So any of you that know Seth and I well know that we aren’t very spontaneous. Although now that I am writing that and analyzing the 5 moves in 7 yrs of marriage I realize we might have put on a good front. Anyhow, we aren’t naturally spontaneous. We over think most things. And I talk myself out of lots of adventurous things.

But then there are the crazy drives we do…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seth and I started dating in November of 2004. Soon after we started dating I went home to Houston for a month to work and he stayed in Dallas to work. We were so bummed that we had just started dating and now wouldn’t really see each other much. About 2 weeks into it I decided it would be a good time to go back to my apartment and “check my mail”. I had to work on that Friday until early afternoon so I decided that I could leave after work and make it to Dallas by dinner time to go out with Seth. The only catch was that I had to be back Sat morning for my mom’s church Christmas tea. Which was at 10 AM. Yikes. So I drove up to see Seth, we went for dinner and then drove around Highland Park looking at Christmas lights and then I went home, got a few hours of sleep and had to leave at like 4 AM in order to get back to the tea. Crazy, huh? But somehow it was adventurous and so worth it to see Seth! 10 hours of driving and all.

Then there are the drives we have done when we know a friend or family are here or there, not exactly on our home leave travel route but worth the detour!  We’ve been known to take rest breaks around meeting new babies and celebrating birthdays.  We added a couple days of layover on our way back to Switzerland last year because we just couldn’t be in the US and not meet our nephew James!  And a trip to Austin to hold my bestie’s new Annabelle! And quite a few more stops in between. If there are enough hours to make it work we try to, even if it feels a bit crazy for us not so spontaneous people. A couple of weeks ago I drove to Wilmington, DE for lunch with a friend. I told a friend I was doing it and she couldn’t understand why it was worth it to drive there, visit a few hours and turn right back around. It was so worth the time with her catching up face to face and seeing her life in action. It just isn’t the same over the phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend we are doing another crazy Kolb drive! We got the itch this Fall to go to NYC and long story short we thought we could stay with a friend and make a weekend of it.  Our lodging didn’t work out but my brother and his wife were able to get a hotel and we couldn’t cancel the opportunity to see them in person in our neck of the woods (ie not exactly our woods but in our corner of the country). So, we decided to make a big day of it. Saturday morning we will load this kids up around 4 AM and make the trek. We will spend the day with them and then we will drive to a hotel outside of the city to crash for the night before making the drive back Sunday morning! But on the way back we will detour through Wilmington again, just because we can’t fathom passing our friends along the highway and not seeing them, even if just for a bit.

These kind of posts always get people commenting on how all of our moves and travel must make our kids easier to travel with. And I always feel the need to keep it real and let you know that they can be really tough travelers! They are 5 and 3 and human children after all.  The boys don’t know we are going and they don’t know that magical NYC will await them, or that they will see their Aunt and Uncle!

Call us crazy. We’ll be wiped out. But it will be worth it.

And there are no more crazy drives on the horizon…but we’ve had the itch to meet our niece Madeleine since she was born nearly a yr ago. Oregon is more than a brave road trip so that will be less spontaneous!

 

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Since we will be stateside for a bit this was a treat to do one last homeleave before the next phase.  Seth spent most of his leave painting and working on the house but he snuck in a few fun days before that all began. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. I haven’t learned how to do a collage and the thumbnails cut off some of the pictures but this was WAY too many pictures to put in full size and in a zillion posts. Sorry for the photo dump!

We started in Friendswood with Seth’s family! We made it to an Astros game which made Seth’s heart content. Oh yes, and he had some Whataburger too. What more could a guy ask for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

on our way to Ft Worth we popped in and saw our friends Bo and Leigh and their little girls! Their new home is so beautiful and was such a welcoming space!

 

 

 

 

Seth stayed in Ft Worth for a couple of days with us and then packed up and drove a penske up with his dad to get going on painting and getting the house liveable!  While he was away we went to the Ft Worth zoo, got spoiled with my moms good cooking, went to Glenrose, Texas to look for dinosaur tracks in the river at the State park, spent time with my brother and my sister-in-law Tina and weathered the heat of the Texas summer!   We also got to catch up with good friends from our old Dallas days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

part way through our time in Ft Worth we went away to my sister-in-law Tina’s family lake house in Possum Kingdon! On the wall of their kitchen they have a quote that summed up the weekend: “Home is where you treat friends like family and your family like friends”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our time in Ft Worth the boys and I headed back to Friendswood where we spent a few more days with Seth’s mom and had some great cousin time. It happened to be Jackson’s birthday so we celebrated there. I had planned to keep it REALLY simple and it was but Jackson started asking about invitations and friends and DADDY so by the end of the day our fun frozen yogurt outings with cousin morphed into a pizza/swimming party to lessen the blow of a birthday during a move.

 

 

 

 

These weeks were packed and exhausting but so fun too. I learned pretty fast that I don’t enjoy being a single mom and that it was very hard to be away while Seth was working on the house. I am so happy to be here now working together and making progress towards being settled!!

