Michael and Ann's Wedding - October 4

Michael and Ann Van Wagener

Scott's little brother (okay, younger brother) had a great southern Louisiana wedding in October.

Best Man and Ring Bearers

As you can see, all the Van Wagener boys were in the wedding. Daniel and Joshua did great walking up the aisle and were good for nearly the entire ceremony. Both were VERY proud to be in their tuxedos.

A few family pics

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AIDA Cruise August 29 to September 5

AIDA is a German cruise line - very popular with the Germans. Our cruise went to Istanbul, Turkey and several Greek islands.

AIDAvita - our ship
















Crete, Greece
Another country, another playground! We did eat some great Greek food and explore other areas of the city, not just the playgrounds.















Istanbul, Turkey
We were docked in Istanbul for a day and half. During that time, we were able to explore some of the mosques in the area and take a tour of a museum. We also spent some time shopping in the huge Bazaar and walking around the Turkish market place.



















Volos, Greece
We took an excursion to a city called, Marsitas. There we had a great view and enjoyed some more Greek cuisine. We then took the bus down to a local beach and froze in the water for an hour or so.















Athens, Greece
These are pictures in front of the Parthenon. We were too lazy to walk all the way up with the boys so we shopped and ate and let the boys run around. Our excursion continued at a local beach where we were surprised to learn that many women go topless! That was NOT in the brochure! And sorry, no pictures.




















Mykonos, Greece
Beautiful city with all blue and white houses, great windmills, and restaurants on the coast. We were so sad that our camera battery ran out here because we wanted a picture of everything. Our next next Greece trip will definitely be here!

SPAIN - May 31 to June 7

We took a Spain trip with my parents and sister, Amy, the first week of June and stayed in a villa outside of Madrid. These are the cities we were able to visit during the week. Some days were more fun than others, as Joshua had a terrible stomache bug for much of the trip and upon entering our villa, Joshua fell on the corner of a table and cut his head and Daniel split his lip open. Fun times!

El Escoreal
We spent our first day walking around the nearby city and searching for good tapas. The cross is a huge structure just outside of El Escoreal that was visible from our villa.






















Segovia
In front of the Aquaduct

















Madrid
























Enjoying Spanish Chocolate













Galapagar

This is actually the city where our villa was located. The picture is outside of the resaurant where we had great tapas and sangria!

























Avila - the walled city

Mother's Day 2008

Mutterstag!

This year, my German friends decided to celebrate mother's day the way the men celebrate father's day. In Germany, father's day literally means, a day for the fathers. They go out drinking with all the guys and everything is closed for the entire day (Always on a Thursday). So, seven of us rented a bike made for seven and rode from one village to the next and back again. The bike is too difficult to describe, so you'll have to check out the pictures. It was loads of fun and quite funny. We had a wagon area for drinks and such and a table in the middle (for which to serve the drinks on...). At least twenty people stopped to take pictures of us and we were even in the local paper in one of the villages! The one man in the pictures is actually the owner of the bike and was demonstrating how it operates.

Sydney, Australia April 12-19

The Opera House - Of course, we had to get this shot!















April 13 - Joshua's second birthday

Here he is having a Lamington - sponge cake with chocolate and shredded coconut - for his birthday cake.


















Taronga Zoo

The view from the zoo is as impressive as the zoo itself. It is situated on the side of a hill on the coast of Sydney Harbour, so you can see all of Sydney. The collection of animals was great, but what stood out the most was the monster sized spiders found throughout the whole park.


















Manly and Manly Beach

We took a ferry ride to Manly, which is surrounded by Sydney Harbour and the South Pacific Ocean. After a three hour walk around the city (part of it carrying a sleeping Joshua) we sat in a German beer pub/restaraunt to get a taste of "home".








Sydney Aquarium

We couldn't go long without fun kids' stops. Luckily we stayed only five minutes from the aquarium and wild life center. The aquarium has one large tank with all fish found in Finding Nemo. Our favourite part was the sharks. We were able to walk through a tunnel with sharks swimming all around us. The picture is of a Shark Ray - very cool, half sting ray body half shark body!
















Featherdale Wildlife Park

On our last full day in Sydney, we took a tour to see the Blue Mountains and Australian Bush, this wildlife park, and the olympic park. The wildlife park was, by far, our favourite! We were able to pet koalas, touch a snake (yippee), feed kangaroos, and really get up close and personal with all the animals. I think we all liked feeding the kangaroos the best. They loved the ice cream cones more than the food in it. Daniel was feeding this kangaroo until an Emu scared him into dropping the cone! We named the boxing kangaroos Daniel and Joshua. The baby sticking his head out only stayed out for a minute. He was the youngest one we saw there. There were others that looked as if they ran out of room in their mom's pouch!

