Things don't always go as planned!!!

I am so sad tonight. I'm supposed to be on an airplane on my way to Chicago and Brad and Broderick were supposed to be having father/son bonding time. We went to the airport today and they had no record of me having a reservation. So, what to do? To buy a new ticket would have been $4000 and we were running out of time trying to figure out other possibilities and return flights. The other possibility would have been only $1600, but I would have had a 13 hour layover in Frankfurt and not get to Chicago until 2 in the afternoon. I was supposed to be at the church at 2:30 pm. The question is who is to blame. Sadly I think its my darling husband who was supposed to make the reservation and told me when he did, but was unable to find any confirmation on his email. Otherwise its on travelocity, but how do we tell what actually happened. Needless to say, Brad is feeling quite bad so he's online right now looking at tickets elsewhere to try to make up for it. He's looking at various spas in Europe right now, so that will help me feel better. =) I am sad that I'm missing my best friend since I was four years old wedding, I never thought I'd miss it. And it would have been great to see my family and friends even though it was for a short stay. So, this weekend will be spent in Denmark, we'll try to make it a fun one and it will be good to be with my boys.

Snowsuits

So today we went and got Broderick a snowsuit. He looked like a marshmallow in it, but I was told that was the right size. Maybe it will fit him for two years. He told me, "mommy, too big!", I had to agree but the size down was too small.

I had put new gloves on him when we were walking to the store. He thought they were quite cool and was waving like a beauty queen the whole time to people walking by. In the store a lady walked in, he waved and said, "Hi." She said hi back and something else in Danish then started to walk away. Broderick looked after her and said, "Hey, I buddy." That's what he calls himself because he can't say his name. It was cute.

Tomorrow I leave to go back to Chicago. I'm excited to see my family and friends at the wedding. I'm also very excited because we're going to have some Chicago style pizza when I get in tomorrow night. Yum!! We miss good pizza soooo much over here. I don't know what Brad and Broderick have planned, but I'm sure they'll have lots of fun with mommy gone.

God Dag! or Good Day as they say in Danish. I thought you would all like a picture of Broderick in his nightly ritual. When we put his pajamas on, he has to run around naked for a few minutes before he wants to get dressed again. Here he is in all his glory. Broderick and I went to Aalborg today to my friend Tina's house and she had another friend there as well with her little girl, Elma. It was so good to hang out with girls and eat and talk. She had all sorts of good cheeses and meats with fresh rolls and danishes. I learned a few traditional snacks that they like to eat- like thin chocolate wafers on your buttered roll. It was quite good.

Broderick and Jeppe going outside to play.

Broderick borrowed a snowsuit (no, there's no snow, just weating it to stay warm.), it was a little short on his legs, but it worked.

Broderick was so excited to go to Jeppe's house, but when we got there, he wanted to be by mommy the whole time and when he played with Jeppe, there was many, "NO, mine!" being heard. The boys ended up - Jeppe outside in the sandbox and Broderick inside in their toy room. They played really well then. Surely they eventually learn how to play with other kids, right?
This picture doesn't really do it justice, but they have the most amazing rainbows over here. I guess there's one upside to all the rain. You can see from one end to the other and the colors are so clear. Wish you could see it in person.

US Visitors and Jumboland

We had a full week, but a good one. The weather here has not been great, but since our heat is now working, its not nearly so bad. Yesterday we took Broderick to a place called "Jumboland" which is called a kid's play paradise. Broderick loved it. So many fun things to do and run around. I can see we will be returning there often.




Going down a big slide!









Driving a car with Daddy's help.

Look, I found 2 balls.

Taking a few seconds to give Daddy a hug.

Wheee!!

Running fast!!

"Hopper" (in Danish)

The balls were fun!

Friday night, we went out to eat with Brad's Danish teacher and her husband to a place called, "Gammel Vro Slots" which means old castle. It was so cool. I wish I could show a picture of the outside, but it was too dark and the picture didn't turn out. This is definitely a place we'll take anyone who comes to visit.

Here's Broderick playing with his friend Krister.

Ben Schmidgall and Dave Stoller were here until Friday morning. They came to our house twice to eat. It was so good to see them and have some contacts from home here in person. We miss everyone so much.

I think Brad thoroughly enjoyed all the engineering talk they got in.

There was an engineering party for Brad's work too, so I finally got a chance to meet many of his coworkers and their significant others. It was good to finally put faces to so many of the names. Brad played in a golf tournament for work today. They are crazy. It was cold and windy, but for some reason, they still enjoy playing. Afterwards they ate a traditional cabbage stew and insisted Brad bring home the leftovers for me. So... Broderick and I are about to give it a try.

I'm looking forward to next weekend as I get to go home to Chicago for a couple of days for my friend, Kelly's wedding. It will be so good to see some family and friends, but it will be a fast stay. Broderick is staying home with Daddy. This will be the first time Brad has him alone overnight. Hopefully they'll do ok.

