Oh the bags are packed....

10 pieces of luggage, 2 strollers, 2 carseats, 4 carryons, 2 kids, and 2 brave grandparents.

The little ones leave tomorrow. :(

The big family trip, part two.

Part one was about getting to and on our cruise ship. Here's part two: our first port day, Copenhagen!

Brian and I didn't do a ton of research on this port. Our "research" consisted of a quick Google search the night before we left. However, we found some good info during that Google search. One, there was a hop on/hop off bus service that would pick you up from the pier and take you around the city. Two, the little mermaid is vacationing in China for the summer.

So, using that information, we decided to take advantage of the bus service and got on one at the pier. From there, we hopped off at the Nyhavn stop, because it looked pretty.

Don't you agree?

There was a huge anchor in this area that Marion decided to pose with.



Girlfriend likes to pretend she is shy sometimes but don't let her fool you, she doesn't have a shy bone in that body of hers!

Next we wondered over to and up the Strøget (pronounced stroyet). It's the main shopping road in Copenhagen.

The first thing we saw was a Guinness World Records museum. Had to get a picture of Marion there.

There was a pretty fountain about halfway up...

...and a cute cafe that Marion found while on an "adventure" behind the Royal Copenhagen store.


We saw a lady stroller-pooling...

...and an invisible man.


And we saw this little guy outside of a shop.

Not sure what he is. Troll? Either way, Marion was not a fan.

We finally made our way over to Tivoli Gardens. Since we had Marion with us on this port day, we decided to let her have some fun at the second oldest amusement park in Europe.

Sadly, everyone else had the same idea so while Brian waited in line...

...I took Marion to the Build-a-Bear store directly next to the entrance of Tivoli. Well played BaB.

While I was following Marion around in the store, I noticed an interesting word in the Danish language.

See it? To the right of Start?

According to an online translator, it means "quit, finished, end, at an end, over" in Danish. Hahahaha. I love when you find weird little things like this amongst different languages.

But back to my family friendly trip post...

We got in to Tivoli and had a blast. There are some gorgeous buildings inside.


There are also some random peacocks running around.

And last but not least, rides. There were lots of rides.


This one was the big hit with the kids. It was a kidsize free fall ride. They rode it over,

and over,

and over again.

But then we dragged them away to do one ride on the carousel,

say hi to the little mermaid's twin since the real one was on holiday in China,

and go to the kick ass playground at Tivoli. Really, it was awesome.

After a little bit it was time to head back to the ship. Betti passed out in our borrowed backpack.

Marion was hyper as always while waiting for our bus.

But we found the bus and made it back to our ship in time. Not before I captured a moment between Brian and Betti.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Anyway, Copenhagen. I really liked it. I didn't get the sense that there was a ton to see and do for tourists but I'm glad we went.

Next stop aka part three: Warnemunde and Wismar, Germany!

The big family trip, part one.

We returned from our vacation last weekend and are busier than ever. There are more pieces to this move than I ever imagined. Every time I think of one thing to add to the list it ends up leading to three more items being added.

But screw all of that, I don't want to talk about it right now. Right now I want to tell you all about our trip! We spent almost two weeks on a cruise ship visiting the Baltic capitals. It was a great trip and this post is part one about it all!

Brian and I had never been on a cruise before but had heard great things about this one. So when friends of ours who are experienced cruisers mentioned that they were taking this cruise, we jumped at the opportunity to go too.

Since we didn't really know what to expect, we hedged our bets against all four of us sleeping in the same room and my tendency to get motion sickness and booked a mini suite with balcony. The room ended up being bigger than some hotel rooms I've had in Europe. Very nice.

Betti enjoyed playing behind the curtains and on the balcony.

We left from Dover, England. We could see the white cliffs and Dover Castle from the ship.

After finding our room on the ship, we explored and ended up in the main dining room for dinner.

Here's beautiful Betti.

And Marion. I was able to get this picture of her eyes, which I am forever trying to explain to people. Usually her eyes look brown but actually they are a bluish-greenish-gray with a brown sunburst in the middle. When her eyes dilate all you see is the brown. Other times, they look blue, or gray, or green. Very interesting. I've been debating for awhile what to call them for her new passport when it needs to get renewed. I think I will call them hazel.

During dinner, the exhaustion began to get to my three traveling partners.



We quickly bolted from dinner before making a scene and crashed back in our room.

The next day was an at sea day. We spent the day exploring the ship some more and shivering on the pool deck.

Betti enjoyed pushing the tables around.

Marion enjoyed dancing after they cleared the pool chairs off the deck later in the day.

Mommy enjoyed getting her nails done with Marion and watching Marion fall asleep because she was so tired.

Priceless.

Stay tuned for part two- Copenhagen!

Bern, need I say more?

I've been telling Brian how wonderful Bern is. So on Monday we spent the day in Bern and I finally had a chance to show him this great city!

We made a mistake in telling Marion where we were going and that bears would be there. So the entire ride down she was asking about the bears. Naturally, the bears were our first stop.

And look! Two new cubs! Marion was thrilled.

Betti, not so much.

I feel like I say this entirely too much on here about my youngest. Here's the deal with her- she is slow to react to things. She processes and processes and then wham! She hits you with a megawatt smile. I'm just too impatient to wait around to catch the smile part I guess.

Anyway, the new bear park. It is very nice!

Such an upgrade from the pit.

We continued our way through Bern to the Cathedral, stopping to take in the gorgeous scene over the front door and to go inside briefly.

A friend told me that this scene is about judgement and shows the mayor of Zurich going to Hell on the right and the mayor of Bern going to Heaven on the left. Apparently the two cities had a major rivalry.

Now I have no idea if that is true or not, but I like it anyway.

We continued up the main street, Marktgasse, and stopped at Einstein's apartment where he worked on the theory of relativity. Maybe it is because I am an engineer and Brian is an accountant, but we found that place way cool and learned some interesting tidbits. For example, did you know that most scholars believe that Einstein's first wife (who he met at university, go her!) was a partner in his work on relativity?

After managing to learn a little bit about Einstein while dealing with Marion in the tiny apartment, we headed over to the Bundesplatz in front of the Bundeshaus, Switzerland's parliament, to watch the fountains.

After watching some teenagers next to us, Marion decided to take her umbrella and head out to test her luck.






The first time she came back dry. The second time she was *this close* to getting a face full of water. She ran back to Brian, turned around to watch the fountains, and said, "Daddy, I don't think this is a good idea." :)

We ended our day at the park next to the Bern Munster on the riverfront. The sun came out while Betti snoozed in her stroller, Marion and Brian played on the playground, and I watched them all.



*sigh*

I'll miss you Bern.