something just like this

I realize we're coming up on a year since the last time I put together some thoughts, or even a summary wishing it were a play-by-play, on anything we're doing. It's been an incredibly crazy year. Grab some popcorn.

Our main goal in going to Oxford (beside the immediate and more obvious acquirement of an MBA) was to stay in Europe. Before Jeremy even applied to any MBA program, we were planning on searching for a European job and doing everything we could to stay overseas for a few more years. We don't actually have a timeframe, we think we'll probably move back when the excitement of a new continent doesn't outweigh missing family, but that hasn't happened yet. Especially because we keep getting family to come and visit us :)

The Oslo adventure pushed our timeline back by several months - originally we thought we'd be into a new job and home before Oslo was born. But that didn't happen like we thought. And jobs and interviews didn't happen like we thought. So, with the deadline of needing to be out of our apartment and the UK looming, we just started planning Germany. We started looking at long-term AirBnBs, and Jeremy started applying for a few jobs in Berlin (a major tech-startup hub). Oslo had surgery at the end of February, and then March was spent packing and cleaning and getting rid of things. And then very suddenly we were on our way to the bus station, and then the airport, and then our first AirBNB.

At the Gatwick (UK) airport

We technically moved to Germany on March 30th, but we found a storage unit, stayed for a week, packed only a small-ish suitcase, and then didn't return to Berlin for another month. We went to the Czech Republic for a couple of days, Frankfurt for a week of Ostercamp,  Denmark for a week, and then Belgium and France for alternating days for various activities until we flew back to Berlin. We moved into a new Airbnb, a little more roomy than our first and with the checkout date for the same day that our tourist visas expired. Apparently, we run on deadlines.

Hiking in Czechia

Park in Russelsheim, pre-Ostercamp

Oslo with Kimbee, Ostercamp

Ostercamp

Beach in Denmark

Beach in Denmark

I don't even remember where this is. But man, we loved on this double stroller.

Grocery shopping in Denmark

Sightseeing in Gent, Belgium, before DDCB

Paris, France Temple Open House

Walking to the train station from Church with Trace and Meg Teerlink, back in Berlin

Kiersten and Kalie came to Berlin! June 2017

Topography des Terrors, Berlin

Hosting all of the jumpers who came for Turnfest 2017!

Freiburg, Germany temple

Visiting the Baganz family and seeing the progress of their koi pond, up close and personal 

(read: Berlin threw a rock in and had to get it out. Not sad about this punishment) 

Zepernick, Germany

Jeremy found a job and started working about a month after we came back to Berlin. It was a crazy month, but it was relieving. It meant we could get visas, which we didn't actually get until the end of August (Jeremy started work in June), but we did all of it legally- there's a weird not-loophole-but-feels-like-a-loophole that the German government created which allows for people without visas to stay until they can get a visa. Appointments at the Ausländerbehörde (immigration, literally foreigners Authority) are booked at least three months out, but if you have a confirmation paper, proving that you have an appointment, it's not an issue that you don't have a visa yet... As long as you don't try and leave the country.

Jeremy started at his job only a couple of weeks before our tourist visas expired, so we hadn't gone looking for apartments yet. It felt a bit like putting the cart before the horse, so as soon as we had the means to get a visa, with two and a half weeks before we had to move out, we scrambled. Jeremy found us a furnished short-term apartment (3 month contract with allowance to extend for a month at a time) and we spent our visa expiration day moving a mile and a half closer to Jeremy's office. Jeremy had to be at work, so Kiersten (Jeremy's sister who had come to spend the summer with us) and I moved everything from point A to point B. It was a good place for that summer. We traveled with Kiersten, visited Poland and the Czech Republic and Austria and lots of different places in between, and slowly adjusted to some of the pieces of living in Germany. But just a few.

Hanno Kramer's lakehouse in Seddin, June 2017

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Oranienberg, Germany

We stopped somewhere outside of Grunewald on the way home from Peacock Island, the picnic during which a peacock ate bread off of Wes' head, and Kiersten came home with a tick. Good times.

Rakotzbrücke (Devil's Bridge) in Gablenz, Germany

On the Polish border

Oslo's first birthday!