Care Package!!!!!!

Well today turned out to be a great day. A couple of guys from Hawkeye were coming to Denmark today, one of which is Brad's cousin Ben. With him he brought the most amazing care package I have ever seen. It was a whole suitcase and more of awesome goodies and books and cards. I haven't cried too much over here, but you guys made me cry. I am so thankful to have such caring friends and family. So to Kim, Terrean, Jodi, Tricia, Stacey, Jane and Natalie - thank you soooooo much. You made our day, I should say week over here. And poor Ben who had to carry all that extra luggage. What a saint.

Broderick got up from his nap and came out and said, "Oooo, woooow!" Then he wanted to open every box of everything there was. I had to put some things out of his reach and he settled on the Cheez-its. I had a snickers bar right away. So good. =)
Saturday, we took Broderick on a train ride. He was pretty excited to finally ride a "choo-choo" or as they say in Denmark, a "foot-foot". Unfortunately, the train was packed and we had to stand the whole ride.
We spent a little time in downtown Aalborg walking around and took Broderick to a toy store and then headed back to Broenderslev - we had seats on the return trip.
On Thursday morning we had to say good-bye to Grandpa Ron, we were sad to see him go, it was so nice to have him here for a little bit.
Here's Grandpa reading to Broderick the last night before he left. Poor Ron was probably sick of singing songs and reading books.
I finally have my residence permit, so I'm official. I'm still waiting for news on when my Danish classes will be. I'm really ready to start those, I get frustrated a lot not understanding the language. This little mechanical horse is outside the movie store in our downtown. Every time we walk by it Broderick wants to ride it. Finally we broke down and actually put in a coin. (He had only sat on it before.) He was thrilled. You may notice in these pics that Broderick's hair is shorter. We finally found a place that was reasonable, only about 20$. They were friendly Iraqis and spoke a little English, so I was thankful for that. We also found a new restaurant that we like - believe it or not, it was Chinese. It was really good and they're actually open reasonable hours.

Thanks again so much for the care package girls (& spouses). It meant the world to me. Everything in it was great!

Fish, Monks, and Vikings

Well, we had a full weekend, yet still had time to get naps in and relax too. Yesterday we drove up north a little ways to a town called Hirtshals to see the largest aquarium in northern Europe. All the animals there are from the north sea. Broderick thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the "pishies", but moved quickly from each exhibit. So, we made it through the whole thing in good time.

Here's Broderick checking out a fish and he's sitting with a seal below.
After we ate lunch, we headed to a monastery nearby - Boerglum Kloster. This has been around for 900 years. It hasn't been a monastery for many years, but the same family has been running it for 7 generations.
The Danish countryside.
Brad and I in front of one of the buildings.
We came home and Broderick was able to take a nap (and some of the adults) and then we went to eat at Tylstrup Kro in the town of Tylstrup about 10 minutes away. The food was very good and Broderick was good. Why? Because we brought his DVD player with earphones. He was great. Going out to eat in Denmark usually takes a while, so it would have gotten very long for him.
Today we had a leisurely morning and listened to a CD on Ephesians 4 for our church. After nap time, we went to Aalborg and visited the largest Viking Cemetery in Europe. This dates back to the 6th and 7th Century.
Ron and Brad checking it out and Broderick went off on his own exploring.
They made the graves in the shape of a boat (top view of boat, not profile), put the person or people in them along with certain possessions and their animals and then cremated them.
They had sheep roaming around the graves, we think they were there to keep the grass short. Broderick loved that. Here's him and Grandpa checking one out.

We then headed to downtown Aalborg and walked around a little before eating at Jensen's Boefhus. This is located in one of the oldest buildings in all of Aalborg - about 500 years old. Here's Broderick enjoying his dessert. A waffle with ice cream on top. Two of his favorite foods.
It was fun seeing some new sites and learning what's around this area. We'll have to make the most of these last few days with Ron. We'll miss him when he leaves.

Grandpa is here!!!

We are so happy that Grandpa Ron made it safely to Denmark yesterday. Its been so nice to see him and have him around. I think Brad is thrilled to have him helping out at work as well. Broderick was so excited to go to the airport and see "Bop-pop's air-p" (Grandpa's airplane), but when he saw Grandpa, he was smiling, but he was shy. He's warmed up since and while Brad and Ron were gone today, he walked around saying, "Bop-pop, w'are you?"
Ron brought a few gifts from family back home for Broderick's birthday. Broderick was pretty excited. He even got a train named "Rosie" from his cousin Rosie. Unfortunately today he's been driving the train off the side of the table and announcing "uh-oh, Rosie owwie". So we kiss it and make it better and then he continues to do it again. (Don't take it personal Rose. )
Here's Grandpa telling Broderick stories in bed. Poor Grandpa was suffering a little jet lag during the stories and dozed off a couple of times.
Grandpa and Broderick hanging out on the couch.
Poor Ron was put to work right away last night by Brad.
Broderick and I headed to Hjoerring this morning to get our residence permits. We drive the whole way there (about 30 minutes) and go to the Police Station and they tell us the foreign office went home ill today so I would have to come back another day. What - the whole office went home sick? Only in Denmark. It was a cute town, so we ate lunch there and then headed back. We didn't get much accomplished, but that's ok. We just hung out here tonight, hopefully we'll have good weather this weekend and have some fun exploring.

Grandpa is coming!!

Today was a long day. I had two doctor appointments in Aalborg. I took Broderick to Tina's house. She said he was good, but I'm so doubtful. When I left he was crying for me and had just got done hitting her son on the head. When I got back her son, Jeppe, who speaks Danish was saying an English phrase, "No, mine!" Hmmm... who did he learn that from. I'm so thankful she watched him, I spent a LOT of time in waiting rooms (like over 2 hours) and I don't think Broderick would have enjoyed that. They did an ultrasound today and the little guy/gal was kicking and moving like he/she was swimming laps in there. It was really cute - hopefully not an indication of the energy level in the future. =)
Tonight was spent putting furniture together. We are so sick of assembling furniture and we are desperately missing our power drill. (Don't you like Brad's socks?) Broderick was a big help during the process.
We are so excited that Grandpa Ron is coming tomorrow. We pick him up in the afternoon. Broderick can hardly wait. He was nice enough to put one of his stuffed animals on the guest bed for Grandpa to sleep with while he's here. I'm sure Ron will be thrilled.

I should go help Brad now, he's still working on the furniture. Its going on over 4 hours now.

Here's some pictures of Broderick at his gym class yesterday. He had a lot of fun and was not happy to leave. He once again had a head on collision with another kid in class. He needs to learn to look where he's running.


Yesterday my bike was delivered, so today was my first trip to the grocery store on my bike. Broderick loves riding bikes so he of course was thrilled. I can tell riding all over town will definitely be a work out. Its been a while since I've ridden a bike very far. I was worn out. Plus I'm carrying Broderick on the back and a load of groceries in my basket on the front. It will be good exercise.

When we got back from the grocery store, our neighbor came over to check and see how we were doing. She invited Broderick over to see their rabbit and guinea pig. Broderick loved it, but as soon as he saw a whole back yard full of new toys he was all over the place.

More furniture came today, I'm missing our power drill so bad. We have to assemble so many things and its not fun when you're hand screwing all these little screws in. It will be nice to get these things set up so we can have more storage.

Tomorrow I have my doctor appointment in Aalborg, Broderick is staying with my friend Tina. Pray that he's good for her. I hope all goes well with the doctor and I don't get lost. My belly is definitely starting to pop out. Seems like it happens overnight all of a sudden. Still feeling a little sick, but improving.

Its been a few days since I've updated. So I'll bring you up to speed. Friday afternoon Broderick had a play date with our neighbor boy Krister. I think Broderick had fun playing with his toys.
Saturday morning, we finally bought a bike for myself with a seat for Broderick and a basket for groceries. I am now officially a little more integrated in Danish culture. We also bought Broderick a bike helmet. We thought we should after our neighbor stopped Brad when he was taking Broderick out for a bike ride the other day and gave him her son's old helmet so Broderick would be safe. It was a strong hint that we weren't keeping our kid safe. =)
Broderick loved his helmet. He didn't want to take it off and insisted on wearing it everywhere for awhile. Here he is with it in the car.
We ran a couple other errands and then went to Morton and Lizbeth's house. Brad helped Morton dig out the floor in their entrance/laundry room. They had to dig down 18 inches, 8 of which was concrete. They were pretty worn out when they were done.
Broderick was entertained with toys that they had from when their children were younger and we took a walk and saw horses, hens, and "moo cows" so he was thrilled with that.
Today we went to a church and really liked it. Lucky enough, the first couple we ran into, we asked them if they spoke English so we could learn where kids went and the routine of things - he had lived in southern Minnesota for 13 months in an exchange program. His English was perfect and they were a great help to us. This church has headphones that they translate the service through so that will be nice until I get a better grip on the language.

We're still in the search for a 2nd car. We thought we found one we liked, but when we went to check it out, it smelled like the people smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day in there. We didn't think it was a smell that would go away any time soon. I'm also on a mission to find a place to get Broderick's hair cut. Brad was home enough this summer that his first haircut was just a couple of weeks ago here. It was $70. Ok, I'm really not willing to spend that much on Broderick's haircut, so I'm hoping I can find somewhere that's a little less or I'm going to have to learn to cut hair.