Henry on Amtrak

Here is a picture of Henry enjoying the view from an Amtrak train. These train voyages were probably the biggest traveling challenge of our summer. Thanks to various delays, the trip took 26 hours going from Illinois to New York and 22 hours coming from New York back to Illinois. We had some difficult moments, like when George woke up happy and noisy around 4 a.m., but really the kids survived fine.

Our Zurich Apartment

We stayed in our Zurich apartment for three weeks. When Jeremy found our apartment, he warned me that it was so nice it might leave me dissatisfied with our real apartment. I love our home, but wow! It was beautiful there. This first picture is the view from our breakfast nook.

Here are Theodore and Henry taking a jet-lagged nap in the master bedroom.

This is the breakfast nook in the early morning.

Jeremy did a lot of work at the dining room table. We never actually ate there!

Instead we ate on the balcony, where we could enjoy the herbs growing...

and take in a great view of the church across the street.

This is the kitchen.Thomas enjoyed eating corn flakes and shelf-milk in the morning. The taste is a little different, but I found it quite handy to pick up a big six-pack of milk and keep it in the cupboard. 

I was a little worried about not having soft carpet to put Henry on, but he really didn't mind. 

I was somewhat baffled at the oven controls at first, but we figured it out. 

Here are the light switch and power outlet.

This is a little office area in the bedroom upstairs.

Our entryway had this pretty mirror. In it, you can see our spiral staircase to the upstairs bedrooms.

This little scene hung in the stairwell outside our door.

Our apartment covered the third floor and attic of this house. We were happy to find it! It took a few weeks just to locate somewhere that would let us all stay, and we were so lucky to get to stay in such a beautiful place.

Green River Lakes

Sailboats

I took Angela and Thomas to a pond in Central Park where one can rent a remote control sailboat. It allows you to control the rudder, and the looseness of the sail. It took a few minutes to get the hang of.

They both loved it whenever they were the one controlling the boat, but got bored when it was the other person's turn.

We had to set a rule that your turn was over early every time you hit the wall with the sailboat. By the end though, everyone was getting pretty good at it.

To Chicago

Our trip from Springfield to Chicago was on Amtrak, followed by Amtrak to NYC. We got to spend 7 hours in Chicago before our next train.

The train to Chicago was only four hours, so the boys had fun.

 Chicago is serious about hot dogs, and they were delicious. There were warning signs that it is considered very impolite to add ketchup to a Chicago hot dog.

Intrepid Aircraft Carrier

Thomas and George picked their favorite Aircraft while we toured the Intrepid aircraft carrier museum floating in the Hudson River.

Thomas thought the AWACS plane was pretty neat.

George preferred helicopters, especially the one with the eyes and teeth.

All Saints' Abbey

During our hiking in the Black Forest near Oppenau Germany, we stopped at the ruins of All Saints' Abbey.

The new chapel is visible through the ruins, but they still use the ruins themselves for meetings and theatrical productions, based on the chairs and stage set up there.

 Near the ruins is a memorial for members of the local hiking club, the Black Forest Assocation. There are 90,000 members in the club, and it was founded in 1864.

Staten Island

Yesterday we took a trip on the Staten Island Ferry. It is huge, free, and awesome. 

Here is the view of Manhattan from Staten Island.

And here is George. If you look really really really closely at this picture, you can see the Statue of Liberty.

Staten Island is not particularly tourist-friendly. It's mostly residential, and after being in Manhattan it feels like you're way out in the country somewhere. We did find the SI museum, though. I got in for $5 and the kids were free. It is small, cheap, and awesome. Some of its' collection has been around for 130 years! They had a great selection of bugs, some fossils, an old diving suit, and a very nice lady who helped us.

Here is a bit of New York Harbor. 

And here is George, pointing out the Statue of Liberty on the way back.

Here she is.

After we returned to Manhattan we bought some apples to eat and chased the birds for a while. 

Scooting Child

Here is Henry a couple of weeks ago, practicing. He started scooting while we were in Zurich. Now it almost counts as an army crawl. This kid wants to move.

We are keeping the Legos off of the floor now.

From Thomas: What we did at the Monkey park

 this picture fit's with the one below 

 these 2 Monkeys are next to a log

 this is a field for Monkeys

 this is George feeding a Monkey

 this one looks like it's fat

 this one is on a log

 this is me climbing

2 of the things that you can't see in this  is (one of the things is in the picture on top) a thing that has hanging wood(you try to get across)








From Mommy: The name of this park is "La Montagne des Singes." It was incredible! As we went in, they handed the grownups a handful of popcorn and gave everyone a crash course in how to safely feed macaques. (Only give the monkeys the park's popcorn. Hold your hand out flat. Don't touch the monkeys. Don't feed babies or moms with babies. Don't shout. Keep your popcorn stash in your hand, not your bag or pocket. Hold little kids' hands.) The popcorn is a very small part of their diet, but they enjoy it. They will come over and pick it up out of your hand. It was amazing to get to be so close to them.

Outside the park there is a fun climbing playground. Thomas was in heaven there. I think he actually forgave Jeremy for making him leave the monkeys.