Budapest - Part I

Easter brought us to Budapest, Hungary. Yes, for those of you keeping track, that's Country #6 for William, and a smidge before his 6-month birthday! After a 7-hour train ride, we arrived in Budapest to check in to the hotel and eat at an Easter fair in a city square near our hotel. We chose to eat Hungarian food that had been cooked in ginormous (about 3 feet in diameter) skillets. Nicht gut. But we shall keep experimenting!

Budapest was much bigger than we had imagined and anticipated, so we were glad to have great weather that allowed us to really explore the city. We have so many fun pictures I've had to split them into two posts. Saturday we started at Pest's Great Market Hall.

We had fun purusing the wares, staring and piles of meat, and gazing at the tanks of fish. We bought salami, cheese, bread, and some fun pastry thingy for lunch.
We stopped on a bench by the Danube in front of the Szabadsag Bridge. Here I am eating the fun pastry thingy. It was filled with potatoe and cheese. Yum!

William had lunch by the Danube too!

In order to get to Heroe's Square (above) from the Danube we needed to take the city's metro. Budapest has the oldest metro in all of Europe. In haus frau translation this means 'no elevators'. Jeff and I got really good at lifting our BOB jogging stroller (and son) up and down Hungarian subway steps.
Aside from the many, many, many steps, it was so much fun to ride in so many ways. The central line is extremely close to the street level because when it was built in the 1800s, all they did was peel back the street. The other two lines, however, are very much underground. They have the steepest and fastest moving escalators I have ever been on in my life! Taking the metro in Budapest should be declared an X-Game Sport. Can a husband and wife get two rolling suitcases, two backpacks, and a 5-month old in a jogging stroller on a 100-year-old escalator traveling at 35 miles per hour? The first ride challenged the strength of our deodorant, however by the end of the weekend, we were X-Game gold medalists.

Szechenyi Furdo Bath was the highlight of our Saturday. It is this massive size public bath house with room after room of therapeutic baths. There were huge outdoor baths, hot and cold indoor baths, and many different types of mineral baths. The three of us had fun "testing the waters". Will loved this outdoor bath the best of all. (Well, he had no choice, it was the only one he could go in.) Jeff and I had fun testing out the various baths indoors while taking turns with Will. We decided neither of us could leave Hungary without trying one of the cold dips. That's when I bravely stepped forward, took my son in my arms, and told Jeff to go ahead. ;)

After a fun few hours in the bath house, we ate at the Owl's Nest (recommended by Lonely Planet) and had fabulous Hungarian food.

Egg-static

It should come as no surprise that the Germans love Easter. (Is there any holiday without huge hullaballoo here?) The gorgeous flower baskets are everywhere, every store window has tree branches with blown, decorated eggs tied to the limbs. Spring is coming . . . you can feel it!



One other Easter phenomenon is the appearance of decorated, hard boiled (we think) eggs in the grocery stores. They come in a variety of colors, so pretty! However, they aren't refrigerated and they sit out for who know how long in the stores, so Jeff and I were too nervous to eat one. We'll have to ask some locals about this for next year. . . .

Glamour Shots

While we were in California, I took William to a photo studio in the mall. I'd always wanted to do this and it was super fun! Grandma and Papa had fun looking on as I sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to get Mr. Will to smile near the end. Here are some of our favs or our little 4-month old's photo session.

Wearing his dad's saddle shoes from when he was a baby

Snapped seconds before he started teetering to his right

William's Baptism

A HUGE highlight of our trip to California was William's baptism. It was such a special, special day. He was baptized at Los Alto United Methodist Church on February 28, 2010. In addition to LAUMC being such a large role in my upbringing, my parents also got married there! Will was baptized by my youth leader, Rev. Dirk Damonte, and his wife Carol (also my youth leader) sang during our baptism. As a girl sitting in the choir pews as an acolyte assisting in baptisms and a member of Starfire singing every Sunday, I dreamed of the day when I would have a child get baptized by the Damontes. Thank you, Dirk and Carol, for making this life long dream a reality!

William saying good morning to Dirk while cousin Josh looks on.

Baptizing Will -- He wore the beautiful Zabel family baptism dress. Jeff, Pete, and Grandpa Charley were all baptized in this dress.

Getting paraded up the aisle by Pastor Rick while Carol sings.

William with his Godparents -- Robin Tenold and Peter Zabel

William with his wonderful family!
We felt so truly loved to have everyone make the travels up for William's big weekend. The Zabels from Colorado, Uncle Steven and David, Auntie Barb, and Gigi from L.A., The Lees from Salinas, and cousin Jackie who's at UCSB. Thank you to you all!

William with both sets of his grandparents. How special! (Please ignore my son's tongue. He obviously doesn't understand the significance of this picture!)

Gigi with (almost all) her grandkids + one adorable great-grandson
(Jackie, sorry we didn't think to do this while you were still here! Annie, we missed you!)

California Visit -- Family

Going Back to Cali . . . .

Our trip to California couldn't have come at a better time. Will was in a predictable (enough) routine, the Munich snow was still falling, we were falling into a homesickness for friends and family, and we hadn't had GREAT Mexican food in over 7 months!

But back to that friends and family part . . . we had so much fun during our 2-week stay I have to break it into 3 different blog posts so as not to overload on photos.