Trip to Munich, visiting Viki and Martina 😂

Kiersten left just before we got our visas, and then we started searching for a not short-term apartment.  We kept extending our lease until we found something significantly cheaper, but the housing market is insane in Berlin, and I had a lot things to learn about apartment hunting, so we weren't successful until December. And we only found something furnished and short-term (4 months maximum kind of short term), but we moved in a week before we headed to the US, paid to keep our suitcases warm, and headed off for a whirlwind of a Christmas/wedding holiday.  We visited Jeremy's parents for Christmas, and the day after, drove to Lubbock for Jace's wedding, then turned around the day after the wedding and went to cram in as much visiting as we could while almost all of us were recovering from the flu. That post will hopefully be sponsored by Nyquil, since that trip definitely was.

Quick trip to Munich in October - Berlin and Viki

Palace-ing

Lane had about 48 hours in Munich, which was the reason for our Munich trip.

So great to see him.

This is just a small representation of Berlin's life in the last... 3 years.

You're only a bad parent if you DON'T take a picture, right?

Jeremy had to work one Saturday, but Berlin got to go with him.

City decorations for Christmas

Lauren Bell got called to Germany AND ended up in our stake! 

We should've worn Just Jumpin shirts.

I sang in the stake Christmas choir, so the boys... entertained themselves.

We'd been back in Berlin for a week when my step-dad called to tell us they were getting sealed, so a week later I hopped on a plane with the boys again, and Jeremy joined us the day before the sealing. I wasn't kidding about paying to keep those suitcases warm. We got back to Berlin, searched down to the wire for a new apartment, and signed a new 12-month contract seven days before our old one expired. We've been here for just over a month (but with traveling, we've only actually slept here maybe three of those weeks), and almost every suitcase is finally unpacked.

In all of the craziness of this year, we've learned a lot. We've made a lot of mistakes, some of them expensive, but many have been averted by smart and kind people we've met. I think it would be fair to say that there have been more frustrating days than fun ones. But the fun ones have been really great. And you know, we are making progress. There are some major things we need to figure out, less-Germany-more-life things, but it's coming.

And the language? Well. Jeremy has navigated our train being canceled, and the new travel plan options, in German. And I said the opening prayer in sacrament meeting on Sunday. So basically... we still have a long ways to go :)

Brita came to visit. And we're still killing it with group selfies.

Berlin on a bus stop post. He's like 6 feet off the ground.

Trip to Gent, pre-DDCB

Berlin with the Spargel (Spargelcup in Beelitz)

I'm still taking pictures of these bears, and Berlin wants to be in every picture.

[title from something just like this by coldplay and the chainsmokers]

sha la la la la

Our Christmas adventure-that-almost-was-a-fiasco seemed to reenergize our travel bugs, you know, the ones lying somewhat dormant because we moved overseas, but never actually comatose nor satiated without some form of exploration. So since January, we've tried to fit in lots of little adventures, sometimes to a fault. But we've had a lot of fun and made quite the collection of memories. And that's really what it's all about, right?

It started while Berlin and I were in Florida. Jeremy found a crazy good deal on a flight to Milan (thank you, awesomeness that is RyanAir), so we went to Italy the week that we got back from the US, just a day or so after Jeremy finished his exams (yes, finals for the term before Christmas weren't administered until after Christmas. Less than desirable, for sure). Jeremy wanted it to be a surprise, so he waited for me to find out when we got to the airport. The classmate we carpooled with to the airport accidentally ruined it (Jeremy wanted to wait until I was boarding) but it was still a fantastic surprise. And with the few extra minutes of knowledge about our destination, I could message a friend who served his mission there and ask for recommendations. Excellent recommendations, and we didn't have enough time to even thoroughly explore the places we did get to see!

On the tarmac, ready to board.

Berlin's first experience with his own, ticketed seat. Our first experience paying for it.

Duomo di Milano. And our clear appreciation for ancient buildings.

Messi fubol jersey we found by Duomo. Mostly to torment my brother-in-law.

Exploring Citta Alta 

More Citta Alta

Streets of Bergamo

Shopping in Milan. Or at least acting like we wanted to shop.

Berlin was thirsty.

