Together Again

We were lucky enough to spend eight days with Jason, Kirstin, Karina, Cooper and Rocky in their wonderful home in Stuttgart, Germany.  Luckily we got it done before they make the move back to Alabama - Special thanks to Grama and Pops!

It was amazing to be in a foreign country and yet feel like you were right at home.  I am pretty sure Darren never stopped moving, unless he was asleep, and he dragged Karina along with him at every turn!  Here is a quick rundown of what we did - or at least the parts I took pictures of.

First up was a walk up Rubble Hill.  This "hill" is made up of all of the rubble from WWII.  It also provides an amazing view of the valley that makes up Stuttgart.

The kids climbed, and climbed, and climbed.

The first family photo!

After all the climbing, the kids slept the whole way home!  The next day we took the train to the zoo and it was amazing!  It is laid out on the old castle gardens and so is spread out inside and outside with animals and amazing flowers.  While we were there the elephants had their bath time, and while they were much more interested in getting it over with so they could have dinner, we were all fascinated to see these huge animals do exactly as told.  Plus, there were baby gorillas.

These babies, from all over, are being raised by humans until they can be reintroduced.

They would totally submerge themselves.

The whole gang

Ok, here come a bunch of pics of our trip to Esslingden because the whole day was amazing - the food, the architecture, the view, the playgrounds, the champagne.  Like I said, amazing!

Lovin' his schnitzel - just like his mom!

The view from the original perimeter wall

The walk back down

Forever the little brother

Not surprisingly, Darren loved Jason's car and asked to try it with the top down - it was freezing out!

Next up was a visit to the Mercedes Museum.  It is a beautiful kind of space-agey building and it was very cool to see all the cars (and buses, snowplows, ambulances, police cars, race cars, fire trucks, etc) juxtaposed against the history of the region. 

Driving the bus - very hard to rip him away from this one.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died at the museum, but that doesn't mean that almost every moment we spent there was an amazing memory.  We are lucky to have such wonderful hosts as family and to be welcomed in by them so graciously.  In just the short time we were there we came to love it and we thank them for that.