October Update

Since April, we have been in the market for a second vehicle.  Initially we were looking for something just a year or two old, that would last us 10+ years.  Every time we found one we liked, it would sell before we even got a chance to see it.  Then we found out we were having twins, and started entertaining the idea of a van.  The few we found were either overpriced, or sold quickly (like within a day or two of being listed.)  Car shopping here is not fun.  Then we started looking into SUV's as a short-term vehicle; it turns out they all have bad gas mileage. I was getting desperate.  Hyrum works 30 minutes away, so any time I needed the car (grocery shopping, visiting teaching, doctors appointment) I had to drop off Hyrum at work, then pick him up.  (Two extra hours of driving for me.) The weekend of General Conference we finally found a car.  The second I saw it I called Hyrum to look at the listing, because I did NOT want it to slip through our fingers.  Within 5 minutes I was talking to the dealership, and two days later we bought it.

Except buying cars is as un-fun as shopping for cars...  it involved over a week of paperwork (both on-post and with the local government), registration, inspection, more paperwork, another inspection.  We didn't get the keys for over a week, and it's still operating with a temporary registration.  But we have two cars! And it's even better than I could have hoped.  Having one car worked great when we had no kids and Hyrum worked 10 minutes away, and especially when he was deployed... but a second car was long past due.  We'll have to squeeze 3 car seats back there in the short term until we move back to the states and buy a van, but I'll take it.

I might have mentioned before, but after going 4.5 years with no weddings in our family, half of my siblings decide to get into serious relationships just in time for me to miss all the weddings.  Fortunately, my engaged sister decided to get married early enough that I could come.  (Doctor says no traveling at Christmas time.)  We decided to plan a family trip to the states in  November instead of December, and a few days ago we spent a small fortune on plane tickets.  Actually, it was much less than I was anticipating, so I can't complain.  And compared to the cost of buying a car, it's mere pennies!

We had our ward trunk-or-treat at the church, which was a good chance for Tiago to trick-or-treat since I don't think we'll take him out on Halloween.  (The street we live on is mostly Germans.)  Hyrum always loves the opportunity to wear his graduation gift: a muscle-man costume and Super Hyrum cape.  Tiago was a gnome, and surprised us by wearing his hat and beard all night.  I thought we'd have to take a quick, forced picture and then have a costume-less child all night.

He loves the idea of Halloween candy.

In non-picture related news, I have made several pumpkin recipes lately.  Besides obligatory pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, I branched out and tried my hand at a pumpkin roll (it was okay, but I've had better) and pumpkin soup.  The soup is a keeper, or at least a recipe I'll bring back next fall. 

I also nearly chopped off the end of my thumb, and found myself googling whether or not I needed stitches.  (Google was leaning towards no, so I didn't worry about it.)  Chopping onions always makes my eyes water so much that I was trying to hurry and get it done before I had to take a break and wipe away tears.  I think it's the first finger chop in my 28 years, though. 

19 Weeks

In the last 2-3 weeks I've started showing, and in a very noticeable way.  A few people have told me I look small, considering I'm having twins, but I think people equate twins with just being huge, regardless of how far along they are.  There is plenty of time for people to think I'm huge.  

I have the same problem I had last time around:  after surviving my first trimester with virtually no eating, I want to eat everything.  For example, we had ice cream in the freezer for months, and in my head I always thought, "I should want to eat that, but I don't."  So once I wasn't sick, I made myself eat some just based on principle.  But now it's getting out of control and I need to start setting limits for myself.  Grace period: over.  [except for Halloween candy...]

I ordered an expensive double stroller, but everyone says its a great stroller and worth the money so I hope they're right!  Next up: two more car seats and eventually another bed.  Babies aren't cheap.  I suppose that's why God makes them so cute.

This is obviously a second pregnancy, because I have no picture to post.  I need to take one soon though because every day I feel so much bigger.  

10 Things about our trip to Berlin

Our most recent trip was to Berlin.  So in no particular order, here are 10 things about our trip.

1. It only added an hour to our drive to stop by the Freiberg temple on the way.  It's been a blessing to have two temples within 3 hours.  Frequently, we can combine a temple trip with another trip and avoid unnecessary driving time.

2.  A lot of the time we were in Berlin we were on the East German side, and there's not really a noticeable difference.  When we drive through Germany, I've always found it pretty obvious when we leave the cute Bavarian towns where we live and enter the former east side that's full of ugly concrete apartment buildings.  Berlin has done a great job of modernizing the whole city and restoring parts that were destroyed in the east.  We walked along the East Side Gallery, which is a mile-stretch of the wall that's still standing and has been turned into a street gallery.  

The wall was not very thick at all.

A little Colombian love.

Twice on Saturday we ran into our friends from church.  Small world.  

