Eleven Years

Look at those young faces... man we're old now.

Eleven years ago today I married the greatest guy in the history of forever. I couldn't imagine my life any more perfect. All the kids, dogs, chickens, fish, etc - it all started with this day. Best wedding I've ever been to. Best decision I ever made. I love you!

Kristin

I'm linking this up to my friend Jessa's blog and her Peek of the Week.  She and her husband are celebrating their 11th Anniversary today too!

Not Cool

So guess what I got to do Tuesday night?? I took Pipey to the ER. She'd had a cold that progressively made it more difficult for her the breathe. Yes, it did suck. AND, we don't have insurance. Yes again. Ouch. But I'd pay it a hundred times over for my sweet little Pipey to be alright.

And you know your kid is really really sick when you DON'T have to wait in the (very full) waiting room of the ER. And when they bring the breathing specialist person to the triage room with 15 minutes of you walking in the door to give her a breathing treatment. We were actually IN a room within 45 minutes of arriving. Then she got another breathing treatment, chest x ray's, and a RSV test. X ray was fine and test was negative. Yay!

We got home around 2am. Thankfully, Carly had come over to stay with Fisher so I didn't have to drag everyone out and I could just focus on Piper. And he got to sleep.

THEN I got up the next morning and went ahead and made an appointment with her regular Dr. even before she woke up. Good thing too. I woke her up to take her in and noticed she was pretty bad again. Maybe even a little worse than the night before. We got to the Dr's office and you know what??? The Dr. came in FAST. The nurses weren't even finished getting vitals and they'd gone to get the Dr. Poor thing had 3 more breathing treatments back to back and an oral steriod before they would let us leave. She was pretty bad.

Luckily Carly happened to have a nebulizer from when Johnny was sick earlier. So I didn't have to buy one. She's having at least 3 treatments a day. More if we need to. And she'll take the steriods for 3 more days. She's VERY sick. But she seems to be slowly improving. She's a champ at doing the treatments herself...

And Fisher and Bob are excellent nurses.

And now I'm sick. Once I was able to slow down a little my body just freaked out. Pretty sure it's just a cold or maybe a sinus infection. Well, the mother of all colds. But I think we'll survive.

Love,

K and P

Travel Lessons

In this first international trip (with the kids) I sure did learn a lot. We don't yet know when or where we are going next. (or when James will be coming home) There are some cool places in the works but nothing signed on any dotted line. I'll let you know as soon as we do though. In the meantime I thought I'd share a few random lessons with you all.

My children (and likely most children) are amazingly adaptable. I mean, who'd have thought they'd have fared so well in all this city life? I was worried honestly. We are not what you'd call "city people". But they love it like they love chocolate and mud. (but not mixed together) The public transportation, escalators, crosswalks, etc. They loved it all. Fisher especially understood how it all worked. He knew what stop we got off the train at, what to do at crosswalks, and how to maneuver the train stations. They even fought over who got to push the button to open the train doors. Every single time.



They loved every minute of it. And I feel like they are so much more cultured for it now. They played on sculptures and in fountains. And Fisher will tell you most of those fountains have naked ladies on them. They just enjoyed being kids in another place having new adventures. I wonder if I'd have fared as well when I was little?

Oh and you should know this...NOTHING makes being hit by a wave of water, after a crazy German driver hits a puddle, better than the reaction of a 5 year old. Nothing. We laughed so hard. For DAYS. And he very animatedly told the story to anyone who would listen (strangers and all) for at least a week. Laughing hysterically. Exciting times. It's kind of a random lesson. But should it ever happen to you, just think like a 5 year old. It'll make your whole day. Maybe even your whole week.

What I really learned though, is that I'm so much braver than I ever thought I was. (and this is just an observation - I'm not horn tooting here) I was TERRIFIED about 3 days in. Mind you, I was still a little messed up with my sleeping, but I was ready to pack up and go home. The whole "culture shock" thing is very real. I thought, I'll NEVER be able to master this train stuff and I sure didn't want to just sit in the room the whole month. But, I wouldn't have thought before that I could take the kids on a NYC subway for instance, but Frankfurt is a HUGE city like that. So maybe I can.

I did all sorts of stuff I would have said 6 months ago that I'd never do. Like, I ate Turkish food. I would have automatically said no to that before. But I ate it. And I loved it. (I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it!!)

There's this weird thing that happens. You have this overwhelming fear that (rather magically) melts away and is replaced by courage. It's something you can physically SEE in the kids.

