Good-bye and Hello

I know the term bitter-sweet is so very redundant.   But I can't find other words that express the sentiment of our experience over the last couple of weeks any better than this little overused phrase.    Life lately has been a whirl-wind.    Peter left Stuttgart the day after we returned from Greece.   The girls and I stayed another five days.   Those days were spent packing and shutting down our apartment and shipping our car and saying our last good-byes to friends and a city that we have called home longer than any other since 2008.    Sarah Avery was still very sick with fever for most of those days so to say that it was a tough week would be an understatement.   But we persevered (Thank you to everybody who prayed for us.) and we arrived in the good ol' US of A on Friday afternoon.   Here are the pictures of our last Stuttgart memories.   And the first few photos of our first days in the States.

Last piggy back ride up the hill from Marienplatz

One night before we left for Greece, we had a little good-bye dinner with our closest neighborhood friends at the playground.  

These 4 girls will miss each other terribly.   We actually have a skype date scheduled for tomorrow.

We are trying to convince Mike to find a job in DC so we can be neighbors again.  

This was Susannah's last Sunday at our church.   And the kids happened to be singing in big church.

"Oh Happy Day!"

Mr. Kingsley was Susannah's beloved sunday school teacher.   He organized a little good-bye party for her.  

She made this tie for Peter for Father's Day.   Unfortunately, he was on a plane to the US and hasn't seen it yet.  

That afternoon, the church across from our building had their annual summer festival.   SA was super sick, but I let Susannah go down with Mathilda.   They ate sausages and did some crafts.  

Susannah spent another afternoon with Sophia, her other little bestie.

And of course, we had to have a picture with Susannah's very favorite teacher, Frau Pfeiffer.

And we had to have one last scoop from our favorite ice cream spot.

yum.

And before we knew it, the week was over and it was time for Susannah's last day of German Kindergarten.   

This was her first day.

I remember this first walk to school so well.   

And I will remember this last one.

And I will treasure every single day that I had the specail privilege of this morning walk with my girl.   Susannah's little school was such a blessing.    She has grown so much there, blossoming into such a confident, curious, kind and independent person.   We are forever grateful for her years here. 

Needless to say, I was just barely holding it together after dropping Susannah.   So SA and I went with our friends  Karolina and Phillippe to our favorite bakery for one last warm pretzel.

These guys were buddies and will miss each other.  

That afternoon Susannah was so brave and poised when she said goodbye to her friends and teachers.   Tang and Leonie are two friends that she will definitely miss.

We went to Kantichen for our last after school snack.   Susannah was quiet.   I could sense that she understood the weight of the day.   But she kept her chin up and her smile in place all afternoon.  

Sophia and Karolina stopped by after dinner for one last hug.

And then the next morning we were up and out the door to catch our plane.   The girls had the very last german pretzel while we waited to board.

Peter was awesome and bought us the bulkhead comfort seats.   This was the first time SA had her own seat.   It was heaven having all that extra space. 

The girls were all snuggled in before everybody had even boarded.   They did really well on the flight and managed the first few days of jet lag like champs.    

SA did pass out one night like this.   But today is day 3 and we are all three in full eastern time zone mode.  

Yesterday Mimi took us to chick-fil-a to play and eat a few nuggets.

And pretend to be a cow.

 Shoo Shoo has been a wonderful hostess.   She and Susannah have been bird watching and reading together.

Poppy took the girls on a little shopping spree today and then we had lunch at Charlie Joseph's.

The two Sarahs.   

We are so happy to be home, but also so thankful for all of the wonderful friends and memories we made in Stuttgart.     We hope to see all of you that we haven't seen yet very very soon!

Corfu, Greece 2016

We just returned from a week in Corfu, Greece.   This is one of the only places that Peter and I have loved so much we have returned the very next year.    But after spending a week in the little beach-side village of Pelakus in June 2015, we knew we would be back for more in 2016.    It was just a beautiful and kid-friendly and delicious as we remembered.   And we made some wonderful memories.   Unfortunately, we also had our share of not-so-fun times.   Peter and Susannah had a little two day stomach virus.   And on our last full day there, SA came down with a cold type virus that came with such a high fever we were at the ER yesterday after returning to Stuttgart.    We also had a couple of bad weather days, so this vacation wasn't quite as relaxing and picture perfect as we had imagined.   But here are all of the good memories that we managed to snag........

