Gesegnete Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr!

( A blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!)

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and are all looking forward to the New Year! 

I won't lie our day missed our families but, then again we had all of Greyson's toys to play with and of course we played with his Train table all day.  I am so glad that I don't have a girl!  Not that I don't want one but it's the memories of playing with all of my brothers toys that I get to re-live.  Our day started out by Grey letting us sleep in till about noon.  Of course this is what we cherish now as I know it will most likely be the last year of it!  Late dinner due to sleeping in but it helped the day go by.

I apologize now to everyone for not getting a family Christmas picture or just an updated picture of Grey out this year.  It's been crazy gray here and I figure might as well wait till Spring where we can be in a beautiful setting other than dark and dreary.

We went on our first marriage retreat to Garmisch where it was all paid for by the Military.  Child care included so it gave us somewhat of a break from Grey.  (Not that we needed it. Haha) 
There was snow there and of course mountains...Garrett and I got to eat lunch on the mountain, we took a cable car up and the view was completely amazing.  I must add that this is the first time on a cable car so I believe Garrett compared me to a child in a candy store.  His intentions (which were hidden in the trunk of the car) were to take snowboarding lessons.  But as it was their opening weekend and not much snow and lack of time we were not able to go.  The items in the trunk of the car were also some items for him under the tree which so conveniently placed in the back of the car also.  My surprise was a skiing/ snowboarding helmet and goggles which were the items that Mom and I got him for Christmas.  Apparently he snooped. 

We had two days of classes which started on Friday and of course ended Saturday.  So Sunday we got up and ventured to Innsbruck, Austria.  Which if you ask both of us so far is our favorite place to visit.  Absolutely breath taking and Grey slept the whole time we ventured to the little town.  So it was quite enjoyable.  We will be going back to Garmish in February for Snowboarding lessons.  And get this Grey will get to spend everyday for 4-5 days making friends at the Military's CDC, which he enjoyed the last time anyways.

Some of the Alps view...

 A castle along the way to Innsbruck...

 The morning we left.

Grey wishes a Happy Holiday's to everyone!!!

As soon as I can figure out how to locate and move our videos from Christmas they will be posted here.

I promise there will be more pictures as soon as I get my Canon Rebel T2i back fro getting fixed.  I feel very lost without it.  But it had a slight accident and hopefully will be returned to me soon enough! And so it is...

Unsere Abenteuer in Deutschland...

Ahhh where to begin as I know that I have had many a requests to update our blog.  Sorry, we just got our Internet!  Which led to boring yet reliving my childhood days while occupying a  2 year old toddler.  Oh don't worry I am still as sane as ever.  Nothing that a little Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny and of course the all time favorite of "Go Diego Go" which has been watched numerous times in this household couldn't fix.

We found a house and have been living in it since about the first week after we got here.  We are located in a cute little town (who am I kidding right all of these little towns are cute) called Kindsbach.  Which is only a few miles from Garrett's work.  We don't have hardly any neighbors, except the man next door who owns a company and lives upstairs of it.  Which I wouldn't have known about until one morning when I was drinking my morning coffee and staring out the window watching the train go by.  He stepped out on his deck in his tighty whiteys and surprised the crap out of me. Glad my windows were shut so he didn't hear me laughing in my high pitched squeal.  So as for the entertainment I can not complain one bit about this nice, little country.

We have been to Trier, by car (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trier) and Heidelberg, by train (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg) for their Weihnachtsmarktes.(Christmas Markets) The smells are amazing, the food delicious, and I took interest in the whittled wooden toys made by the Germans. Oh, and of course there German Gluhwein. (that's wine, mom! a spiced wine)   Grey took more interest in the carousels which he now rides all by himself.  In most of the pictures you see us tagging along with him. 

We are to get the rest of our shipped good next Tuesday and my car will also be here the 20th...so that means Mother & Son adventures while the daddy is at work . Oh, he just reminded me he has half days due to the holidays.  (family days)

We made it to our 4th anniversary and I left Greyson with a babysitter to go out to dinner with the amazing man I married.  I didn't even call the sitter once. They were both alive and well when we got back.  We ate at (https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nix-Maria-Twenty-Grand/147515822018705)  We had been there once before, and their hospitality and service was amazing they made me feel right at home and they just loved Grey.  (of course who doesn't)

We head for our anniversary trip/ marriage retreat this weekend in Garmisch.  It's a free, with childcare and food included.  Plus who wouldn't want to venture to Garmisch!!  I will post as soon as we get back. 

Enjoy these pictures for now!

                                                     Heidelberg Castle

                                                             Grey's first train ride

                                                           Lounging

                                                     Trier

                                                       Riding through Trier in a stroller

                                                         His innocent I didnt touch the tree look....