The courage replacing the fear. It's very freeing. I'm suddenly more open to new experiences that the very thought of terrified me before. (like say white water rafting) It's this strange and wonderful thing. The video below is a pretty good representation of it. It's Pipey releasing her fear and celebrating!

Here's hoping I wake up tomorrow with a few more laugh lines than I go to bed with. And you do too.

Love,

JKFP

The Castle in Marburg

Close to the end of that reeeeally long walk up that hill things started turning a little. Not so many houses. More of this....

Then there was this water fountain which the boys drank from. Again, I had Piper in the pouch and there's just no way to drink from this warthogs face and not 1) wake her or 2) drown her. So I stuck with my water bottle. (I know, "when in Rome" and all. Next time.)

We knew we had to be getting close. It's hard to see the castle anywhere from town as it's on top of the hill and you're walking your way up it. So none of my pictures show the whole thing. We would have had to go over to Rapunzel's tower for that and there just wasn't enough time. You'll see bits and pieces along with a little history lesson.




The first castle was built on this hill sometime around 900. I know! If I'm understanding this little (terribly translated) pamplet correctly, construction on the new castle began in 1122. Shortly after that, Marburg became a town.

Now, this little timeline I have says several things. I think. :) There were several fires, plagues, and sieges (complete with looting and pillaging) And then in 1527 the first Protestant University in the world is founded in Marburg. In. The. World.

The castle was turned into a fortress from 1756 - 1763. Then in 1815 it was a prison. Can you imagine? Being in prison. Here.

I guess some of the beauty and "coolness" of it would be lost if it was your prison. Maybe.

I think it's fairly common for a castle to also have a chapel. This chapel here was consecrated in 1288. (Everytime I write a year I kinda freak out a little.) This was quite a beautiful (and very pink) chapel.

I love these windows.

And the art on the walls.

The East Wing was set up as a museum in 1981. The University Museum of Cultural History.

The lower floor, or as I like to call it (not very originally), the dungeon. It has a very dungeon-y feel to it, no?

I'm not sure what it is I like about this picture. But, I love it. Maybe it's the blurry hint of just how fast Fisher goes through this sort of thing. It's like capturing the essence of the boy. Plus I'm sure they have stairs like that in Hogwarts. (Harry Potter for those of you not in the know)

One of the better angles I got of the exterior of the South Wing.

In looking around for more information (other than this crappy little handout) I found this http://www.marburg-net.de/images/schloss003.jpg image of the entire castle. You're welcome.

This was my first experience with a real true castle and I've pretty much decided castle livin' is for me. James better get to work. :)

Love,

JKFP

The Town of Marburg

The third Saturday we were in Germany we took a trip to the town of Marburg. We took a train. (Fisher says I must tell you this was a RED train. And red trains are better than the green ones. They are quieter and have an upstairs and downstairs.) Anyway, we took the train about an hour outside of Frankfurt to this beautiful little town. A very old town that wasn't destroyed in the war. We'll get to how old in a minute.

The red train and the main Frankfurt train station.

Getting ready to leave!

Little Miss "Too cool to be bothered by anything". She really is unbelievably adaptable.

Oh look, proof I was there too. I'm usually the one taking the pictures.

So the train ride went very well. Fisher talked the entire time. I'm pretty sure the people around us who understood English were cracking up at his constant commentary. It really is pretty constant. And funny. So anyway we get to Marburg and leave the train station where we're suddenly in all this more recent construction. I was a little disappointed honestly. I mean, I came here to see a really old town. This was all playing in my head when suddenly... I see a real live, honest to goodness, gingerbread house. The detail is well, amazing. You couldn't even recreate that today, it would cost too much. And people live in that. Can you imagine? (Go ahead and click it to see it bigger. )

So after getting home and doing a little historical research I find out that Marburg has been a town since 1140. I'm sorry what? 1140. There just isn't a way to explain the feeling that goes along with being in a place that old. It has it's own ju ju about it. A vibe if you will. I wanted to run around and physically touch all the buildings. But I figured (and rightly so) that that would look weird so I resisted. But I took pictures. :)

This is the shopping district. Sort of the "uptown or downtown" of the place. And yes, those are cobblestones.

This is a beautiful little church and a farmer's market.

Oh again with the buildings! I could have walked around this place for months taking pictures of buildings. Oh my goodness.

