Monday, November 23, 2009

Babies, Babies, Babies!

I have to introduce my new little nephew....

William Robert Witzig
Nov 19th at 4:26pm
6'15", 19"long
Here's the proud parents, my sister Stacia and her husband Marshall.
He looks so precious. Too bad they live in Arizona so it may be awhile before I get to meet the little guy. They were so excited to have a boy. This is their 6th baby - yes you heard me right- and they only had one boy so far. So Dylan is excited to finally have a brother. And I'm glad they had a boy because I borrowed a lot of their girl clothes for Anika, so now I don't have to send them back so soon.


Since I can't hold him, its a good thing my neighbors just had a baby too - and I did get to hold her. I can't believe how fast they grow up. Anika looked like a giant next to her.

Little Tilde, she looks just like her dad.

Big brother Victor takes good care of her.

Here's Søren holding Anika. Pretty soon his little girl will be just as big.
Broderick playing with our neighbor boys, Markus and Victor. They had a lot of fun together.


I have 2 more sister in laws who are expecting too. All these babies makes me want another one, I love that newborn stage.

Honey..?
Brad..?
Where are you going?
Why are you running away?

Come back honey!
Come back!
We need to talk about this!

Well, maybe not today. He doesn't seem very open to the idea. =)

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Jeff, Terrean, and Marie Visit!

I have some catching up to do, so I'm going to travel back in time a little ways. Yes, I still have things from August that I never posted. Yes, I am way behind ... but better late than never, right?

Back in August we were SO excited to have Brad's cousin Jeff and Terrean and their two girls, Raelan and Brooklan come to visit. Brad's cousin, Marie (Jeff's sister) came too. Broderick was overjoyed that some kids were coming to play with him.

Unfortunately their trip over was a little rough, Brooklan didn't sleep at all on the flight ... but the girls slept great the rest of time here. I was jealous. My kids were waking up at the crack of dawn. After my kids horrible adjustments with jetlag this last trip home, I have a whole new respect for Jeff and Terrean bringing their kids over here. Thanks so much guys.



Originally when we talked to them about coming we were planning on taking the ferry to Norway and driving north to see some fjords. With the kids and time it would take to get to Stavanger, we opted to stay in Denmark, and I have to say of all our holidays this summer, this was probably the most relaxing we had. We didn't have to deal with major travel, we didn't have 100 sites we wanted to see every day, and we weren't staying in a hotel room - also it was more focused on the kids, which of course helps keep them happier.

We spent a couple of days at our house and then went to a resort on the coast for 4 days. They got here on Friday and Brad wisked Jeff off to play golf. Poor Jeff was probably playing half asleep. On Saturday, Jeff and Terrean drove down to Aarhus, where they met a girl who had been an exchange student at Terrean's high school. That night we had a coworker of Brad and Jeff over for dinner.

Marie was super with all the kids, Broderick liked her alot and everynight when we put him to bed asked if she could come say Goodnight to him.
Terrean comes from a Norweigan family and it must be in her blood, because she's reading a book in Danish to Raelan here.


Jeff and Anika meeting each other.


We had Brian Munck and his family over. Brian is a sales guy at Pedershaab, so he and Jeff have worked together quite a bit.


Raelan and Broderick having fun in the bathtub.


Raelan swinging. We had some nice days while they were here.


Teaching Terrean how to play guitar hero.


Jeff rockin' it out!


The next day we got ready and headed to Skallerup Klit.

Time at the Coast

On Sunday morning, we were able to leisurely get ready and packed and head to Skallerup Klit, the resort on the western coast. This is only about a 40 minute drive from our house. We had done so much traveling this summer and we had loved all of it, but this was probably our most relaxing holiday. This place is great for families. There was so much for the kids to do, and if the kids are happy, it makes the parents happy.

The resort had an outdoor excercise area. Marie and Terrean are trying out the elliptical machines.


Terrean and Marie at the ocean.


We went to the town of Lokken one night to eat and Broderick and Raelan got a ride in a train.


We visited the water park there one day. Raelan was quite excited as you can see.


Brooklan was still crawling while she was here, so this pool was perfect for her.