Berlin making friends on the cable car ride down from Citta Alta

Berlin's method of not freezing when we finally headed home

The next weekend, we rented a car and drove to Cardiff. This plan wasn't as well thought out as some of our others. We rented a car in the middle of the day (when Jeremy was done with his early class) and just... drove. We didn't get there til it was almost dark, we found a pier and a cold, dark beach where we took one picture, got some mostly unidentifiable "Welsh dish" at a fish and chips place for dinner, and then we drove home.

We learned to plan a little better.

Somewhere between coming home from Christmas and Cardiff, Berlin turned two. It was a late school day for Jeremy, so Berlin and I spent the day wandering around town trying to find him some rain boots, which was pretty much the only thing he really wanted after his recent Christmas loot, so that he could "jump in muddy puddles." Among other treasures, we did find him some rain boots. We waited til Jeremy came home to do chocolate dinosaur cupcakes and birthday presents, which ended up perfect because it started raining while Jeremy was on his way home (okay, not so perfect for Jeremy). So we went outside, at 10PMish, so Berlin could test out his boots. He loved it.

He got to go puddle jumping with some friends a few days later. After an unfortunate incident of Berlin soaking wet and sobbing, we learned from these friends where they'd purchased their rain suits. 

He was more than a little appreciative.

A few weekends after that, we went to visit the White Cliffs of Dover. This was also a quick trip, which meant we only got to see the magnificent castle from the outside, and we hiked to a lighthouse too late to hike back in daylight so we hiked back through the mud in the dark, but Jeremy got some great pictures. And hey, we saw the White Cliffs.

 

Valentine's Day weekend found us in Salisbury. We drove up Friday night and stayed in a fun little bed and breakfast, and the next morning we started with Salisbury Cathedral. After admiring the best-kept original of the Magna Carta and walking around that room trying to figure out each of the Bible stories depicted on the walls, we went to visit Stonehenge. Even more impressive than I imagined it, even in the rain and the mud.

Salisbury Cathedral

The Magna Carta tent?

These weird bunny/human sculptures were all over the lawn outside the cathedral. 

They were... really weird.

Little piece of the city wall still intact, just outside of the cathedral.

Berlin decided that under the bed was the best place to play at our b&b.

The owner brought him the Legos, and after that, we didn't hear or see very much from him.

The wind at Stonehenge wasn't super fun. 

That bump in Jeremy's jacket that has legs was Berlin's position of choice.

But it still was really cool.

In all of this traveling, we figured out that we could reimburse some of our traveling funds by renting out our apartment on AirBNB. We have a great family in our ward who lives around the corner from us, so if we need to have sheets and towels changed between guests in the same weekend, we pay their girls to do it for us. Jeremy had the idea to try over Christmas while we were in the US, and then we rented out our apartment almost every weekend til March. A few weekends we didn't even leave Oxford, but stayed in a hotel or in college-housing, just because we'd rented out our place.

We did have a few weeks in which we didn't take any adventures, but we were plenty busy with just the ordinary things, like going to the park, potty training Berlin (attempted, anyway), participating in our stake's roadshow competition, and playing at home.

The boys watching a Dude Perfect video, now part of their nightly routine.

We can go very few meals without at least this many cars. It's usually more though. 

Berlin has a growing collection of dinosaurs, too. Not anything to rival his car collection, but still.

Berlin went through a phase of trying to put his collection of choice (depending on the day) in my pockets. 

Any pockets that were available. 

And since there was apparently enough room, a drink for good measure.

Helping make cookies for FHE

Berlin getting his own library card! (If your child has a card, even your toddler, they don't charge you late fees. A serious issue now resolved.)

Mini-golfing with Dad. In our bedroom.

Geocaching!

Berlin enjoyed roadshow practices because he always got a treat.

We had a couple of sick days, too. Not super fun, but I do love that Berlin gets snuggly when he's even a little bit sick.

We tried potty training pretty early because Berlin seemed eager and capable really early. 

Turns out not as eager as we thought.

I started teaching a fitness class with some moms in our ward. Berlin really got into prepping with me.

being tourists in our hometown :)

In putting this all together, I realized that all of this was only two months. How on earth did we have time to take so many pictures?




[title from top of the world by juliana theory]