Tiergarten Nürnberg

We spent the day at Tiergarten Nürnberg (Nürnberg Zoo) with my in-laws: Marco's step-father, his step-father's girlfriend, his brother and my two nieces! We had a great day. We took in a dolphin show while we were there and I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was. Such a nice zoo! Kalynn loved hanging out with her cousins as much as she did the actual zoo. Enjoy some photos and a short video of a sea lion performance at the dolphin show.

London, England 2009

We just got back from our anniversary trip to London, England about an hour or so ago. We had such a great time (even if my nose is filled with black soot from the London tubes). We were able to visit Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, ride the London Eye, saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, strolled through and shopped at the Piccadilly Circus, stood outside the gate of the Prime Minister's place on 10 Downing Street, were impressed with the Horse Guards, and so much more. I will just let you peruse some of the photos we captured. Enjoy.

P.S. (You will also notice that we found a Krispy Kreme in London. Boy do I miss KKs while living here in Germany!)

Passport came today.

Following up to the entry I posted last year (It is OFFICIAL!!!), we finally stopped dragging our feet and applied for Kalynn's German passport. It came today! I showed it to her and she asked "Mommy, where is your red one?" (the German passport is a red/burgundy color). I explained to her that "Mommy has a blue one, Daddy has a red one, and Kalynn has both". It came just in time for our trip to London tomorrow. (Not that she needed it because we have her U.S. one, but it will be kinda cool to travel within Europe with her European passport. ***I know, I'm a dork!).

What a wonderful experience for me!

So, I am tired this morning... but when am I ever going to be able to say again that it is because I spent hours in a recording studio last night! Well, I can say it today for sure because that is exactly what I did last night. (I am kicking myself because I left my camera on my kitchen counter...!) To backtrack a little bit, I have been rehearsing with a gospel choir here in Munich that my wonderful husband found for me. Ours is part of a large group of mass choirs that a very talented vocal coach, Mano Ezoh, has assembled in different cities in Germany. (Check out the project details here.) Months of rehearsals all culminate into a concert at the end. That is what we have been diligently working toward. Last month Mano introduced a bit of a song he had written to the group. I loved it immediately!!!! He later indicated that he was making plans to take the song to a recording studio to make a track and he asked me if I would help sing the background vocals. Well.....uh... YEAH! So that is what we did. Along with several other lovely ladies and men, we recorded a wonderful gospel song with an R&B/Rock type vibe to it. It was neat to see how the guy doing the sound (yeah... don't know what he is called) took the few voices we had (I was one of only 6 sopranos) and made it sound like a huuuge choir! I also helped record the alto parts. I was asked to try tenor too but that is starting to get a bit too low for a comfortable vocal range for me, lol.
The song will be available for download from iTunes soon and I can't wait! I will be sure to share with you when it comes out so that you and all of your friends can download and enjoy it too!

Europa Park, revisited

Ok, so I know that I have been a bit slow blogging about our mini -vacation to Europa Park this past weekend but I have just been so busy with doctor's visits including an MRI, an EEG, and some other type of test that was done that I could not begin to even tell you what it was (I will spare you my attempt at offering a German name for it). Thank God that all of the tests came back normal, no signs of a brain tumor, stroke, or other head trauma. Still, it has been nearly 2 years (on May 23) that I have suffered from vertigo with no known cause and as of yet no relief. From my information gathering trek on ye ole internet, I am self diagnosing this problem to be BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). One day I will come bag and blog either an "I TOLD YOU SO"... or "oops, that is why I am not a MD" post.
ANYWAY.......... on to a recap of our great weekend. We left early Friday morning on an approximately 4 hour drive to the park. We arrived at the awesome hotel that we had booked for 2 nights (Hotel Am Park) that I was astonished to see just how close it was to the theme park. It was literally right across a narrow street. From our hotel window we watched rollercoasters and park goers. The description on the internet said that the hotel was just a few yards from the park but I really did not expect this. I was delighted. We put our bags in our room, bought 2-day tickets from the reception desk at our hotel and went straight to the park. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice and big the park is. It was set up so that each part of the park was a different European country. When we got there we caught the tail-end of a parade of nations that was pretty cool. It was kinda like Disney's character parade but with each float/entry being a different country. It was a scaled down, and more personal version of the Disney type parade. Kalynn smiled and waved at all of the people. I was also pleasantly surprised at the prices of food at the park. They reflected normal street prices! Not bloated at all. The drinks (Coke products) were the only thing that was price inflated (3 Euro for a 0.5 liter bottle) but I suspect that Coca Cola Co. probably mandated this. (I could be wrong...eh?).
We stayed until the park closed (about 6:30pm... yeah, that early) and walked back to our hotel. The next day we enjoyed complimentary breakfast in the quaint little hotel restaurant and headed to the park at opening time (9:00 am). Kalynn loved most of the rides that spin around so her daddy was obligated to ride those with her (my vertigo prevents me from enjoying most of the rides, which I really hate because I LOVE rollercoasters and spinning rides and such). Kalynn really wanted to ride a 'real' rollercoaster so we found one that she could ride with her dad. It is called Pegasus. I should add that most of the bigger rides require you to be 4 years old (no problem, Kalynn is 4 years and 1 month) AND 100 cm tall (here we have a small problem... she is 99 cm tall.) With creative hair styling and thick bottomed shoes, we just did squeak by the height requirement. Back to Pegasus, Kalynn's first 'real' rollercoaster ride. She smiled getting on the ride and happily took off. First climb and twist... no problem. Then there was the BIG drop! Just like many other theme parks this ride takes pictures of the riders on the coaster. The camera captured my baby in a moment of what looks like utter terror. Marco says that after that point she was fine again but she will tell you matter of factly that she was indeed scared and does not want to ride that again. (Although she said George wanted to ride it. Yes, her imaginary friend went with us and the cutest thing was watching her with her hand in a fist. I thought it was because she was afraid or nervous about something. She said "I'm holding George's hand"! How cute is that?)
We played up until nap time, took a short snooze in the hotel room, and then headed back to the park until closing. The next morning we checked out after breakfast and took a Sunday drive through Strasbourg, France. Kalynn watched the ducks and swans in the Rhine River and the spiders and ants on a nearby tree (the girl loves her bugs). Soon it began to sink in that we were going back home to our normal lives. This started a whining session that would last for nearly all of the trip home. Annoying as it was, it was understandable as we had such a great time. Who would want to go back home so soon?

Europa Park... Best park ever!

We used the long holiday weekend (May 1st is a holiday in Germany) to take a family trip to Europa Park, Germany's largest theme park. It was the best park I have ever visited. I will post pictures and details soon so come back!