Happy Turkey Day!

We had a busy Thanksgiving.

We survived the Turkey Trot in the morning, which involved pushing 60 pounds of stroller and children up the hill -- yikes! Mark and I were sweating more than anyone else who ran the race.

Next we went to Gerties for some Thanksgiving dinner at Courtyard Village. Classic.

We ended the night by driving to Joanie & Jimbo's beach house to spend a few days down here relaxing. On Sunday we are having Thanksgiving dinner with Joanie and Jimbo who will be in town for the weekend before they head up to Alaska.

Preschool Rules

Today at Henry's school they had a Thanksgiving Day celebration where we made apple pies and each child was asked to share what they were thankful for -- SO CUTE! Francie came with me and I put her on the carpet with the other babies who have older siblings in the class (she has the white hat on). Hysterical.

I also had to post this picture of Henry (in the black hat) "passing the pumpkin" to his friend Nani so that she could share what she was thankful for...he is so excited for it to be her turn.

World is right again

As Henry said the first night Mark was back "the world is right again". Francie was so excited she drooled through her shirt (see above).

I must say I am thrilled he is home - absence does make the heart grow fonder! I was especially happy when Mark was there yesterday morning to take care of the kids while I had Michelle's baby shower at the house. He even went to a play date and hung out at the house with the other mom the whole time!

This Sunday morning was a good indication of everything going back to normal with Henry doing every puzzle in the house and performing a jam session for the family. Nothing like rocking out before 9:00 am.

POD VOLUT

On Thursday (before I lost my passport) we went to a restaurant called Pod Volat. It is located in the old part of town. The desk lady at our hotel warned us that the restorant was "not so elite" and that there may be some "drunkards" there. We thought we would fit right in so we did not let her discouraging words stop us. When we entered the establishment we were hit by a wall of smoke and everyone decided without discussion that we would eat outside although it was about 50 deg. The food was great and two guys at our table split a 5 dollar bottle of wine. I stuck with the beer until desert. The owner of the restaurant came out and wanted to know where we were from and when he found out USA he was really excited about Obama. He then insisted that we try the special brandy made by the family. Which apparently is something like white lightening. If the picture of the tower is a little bit skewed it may be a result of the brandy.

My replacement passport is apparently on a flight from Belgrade to Podgorica tonight and I am tentativly flying to Frankfurt tommorow with a one day layover then direct to PDX.

Rare Occasion

My parents were back in town....for a half day..no joke!

So we decided to spend as much time with them as possible.

We went for a hike with Papa in the morning and to Great Grandma's for dinner.

Stranded in the Balkans

For those of you who have not heard I am currently stuck in Montenegro..... On the last night of our trip my passport disappeared somewhere between the US Embassy and our hotel. After a frantic search for my passport that lasted most of the night I missed my plane ride home. So now I need to get a temporary passport from the Embassy. Unfortunately the country is so small the do not yet have a Consulate so the paperwork needs to be sent to Serbia and returned to Montenegro. I am told this could take 4 days. I have a meeting at the Embassy on Monday morning and will know more then.

So I am really missing Colleen, Henry and Francie. Luckily, I have a laptop and a high-speed internet connection so I will be able to keep in touch and do some work while I am here. I think Colleen is jealous that I am going to get unintrupted sleep. Thanks to Itunes I have also been able to rent movies saving me from CNN and BBC World.

This is the view from the top of my hotel. Very large concrete apartment buildings.

Dancing at Farmers Market - Round 2

Poor Mark is stuck in Montenegro, so we are posting lots of pictures and videos of the kiddos to help him not feel so far away. Here is Henry rockin Farmer's market again and Francie thinking it is pretty funny.

Car Pictures

Henry spent a long time drawing pictures "to put in your office mama".

They were, of course, focused on his favorite subjects...cars and trucks. Francie watched with a LOT of interest...I wonder when she will get sick of all the cars?

Watch out Bob Costas

Last time Grammy Kris was here she pretended to be a sportscaster and interviewed Henry. Well.....he LOVED it. Last night we had an intense, indoor match of croquet and Henry asked me to interview him. Here is a short clip of my favorite part. Couple of notes: 1) The spoon is the microphone 2) Earlier in the interview he kept saying "compegize" so I had to figure out what that meant and 3) He kept looking at the glass doors and his reflection...the kid loves to look at himself).

Millenium Bridge

I am in Podgorica, Montenegro for work this week. After dinner tonight we went for a walk around town. This is a picture of the new bridge across the river that runs through town. The country is very beautiful. The city is surrounded by rugged mountains. Although the rainy season should start soon, it is supposed to be clear and in the 60's for most of the week.

Dinner with Great Grandma

We decided to have "date night" with Great Grandma at her house. As you can tell, the kids loved it. Minus the fact that I set off her fire alarm with my cooking, it was really fun. Henry even got her to play a board game -- yee haw!

Future Athlete?

Mark is in Montenegro (yes...in Europe!) for work so I had to go to the photo shop to buy the connector for the camera so I could send him pictures. HILARIOUS to see the videos he shot of Henry. The first one cracked me up because Henry spent all this time talking up his game and then he missed his shots. The second one I had to post to redeem H-man and his ability to shoot. Check out Francie just chillin in front of the mirror during "the game". Classic.