We had a 6am flight which meant a very painful 4 am wake-up.  But it also meant that we were doing this by lunchtime.  

Beach-side lunch of fried anchovies??   Definitely worth that early alarm.

The view from our villa was perfect.   

Couldn't stop taking pics of it.   

That first day the water was calm and the girls had a blast in the sand and the waves. 

Waiting patiently for her ice cream.  

SA likes to wear her sunglasses on her head like mommy.

The next morning we woke to sunny skies and enjoyed cocoa puffs and coffee on our porch.

Then headed back down to the beach.

The clouds moved in and the wind picked up once we were settled.

So Daddy offered to be buried as a fun activity.

We had more clouds and some severe thunderstorms the next morning so we headed out in the car to see the aquarium.   Flash flooding was so crazy though, that we had to turn back.    

At one point, the storm was so intense, we pulled over at a little bakery and had some coffee and ice cream on the porch.  

    We were bummed about the weather, but we enjoyed our time with the bakery owner and a couple of her patrons.  And ice cream at 10 am is always a win, right?   

We spent that afternoon in Corfu town having some lunch and doing a little shopping. 

We also checked out the fish pedicure that I've been wondering about for years.   The girls were impressed more than me.  ;)

Another day, another photo op in our matching bathing suits.  

Silly girls

one with mommy 

SA wasn't a fan of the swimmies.   And Peter and I weren't very confident in their flotation capabilities.   So SA usually stayed with one of us in the pool or just played with the sand toys around the side.  

This one was a little fish, though and would have spent all day everyday in the pool if we had let her. 

Float ride with Daddy

We headed back to the aquarium on another less treacherous day.    It wasn't much of a facility, but they let us pet a boa constrictor so that was a plus.   Right??

Susannah talked us into buying the combo ticket so that we could do the underwater boat ride experience too.  

Susannah was so excited.   SA, not so much.   

It was really cool to take a boat ride around the coast and check out the beach from the water. 

We all had a great time. 

Even SA.

But when it was time to go downstairs for the underwater part, the fun came to a halt.

I wasn't smiling like this after being in a hot, underwater, rocking tube with 15 other tourists.  

All four of us felt like losing our lunch by the end.  

We were very happy to be back on dry land.    This beach is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the Greek islands.  

I ate my lunch with this view and my book everyday during nap-time.   Probably my most favorite part of the entire trip.  

SA was a huge fan of the sand.   She was not as big of a fan of the cold shower that was required after caking herself in it though.   

Reading books on the balcony with daddy.

Capri suns and puzzles.   Perfect rest break from the sun.

Susannah was still on the tail end of her stomach virus this day, so she opted to hang out with her coloring book under the umbrella.

Not this one.   She was all about the sand.

Susannah seemed so grown up to me in this picture. 

This guy was still carrying his concession stand on his head up and down the beach, just like last year.   So we had to buy one of his famous donuts of course.   

This was the other part of my nap-time view everyday.   

I loved listening to them playing together.

On our second to last night, we actually got dressed in dry clothes and headed to Ambolinas, the winery where we had our favorite meal last year. 

If only SA would look at the camera.......  ;) 

Still not looking.   

The restaurant grounds were just as beautiful as we remembered.   And this year, SA was big enough to walk around and explore!

The table settings are so beautiful.

I told Peter and Susannah that I want her to get married here.   

In between courses, the girls did some ballet.   

Because of course.  

The owner told us she was a computer programmer her entire adult life and a few years ago, she decided to follow her dream and opened this place.  

Susannah with the desserts.   Two of them featured her home-made rose petal jelly.    It is honestly one of the most beautiful and memorable dining experiences we have ever had.   We can't wait to go back one day.    

Our last day was extra special because our cousins arrived!!    Peter's cousin Judson lives in Belgium and he and his family rented the villa beneath ours.   

These two had the most amazing day together.  

They spent 10 straight hours in the pool.   They came out a few times for 15 minutes of gold fish and dinosaur train before headed back to the water.   

The parents enjoyed a poolside toast.   

I love hearing all of Peter's fun family beach trip memories with all of his cousins, so it made me so happy to see our girls enjoying that same tradition.  

 And that was our week in Corfu.    Hope all of you are enjoying your summers.   We can't wait to see you all soon!!