Merci and Danke!

We are home from 10 days in Europe! We had a wonderful trip and can't believe it is already over! Everything went very smoothly, which we were really happy about since I am now 30 weeks pregnant. Our trip would not have been possible without the generosity and help of the Tews/Steidl family in France and the McCormicks in Germany! So...again, Merci and Danke to you guys!!! There were quite a few people worried about me traveling with my big old belly...well you will be able to see that nothing happened (no preterm labor or water breaking) and it didn't slow us down one bit...now Levi has been to Europe too :) We got some really fun pregnant pics out of it too...not to mention that "it's the law the Europe" to give women priority in line and in seating (according to a French women at d'Orsay)...I must say it was nice to cut line several times and be given seats on the trains and metro :).

There is really way to much to talk about because we saw so many beautiful, interesting and well known historical things while we were there, so I decided to post several pictures with captions to give you all a taste of what we did on the trip. They are sadly not in perfect order.

Paris, France May 9th - 15th

Jardin de Luxembourg - model of the Statue of Liberty
Picnic lunch in the park; bread, olive & pistachio tampenade, a heirloom tomato, cheese, strawberries with balsamic vinegar, and pastries (yummy!)
Giverny (Monet's home) the famous water gardens
Us with Matt and Erin Steidl enjoying the beautiful gardens

Garden near Monet's house

Sacre Coeur Cathedral

All 4 of us with a view of Paris from base of Sacre Coeur (highest ground elevation in Paris)

Philip and I under the Eiffel Tower

The Arc de Triomphe - the French military was there because of a march down the Champs Elysees to celebrate a French holiday One of our Favorite of Monet's works at the Musee d Orsay - The Magpie

The Musee d Orsay was built inside an old train station

At the Picasso Museum - his statue "goat" (she looked pregnant to me)

A bedroom inside Versailles

Marie Antoinette's Farm at Versailles

A favorite sculpture - Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss- at the Louvre

Notre Dame Cathedral
The Louvre

Heidelberg, Germay May 15th - 19th

Us with Marisa and Collin McCormick (our hosts for Germany) at the Schwetzingen Castle gardens
Me and Marisa near a pretty bridge and flower garden at the castle (we are about 4 weeks apart in pregnancy)
All four of us near the castle
Philip and I at the top of the Philosophers walk overlooking the Neckar river

view of the Heidelberg castle from the river

beautiful old homes along the river

Marisa and I on the paddle boat along the Neckar River (the boys were our motor)desert after a yummy meal in the Bad Dürkheim Castle

Walking around the castle ruins after dinner

View from the Heidelberg Castle
Dinner at Vetter Brauhaus (a local Brewery)
Our yummy meal at the brewery (bratwurst, salad, bread, potatoes, spargel - white asparagus - soup and schnitzel) Philip really enjoyed tasting some authentic german brews.

Well, as you can see we had a wonderful trip enjoying the sites, tastes (the food was one of our favorite things!) and scenery (we loved being outside!) in France and Germany. Thank you again to our wonderful friends Matt, Erin, Collin and Marisa (and Erin's parents Edie and Paul Tews) for making the trip a success and even possible!

7 Months and Counting!

I am now into my 28th week of pregnancy. I am to the point where people ask me when I am due all the time and I have even had a few strangers touch my belly or give me their opinions on how I am carrying and generally telling me how huge I am for 7 months. It has been interesting :) All that aside, I have been feeling really good and everything with the pregnancy is going just great. At my last OB visit the baby measured one week ahead fundally (as he has since about 16 weeks) and my health is great.

Me at 28 weeks

I was able to get another unofficial sonogram at work which is always a lot of fun, but it is getting harder every time to get good pictures because he is so big and cramped in there. I love watching him move around and do baby things like suck on his fingers. I feel so much movement - I enjoy seeing what he is actually doing while all the movement is happening.

Profile (on right side)

Arm and Fist

We also decided on his name recently so here it is: Levi Reese Boyer. We like the first name because it is from the bible (the first priests were of the tribe of Levi), simple and not the most common. His middle name is significant because he will be the 5th Boyer man to have Reese as a middle name (Philip, his Dad, Grandfather and Great grandfather already share the name) - and I love family names. The Boyer men named Reese have all been wonderful God fearing men as far as I know, so I love carrying on this tradition. We are so excited to meet him and now that things are getting more organized I am really getting ready for him to be here! Philip has been working on the nursery a lot this weekend and we hope for it to be mostly finished by the end of the week. I will post pictures when it is complete.

The next time we post will be when we return from our last big "no kids" hoorah -- a trip with friends to Paris, France and Heidelberg, Germany. We can't believe we are really going! Please keep us in your prayers for safe and comfortable travel. We leave the 8th and return the 19th. Here are some more fun pictures I would like to share from some of the recent fun we have been able to have.

My good friend since I was 5 Amy Pfiffner got Engaged! This is from her engagement party... we are all friends since high school :) Ignore my wet shirt...I can't wash my hands!

My sweet niece Nora turned 1 on April 18th (I can't believe it) here she is in the birthday gift I made for her...isn't she a beautiful baby!

Our good friends Lauren and Robby came in town for a visit - Lauren is expecting a baby girl exactly 1 week before me! We have had fun swapping preggo stories!

Thanks for reading! Au revoir à notre retour!