Helloooo (or “Hallo!”) from Germany!
If you’re wondering, “Erica, you’re on vacation. Why are you writing a blog post?” It’s because I am so very, very jet-lagged and can’t get my act together! Oy.
It’s currently just after midnight on Monday here in Ansbach, Germany, and though the rest of the house is passed out, I’m wired. What can ya do? Typically looking at a computer screen makes me sleepy, so we’ll see if cranking out a little trip recap will help me catch some zzzzs tonight. 🙂
The last few weeks have absolutely crawled as we inched closer to leaving for Germany, but Friday night eventually rolled around and we were wheels up to cross the pond!
We dressed the girls in comfy, but presentable clothes and caught at 7 p.m. flight to Atlanta.
From there, we booked it across the airport to the international terminal and nearly walked onto our flight to Amsterdam. We bought Hadley this little a couple of years ago, and she had no problem rolling it around all four airports we ducked in and out of on our way here. Kitty in one arm and suitcase in the other!
Our 7.5 hr flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam was on KLM airlines, and we were really impressed with them. They were exceptional with the kids, very clean, had decent food, etc.
In each of the girls’ carry-on bags, I packed a spare change of clothes, toothbrush/paste, their , headphones, a few snacks, a water bottle, and some coloring books/crayons/markers. Our sweet neighbors brought the girls some additional coloring pages before we left, which the girls absolutely loved doing while we traveled!
I received a pair of LilGadgets headphones for each of the girls a few weeks ago as a PR item, and I’d highly recommend them for little ones. They’re very comfortable and padded, affordable ($17!), foldable, and cute.
Jamie and I were both paranoid that the girls would figure out how to raise the volume on their Kindles and blow their ear drums, but we quickly figured out that the volume is capped to a certain level with these headphones. Considering how young our kids are, we liked that the volume couldn’t get very loud. Even on max volume, they were both still able to hear if we said their names and needed their attention.
You can see that they’re wired, which was perfect for plugging into the airplane’s headrests to watch their movies when they preferred to over their Kindles.
The girls and Jamie both slept almost the whole flight, but Sadie’s constant wiggling and readjusting kept me up. I was running on a good bit of adrenaline anyway, so I watched movies and played games on the headrest in front of me for most of the flight.
Our first stops once we landed in Amsterdam: McDonald’s and Starbucks. LOL. Such Americans. 😉 The girls hadn’t eaten much of anything since we’d left the house the day prior, so we thought that rewarding them with a Happy Meal after good behavior on our flights was a good idea. I also booked it to Starbucks for coffee!
We had a four-hour layover, so we leisurely walked through the massive airport (the biggest I’d ever been in), walked in and out of shops, grabbed lunch, and then let the girls chill out with their activity books until it was time to board our final one-hour flight to Nuremberg.
We were ecstatic! I couldn’t believe the hard part of the trip was over and that we were just an hour away from seeing our fam!
Jennifer and Hadley have always been really close, so naturally Hadley bolted to her!
Jenn rented a big Euro van for all eight of us to cruise around in together, which has been so fun! She has four car seats (a spare pair for their travels), so not having to bring our kids’ car seats was a huge help!
We were all so happy to see Luke and Carly!
Sunday morning was full of lounging. Even little things like sitting on the floor with the kids while doing our makeup made me so happy. Reunited and it feels so good!
Sunday was sunny and in the high 50s, so we booked it to Playmobil Fun Park, a place that’s similar to an amusement park but without rides. The way the Germans play is so adventurous and different than American play, so I really enjoyed people-watching while the kids had an absolute heyday.
We packed picnic lunches and munched on food throughout the day while everybody played, played, played.
It’s still brutally hot in Alabama, so the true fall weather here has been glorious.
All four kids plus me (ha!) crashed hard once we left Playmobil, but we were all woken up suddenly when we spontaneously stopped at a dairy farm. Jennifer has been wanting to visit this specific one and buy some fresh milk, so that’s exactly what we did! The girls were obsessed with all the cows, and I enjoyed seeing the honor-system process of paying a Euro and helping yourself to a liter of milk.
After we left the dairy farm, we made our way closer to Jenn and Josh’s house and had dinner at the cutest restaurant in downtown Ansbach called Wolfsschlucht. The weather was amazing, so we opted for a table outside so that the kids could play and we didn’t have to worry about volume control. 😉
If you can’t tell, I’m smiling from ear to ear writing this post because I’m so stinkin’ grateful to be here all together. I shared a couple of months ago about why we decided to make the trip over here as a family, and so far it’s been the best decision. I would have wished so badly that they were here with me if I came by myself. I am soaking up every moment of this!
Also, if you’re wondering, I didn’t make it through writing this post without getting some sleep first. 😉 The computer screen worked at making me sleepy. Hopefully we’re over the jet-lag and can all get our first decent night of sleep tonight. Coffee has been a good thing the last few days. 😉
Thanks for following along! It’s fun to share and document a bit of how things are going.
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Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo