Germany

I'm so happy to type...we are getting ready to head to Germany for over 10 days!!  Rob finally received an appointment for his corrective eye surgery and we are so happy it is so soon. We have been planning and preparing for it, so it wasn't a shock to get a short notice to go.  We plan to do a little shopping and sightseeing while we are there and a few friends are passing along where to go and what to do!!   Should be fun and I'm happy it worked out that the girls will be on spring break while we are there.   We are going to drive there using the Eurotunnel!!  We have already been on the train with the car and it was so cool to be under the English Channel. 

We will only have about a week and a half to get ready for Mom, Dad and Tracy's visit when we return from Germany.    Can't wait to share our experiences and pictures with you!!!

Jude's Ferry

This is one of the River boats!! Very long and skinny.

We took the girls to feed some ducks after Church today. It was a beautiful day to be outside. We have been saving up some bread for a while and thought the ducks would love it, but they were not very hungry today. I think mating season has something to do with that. We also took the girls to Mildenhall and walked along the river (not very big) for a while too. We fed a few swans, ducks and geese there.

I'm only posting pictures from Jude's Ferry today because we didn't take the camera on the Mildenhall walk.

Mail

Meghan mailed her first letter last week and she addressed it and mailed it to Jenna. I didn't take a picture of the other side of the envelope but it was addressed to Jenna. All the children in Meghan's class had to learn their addresses and after they did that, they wrote a letter to someone in the family and mailed it. Since we receive our mail at the APO address....the teacher, Ms. S mailed them to the Box and not our street address. Meghan and Jenna both know our street address and what country we live in!!!

Freaky Fens

The name of my post today comes from a comment Meghan made after we saw the sheep skeleton and the bird skeleton.  Meghan said...."this place is freaky"....... We did agree with her. Not sure what was happening in the Fen area we were walking, but it was interesting to see.

We went to Lakenheath Fens, which were man made for the farms in the area. Birds, otters, deer all live in this area, but we only saw some birds. 

We decided to take one of the short paths today, but it ended up longer than we planned. I told Rob..."I guess we took the long cut!!" We arrived back at the car as the rain started! The blue sky disappeared too:(

The girls and I were able to break in our new hiking/trail shoes this trip and our walking sticks.  The walking sticks were found in the Thetford forest and Rob sanded them down and painted them. 

side note........this post was longer, but after loosing it three times, I've decided to publish it as is!!!

3 miles.....3 falls

We took the girls for some hiking today. It was a beautiful day, not like last weekend because we had some wind today...but still a very nice day to be outside. We jump at the chance to get outside and enjoy nature. We decided (ok, so Rob decided) to check out Thetford forest. It was only about 30 minutes up the road and 6 pounds to park. We ate a picnic lunch and then headed off on the trails for some fun. We checked out the squirrel maze and then headed on the yellow trail for the 3 mile hike. Both girls walked the whole way (well, I carried both of them for about 5 minutes)....and they did awesome. Jenna likes to run and that means she will fall....3 miles and she fell just three times. She only got a few bruises....no blood or broken bones:)

....back track a little....I decided to lead on the squirrel maze.....well, I learned something today. When the path starts to become smaller and looks less traveled...turn around!!! Rob took over after Jenna decided she didn't like the forest. We followed the tree line out of the maze and made it back on one of the main paths. After we made it out of the thick woods, Jenna liked the forest again!

We like to ask the girls what their favorite part of the day is and today when Rob asked the girls they said......

Jenna...."I liked the picnic!"

Meghan..."I liked walking back to the car!"

Meghan's comment says it all.....3 miles is a long walk and we were all 4 very happy to be back at the main park area and heading back to the car!

The girls' day didn't end after the forest......we headed on base this evening for a birthday party for one of Meghan's classmates!!

We will all sleep very well tonight!!! (and dream of walking)

Q & A with Jenna

I love the conversations I have with Jenna in the car to and from Meghan's school. Her little mind sure is working overtime these days and I really wish I had blogged when Meghan was this age. Jenna has some of the funniest questions. I try not to laugh at the questions because she is working so hard on learning, growing and becoming a "big girl". But for the record...she will let you know she is already a big girl!! She no longer rides in a stroller and doesn't suck her thumb!!
Ok, back to today's question and answer session with my little lady.
Jenna...."Mom, when am I going to be a big sister?"
Me...."baby girl, you will always be the little sister because Mommy isn't having any more babies."
Jenna....."Is that because you are out of milk?"
Me....."No, I could make more milk. Daddy and I are just happy with having our two sweet girls." Jenna......"oh"
I guess this has been on Jenna's mind for a while...see a few weeks ago, the girls looked at some pictures of Jenna nursing. Meghan laughed and said "haha Jenna look what you are doing!!" Rob and I then broke the news to Meghan that she nursed too! The girls looked at more pictures of both of them nursing and that was that!! We explained that some Mom's buy milk and some nurse.

Big L....little l what begins with L???

Lackford Lake Nature Reserve...that begins with L!!! We had one of the most beautiful days in a long time.....it was sunny, 50 degrees and no wind!! I was going to just hang out at the house and let the girls play out back, but Rob asked if we wanted to head over to Lackford lake and look around. SURE!! We took the girl's wellies (rain boots) because with all the rain and snow we have had here, we knew there would be some mud. Good thing we brought the boots! Some parts of the trails were so muddy, it was squishing when we walked! The girls loved it, but I was worried they would fall. Jenna falls down on most walks because she starts to run. Thankfully when she did fall we were on a dry spot and she didn't get all muddy.

Meghan was the line leader (her words, not ours) and she took us from one trail to another. A few times we were in some pretty thick mud and I had flash backs to my childhood and all the "short cuts" Dad would take us on. side note....my family traveled to Yellowstone and Glacier a few times and we would do a lot of sightseeing/hiking and it seemed we always ended up off the regular trail on a short cut that turned into a long cut!!! One memory is my Dad dragging us (my sisters and I) up the side of a small incline to get back on the trail, because the "short cut" didn't work out!!

I hope Rob and I are making the same great memories with our girls!!!