Still alive and finally settled

Wow!   It has been a good long while since we posted anything here, but with good reason.   We spent a full week unpacking and organizing and hanging pictures and more organizing.   And I was itching to  post a blog with photos of all of new home, but we didn't have wifi because Peter and I thought that we should be brave and use a cell phone and cable service off base to find a better deal.   Which we did, but we paid the price in time spent translating German text messages and emails looking for our user names and passwords to make everything work.    It was as much fun as it sounds. 

But now we are all settled and so excited to share some photos of the last few weeks.    Sorry they are completely out of chronological order.......another consequence of my technological deficiencies.

This is the view from our living room.   (and the guest room, for any friends and family that are considering a visit.)   The tower bell rings every hour and goes absolutely crazy for a full 90 seconds or so every evening at 6pm.   We love it!

Another view from the living room......across the street is the playground.   Susannah loves it and it is even more convenient than the park in Coronado was.

Swinging at her new park.

Our new living room.  

Susannah modeling.   Her new babysitter, Miss Irena, took this when she let Susannah "try on" her earrings.  

The view from our bedroom window.   The apartment comes with one (very tight) parking place.

Susannah's new big girl bed.   She loves it and has been so great about staying in it for naps.  

When we moved in, she was absolutely beside herself to see all of her new toys and to have so much space in which to play with them. 

This is another one of Susannah's favorite things about our new neighborhood.   This is an urban trampoline.   Just built right into the ground.   It is super fun and such a great way to let her get some physical energy out really fast, especially on a day when the rain only stops for a 30 minute window.

Last weekend Aunt Nancy took a train from Hamburg to visit us.  

Susannah was so happy to see her.

It was a super rainy weekend though, so we had to make use of all our rain gear every time we ventured out.

First night in her new big girl bed.

This is another one of Susannah's favorite things about German playgrounds.   They don't just have sandboxes.   They have sandboxes with water features.    So the kids have even more fun.   (and get even messier).

Susannah absolutely loves it and wants to turn it on even on the coldest days.   Now that it is has turned cold, all the German parents just put their kids in their rain/snow gear and let them play in it.    Buying Susannah a full-on rain suit is on my to-do list as she is the only one on every playground who isn't sporting one now that yucky weather is here.  (obviously these pictures were taken back when the sun still shone.)

This is the main square in Stuttgart.   It is called Schlossplatz and features lots of fountains, green space and beautiful buildings.

We enjoyed a very sunny picnic there a few weeks ago.

It really is beautiful.

Lots of shopping and cafes all around this area of the city.

This pedestrian street, Konig Strasse, leads to Schlossplatz and has every store you can imagine.   Well, I should say European store because there most definitely is not a Target or a Banana Republic.   But Zara and H and M??   Absolutely.   And it is only a 15 minute walk from our place.


 

We also managed to visit the Volksfest, Stuttgart's version of Oktoberfest, a couple of times last week, but I will save those photos for our next post.    We love and miss you all so much!    Happy Columbus Day!