We had a lot of time to think about our new house and get really excited. Mommy took and passed the driver’s test, so she was able to get out and about too. Daddy bought himself a little (old) black BMW to drive to work and back every day. He likes it VERY much.

I’ve started to become more independent, wanting to do things myself. I’m trying to help feed myself the bottle (with less success than this picture implies).





Mommy bought me a bouncer since I really enjoy using my legs.



I’ve also gone completely native and am now rooting for German soccer (remember Mommy’s first German buying experience, here’s the clothing she bought). The World Cup is starting soon and the whole country has gone soccer-mad. And, since Mommy and Daddy were already soccer-mad, it just makes sense….





We went for a long walk and I really enjoyed stretching my legs in the grass….



Mommy and Daddy got brave and went to two different German IKEA’s for some shopping ideas. This one had a kids play area in the middle which I enjoyed momentarily.





Moving day at last!!! Mommy and I went and retrieved the cats from the kennel and got them settled. When they negotiated the date to take the house, Mommy and Daddy didn’t take into account German holidays. They wouldn’t deliver our furniture the first day we were in the house because it was Father’s Day in Germany (it’s on a Thursday here). So, Daddy went to work and Mommy and I hung out all day.





There’s been an unusual amount of cold weather since we moved in. Mommy had me bundled up while the furniture came in because my little nose was turning red.





Most of the furniture made it ok but in the US they drove a forklift THROUGH one of the wooden boxes our belongings were in. It ruined a few small things, but as luck would have it, one of the prongs ran through the legs of Mommy’s antique dresser. A few other items weren't so lucky...



I went and stayed with a babysitter all day Saturday so that Mommy and Daddy could get a lot of unpacking done (they did). Here are Daddy and I continuing the process….



We took a break to go for a walk behind our house. German’s are very big on recycling (Mommy feels like she's constantly washing her trash so that it can go into the appropriate recycle bin - but it's worth it for the beauty we see all around) and natural power – so we have a great view of some very beautiful windmills in our back yard.

We spent Friday searching for a house. We had appointments lined up all day (thank goodness for the GPS – it made Mommy and Daddy confident to accept all of the appointments). The first house was too “sterile” – but nice. The second house was large but set up inconveniently. The third house was a MESS inside. It was disgusting - the current tenant obviously didn't care for cleanliness much. The landlord looked embarrassed and apologized over and over again. The landlord’s mother lived in the downstairs part of the house and after Mommy climbed the hill up from the house she seriously thought they should take it just for the view when we went for walks. This landlord could obviously see our disappointment (ok, Mommy and Daddy's dissapointment - I enjoyed it when the landlord's Mother spoke to me in German) and volunteered that he had another house available too (he apologized in advance because it was owned by the same sloppy people as the one we were standing in). He had his wife take us over to see this house since she was driving over to meet someone else to look at it. As promised, it was a mess. But, the moment Mommy and Daddy walked out on the upstairs porch, they were sold. They quickly negotiated for new carpet in the downstairs (the rest is essentially all hardwood floors) and professional cleaning and took it before the next person showed up to see it. From the outside it’s not much to look at, but here is the view of our village from the hill up above. Our house is obscured by the stand of trees on the right of the photo.



Our new village is so small that it doesn’t even have a bakery (that’s REALLY small by German standards) but it does have a bakery truck that drives by every afternoon and stops in front of our house. There are maybe 100 houses total. Very quaint and very nice. The house on the right is ours (again, it’s all about the view)





There are both a German elementary and kindergarten right up the street from our house. There’s also a German cemetery two lots away. Cemeteries are not a “macabre” thing here like in the US. In fact, they are exquisitely beautiful. They all have live flowers on each plot and are tended with love. Mommy’s seen someone in there tending to some plot or another every day since we’ve been here. (editor’s note – obviously, some entries here are backdated since we didn’t have internet access the first three weeks we were here)

We have an extra guest bedroom whenever anyone wants to come see for themselves!

On Mother’s day we decided to go out to eat in K-town. The house wasn’t going to be ready for a few more weeks, so that gave us time to explore. Sunday’s are very nice in Germany. They are a day of rest – no ifs, ands or buts. Everything is closed except for a few restaurants and hotels. So, you are literally forced to stop and be quiet for the day (something Mommy and Daddy aren’t sure they know how to do). No lawn work, nothing. We walked through the shopping district in K-town and found a very nice table outside at a restaurant. The waiter spoke a little English so the experience was pleasant. We sat across from this fountain the entire meal.

