Thursday, June 23, 2011

Simply Sus in Germany!

We made it! And not only did we make it, we made it beautifully! 2 adults, a 5 year old and a 2 year old on a 24 hour trip. I was just hoping not to make the papers, but it went so smoothly! Praise you God! For looking after us and hearing all our (and our family & friends') prayers! I'd also like to make a huge shout out to whomever came up with the Observation Deck at Baltimore airport- that was a life saver! Rocking chairs, HUGE windows to watch the planes come in and out and a sweet playground! (That you can see from the rocking chairs!) Outlets for the video player, comfy chairs, separate sections, one entrance (this is key should you be there with a swift 2 year old). We spent hours there! Which was good since the USO is pretty awesome, but sans playground. Our first leg was only 45 minutes, so aside from explaining to the girls why I wasn't getting out the laptop to watch 20 mins of movie it was a snap. That layover was really only enough time to get across the airport/change a diaper/bathroom breaks. Our next leg was about 2 hours so courtesy of a Boowa & Kwala game I have on my laptop, that was pretty decent too. And some rock star bendy sticks (like wax coated pipe cleaners, but without the wire) courtesy of an excellent friend, we were golden. Then came the wait. We got into Baltimore about 4pish and didn't fly our again till 11:45p. for rizzle. Let me come back again to the Observation Deck that spared my kids the emergency duct tape I'd packed! Another tip- should you be in the Baltimore area, actually, I'd say within an hour or two, it was so good, the DuClaw Brewing Company (thanks for the tip nice USO lady!) YUM. Like, I'd drive an hour with my kids to get there kind of yum. I had the Euphoria beer and it was too fabulous! The hubby and I were lamenting our lack of time and babysitter to properly appreciate all they had! And the food was scrumptious! Jim had a giant Maryland Crab Cake (it is my understanding that these should recognized as not your average crab cake :) Love you, Carrie!) and I had a Carolina Brisket sandwich with deep fried red onions. It makes my mouth happy just remembering! Funny- out of habit I left a rather large tip (refer back to the 2 year old) and Jim says, wait for it, "we didn't really make that much mess." All parents know what's coming next. I put Adriana in the stroller with her cup of orange juice and turn around the get Annelies when patrons at the bar start frantically trying to get our attention. Yup. Swimming in OJ. Turns out she can get those lids off, who knew? But it gets better, we decided since we had so much luggage, we'd check my carry on since it was going to be on the plane with us, just underneath so it would for sure make it to Germany. And where were my emergency clothes? So Adriana rocked a giant Cute & Crabby in Maryland shirt dress style for the rest of the trip. Thank goodness she's cute! Ahh....good times.... though truly, off all the substances that have trashed my kids clothes on long trips, orange juice is by far the best! At least I didn't have to carry her by her ankle to the bathroom! As for the looong flight over the Pond, the girls slept all but an hour! (The last hour) Adriana fell asleep (passed out might be more accurate) in the waiting area chair- she just kid of slumped over! Poor kid! But managed to stay asleep onto the plane, buckled in and moved around! God loves us. Annelies lasted about 8 minutes once we were on. And this was good, because the A/C broke and we sat there for an hour waiting (sweating) for maintenance to come fix it. We were on a military flight and I felt for the guys in uniform! I was sweating in a tank top, jeans and no shoes/socks- there were in full gear and boots just dying of heat! Not that you'd hear them complain, but it hurt to watch them sweat!
24 hours later, here we are in the TLFs in Germany at the base and all is pretty well! Annelies is asleep still, she was up at some hour and couldn't sleep so as the good mother I am I went to sleep in her bed and told her she could play in her room! Ha! It worked. When I woke up again she was in bed with me. Adriana's my morning girl, so she woke up and I tried to pull the same plan and she, ever so gently ;), demanded orange juice and cartoons. And here we are. It's a beautiful summer day in Germany- 55 and rainy and I love it! We went to the playground last night, 8p? and had to wear sweaters! To contrast, it was 95 when we left the states. I am savoring this mild weather, though it was weird to wake up today and need a sweater and socks in the room! I may be making a stop for some long sleeve shirts for the girls! For anyone who knows my husband, he thinks this is excellent weather and is wearing his t-shirt and shorts in bliss!
I'm trying to upload some pics of our new pad (EU TLFs are waaay nicer than stateside!) but as of yet it's not obeying me. As soon as I can I'll get some on here.
We have the best sponsors ever here and got here, had one of them come get us at the plane, then came "home" to crazy tasty dinner (chicken/breading/asparagus with strawberry salad and chocolate pie! And wine! Lord bless them!) Then a trip to the commissary so I could stock up on cheese and orange juice! (Those are my girls' staples) and all the other various goods needed to keep us for a week. Couldn't be more thankful! I'm trying to think of an awesome thank you gift if any of you can think of one? I could have cried when they brought in all that yummy food!
Alright, peace out America! We'll check ya later!

4 comments:

  1. Glad to know the family made it to Germany. Your trip excitement will be talked about for years. Oh and Drink a beer for us, will you? Love and miss ya.

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  2. Wow! Thanks so much for the blog, I love your writing...feel like I am there with you when reading and love it! Thank you for keeping us connected Sus, love you sissy
    Meg

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  3. How fun that you got to check out the DuCLaw Brewery! One of our favorites when we lived in Baltimore. We even have a refillable pitcher that we would have filled with different beer on our weekly trip to DuCLaw. And MD crabcakes truely are the best! You can't get anything like it south of MD. Have fun in Germany, we'll miss you!

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  4. so glad you made it!looking forward to reading about your adventures! : )

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