campin

I have wanted to take Thomas and Tyler camping at my family’s land since almost 4 years ago when I met them. It’s every boy’s dream. It’s a place where you can be as dirty as you want, cook your dinner over a fire, sleep under the stars, try to catch fish with your bare hands in a creek, watch fireworks, dig holes, wash your hair in the creek and it’s all allowed. My days are often filled with sentences to the boys like “don’t bring your dirty shoes in the house!”, “don’t play in the mud!”  Or “don't bring that in the house!” Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t. And I often feel like all I’m really saying to them is “don’t be a boy”. Don’t make a mess because I’m the one that’s going to have to clean it up. And this is practical and needed to some extent. But every once in a while I believe that it is necessary to let boys be boys. To encourage messiness and mud fights.  And that is why I wanted to take them camping.

They have been anxiously awaiting this trip for weeks. For at least two weeks they have been asking me every day how many days until camping day and when they should pack. I was excited to share this experience with them also. I bought them camo everything. Camo shorts, shirts, and hats. Thursday night I packed up my jeep with coolers, water guns, tents, sleeping bags and flashlights. First thing Friday morning I went to pick up Thomas and Tyler. They excitedly got dressed in the camo gear I surprised them with and we were off. 

The land is about an hour North of my house and their grandparent’s house. We stopped for breakfast on the way to break up the drive. Everyone in the restaurant loved Thomas and Tyler’s clothes. They were so good for the drive and liked watching the mountains through the windows. I had not shown them pictures of the campsite before we arrived but I had tried to explain it to them but apparently I had not done it justice. We pulled up and they could not jump out of the car fast enough. They looked around and explored the tire swing for a few minutes while I unpacked and turned on the power and water. Then it was time to set up camp. They both helped me put up the tent and excitedly set it up with their sleeping bags and stuffed animals. When that was done we went to play in the creek. I think the creek was their favorite part of the trip. I brought huge water guns into the creek for them to play with and they didn’t even touch them. They just played in the rocks and created hideouts and secret clubs. Tyler had a few minutes of transition into camp life. He kept coming up to me saying “Hannah! My feet are dirty!” “Hannah! My shirt is dirty!” and to his surprise I would say “it’s ok! Get dirtier.” He picked up the idea quickly and soon was happily rubbing mud all over himself. 

We played together in the creek for a while and then we made lunch and my mom and dad and grandmommy, granddaddy and Trevor arrived. Trevor had the same transition period as Tyler did. He did not like the dirt at first but about two minutes later he was loving it. We had a water balloon fight and Trevor loved that. Grandmommy and granddaddy got a tour of the land from Thomas and Tyler and had hotdogs cooked over the fire. After dinner we gave Trevor a bath and grandmommy and granddaddy had to take him home to sleep. Then we all made smores and Thomas and Tyler watched my dad and I set off some small fireworks. After that it was bed time and after everyone took their showers Thomas, Tyler and I piled into our tent. I expected them to get into the tent and then decide they would rather sleep in the camper with my mom and dad, but they didn’t. Tyler got a little scared because Thomas wanted to tell scary stories but we talked it out and eventually all got to sleep.

They slept until about 8:20 and then we got up and made a yummy breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and bacon. Right after that we were back in the water. They convinced my dad to take us tubing - which is basically floating in an inner tube down the river to a specific point and then having my mom pick us up and drive us back to the campsite.

They loved that. I had tyler’s tube connected to mine and at one point he looked at me and said “Hannah can we keep going?” and I said “yes” then he said “I love you”. When we got back to the campsite from tubing we packed up the tent and loaded up my car then took showers and got ready to leave. On the way home we stopped at Mercier’s apple orchards and picked up some peaches and caramel apples. About halfway home Tyler passed out hard, Then when we were about 15 minutes away Thomas fell asleep too. Tyler will nap occasionally but it is extremely rare for Thomas to nap. They were all played out. They decided they want to do this again every weekend. 

We had an awesome trip!

