More Castle Ruins - Lupburg & Velburg

Brian is about to start another rotation so for the next couple of weeks we will hardly see him. We decided to have an easy and relaxing weekend and not venture off anywhere too far away. This morning we headed to Lupburg (a small town 2km down the road from us) to see their castle ruins, as well as the Velburg castle ruins (about 15km away). Lupburg's ruins are in the middle of getting renovated but they still allow people to wander and explore. The castle was pretty demolished by bombs, only a couple original walls still stood. The Velburg castle was impressive in that we had to park our car in a small gravel lot and then hike up the top part of a mountain to get to it, quite the workout! But is was neat to see all the old parts and pieces of the stone fortress that used to be around the castle tucked under trees and hiding under the long grass and wildflowers along the way. It looked as if you could film movies there - Braveheart-ish. here is a huge stone entrance still standing, a few small walls and a tower. Luke thought that it was pretty cool that we could see windmills from the castle towers and Brian and I enjoyed the scenery. It was a gorgeous day - temperatures in the high 60s but warming up toward lunch time.

Lupburg

Heading up to the Velburg castle ruins

A trip to the bowling alley

I had a wild idea that Brian and I should introduce Luke to bowling! There isn't a plethora of activities offered for 2 1/2 year olds - sports here start at age 4 - and it is always nice to get a change of scenery from playgrounds and backyards. I thought Luke would really enjoy it and I thought he was at the age where he can understand the rules and the concept of taking turns. And guess what? He is! After a little excitement induced anxiety at first (excited to see all the bowling balls but wanting to pick them all up and finding that he couldn't), we got his little bowling shoes on and he knew exactly what to do! Brian programmed Luke's turn to have bumpers and Luke and I rehearsed the "rules" 1 more time ("When it is Luke's turn, you pick up the ball and PUSH it down the lane!" We even had the hand gestures for "push!" and he seemed to know what he was getting into). He picked up his 7 pound ball (yes, that was the lightest one they had) and walked right up to the lane. I thought for sure he would keep walking down it or try to chase after the ball but he placed his ball down at the line and pushed. And he stayed there, in squatting position until the ball would hit the pins. It took a few frames before we got the taking turns down pat and he even started to get excited for when Brian bowled - clapping and yelling "yay daddy!". All 3 of us bowled a game together and while Brian and I ate some dinner, Luke bowled his own game. He was pretty sad we had to leave but it wasn't awful trying to get him out of there. We all enjoyed it and Brian was wondering why we hadn't done it earlier. I had to remind him that bowling involves rules, sharing and taking turns and that is something that Luke has been working on for a few months now and has finally mastered. I think if we would have gone earlier it would have been a disaster. We stood there and thought about that for a second and Brian nodded and said "yes, you are right and then we would have never gone bowling again." ;)
I managed to get a little video clip of Luke bowling - and at the end you can see Brian say "give me five!" and Luke says "no!" and runs around him. He had just discovered the amazing ball return thingy and thought Brian was preventing him from watching the ball come back. :) Every time that crazy ball was spit out, Luke's face lit up like Christmas. It's the little things I tell ya! :)

It's a....

surprise!

Just kidding - I'll tell you. I just wanted to see if you had any guesses.

We went to the dr yesterday. I am in my 17th week and the baby is doing great. The doctor said that the baby is long - so another tall little one crunched inside my belly. :) Luke was 22 inches long, wonder how long this little one will be.

Anyhoo...
guesses anyone?

It was a party!

There was a big birthday party in our neighborhood yesterday for 2 little boys that turned six years old. They had a huge blow up slide for the big day - remind me how perfect of an idea that is - they needed NOTHING ELSE to keep all the kids happy. They played on that thing for hours, ate sandwiches and cake, opened presents and enjoyed goodie bags. EL FIN! Luke had a great time, we were outside for 7 straight hours. He loved that big inflatable slide and even got a little daring at the top, jumping and bouncing all over before he would take the plunge down. He got knocked down a few times by the bigger kids but he just shook it off and kept on climbing. The dads got in on the fun too and they were climbing up, cannon balling down, doing flips, rocking it back and forth...leave it to the dads to try to have as much fun as the kids! All the kids thought it was great that the adults were climbing up and leaping down that thing (some moms too! Not me though, nobody wanted the preggo going down the slide.) Luke is still talking about that slide today, telling me that he gets to go to a birthday party and play on the slide after his nap. :) Here are a few of the MANY pictures I took and some video clips of Luke AND Luke and Brian going down the slide.

