The Power Outage

Aaron: " I geeking....I geeking da milk, mom!"  (I'm drinking the milk, mom!)
"I aaahh done!  I done too.  I pay in da basement"
Timmy: "I'm comin' wiff ya!"

They really like to play in the basement together this week.  Since our power was out a couple days this week, Timmy got really interested in playing in the dark.  So, I hear him from the basement steps, creep up the stairs, turn off the light and exclaim, "It's a party Aaron!  It's a party!"
Then they both play in the basement while faking little screams about the darkness, and play by the faint light coming through the little basement windows on a rainy day.

By the way - when the apartments turn the power off for 6 hours a day for 3 days to make repairs, but give you a free all-you-can-eat lunch buffet each of those days, it means that the moms around here are pretty happy!  We ate so much food! I didn't have to cook at all for 3 days!

"Th"

The "Th" sound in English is a difficult one.  I love it though, because it always makes me laugh when my kids say "Thanks"  
Aaron says it "Hanks!"  or "Hanks you!"  (The Hanks...with an s, is my favorite thing!)
Timmy says it "Danks!" or "Dank you!"

I'll be sad when they say it correctly, along with:
"I dot my yay-yaya"  (I have my lamby)
"I hold you!" (hold me!)
"Wa-Wa TUM!"  (Timmy come here!)
"I dot a choo-choo, mom"  (I have a train, mom)
-Aaron
"I got my fings"  (I have my things)
-Timmy

Brussels and London

We had a great trip to Brussels and London on our way home from Germany last week.  In addition to the notes below, we also got to tour the Tower of London and see a British musical play: Blood Brothers.  It was a fantastic trip, and we enjoyed SO MUCH getting to spend time with our friends, the Allreds, who were so wonderful and generous to us while we were there!   We are so blessed to have such great friends!       

          

Farewell to Aachen and our lovely hosts Bernd and Mechthild.

Excavation from 1200 in Brussels

The Brussels Main Square

Toting our luggage around.  

3 suitcases, 2 backpacks, 1 carry on, 1 shoulder bag, 1 double stroller, 2 children, and a purse.  

Try keeping all that together!

Aaron at St. Paul's Cathedral

London Bridge

Liecester Square and the National Gallery

The Allreds beautiful South Kensington Home

Saying goodbye to Grandma Cookie at the Train Station.  

Farewell to Germany...for now

Our last week in Germany!  The boys and I ventured to visit Cologne all by ourselves.  It was quite the feat.  Here is the amazing Dom!  We also visited the Roman Museum and took a walk by the Rhine River while we ate ice cream.  With kids, that was a full day by itself!

 Aachen had a "September Summer Special" celebration in town.  They had a large ferris wheel right behind the Rathaus and Dom.  We took a ride, and got some pretty pictures of the city, like this one:

 Steffi, my running friend, had the boys and I over for breakfast, which was so fun!  She also brought us some yummy truffles before we left to say aufwiedersehen!  What a great friend!

 Our last Saturday in Aachen, we visited Lousberg, the largest hill in Aachen.  There is a great park there, a lookout point, many beautiful trails, an old monestery, and some old pillars.  Next to the pillars, there was a little shallow pool for taking a refreshing walk around.  The boys insisted on playing in it, and had a great time.

 Scott's workmate, Joseph invited us to have Zwiebelkuchen (a Fall favorite) with he and his girlfriend.  We had a great time with them, and the kids LOVED them.  Autumn can begin now that we've had our Zwiebelkuchen!  (A onion pastry cake....kind of like quiche)

Week III Aachen

The boys playing in the garden: Best Buddies

Sara Meldrum and I ventured to the Lindt Factory Store for some discounted chocolate purchases. The boys were delighted with some free samples from the register.

We attended a BBQ event for ITA workers at RWTH Aachen Institute. They had a great dinner and even some entertainment for the kids with a Spiderman Huepfburg (bounce house).

Saturday is our outing day! We heard from many that Maastricht, Netherlands was really nice, so we ventured there yesterday. Here are the boys and I at the Rathaus. The french fries are renowned here, so we got some fries at the Imbiss there, which were delicious. Traditionally eaten with gravy on top, and a little mayonnaise as well...interestingly enough.

Some street performers were offering free pony rides (Gratis), much to the delight of our children!

It was also recommended to us that we check out a nice play area in this church. I thought perhaps it would be a little quiet play area....since.....after all, it is in a church.

This is what is inside! A Jungle Jim's, basically!

Although the kids enjoyed looking in the window, we wanted to go sightseeing, so we directed them to the more interesting adult attractions. Here was a 15th century mill, still in use!

Here was a library with historic artifacts on display

The old city wall

Feeding the Horses

Touring the Sint Petersberg Tunnels

This was a cool tour. The tunnel system around the city is very extensive, and goes into Belgium. They were originally limestone quarries, but many people hid out here during WWII to protect them from the bombings (including a 78 year old man on our tour!), and some escaped into Belgium to escape the Nazis.

And in the end, we all took a nap at the park

Very beautiful city and nice day together!

Monschau

On Saturday we visited a really pretty little town in Eifel National Park region, called Monschau.

The hiking was nice and shady, and had lovely views of the town.

 The boys were yelling "To Infinity, And Beyond!" from the top of the hill.

 We had lunch by this historic fountain at a cafe in the town center.

 The streets were very cool with thin allies.  In some places they were just barely wide enough for a small car.

 Views coming down into the town.  A 17th century fortress tops this hill, and there are three beautiful churches in town as well.

At the end of the day we were all exhausted!  

I knew I had fun when I slept from 8:30 pm - 7:45 am (11 hours) with no problem!

The Night Life

Aachen summer night life

The boys slept so long on this night, we let them stay up and visit the city with us after dark.  They were crazy hyper. :)  But it was cute to hear Timmy sing the Cars song that they play when the town lights up at night, and see them play in the fountain.  Apparently, every Sunday night, they have dancing here at Elisienbrunnen during the summers.

Week II Aachen

We have been enjoying a treat (or two!)...I won't lie...every single day here in Aachen.  

There are just too many yummy things to pass up a day without trying one.

This is the park by our home.  There is a 13th century fortress in the middle of it!

The boys have had to get used to using a shower, instead of the tub.  They really dig the glass shower and the removable nozzle..

The pigeons often love our drainpipe as a resting place.  When we open the front window, they are only a couple feet away!

Last week I took advantage of the summer ferien's last week by hiring a school age babysitter to watch the boys several times so I could see some sights in the city.  Here is the lovely Dom (Cathedral) in the Aachen city center.

I also viewed the small-but-packed-with-interesting-things Couven Museum, which had some really lovely rooms and artifacts.