2, 4, 6.....8?

Jordyn has 2 teeth, took 4 steps on Wednesday, 6 steps yesterday - and we're waiting on 8! It has been a big week to say the least. Bomb scares, ear infections (Landen), you name it.

As many of you heard, there was a bomb scare at our base. Matt has been extremely busy, but things have finally died down and I think we are all going to live! September 10th and 11th were very long days for all of us. Landen didn't get to go outside for recess - they had "rainy" day recess even though it was beautiful. There were Polizei EVERYWHERE and CNN crews/Fox News/ etc were posted right outside the gates! It was a little scary, but all is well now. God is good.

I'm making a slide show of a walk around our neighborhood. You'll get the idea of where we live. It is very rural and the Air Force Base can be seen in the distance. There are LOTS of bike and walking trails everywhere. They are paving our street we live on, so its kind of a mess by our house right now. Hopefully, they will be finished sometime soon. We are having to park down the block and with 3 kids and trying to carry groceries and such - it is NOT to fun. It will be much better when we have the driveway again. The neighbors are all VERY nice and the majority speak some English.

The landscape is very hilly with lots of apple trees, pear trees, vineyards, corn (which I didn't expect), and animals. The roads are very curvy in places and you have to drive really slowly. Its not good for people who get car sick! The autobahns are really not too scary. They are like a typical highway without much of a shoulder and there is a speed limit in a lot of areas. Outside cities (where there is no speed limit) it is common to have some cars whiz by you like a bolt of lightning, but you get used to it. I always thought the autobahn was one particular road in Germany. I didn't realize that autobahns are everywhere and its basically the equivalent of our interstates in the states.

I've also added some new pictures to the Cochem slide show. So, if you're interested scroll down the slide show and watch it again. We went back yesterday and I got some better pictures - the weather was beautiful! It was a LONG walk up there with 3 kids - (are we there yet? how much further? my legs hurt!) but we made it. Jordyn was quite vocal throughout the entire tour (of which we couldn't understand b/c it was in German) but we managed. They did give us an English translation sheet that we could read. All in all, it was a day of fun. We walked back down after the tour and ate a bratwurst for lunch and ended with a nice delicious pastry! Very healthy. :-)