Lately

Things have been quite busy around my house lately. The mother of the boy's I nanny deployed to Afghanistan last week and we are working on finding a new "normal". The family decided that this summer since the mom will be deployed and the dad will have a lot of out of town business that the boy's and I should go back to the states to spend the summer with their grandparents. This is awesome for me because the boy's grandparents are my parent's next door neighbors. So after 10 months living away 2,021 miles away from my friends and family I will be home for two whole months. 

I have so many wonderful plans for my time home and from what I hear my friends have some awesome plans for me as well. I have not had the boy's in GA with me since 2009 and I am excited about sharing my favorite places with them. I made this blog to chronicle my euro-adventures but I suppose I will continue blogging through the summer about my adventures at home. We fly to GA in 4 days. I've been packed for about a week. There are signs that this could possibly be the best summer ever.

Morning Runs.

I tend to take advantage of the incredible things I drive or walk past at lest 4 times a day. I never take pictures of the things i see every day because, well, I see them every day. But these are the things I will miss and want to remember the most when I no longer live here. So I took some time this morning and snapped a few Iphone pictures. Ok, maybe I just wanted a break from running - but here it is.

Travel Journal

My most recent travel journal entries from Keukenhof, paris, Scotland, and Amsterdam!

Edinburgh

Scotland

My awesome friend Crystal talked me into this trip to Edinburgh. A group of women were planning a Memorial Day weekend trip to Scotland to run a relay marathon in Edinburgh. I decided to run a 10k since the relay teams were full. It is important to note that before agreeing to this trip I had not actually run a full mile in my recent memory. In preparation I began running consistently and enjoying small victories over new distances and times. And after a few months of training I can now successfully run 6.2 miles!

Our group consisted of approximately 15 beautiful, strong, inspiring American women living in Bavaria. We loaded up Thursday afternoon and caravanned to the airport. We arrived late Thursday night and enjoyed a beautiful walk through Edinburgh to our apartment. The apartment we rented was perfect for our group. It had 5 or more rooms with multiple beds, a kitchen, and enough bathrooms.

Friday morning the majority of the women went on a 4 hour drive to Loch Ness while me, Crystal and our new friend Amy set off to explore Edinburgh. We went to Edinburgh castle first which was absolutely gorgeous and had beautiful views of the city. Inside the castle we saw Arthur’s rock (from the sword and the stone) and the royal jewels. We walked around the castle grounds enjoying the scenery. After the Castle we decided to have Indian for lunch. Crystal recently introduced me to Indian and I absolutely love it. Edinburgh has a plethora of Indian restaurants. We had a delicious lunch and regrouped to attack the Royal Mile. When we finished there we hiked to Calton hill and relaxed in the grass, took pictures, and enjoyed the views of the city below us.

Saturday- Race day!

Saturday was the 10k race. Four of us were running the 10k and we all went together to the starting line. Pam got us all awesome pink bandannas so we could all find each other. Standing at the starting line with 100’s of people waiting for the race to begin was beyond exciting. We were all dancing and getting ready. The race began and for a while the four of us stayed together. Tera and Mary Anne were hauling and Meratee and I hung back. I expected and trained for a fairly flat route. The route was up Arthur’s seat. I don’t think that’s playing fair. I was a bit ticked that the course was so terrible. I expected that I might finish in an hour and five minutes or less. Meratee and I stuck together for the whole race and ran and walked together. Thankfully the end was flat and we ran through the finish line. We were happily surprised at the finish line by all the ladies cheering us on. After we went through and got our t-shirts and took pictures Crystal and I went back to the apartment so I could shower and then we headed out to the bus station to go to St. Andrew’s for the day. It was about an hour and a half bus trip and we arrived in around 3. We walked around some of the cute shops and then went to the castle ruins which were gorgeous. We walked past the building where William and Kate rented an apartment and sat on the pier for a bit. Then we ran on the Chariots of fire beach and collected seashells. For dinner we found a precious restaurant called the doll house- and found out that Kate Middleton worked there for a short time. The food was delicious. From there we went back to the apartment and had a wonderful night’s sleep.

