The miracle of just ONE YEAR.

February 14th, 2010 - Valentine's Day: Jon and I spent the day scuba diving off the west side of Puerto Rico. No baby in sight.


February 14th, 2011 - Valentine's Day: Another island, yes. But that was pretty much all that was the same. Paphos, Cyprus with baby on board.

Return to the Island: Cyprus

Cyprus 2011

A week off in February is a wonderful thing, especially when one can escape the cold weather and howling wind and head to Cyprus with great friends.

We had a wonderful week returning to the island, it brought back all of the great memories of Puerto Rico. The sun was warm enough, the heated pool was fun, the road trips to obscure destinations was a treat and the friends we did it all with were a blessing! Jon was ready and deserving of a break from school stress. He was able to get some reading done by the pool, grilled some out back by the pool, and mastered driving on the left side of the road in our rental car.

Babz and I enjoyed the time off also. Mostly we enjoyed floating the pool, napping, going for walks, Catch Phrase with friends, and watching movies…. oh, and the mango smoothies! As you can see, Babz is getting bigger! Babz had many photo shoots this week as we tried to capture the change and the miracle that is taking place in our lives. When not posing for a photo, Babz is regularly on the move, morphing my stomach and trying to stretch him/herself.

We toured the “Tombs of the Kings” an archeological site in Paphos, Cyprus. Impressive. Jon enjoyed being able to climb in all the little holes and explore areas that probably should have been roped off. We went wine tasting one afternoon with the girls. Babz and I ate the bread and tomatoes while the others tasted the wine though. Made it to Aphrodite’s Bath… not as impressive as we had all hoped, oh well, ate out as some great restaurants, climbed on the coral at Coral Bay, and RELAXED! Could be one of the last relaxing vacations on the horizon for awhile!

Love you all and miss you!
Me, Babz, Auntie Rachel and Auntie Alyssa lounging by the pool.

The beautiful western coast line of Cyprus.

One of the many Babz shots taken throughout the week.

Rachel and her wine-plowing-oxen-driving man.

Holly doesn't get much happier than this! :)

Jon smelling... something.

At the winery.

Ahhh.... good friends.

One of the "Tombs of the Kings"

Jon inside another tomb.

A very well preserved statue, I'd say.

Yes, Jon is trying to climb her leg..... hummm....

Babz at the beach.

Another Great Friends shot.

Munich, Austria, & Rome - December

Jon at the bar at our bed and breakfast in Trins, Austria. The pictures are a little out of order - but you'll get the big picture at least.

The end of the valley after our day of cross-country skiing.

One of the great sunny days that we got.

Our little town of Trins.

A picture from the gondola of Jon skiing.

Here is an arial shot of our little town. Jon took it from the top of the ski mountain.

Our walk on Christmas Day.

Duck for Christmas Eve dinner.

Innsbruck, Austria. Buying Dad some meat for Christmas.

Another part of Dad's Christmas gift - Austrian cheese.

And the final element of the gift. Shnapps. Jon thought it was pretty fun to taste test all the different flavors.

We had great service and dinners at our bed and breakfast. 3 courses, by the fire.

Beer House in Munich.

"Work for Freedom". The sign that welcomes you to Dachau Concentration Camp.

Memorial at the camp. The triangles symbolize all the different reasons that people were sent to this camp.

The "showers".

Eating brats and beers in Munich at the Christmas Market.

Jon warming up with some hot mulled wine.

Great German shops.

Takin' a breather.

Happy New Years! We brought in the new year along with hundreds of thousands of others at the Colloseum. It was a night to remember!

New Years Eve.

The Pantheon.

Mom had made us a baby quilt and brought it in a suitcase packed with other great baby things!

Vatican Museum.

One of our sunny days!

Jon ran to Circus Maximus one day.

The sacred steps that Jesus is said to have walked on. You must crawl up them.

The Roman Forum.

The Colosseum.

