitches, thank God, and she only mentions her foot in the shower and when anyone tries to look at it. She is running and walking around fine which is great since we leave for Germany in 2 days! I can't imagine having to carry her all the time - just makes me tired thinking about it.