Europe day 3- Germany

Yestersay evening we boarded our ship! Here's a pano pic of it. There's approx 180 people on, which is nice and intimate, we get to know each others names. I feel like a celebrity, everyone knows me as the young girl. 

This is a terrible picture, but I'm going to try to paint the image in your mind of what went down.  

Apparently throughout rivers there are locks that you have to go through, sort of like a dam. Since the water levels are different, the ship either has to be lifted up or down depending on the level so you can continue on. Well I had never heard of such a thing. We are in the 2nd floor of 4 floors, so not far from the top. This picture is of our balcony railing next to a cement wall, that mind you had about 5 inches to spare. The whole ship had gone down about 20 feet into this cement hole so they could close off the water behind us and open the gate in front of us. FREAKY! We went through 4 total last night and we're going through another as I type.

Ok, so the tour today was awesome. First we got to drive in the autobahn which wasnt anything special.

We went up into the Black Forest (which isn't really black), it reminded me a lot of home. On the way we passed lots of winery's and farmland.

 The cuckoo clock originated in the Black Forest (not in Switzerland), and this is where they're made and sold. Man alive, they cost an arm and a leg..needless to say In coming home cuckoo clock-less. The front of this building is the largest one and does its thing every hour. 

We also went on a hike up in the forest. My attire: maxi dress and flats. Would you expect anything less from me?

So beautiful, just like an Oregon hike.

When in the Black Forest, eat Black Forest cake! This piece was bigger than it looks. My Gma stayed on the ship to rest today so I was forced to eat it alone. Darn! It might or might not have had brandy in it...

When I got back I went on an adventure in town (Breisach, Germany) to explore some of the history. This huge church was right up the hill from the port we were docked at.

So I climbed...

And I climbed some more...

 Once I reached it, I had puddles and could barely breathe. It was 80 degrees today which is funny because they said it was snowing last week! 

Unfortunatly I wasn't able to go inside, the the views from that high up were amazing. It's so peaceful and quiet here. 

This is the "River Rhine" as they say here, which is what we're cruising down. 

It's super late here and I have to get up early. I've spent forever trying to get this to load because the wifi here is so spotty. 

In closing, I'll leave you with this sign...

Bahaha, I was dieing when I saw it.

Europe Day 2- Swiss Alps (Mt Titlis...)

Today is our finale with the Swiss. We loaded up on a bus and drove north into the Alps. You think Oregon is beautiful? You haven't seen beautiful until you see the countryside here. All I kept thinking was RICOLA! 

Here was our ride:

Our first stop was in a small town called Endelburg where we learned how to make cheese! It's dairy country. I'm not so sure I could get used to the smell...

This lady was the cheese makers daughter and she's married to and American. Of course when we were done we got to taste test their Bre, parmasean and another soft cheese. 

Fun fact: the Swiss eat 26 kilos of chocolate every year but only 13

Kilos of cheese. Americans eat more cheese than they do! 

These pictures do absolutely no justice for the real beauty.

Ok, now the mountain. That's right, this mountain is really called Mt. Titlis (Tit-less). I decided it wasn't appropriate to get my kids shirts here. 

We rode gondolas from the bottom and had to get on two others to get to 10,000 feet. It was FREAKY! Grandma loved it. It made me a little nauseous. This is also their ski resort. Unfortunately they had a winter like us with not much snow, so there weren't many up there. 

This is what I'm talking about..FREAKY!

 However, this view from the lodge at the top was spectacular and well worth the ride. There was also a suspension bridge that I opted out of going on.  

I was able to walk through an ice cave, really neat! But also very cold! The floor, walls and ceiling were ice.

A few other things we've noticed:

-There isn't trash anywhere, it's so clean!

-We haven't seen a single homeless person 

Tonight we head onto our ship! We're both really excited to begin the cruise.

P.s.. I'm the youngest one on the ship...by at least 25 years. Most of the conversations at dinner were about Medicare.

Europe Day 1-Lunerne, Switzerland

WYesterday: Hands down, the best plane ride I've ever been on in my life! OR maybe I'm

just too used to flying cheap crappy allegiant airlines. Delta was amazing! We had 3 meals, multiple snacks and drinks, free movies/tv/games on our own personal screen. They also gave us earbuds and a sleeping mask. Before each meal they came around with hot towels to wash our hands. I hope the ride home's just as good.

