Normandy Part 2

Normandy was an amazing experience! While there we visited two museums, one dedicated to the British war effort and one for D-Day at Utah Beach. We also visited Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Point du Hoc, a German gun battery, and the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. It was truly a humbling experience, so many lives were sacrificed there for our freedom!

 On the way to the war sites Maddie wanted to stop in a really cute small town.

The British floated over a port from England.

 These German guns could shoot over 8 miles out to sea.

 This one was destroyed by a hand grenade.

 The craters at Point Du Hoc are still there.

 The American Cemetery was an incredibly sad sight to see.  It took our breath away.

 The D-Day Museum at Utah Beach.

Normandy- Part one

Over Thanksgiving weekend we took a quick trip to Normandy France. We love France so it was nice to go back. We had a great time except for the food poisoning Adam got the last evening there:/ On our way to our hotel, we stopped in a cutsie little town for lunch and to do some cider tasting. Everything was closed but we managed to find one creperie open- what more did we need. We tried some cider also! It was really good! The cider is made from different varieties of pressed apples and then bottled. Once opened it  tastes a lot like Champagne. Here are a few pictures from my IPad, I will post more from my camera another day.

Whirlwind trip to the States

We received some not so great news last week about Adam's dads cancer. It wasn't what we were hoping to hear thats for sure! We got plane tickets and headed to Texas. Seeing Madison was some good medicine for her Poppa!  We had been feeling pretty homesick lately so even though the trip was under some not so great circumstances we were so happy to be back for a bit! Madison and i even got to go to Missouri for a quick trip. Maddie got to see sooo many people and even meet some new cousins and aunts and uncles for the first time! Here are a few pictures from the week:

We have an 8 month old?!

Where have these last 8 months gone?! I feel like it was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital and just sat there in the living room staring at her. What were we supposed to do now? We thought we were well prepared, but I don't think you really can be for something that completely changes your life.  We feel like the luckiest people in the world to get to be Maddie's parents! She is growing and changing so much everyday! She is so sweet and happy and always has a smile that can melt my heart over and over! Here are a few pictures from our 8 month photo shoot. These monthly pictures are getting to be more difficult the more active she gets!

Play Dates

We had a pretty uneventful week, Madison went to daycare as usual on Tuesday and Thursday. We had a couple lunch dates and some shopping per Maddies request;) We also had our usual Tea group on Wednesday where there are always a ton of kiddos to play with! It is so much fun watching them play- the ball pit was definitely her favorite! Adam had a four day weekend, we were cooped up in the house for most of it as it was cold and rainy:( There were plenty of Football and Cardinals Baseball to keep us occupied though!

Apple Picking

After a very fun week in Scotland it is back to work (at least for Adam)... Our main computer is broken right now so I can't upload any pictures from our camera:( I will do a post later about our trip but for now I will just update you in the most important part....Adam killed a stag! He had a very fun and physically exhausting hunt, many stories to share later. Today we went to the queen's Christmas House about an hour away and picked apples with a fun group of ladies. We have been having some nice weather (by British standards) so we have to take full advantage! Here are a few pictures from today and the past week and also a video of Maddie in her favorite toy! Oh and I also finished my piece of furniture, didn't turn out as well as I hoped but I definitely learned a few things for my next project!