A few weekends ago we finally made our trip to Greece.  As some of you may recall, we had a hard time getting there in 2005, went as far as Switzerland, and had to go back to Germany due to some unforseen Swiss laws.  Two weeks out from the trip, we noticed that Jack’s passport was expired, and we were joking that perhaps Greece was not meant for us.  Fortunatly, while Jack was on TDY in the states, he got his passport straighted out, and the week after ge returned, we headed to Greece.

We knew as soon as we got on the plane that this would be a trip full of experiences.  While we were settling into our plane seats, a rotund well dressed greek elder boarded the plane, and when he got to his seat, with a thick greek accent, he promptly yelled at the gentleman who mistakenly sat there.  He waited about 10 seconds for him to get up and move his carry on, when he scolded him for taking too long, and that the whole plane was waiting on him.  Seriously, every few seconds, he had a rude comment for the poor man, but this furious lillte greek man is like 83 or something, so no one tells him to knock it off.  Jack is next to me, snickering, because the guy is making a spectacle out of himself, and he turns to Jack and yells, “Don’t laugh, it’s not funny.”  Of course that only makes you laugh harder, we we buried our heads in our seats and waited for the trip to start.

While reasearching Greece, I found that pickpockets were not your worries, but it was the taxi cab drivers that would rip you off, so we would have to be careful on our trip.  We got in late, crashed at a hotel in Athens, and then the next morning made our way to the apartment that we had set up on the island of Aegina (pronounced AH-gee-nah).

While on a taxi ride to the port, a bus layed on the horn.  I’m not sure what happened, or who was in the wrong, but instead of continuing to drive, like you would in any other country, this cab driver felt the need to get the last word in.  So we TAKE OFF, and he swerves around to the other side of the bus, rolls down the window, and proceeds to yell at the bus driver, where they yell back and forth until the light changes, and then he leaves.  I’m beginning to think at this point that in this culture, people feel a need to voice their opinion.  A lot ;D.

We make our way to the rental, which is an a apartment complex run by a man named Nick and his mom.  Nick is from California, half greek, half american, and a few years ago they decided to build vacation apartments on a plot of land that they have owned for years.  It was beautiful, clean, and every day we couldn’t wait to get back.  Nick discovered Liam was a fish lover, so he said he would try and find a fishing pole.  The next day he said that he couldn’t get one, BUT he did have a conversation with one of his friends who had told him that by taking a basin and putting a t-shirt over it with a slit, you can trap fish in there with some cheese and bread.  He helped Jack and Liam rig this up one day.  They didn’t catch any fish, but they had fun doing in.  Here are some pics of the apartments.  Also, there were a few family run restaurants on the beach.  It was the ideal spot.  Just beautiful.  You could see the water and the greek islands from the apartment.  The food was amazing.  The ocean was a royal blue and a turquoise blue.  SUCH beauty!

Funny story, there was a bar across the street.  Nick told us that one day, years ago, the owner got mad and left, right in the middle of business.  Everything is still the way it was, and for years it just sits there.  Sometimes you’ll find people in there, waiting for someone to come by and take their order, and of course no one is coming!  Every once in a while you will catch the owner in there, having a beer all by himself.  I saw him in there, but I didn’t get a picture of him, just the bar.

We took a day and went to Athens, and then came back to check out some of the ruins on Aegina.  Athens was a HUGE and crowed city, with over 5 million residents, many of them living on top of each other in apartments.  We got a tour of the Akropolis from a woman named Despina.  Despina told us all about how they discovered 6 civilizations on top of each other.  She also said EVERYTHING started in Greece – the spread of Christianity, democracy, sponsorship, woman’s rights….you name it, it sarted in GREECE.  It was very “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”ish.  Jack and I couldn’t help but exchange a snicker once in a while.

It was HOT.  So we made our way down, and went to a local restaurant that was recommended, and supposedly had the BEST eggplant around.  We went.  I ordered the eggplant, which was to DIE for.  I even asked the waiter how they prepared the eggplant, and he graciously took me in the back and showed me!  So yeah, if you ever want some eggplant, come on over!

Back at the island, we explored some ruins.

The rest of the time we just hung out at the beach.  Here are some pics of the kids.  It was such a neat trip, and we are always amazed at just how close these places are to us.

The doc said her front two teeth should be popping through any time now.

Liam has new braces on order.  The first pair was a DISASTER.  He didn’t sleep well with them on, and he would take them off when he got fed up with them.  So, two weeks ago they casted him so they could make the more appropriate type of braces for him at night.

Liam is already wooing the gals at school.  One of the girls, I learned from her mom, LOVES to give him a kiss on the cheek!  He’s got three girls at school that are either trying to hold his hand or give him fish.  That cracks me up!

Tessa is SO close to crawling, it’s not even funny.  She can get down from a sitting position and scoot around the floor.  She’s working on moving those legs to match her arm movements.  She had a check-up today, and she weighs in at 20.3 lbs. 

