Hamburg!

Joseph and I returned just before Thanksgiving from a 10 day trip to Hamburg, Germany to visit my parents. It was a great time for us and Joseph truly had the time of his life over there and cried so hard when we left. He even got teary saying goodbye to the assistant missionaries, whom he developed a fun bond with. It was good to be with my parents for this time and to spend some time with them! So, thank you Mom and Dad for making it possible for us to come over there! Needless to say, the flight was long, especially on the way back and I don't know how we are going to do it with 4 kids! But, we will face that challenge when it comes!


Joseph and Opa in front of the mission home in Hamburg. The home over there really is beautiful and very large and is in a beautiful part of the town.


This is a mini picture we took at the train exhibit, but it is an example of the boat we took over to the Disney Lion King play. My dad was debating whether or not to get tickets to it since it was all in German, but he decided to go with it. So we went and lets just say it was quite the experience seeing an entire play in another language! The costumes and scenery were spectacular, which Joseph loved, but he needed my dad by the end to translate in his hear what they were saying. It is a good thing he already know the jist of the show. It was kind of funny.


Me, my mom and Joseph down by the big shipping harbor. I didn't realize Hamburg was surrounded by so much water!


On one of the days, we traveled to a little town outside of Hamburg called Lubeck. It is an old Medieval town which I loved. It was a cute, quaint town with a lot of history and fun shopping.



Lubeck is world known for its Marzipan and we are in front of the famous Marzipan store. We ate in little cafe in the Marzipan store and Joseph ate an entire Wienerschnitzel! He loves the German food.



We visited an awesome model train exhibit in Hamburg on Joseph's birthday. It is one of the largest in the world. It truly was one of the most amazing thing. There was room after room after room of miniature cities around the world with moving trains, cars, people, etc. Joseph was in heaven and could have stayed all day.


Celebrating Joseph's sixth birthday! He wanted a Ninja Turtle cake and Oma and Opa gave him a Ninja Turtle costume, including the plastic weapons. We had a pretty excited little boy.




Joseph challenged every missionary that would come over in a game of ping pong. He really became a darn good little ping pong player by the time we left. The missionaries were so cute with him and made him feel so good!

Wisdom of a child

My friend Kara posted this on her blog and I just had to share, it's from a boy that called into a religious radio program.

While Mom's Away

For those of you who are interested here is how it works when mom is gone for 10 days.

Putting the kids to bed....so Kristin has like a 12 step ritual to put the kids to bed every night, and when she is around I must follow the bedtime ritual exactly so I don't anger the gods of domestic bliss who will strike our house with disorder and chaos at the slightest misstep.

Well I have simpled the process while she has gone to 3 steps.

1. Kids put on whatever clothes you want to wear to bed.
2. Get in mom and dads bed.
3. Press play.

This new theory is based on two assumptions that kids will fall asleep eventually (see picture below), and they don't fuss as much if something is flashing on the TV screen (see picture above).

Week in Germany...

Joseph and I are currently spending time in Hamburg visiting my parents while they are serving as mission presidents. James is playing Mr. Mom at home with Hannah and Josh. So far no major catastrophes to report. Thank heavens he has he parents nearby, which I know he was spent much of his time. Joseph will spend his 6th birthday over here and when I take some pictures, I will post them! One thing for sure, is Joseph has surely adapted to the time change better than I have. I still have to have a nap everyday, but I will blame that on being pregnant.

California in a jiffy!

Nothing like a good corndog, right? Especially when you eat it like Josh and try to see how much you can get into your mouth in one bite!

California, here I am!

Tuckered out from the long, long drive!

Enjoying time at the beach. If only the trip could have lasted a few days longer!!

Say Cheese!

Joseph LOVED the ocean. He could have stayed and played in the waves all day! Josh liked it at first, but then would run away everytime the waves came yelling, " the ocean getting me!"

Hannah had fun posing like Ariel. She even sang the Ariel song! Gotta love the imagination at this age!

DISNEYLAND!!

Joseph could hardly see straight to take this picture. We got Hannah and Joshua to sleep for an hour by taking them into the Tiki Room show, but Joseph didn't sleep and just kept going all day! Space Mountain was his favorite ride, and Hannah loved seeing the princesses. Josh was a trooper and went on everything we went on that was in his height limit. They loved it.