3. Berlin is full of several huge, ornate buildings.  An obvious one to visit was the Reichstag (the government building).  We also visited "Museum Island" which is a piece of land enclosed by a river on all sides.  It has several world class museums, which we weren't interested in entering, but enjoyed from the outside.  [I've reached a point where it takes a lot to get me inside a museum.  I didn't research enough beforehand to find one of particular interest, so we skipped them all.]  The architecture was great though.  Unfortunately, a lot of the area was under construction so it was a hassle to see what we wanted.  [Museum Island is in the east, and a lot of it was destroyed and looted after WWII, but it's all been restored and you'd never know any different.]

The Reichstag.

The Berliner Dom, on Museum Island.  It was built to be the German, Protestant version of St Peter's Basilica.

Altes Museum, Museum Island

Alte National Gallery, Museum Island

Bodemuseum, Museum Island

4. RAIN!  On Saturday it rained SO hard.  We've been rained on in London and Amsterdam, but not quite this bad.  We wrapped Tiago in Hyrum's raincoat and bought a second huge umbrella.  We managed to stay mostly dry, but it's definitely not as fun to walk around in the rain as it is when the sky is clear.  Fortunately, Sunday was much better.  In general, it was colder than what was forecasted.  Overall, I felt unprepared with what I packed... I hate when that happens!

Trying to stay dry at the Brandenburg Gate.

 5. Tiago travels well.  He didn't cry much in the car, and was pretty content in his stroller during the day.  He got out to play at a shopping mall (when it was raining) and at a few different parks.  Luckily Hyrum has the energy to run around and chase him, while I just sit on a bench and watch.  [Just as a note, Tiago does not travel well when it comes to sleep!  The first night when it took an hour to get him to sleep I told myself we were never traveling ever again.  The next two nights went better since he was so sleep deprived during the day.]

These two dressed alike on Friday night because Colombia was playing that night (soccer game).

One of the rare (short) naps in the stroller.

First time watching fish.  He was probably confused by the glass, water, animals, etc...

A entire apple slice shoved into his mouth--his choice, not mine.

There was a chalkboard wall at the mall, and Tiago had so much fun watching all the kids who were around.

6. We managed to cross off all the things on Hyrum's travel wish list: Colombian food and a soccer stadium.  We toured through Olympic Stadium where the historic games were held back in 1936 during the Nazi era.  The stadium has been updated, and the 2010 World Cup was also held there.  Seeing the huge green field doesn't excite me quite like it does Hyrum, but seeing the rest of the stadium was interesting.  Definitely older looking than most stadiums, in a historic (not decrepit) way.

Ajiaco, criole potatoes, and empanadas.  Plus, delicious fruit milkshake drinks.

That's the sign where you can see all the races Jesse Owens won.  

7. We saw the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday in the rain, and again on Sunday night.  Berlin was having a festival of lights, where they illuminate several buildings with changing artwork.  We hung around until dark and walked through the center and actually didn't see as many buildings as we'd expected.  (Shame on us for not getting a map.)  But the Gate was lit up.  This gate used to be just to the East of the wall, so basically inaccessible during the whole Cold War.

8. The ward we went to on Sunday was great.  Because it's such a diverse ward (covers all of central Berlin) they have translation into several languages.  It's always easier to enjoy a meeting when you understand what's being said.  Plus, they had their old free-standing church building just next to the Tiergarten, which we explored afterwards.  The Tiergarten is the Central Park of Berlin.  Right in the middle is the Siegessäule, or Victory Column, which is over 100 years old.  Hyrum climbed up to the top (I think nearly 300 steps), and I sat on the steps and waited.     

The Brandenburg Gate is right at the end of this road.

In the Tiergarten.

9.   We ate good food, so good that we didn't usually think to take a picture till it was gone.  I think because we're familiar with German food we were more adventurous in wanting to try other cuisines.  Berlin has plenty.  We stopped for Indian food, and ended up with good stuff despite not being able to read the menu.  Mangolassi is always a good idea.  One afternoon as we headed to the East Side Gallery we saw a crowd gathered around a burger stand.  Hyrum commented about that being a cool place to hang, but I recognized the name of the place from my restaurant research on TripAdvisor.  I think Burgermeister was in the top few "cheap" restaurants.  So we stopped for a burger.  It was good, but would have been better if we'd asked for 'no jalepenos!'  Hot!

10. There are two other places we visited that I'm lumping together into #10.  Checkpoint Charlie was interesting to see, but full of people and cars trying to run us over.  Very touristy.  And the Jewish Memorial was very different than most memorials I've seen--just concrete slabs in varying heights.  Again, it was pouring when we saw both of these, so we mostly just looked, and kept walking.

We left Monday after eating our hotel's breakfast... and were home within 4 hrs!