Prague City Center

After dinner we just walked around the corner to the Prague City Center. It is the silhouettes of these beautiful buildings that make the Prague skyline so gorgeous! It consists of an old church with 2 towers,

a huge astronomical clock tower (world famous too),

& a huge open area for a marketplace. It is gorgeous! I especially loved the clock. I have no idea how it works, but it's just amazing that it does work. It's a piece of artwork by itself.

We strolled around the open area & noticed a Bohemian Dance/Concert going on one one end. The music started up & the girls BEGGED to dance. So, we let them dance. Boy did they draw some attention. There were at least 3 people video taping them, as well as a small crowd gathered around them clapping to the music. It never fails; we can't go anywhere without getting noticed!

Hard Rock Cafe. . .Prague

By the time we got across Charles Bridge, the kids were starving. . . & so was I. The Hard Rock is right next to the city center, so I knew we were close. It was great, because it just popped out of nowhere! I must admit, Hard Rock's food isn't my favorite, but after living in Europe for 3 years, there's really nothing like an ICE cold drink (with ice in it) & FREE REFILLS! Sometimes you just want good old American food! The girls love it there because they always get balloons, crayons, & a Hard Rock coloring menu. They colored forever! Taya was fascinated with my lime slice in my Sprite, so I gave it to her camera ready. Poor baby wasn't expecting what she got!

The girls both got Mac n Cheese & shared with Taya. Trek got chicken strips & I got a big taco salad type of thing. It was good enough to hit the spot. I like to collect hoodie jackets from all the Hard Rocks we go too, but out here in Europe, they all have the exact same one. So now I don't have a hoodie from Rome or Prague. Bummer. But I do have one from Cologne, Amsterdam, & Paris. So that works. Trek got his pin, so he was happy. Someday I want to make a quilt out of all my Hard Rock shirts & hoodies to show everywhere Trek & I have traveled together! We enjoyed our little dinner together in "little America!"

A walk across Charles Bridge

So, after the castle & cathedral, we started our walk towards the Hard Rock Cafe on the other side of the city. In order to get there we got to walk across the world famous Charles Bridge. There were so many beautiful buildings along the way, we kept stopping to take pictures. It seemed like every church we passed was having some sort of musical concert: Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, you name it, it was playing! This place was HEAVEN for me!

And along with the pretty buildings, there were shops everywhere! This place was a shopoholic's dream! Cadence & I peeked into all the stores to see what fun things they sold. (Puppets were very popular here!)

The bridge itself is beautiful. I took pictures of the entry gate & of the exit gate. They are so beautiful!

There were guards posted at each side of the bridge gates as well. . .

And then the view was gorgeous from the bridge itself. There were all sorts of artisans selling jewelry, portraits, paintings, & metalwork. Trek & I bought a gorgeous watercolor painting of the Prague skyline to hang up on our wall at home. I love the feeling of Europe. I'm surely going to miss it when we leave here!

Prague Cathedral

Inside the walls of the castle is the Prague Cathedral. To me, it actually looks more like a castle than the castle does. The Cathedrals are always Trek & my favorite sites in European cities. They are some of the most beautiful buildings on earth. This one was no exception. It was gorgeous. And the way it stood on the top of the city just made the city all the more beautiful.

The girls had fun running around the courtyard, & then we took pictures of each of them in front of the cathedral to prove they were there.

Then we went inside. It was very similar to Notre Dame in Paris with it's vaulted ceilings & stained glass windows. I loved the Prague Crest made out of gold on the wall. It was a beautiful cathedral both inside & out!

On our way back outside, we had a quick bathroom break (a must with my kids) & then headed back out towards the city. On our way out of the castle we noticed that Prague has it's own Eifel Tower, but about 1/3 the size of the one in Paris. The girls thought that was pretty cool. Now we were off to dinner. . .

The Prague Castle

At the very top of Prague is a castle. It's not a castle like most of the castles' we've seen out here in Europe, but it's more of a palace! It kind of reminded me of the palaces we visited in Austria last summer. There was a beautiful gate with scary statues on it,

& 2 guards that guarded the gate.

There was a large open area where the kids could run free, along with a huge fountain. . .& you know my girls & fountains! We had to take some pictures in front of it while everyone stared & pointed out that we have 4 kids. I don't know why it's such a big deal to people that I have 4 children. Trek & I crack up & count how many times we hear somebody whisper "Fier Kinder!"

We enjoyed playing around the courtyard, & then we were off for the castle's main attraction: the Catheral!

Prague. . .the city

After the temple, we took off for Prague in the Czech Republic. A couple things about Czech Republic:

#1: You need a sticker to drive on their highways. . .it took us forever to find a place where we could purchase a sticker for our van.

#2: They have their own money & the conversion took us forever to figure out. 25 of their money equals 1 Euro. . .we still don't know how much of theirs equals one of our dollars. But I think in Euros now anyway so that worked out.