A few things:

-The Amsterdam airport is dirty until you go through customs and then it's like a shopping mall

-I'm really greatful for all the services avaliable to help my Gma get to and from the gates. Some of the time, I even get to ride!

- Being congested on an airplane sucks

-We couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights or flush the toilet in our hotel

Yestersay we slept most of the evening. After being awake for 24 hrs we were exhausted. I didn't even know my body could do that! 

Today I went on a walking tour through Lucerne for 2 hours. Gma stayed behind and went on one by train later in the afternoon.  Our hotel is right on the Lucerne lake and at the bottom of the snowy alps, it's very pretty!

There's a lot of pretty amazing history in this city. This is an old church.

This is their water tower and that long wooden bridge burned down in the 90's and was rebuilt. There are some amazing paintings in it. Swans everywhere in the lake. 

This church was breath taking. 

Some of the little shops 

This was the cherry on top to our day. Dinner at Fritschi's. When in Switzerland, eat Swiss cheese and chocolate! We had cheese fondue to start us off.  

Their house special which was heaven in my mouth: Mushroom cream sauce with Veal in this pot pie flaky crust, rice and veggies.

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert but it was Apple streusel with drizzled chocolate, vanilla bean ice cream and more delishness. 

The currency here is the Swiss franc but they also accept the Euro. It's fairly comparable to the dollar so I can tell how much things really cost. 

We're 9 hours ahead so I can talk to Luis and the kids in the morning home time. He told me Lily was kissing the pictures of me on his phone, she misses me:)

Tomorrow: up into the Alps on Mt Titlis.

To my rockstar husband

For the past 6 months, today has seemed so far away until now. It's finally here! My Grandma and I are Europe bound! I'm so honored that she asked me to go on this trip with her. What a better way to spend quality time together than going on (for some people) a once in a lifetime trip. I probably won't make it back until our kids are grown. Something about taking little ones on a 10 hour flight sounds a little discusting. 

My goal is to blog about all our experiences so I have everything documented. I don't want to forget any of the details. 

My day started out with a sudafed. That's my luck folks, I get sick right before the big trip. Head congestion and snot like there's no tomorrow. 

Currently I'm in the car on our way to the airport and decided my first post needs to be dedicated to my husband. 

Be jealous ladies, I have the most amazing husband around. When I asked him what he thought about me leaving for 10 days and he'd be alone with the kids, he didn't even hesitate. You have to go, When will you ever be able to do something like this again, he said. He hasn't complained once. I would've been whining about how he'd be gone for so long, but he's so supportive and good to me. I've been worrying for a while (or maybe just the last week since I'm the worlds biggest procrastinator), trying to make sure I had everything prepared for him. Groceries stocked. Laundry done. House clean. Etc. 

He's such a rockstar, I can't brag about him enough. He'll probably be ready to run away when I get back!

The ultimate test

Last Thursday I had a series of events happen including, not having money when I got to the cash register with my groceries, sol steeling a Cadbury egg in the checkout line, having to walk to the bank irritated to get money to go back and get my groceries all while having the conversation about going to jail for stealing a Cadbury egg. I than got home to no power. After calling the electric company, I was ashamingly told that I had not paid my bill and my power was shut off. How embarrassing, right?

I thought that was a chaotic day but today. TODAY  my children tested my patience down to the bone. In fact, I think they depleted them. I can honestly say that I have never been so frustrated with my own children, physically drained from the constant fighting, hair pulling, pushing, you name it and it happened tonight. I couldn't wait for them to go to bed.

I sure do love my kids more than anything in the whole wide world but TODAY I was ready to trade them in. 

Bomb diggity cookies

Today my kids aren't feeling too good which actually worked out well for me as I woke up this morning needing one more day to my weekend and just love staying home with them!

We (Sol and I) tried a new cookie recipe that turned out bomb diggity. I'm mostly doing this post to remember it! Making cookies is our thing, always has been..so we do it while Lily is sound asleep.  

Check out the recipe here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/thick-soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies-100727?photo=329504#|gigyaMobileDialog 

I told Sol today and that I'm so lucky to be his mama. He is such a blessing in my life. 

Oh and Lily went poop on the potty today! Cookies and poop. Sounds pretty successful if I do say so myself.