8 Months old and a party to boot!

Today our princess turned 8 months old! Also, she was the guest of honor at the party thrown at Grammy's house with some of her family members, including her other great grandma. It was very special to celebrate her big day with so many people, especially ones she won't see often. Ken took lots of video and I can't wait till she is old enough to look back on it and ask questions.

The party was the main event today. We slept in more this morning, trying to rest her up as much as possible. After a lazy morning, she got all dolled up in her new dress and sweater. She knew how good she looked and smiled at very camera she saw. Hah.

Grammy got lots of wonderful food for the party, fruit and veggie trays, honey baked ham, blueberry pie, carrot cake, spinich salad, potato salad and chips and dip. The trays she ordered from this local shop were so fancy and pretty I took pictures of them.









Ariel handed herself pretty well under the circumstances. She got a little stressed at one point so Ken took her for a drive to mellow out. She slept for 45 minutes and awoke much fresher and was smiling again. A few people had her acting shy and she would cling to me, Ken or Grammy tightly.

We also got to take a 4 generation picture with Ken's mom, Yaya (grandma), Ken and Ariel. What a special keepsake that will be for Ariel. We also got to meet some of Grammy's friends from work/school. It was neat to put faces to names I have heard about for the past few years. Such lovely people all of them.

Ken's youngest cousins were there, and boy have they grown since we have seen them last. I do believe that Ryan is offically taller than Ken now, and Trevor is just as silly, maybe more so.

Ariel also got some more gifts from different members of the family. Lots of new books, some stuffed toys (one that plays music and sings) and another Grosse Pointe bib (a must have!). She loved the one that played music. It was so good, that the dog would walk by and she won't bat an eye. Wow. After days of the dog being the top toy, to have something take its place is quite something.

Tomorrow we are planning on a low morning for Ariel to regroup and then maybe off to play in town in the afternoon once Grammy drops Yaya off at the airport. Its strange to think we are pretty much half way through our vacation, its been so much fun.

We are back online!

You may notice that there are 3 new posts tonight, but technically I typed them out the past few nights, but finally am able to upload them. Huzzah! Ken, Dan and Brandon went to see that Aqua Teen movie tonight, but since Ariel was ready to crash, as was I, we opted to come back to the hotel to blog and watch the Food Network. Anyhoo, it was nice to see the sun today, but I saw that pesky snowflake symbol coming up on the sunday. Guess we will see. The wind was a bit cold, but compared to the past few days, it was pure heaven.

It was a lazy day of hanging around the house and the odd shopping trip. We went to see Dan working at the grocery store this morning. Tried to find my Stephen Colbert ice cream, but failed so far. Blah. Did find a few cute books for Ariel and an elmo bowl and plate set.

We dropped Grammy and Jonathan off at the house and went for a drive to get our much needed internet cord. We also picked up a gift for Natalie for taking care of our place, and I found the cutest BBQ stuffed toys for Ariel on clearance. TOO CUTE!

Dinner was Grammy's homemade chili, yum. Ariel was given her Daddy's old silver baby spoon to have. Very special indeed. She showed her thanks by banging it on the table. Haha. Her appetite has also increased, she is polishing off a jar and a half of food at lunch and dinner. I guess its all this crawling she is doing.

Ken's friend Brandon came for a visit after dinner. It was nice to see him again, and he and Ken always have deep discussions that can go on for hours. He decided to join Ken and Dan on the movie and that leads me to now... alone. Sniff. Kidding. I needed a break, time to relax, but I hear the princess waking up, so I shall leave you for tonight. Tomorrow is the big family party! Yay!

Mitten Memories

Back again to Grosse Pointe! Still having our internet issues, so again I am typing this and will need to upload it once we get our cable to hook up the computer. Apparently, the hotel only has one to share…. Um right…. We are going to buy our own tomorrow because me needs my internet (and my family needs to hear from me).

Had another fun filled day in Frankenmuth starting with breakfast at Oma’s restaurant… more lederhosen. Hehehe. Yummy. We checked out and went off exploring the local shops. Ariel was so happy and enjoying all the shopping and attention she was getting at every turn. Grammy bought her a cute baby doll at the toy shop. I bought a buttercream smelling candle, ooh, at this place called the Yankee Candle Company that Jonathan is obsessed with. Lovely candles.