Velburg Caves - Tropfsteinhohle

This weekend we decided to explore the caves (Tropfsteinhohle) in Velburg, a small town about 15 minutes away from Parsberg. We parked in a lot and hiked up a hill a small ways to a little cafe in the middle of the woods, complete with picnic tables everywhere and some wooden playground equipment for the kiddos. We didn't know that it was a guided tour so we paid for our tickets and Brian and I drank lattes while Luke ran around and played. At 11:30am the tour began and we slowly descended a bunch of stairs into the old caves. The caves are old drip stone caves which after taking the small tour, I am guessing that means that water slowly drips and drips and drips from the ceiling and the minerals in the water form many of the rock formations in the cave. Unfortunately the tour was only in German and since Brian and I know few German words, we pretty much trailed along and tried to figure out what we were looking at. The formations in the cave were pretty cool as was the temperature. There were little bats flying around which everyone got a kick out of and Luke kept saying "birds!" The sign at the cave entrance said no flash cameras so I didn't take any pictures at all at first but then everyone else on the tour started using their cameras with the flash and the tour guide didn't say a thing so we joined the crowd and took a few pictures as well. There was a small case full of fossils of all sorts of animals and huge teeth which looked like human molars. This particular cave was "discovered" in 1875. It was a neat little tour, a little claustrophobic at first but the beauty of the cave, the deeper we got, was really amazing. And as always, here are your pictures:

By popular demand...

Really? A picture of me? Ahhh, I get it. You all just want to see how pregnant I look. Well, although the pooch is noticeable in person - all my neighbors are getting excited by the barely noticeable pooches going on (there are 3 pregnant women in my neighborhood) - on camera, well, I think I just look a little thick. :)

Luke and I filled up his pool with water again this morning, this time allowing about 5 hours for it to warm up (once again, he can't swim until after nap time!). He does surprisingly well with this rule and is just happy to help fill up the pool. He held the hose the entire time - wow, 30 minutes of just standing there, waiting for the pool to fill, and he loved every minute of it. And since I, of course, think my child is uber cute and I can't get over the fact that he is growing up so fast, I had to take more pictures. So sorry if you are feeling inundated by Luke pictures but come on people, this is our family blog and I know there is a high demand for Luke pictures in some sects of the family (grandparents anyone?).

So without further ado, here are our pictures from our fun, sunny, summer morning -

It's me!! Oh, I am squatting and it is kind of shaded....okay, next!

Here you go. It's me, a little over 14 weeks along, hanging out with Luke. (If you click on the picture it will open in jumbo size!)

Oooo - it's a heat wave. Time for summer fun!

Today was the first nice summer day we've had in awhile. After a few weeks of temperatures in the 50s and 60s, I think we were all anxious to get a little warmth and some sunshine. Today, mother nature complied. When Luke and I ran to the grocery store this morning it was 76 degrees and by the time we arrived back home it was warming up even more. I thought today would be the perfect day to surprise Luke with his own little pool in the back yard. A couple months ago Brian bought Luke a table that has a circular area attached to it - it can be either a sandbox or a pool and we hadn't used it for either, until today. Once Luke went down for a nap I filled that puppy full of water (brrrrr!) and hoped that the 2 hours that Luke would sleep would be long enough to warm it up at least a few degrees. Luke woke up fabulously happy and I hooked him up with a snack (bananas since he keeps getting leg and foot cramps at night - let's see if it works!) and brought him upstairs to get his swim trunks on. He was a little confused but I told him I had a surprise for him. When he peeked out the back door his whole face lit up. I had water in the pool, the umbrellas open, watering cans and buckets ready for the water and all he had to do was open the door and get out there. And once he did he was the happiest child in the neighborhood for the entire 2 hours he played and splashed in there. A neighbor boy came down to hang out with Luke and they filled up the bulldozer with water and would dump it out with a large splash that delighted Luke, they put water down Luke's little slide and they pretended to fill up Luke's lawn mower with "gas" using the watering cans and pool water. Every once in awhile Luke would jump into the pool and lay on his belly and kick his legs really fast then shoot right back up and exclaim "it's COLD!" while shaking his arms (sign language for cold). He loved every minute of it and after we emptied the pool he told me "i pway in the po-yol a-marrow, i go to the po-yol ano-yer day" (translation: i play in the pool tomorrow. i go to the pool another day.) So if it is warm enough we will fill that pool back up again tomorrow. So little water, so much fun. Here are the pics:

A Funny

The Baby

Here is the baby's latest picture - taken last Friday. Everything seems to be just fine and growth is right on target. The baby is only about 3 inches long (taken at 12 weeks). He or she was jumping and jerking all over the place, especially when the doctor pressed down on my belly. And his/her hands were by his/her face and and chest and moving all around. See the little hand in the top picture? Next ultrasound picture will be sometime in late August or early September. Stay tuned! :)