Daddy spent Tuesday in some mandatory inprocessing, so Mommy and I set off to explore on foot (all military personnel and dependents stationed in Germany are required to take and pass the German driving test before they are allowed to drive on or off base – since the test is only offered certain days of the week, Daddy was in mandatory processing and Mommy didn’t have someone to watch me, events conspired to keep us on foot for a while - it was a good way to explore). We found the library and the Commissary and did a little shopping to keep us all from starving.

The second day of Daddy’s inprocessing is a day long tour of Kaiserslautern, the largest city close to the base. Family is encouraged to attend this day, so Mommy and I tagged along. This was going to be our first big German adventure. We went to the K-town (what they call Kaiserslautern here) Rathous (or, in English, town hall) and met the German-American relations person there. Yes, Daddy and I are sitting on a big fish (think the painted cows or horses in the US). These fish are everywhere over here, this one is in the Rathous.



After the Rathouse we were taken to the shopping district of K-town and set free for about an hour. Mommy decided to pop into a store (with Daddy’s goading, of course) to buy their first German pastries. Their first German purchase!!! Mommy did very well, pointed to what she wanted and said “Ein, bitte” (One, please). That’s where the ease of transaction went downhill. While Mommy and Daddy learned their numbers before they came, they learned them at a very slow speed. So, when the clerk told Mommy that she owed 2,60, (and no, that’s not a typo, Euros are separated by commas, not decimals – we’re learning here!) she froze like a deer in headlights. The clerks said it again, finally looked at Mommy in exasperation and said the amount in English. Daddy said that Mommy looked so terrified he thought she just might grab the pastries (apparently the woman didn't care that she ordered one, she gave her two) and run without paying. The pastries were very good...

We went into a children’s clothing store soon afterward and the transaction went much more smoothly (probably because Mommy and Daddy made it pretty clear from the start that they spoke English, the clerk was nice). I got my first German onesie!

After we caught up with the group, we were taken to a nice German restaurant to have our first German dining experience.



Since we were obviously a group of Americans, this whole experience was quite easy. The restaurant was on a deer preserve. When we finished eating, the deer were too far away to play with, but we found some goats. They were more than happy to eat food picked from our side of the fence out of my hand.









With all of that out of the way, Daddy prepared for his driver’s test (Mommy and Daddy had to take it on different days so they could each watch me for the other). He passed with flying colors! To make our lives easier, Daddy bought (with Mommy’s enthusiastic consent) a GPS system for our car. German roads can be very confusing and maps aren’t much help like in the US. All of the road signs essentially tell you what city you are heading toward, so if you don’t know which major city you need to go in the direction of, you’re out of luck. Daddy and I sat outside of our hotel room and played with his new toy.



Luckily, the car made it to Germany at the same time we did, so the day Daddy passed his test, we got a ride over to the car place and had our own car back right away!! That meant that house hunting was going to be a whole lot easier...

We made it safely to Germany!!!!

Daddy went to Albuquerque before us to pick up the USDA health certificate clearing the cats (FedEx decided that they “couldn’t find” Grandpa’s house so just didn’t deliver them – it was a stressful moment when Mommy realized the package hadn’t arrived) and to try to sell his car to CarMax, thinking he would be unsuccessful. They offered him MORE than what we’d been advertising it for in the newspaper, so the car got sold.

We went out to one final nice dinner before we left the United States. I got to meet my Uncle Jesse for the first time. Unfortunately, Mommy had a touch of the stomach flu, so she didn’t record the moment – she was trying to sit upright at the table.

On Thursday morning we piled into Grandpa’s car and were taken to the airport in two trips. Mommy literally sat on the curb at the airport with one of the loads of luggage while Daddy and Grandpa went back for the rest (and me – I stayed with Granny so I wouldn’t have to sit on the curb in the cold). We were quite a sight to see; six large bags, two cats, three carry-on items, a stroller, a car seat base and me in the carrier. It took us a LONG time to check in and make sure we got everything right.

