Barfussbad Trail

Today we went to a place called Barfussbad Trail - Barfussbad means barefoot. This entire trail was meant for bare feet to walk upon. Along the way, little "experiences" and "obstacles" were set in our way. We walked on several different textures, including sandstone, smooth rocks, sand, brick, wood and, of course, grass. The most memorable "experiences" thrown our way, were a walk through knee-high mud and a wade through a thigh-high stream.
















I'm starting the countdown to my trip back to New Mexico! I go back on August 21st!

Our Backyard (Sort of...)

As mentioned before, we live in the top two stories of a three story house. The woman who lives below us has access to the backyard and must maintain it, and I must say, she does a lovely job! Here are a couple pictures below of our backyard view:

Baby DeYoung (5 months)

EDIT: I was looking back through the ultrasound pictures and found an outline of baby Jack's upper half. Here you go:


At last our baby cooperated for the camera! We will be welcoming a baby boy into our family!

I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, but all the ultrasound photos are of elbows and kneecaps - we have an incredibly active baby who does not like his picture taken.

Jack Ethan DeYoung will be making his debut on or around December 12, 2009.

Praehistorium

Today is Friday, so of course, that meant a field trip for Yellow Room. We were meant to go to Idar Oberstein, a mining facility, but rain and lightning forced us indoors. Instead, we found ourselves at Das Praehistorium, the German version of the Natural History Museum.





The museum was very "high tech" and included several moving reptiles - their movements were surprisingly realistic - the kids really enjoyed it.








It was a fun, but tiring day. The next post should be of our little boy or girl!

Pregnant Bellies and Wedding Rings

Hello to all - here is a quick update. There is now absolutely no doubt that I am pregnant. I have quite a belly going on (the picture below is at 5 months pregnant exactly). I'm just writing to share something funny with you.

Every week, my "class" goes on a field trip to the pool on base. During this time, the counselors are unrecognizable as counselors - we all have bathing suits on and could very well be the parents of the rowdy kids we keep reprimanding. It is also important to note that the kids in our program come from every racial background imaginable.

So to the story: I forgot to put on my wedding ring on Swimming Day. I did not realize this until it happened to me, but people's eyes, without fail, travel in a direct line from a pregnant belly to the ring finger. Can we see where this is headed? Here I am, pregnant and sans wedding ring, yelling at eight children of different races as though I am their mother. Needless to say, the looks I got ranged from rude to downright shocked. Mostly, I was amused. Mostly.

Stay tuned - we find out if we're having a boy or a girl on July 28th!

Dynamikum

My room went on a field trip today to Dynamikum - it's a science/exploration center very similar to Explora back in the States. Enjoy the pictures!

Dynamikum was in a gorgeous place called Pirmasens that I would love to go back and explore without 27 kids tagging along.

Rhine River Cruise

Jaclyn, John and Cody went on a Cruise along the Rhine River today. I had to work and couldn't join them, but here are some pictures of their experience.

It looks like they had a great time and saw some great Castles!

Live From Paris

And so we went to Paris this weekend with Cody's sister, Jaclyn and her husband John. We had a very fun-filled day-and-a-half and were very tuckered out at the end of it!

Here is Jaclyn enjoying the full French experience: A french fry and some French wine.

I was so happy to see this little street performance going on - he was playing Beatles songs for the Americans passing by.

The Seine River

Above and below are pictures in the Louvre gardens.

Here are Jaclyn and John enjoying a glass of wine on the Eiffel Tower Lawn for their one year wedding anniversary!

Above and below are pictures of us all at the very top of the Eiffel Tower.

We got to see the Eiffel Tower by night and by day.

As soon as it gets dark, the Eiffel Tower "sparkles" on the top of every hour.

We decided to try the Louvre at 4:30pm to see how the lines were - we were absolutely shocked that there were no lines and immediately bought tickets to get in - as soon as we had gotten our tickets, we realized the Louvre closed at 5:30pm. We did really well for only having an hour. We saw The Mona Lisa, the Venus, several of Leonardo DaVinci's paintings, Roman, Greek and Eutruscan ruins, as well as some Egyptian artifacts.

I don't know how we were allowed to take pictures of the Mona Lisa, but everyone else was doing it and they weren't getting in trouble from the guards, so we thought, "why not?"

There were statues, sculptures and embellishments everywhere in Paris - here are some of the statues I was particularly impressed with.

Below is picture of one half of the Louvre - it is in the shape of a U and the camera couldn't get the entire building - the place is huge and the embellishments on and in the building alone are beyond description.

Last but not least - here are some pictures of the city as it surrounds the Eiffel Tower - as you can see, it just extends for miles and miles - further than the eye can see.


The drive to Paris was 4 1/2 hours long - we did really well on the way over, but on the way back...

We had a great time.