Poland 2

We went to visit Damian's cousins in Pyrzyce the village where Ida was born and they live for several years. There is an old wall around the village that was build in the 11th century. Next we walked to a park where an old WWII tank was left. Damian remembers crawling up inside it with his cousins when he was a kid. We also stopped at a old catholic church which had amazing architecture and beautiful stain glass windows.

Here we all are standing in front of the tank. From right to left: Veronica, Michal and their dog. (Damian's cousin and his wife) Damian, Areya, Eva and Aniela (Damian's cousin) Adrian (Damian's brother) and Kuba (Eva's fiance).

On our way home we stopped at the cemetery so that Damian could visit his grandparent's graves. (His grandma died a few years ago and Damian was unable to see her before she passed.)

Just outside the Cemetery there are several shops where you can buy flowers, candles and other tings to decorate the graves. Many of the older people in the village make a daily trip to the cemetery to visit the graveside of their loved ones. I thought this was very neat and a great way to remember the ones who have gone before us.

This picture shows the section of the cemetery where the children are buried. Damian told me that they pay for the plot for a certain amount of time (like 50 years) and then after the time is up if no one continues to pay on that plot they dig up what ever is left (the casket) and the plot is used for someone else.

After the cemetery we headed back to Michal's place for dinner. After dinner was drinks and conversation. Damian's other cousin Roman came over along with some of Veronica's friends. They all had a great time talking and drinking. I watched the girls and did my best to keep them out of trouble. (I have no clue what anyone one was talking about, maybe I should learn so more Polish)

During our visit Areya and the their dog had a little, well lets say disagreement. Areya wanted to pet him and he didn't really want her to so he let her know by biting her on the cheek. The bite was not very big but was kind of deep. She did not get any stitches but probably should have. She now has a little scar that looks like a dimple when she smiles.

When it was time to leave Damian and Adrian had a bit to much to drink so I needed to drive home. Let me tell you how nervous I was about this. The signs are different and the rule are different and I had no clue where I was going. We ended up home safe and sound with no accidents.

Playing catch up

***FYI we are all back safe and sound. It was a very interesting trip and i'm glad to be back.
Sorry I have not updated in a while, it is amazing how much needs to be done after being gone for a month. I think I am pretty close to having it all taken care of so now I have a little time to let you all know more about our trip.***

Update on Aniela

I really hate doing posts out of order (for some strange reason) but I thought it important to let everyone know what is going on with Aniela.

From what I understand (no one speaks English here but Damian and he has never been very helpful when it comes to filling me in on what's going on) Aniela has acute bronchitis and to keep it from turning into pneumonia we had to put her into the hospital. Why you may ask? We tried to treat her at home but even after everything we tried we could not get her to take the antibiotics, and believe me we tried everything!

On Thursday the doctor came for a house call and gave us a prescription which we filled and tried to force feed her. (She gets sick really easy and has been forced feed lots of drugs in her short life) We were also given a few other medications so instead of force feeding them and making her so upset we simply hide them in her sippy cup of juice. When it was time for the next does we thought we would try the sippy cup trick again, to bad the antibiotics taste overpowers the taste of the juice, so we had to try and force feed her again. This time she spit it back out in our faces! We tried again making sure to get the medication in the back of her throat and again she just spit it out. We tried the sippy cup trick again this time with a different juice and she would not even take the cup from us. So on Friday morning the doctor came back and suggested that we take her to the hospital because with out the medication there was a great chance that it would progress into pneumonia. So we packed up and headed off to the hospital.

At the hospital a doctor took her information and listen to her lungs and thought it best to admit her. We were taken upstairs to the children's wing. (this is where I now call home) Next they had us take her to get a chest x-ray which was the WORST experience of both our lives. The nurse took her from me and then put the iron apron on Damian. (because he spoke polish, I guess) They tried to have her stand against the board and strap her legs to it while Damian held her hand above her head, but she was not having that. She got out of that in a less then a second. Next they strapped her into a horrible torture device. It is a tube that they use to restrain children, it is cut long way down the middle and has a strap at the top and bottom, it has a hole cut out for the face. They put her in with her arms above her head and tighten the strap and then did her legs. ( At this point she is screaming at the top of her lungs and I am bawling my eyes out) After she is in they hung her from a hook and took the x-ray. ( I left the room for this part, I could not take any more) Next they had to take blood and put in the IV start. Good thing they would not let me in the room for that part. I could hear her screaming all the way down the hall with both doors shut. (Damian's mom and I were both still bawling our eyes out)

She is given a very strong dose of antibiotics 3 times a day by IV and a breathing treatment 3 or 4 times a day. Aniela and I are staying at the hospital day and night. I have been getting a few hour break each day by Damian's dad to go home, take a shower and check my e-mail. Then it is back to the hospital to be with my baby and a bunch of Polish nurses that don't speak English.