Malaysia - Our Second Week

Charas Cave and the Sleeping Buddah

Our plan for Sunday was to go the waterfalls with Albert (Scott´s colleague) and family, but it was too rainy, so we ended up at this cave. The hike up was a bit scary, but the cave was quite beautiful. Inside is the huge Buddah as well as the sound of bats above. We got rained on as we were leaving, but the trip was still nice.

The picture doen´t show how steep and uneven the way up really was!

Waterfall

We did make it to the waterfall by Sunday late afternoon. It was really amazing to see so many people swimming in such an awesome setting. We parked a little further down, where there is a stream running and small swimming areas like the kids pool shown here. The walk to the falls was tough, slippery rocks and steep steps, but we were the only people struggling! Wimps.

Our last few days...

Unfortunatly, our week started with a taste of food poisoning. Ellen, Scott, and Daniel had a rough few days, but Joshua seemed untouched. By Wednesday, we were better, but realized we only had two days remaining! Here is a picture of the boys at McDonalds with the beach directly behind them. What kid wouldn´t like it here?

Up Next - AUSTRALIA!

Malaysia - Our first week - March 30 to April 6

Here is the view from our window at the hotel. The blue chairs along the bottom left are around one of the pools.

On our first night, we had a great Chinese dinner with a Malysian family. Scott works with Albert, and he and his wife have three boys. Daniel and Joshua actually ate very well - lots of rice and pork.

The boys are slowly getting better about the beach. At first they both cried about the wet sand and hot sand and sand in shoes and....you get the picture. Now they have fun building castles (Daniel builds and Joshua destroys). They also like to jump over the bigger waves and catch hermit crabs.

We had a great dinner at Satay Zul on Friday night. Daniel loved the Satay - meat on a stick. I loved the peanut sauce (unfortunatley) and Joshua liked to run around and check out every other table in the place. The picture is him tasting my coconut drink. The place itself looks very scetchy - but very good food and friendly people. We ate and drink as much as we could and the total bill was around seven dollars. The best fresh sqeezed orange juice we´ve ever had was only forty cents.

Today - Sunday - we took a walk to the pedestrian area just next to the hotel. There is a bridge that runs along the coast with a great view of the beach and walkways up into the forest\jungle area. Monkeys were playing near one end along with one of the huge lizards. And of course, there is a playground that the boys loved. They don´t even realize how much they stand out from the Malaysian kids playing with them.

Malaysia - First few days

I´ll have to add pictures later, but here are a few of the happenings during our first three days here:

The plane ride was not so bad (of course, I sat in buisiness class while Scott and the boys sat in economy).

Our hotel is awesome, we have a view of the beach, which is only a few yards from our window. When we walked from the hotel to the shops and food places next door, we were feet away from fifty or so monkeys (yes, the kids and I are wanting to take some home). They also have the hugest lizard\iguana creatures I´ve ever seen. There are great pools here for the kids and a few playgrounds, so we´ve been keeping busy.

On our first night, a friend of Scott´s from work took us to a "zoo" with two of his three kids, and then we met his wife and youngest son for dinner. The ride was a bit nerve racking, seeing how we had four kids and myself in the backseat of a small car. I was the only one with a seat belt and the oldest child (only five) never stayed still the whole time. The zoo was interesting, seeing how we were the only ones impressed with the free roaming monkeys everywhere, yet a peacock was locked up...You are able to literally reach through the bars and pet all the animals, even the bear (not that everyone was or that it was encouraged). Very different than in The States or Europe. Dinner was great - five boys, five and under. Family style servings and an outdoor setting (we would call it a carport).

The last two days have been fun as well. Scott has been working, but the boys and I have been keeping busy at the pool, beach, playground, etc... We all have a little bit of pink\tan color now! We have the same plans for the next three days. Rough, huh? I´ll write more soon!

March - Ellen's Trip to Paris - NO KIDS!

For three days and two nights, I was able to do a trip without kids! Scott was nice enough to take a day off of work and hang out with the boys for two nights solo.

Katie and I took a train (the moring she flew into Frankfurt) to Paris and spent the three days doing as much tourist things as possible while still getting our fill of wine and coffee. It's so nice to sit and enjoy a drink at my own pace - not the pace my kids set!




Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal. This is Katie, about to lose her umbrella outiside of the Louve.

I threw my umbrella away later that same day.