The Meyer Family » News

Europe 2011 – Days 1-5

kit — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:05:08 +0000

We made it to Frankfurt early Saturday morning. The kids did well on the flight we were lucky that we booked far enough in advance, sat at the bulk head seats and they had some space to stretch. We picked up our rental car, which is a Volvo wagon, and headed to Heidelberg, Germany. Once in Heidelberg we meet up with our friends the Ramsier Family.

We stayed at Residenz Heidelberg, www.residenze-heidlberg.de. We had a cute modern apartment that overlooked side streets. Saturday night was one of only three days a year that the city hosts a fireworks display and lights up a large castle in the city red like it is burning in remembrance of the three times the castle caught fire. The fireworks were amazing! There is no way to describable the sound of them in the valley echoing off the water of the river running through town. They were shot off an old bridge and even straight out of the river.

Sunday we toured the castle and took a short boat ride on the river, we ended the day with an ice cream and time playing at a playground with a very tall slide!

Monday we headed into France, on the way we stopped at Boden Boden, Germany and had a picnic lunch in the rain and walked around the town. In the process we got a little lost and ended up walking for over an hour to get back to the car. We all became thankful for Drew’s need to get Internet on his German phone, which we had been hassling him about for the prior three days. After entering France the roads were really curvy and Bryson ended up getting carsick (this was the second time since he threw up just outside of Fortuna when we were leaving!) We arrived at Chateau d’ Alterville about 5:30pm and we were greeted by the most amazing host, David, after getting settled we headed to a pizza place in Dieuze called Antonella. This was an experience to say the very least, but the pizza was amazing.

Monday started with a yummy breakfast at the chateau, which included homemade croissants and homemade jam made from white plums. We hit road to see Nancy. We enjoyed the street cafes, town center with gold statuary and had a picnic in a city park. In France the businesses close from 12-2 and the people are out eating and enjoying the day.

We headed to Metz for the rest of the day. We started by seeing Cathedral, the outside was breath taking and once we entered Nallia said “WOW!” We took another walking tour with unintended loops around

the city. When we tried to find dinner we confirmed that the French don’t eat dinner until after 7pm so we stopped for crapes and Nallia charmed the woman making the crapes. The woman had just a bit of batter left after we all ordered and made a little one just for Nallia. We were lucky to find another pizza place just as it started to pour rain and even got an English speaking waitress. With full bellies and the sun still shining we headed over an old bridge and stumbled upon a playground next to a castle ruin. This was not a tourist spot but just in the city next to apartment buildings. It had the fastest slide and since it was wet from the rain the kids all had a blast. Just as it got dark we headed to car with about an hour drive back to the chateau.

Today we woke up late and rushed to breakfast to find yogurt in small glass jars and more wonderful jam. The jam was labeled and as we were trying to figure out the flavors when the woman behind us explained she makes this jam. She was another guest and explained all the flavors. I loved what I think was a ginger pear and Drew had seconds (or thirds) or strawberry without seeds. I tried the green tomato with lemon, worth the try but I am not sure I loved it. www.confituresduclimont.com. We were going to stop at her factory, but again French businesses are closed from 12-2. Although this jam would have been worth the side trip!

This morning we said goodbye to the Ramsiers as they head back Leipzig and we head to Munich. It was amazing to see them and hear all about the ten months they have been living in Germany. We are so happy for them but excited they will once again be a few miles away in the near future. Bryson has already had the experience of a lifetime hand in hand with a great friend.

So here we are waiting in a traffic jam to enter Germany. I can’t believe this part is over and we still have so much to do and see.

90 Days and Counting

kit — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 06:27:53 +0000

We are slowly planing a wonderful summer of traveling adventures. We have just 90 days until we leave for Europe! It will the first time for both kids will be out of the country. We plan to spend about three weeks traveling within Germany. So far we are meeting friends to tour some castles and meeting up with my (Kit’s) family for a wedding. In July we have some plans to spend a week in Southern California so I can attend a conference and the kids can hangout with their cousins. We also want to try to camp a few times with the friends and be outside as much as possible. Last we have a trip back to Hawaii in the works for November! What an amazing life, I am thankful everyday for the time we all get to be together and all of our adventures.