The doctor said that Aniela is doing better but is still not well enough to leave. They told us it might be at least 3 more days if not longer.

Poland 1

Ok, I am going to try and do a post on this computer so I hope it works out alright.

Here we are at the Paris airport waiting for our connecting flight to Berlin. We were all so tired and there was no where to sit so Aniela is still in the front facing baby pack and Areya is sitting on her booster seat next to me on the floor.


Here the girls are enjoying the gifts that they got from their aunt and uncle. They loved the gifts and will have some more fun things to do on the air plane ride home. Thank you Adrian and Agnieszka for the gifts.

Here is Aniela (with help) holding her baby cousin Julia. Aniela really loved the baby and every time I took Julia off her lap she would get upset and pat her lap asking to hold the baby again.


We did not do a whole lot for the first few day, mostly stayed home and took walks to the pond near their house.


We also went to a huge mall complex that was recently built in Szczecin. We got ice cream, it's a soft serve ice cream and it's called "American Ice Cream". It does not taste the same as in the U.S. and was pretty good.

Here is a picture of the museum we went to. (We were not allowed to take pictures inside) They had this really cool old car that is called Smyk, it was designed by students in Szczecin. Instead of doors the front part of the car opened the motorcycle engine was in the back.






More to come soon!

We're Here! ( In Poland that is )

*A word of WARNING to my readers........ This post was done on a computer that is in Polish. * Please forgive any spelling errors. Thank you!


We made it! After all that traveling I don't want to make that trip again any time soon. We left the Chciago Airport at 5:30 p.m. and arrived in Paris, France at 9:00 a.m +1 day. ( There is about an 8 hour time diferance between Europe and the U.S. depending on where you live.) In that very long flight we were feed 2 meals and had plenty to keep Areya entertained. Aniela on the other hand was much more work. I only got her to sleep for maybe 1 hour of the entire flight. They have this cool bassenette that hooks to the wall and allows the baby to sleep. It would have been really geat if only she would have slept.

In France we had to get off the airplane outside and board a bus which took us the the termanial. Once there we needed to find our gate which we found out was about a 10 - 15 minute walk. We were pretty tired by this time not having had any sleep. We carried both girls, 4 bags and Areya's booster seat all the way to the gate stopping only for a trip through the security check point. After we made it through the check point we had about 30 mintue wait before we were allowed to board the next plane.

Both girls were a sleep before the plane even moved. The flight was a quick hour and a half trip into Berlin, Germany. We arrived there at 11:00 a.m. ( about 3 a.m. Utah time) and waited about 15 minutes for our luggage. After picking up our bags we met Damian's brother Adrian and loaded up the car for our wonderful 2 hour drive to Szczecin, Poland.

Potty training update

Aniela has been doing so great! Every time we put her on the toilet she has gone potty and one time she even went ca ca.  She has been asking to go and gets so excited that the diapers flies off. She is so funny. When she gets finished she asks for a wipe and is very happy when she gets to flush. At this rate we might hit the 18 month mark. 

Flowers and Kids

Yesterday Areya and I took the dog for a walk and on the way home she picked a flower. After we both smelled it she began to pick off the pedals one by one saying "I wish I love you" "I wish I not love you". The last one was "I love you, mommy" It was so funny and very sweet.  It's amazing how easily a child can melt your heart.

Ida

My sister in-law ( Ida ) graduated from Weber State University at the first of the month and has made it safely to Chicago. She will be staying with us in our two bedroom apartment. I feel bad for her because she has to sleep in the living room for now. Lucky for her we will be gone for a whole month on our upcoming trip to Poland. ( She decided to stay here due to visa problems. ) 

We will be leaving to Poland on Monday, August 25th and coming back home on September 25th. That means Areya will be celebrating her 5th birthday there, and she will miss the first month of preschool. I hope that we will have a great time. ( other then the 10 hour plan ride to France, then the 4 hour plan ride to Germany and finally the 2 hour car ride to Poland with two kids that can't sit still for 10 minutes)  Wish us luck because I have a feeling we are going to need it.

Sister Missionaries

On Friday we fed the sister missionaries. Areya really loves when they come to visit. She has so much fun with them.  Here are a few pictures.

They are really awesome girls and I love when they come to visit too, and guess what two of the three are from Utah. I was surprised how many people in my ward are from Utah. It's crazy! 

