goings on

Since we've been back, little Linc's favorite things to say are "owww" (like when I comb his hair or put on his bib) and "ohhh" (no) with a head shake. He's so funny. When we tell him it's time for night night he says "ohhh" while shaking his head and tries to run away.
But since we've been home he suddenly loves being on my lap every second and he just started giving kisses... right on the lips. So cute. And I've been trying to teach him to say yes and nod his head. He's got the nodding part down.

He's still loving his blankie and bink.

This is him at the store. He has to take everything off the shelves and carry it around. And he doesn't love riding in the cart.

This is how he eats a chocolate cookie. It turns into a gooey choco ball.

The other night we were searching for Halloween costumes for E and Linc wouldn't take this hat off.

Ollie had to bribe him for it.

We've been loving our apples from our tree. It still grows red and yellow ones so we don't get sick of one or the other.
This is Ollie's zinnia plant he planted in preschool. It came home in the teeniest cup with a little dirt and one or two seeds and this is what it turned into. He's very proud and we check it out often.
The boys loved the chocolate wafer plates we brought from Czech Rep. Super thin with chocolate in between. Yummy.

I can't believe how busy we are! I haven't even unpacked our last carry-on yet. It just has books and magazines and stuff, but still. Hope everyone's Halloween week is crazy and fun!

day 3- prague castle and fancy dinner

On day three our whole group of 100+ went by bus up the hill to Prague Castle. We broke into smaller groups and we got a really good tour guide, Urie, who was actually from the Netherlands and had a really nice accent to listen to... Anyway, I can't believe all the facts the guides know. And, remember how I said we had never traveled like this before? Yeah- never had a personal tour guide. But they were awesome.

In the courtyard. The president still rules from this building. And apparently you can leave a request to see him just inside of one of these doors, I think the one with the green awning. Crazy. On a side note, I thought pushing my purse to the back of me would HIDE it for pictures, not turn me into a CENTAUR. Oh well. There's more to come so this is just a warning.
The castle had it's own gothic looking cathedral that holds tombs and relics of important saints and kings. Does anyone else think it's weird to have bones displayed in a church? I saw lots of them throughout our travels... some people even went to see a church made out of bones. Yikes.

Loved these TALL ceilings. I can't imagine how they did this back when they started it in 1344!

So much meaning behind every art piece...

The place was packed with crowds... funny that someone brought their dog on a sightseeing tour?
I need to do a little research to find out what plant this is. (I need it.)
We stopped for a hot chocolate break and had this impressive view, although it was a little chilly to eat outside so we looked from the window. We didn't notice until we were ready to leave that each chair had it's own blanket.

arches and cobblestones= love

Superimposed Adam?

Urie was great and told us to try the Czech hotdogs. They put the buns on a hot rod to keep them warm from the inside and then put the hotdog in with ketchup and mustard. Yum. And no drips.
I can't believe how much I love this whole gate-bridge-leaf-cobble-cute hubby ensemble!!!!!

Is Karen the cutest MIL ever? I think so.

When Urie was officially off the clock he was heading for home and said we could follow him to a less touristy part of the city. This is us on a never-ending escalator in the subway. Adam's laughing because I turned around to take the pic and almost fell face first down the never-ending escalator. Cool.

Adam czeching out Czech guitars. heh heh.

The subway spit us out near this church and then Adam and I walked back to the hotel while Steve and Karen rode the subway back.


I was surprised to see this on our walk because I had seen it before somewhere (forwarded email???) but had no idea it was in Prague. It's called the Dancing House, nicknamed "Fred and Ginger". Ginger is on the left with a wispy dress, legs and a womanly figure and Fred is on the right. Kind of cool.
The walk home is where we saw so many of the cool doors. And to get back to the hotel we just found the river and walked along it forever- I loved it. We saw lots of runners by the river too- what I wouldn't give to have a route like this!
We got back in time to change and rush to dinner with the group at a fancy French restaurant. I was nervous they might only serve frog legs or the sort, but I just had some delicious salmon. Everything was really tasty and pretty.

left- our salad: tomato with melted mozzarella.

right- our dessert: chocolate cake, berry sauce and lemon pudding with star fruit.

