I haven't posted in a while - yikes!  I don't know that I will as much as I used to.  I like keeping this blog - its kind of like modern journaling and sometimes it forces me to do stuff so that I have something interesting to say!  At the same time though, we aren't going to be walking as unique of a path for a while.  Most of my world at the moment revolves around a certain little bird and I'm embracing laying low for a while.  I loved traveling and I love being able to say that we've done all that we have, but I'm actually pretty excited at the moment that I don't have any upcoming flights booked! 

Thanks, as always, for taking an interest in my world!

Budapest was pretty awesome!  The food was some of the best I've had in Europe overall and it seemed like you didn't have to hunt very hard to find it - it was all delicious.  The castle and parliament straddling the Danube, the overly ornate buildings, the bounty of good food, and the thermal baths were awesome to explore over the long weekend.  The Red Bull Air Race was there while we were there, so that was pretty unique.  The planes raced up and down the river, through obstacles and under the chain bridge.  It think the city would be neat to see in the Fall too, since the heat was probably my only complaint!

The little town we live in is odd.  There are some parts that are really quaint and look hopeful to be something good or interesting, but for the most part it just seems like a ghost town.  I took some pictures on a walk, conscious that I'm only going to be here for another month, and snapped some pictures of the cuter details.  This was on a Saturday at 2:00pm and no one was out... like usual.  I don't know where they all hide!

We are in the final homestretch before our big move back to the States.  We've packed several "last" trips in before the move.  This weekend: Barcelona! This was one of our bucket list cities for Europe and I'm so glad we got to see it.

The trip was a little crazy overall, and it made me glad that it was just us versus going with a big group.  We tried to take a train to the airport on Friday and ended up having some issues with parking at the train station, so we ended up driving ourselves to the airport last minute with less than two hours until departure.  Then, as we got into the airport, I noticed that Emma was running a fever!  

So our first day we did a quick walk through the city and then spent most of the evening back in the hotel while Emma slept.  Since our hotel didn't have a bar or restaurant, we spend the evening sitting in the hall drinking wine and eating take out.  

Saturday we toured the city a little more and Sunday, my favorite, we spent the entire day at the beach.  I had been craving a beach day and it did not disappoint.  The weather was perfect and after some coaxing, Emma was happy to sit in between our chairs and play.  She still wasn't too sure about the sand, so we didn't have to pace after her or chase her down, which was a nice break since we'd been doing that the whole trip.  

In two weeks we head to Budapest, and then roughly two weeks after that we fly home!  

I have been talking about driving the short distance from Germany to France since we first found out we were moving to Germany.  Somehow we've been here 2 years and I haven't done it yet!  So I planned a girls trip with some friends last week and had a quick, but amazing jaunt into the Alsatian Wine region of France.

I used this guide of the Alsace region as a guide for the trip.  We started our trip in the town of Eguisheim, where we visited Domaine Emile Beyer winery.  Next we headed to Colmar where we stayed the night.  Colmar was beautiful!  It reminded me of Bruges, Belgium.  The next morning we drive to Kientzheim where we visited what was probably our favorite stop of the trip: Paul Blanck Vineyards. 

France is country #9 for Miss Emma!

I love this little wine garden along the Rhein River.  Its in the town of Geisenheim.  I'll miss places like this when we move!

I posted most of these pictures on facbook already because I couldn't help myself, but here they are again.  We went strawberry picking for our friend Emily's birthday.  Emma LOVES strawberries, and I snapped some cute pictures.

We did a long weekend in Berlin last week. We had splurged and bought high speed train tickets up there, which is so much nicer than driving.  To sit back, relax, and be able to sit across from friends versus stuck in traffic - perfect!  ...Well until the train workers go on strike 3 days before you're supposed to leave.  Our train ended up getting cancelled and we had to drive.  Luckily we got our money back!  

I was nervous about driving. Emma sometimes screams the whole way to the grocery store, and that's only 20 minutes away!  She did really well though, and we had no major tantrums.     

I didn't get a ton of photos, but here are a few.  Traveling with a baby that can walk is much different than traveling with her in the past.  She wanted to get down and walk a lot and she just couldn't a lot of the time.  So she would squirm and cry, which was hard.  After a day of fitful sightseeing, we decided to go to the zoo the next day and it was much more kid friendly.  Apparently the Berlin zoo is one of the best in Europe and was within walking distance to our hotel!  It was perfect!

My Mom, Emma, and myself headed to Florence for Mother's Day weekend this year.  My mom has always dreamed of going to Italy and during her visit for Emma's 1st birthday we were able to squeeze it in.  We had to haul the pack 'n' play and the car seat, in addition to our luggage, and a baby with us on what was quite a travel day - 1 hour car ride, flight, shuttle bus, train ride, then a taxi.  It was a lot to lug, but once we made it, we spent 4 amazing days roaming the city.  Some of it I unfortunately spent stressed trying to juggle Emma and being a tourist/tour guide, but that's probably to be expected as I try to do it all.  

One of the highlights of the trip was spending the day with our friends who are stationed in Italy.  They were kind enough to spend the day driving us around Tuscany.  We had planned to visit two vineyards and a market in Greve in Chianti.  As we walked around one of the vineyards I told them about this amazing winery my husband and I had gone to when we were in Florence last.  On a whim we looked up how far away it was and it turned out to only be 15 minutes from us!  I'm not really sure why I hadn't looked it up before, because I've thought about this winery often and always dreamed of one day ordering a case of wine from them.  Our visit to their vineyard, Solatione, turned out to be the highlight of the day and eclipsed all the other vineyards we'd seen.  I was glad that my amazing memories of it weren't overhyped.

It was a very different trip (I probably took as many pictures of Emma eating as I did of the Duomo), but a memorable one for sure.