#3: It's cheap! Once you figure out the money, you realize all the souvenirs, parking, food, etc. is dirt cheap!

#4: Lots of cheap parking! We never find Parking Garages very easily out here. They have several & they are fairly cheap compared to other cities we've been in.

#5: It's one of the most beautiful cities in the entire world!! This is a MUST SEE city!

The first thing we did was hike to the castle. The view of the city from the wall is breathtaking! We took several pictures of the city. It's definitely a city worth traveling too.

Arriving at the Freiburg Temple

So it was a super long drive to the Freiburg Temple. It was only supposed to take 6 hours, but in Germany, if you hit road construction. . .you might as well add an hour or two to you commute. We got up at 3:00 am & left a little before 4 am so we could make it to the temple by 10 am. Everything was going great at first & then we hit construction after construction after construction! But even though that got us behind, Trek would make up time on the autobahn. Still, everything was going as planned until we looked down & realized we were almost out of gas. Out here in Germany we are allowed to buy gas on the economy as long as it's a certain gas station. If we get gas at an Esso Station, we only pay the $3.00 a gallon that we pay on base. However, if you get gas somewhere else, you're going to pay nearly $12.00 a gallon!! Well, we needed gas, & there wasn't an Esso ANYWHERE!! The GPS finally found one that was 30 minutes out of our way, & against our will we drove there so we wouldn't be paying upwards of $100 to fill our tank. We drove all the way to the Esso station only to learn that it is no longer an Esso station. It was now a Hem station. We were SO upset. We only put enough gas in to get us to the temple (about 15 liters) & hoped that there was an Esso near there. So now we were 30 minutes behind schedule. Then, as we got closer & closer to the temple, Taya started to cry & frown & much to our dismay, she started throwing up. The roads here induce motion sickness so easily & it finally got the best of her. Poor Baby! So I was trying to feed Bladen with one hand, cleaning up throw up with the other, while Trek is going as fast as he can to get us to the temple on time. When we arrived it was only 10:30. Really that wasn't so bad. The reason we had to get there at 10 is because we had friends waiting for us so that we could watch their kids while they did something in the temple & so they could watch ours while we did something in the temple. When we got there, the Stephen had already gone inside & poor Kate was sitting with her kids waiting for us. We felt so bad. So Trek went in to do sealings & Kate & I just sat & talked with the kids. She left shortly after to go find her hubby & spend a little time with him inside. Soon after she left, Trek came back. When they got done, we all took lots of pictures of each other in front of the temple. It is a cute teeny tiny temple. It's smaller than a church building! I'm glad we got to go.

Cadence the Soccer Player

This week it's Cadence's turn to go to soccer camp. Her camp is all 5 days for 3 hours a day. She is having a blast so far & I love it because she comes home completely exhausted! She has been sleeping REALLY well at night because of how tired she is. Daddy has been taking her to soccer this week because it works great with his work schedule right now. He drops her off when it starts, goes to work for a few hours, & then picks her up when she's done & comes home for lunch. He's taking a class online from lunchtime until bedtime here at home via video conference in our bedroom. It's been a crazy schedule, but it's so wonderful that he can go & watch Cadence play soccer. It's always nice to have a little alone time with daddy. . .although mommy is going to crash the party at least one of the days! I have to see her in action too! But so far she is having a lot of fun. Here's a few videos of what she's been doing.

Toothless

Tonight, Cadence FINALLY lost her first tooth. A few weeks ago, she was thrilled to find that her front bottom tooth (on the left) was wiggling when she touched it. Every single morning she would make me wiggle it to see how loose it was. (Ugh. . .it's like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. It totally grosses me out!) Well today she was wiggling it with her tongue. I knew it was only a matter of time before it fell out entirely. At dinner she was complaining that the pizza was hurting her tooth. She put her napkin on it & we both found that it was bleeding. I told her that since it was already bleeding & hanging by a limb that she should just tug on it with a napkin & see what happens. She started to cry hysterically because she was so scared of the pain, but I reassured her that it was already bleeding & that it wouldn't hurt at all & that she probably wouldn't even feel it. She reached in & in a matter of seconds she was holding her tooth. She went NUTS! You would have thought she won the lottery!! She called both her grandma's immediately to share her good news. She was SO proud to have a toothless smile like all her friends. Now I, on the other hand, am just trying to hold back the tears. My little baby is losing teeth! I still remember when she was GETTING teeth! They grow up way too fast! I just have to cherish every moment I have with them! Tonight she's already sound asleep in bed with her treasure under her pillow awaiting a visit from the infamous tooth fairy. She told me before bed that she hopes that the German tooth fairy comes instead of the American one so she can have German money. I laughed at that. I guess we'll have to see which one did come tomorrow morning. I'll keep you posted. . .

Mmmm...

Taya loves macaroni & cheese. She loves it so much that she insists on licking the bowl dry both inside & out!