We checked out the cheese shop were Ken’s new jeans set off the door alarm. Apparently those tags in clothes from places like the Gap are really bad at setting things off. We had to pull it out and cut it off in the store. We were all laughing, good thing it wasn’t me because I would have been beet red, Ken is tougher than me. Lunch was at this cute little diner were we had Ariel entertaining everyone. She was singing and basically making it hard not to laugh while we ate.










Then it was the Christmas store. DANG!!! That was the maybe the only thing that could maybe have me move to Michigan. I would happily work there, it was just huge. I got some really great things including a felt advent candle wreath for Ariel to learn with over the years. I found those uber cool Easter eggs, the ones that have things in each one to teach about the resurrection. Will be great for home and Sunday school. Also got some ornies for the family for next Christmas and one for us. A crab. I love when I can find a crab or lobster one, they are so strange that its awesome. Finally we got a Jesus stocking! Its to hang with our own stockings to remember that its is Jesus’ birthday after all and he shouldn’t be left out. Reminds me of the letter Pastor Dave read a few years ago at church.

Grammy bought some ornies for Ariel as well. She got a set of Sesame Street ones, an Irish baby one and a cute blue ceramic bear. I think she will be needing her own tree this year. She was in love with the sesame street ones and carried them out to the car.

We hit one of the outlet malls that was just outside of Frankenmuth. Jonathan had his heart set on visiting the kitchen shop there and so once its in his head, we can't change it. Worked out well because there was a super cute kids shop next door!

I haven't really ever been to an outlet mall, all I can say is talk about the deals! Grammy decided that she wanted to buy Ariel a special outfit for the family gathering on Saturday, so we found the cutest dress and matching sweater. Soooooo cute. The boys were pretty funny sitting in the front chairs looking extremely bored. Hah. Too bad. Girls need to shop!

On the drive back home, I think we all (except Grammy who was driving) napped. I learned I could fall asleep siting up. I forgot I could do that. We ordered pizza for dinner, it was great. A place I have never heard of, maybe it’s a small local place. Either way, there were no leftovers.

Dan taught Ken how to play guitar heroes. That was pretty funny at first, since Ken isn’t really one for video games. He got booed off the stage the first 2 tries, then seemed to find his stride and got through the ‘message in a bottle’ song. Looks really fun, maybe I will try it tomorrow myself.

After Ariel had done a few more laps of chasing the dog around the kitchen and learning to play the spoons with Uncle Dan, it was time to pack up and go back to our first hotel again. So this is where I leave you since the Daily show is on and Ariel is finally asleep. Here’s hoping you will be seeing this post tomorrow (Friday)….cross your fingers.

Germany in Michigan... who knew?

Greetings from Frankenmuth…. Well, I am technically writing this from my room at the hotel, but once again we are having internet issues. Blah. So, I will be uploading this when we get back to our hotel later tomorrow….hopefully.

Ariel had a great sleep in the hotel. She woke up briefly once but after a quick snuggle was back to sleep. We all got up around 830 so we could take part in the hotel’s free morning breaky. We got all packed up and checked out around 11ish. We then hit the post office to mail the binkie blanket, then went to a bank to exchange some Canadian money and get some papers signed for Ken in regards to his old bonds he is trying to access to. They signed the papers but wouldn’t exchange the currency. So Ken’s mom said there was another bank that would. When we did go, they wouldn’t do it for anyone who didn’t have an account at the bank. Good grief. Ken’s mom had to go in and do it for us, sheesh. No one wants our Canadian funny money… which is way prettier. Hah.

We left for Frankenmuth around 3pm once Dan got home from his class. The weather was kinda crappy, kinda a mix of rain and ice. We stopped at Arbys drive-thru for a snack. Some of us had straight fries and some of us had the curly fries (which by the standard if they aren’t straight must be gay right?) Yes, lame joke…. But what about a curly one in a bunch of straight ones? I shall leave that up to you. Frankenmuth is uber cool. We drove by the Christmas shop that we will visit tomorrow, its like a Costco. Imagine…. A christmas Costco….. dang airplane weight limits. Haha. The hotel is cute with all its little pointy roofs and traditional décor. All the rooms are named after German families, and they have the history of that family hanging with pictures in the rooms.