The Roman Forum as the sun sets.

The group!

Rome in the background.

Paul's job throughout the week was to navigate. Sometimes he was more successful than others...

Cheers!

The special keyhole in which St. Peter's is perfectly seen from across town. As you can see, Troy is looking in the not-so-special keyhole.

Let's eat!

Piazza Popolo with the family.

Trevi Fountain with my love.

The Spanish steps. My mom got suckered into buying roses from a vendor. She made me pose with them.

Jon and I atop San Angelos Castle

Outside the Vatican.

St. Peter's Square.

Enjoying some Italian pizza!

Stairs, stairs, many stairs in Rome.

Just thinking....
Vatican Museum. Never ending. If you spend a minute looking at everything in the museum - it would take you over 13 years to through the whole thing. Crazy.
Paul and Nero's bowl.
Troy and I outside the Vatican. St. Peter's Basillica is in the back.
The boys got Russian fur hats for Christmas!

December has also been a month to remember. The first two weeks of course flew by and before you knew it we were on our way to Munich for the first leg of our 3-week Christmas vacation. We stayed in a great hotel in downtown Munich for 3 nights. They had a magnificent pool, so I tried to take advantage of that since the baby book says swimming is great exercise when you’re pregnant. The Christmas Market was probably a highlight of Munich. The setting is so beautiful with the huge cathedral right off the main square and all the little stands decorated for Christmas with lights and German trinkets. Jon enjoyed the occasional German beer or mulled wine and I enjoyed shopping! We went out to some great restaurants in Munich – this is where the vacation started to turn to food. When do we eat next? Where should we eat? What are you hungry for – everything. That sort of thing!

One day we did a tour of Dachau Concentration Camp. Dachau is a little town only a 10 minute train ride outside of Munich. It would look like a great place to live with quaint little streets and friendly people, but the past weighs heavy on a place like that with the concentration camp still part of the city. Our tour was great and we learned a lot.

From there we went to Austria for a week. We had such a great, quaint, bed and breakfast and dinner place to stay. It had been family owned and ran since 1941 and seemed like they kept all of the same decor from then as well, just old, rich, lodge-y feel. We were right up in the Alps. Jon went skiing one day while I rode the gondola up and drank hot chocolate and read at the lodge. Another day we did a cross-country ski expedition on our own. Rented some skis from a little place in our village and found some tracks. We went for about 4 hours that day up the valley towards the glacier. It was great to get out…hard work, but great. When we weren't exploring, we would take the train into Innsbruck and walk around shopping and eating or we would sleep in, play Cribbage in bed, watch movies on the TV in German, and await our private dinners served by candle light next to our private fire place. So, really, it was great and a Christmas to remember. One of the quietest we have had, or will ever have again. :)

After a week in Austria we took the night train to Rome to meet up with my parents. Night train - not so much fun. Even when we had our own small, small room with bunk beds - still not so much fun. Don't think that I’ll do that again, but it was an experience. But Rome was great too and so fun to see my parents and brothers. By this time I am definitely showing, so much that other people don't hesitate to assume that I am pregnant as well. Even the security guard at the Vatican Museum took one look at me and let me go through the "special" line and not under the metal detector. So, it must be obvious. And with everyday it gets more obvious, trust me! But it was exciting to show my mom. Everyone got to feel baby kick and squirm around in there, they all thought that was pretty cool. Troy is convinced that baby likes him more than it likes Paul. So, that should be an ongoing argument for the rest of ... life. We toured EVERYTHING. Really. We walked EVERYWHERE. I was able to keep up for the first 6 days walking a steady 6 miles a day probably, however, by day 7, knowing Paul’s track record for getting lost, I told the family to go on without me. Must take a nap.

It was so great to see family and hard to believe that Mom and Dad will be back here in Kiev in less than 3 months. A lot will happen between now and then as well! So, the story continues with the greatest chapters still ahead!