Our 10k route was UP this mountain! Aruthur's seat. I finished in 1 hour 10 minutes and 12 seconds. 

Sunday was race day for the two teams of 4 running the relay marathon. Meratee, Mary Anne and I went to the finish line to support the ladies running through. We ended up staying there until 4 or 5 pm and afterward my moving buddy Crystal and I went back to the apartment after that. We all met there to go get fish and chips for dinner!

Monday morning we awoke very early to make our 6am flight back home. Everyone else had a short layover in Amsterdam but I had a nearly 12 hour layover so I did some exploring there. I got to see Anne Frank’s house, which was incredible. It was very well preserved and the experience was amazing. The walls still had the decorations Anne put up and markings on a wall where Anne and her sisters’ heights were measured.

I walked around the canals and enjoyed the day in Amsterdam before going back to the airport to board my flight home to Germany! How cool is it that I go “home” to Germany? 

Travel Journal

Just a few of my latest pages to correspond with my latest posts on my brother and I's trip to Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Switzerland and Venice for the Holidays. 

Venice

January 4^th 2012

Waking up at 3 am to get ready and packed was brutal. But we did it and made it to the airport. the first flight was a little over an hour to Dusseldorf, Germany. We had about a 3 hour layover there. We slept on benches like bums then had breakfast in a café. We got on our flight to Venice with no problems. We watched “in 30 minutes or less” on the plane then landed and began trying to find our hotel. We had to stop and ask someone. With directions, we found it and checked in. from the check in desk  the lady working there took us down 3 or 4 streets to where our room was. It was very nice. Definitely our nicest accommodation of the trip. We got settled and then headed out to explore Venice. We walked around and did some shopping and went to see st. marks. We found an awesome place for dinner and shared a tortellini, lasagna, and a seafood pasta then each got our own tiramisu. It was delicious. I also had a glass of cabernet. I did not know I liked that. We got lost going back to the hotel and went to bed early because we were exhausted from waking up at 3 am.

January 5^th 2012

We woke up early with the idea of going to Murano island to see some glass blowing and do some shopping. When we got off the boat (which was only 6 euro round  trip each) there were guys standing there telling us to go left to see a glass blowing exhibition. So we went and saw a guy make a vase and a horse like it was the easiest thing ever. That shop was too expensive so we walked out and walked around to the right side of the boats. It was nicer and cheaper over there. We finished Jeremy’s shopping. He got every woman he knows something murano. He wanted to get someone a wine glass but we could not find one for less than 100 euro. We finally found a nice place that had glasses for around 25 euro. He got 4 and I got two that I loved. We were so excited about these cups. We took them back to the hotel then went to st. marks. We could not go in because they do not allow backpacks. I had somehow pulled a muscle in the arch of my right foot and every step was putting me close to tears. So we went back to the hotel to let me soak my foot in the sink and have a sit. After that we set out to find dinner. After walking around for more than an hour we found a good place. We ordered 3 meals again. They had the best tortalini. Ever. They make it with cram sauce and ham. So good.

January 6^th 2012

We woke up in time for breakfast in the hotel and packed up and checked out at 10. Then we decided to go back to murano because we both wanted more cups. That’s all we went for so we left quickly and went back to Venice and went to the same place to eat lunch that we had gone for dinner the night before. Still delicious. Then we went to get our bags from the hotel and go to the train station to go back to Bologna. We got onto the train and watched “the change up” on Jeremy’s ipad. It was really funny. We got into Bologna around 4 and could not remember which bus to take so we took a cab to the hotel and got settled in. we made some vodka and cokes and then went to some shops to get Jeremy a bag to put all his souvenirs in to take home. We found one and took it to the hotel. Then we went to dinner at a great place. We had tortellini again. After dinner we drank and watched just friends.

January 7^th

We packed up and went to the airport. our flights were just about 20 minutes apart so we waited together. We said goodbye at the gate and I went off to Germany and he went off to Georgia.

It was the best trip I have ever had. I am so sad its over. I am so happy I got to share it all with my brother.