Taelyn's Self-Portrait

This is Taelyn's 1st self-portrait that she drew.  She was actually coloring by herself while we were in Colorado this summer and ran over to us to show us.  She said, "Mom, Dad, look!  I draw Taelyn.  It's me!"  She did a great job adding legs at the bottom and lots of crazy hair on her head.  Then she included eyes, a nose, a mouth, and two arms.  Afterward, she wrote a "T" at the top to show that the picture is herself.

During the same week, Taelyn also wrote her first word.  She was drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, and we asked her to write H and I to spell "Hi."

Our Summer States Side

We had another eventful yet fantastic summer this year in the States.  The trip started in Michigan where we spent some time with our families, and the girls had lots of time to hang out with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Taelyn did her best to understand who everyone was and where they live, but both girls got names and places mixed up from time to time.  They first saw Aunt Katie and Uncle Joel quite a bit, so for a while, every new female was Aunt Katie, and every new male was Uncle Joel.  Then as the summer progressed and they saw more people, all females became Aunt Brandy or Leah, and all males were Uncle Matty.  By the end of the summer, I think Taelyn at least had it all straight and could probably tell you where each person lives (state and country).

Shortly after returning to the States, Justin and I flew out to California where he competed in the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run.  The race was not without its challenges with 6 hours of rain to start, but Justin ran the absolute perfect race and finished in 23 hours, 13 minutes - well under the 24 hour mark for a belt buckle.  It was an amazing weekend to be a part of.

In the beginning of July, we then flew as an entire family to Colorado to visit some old friends and stay in our hold town, Colorado Springs.  We missed the town instantly and made sure that we saw all of our old favorites: Toddler Time at the library, numerous running trails, Jack Quinn's Pub run, and the award-winning beer guy.  We stayed with our good friends, Leah and Steve, while the girls also got to reconnect with Taelyn's very first friend, Kelsey.  At the end of our stay, we also attended two different weddings - one of which I was the singer during the ceremony.  It was great to see our friends again and to spend some time in our favorite state in the US.

Other highlights of the summer include day trips to various kid-friendly places.  The girls had a blast at Jeeper's, an amusement park for young children inside the mall, and at the wave pool with their Uncle Joel and Grandma and Grandpa Pepera.  They also got to go to Canada to the cottage where they spent most of their time on the beach with Aunt Katie, Aunt Andy, and Grandma Walker.  Taelyn even fell asleep on the beach and took her nap there!  Another highlight was a little fishing trip that the girls had with Grandma and Grandpa Walker where they had their first boating experience.

Although our summers are always hectic and crazy, we had a lovely time and are thankful to see our family and friends again.

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Kaelia - 2 Years

It's hard to believe that two years have gone by already and that Kaelia is such a big girl now.  At two years old, she is 25 lbs. and 33.5 inches tall.  She is an excellent climber, jumper, and runner (although she is not even walking at the moment due to her injury in Germany.  Kaelia loves going to playgrounds where she can practice her motor skills while the swings are her absolute favorite part.  She could swing all day if she had someone willing to push her that long.

One of Kaelia's other favorite activities is to color.  She will sit in front of a coloring book for a good 15-30 minutes coloring independently or with others, and she is actually pretty good at staying inside the lines.  She knows all of the basic colors as well as shapes, and she can count from 1 to 10 on her own.

Kaelia's verbal ability is thriving as always.  She is speaking sentences up to 5 words.  Just the other day Justin put her on his shoulders, and she said, "Look a me, mom, I on top-a Daddy!"  Kaelia can also show a bit of a sense of humor with her words.  She often plays the role of "Angry Cat," a character that she made up to be silly.  She will look at us with the most angry face we have ever seen and start viciously yelling "meow."  Then when she is done, she shows us the happiest smile.  It is definitely entertaining to see her go from happy to sad and vice-verse like the flip of a switch.  The two-year-old phase has brought on some tantrums here and there while her personality is bursting through the seams with happiness, activeness, and joy.

Here are some highlights of the last year.

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Kaelia's 2nd Birthday

Kaelia had a wonderful birthday party today.  It was low-key, held at a small park and playground in Ortonville where Kaelia celebrated the day with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  She was so excited this morning to have her party.  She woke up, clapped her hands, and said "it's my birthday!"

At the party, Kaelia spent quite a bit of time on the swings - her favorite part of playgrounds.  She swung with her cousin, Jacob, with mommy, Aunt Katie, Uncle Joel, Grandpa Walker, and Grandma Pepera (just to name a few).  Another big moment for her is that she started walking again!  Kaelia walked to different play structure and to the various picnic tables for lunch, presents, and cake.  She was incredibly cautious and wobbly, but she is at least getting there.  We are so happy for her.

After some time on the playground, we had lunch and then moved on to opening presents.  This part of the day was exciting for Kaelia but also a bit overwhelming.  She wanted to spend time with each present once she opened it and got upset when it was time to move on to the next present.  Eventually, Taelyn stepped in and "helped" Kaelia open her presents so that Kaelia could keep playing with the last one while the next was was opened.  Some of her gifts were some coloring and sticker books, a purse, Minnie Mouse items, and a piano.

