Herzlich Wilkommen in Stuttgart!

Well here is a little update of our first few days in Germany. I apologize to those of you who have heard some of this already, but there are a few new stories/details, and of course, pictures!

The flights went very well- the children behaved beautifully and endured the planes well. We had to pay international taxes for Tori to travel with us. On the longest flight between Chicago and London, They all slept for a decent chunk of time, 4 to 5 hours depending on the child. Matt didn't sleep at all and I slept about 45 minutes. When we were boarding the flight from London to Stuttgart, they said that I didn't have a ticket for Victoria and weren't letting me board the plane. Of course Matt, Isaac and Daph were already walking down the gigantic runway and I was standing there waiting to find out if they were going to let me on. They finally decided that since I had a receipt paying for the taxes that they would let her on the plane with us.We arrived in Stuttgart at about 10:45 am and went to get all of our bags. They lost our biggest suitcase and the baby's carseat. Some very kind airport workers followed us around with a huge cart filled with all of our luggage as we sorted out the lost baggage issue and got our rental car. Sixt didn't have the type of car we had reserved but they figured out a decent substitute. The rental car place was ORANGE. And I mean orange. The counter tops were orange, the walls of the counters were orange and were back lit- The walls of the place were orange and the poor women who worked there were all wearing orange vests with big orange bow ties. I wish I knew some German phrase of sympathy to share with them. ... So, the nice men then split up and one went with Matt to get the rental car and the other one went with the children and me to take the bags to the curbside to wait for Matt. At this point, we had been awake for about 30 hours and Victoria cried to sleep in my arms and Isaac had to go the the bathroom and I couldn't leave the bags to take him, so we waited about 10 minutes for Matt to arrive with the rental car and I asked my first question in German! "Wo est die toilette?" And I got the answer in German and found the bathroom for my son! Yay me! Small Victories. Matt gave the nice men a generous tip and tried to fit all of our luggage in our rental car, which is a small SUV comparable to a Santa Fe, called a Ford Kouga. (Whatever the heck that is.)
SO, we then decided that there was no way to fit all of us and our luggage in the car and decided to get a taxi to drive me and the baby and some of the bags while Matt drove the other chidren and other luggage to the hotel. We made it to the hotel after Tori and I endured the some of the worst Body Odor ever from the cab driver and got out in the parking garage of the SI Suites, who of course had inadvertently cancelled our reservation and could no longer offer us our room. We talked to them for a long time, I waited in the parking garage with the three very tired children for a over half an hour and they finally got us our room for at least one night. They said they didn't know yet if they could offer us our room for our long term stay. Exhausted and frustrated, we trudged to our room with almost all of our bags and waited waited for them to figure out if we could stay here for more than one night. We finally got into our room at about 2 pm Germany time. As we began to get settled , we realized the bag that they lost was the one with the rest of the diapers and wipes. A short time later, the hotel manager called to tell us that we would be able to stay in our room for the entire stay and that the airline would deliver our bag that evening. (Yay! Thank you, Lord!) So, we fell into the beds and slept for a few hours. (With regard to recovering from jet lag, this was a terrible idea... but Matt and I had been awake for about 37 hours and the children had only slept about 4-6 hours of those 37 hours, so we were desperate!
We awoke to meet our neighbors, Zdenka and Kirk, who are amazing and kind and helped us out with tips and info about our surroundings. They also helped us order some very interesting pizza and find an ATM to get some Euro to pay for our pizza. We got our lost bag and car seat, thankfully; took showers and baths and went to bed. Of course it was 11:00 pm in Germany, so only 3 pm in UT and Daphne woke up at about 1 am and susequently woke everyone else up. I finally got Tori back to sleep and then got Daphne back to sleep about 4 am. Then we slept until about 10:30/ 11 am. I'm not really sure because there isn't a clock in our room. Other than no clock in the room and losing the reservation, the hotel is fabulous. Our room is perfect- plenty of space and the kidsuite is perfect! Here they are on their bunk beds: There is also another bed for Tori and their own shelves and tv and wardrobe. We have more room than I expected, although I'm sure it will feel pretty cramped after a few weeks.

Victoria is definitely enjoying all the extra pace, even if she doesn't want to sleep here. Here she is helping me unpack a suitcase:

and in the bottom of my wardrobe, throwing out all my shoes:

So here are a few pics from our hotel. Here are the kids just outside (they are standing right next to our breakfast table.)

Here they are in front of the fountains just outside our hotel room:

More fountains just outside the hotel entrance:

The breakfast is amazing- I'm sure that it won't be as exciting in a month, but it is delicious and has a very wide assortment of foods. I picked up an eclair on our first visit and took a bite and wrinkled my nose saying, "Eww- chocolate." (I love chocolate almost anywhere, but rarely in pastries) And then I chewed it and said, "Wow- that was really good chocolate!" and I ate the rest. I'm really tempted to take a picture of the buffet- it is pretty incredible. But alas, we are fairly conspicuous as it is, and I don't think that would help us blend any better!

Monday night we went shopping on base and stocked up on groceries, etc... they also have a Popeye's chicken and we enjoyed some real American food with ice in our sodas and straws in our drinks and free refills. We had a great time until.... Dum Dum Dum!

Probably about 50 times while we were shopping we asked the children , specifically Isaac, not to touch breakable things. He had to be reminded many times. On the way out of the BX, there are lots of little shops. Matt and I were trying to decide about a calling card and I was holding the fussy baby and Matt was pushing the cart. All the sudden I hear, CRASH! I look over and my two older children are standing in front of a display table that had been pushed out into the walkway in front of an Antiques Shop, wearing expressions of shock and fright on their precious little faces. My heart sank to the bottom of my belly and I rushed over to find a broken plate. I was moderately relieved, as far as antiques go, that seemed like one of the smaller items for display. I went into the shop with the manager and sent the children over to Matt. After much negotiating and apologizing, I had to pay 50 euro for that antique German wall plate. Sigh. I'm still not completely sure what to do about it.

Matt has had a very few stressful days figuring out how to drive here and get where he needs to be for work and all. We seem to be adjusting now and will hopefully do more sightseeing soon. But for now... we are just trying to sleep at night and be awake in the day and drive on the autobahan without death or injury!

Love Y'all!