There is a farm right by the resort as well, so we walked there one day and Broderick and Raelan got pony rides. Broderick's pony was interested in one thing ... eating grass and was quite difficult to control.
Raelan had an accident in her pants, so Jeff and Terrean fashioned a dress out of Terrean's sweatshirt. Quite creative! Look at her smile, she was so excited!


Making some crepes over a fire.


There was a playland at the resort as well that the kids loved. It was a perfect place to let them run around and have fun.

And of course Daddy Jeff got involved in the fun!

Raelan and Broderick riding on a monkey!

Love this picture of them.

Brad and Jeff giving rides to Broderick and Raelan on the way back to our cabin.
It was a great time there. When we left the resort, we spent some time showing them some of the sites in our area of Denmark.

Showing them some sites ...

We took them up to Skagen one day (the northern tip of Denmark where the 2 seas meet) and ... well ... we could have had better weather. I mean, this was August, but it definitely wasn't feeling like summer. Such is the weather in Denmark.
Here they are ... I was proud of them. They actually got in the water.
Marie, with one foot in each sea.
div> Here's the group (except Marie, she's the photographer) eating in Skagen.
They were impressed with the playroom in the restaurant. Denmark caters to children in many ways, this would be one of them.
Terrean and Raelan walking up a steep sand dune.
The family in front of the lighthouse.
Jeff and Terrean in front of an area where the coast is eroding away at a rapid pace. The week prior to them coming, about 10 feet had fallen into the ocean. Terrean was an earth science teacher so she took a special interest in this.
Terrean and Raelan on top of the Dune with Denmark landscape behind them.
Jeff, Marie, and Brooklan with the North sea behind them.
The last evening they were here, we went to dinner at another coworker of theirs in Aalborg. He also works in sales, so him and Jeff work together frequently. He had stayed with Jeff and Terrean once while he was in the US. Thanks Torben and Maiken.
I didn't get hardly any pictures that night, but here's the kids at their own little table.

Jeff and Marie both work at Hawkeye, Pedershaab's American counterpart. So Jeff and Marie rode their bikes there one day to meet faces they had only talked to on the phone and see the operation here.
It really was so great to have all of them here. Even though I would have considered them all my friends, I got to know them in a whole new way and became even better friends. It seems sometimes you can spend a lot of "quantity" time with a person and maybe not have much "quality" -- where you're actually able to learn who they really are. So thank you for coming and spending some quality time with us. Broderick talked about Raelan for a long time after their visit and still does sometimes. He even taught her some Danish words while they were here. Not sure if she remembers any of it ... maybe they have to come back and learn it again.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Legoland

A couple of weekends ago, we drove south to the town of Billund. This is the town that Legos come from. That's right .... the Lego toy comes from Denmark. The original Legoland is here and we thought we better visit it while we're living here. We went on a day that was cool, but not too bad. With our jackets and mittens, we stayed pretty warm.



The rides weren't that great, as far as an amusement park is concerned, but ... the things made out of Legos are amazing!!!! Really, I mean AMAZING!!!!!!!
Brad and Broderick at the entrance to the park.

On a boat ride.

Broderick was excited to get in the pirate's chest. (Of course made out of legos.)

Broderick riding the froggy ride.

Brad and Broderick on a spinning ride. (Yeah, mommy doesn't do those.)

Mommy and Broderick on a train ride.

And a safari ride.

Anika was all bundled up.

This pirate was at the entrance to the locker room of the water park. I thought it was pretty funny.




They have a part of the park called miniland, where they have recreated numerous sites from around the world all out of Legos. Millions of Lego blocks were used to create these sites. Like I said before ... amazing! Here's a few of the things they had built...
This is Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen where the Queen of Denmark resides.
Mt. Rushmore
Broderick with Bob the Builder
A man mowing the lawn (can you believe all these legos?)
This is a re-creation of the Billund Airport. Those little yellow trucks by the plane were driving around actually spraying liquid, de-icing the wings.
Nyhavn - a popular street/canal in Copenhagen.
Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany
Kennedy Space Center
Some ostriches along the safari ride.
The Statue of Liberty
The Capital Building
We had a fun day and was so glad we got to see this Danish landmark. It made Brad really excited to build things with Legos - and was a little sad that Broderick is still in the Duplo stage. And the Lego store there had 30% off of everything, so we were able to pick up some Christmas presents for Broderick.