Once we got settled, we all went down to the pool for Ariel’s first swim!!! She was so cute in her little bathing suit. Hee. She loved it and was smiling and tried to push away from us like it was she knew what she was doing. I didn’t think she last so long, but she played for almost an hour without tiring. We had to keep passing her around like a hot potato. When everyone had called it quits, we went to change for dinner.

We went to the inn for dinner and all had the Family traditional chicken dinner. Oh man! It was soooooo good. We started with chicken soup and an assortment of salads (a navy bean, pasta, cranberry relish and coleslaw). Then came the chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, noodles and stuffing. If that wasn’t enough to fill you, then was a homemade ice cream in either vanilla or orange swirl. Oh, did I mention all the servers are in traditional outfits! Imagine men in the lederhosen taking your order. It was defiantly something you would remember.

We went to look at the gift shops under the restaurant, but since most were closed, we will go back tomorrow. Getting back to our room, Ariel was asleep, and we took the chance to let her sleep in the room with Grammy while we went for some games and a drink. We played in the fun room which was filled with games like at an arcade were you get tickets. I was awesome at the one were you punch duckies to tip them over. We collected enough tickets to win Ariel some cute, toy flowers. After that we joined Dan in the lamest lounge ever, with good ol’ Marko singing (very badly). I forget that in the states all the places like that allow smoking. Kinda makes me love our smoking restrictions in Canada even more. Anyways, I got a drink in a huge coconut monkey. Its so awesome! It made listening to the terrible singer somewhat watchable…somewhat. Ok, not. Came back up and we are watching Daily show and Colbert Report. Ariel is still sleeping, as now I see Ken is as well. So I guess I shall call it quits for tonight…. Maybe after a piece of left over chicken.

We're Here!

Almost didn't get to post because Ken's work laptop is missing the stupid card needed for wireless, so we had to move a few rooms down to one with the cord. Needless to say, Ken was pretty cheesed, especially since he didn't get his laptop back until the last possible moment. Apparently, someone took it home who shouldn't have. Bad... but thats not our post... so here we go...

WE ARE IN MICHIGAN.... alive. Haha. So it was an experience travelling with a baby, especially since we really didn't know what to expect from her. Stella took us to the Vancouver airport where we were catching our shuttle bus to Seattle. Kinda weird to go to the airport to catch a bus.

We arrived early enough to have a coffee and bagel. Stella gave Ariel an American dollar bill. She was pretty excited! Once we figured out where to catch the bus, we said our goodbyes and the Priebe clan was on our own. Epp.

The gals working the bus desk made fast friends with Ariel, and she was all smiles. When the bus arrived, we found a seat and really saw how tight a squeeze it would be for the next 4 hours. It wasn't bad, and Ariel did really well. She even fell asleep for about an hour.

The boarder crossing went really smooth. Actually, its the first time in a long time we didn't have a funny story to walk away with. The guy didn't even seem phased with Ken being a dual citizen... which is a HUGE peeve to some of them. He didn't even look at Ariel's document.... seriously, I thought people crossing with babies would be studied closer, but I guess since we were both there it wasn't that big a deal. But for the non-issues we had at the boarder, we made up for on our bus ride once across the boarder. Unfortunately, some silly person on the previous bus apparently fell asleep, missed their stop and our bus had her luggage or something from its previous trip. Anyways, long story short, we sat for what was close to 30 minutes trying to find her bag. Argh. During this, Ariel was sleeping, but once we got going again, she awoke. Dang. Its easier to travel when she is sleeping, especially since no one would interact with her.

So we got to the airport around 830pm... should have been more like 7pm. Blah. This sadly left us pressed to find any food establishments still open in the airport, after checking our bags first of course. I need to give a shout out to the NWA people. Soooo helpful and cheerful to Ariel. Even the security people where all gaga over her. Oh, point to note, Ariel too had to remove her booties for the security check, I thought that was funny.

We found a sandwich shop open, and had some pretty lame wraps. Yuck. But anything was good at this point. I went down to the gift shop to get a treat for my princess for the flight. I got her a cute little NWA stuff toy that made airplane noises. So cute. By the time I paid, we were already loading the plane, ack. There were several other babies on the flight, including twins that looked as if they were only a month or so old. The flight was completely booked, but everyone on there was super nice. Had so many people around us that loved babies, and that played peek a boo when she looked around the corner. She fell asleep about an hour into the flight, and was sleep the whole way. Yay.

