ok...so here we gooooooooooooooooooooooo

We started the trip off Monday morning in Stuttgart. Sunday afternoon we went the wedding of our friends Jake and Catie. Jake went to flight school with Brian. It was our first German/American wedding and during a world cup game no less! There is no way to express how big soccer is here - World Cup or Euro Cup or ANY soccer game - EVERYONE is a fan. It is insane. Brian and I have been trying to come up with something in the states that could compare and we couldn't. There's just no way to explain it. So anyway, Germany scored twice during the wedding, it will be a memorable wedding and there's video to boot. So anyway, after the wedding we went south to Stuttgart and stayed with Derrek to get a head start on our trip.

M&M&M


Snow!


Lake Awesome - I named it myself, since we couldn't figure out what lake it is. SOO AWESOME THOUGH!!!


You know...to water the plants with...


Then we hit a stau


Guest house we saw next to the Autobhn - we wanted to go swimming so bad. It was warm to say the least.


We made it!! woohoo!! Brian and Anna @ Dinner


Anna & I at dinner


Brian and Anna in the hotel room watching the world cup game- EVEN ANNA LOVES SOCCER!!!


Tomorrow we head to the beach...and the pool.

new pics of baby Corbin!!

check 'em out!

http://nicolesmitphotography.blogspot.com/

for Jenni

This post is purely for my sister - and anyone else out there who loves Hydrangeas. Switzerland was FULL FULL FULL of them. All colors. Everywhere. I took a few photos in our hotel parking lot just before we left. Nothing fancy, but you get the idea. Everywhere!











It was nice to sit down for breakfast or dinner and have fresh ones on the table. I love fresh flowers! There's nothing better than fresh flowers on the table or anywhere in the house for that matter.

swim swim swimming in Switzerland

I know I know - you don't want to hear me talk as much as I don't want to type it all out :) Switzerland was FANTASTIC!!! It's beautiful, clean, peaceful, and just overall amazing!! It was the perfect way to end our crazy two weeks of travel. You know what you get home from vacation you feel like all you need is another vacation to recover from your vacation? That was Switzerland. Our hotel was amazing - a random pick by Brian. It was high up on the mountain overlooking Locarno and Lake Maggiore.

Our hotel had 3 pools - and one amazing baby pool. One end was maybe 1" deep - the other end was about 6" deep with a water fountain in the center.











Brian said to me at one point during the trip he was surprised at how much she enjoys her sunglasses, he just assumed they were just for looks - but baby's need eye protection too and Anna does not like the sun in her eyes.

Uncle Derrek joined us for the Switzerland leg of our trip.


Anna sitting our the porch of our hotel room overlooking Lake Maggiore - she wasn't interested in the lake, but she was interested in chewing on her bed. Her travel bed has been amazing - if you know someone with a small child who travels a lot this bed is fantastic! I will say though since she is moving around more, she's learned how to get out it. So it's good up until about 6 months.

6 months and food.

guess who slept from 7:30pm to 7am!

YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

Home!!

We're home! After a relaxing (for me) and super exciting (for Brian) stop over in Switzerland for two days we have arrived home. We have some dead flowers :( some spider friends and lots of unpacking to do. I hope to get some pictures up soon!

We drove over 2000 miles and I must say we have one AMAZING BABY!

seriously?! can't you spit up on your dad JUST ONCE?!

EVERYDAY Anna makes it her mission to spit up on me. She had actually kind of grown out of that whole spitting up phase until her most recent growth spurt. Maybe it's because she's nursing more, maybe she just likes to ruin all of my shirts...and pants...and skirts...and shoes. She's so much fun these days, it's fun to watch her grow into a little person.

Here are a few teasers from the vacation so far!
Hanging out at the beach in Italy.








On the train in southern France




Portovenere, Italy

Ciao, Bonjour and Tschuss!

We're having a great time on our summer vacation. Italy started out a little slow for us, but picked up later in the week and now we're hanging out in France - enjoying the mega yacht gawking and spending time on the beach.

This is more of an Anna update than anything, I'll blog about our trip later.

Anna is up on all 4s - and lunging forward. She's been scooting around for the past month or so - mostly backwards, but she's been going forward too and slowly sitting up for longer and longer - now she'll sit up for a solid 5 minutes or more if she doesn't get too eager to go after a toy or just plain bored with herself.

Bath time in France