Tonight we received news that Tally's Grandpa, Lyle Martin Price passed away from a heart attack. He had recently celebrated his 90th birthday, which is the golden age he and grandma were shooting for. While we are saddened by the loss, we are grateful to know God has given us a way to see eachother again. We pray for grandma, that she will be be able to cope with life without him. She's been praying to die since her 90th birthday at the end of 2007. I haven't talked to her, but I'm sure she's mad at him for going first.
Above is our last family picture with Grandma & Grandpa Price. I'm so glad we went to visit them in Oregon/Washington the summer of 2006. It was a wonderful family reunion. Below is a picture of Lyle & Thema's kids and grandkids.
Grandpa Price was a wonderful man, known for his faith, hard work, and among many other traits, his love of sports. :) We will miss him dearly!
I take videos of Kelsey all the time, but since it takes so long to load them, I hardly ever post them. So today, I'm posting the ones from this week. To stop the music in the background, scroll to the bottom of the page and press pause.
Kelsey received her prize in the mail this week for winning the Kaloo Photo Contest. As you can see, she loved it. What you can't see from this video is that she reaches for the box before even knowing what it was. Do you think she learned something at Christmastime?
Since she is technically in her 6th month, we tried green peas this week. Here's Day 1.
Day 2...this time I smartened up and added rice cerealand warm water. While it wasn't her favorite, she ate the whole lot.
We got back late Monday night from Garmisch, Germany where we went sight seeing & skiing with our friends Mike & Anna. There's a resort there called Edelweiss for the U.S. Military personnel, but because it was President's Day weekend, we couldn't get in! We stayed about 10 minutes away in Farchant, which ended up being fun with great Italian food. Mike, Anna & Jay met Kelsey for the first time. Kelsey just loved watching Jay and playing with Anna & Mike.
Da me un besito, Jay!
Is she making a move on me?
Little Pink Riding Hood
Jay dancing with Kelsey's binki
Swimming at Edelweiss
Lounging around in the resort
Sunny skies mixed with freezing temperatures made the outdoors a bittersweet experience. The views were amazing, but the numbing cold made you want to cuddle up next to a fire with some hot cocoa. When we were moving, it was bearable. Don't worry grandmas...we kept the kids bundled! Here's a pic Tally took when he went skiing.
And here's a quick, not the best quality video of him snowboarding with Mike
Is the lake really frozen over? The boys had to find out for themselves. Then they saw a racecar drive over it so they threw some big rocks onto the ice. When it didn't break through, they went out to explore. When they were about halfway out, they heard a big crack in the ice so they came back to shore. It was an unexpected adventure for them and fun for us to watch them slide across the ice.
Kelsey & Tally in front of the lake
Schloss Linderhof
It's the only fantasy castle Bavarian King Ludwig completed. It's more of a small palace than a castle and used to be a hunting lodge. It sits in a park with fountains, gardens, and a Venus grotto. Unfortunately, those things were closed for the winter. I hear it's beautiful in the summer. The interior was rich and king-like with a throne, "king size bed" and a table with a dumb waiter from the downstairs kitchen to the upstairs dining room for one. King Ludwig never married and never had company.
Schloss Neuschwanstein It's a 19th-century fantasy castle built by Bavarian King Ludwig II. It is perched on a rocky hill and may have inspired Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. The inside of the castle was never completed because King Ludwig died a unexpectedly in 1886. I admit I did not take the first picture below. It's a picture of a picture. The boys had planned to hike up to get a pic from this angle but upon arrival they realized it would have to be taken from a helicopter. Maybe someday, right?
The Royal Family
Kelsey taking a ride in Jay's stroller. Do you think she likes it?
Inside the castle's courtyard
The freezing weather must not affect the locals. If it's sunny, it's time to catch some rays! This old couple lives on Romantic Road, on the walk up to the Neuschwanstein Castle. I wonder if they'd still lay out here after a trip to Hawaii? Goodbye Castles...here's us with the Connellys. Can you see the little white castle in the background? It was by pure luck that we are all in this picture with the castle.
We had a ton of fun just being with good friends. Thanks for the memories guys! Can't wait for the next trip - or will it be a vacation?
Oh, I have to add one little memory that I almost forgot! On our way home while driving at night through Austria, Tal & I were pulled over by the Austrian Police. Here's a pic from Google images to give you an idea.