There wasn't much in the way of bumps. Woot. I did figure out a way of getting through the ones there were, imagine I was driving on the Vancouver potholes. Haha, burn! It worked though, and I was calm and cool. Whee.

We got off the plane and of course had to go on a hunt for elevators because of the stroller baby who was fast to sleep. Ken and I were in awe of the new Detroit airports. It was fantastic, and very impressive. Long gone are the days of the cheap, 70's looking dump. Seriously, it was a dump. Yuck. This one was gorgeous, and huge. We hope to make it back early enough to check it out more on our way home. We found the new baggage claim area and located Ken's mom. Yay. Bless her heart for coming at 5am to pick us up. Thinking about it now, it feels like I lost a day in there somewhere.... strange.

We got to the house, and got some fresh Cinnamon bread. Jonathan wanted to try out his new rolling pin apparently, so bread was easier than pie. Yummy. Ariel woke up briefly at the airport to smile at her Grammy, then fell asleep in the car again. Once in the house though, she was up again. She was all excited about the Buddy the dog and Gizmo the cat. She crawled around exploring her new surroundings, and wasn't showing signs of being overwhelmed... very surprising since she had a huge day travelling. What a girl!



Grammy pulled out lots of treats for the princess. A whole pile of new books. 2 fuzzy feel animal ones, 2 fairy ones, a cool baby's own baby album (its a baby story book about a baby's firsts, and then you get to add real pics of the child to be seen under the flaps. Very cool!!!!) and of course a copy of the little mermaid. Speaking of the famous mermaid, she also got a cute Ariel doll that is like a stuffed toy. She enjoyed flipping her around. Haha. The other pic shows our lovely gifts from Dan from his trip to Italy and Paris. A cute Monaco shirt with little rhinestones for Ariel, and a cool candle and tapestry. What a sweetie!

Then came clothes. A cute peach shirt, pants and hat (that she wore today- see pics), a jeans and red check shirt and a swimsuit and dress cover combo for when she is bigger. Its a little mermaid set and the best part, the bathing suit has princess written on the butt. Lol. Grammy also included a paper doll set, for when she is older, but we played with it for her. We reminisced of our own when we were little, and boy have they changed... this set is all magnets! The dresses stick to the figure, and there are little stick on jewels and things to add to the look. Do you see why we were playing with them? Ken just sat and ate watching these crazy ladies. Ariel enjoyed banging them on the table.

Ariel was pretty strung out and wasn't wanting to go to sleep, so we went for a car ride. She was out in a minute. Ha! We drove down looking at the mafia houses. I was almost asleep at the end. We came home and all napped on the couch. Very refreshing. Woke up and had some good homemade soup and devilled eggs, Ariel had some sweet potatoes, yum. She tried out the new booster chair Grammy got for her as well.

Later we took a walk out in the sun. The snow must have heard I was coming and left.... for now anyways. There is a chance of some coming later this week... weatherman might be wrong... we shall see. The rest of the day was visiting, and watching Ariel chase the dog. Ken got some funny video of that. Once she actually caught him, she really didn't know what to to do. Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs. Afterwards, we watched American idol and looked at Dan's pictures from his trip. He got some cool shots and we tasted his dark chocolate covered coffee beans and rose petal jelly. Wow, it smelt like roses and yet was super sweet.

At 930, Dan drove us to the hotel to check in. Of course we needed to do our annual taco run. It was then I found the coolest signs ever!!! It was hanging in the pick up window. It said 'Great taste during Lent'. I then had to explain the spiritual aspect of lent and how we are encouraged to give up things to reflect during this time, and to see a sign to encourage you to eat tacos, during lent was HILARIOUS! I plan on sending it to the church tonight. Haha. Also, just a point to mention... lent is over.

We got to the hotel, got our room, then changed rooms like I mentioned before, and now, here I sit. Ariel got her crib in front of the mirror and was in pure heaven. She had a bath, and now Ariel and Ken are both sleeping and I am wired for sound. Oh well. Its like 9ish our time, and 11ish here. I plan on watching the food channel until I fall asleep. That super cool cake show is on. Sweet!

Well, I guess I should sign off for now, and try and sleep to get on this new time table. Later!

The Final Countdown!

Felt that this was a good interpretation of how I am feeling at this moment. We leave in 2 hours.... eek. I just want to land in the mitten safely.... I hate airplanes... blah!