Here are some update pictures.  It’s been warm over here, so we’ve spent many of the days outside.

I’ll post a picture later, right now the battery is out in our camera.  Basically it’s a metal bar that attached to both shoes that will stabilize his feet in one position all night.  He will not be able to lay on his side or tummy, and he won’t be able to go to the bathroom by himself without our help.  If anyone has any ideas on how to make this easier on him, we’d love to hear them.  Tonight should be interesting.

In the meantime, we are going to decorate his braces tonight with fish stickers and stars.  We’re trying to stay positive!

The event was held at the Polizei Kaserne (German police base).  With the two kids, we did the 6K.  We put Tessa in the Kelty, and Liam walked.  We didn’t know how he would do, but he walked the whole way, which is quite a trek for him!  It took us 3 hours to get through the course, but we counted beetles, talked about nature, and sang songs.  Towards the end Liam started to get tired, but as long as he was singing, he was happy!  I tell ya, everyday it seems like he says something that really surprises us.  We were singing Old McDonald, and we went through dogs, cats, sheep, birds, pigs, horses, roosters, chickens, cows, and goats.  What else could we sing about?  We were stumped, so I said, “gee Liam, what other animal could we sing”.  A few minutes later, after the moment had passed and we were talking about the moss on a tree, he said, “TURKEYS!,  We forgot to sing about the turkeys!”  So, back to Old McDonald it was….turkeys, I never would have thought of that!

This weekend Tessa has started to make this really funny face.  She will squish up her nose, pucker her lips, and breath in and out.  If we do it, she copies it!  We are going to try and get a picture or video of this, as it cracks us up!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24054672/

This is our fish loving son.  He usually comes downstairs in the morning and snuggles in a blanket until he’s ready to fully wake for the day.  It’s always a running joke with the people he knows.  His PT buys him fish candy for a reward of a good session.  The teachers at preschool know they can get Liam to do ANYTHING if it involves a fish.  I was told even when the orthopedic doc called his PT, they jokingly refer to him as the “fish boy”.  We are hoping someday he will be a successful marine biologist…or a fisherman!

We had many exciting things going on last weekend.  First, we got word that Jack’s cousin Michael was just an hour away at Ramstein on TDY.  We were not able to say anything for a few days since Michael would be on a mission, but it was fun to see family!  On Thursday Michael and his friend Rusty drove over to our house and we took them to the Eberbach Monestary to eat.  Such a pretty drive, they got to see the winding roads and vineyards in the country out here.  They told us all about how they drove to Luxembourg the first day they got here, and then drove out to Munich.  That’s an insane amount of driving, but we were really excited to see them taking full advantage of the country!  Michael then got to come up again on Monday because his flight was cancelled.  Liam really took to Michael, and still asks everyday, “Mommy, WHERE is Michael at?”

We took advantage of this four day weekend and checked out a city that we have not been to before – Nuremberg.  It took just over 2 hours to get there, and we pleasantly surprised as just how much there is to see and do there!  Besides being famous for the Nuremberg trials and association with the Nazi regime, it is a beautifully preserved medieval city!  Nuremberg still has the original city walls that surround the city.  We spent the day walking around, had a small bus tour, and ate some wonderful Bavarian food (which was a great treat for us, Bavarian food is the best that you will get in Germany!).  We kept wondering why we had not visited this city before.  It has modern day shopping, little specialty stores and starbucks galore, all wrapped in with a TON of history.  We plan to go back soon and visit the part of town that showcases some events from the Hitler era.

So I took them up to the woman who does my hair on base. She’s pretty good. Her name is Elvira and she is from Russia. Lovely lady, she’s been working there for years and has a thick accent. She’s always trying to learn new phrases. For example, she told Liam, “Put your head. Put your head.” So I gently told him, “Liam, put your head down.” “Put your head DOWN!” she exclaimed, “I can never remember to say it that way!”

As you can see, Liam was reading up on some new recipes .

Speaking of new recipes, I’ve just discovered the magazine “Clean Eating”. It’s fantastic! It has healthy recipes for the whole family that are not so bad on the budget. We had these wonderful rolled up pasta bakes with ricotta cheese and spinach in a hearty ground turkey and tomato sauce. Here’s the website if anyone’s interested:

http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/MiniSite/ce_index.htm

And in other news, Tessa has been up on all fours lately. She should be crawling soon! Even at Liam’s physical therapy appointment this morning, Frau Dorthea was impressed and said she was doing really well. Liam continues to do well at his appointments. He will be getting fitted for leg braces soon to wear during the night to try and loosen the tone in his feet. Not sure if we’ll have to trek down to Landstuhl to get those or if they will be OK with Kunzme, the german foot specialist who does the custom castings locally, to do these. I’ll find out today.