Next came the birthday cake.  Kaelia was very eager for this part of the party.  She picked out a Disney Cars cake in the store a couple of days ago and couldn't wait to eat it.  Everyone sang Happy Birthday, and Kaelia attempted to blow out the candle (and was successful with the help of the wind).  Then Kaelia cut her own piece of birthday cake and finally got to eat her Lightning McQueen!

Kaelia had a lovely time at her party.  After the party was over, Kaelia said "Where'd my birthday party go?  I want my birthday party!"  Thank you to everyone for the thoughts and gifts on her special day.

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Bavarian Germany

On our way back to the US for the summer, we decided to stop over in Germany for a week.  Not only did this split up our awfully long flight, but we got a fantastic vacation out of it.  It was actually one of the best vacations we have ever had.  Germany was incredibly clean, beautiful, and efficient.

To start the trip, we went to Munich for a couple of days where we visited the Dachau concentration camp - the first concentration camp in Germany during the Holocaust.  It is preserved as a memorial and museum and was very sad to see.  Prisoners were once kept in the sleeping chambers with three people to a bunk slot, and they were at times fed only potato skins to eat.  Many prisoners died of starvation.  Now the camp shows room after room of black and white pictures that depict the evils of man in its darkest hours.  A large sign reads in multiple languages, "Never Again," a hope we all share.

While in Munich, we also went to the 1972 Olympic Stadium.  Being huge fans of Steve Prefontaine, it was significantly important for us to see where he ran as well as the site of the horrific terrorists attacks of Black September.  The track was being redone, so we were unable to walk on the track, but we sat in the stands while the kids ran around.  Also on the tour was the pool where Mark Spitz set his records.  Unfortunately, there was very little on the information side.  We left disappointed not seeing more historical items.

With the big cultural sites out of the way, we hit the largest beer hall in Munich, Hofbrauhaus.  With four levels, this beer hall rocks any night of the week.  We feasted on sausages and dark beer while a band played traditional music.  The girls danced in the aisles.  Later that evening, Kaelia was riled up from lack of sleep, climbed half way up a bunk bed ladder, and launched herself off.  We spent the night in the emergency room and returned again the next day because Kaelia refused to walk and screamed bloody murder at being set down.  We carried her for the rest of the trip.

On the way out of town, we rolled the the Theresienwiese, site of Oktoberfest.  While nothing was going on, we vowed to return some day when there is.  It was a few hour drive down to our next stop: Garmisch, in the mountains on the boarder of Austria.  It was our first experience on the autobahn, and we fared well.  The road had high speed limits, but it never felt too fast and we were impressed by the order on the road.  When we arrived, we rolled up the hill to the base of the Zupsptize, the highest peak in Germany.  We went up the cable car at the extravagant price of 50 Euros a person to the top.  From the 3000m summit, we could see into four different countries.  The girls loved playing in the snow at the top because it was the first snow Kaelia has ever seen and Taelyn wasn't old enough to remember her snow encounters.  Taelyn actually took a big chunk of snow back down the mountain and held on to it in a ziplock bag that she slept with during her nap that day.  After the Zugspitze, we ended up in a beer house where everyone of the patrons was dressed in traditional Bavarian garb.

For the next few nights, we crashed in Fussen, also in the southern part of the country.  In an effort to realize a romantic dream, we stayed in the most castle-looking place we could, Hotel Fantasia.  The rooms were very nice, in the center of town, and looked up to an actual castle.  The girls loved the trampoline, Sarah the towers and archways, and Just the large breakfasts.  From here we enjoyed several great runs along parks and rivers and into mountain lakes.  But the main purpose of visiting was to see the famous castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  The Neuschwanstein castle is what Disney's Cinderella's castle was modeled off of, so we told the girls that we were going to see Cinderella's castle.  They ran up and down the stairs at this castle, pretending they lost their glass slippers like Cinderella, and Justin and Taelyn danced at the "ball" when we entered the entertainment hall.  Then we took a horse-drawn carriage from the castle back to the parking lot.

Our next stop was Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  This medieval city has been around since before 1000 and some of it has original structures.  We visited the Medieval Crime and Torture Museum and saw many artifacts.  Our favorite was the barrel the drunks had ot wear and the masks for women that were gossips.  There were executioner swords, axes, thumb screws, and iron maiden, and much more.  We went for runs around the walled city, and it felt as if we were in the 1500's.  We ate Scneeballe (snowballs) of dough - sugar and chocolate, famous for the area.  We also visited the Christmas factory which had four levels of crazy holiday cheer.

Our last stop was the small town of Hirschau where we visited a former UNC athlete.  She hosted us in her house and we sampled small-town Germany life, including a few games of shuffleboard.  Our friends from South Africa told the girls before we left for Germany that shuffleboard was called "shuflebrau" (apparently that is not the correct word for shuffleboard, though), so the girls had a great time learning what shuflebrau was.  It was the perfect ending to an amazing trip.

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