We took MANY flights that day. This was the first one until the flight attendant realized that Daddy was on the inside (could have caught that anytime before the plane backed away from the gate, but nope, we were scrambling to rearrange in the last seconds before the plane took off) – something about safety; like Daddy would have left the plane without me...



We made it to Baltimore safely where we had to retrieve all of our luggage and the cats from baggage claim in order to take them upstairs to re-check everything at the military flight. We loaded up two “smart-carts” at the airport with the cats and luggage and set off. When we got to the elevator we realized that it was barely big enough to fit one smart cart inside so we had to send a relay up to the next floor. Daddy went up with the first set of luggage and sent the elevator down. Mommy put the cart with the cats on the elevator and sent them up by themselves and hoped that Daddy would get them back off. Finally, Mommy and I were in the last load up and we were off to check in.

We got to the line to check in for the flight and it was LONG - so we all mentally prepared to hunker down for a long wait (think, several hours). Apparently, people travelling with families get to cut to the head of the line (most of the line was soldiers deploying or single people making the trip). The only thing they forgot to tell us when we were preparing for the trip was that the cats aren’t allowed to “board” the flight until an hour in advance. So, Mommy, Daddy, the two cats and I wandered around the airport for several hours until the cats could “check in”. We were quite a sight to see.

The flight to Germany was LONG. I, of course, was a perfect angel and slept pretty much the entire way. Mommy and Daddy took a few naps so they’d be functional on the other end too.

We were quickly ushered through customs (the man felt sorry for us with our huge pile of stuff and screaming cats and we weren’t searched) and were met by two cars to take us and all of our stuff. The cats were whisked off to a very nice kennel to spend some time (no pets allowed in military hotels in general – and Germany is no exception). Mommy and Daddy were given a tour and oohed and ahhhed at the Germany country-side for the day (I slept a lot). They finally settled in for the night at Landstul, which is where all the military personnel are actually taken when they say that a soldier was taken to Ramstein for medical treatment. It turns out that they FLY to Ramstein but the hospital is on another base about 15 minutes away. This whole area is like that. Everyone says they are going to Ramstein (and in our case we really were) but there are actually about 25 bases within a 30 minute driving radius where everyone is spread out.



I really only took one night to adjust to the new time zone. Mommy and Daddy were very thankful (for those that haven’t figured it out yet, we’re 6 hours ahead of the East coast).

On Saturday we moved over to stay on Ramstein instead of Landstul (there are more services available, like a Commissary and BX - and since we couldn't drive yet, that was important) for the duration of our stay in a hotel. On Sunday we had our first picnic, it was very nice.

It's been a quiet but busy week.

We've spent a lot of time resting. I'm learning all kinds of new tricks now that I'm not stuck in the car seat non-stop. I can now hold my head up with relatively little effort and can sit for a few seconds unassisted. I'm especially loving "standing" and playing airplane.

Mommy and I spent a few afternoons with her friend Darci trying to walk off Mommy's sprained ankle (she fell down the steps the afternoon we got back to Los Alamos and banged herself up pretty good, she's doing better now - luckily I was in my carrier and being carried close to the ground - also, Grandpa and Granny were nearby to scoop me up quickly and tend to Mommy)



Daddy had to go back to work for the week, so Mommy and I were left to our own devices. We took some time and made a birthday cake for Daddy (yes, I'm really sitting on the stovetop, but it was off and I was happy because I could see Mommy at eye level)




Daddy came back to see us again on his birthday - what a great birthday present to be done with his current assignment!

On Sunday I had my first experience with golfing. Grandpa helped to bungee cord me into the golf cart so that I could ride with Mommy. I slept some, so Mommy got to play a little bit of the 9 holes that I rode along for (Grandpa, Granny and Daddy finished the rest of the round)





Tewa is one of Mommy's favorite golf courses, the views just can't be beat...









Unfortunately, we're down to goodbyes now. I had some great pictures of my goodbye with Nanna but I can't get them posted for some reason.

We are quite literally off for Germany. Daddy has left to pick up the cats and (hopefully) sell the car. Mommy and I will be leaving in the next hour or so. We'll miss everyone but won't say goodbye since we know everyone will come to see us! I'll keep you updated as I can; but the next entry will definitely be coming from Germany!!