The Bradleys Go to Europe- Week 2: Germany

While in Germany we got to stay with 2 amazing host families. I have known the ladies of each household for 15 years but this was my first chance to meet their families. In Munich we stayed with Claudia and Alex. Their home is way out in the country but worth the drive. We only had one full day in Munich and we spent it at Oktoberfest, without kids. Alex was a domestic machine and cared for 6 children all day. He stunned me by taking them all out to dinner, bathing them all, and doing 3 loads of MY laundry. What a life saver.

(Kate and Anna in the top pic, Leia and Lena in the bottom pic.)
While Alex slaved away we went off to play (along with Claudia). We sent Scott and Ben off to find their own fun in the Oktoberfest tents and we met up with my sister Michelle and some other great ladies to participate in her Bachelorette party. She had a basket full of goodies that she had to sell and then the money earned was used to buy beer at the end of the evening. .

She earned plenty of beer money.

The next morning we headed out to Dresden with the intent of catching a football game. Tickets were tricky to get so we ended up exploring the city and none of us were disappointed. Plus we found a beer garden with a play structure for the girls so everyone was happy.
The next morning we headed to Berlin for the anticipated historical part of our trip. The history is very heavy which made for a depressing but interesting visit. We hit the top sites:

Checkpoint Charlie and the museum.
The Bradenburg Gate.

The longest remaining portion of the wall.
A giant pretzel.
And a relatively new Holocaust Memorial. "The stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason." This is one description we found of it and the most accurate.
We spent the following day at Sachsenhausen, the original concentration camp that the others were based on. It was also used as a training facility for soldiers.

Now off to Dresden to stay with our other excellent host family and to meet up with my sister, parents, and aunt and uncle. A much happier part of the trip. We stopped at the host family's house first. Julia (the mom) was our exchange student when she was 16 and I was 12. It was great to see her again and meet her children and husband. She insisted with leave the girls with her while we met up with my family for the Beck's brewery tour. That was a great idea and date number 3 for us!

After 2 hours of touring we were taken to a private lounge and given an hour to drink as much Beck's beer as we could. Now that's a tour.
The concludes the Germany portion of our tour. Next stop: Denmark and the wedding!

The Bradleys Go to Europe- Week 1: Ireland

We landed in Ireland bright and early (and exhausted) to find out that it was a big day in Dublin. The top 2 Gaelic Football teams (Kerry and Dublin) were facing off at 3.30. There's nothing like a big game to add energy to a city. We took a nap and then headed out to the pubs to catch the game.

Dublin won and there was lots of celebrating to be done.

The rest of our stay in Dublin included touring the Viking museum,

and visiting Kilmainham Gaol, a famous jail. We did plenty of walking, getting lost, and being thankful for GPS on our phones. Then it was off to the country.
Our week in Ireland continued with daily meals in pubs and multiple pub crawls. We spent a night in a castle,
and met a knight.
Ensuring it was an educational trip the girls learned about canons while exploring castles.
We stayed in Galway for the last two nights of our visit and took day trips driving North and South. While driving out to see the Cliffs of Moher we stopped to play on the rocks and enjoy the scenery.

(Yes I know my eyes are closed but it was the best scenery shot!) That evening we left the girls with a sitter and went out to celebrate Arthur Guiness's birthday. We ended up on pub row in college central. It was mayhem but a lot of fun.
The next day we stumbled upon a gorgeous castle (turned fancy hotel and golf course),
and then explored an old Abby and graveyard in the nearby town.

After some more driving we got a true Irish experience. Rain, and lots of of it. We stopped at Kylemore Abbey looking forward to exploring the castle, it's gothic church, and walled garden.
It was sprinkling when we left the car, lightly raining heading into the castle, truly raining on our walk to the church, and full on downpour on our way back to the entrance. At this point we were soaked so we decided to visit the garden as well. Why not, we were already as wet as could be. Then the wind started up and we were wet and cold. The garden visit was impressively short (on a sunny day we would have spent a good hour there). We managed to keep up the smiles.
The fun wasn't over, we still had an hour drive home in sopping wet jeans. An added bonus, we got to pack all that wet clothing into our suitcases the next morning for our flight to Munich. Hooray for being a tourist. On to Germany!

4 Years Later

9 days ago my big kid got even bigger. She is officially 4 now and is blazing into this new age with ferocity I did not expect. She is loud and proud about being 4. Every day she asks daddy "Do you have any more 4 things for me?" By this she means things she had to wait to do until she was 4. We're gettting creative. Buckling her own seat belt, showering on her own, and unbeknownst to her..chewing gum. We're saving that gem for a moment that counts.

In a moment of poor planning I committed to a camping trip with friends on the weekend of Kate's birthday. For a bit I stressed about her not having a party and being hurt that we weren't celebrating the way she wanted. Turns out, she's more mature than I gave her credit for. And turns out, camping was pretty much all about her hanging out with friends and expanding her independence (a gift for all of us!). We did manage to throw in a little birthday fun. Kate loves the Rainbow Fairy chapter books. I bought her the Pet Fairy set and scavenged our Playmobil bin to find the pet featured in each book. Using bento boxes I hid the pets with clues around the campsite for a magic filled treasure hunt. It went off better than expected and Kate was pleased with the "treasure" of books at the end. She had a couple of pretty great clue helpers (nice work Claire and Abby). With cake pops for dessert around the fire and an outdoor theater setup to end the day it turned into a birthday to remember.

