This is My Forties

Noah and I are having a great time out in Germany with Josh. The house we're sharing is amazing and the people are also amazing. The only thing we don't have is our own kitchen, but like I said, the people who live here (Josh's friends) are amazing so it's not even an issue. I've been cooking for everyone to try to thank them in some way. We haven't been to many places yet. It's hard to go anywhere with a baby who has a naptime and a husband who has a job. However!! We managed to make it out to Heidelberg to see the castle. It was awesome. the walk up to the castle mmmm castle Heidelberg down below Christmas is huge here. They've even got Christmas markets out in the parking lot in front of WalMart. We've been to Luisenplatz a few times in downtown Darmstadt to visit all the Christmas shops they have set up. It's like a Christmas flea market. Thus far all I've blown money on is candy... mmmm German candy is so delicious. It's...

It was so warm here yesterday that Noah and I decided to go to the zoo. The zoo here is open 365 days a year since it's not really consistently cold until maybe late January, February time-frame. We went at just the right time because every single animal was actually out! We also were inadvertently following the feeding schedule because we watched them feed the snow leopard, gibbons, capybaras, lemurs, fossas, bears and pelicans. It was a banner day at the zoo :) I actually brought my camera, but didn't take a single picture because I left it in the car. I've been sorta neglecting Noah the past few days, trying to get the Christmas presents taken care of before we leave for Germany. So, I wanted to do something just me and him... I think the camera would have gotten in the way of me sharing the moment with him. Anyway :) It was awesome! We had a great time.

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We're back in San Antonio. I can't really say I'm happy to be back, but we're leaving in a few days for Germany so I'll get to see more people I love :) I think I can be patient until then. Now I'm going to be lazy and sample an email I sent back to Ohio when I got back. We made it here safely, but extremely late. We finally got home at around 12:15. We had about 8 hours in just layovers. Noah was awesome. He was an angel. I was surprised how much he remembered about flying... he knew that standing in the line meant we were going to fly on the plane and eventually get home. We had a false alarm at one point in Pittsburgh where they allowed 25 people to board and then everyone else was waiting for another 30 minutes. I was NOT ALLOWED to venture far from the line and I was lucky I finally convinced him I was allowed to put my bag down. He just kept saying "NOOOOOooo PLANE!!! on a PLANE!!" He slept through most of both flights. He loved watc...