My baby's growing up

Today Aniela went potty in the toilet, she watched Areya go and then wanted to try so we let her. 

She actually went! I was so surprised and excited and she was so proud of herself. 

I can't believe how much she has learned from just watching Areya. 

They grow up way to fast! I wish she could stay my baby forever.

Potty time!

Did you know that the average age for children in Europe to be potty trained by is 18 months and in the U.S. it is 3 years?

Aniela has been telling us every time she needs her diaper changed so we thought that we might try to start potty training her.  She understands that mommy and sister sits on it when we need to go "ca ca" or potty but I don't think she understands that she needs to go in there and not her diaper. 

I guess it does not hurt to try. 

Wish us luck, we may need it!

A quick trip to Tennessee

We just got back from a great trip to Tennessee. My Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Mike just moved there from Alaska and my Grandma (who was living in Utah) moved with them. The plan was to have my mom fly over there and spend a week with her sister and since I live so close now ( 605 miles / 10 hours) the girls and I were invited too.  The only problem is that Damian would not let me drive alone with just the girls, so the plan was to have my mom fly into O'Hare and then drive down with us. Then it turned out that my dad has some vacation time that he needed to use so he came too.

We left late Friday night after I picked up my parents from the airport. (I like driving at night because the girl sleep through most of it and don't need as much attention.) We drove all night and arrived at their house in Greenback at about 10:30 a.m. 

Well Kim and Mike just got a new swimming pool and needed a little help testing it out so we were more then happy to help. 

The girls love to swim and would have lived in that pool for the whole week if only their mean mommy would have let them.

Here is Kim showing us how deep the water is. Just over 6 ft at the deepest point.

The next day was Sunday and we did not have anything planned so we just hung out at home swam a bit and went to the Mall for tax free weekend. I guess one weekend a month they have no taxes on clothing and we were lucky enough to be there for that.

On Monday we drove to a town called Gatlinburg which is about a hours drive. Wow, this town was awesome! It reminded me a lot of Jackson Hole, Wy or Park City, Ut.  It had tons of little shops and  plenty of food and entertainment. 

There was also a really neat aquarium with a glass tunnel where sharks, fish, rays, and turtles swim all around you.

 

As you can see by the look on Aniela's face she was not quite sure what to think of it all. She just kept singing fish, fish, fish. 

There was a really cool hands on area where you could touch horseshoe crabs and take your picture as a deep sea diver. There was also a display of shark jaws which was so big that it could have eaten my dad and uncle mike in one bite. 

Areya spent the whole day with her Grandma Great. She had so much fun and loves her great grandma so much. 

When we got home we went for a swim.

Tuesday we went tubbing down the "Little River" in the Smoky Mountains. We kind of got a late start that day and was only able to go down once but it was really fun and took about a hour. We had planned to go on the trip with a little white water but because Areya is not old enough we just floated down the lazy part of the river. 

Aniela had a rough night and Grandma Great was not up for tubbing so they went shopping. 

I was really meaning to get a water proof camera so I could take pictures but that didn't happen so here are some I took before we went home.

You would think that we would've had enough water but I guess not because when we got home we went swimming in the pool again.

On Wednesday we went to a town called Pigeon Forge and rode the go carts. This town has tons of shops but also tons of mini golf courses, go cart tracks, rides and tons of other stuff to enjoy. This town is also home to Dollyworld and Splash Country. For those of you that have never heard of these places (me being one of them) it is an amusement park and water park created by Dolly Patron.  We had planned to go but come to find out it is close to $80 a person, which is a bit out of my price range, so we settled for the go carts.

For some reason the guys sat this one out so it was the girls who ended up going.

Me, Gayle, Kimmy & Areya

  

And of course after a fun filled day we went home and went swimming.

Thursday the girls took another shopping trip to the Mall while the guys went to the pool and lawn mower store. Then when we got home we played badminton, swam and had a great dinner of BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, beans and rice, corn bread and watermelon. It was really good! 

And you guessed it we went swimming.

Friday, sadly was time to pack up and drive home so my parent could catch their flight back home to Utah.   

I woke up with the worse sore neck and back ever and could barely move so my dad had to drive back to Illinois.  We weren't in too big of a hurry so we took our time getting ready to leave.

 Areya, Aniela and Kim had a great time coloring with the sidewalk chalk.

Then it was time to go. We ended up driving through 4 different states.  (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee)

Thank you Kim, Mike  and Grandma for having us. We all had a great time and can't wait to do it again. We love you!