                                                             Our First Christmas tree

                                                        Driving in a metal car

                                               when he spots a carousel, he gets on.

                                           Blown glass right at the Christmas Market

                                                          A view on our way there...

                                                              Daddy's turn

                                                  Saluting like the German Security at the military gates.

                                                       He sure is growing up fast and has that innocent look....
                                                       I wonder what trouble he is going to bring me in the future...

Many Miles Away...

Well we made it and we are all in one piece.  Grey is still struggling with the time change, which makes for a cranky Mama with bags and circles under my eyes.  But all in all, I love it here!
For the Lil Manny...we have made him a traveler and for that I am thankful.  I think he was more excited about flying than Garrett and I.  He pulled an all nighter but snoozed during take off's and landings. 

It has been a busy few days with G improcessing and us looking for a rentable home.  In one day I beleiev we looked at about 9 different houses.  The last one we saw was the keeper.  We should be in that by next week, and I will post pictures as soon as possible. 

For now we are staying at the Ramstein Air Force Base in a pet friendly Inn.  It's huge!  3 bedrooms, 1 queen bed and two twins.  But they are seperated and Grey knows how to open the doors so We are all in the queen.  Unless the boy's including Sampson snore me out. 

The boys took me out to dinner for my big "31st" birthday.  We ate at the Macaroni Grill where I had a real glass of German wine.  Can't remeber the kind but it was delicious. 

We haven't got to venture out much other than house scouting so I am short on pictures.  Although when we first got off the plane it was a nice ride on the Autoban where I saw fields and field of grape plants.  It's beautiful fall foliage reminded of home, fall is such a beautiful season. 

This was Sampson's first time flying also and he did somewhat well.  We all know that he is gun shy so think of what it sounds like at the bottom of a plane.  Then getting straight off a plane and put on the bottom of a bus.  Yeah well, he wanted nothing to do with me for at least 5 hours after we got settled, but now he is back the good 'ol Sampson. 

We flew out of St. Louis, MO and we ended up going up a few days early so we could sleep in a bed instead of an empty house.  We took Grey to the the St. Louis zoo.  This is by far one of the best zoo's that I have been to.  The set up was amazing.

 Grey loves monkeys of any kind so most of our time was spent watching them play and swing.

The Arch...I made Garrett take me to see it and it just so happend that it was the day of the Cardinals parade.  We managed to get around of the traffic, but for miles it was just shirts of red.

 Grey likes to eat M&M's.....he will even help himself if he knows that I have them stashed.  But seriously who could yell at a face like this.  Talk about a sugar high though!

Daddy and Grey on the bus from Frankfurt, Germany to Ramstein

 This I believe is when we first took off from St. Louis to Washington.

I let Grey take pictures with my old camera and here is his shot of me on the bus to Ramstein!

Two weeks with Nana Kiki...

Let me just say that I should be in bed considering that the packers come early, We can not wait to start our European adventure.
Tis the reason that Nana Kiki came to visit for two weeks.  She had to get her Greyson fix in.  We had a great time with her, as always. 

We took Grey to his first circus in Nashville.

Which I will admit may have just been a second time thing for me.  But this was the most amazing one ever!  Before the show they had a kids friendly zone set up with bounce houses, pony rides, elephant rides, and face painting.  Grey refused to go on the pony ride.  No worries he has plenty of time for that.

The first week was relaxing to say the least considering Garrett hadn't cleared from Fort Campbell yet.  So we kind of had the house to ourselves with no car till he got home.  We played and cleaned to show to possible future tenants. 

Of course we ate dinner at our favorite restaurant's and shopped at the mall.

Another fun thing that we did was drove 3 hours to the Louisville Zoo.

 Kiki paid for Grey to go on the Merry-go-Round.  No fear when it's not a live animal.

 The baby Giraffe that was inside a cage with it's mama.

 Kiki & Grey sitting in the Castles chair...throwing out the peace sign!

 Monkeys, gorillas....yeah they are always my favorite!  This one was taking his afternoon nap.

 Practicing to try out for the next Wilie Wonka movie!  Everyone wants to be an Oompa Loompa.

 Oh my yes!!  My super hero who had to get into the fun too!!  We will never be too old

One tired out Lil Manny from a long day at the zoo.....PRICELESS.

Thanks goes out to Kiki for her amazing visit with us as we will not be seeing her for a bit!  But alas we have awesome technology these days and we can skype and seems how she hooked herself up with an ipod touch while she was here....plenty of Facetime! 

Did I mention that this two year old knows how to catch his Nana hook, line & sinker???  Yeah well just wait at the airport for her to land with a huge Diet Coke in hand...and she was hooked!