The Boys Are Back In Town!

Look! We're a family!
Al got home on the afternoon of the 21st. I was so excited when I got the call- I was to be at the welcome home ceremony which started at 6 pm. Yay! I got dinner ready, I got Jence ready, got me all ready, got in the car at 5:15 for the 20 minute drive. I got there suuuper early, (for me) because I was so excited. 5:45 and I was ready to see my hubby! I'm putting Jensen's shoes on to go inside to the ceremony (he kicks them off eeeevery time we get in the car) and I hear, "Sara!" from behind me. Oh, don't worry, Alex was standing there with his bags waiting for me. They had started the thing a half an hour early, so I missed it. Entirely. I was noooot so happy, but then I was in Al's arms and the anger kind of subsided in favor of the wee bit of excitement at seeing him.


There was about three seconds of non overt admiration, then Jence had a new best friend.
(I am now the enemy...)

You should have seen Bruno and Roswitha arguing about the best way to hang this banner... oh Germany...

Playing from the get go!

So- Jence has figured out that you need a key to get in the door- so when he wants to get out he pulls down the key basket on the sideboard, finds the keys- any keys, and tries to get out to play. Very funny!
So theeen, when we get outside it's a whole lotta movin' goin on. Here is what we did today.

Playing in Roswitha and Bruno's apples, aka; "BALL!"

Jensen is proving himself to be German for sure- He stares at people...

He loves to garden...

(Karen taught him how)

And he drives a Volkswagen...

With a little help from daddy.

This little kitty came out wanting to play. It was hilarious! She would rub up against him and he would get all freaked out and try to get away, and she would follow, then he would go back to her and she would rub and he would start to panic- this is all very funny when you consider that one of his close personal friends is Tank, the 140lb rottweiler.

We had to go inside and throw the clothes into the incinerator so that I wouldn't sneeze to death.

Germans looove their creepy crawly things. Jence didn't really share her enthusiasm.

We had a missionary couple at our house the other day and they were quite impressed with what a busy little guy Jence is-

Always one thing then another. At least it's a whole lot more fun with daddy around. Mommy doesn't really even try to keep up, but for daddy it's a whole lot of fun!

Looks Like We Made It

HA! Look at this ride! I would like to point out Jensen's state of the art, top of the line car seat buckled into this C-17's mesh jump seat. (Yes, I said C-17. This is standard operating procedure for all you military folk, but for all the rest of the world- we actually flew to Germany in this huge gray windowless lumbering beast- all in a row facing the cargo tied down in the middle.) I would also like to mention that we are on the end because we were the second to last people to get on the plane! Thank heaven!
And here we have all the waiting pictures! It was a long wait, and thankfully we had Grandma and Grandpa there to entertain us! Here is the Monkey with his monkey. He had to make friends with him before we tethered him to his back. And of course he is eating.

Playing with grandma.

Grandpa taught Jensen about the drinking fountain...I'm just as thrilled about that as when he taught him to recognize and love ice cream cones...

Because now this is what happens now...

And I have no idea why he thought he was walking through water, but it looked funny to me...

He made lots of friends. (this one taught him to spin the wheels on the luggage)

In grandpa's glasses...
Hello there.
"Touch Down!"
And then we were a little tired.

That is Jensen. He fiiiinally got to sleep on the plane. Let me just say. I was sure everything was going to be fine on the flight because it left at 11pm. Where there is darkness Jensen will sleep. Oh, don't worry- they didn't ever turn off the lights. And we sat in front of the trash can, so eeeeveryone who walked over to throw something away sat and talked to him and tickled his feet and played with his hands, peek-a-boo, and the like. So, around 2am things finally settled a bit and he fell asleep, then a while later he woke up screaming, so with some help from lots of helpful soldiers we both got settled on the ground (not so FAA friendly). It was freeeezing up there, hence the blankets.

We made it. We were both pretty much wiped out- but we made it. Here we are waiting for our customs brief. Note: the Junior mints box is sealed, he is eating gold fish. The mints come later.

We got home and found it spick and span, thanks to my faaaabulous neighbors. They are soo amazing. I cried. Here is the monster in Al's hat. He is having a great time showing me just how un-baby proofed my house really is...

I liked our matching socks, so everyone gets to see them too.

I died laughing when I got home, because the whole year we lived here my neighbors made comments about where I could get curtains, here, there, they had some I could borrow, you still don't have curtains, curtains curtains curtains. So, when I walked in there were curtains in every window. And they were so excited about the ones in his rooms because they used to belong to the little boy who grew up upstairs, lace with "dino" on them. So german. So sweet.
Outside with Oma Roswitha and Vanessa. And Luisa, Roswitha's granddaughter Luisa. (so cute!)
Like I said, not so baby proof...
Un baby proof.

Roswitha was eating some ice cream and he decided to share it.

He would go away and play then come back for another lick, and she just held it there for him, little stinker.
Bed time. I got his crib set up- took some doing, but after some screaming and crying from both of us, we did it!
And as promised, the junior mints. This is the way he stayed happy during our forever long trip to the MP station to report our BMW as stolen so that I could register the other car. Don't ask. That's all I'll say.

So, that's that. Loves to all.