A few weeks ago we went on a nice family hike around Trinidad Head. It is great that we only had to carry the kids some of the time.

Riding a Bike!

drew — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:30:14 +0000

We have been encouraging Bryson to ride his bike. When he found out his friends were riding without training wheels he got out a wrench and tried to take them off. With a little help he has a two wheeler. Fast forward a couple of months and watch the video.

riding_a_bike.mov

Bryson has something to say!

drew — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:19:29 +0000

June 28th is the due date and Bryson is conviced he is going to have a sister!

This week in the land of Meyer…

kit — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:35:23 +0000

Well I will have to say we almost missed posting this week. We were off in Sacramento for the weekend and last week Di (my sister) was out for a short visit during her spring break. Di’s visit was just 4 days but full of her, B and Dru being sick but it was still fun to have some sister time together. We just did my same old stuff, went to a doula meeting, playgroup and worked with my business counselor. I didn’t subject her to my cleaning every morning and I am still trying to recover!

Just before my sister got here on Tuesday I managed to lock myself out of the house, with Bryson in it. NOT GOOD! Luckily I was on the phone so I had it outside with me and Bryson was strapped in the high chair. Drew had to break away from work, but he was home in about 8 minutes!! Just another time to be thankful that we don’t live in a large city where Drew would drive far to work. All was ok when I got back inside, I am sure I was more frazzled than B but we are happy to say the next day our new door lock came for the front door, it is an electronic lock so I will never be locked out again. YEH!

Bryson is learning so fast! We can bareley keep up with his signs and new discoveries. He has now mastered Fish in ASL, can say duck (NOT to be confused with dog) and what his little friend, G, will just love is he now yells FOOTBALL at the site of a football. While yelling this he also shows his “pump fake” with what ever hand is free. We are working on a more organized eating and sleeping schedule just for some sanity but otherwise all is well. Bryson has seemed to fall in love with oatmeal cookies and organic rice bars and although they are better than the conventional we still would prefer he eats fruits and veggies so were are stepping up our parent game since it had gotten a little lazy with my family here and with everyone being sick in the last month.

Our trip to Sacramento this week was wonderful and our stay at Chateau de Bjers was GREAT. It included all of my must haves, a dip in the hot tub, B and I went swimming in an outdoor a pool heated to 90 degrees, I got to eat outside in the sun (not Humboldt gray skies, real hot sunburning sun) and Emily’s food, including onion dip. My nephews, Ryan and Eric, seemed to really enjoy Bryson now that he runs and talks more, Ryan (age 4) was great and sharing his toys and Eric (age 10) was wonderful with letting B climb all over him. We stopped at Ikea on the way back and ended up picking out a desk for me that I am now able to sit and work at, which should be a good thing… I hope. We then headed to Redding and B ate his first Chipotle… pics are soon to come on the website. If you don’t know Chipotle is my favorite restaurant and has been for about 12 YEARS.. so it is great to see that cool taco place spread from Denver all the way to Redding, now if we could just get one on Airport Rd and 101!!! Drew will post more pics soon!! K

