Time Flies

It's crazy to think that Doug has been home for almost two months or more already! The time we have had with him has flown by. We have gone on a couple of vacations since having him home and they have been great. Right after he got home we went to the Netherlands and visited Amsterdam while we were there. We decided the Red Light District was NOT a place for any of us. We walked through it mostly to get from one point to another, and to say we've been there, but we couldn't walk fast enough to get out of there. Boy that place was NASTY!! But we loved Amsterdam, it was a beautiful city. We also saw a castle while in Holland, but other than that we just laid low. The place we stayed has a whole indoor water facility that is wonderful. The kids love going there and just getting to play at the pool all the time. We brought our bikes and did our share of biking as well. All in all it was a great vacation for the whole family.

Doug headed back to work and played ping pong with his new job for a while. That was frustrating, but they finally found a place to put him and over time he has found a grove in the new job and is starting to take ownership in it. He has a plan for what he would like to do with it and he's starting to look forward to seeing it all pan out. It's always nice to have a husband who loves his job and doesn't dread going to work every day.

In August we went on the trip we had been planning for months. We took two weeks and spent the first one in Switzerland and then the second in Italy. All I can say is it was AMAZING!! We hiked mountains in Switzerland where when we got to the top we could see 360 degrees of AMAZING views. It was breathtaking! We also went to Lake Geneva and Lake Thun which is right next to Interlaken. We had heard that Interlaken was the most beautiful place in Switzerland, but come to find out it didn't hold a candle to the valley we were staying in. The view from our Chalet was AMAZING! All in all we had a great time in Switzerland.

After our wonderful week in Switzerland we headed off to Italy. It was about a 7 hour drive from SW to IT, which wasn't bad at all. We got to Camp Darby mid afternoon and we were able to settle into our hotel and then head out to the beach to find a place for dinner. We visited Pisa, and the local beaches as well as seeing Cinque Terra, the "Five Towns" along the cost. These five towns are not accessible by car, so we parked at the first, hiked to the second, took the train to the fifth, played on the beach for a while and then ferried back to the first. The towns were really cute and this would have been a wonderful adventure without kids, but it was a LONG day with kids. Fun, but not our favorite thing. That and I get sick on ferries, so it was NOT a good 45 minute ferry ride back. At the end of our trip we traveled from the west side of Italy to the east, our trip took us through Florence where we stopped for a few hours. Florence was pretty and really cool that we got to see it. We didn't even know that the David was there, it was funny we were standing underneath him before we realized this!! We did find out later that that was a replica and not the actual one, but we got close! Then we continued driving over to Venice. We saw Venice for one day, our last day on our trip, and fell in LOVE with it! What an amazingly beautiful and romantic city. Our kids did really great that day and we all had a good time. But alas all good things have to come to an end, and that was the end of our trip.

We headed home the next day, driving through some beautiful country and some AWFUL traffic! The traffic in Bavaria (southern Germany) is TERRIBLE!! We were in traffic jams for hours! Talk about frustrating. But it was a great trip and we can't wait to come back in 10-20 years and see it all again!

We got back just in time for Bryce and Cody to start Soccer. They keep asking us when "real" soccer starts, they don't consider practicing real soccer. Their first game is next week I think. They seem to be having a good time, Cody isn't totally digging it, but Bryce is doing great. They are NOT the best on the team, but they have heart and you have to start somewhere.

Bryce started school last week and had a GREAT first week. He loves going to school and his teacher says he's doing really well. That is always nice to hear. Cody starts school tomorrow and is very excited. His teacher seems very sweet and I really hope it all goes smoothly this year. Bryce has a male teacher, but Cody has a female, I'm sure it'll go well.

Well that pretty much catches us up on the last couple of months. I hopefully will be better about updating this blog more than every couple of months.