All of a sudden, the speed limit goes from 120 to 100 to 80 kmph. It is against Tally's personal driving code to touch your brakes on the freeway so he just started coasting. We're going around a turn and we see this red light moving up and down and then it looks like a person walking across the freeway! Tally applies his brakes (grudgingly) and we see it's a road worker waving a red flashlight. Tal slowed down more thinking there must be road construction ahead but then the man started to get upset and motioned for us to stop. So we pulled over in the triangle between the freeway and the merging traffic. Tally rolled down his window and the police officer said "Guten nacht" (German we understand). Then he proceeded to speak German. We asked if he spoke English, he said "a little." Then he told us we were speeding and need to pay 30 Euros right now, and he held out his hand. Knowing how crooked and fishy that was, Tally said he only had USD. The man didn't want that so he told Tally, "Come with me to my vehicle." At that point, I was a little nervous for Tal & our parking spot on the freeway. He ran the AmEx 5 times before it worked (or we were charged 5x), which he was bummed it finally worked. We lucked out though, we were going 106 in an 80 zone but the guy pulled over behind us was clocked at 140 in an 80 - a 350 Euro fine! I'll pay 30 over 300 any day!
This past weekend our little babe became five months old. We can hardly believe how much fun she is and what a joy she is in our lives. She's our little angel baby. Of course, she slept for 14 hours last night - which makes any baby seem angelic.
Here are some of new things Kelsey's doing:
Sitting up on her playmat (Boppy behind her, falls over a lot still)
Sleeping better through the night
More rice cereal and a little broccoli & banana
Putting her binki back in her mouth
No longer swaddled/falls asleep on her own
Wearing 6 months and bigger clothes
Sucking her thumb
Spitting with her little lips pursed
Sticks her tongue out at me
Takes off her bows
Keeps tabs on the US Presidential candidates (a cable news junkie like her Grandma Price, except we only get CNN, not Fox)
First Band Aid
I accidentally snipped a bit more than her fingernail. I felt so bad! It bled a lot, but it didn't seem to phase her. She was fascinated with the new thing on her finger.
Can you believe my mom did that to me?
My little Bear Cub
Despite Tally's time spent studying for the GMAT, he makes time for his little princess...
...and she just adores him!
Tally "babysitting" Kelsey. She thought this was hilarious!
Cooking with Dad
Snuggle buddies
I love my cute outfit Aunt Lindie! It may say 6-9 months, but it fits me perfectly right now!
After seeing this Valentines decor all month, I've decided to change our blog description. It just seems to fit. It also seems we've been celebrating Valentine's Day all week. On Saturday, we had a Mexican Fiesta night/3-year-old Ellie's birthday party. We'll call it a Valentine's pre-party too so it fits in with this post. For this tasty night, we went to our friend Emily's who lives near the border of Austria. She has a house, which is a rarity around these parts. Emily made a Mickey Mouse pinata BY HAND! The kids loved that of course. Kelsey was first up since she was the youngest. Tally helped Kelsey fight off the other kids for some candy She figured it out pretty quick It's her party and she can kiss who she wants to! Happy Birthday Ellie! Kelsey tried that, but honey, "He's just not into you!"
On Monday, we went to our other friend Emily's house across the lake from us. She had crafts and lots of great treats. There were tons of kids there, many of which doted on and watched Kelsey. She had a blast watching all the kids run around. Here's Kelsey with some of her friends and me with mine. My friend Jenny made the fabulous cookies.
In honor of Valentine's day, Kelsey gave Tally and I a little gift yesterday. A blowout with a message. How sweet! :P
Today Kelsey and I went to an indoor swimming pool with several pools for kids & adults with a bunch of our friends. Thanks for a fun day girls! Tonight, I made Tally a Thai Noodle dish and it actually turned out very good (ask Tally). It took a lot of ingredients and wasn't done when Tally got home but he just jumped in and helped me finish. We didn't want to spend money on eachother since we're going to Garmisch, Germany this weekend, so this was my present to him. He broke the rules and got me the most incredible chocolate from Laederach & Teuscher. He also brought home strawberries and melted some Belgian chocolate chips - YUM! He definitely outdid himself once again. I was just glad to be able to spend it with him this year.
