OMG. Internet.

Seriously though, I'm pretty excited about this internet bit.

So I have successfully survived two weeks of what my dad called preparation for "no trace camping" in Sweden. Okay, so we had to "let yellow mellow" which is strictly against my personal policy and my fingernails were dirty beyond any attempt to clean them and the bugs were absolutely everywhere (did you know that snails eat raspberries?!)... but besides that, it really was a nice time! Esther (the mom) has two brothers, Jugend and Joachim, who joined us for the vacation and it was really nice to get to know them as well as the family. The weather was either warm and beautiful and perfect or completely wet and rainy, but regardless we managed to have a really nice time. Oh, minus a tic bite. NOT my favorite part of the trip.

What was nice is that the kids finally settled down. I talked with the parents one night and expressed my concerns that the kids were constantly crying to get their way. The parents agreed that it was a bit too much, but also reminded me that the kids were in a new environment without established boundaries and so it would take some getting used to. PLUS, Simon was determined to not wear his diaper which was only mostly successful (he wants to be grown up like his sister, but doesn't realize that his sister has developed bladder control both during the day AND night) and his parents had forgotten his binky which he still used at night. SO, it was a bit of a big stretch for him. Honestly though, once we settled into a bit of a rhythm the kids really were much better. Most evenings involved Simon coming out of bed because he had "bauch schmerz" (tummy ache) which was really his way of getting to sleep in his parents' bed, and when he was unsuccessful would think of as many things as possible to not go to bed. He would give up eventually, but was not pleased that adult life continued after he went to bed.

What was even nicer (yes, I think it outranks non-screaming children) was seeing DANIEL! YAAAY! It was so fun to see him, and the kids were DOLLS around him. Truly, they were on their best behavior I've seen yet and they absolutely adored him. He liked them okay, too ;) I found it funny that they got along so well without speaking a word of the same language (okay, not true- Sara knows how to say "yes" and "hello") but Daniel said that they spoke with "body language" - ie, him picking them up and spinning them in circles or growling at them like a lion, causing them endless boughts of giggles and fascination. I have the CUTEST picture of Sara and Daniel when we picked blueberries :) Daniel and I adventured around Stockholm where we took lots of pictures, ate lunch in an Irish pub (who knew it would feel so good to see the English language again!?) and went to Gröna Lund, Stockholm's theme park. Daniel got joy out of my fear of heights on the roller coasters, I got fear out of his eating hot dogs that fell on the ground, and we were both horrified and entertained at the fact that we had to be secured AND released from one of the rides as the fat Americans we both are. So depressing, SO funny. (For the record, it was only on the one ride and we were NOT the biggest people there. At ALL.) So, I think he's pretty great and think he should totally come to Germany before going back to the States... ;D

Um, I need to figure out medications, a cell phone, my bank card (I was expecting to receive a debit card from my new bank in the mail and instead received a sticker with a pin code?), and put all of my things away from Sweden. And probably some other things, too.

OH. I need advice on uploading photos online. Flickr has a pretty small limit unless you pay what I think is a little too big of a fee. Is snapfish any better? Is there another venue, or should I continue to sharing only via facebook?

Liebe Grüße,
~Julia~