Wow! It has been 10 months since our last post. How time flies when you are having fun and brewing a bun in the oven. That's right, V is now almost 7 months pregnant and our excitement grows by the day! Even though our baby may never be president, he/she will at least have already traveled more than most people. Obviously, a lot has happened in the last 10 months, but we have attempted to boil it down to this collection of photos (and one movie).
At the end of June, 2010, we had a visit from our good friends, Becky and Jake. While they were here, we took a little trip to Munich. We had a great time there, including a night at the schnapps bar and a visit to all the touristy sights, including several beautiful beer gardens. We also went to Dachau, which was a sad, but important experience. On the way back, we learned that regional trains sometimes split and go to entirely different places. A costly but valuable lesson learned.
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| Becky and Jake convinced Jon to try planking. |
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On our walking tour through the beautiful old town of Munich, and yes that is Austin in the background. He was very welcomed throughout the city. Traveling with your dog is quite easy throughout Europe.
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| Big Beer and Big Pretzels = YUM! |
In late July and early August, we had an epic adventure in China and Thailand with our good friend Jay, who had just finished a stint teaching English at a Chinese university. There are too many events to list right now but we did take a 26-hour train ride through half of southern China with some of Jay's dear friends. In Thailand we completed a three-day trek in the north and had lots of relaxing beach and sun time on the southern islands.
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| We rented some bikes in China and had fun riding around. We encountered some friendly young folks on the way who were riding around, advertising for a local computer store. This photo encapsulates the excitement and curiosity the Chinese people show towards visitors. |
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| Our friend Jay was a local celebrity! |
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| Another pic from our bike ride. |
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| Here we are after having lunch at the college cafeteria. Jay was the most popular teacher among his students. |
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| We rode elephants as part of our trek through the northern hills in Thailand |
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| Oh lovely lazy summer days on the beaches of Thailand and long-tail boat rides! |
In September, Jay came to stay with us in Basel for a little bit. We had fun just hanging out, swimming and having BBQs on the Rhein.
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| Austin and his "Hey buddy" Jay |
In October, we took another trip back to the States, this time for Jon's brother Brett's wedding. The trip was a surprise to Jon's whole family, the only one who knew was the bride-to-be, Natasha! It was too short of a trip, but it was still great to see everyone and live the life of excess in Vegas.
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| The happy family, post-wedding ceremony. |
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| One of the fringe benefits of a Vegas wedding is guest appearances by Spiderman! |
A couple of weeks after the wedding, this happened:
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| Translation: "Here comes Baby EuroFadok" |
In November, we had a visit from our very good friends Lynn and Cristin. Then, we all met up with even more friends in Portugal for our annual get-together (the 12th annual Labor Day bash).
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| Here we are with Lynnie at the Fasnacht fountain in Basel. |
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| Jon is having good times stuffing CC into the trunk of a car. |
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| Our big communal dinner in southern Portugal. It was fresh, authentic and amazingly delicious. The place came recommended by our Portuguese friend Joao. |
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| Here are the EuroFadoks along the southern coast of Portugal. You can't tell, but baby EuroFadok is just starting to brew in this photo! |
Our camera was broken for most of December, so we don't have many photos from that month. We did receive visits from our friends Dan and Trevor. Jon's birthday cake was made entirely out of gummis this year, which brought him much joy. We officially are chastising Dan for not posting his pictures of his visit, like he promised!
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| Ringing in the New Year in Basel |
In January, we went on a snowy adventure in the Alps with the lab.
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| Jon hates downhill skiing, and it is not recommended for pregnant ladies, so we went sledding instead. Fun!! |
In February, we survived another crazy season of pre-Lent activities. Every town and village has their own celebration, and the last one is always Fasnacht in Basel.
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| We went to Bad Bellingen for a crazy fire festival. You hang out near Mordor and light pieces of wood on fire. Then you slam them against slanted planks and watch them fly off into the valley below. Safe! |
Here is a short movie, illustrating what happens at Morgenstreich, the beginning of Fasnacht. The power goes out exactly at 4 AM, and the piping and drums start.
After 3 straight days of revelry, the town looks like this:
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| Jon and our good friend Eli, who is kind enough to watch Austin quite often. |
In March, we took a Babymoon to Greece. We visited Athens and the island of Santorini.
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| The Acropolis with a view of the Parthenon. |
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| The happy EuroFadoks after a 4-hour hike on Santorini. |
In March, our good friend Dustin came back to Basel (his first visit was in February 2011) and became the first repeat visitor to Chateau Fadok. Together, we went to visit Trevor in Madrid, where he is teaching social studies.
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| Yep, this happened. |
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| The happy couple in Toledo, Spain. (Now you can see the Baby Fadok bump.) |
Finally, Dustin and the EuroFadoks attended the Men's World Curling Championships, which were hosted in Basel this year! Jon and Dustin had curled together for 5 years in Seattle, and V was a frequent participant in some of the crazy curling tournaments at the club there. During the Championships, we were able to get the captain of the Canadian men's team to sign a onesie for our friends Phil and Kristina, who just had a baby boy! P.S. Jon may have had to push some adolescents out of the way to obtain said autograph. He was the only adult getting autographs.
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| Jon, D, and Pucky the curling stone. |
Whew! Time really does fly when you are having fun. We can't promise to keep on top of this blog thing, but we will try to post more than once a year. We hope everyone is well. Drop a line or post a comment, we would love to hear from you!!
As usual, there are many more photos to see on V's Flickr account. Here's some links:
Love, hugs, and kisses,
The EuroFadoks (V, Jon, Aussie, and TotesTroubsTomato)
