The Big Move!

July 6th, around midnight, the decision was made to leave Fifi with Grandma and Grandpa Brack, until we had a better travel itinerary. Since we left, Fifi has joined Facebook. We keep in touch with her there, if you are on FB befriend her (Fifi Hendrickson) and you too can randomly follow the day to day life and ramblings of a cat.



Our travel began at 3:30 a.ma. on July 7th. We drove to Baltimore, MD where we relaxed and swam while Erik dropped off the Jeep to be shipped. We flew out of BWI, landed in Chicago, switched flights and traveled through time to Germany. Landed in Frankfurt, were picked up and brought to Heidelberg. Jet lag of 6 hours.

We stayed at Army Lodging which is in the Patrick Henry Village. PHV is out of town and away from public transportation, but has our Commissary, library and most of the kid activities, including the Middle School and the larger of the two Elementary schools. There is also a movie theater, bowling alley, put-putt, Burger King and stuff like that. There is a gigantic playground just across from lodging. The kids loved this!

Waited for housing assignment, for a week. They had a 3 bedroom for us at Patrick Henry but we really wanted to be on Mark Twain, so we gave up a bedroom. It will actually work out okay because we gained 100 sq. ft from the apartment at Patrick Henry. As we were waiting for deliveries a 3 bedroom opened up in our stairwell, but housing would not let us move. Though we were disappointed, we really like our stairwell and will make our 2 bedroom work.

Erik and I both got our drivers licenses the first 2 weeks we were here, then we were lucky enough to have someone loan us their car for a few weeks. Ours has since arrived and we are grateful!

Graham has been atteneding SAS Camps, which are camps through the Army, Child and Youth Services. They are excellent! The first week he visited Gutenberg Castle where they had animal displays and a bird show. He claims an angry German in the front row got their money back because one of the birds pooped on their his head. They went to Lochnuhle amusement park near Frankfurt where the kids can power some of the rides. He also went on a river cruise on the Neckar River, where he saw 3 more castles! The next week they went to the Frankfurt Zoo, and to the arts and crafts center where he painted a ceramic ornament.

Since it has been several weeks since I started this post, I will add updated pictures of the apartment soon!