We were actually winding our way up to the castle at the top of the hill. Back in the day you built a castle at the top of the hill and the town filled in all the way down. It was compact and easier to protect everyone. Anyway, that was one bear of a hill. I had Piper in the pouch asleep. That's equal to 23 pounds of dead weight strapped to my front as I, pretty much, hike up this hill. Poor James had to push Fisher in the stroller. (A word to the wise here. If you are going to a town with cobblestones, tiny little stroller wheels are not cool. A jogging stroller is totally the way to go. You will thank me later. ) So I took advantage of the overlook areas to take pictures and to catch my breath.

We would come around a bend in the road to see things like this...

I was kinda already in love with this little town but there were just so many places that you really just couldn't believe. Like, did you know the Brothers Grimm collected many of their fairy tales here? (so says Wikipedia anyway) If you look off in the distance above that building you'll see Rapunzel's tower. Yeah, I totally wish I had packed along the ol' zoom lens that day. But still, Rapunzel's freaking tower. We watched Tangled on the flight out so this wasn't lost on us. Even Piper (who sings the songs in that movie all day long) who's 2 understood the significance of that.

There were, of course, times when we just had to sit down and marvel at it all. (and hug)

I mean, we're in freaking Germany!!

This was totally my favorite house. There is something so crookedly charming about it that I just can't resist. I want to live here. In this house.

You really can feel the history when you're walking around. It's everywhere.

This is St. Elisabeth's Church. And I, with Piper strapped to my front, laid down on the steps to try and get a shot of the huge, gothic-ness of it all. (And of course, failed miserably. But whatever.)

Such a beautiful town. So much history. So much detail. So...much. It was one of those experiences you just know you'll never forget. The first time you wandered through a thousand year old town with your family. Those things kinda stick.

And this boy here, who never met a train he didn't like, got to ride another red one on the way home. I can almost see the excitement floating around him.

I decided to post about the castle itself separately. So that's coming up. But if you ever get a chance to go to Frankfurt, take a train (or take a drive) and go see Marburg. It's worth every second and, every step up that awful hill.

Love,

JKFP

**For those of you wondering, yes we are home. I will probably fill you in on all the awful details of that flight home later. I'm hoping that, like childbirth, the pain will fade from my memory. But for now, lets just catch up on what we did while we were there.

Emotion

I've been trying to keep these updates in order of experience. This one happened yesterday and I just couldn't wait.

It was a perfectly ordinary Saturday morning. We were headed to try and find a new stroller. (a friend spilled applewine ALL over ours and I couldn't get it cleaned with what I have here. Fyi - I've given it to one of the ladies here who will clean it up all nicely and give it to her pregnant friend. I didn't just throw it away.) We hopped off the train and heard the most amazing street performers ever. In the history of forever. The acoustics in the station were perfect. I felt like I was trapped in this whirlwind of excitement and emotion that left me in tears. Tingling all over with emotion. (Just thinking of it now makes my eyes well up.) They finish, everyone cheers and tosses money into their case. Including us. I could have stayed there all day and listened, cried, cheered, tossed $$, repeat. All. Day. I did record just a bit of their amazingness. It's a terrible video. Piper was on my back and wiggling for a view. But see if you can put yourself there anyway. So unexpected. Such pure beauty.






Love,

Me

Naturmuseum Senckenberg

On our second weekend here we went to theSenckenberg Museum of Natural History. It's one of the largest natural history museums in Europe with 6,000 sq. meters and more than 5,000 exhibits. I'm pretty sure we only saw a fraction of that. With only one day to explore each week with James we end up cramming things in. But what we did see was amazing. Of course, everything was in german so we really don't have any idea WHAT we saw. Still cool though.

The outside. Remember I have this fascination with the buildings? Well, another example of why.

The detail is probably my favorite part. (on ALL buildings anywhere)

A dinosaur sculpture in a grassy spot across the way.



Such a fun face here. Squeals of excitement at the huge dinosaurs.

Mineral exampe. James took this. He's pretty good huh? (cute too)

I feel pretty confident saying this is the Mammoth display.

My favorite picture of the day...learning how a volcano works. In german. (well, it's really Fisher telling Piper how positive he is it works this way. I didn't hear the conversation so he may have been right.)

I never did figure out what this fossil is. I'm going with fairy though.

Pretty sure this one's a fish.

I love how grand it all is. Maybe I just need to get out more. I'm sure there are beautiful museums in Denver. Why is it I haven't been there? Putting it on my bucket list. Carly?? Want to go?

Fisher especially tends to blast through this kind of thing VERY quickly and today was no exception. James and I kept trying to get him to slow down and look. I guess just a glimpse is enough for him. (But I already SAW it!!) We were only there for a couple hours and only knew for sure what we were looking at a couple of times. It was (again) a really fun day.

Love,

JKFP