A few pics from the happy day:

Mexico Xmas

We spent a week in Puerto Vallarta Mexico celebrating Christmas with our family from Florida. It was a wonderful week of sun, sand, and zip lining. We had a great time and made sure to hit our favorite beachside bar as well as discovering two new restaurants worth going back to. By the end of the week Kate had decided we should move to Mexico. If it didn't sound like a good idea at the time it sure did when we hit the cold weather back home!

129/365

One of my favorite sights.

37/365

Let's go Sounders! We took the girls to their first Sounders soccer game last night. Kate sat and paid attention to at least the first third of the game. It was a late night but the girls handled it well. Plus they came home with lots of loot.

Park City 2010

We spent a week in Park City, UT with the FL Bradleys and made the most of our time. We took lots of walks, went to the Sunday Market, went to a couple outdoor conerts, hiked at The Canyons resort, mountain biked at Deer Vally Resort, and of course played on the rides at Park City Resort. The girls got to experience Pop Its and Sparklers for the first time, and they went in the hot tub a lot. There was a slight mis-step (or pedal) while mountain biking but otherwise it was a great trip.

Once I get ahold of Papa Scott's photos I will make an additional slideshow.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

29/365

Enjoying an outdoor rock concert at one of the ski resorts around Park City. The band was Big Light and the crowd was full of bikers (of the Harley variety, not bicycle).

23/365

Just another afternoon activity with dad.

22/365

On Sunday I did a 5K run with a bunch of friends. We had 9 moms and 1 dad running while the other dads watched 19 kids. Scott and Mike braved the morning with 5 kids so both Cook parents could run.

This was my first summer 5K and I can honestly say I don't want to do another. Fall and winter races are fine but I'm a wimp in the sun. In 2 weeks I am running my first 10K and am crossing my fingers for rain!

1/365

I am going to make an attempt to take a picture a day for the next 365 days. I do not promise to post a picture a day but will try to stay as caught up as possible!
Meet 3 members of the USA team for World Cup 2026:
Claire is on offense while Kate and Leia take care of D.

Leia receiving some unappreciated instruction.

Bonding with the coach.

Favorite Things: 20

Spying. More specifically, spying on daddy/daughter time. I love watching Scott and the girls bond when they don't know I'm watching. I'm an addictive mother in that even when Scott is taking care of the girls I have a hard time staying away from them. Their dynamic is so different than mine and watching the 3 people I love most grow closer. You never know what antics are going to happen, usually something from the garage makes its way to the yard, whether it's a ladder, bucket, or sawhorse there is fun to be had.

Watching soccer. A good chance to snuggle.

Creating obstacle courses just for the random fun of it.

Opa's Camera

With Leia's birthday 2 days away, and our resident photographer absent for this occasion (*sniff, sniff*), I have borrowed Opa's camera to try and capture the fun. I spent this afternoon messing around with it and am completely addicted. No good can come of this.....except these fun specimens:
SOLD! Seriously coveting this camera.

Deep concentration/fascination

Kate being a surprisingly willing model.

Both girls are proud owners of a stuffed animal made by me. They are proud, I am a bit embarrassed and did not expect them to be the "must have for comfort, can't sleep without" toy. Leia's is named Mongo and is supposed to be a bunny.

This is Kate practicing her swim lesson skills on the couch with Scott. She crouches on the couch like a frog and then shoves off backward and he is supposed to catch her. He only missed once....

Thanks Opa!

Indo Boarding

A stop to visit Scott at the office warranted the girls an attempt at Indo Boarding. I decided not to partake to save us all the limbs wildly flying around the office.



This activity may have been what sparked the Trampoline Antics that occurred later in the evening. Leave it to Scott to bring out the thrill seeker in the girls!

Waaaalking!!

At 11 months Leia is vertically mobile.

Pine Cones and Goats

Kate has come a long way this holiday season figuring out what the heck is going on. The neighbors put up a big Christmas light display including reindeer. Kate thought they were goats, she is well informed now. When we got our Christmas tree the tree people wrapped it in netting. Kate thought it looked like a pine cone and kept asking what we were doing with it.

You can see why she thought it was a pinecone.

On with the first ornament.

Helping dad with the lights.

Helping daddy with the up high ornaments.

Leia participating in the ornament fun.

Kate has also learned to sing Jingle Bells and part of Jingle Bell Rock. Her two advent calendars have been a BIG hit and nothing beats seeing Christmas lights every night. We went to a big Christmas light display a few nights ago and will be going to another one tomorrow night. Both kids love the warming glowing warming glow of the pretty lights =)

Halloween

We pulled bits and pieces from the dress up bin to create a Tinkerbell costume for Kate. Leia got the hand-me-down Dalmation outfit, and Aidan was proud to sport a Superman costume. It took Kate and Aidan and hour to trick-or-treat in our little neighborhood. They got just enough candy, exercise, and cold air to make the experience enjoyable and end without tears. Everyone was glad to get back inside for some warm dinner.


Kate testing her wings.


What's a cowboy without a dog?

This guy with the giant pumpkin head was a big hit. The kids didn't know how to react but Scott convinced them he was a good guy and to take his candy. Hooray for people who still appreciate Halloween!