First and foremost we were so blessed to see ALL our family while we were there (Okay, okay, we sure missed Annie who is at Westpoint, but we understand!). For some it had been a few months since they had seen Will and for some it was their first time meeting him.

Taking in this thing called "The Sun" (Will had never really seen it nor been outdoors in anything but a snowsuit before!) with Nana Bubbles

Yep, these arms feel quite familiar. Love my Grandpa!

It's nice to meet you GAD! (Great Auntie Donna)

Grandma's got her favorite arm chair, and I've got mine. It's hard to tell who looks happier. :)

YYIIPPPEEE!!!! It's GAB! (Great Auntie Barb!)

Well, sure Gigi, I'll pull your finger. You're pretty sassy for a great-grandmother. I love you!

Cali Friends

Good times with good friends!

We were super lucky to catch as many friends as we did while we were home. It was amusing to realize that we didn't need to say, "Catch us up on the last 7 months" because thanks to our Vongage VOIP phone, Facebook, and blogs (not ours, obviously) it was more like, "What's gone on in the last week?" We are so lucky to have so many ways to stay in touch. And, after this home leave, we feel like all the methods really work! Hence my newly-found dedication to our blog.

Despite a bit of jet lag, our first Saturday we were super excited we were able to swing by Reese Preston's 4th birthday party and pay a visit to the Otas to meet Tanner (above). It was fun empathizing over EVERYTHING new parenting brings with Jeff and Stephanie.

Sunday found us at In 'n' Out after church. I know, I know, pretty surprising we lasted 48 hours in town without it!
Later that night the great eats kept going with Jeremy Ware's famous enchiladas. We had a wonderful time getting together with 3 other fabulous friend/couples! The next night Jeff and I had our first official date night at Straits Cafe. Two nights out in a row? Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Also during our first week we had a rowdy potluck with the Belshers and Sicklers. Our Santa Clara crew. Here are the dads with their little ones. All that was missing were the Prices!

The next Saturday we hosted Will's Mexican Fiesta in an attempt to see as many wonderful friends as possible without driving all over town. Everyone was so great to make time during their precious Saturday to swing by. Thank you all for coming! There was plenty of fun noise (kiddos and convo) and plenty of fabulous Mexican food (http://www.taqueriacazadores.com/2001.html).

Here are my friends Corinne and Katrina with their little ones. Hard to believe all three of these guys were in utero while we danced our hearts out on the dance floor at a friend's wedding in June!

I got my giggles holding all our friends' babies. Jeff got his giggles driving a buddy's Porsche. A good time was had by all!

My girls! Sheri, Robin, and Brenna
These three made my Cali visit soo special. Sheri flew up from Texas for some Will time (and I'd like to think she wanted to see me too), Robin took days off of work just to hang with Will and me, and Brenna let us descend on her two gorgeous daughters for two fun playdates. Love you!

Me likey!

After trying out my buddy Matthew Watters's exersaucer in California and loving it, my mom and dad bought me the ONLY German one on the market. (Germans think it's bad for children's spine development. Walkers are the big thing out here. Funny how walkers have been basically banned in the U.S. because they're deemed dangerous. Ahhhh, cultural differences.) Guess what? It's not only an exersaucer, but a rocker, and a walker too!
Mom will try to act surprised when I get diagnosed with ADHD in elementary school.

It was the best of times, It was the worst of times . . .

BEFORE

Seeing that our little guy is fast approaching his 6-month birthday, we thought we'd have some fun in exploring the world of rice cereal.

Step 1: Place baby in high chair. Check.
He LOVES his high chair. It has fun toys. He can kick his legs. He can watch Mom cook. What's not to like?

Step 2: Feed baby rice cereal.
ABORT! ABORT! Excuse me, who moved my howling monkey and swinging salamander to feed me this stuff?!?!

AFTER

Okay . . . off to do some research on foods other than rice cereal . . . stay tuned!

Girls' Night Out!

Hallelujah for helpful husbands and wonderful new friends. Combine the two together and Momma gets a night out!

At Michelle's suggestion, I organized a Girls' Night Out a few weeks ago. I was worried that some of us might have a hard time getting out of the house for a drink or two, but I sent the email anyway. I got 4, YES email replies within 60 minutes. Ha!

So here we are from left to right Rachel from England, Molly from Canada, me, Michelle and Beth both from the U.S. It was sooooo nice to get out! We need to do it WAY more often, ladies!

Let there be sun!

The sun may hide itself for days and weeks, but when it comes out -- so does all of Munich! This includes haus fraus who are climbing the walls of their wohnungs. Thankfully the weather has accommodated two picnics, two weeks in a row, not two weeks straight, mind you, but we've had at least one sunny day a week for the last two weeks. Wooohoooo!
Here Will and I are with some fun new friends: Left- Michelle from Boston (sans napping Gus) and Right - Beth from Indiana with baby Isabella.
We try to make a picnic date at least once a week now for sun (for us) and play time (for the kiddos) in the English Garden.

We always make it a point to look out for the English Garden's trademark naked sunbathers (Come on, haus fraus still need their giggles!) So far, we're 2-0.

My favorite line from last week's picnic:
Isabella: Waving to the naked man walking along the grass
Beth: "Isabella! Oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed! Although, technically, he did wave at her first. "