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.

Baby DeYoung (4 Months Along)

I am four months pregnant - below are the ultrasound pictures from our appointment today. We didn't get good pictures because I had some Orange Juice at breakfast and baby was hyped up on the sugar from it. The baby was literally "jumping" - pushing its feet out every few seconds to jolt into a new position. The arms were waving everywhere - at one point we watched as one of the little hands grabbed onto the umbilical cord.

Below is baby's left hand pushed up against mom's tummy.

So..... we were supposed to find out the gender today, but baby was so incredibly active (stupid orange juice!) that it was nearly impossible to get any "money shots." The doctor took the picture below and got our hopes up before saying she couldn't say for sure it was a boy without a second picture to confirm it - baby wouldn't cooperate for the camera. She said there was a possibility that what we see between baby's legs is just part of the umbilical cord. (*sigh) She said we'll try again next month. Until then, we might be having a boy (for my part, that sure doesn't look like an umbilical cord to me, but you never know :).

Craig Ferguson Live

Craig Ferguson came to the Enlisted Club Monday night and Cody and I are fans of his Late Late Show. We had a great time!

The guy on the left was the opening act for Craig.

The Biosphere

So as most of you know, I work at a school age program on Ramstein AFB. I'm going to try to describe our program a bit. There are around 200 kids we are in charge of on any given day. The kids are divided up by age groups into different rooms, and each of those rooms is named after a color. Kids aged 5 through 2nd grade are called "primary" kids and don't interact with the older kids.

I work with the older kids - who start at 2nd graders and go up to 10-11 year olds - the older kids are called "secondary" kids. Secondary kids are split up into four different rooms: Turquoise, Purple, Lime and Yellow. There are about 24 kids for each of these rooms as well as one Lead Counselor and one "Summer Intern." I am the Lead Counselor in charge of Yellow Room, and my kids range from 8-11 years old.

Okay - now that you have some understanding of what I'm talking about (*hopefully) - I'll tell you about our little excursion. Yellow Room and Lime Room went on a field trip today to the Biosphere (basically a glorified nature park/nature center). The kids had a good time and it was nice to be outside

In the photo above, we are all about 40 feet off the ground, working our way through rope bridges that span the tree tops.

Much to the kids' delight, the rope bridges ended in a massive curly slide. Ms. Megan had the privilege of taking 3 -4 terrified children back down a set of "escape" stairs instead.

Here is about half of my "class" at the bottom of the slide, waiting for the others to slide down.

The picture above shows the progression of the field trip. By 2:30 pm, all the kids were hot, tired and grumpy. Ms. Megan's the only one still smiling.

Here we are on the way back to the bus, where most of the kids promptly fell asleep.

Baby DeYoung (12 Weeks Along)

Hooray for new ultrasound pictures! I am 12 weeks 3 days along.

Here is an outline of our baby.

The picture above was taken because the baby was sucking his/her thumb.

I think the picture above is my favorite. At this point in the ultrasound, the doctor just smiled and said, "you have a very relaxed baby - and look - it's a very smiley baby, too."
(Can you see the smile? :)

And last but not lease, a close up. I'm disappointed because this picture was taken two seconds too late - two seconds earlier and you would have seen his/her fully extended arms and his/her legs crossed in front - we could even see their little toes!

Throughout the ultrasound, our baby was moving around leisurely. We could see the little arms waving around and the little legs moving.

Next appointment is June 30 - stay tuned.

Kindsbach

I realized today that I have very few pictures up of our actual town: Kindsbach. Here are some pictures in an around our lovely little town - it was a bit rainy today, but that makes the pictures all the more normal for the setting.

Above is the trail that Cody and I like to walk after dinner at least twice a week. On the other side of the green fence is the town's soccer field. There are NO parking places in our neighborhood on Sunday's because of the soccer crowd - it drives Cody nuts.

Just some rolling hills and scenery along the walk. Below is the town church - we can hear the bells ringing on Sunday.

Today I detoured from the usual walk and was rewarded by finding the town's little lake, complete with a railed-off shallow section for kids, a boat-house where you can rent little canoes, and a neat little playground.

Below are some pictures of the road that leads to our house.

And, last but not least, our vine covered home by the forest.

We're Having a Baby (For Sure!)

Here are the first Ultrasound pictures of our baby!! I am 8 weeks 3 days as of today. Revised due date is 12/12/2009.





We got to see the baby's heart beating and he/she was even moving around a little - that's why he/she is in a different position for every picture! We'll get another ultrasound at 12 weeks (or 3 months). :) :) :) :) :) :)