Karen and Steve's room number made us laugh!

day 2- awake in prague

On the second day we woke up and wow! We were in Prague! We felt a lot better, Adam even woke up around 4 AM to get a jump start on the day... Really we were both wide awake pretty early. One of those jet laggy things. We had an amazing breakfast buffet at our hotel (can you say Grand American?) and headed out to visit the Jewish quarter of Prague.

I loved this blue fence outside one of the synagogues!!!

We walked around the Jewish Quarter and went inside one of the synagogues. This neighborhood has a long history in Prague. Long story short is that the Jews were forced to live in a ghetto and live apart from the Christians (this went back to the 12th century!) and even had to build a wall around their neighborhood and wear yellow badges. As time went on, they were able to tear the wall down and even knock down and build new buildings. By 1939, there were 120,000 Jews living in the area. But only 10,000 survived the Holocaust to see liberation in 1945 and today only a few thousand Jews remain in Prague. This was BAFFLING to me! To be there and hear these numbers! It still makes my heart hurt. :(

cool doorknob

This room was filled with handwritten names of 77,297 Jews who were killed in prison camps. Hometowns are written in gold, family names are in red, followed in black by the first name, birthday and last date known to be alive. There were a couple of walls dedicated to kids too. It was hard to see.
They asked the boys to wear these special caps in the synagogues to show respect. Adam's wouldn't stay on. Neither could Steve's. Puffy hair? Big heads? Not sure what the problem was, but I should have lent them a bobby pin. hehe. Next we walked through the Old Jewish cemetery- can you see it behind Adam?
From 1439 to 1787, this was the only burial ground allowed for the Jews in Prague so graves were laid on top of each other. Now this sits high above the street. They have never moved the bodies since it's against Jewish belief to move them, and as the ground has settled, all the headstones have shifted. It's the coolest cemetery I've ever been to.

This old tree grew right around the headstone.

Our guide told us people put pebbles on the grave and do something like have a peaceful thought, prayer or wish. So we did. Really they are called "flowers of the desert," reminiscent of the old days when rocks were placed upon the sand gravesite to keep the body covered.

(Added in later- thanks L!)

Can you believe all those headstones? I guess each headstone had all of their life's major accomplishments written on them.

Karen, Adam and Steve

Rose was our English tour guide through the Jewish quarter. She was really nice and at the end we learned that she when she was about 7, she was put into Terezin, a concentration camp. She lost her family but she survived. Wow. She said she didn't realize what was going on, she was just too young and didn't know what was happening. And she said she couldn't marry a Jewish boy later on because there were hardly any left. I learned a few new things about the Jewish culture here. Interesting stuff.

Synagogue stained glass.

Next we went up to the top of the clock tower to get a better view of Prague and the square. I think I might be getting more afraid of heights in my old age. Every once in a while it took my breath away!

All the red roofs. So fun to look at!

The tiny people in the square below waiting for the clock show... suckers! Ha.
The stairs were on the outside, elevator on the inside. We used both.

Happy that fall was in bloom in Prague too.

Such amazing views. Pictures will never do justice, but we tried!

Prague streets are covered in cobblestones- even the tiny sidewalks! You really had to get used to walking on this all day. It made your feet tired- but so pretty to look at.
Don't you love the little pathways between buildings? P.S. Prague might also have a little graffiti problem?

Autumn cobble. SPOL? Maybe.

So many bridges and views of the Vltava River.

I had to laugh at these teeny, tiny hot chocolates. I always get tired by the end of big ones anyway, but in the U.S. these would have been 5 times the size haha!


And then Prague at night is a whole different, beautiful place. Adam and I would go out and walk the streets looking around, maybe find a place that had free wifi and relax. It seemed a very peaceful place at night with hardly any people out. In the day it had so many tourists. And I don't know how, but it always seemed to warm up at night, which was nice. I loved our nights there.