 

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People often ask how on earth we keep the boys happy on the long airplane trips and what we pack. Luckily we have only done the long flight with them once since coming to Bern because truth is no matter what you pack, it’s still a LONGGGGGGGGGGG trip. Being prepared does make it better but I don’t think that means you have to pack your whole house into a bag.

This week I packed the boys airplane bag to tuck away so it won’t get packed with our things next week. I snapped a few pictures of our favorite travel stuff to share with you!  *I am not getting paid by any of these companies to promote their products!* (I wish! )

Stateside I think that Michael’s and Target’s dollar sections are perfect for travel stuff. You don’t have to spend much and if anything gets lost of left on the plane no one will be heartbroken.  I sorted through our old travel bag today and most things have held up since we started the travel bag when Jackson was little and we flew back and forth from Bogota. Others we have collected along the way.

There are a few things other than the dollar days stuff that I think are worth investing in or collecting from around the house….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

playmobil travel box…not sure if this is the official name but these are winners. They are magnetic boards with pieces that can be moved around.  These are tricky if you have little ones that put things in their mouths but great when they get bigger!

 

 

 

 

 

 

mini magna doodle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

reusable stickers by Peaceable Kingdom Press. These were given to Jackson by Annie and have held up for years! We love them. I have seen these in the US in boutique type stores and I believe they are also on Amazon too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

paint books with the paint on the pages…use q-tips for painting! Thanks, Stephanie for introducing us to these!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I SPY book. Can’t go wrong with this. It’s big but you can make so many games out of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

old crayons…I collect the broken, shabby ones and that way we don’t care if they get left behind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

our little bear friend…don’t tell Owen but this leash is going to be attached to him when we are in the airport if he refuses the stroller. We got this as a gift from Target when Jackson was little!

 

 

 

 

 

 

a cheap picture album with pictures of where we lived and where we are headed…not sure if this one will be refreshed before this trip but I will try. I know Jackson will be having a hard time processing all of it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story cubes and Brain Quest …I just added these because Jackson needs something a little more than coloring these days. I hope these are winners!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We packed it all into a clear backpack. We did this for our last trip and I was worried that the boys would then be nagging me for other things because they could see them. We didn’t have a problem with that and it was wonderful to see what we needed and not be digging through aimlessly.

We also plan to have a big snack bag. When the activities fail, grab them a snack.  I always assume that the kids will think the airplane food is scary (we all think it but they don’t give in as easily) so I plan assuming they will need a sandwich or something and lots of snacks for along the way. Some other favorites are raisins or other dried fruits, baby bell cheese, crackers and those squeezable applesauce packs.

Okay, just thinking about all of this has my blood pressure up! Fun times ahead!

PS- In Switzerland they have SUPER strict move out cleaning standards. As in, they don’t believe in wear and tear, it is to be in new condition. And spic and span. The Embassy highly recommends hiring someone so that it can be guaranteed to be up to standard. We had the first of 4 cleaning companies in for an estimate this afternoon. Their estimate was $2,900 francs….over $3,000. Gasp. Breath. Gasp. Wha?!!!!!!!!!!! Ummmm. What?! I think I may just fly my mom over to help me clean and use the change for furniture for the new house.

PSS- Owen discovered the whoopie cushion this week and is addicted!  God has a funny sense of humor giving me two little boys.

PSSS- Seth invited his entire office for lunch today…only 2 days til packout. Why not have one last shindig, right?!  One week from today I will crash!

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Seth and I had a wonderful time in Barcelona last week! We were so thankful for a few days away! Although we were excited to see a new city we were really most excited about sleeping in, taking naps and NOT responding to Owen’s ups and downs at night. Ironically, our hotel was under construction. So, by our last night we downloaded an itunes noisemaker track and tried to get some sleep. Throughout the night we could hear the trash trucks come through the alley way and we heard people argue and laugh as they left a little restaurant around the corner. It was lively.

We enjoyed the sangria and tapas and we especially enjoyed the warm hospitality that Spain had to offer…of course knowing the language helped so much. We felt a bit old in Barcelona, it seemed so many people were young twenties. When did we get so old?!

We were able to fly from the small airport less than 10 mins from our home. It was amazing to avoid the trams, trains and crowds of people. And when we made it home we were really home we didn’t have another journey.

oh, before I forget, you may want to google a sangria recipe and get it a’steepin. I am including so many pictures that by the time you are through them your sangria will be properly steeped!  It can be your reward for this picture session. I promise to be back on here soon with something more useful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sagrada familia cathedral

(my dad and my brother were on my mind the entire time we were on the church tour…Ryan, you have to add this to your architectural tour of Europe some day)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Park Guell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rick steve’s recommended a tiny place for spanish hot chocolate with the locals…he wasn’t kidding when he said pudding thick..they serve it with spoons and churros for dipping…he wasn’t kidding about the local spainards either…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

almost home sweet home. ready to see the boys and refreshed after getting to hold Seth’s hand while we walked and having had the time and mental energy to finish full sentences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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