Daniel Walking with his Ride-On Toy

So far, Daniel still can't ride on his German police car that he got for his birthday. It is just a little too tall for him to push on. But he has been pushing it around a lot lately and today I caught him walking it. It is lower, so he has to bend over to push it. After seeing this, I decided he needed a walking toy to practice with!

LRS Amazing Race!

Daniel  Today our Spouses' Support Group hosted the LRS Amazing Race for the Airmen. The event was a scavenger hunt type event based on the TV show. Using non-motorized forms of transportation, teams raced through eight stops completing tasks and activities along the way. A BBQ was held at the conclusion of the race. We had eight teams compete for the title "LRS Amazing Race Champion". It was a really fun event!

Participants scramble up the hill to find their first clue

One of the challenges- free throw with water balloons

All the participants at the conclusion of the race

Another Big Step for Daniel!

Daniel made another big step towards walking today. He was been walking around a lot holding on to both hands, but if you tried to let go of one hand he would scream and sit down immediately! So today, for the first time, he walked around a little bit - holding only one of Dad's hands! He wouldn't do it for Mom for a few days...

Reims Cathedral, France

On the way back to Germany, we stopped in Reims, France to view the Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on the site of an older church in which Clovis, the first king of the Franks, was baptized in 496 A.D. 26 French kings and queens have been corronated in the Cathedral.

Paris, France

After visiting Versailles, we drove into Paris and stayed two nights. We had also been to Paris before (on the same trip when we went to Versailles in 2004). That time we hit the major sites - the Louvre, Notre Dame, Eifel Tower. So this time we saw a few things we didn't see then and spent lots of time relaxing in cafes. We also went out to see the Eifel Tower during the day and at night, but we didn't go up it this time.

We went to Les Invalides and toured the WWI & WWII museums at the Army Museum there. We also saw Napoleon's Tomb. We also toured the Concergerie, which was a prison during the French Revolution and where Marie Antoinette (along with many others) was imprisoned before being beheaded.

We went to the church of Saint-Chapelle, which was built from 1242-1248 by Louis IX to house the Crown of Thorns. The church has 15 panels of stained glass (6,500 square feet - two-thirds is 13th-century original) with more than 1,100 different scenes. It was beautiful! The most interesting thing to me was the interior paint. The interior pain has been restored to show what the church would have looked like during Gothic times. Although most of the old church and Cathedral interiors are plain stone, they would have originally been painted bright colors and patterns. It was really neat to see what that would have looked like. I would love to see how some of the really large and ornate Cathedrals, such as Koln Cathedral, would have looked like with that paint job!

We also visited Luxembourg Garden. The garden is technically owned by the Senate of France and there are rules that define where you can eat, play music, etc. It was really obvious that the rules are pretty well enforced, because there were tons of grassy areas with no one on the grass. Then there were lots of areas with gravel where people were sitting (there were chairs) and walking everywhere. Finally we found a couple of parts of grass you could sit on - and they were COVERED with people (see pic in the slideshow). There was also an awesome children's playground (too big for Daniel though) and baby sand boxes. Daniel got to play in the sand for the first time. It was a good time for all!

Enjoy the pictures in the slideshow! Click here if you want to see ALL of our France pictures from this trip!

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Also - here is a cute video of Daniel playing in the sand.

Versailles, France

Last weekend we took a short trip to Versailles & Paris, France. It is not too far for us, about a four hour drive. On Saturday we visited the royal palace at Versailles. We had been here before, back in 2004, when Allan was working in Germany for 3 months. However, one of the most beautiful halls - the Hall of Mirrors - was under rennovation the other time we visited and I have always wanted to come back and see it. Also, the fountains in the gardens are only run for 2 hours per day on Saturday and Sunday during summer. SO - we also wanted to see the fountains running.

There were tons of people there! Luckily we had purchased our tickets online, so we didn't have to wait in the ticket line. But we still had to wait in the security line - which was SUPER LONG! It took about an hour to get through the line and the crowds inside the palace were ridiculous! We were very glad to have gone there before at a less crowded time. But the Hall of Mirrors was beautiful and we enjoyed a nice afternoon in the gardens. Check out our pictures in the slideshow!

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Playdate

Today Daniel had a playdate with Quentin, who is a little older, about 2. At first, they Daniel wasn't sure about this, but after a little while they played great together. Enjoy the pics & video!

Checking each other out

Playing with Daniel's box

Laughing at each other during lunch

L

Daniel's Fun New Toy

I found this little crawl through tube and tent at a local German store and thought Daniel would like it. He did - it was a hit! The cat loved it too, but I didn't get any pictures of that!

Beautiful Flowers

Just wanted to share some pictures of the beautful flowers in our backyard.

Baby Shower

Today I hosted another baby shower for one of the squadron spouses. There have been a lot of babies lately! Baby Zoe was born a few weeks ago and we showered her and her mommy Melissa with gifts. We had lots of food and fun! Here are some pictures of the cake I made - it says "Baby Zoe". Click here to see the rest of the baby shower pictures.

Hanging with the Dog!

This weekend we dog-sat a friend's dog, Copper. Daniel loves all dogs and, luckily, Copper loves kids! I looked into the room and saw Daniel and Copper checking out the backyard. Here are a couple of cute pictures. I couldn't believe they both looked at the same time!

Daniel's Art Project

Today Daniel painted for the first time. I got the Crayola beginner paint toys for him and let him go! He made a beautiful yellow blob. Maybe next time he will draw in more than one spot!

Getting started!

Working on his blob

All done!

Happy Mother's Day!

This Mother's Day we were driving back home from Italy. I did get a couple of cute shots of Daniel today. Daniel also learned how to drink from a straw today. He had juice at the rest stop at lunchtime and I squeezed the box a little to get the juice to come up the straw. It didn't take him long to figure it out from there!

Drinking juice with a straw - yeah!

My little king!

Walking with Dad

Venice, Italy

This weekend we took a short little trip to Venice, Italy. Since I was already in Garmisch (southern Germany), I drove down and picked Allan & Daniel up at the airport. The first night we spent visiting with one of Allan's deployment buddies at Aviano AB, Italy. Then on Friday, after attending a retirement ceremony for one of Allan's past co-workers, we drove down to Venice. It is a beautiful and amazing city. That evening, after taking a vaperetto boat (sort of like a bus system on water) to our hotel, we walked around and enjoyed the nighttime sights. On Saturday we toured the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica and then went out to Murano Island, famous for its glassworks. Before heading out, we stopped by the Rialto Bridge for some views and shopping. It was a great trip and I'd love to go back to Venice! If you'd like to see all of our pictures from the trip, click here.

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The first week of May I went to a volunteer conference in Garmisch, Germany. Several board members from our Officers' & Civilians' Spouses Club attended. The conference was really great and I learned a lot from the different course sessions I attended. We also had a lot of fun and I won a diamond necklace! Click here to see all the pictures from the conference.

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