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.

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 :).