Weekly Update…

kit — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:09:23 +0000

Ok its Kit- I normally post a weekly update on my family’s forum and e-mail it to some friends but Drew has now given me a precious password so I can post it on his blog..This week ahs just been wonderful! I can not ask for anything more. The house is looking really good. We have siding on half of two sides and all around the back of the house. The contractors cleaned the gutters on Friday in the rain so they look brand new! Drew was in Anaheim Wednesday through Saturday and since I have a client due on the first we through it would be great to have my mom out and we were so lucky she was able to be here all week. We spent most of her visit at home just cleaning and playing with Bryson but it was nice and relaxing for me to be able to sit for a minute or not have to do all the dishes and I think my laundry basket was actually empty at some point this week. As we were out and about on Friday I ran into Restoration Hardware (for those of you who don’t know, Restoration Hardware started in Eureka!) and I found the perfect address numbers for our house. I have been searching for them for years, I have looked there but I guess I never saw those ones or thought they would cost to much or something, anyway they are sitting in the house ready for our contractor on Monday, but I bet they wont be up for a few more weeks since we still need siding on the font and paint on the whole house.Bryson has been the joy you think of when you think of a two year old, teething on a really long plane ride! He has recently become the destroyer! In the past three days he has torn chunks out of his foam fort, ripped up a board book, and just now he colored a nice picture with permanent marker on the bamboo floor! Oh the joy! I am happy to report that he has picked up a few more signs including book, bath, help, bye and please. I have seen him do them all a few times but it is not as reliable as more, eat and Trixie.Although he is more and more like a wild boy everyday Drew and I both feel so thankful to have Bryson in our lives and really feel like we are just getting to know him as he can communicate more and more.Well we are off to watch a late NASCAR Race and hope the gutters on the house make it through the rest of this storm (two of them are already off and in the back yard)

One more month til Bryson’s a year old, but for now he’s 11th months old!

drew — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:38:06 +0000

This month has been a big month for Bryson. He is starting to walk, any day now he might walk unassisted . He has mastered the army crawl and is starting to work on his “on all fours” crawl. When he isn’t crawling he walks (while holding anything solid) and he can get from point a to point b in no time. Kit still wants to wait on cutting his hair, but is now starting to get into his eyes, let alone being out of control! His personality is really starting to show. He loves to smile and laugh. The baby babble is constant and I think we have a music lover on our hands. When ever he hears music he starts to dance, bobbing his head and bouncing his body. Trixie and Bryson have started to bond. Trixie is patient while Bryson crawls, grabs, drools on her. As always check out his new pictures. And look below for some more videos!

10 Months and almost walking

drew — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:16:03 +0000

Tooth count =8
Bryson is 10 months old today! This has been a big month for the little guy. We didn’t get enough traveling last month so we went to Lake Tahoe for a 1 week vacation and then back to Sacramento for a few days. All the cousins were there and we had lots of time to play. Bryson loved the pool, had a good time on the power boat and didn’t really like the sail boat. He was able to have his first bike ride, however he slept the whole time. If traveling wasn’t enough Bryson got four more teeth this month to make a total of 8! Some time around the end of July, Bryson started to push his toys around and has been practicing walking. We think he will be walking without help in the next month or two. Bryson was also able to help celebrate his moms birthday, during the celebration he enjoyed rice and carrots at the Japanese restaurant. This past weekend, we all went to the county fair and watched the horse races and tried to eat a turkey leg (check out the picture!). You might notice in some of the pictures that Bryson white blond hair needs a trim (it’s getting out of hand), however mommy wants to wait for his first birthday.

Of course, new Pictures of Brysons adventures have been uploaded. Check them out.

8 Months and Three Teeth Later

drew — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:03:24 +0000

Bryson is growing and growing… This month we saw his first tooth, then in a few days he got another, and about 2 weeks later a third arrived. Its a good thing, because Bryson started eating lots more, he loves Kamoot (like puffed rice), most baby foods, and we have started to let him nibble on some fruits and veggies. His personality is really starting to show, he loves to clap, is starting to wave, and is very outgoing (loves to flirt). This month we had visits by Emily, Sean, Ryan, and Grandpa Dave. As usual updated pictures are ready for you to look at.

7 Months and Ready to Crawl

drew — Sat, 12 May 2007 02:56:50 +0000

Bryson turns 7 months old on Mothers Day! Not too many pictures this months, but boy did Bryson have fun in the bathtub! Thanks Aunt Emily and cousin Ryan for the bathtub safety seat. He also mysteriously turned from his back to his stomach while he was sleeping, a new milestone. We see the beginnings of crawling and he loves to stand (with help of course). This month we had another first, the first all family illness, Kit, Bryson and I all had colds at the same time. Bad news for those who wanted Bryson to be a vegetarian, he had some turkey and chicken in the past few days. He loved it. Check out the latest pictures.