Prague, Czech Republic

We made our 5th Hard Rock Stop while in Europe. Prague has the largest one in Europe complete with a guitar chandelier in the middle.

The astronomical clock in the Old Town Square. Every hour on the hour a trumpet plays and some of the figures move about. There is a huge crowd gathered under it each time it strikes top of the hour.

This is a random picture but I wanted to show you how hard it is to read Czech. The last line is in German since it is also a common language spoke here. Atleast with the German you can attempt to decipher what is being advertised but that is not the case with most of the Czech language. Fortunately for us, English is very common here as well as posted often.

A view of the Charles Bridge. It connects the Old Town to the Prague Castle. There are many staues like the one below that line the bridge. During the day there are painters, souvenir vendors, musicians awaiting the tourists that are drawn to the bridge.

A view of the city from the Prague Castle. We took the short tour that included the Old Royal Palace, the Basilica, St. Vitus's Cathedral and Golden Lane.

 Basilica of St George

St. Vitus's Cathedral

At the beginning of Golden Lane where all the goldsmiths sold their goods. James and Macen went up the stairs here to an area filled with armor.

We walked up this to the castle. Let me tell you, it's much easier on a very pregnant lady to go down it then come up it.

From the castle we went to a restaurant highly recommended online. It is the restaurant of a brewery located right next to a monastary and we had read it was a beer lovers heaven. They serve a select few beers and James was impressed with them. He enjoyed the place and is willing to go back so he can buy some beer to bring home. Macen was thrilled his apple juice came with 2 straws, lol.

This is a brewery in Pilsen. We had every intention of doing the tour and then eating in the restaurant before heading home. However, as we were leaving Prague James was pulled over by Czech police and ticketed for entering an area where no cars are allowed. Apparently there was a sign stating this but it was hidden by a tree. And just so everyone knows, James has now gotten a speeding ticket in Germany and ticketed in Czech. We are thinking of heading to Austria sometime but we may have to take the train at James' rate :) So we just ate at the restaurant this time but will have to go back for the tour.

We are Comin' Home!!!!!

James has received unofficial word that he was accepted to SAMS (a school). We've been anticipating this announcement for months so finally some relief to know if we are moving or not.

*This means we are moving back to the states by the end of the year. WooHoo!
*This also means we are heading back to KS. We will only be there for a year but the timing is really great for us.

So we are pretty excited as visions of ice cream, restaurants, shopping, baseball and football games flash through our minds. We will miss plenty of things here most of which is the travel opportunities we won't get to experience but it comes with the territory of being a military family. 2011 is turning out to be a pretty big year for us!

Nurnberg Zoo

We took Macen to the zoo over the weekend and he was very excited.

 He was hesitant on feeding the goats but after watching dad doing it a couple of times, he got the courage. And then he kept wanting to feed them.

There is a kinderzoo where the goats are, cows, donkeys, bunnies, guinea pigs and pigs. Also in the area are several play structures. Macen wanted to go down this extremely tall slide where you basically had to wall climb to different levels to get to it. So up him and James went. It was a time consuming adventure but Macen loved it. James was a trooper and did it with him twice. Thankfully it was time for us to get some lunch after the 2nd time so James got a break.

New set of wheels...

for Macen. He got a bike more his size now that he is pedaling pretty good. He is still adapting but I think it'll be well used by the end of summer.

Kickin' off summer

We're kickin' off the summer months with a fest. I'm sure if we looked hard enough, we could find a fest every weekend now through the end of September. They are big over here and I think I have mentioned before that Macen loves them. This one was very small but it had everything Macen enjoys doing at them.

Macen has really taken to the fun houses. This one had a long slide off to the side that James was more than happy to go down with him.

This fest was in a town about 20 mins away and wouldn't you know Macen ran into a kid from his school. So they rode most of these rides together.

He's Home

After several delays in the day he was arriving as well as several changes in the time, James is home.

Macen was thrilled to see him. He kept saying before the soldiers marched in that this was going to be cool and then as each group entered the gym, Macen excitedly clapped with everyone. After a prayer from the chaplain and a 10 second speech from the boss, the soldiers were released. James didn't have too much trouble finding us this time. We had an obnxiously large guitar shaped balloon for him to identify us. (After James' 1st deployment, him and I spent a good 10 mins searching for each other in a large gym filled with many soldiers and family members. I wasn't going to let that happen again). The friends we sat with also had an off the wall balloon leaving us the only people in the gym with balloons that weren't 'Welcome Home' or red, white and blue. No way could he miss us.

We are enjoying a few days of quality time before James starts reintegration and then eventually work.

School Program

Macen's school had a program/fundraiser last weekend. They have been working on a theme of "A Trip Around the World" for several months now. The kids were divided into groups and represented different countries. Macen was in the group representing America so he was a firefighter for the his part of the skit.

Macen's group sang along to a song about firefighters. He did a great job!

After the program, there were activities set up for the kids. One of which was using a fire hose to knock over some cans. This one was a huge hit with all the kids. Another one was painting a snake on the kids arm/hand. Macen also loved this and named his - snake-co. He did not want to wash him off that night so it took some convincing. As I tucked him into bed that night he stated he missed snake-co and the next day Macen noticed we didn't get all the paint off the side of his arm. His reply was that snake-co was coming back to see him.