Word around the office is...

Just a few random pictures of the time between our anniversary and Jodi's birthday. The first one shows a bit of an update on Reese's room/storage closet:
Erika snuggling with birthday bear (if you can remember, I said back in January I would post pictures of the bears the kids made for Erika's party). This is one of the last pictures we have of her sucking her thumb...

Cute kids getting ready for a walk:

And now, the main attraction, Reese and his completely original dance moves. Unfortunately, we aren't quick enough to catch his whole routine which includes sliding backwards on his stomach, rolling over, and some stuff on his feet, but here is a taste:

Jeff and Jodi

The Monster Unveiled/Our 9th Anniversary

More Snyder August history. August 21, 2008: Our 9th Anniversary. I win the award for the most romantic gift ever:

As the bandaging came off, the camera got put away as the pain got a little worse, so we haven't included the final product. Sorry. We didn't get any pictures of our anniversary supper (beefy taco dip to top off the romantic day) - making your mouth water Kory? Rest easy Peggy and Sarah, the doctor didn't give us the removed nail so it's not on it's way to your mailbox (or is it?).

Jeff and Jodi

The Unruhs Cross the Seas

So, we are still playing catch-up for the past couple of months. About three weeks after the Basel trip, Tim and Lesley came for a visit. Too bad they couldn't stay for two years though. We went to the Münster, and toured downtown in Freiburg. Me and Tim climbed up the 287 stairs to the viewing place (whatever it's called). The view of the city is well worth the climb.

Erika and Lesley enjoyed the bottom of the Münster:

We also took a day trip to Colmar (France). It was nice to see that they seemed to enjoy it as much as we had the first time we went. Lesley was snapping pictures left and right of random old doors in various camera effects (sepia, etc). We also took a ride on France's (or Europe's, I can't remember) 'largest carousel'. Not sure where they got that claim. We wandered around a bit and made our way to 'Petite Venise', and stopped at a quaint looking place for supper. We figured out from the menu that they only served pizza for a main course (actually, flammkuchen, apparently you should never confuse the two), so we ordered a couple, acquired a month's worth of salt intake, and left more hungry and thirsty than we came. Thus ended Colmar (more or less), a very enjoyable day.

We also spent a couple of hours in the Schwarzwald, at Titisee. It is a touristy kind of place that sells all kinds of 'traditional' German stuff, like cuckoo clocks and wood Christmas decorations. Tim had a tattoo appointment in Freiburg that we needed to get back to, which kind of cramped our time there (I think Tim and Lesley liked Titisee a lot). We toured the shops, checked out the lake, toured the shops, started to head back, and toured more shops, and then headed for the train. Tim got a taste of black forest cake for the return trip, which included a mickey of booze soaked into the cherries. Nasty.

We had a lot of fun during the week checking out Rieselfeld (our area of Freiburg), watching movies, eating a truckload of Mars ice cream bars, and getting caught up. All in all, our best week in Freiburg to this point, thanks for coming over Unruhs! We leave you with a picture of Lesley downtown.

Jodi and Jeff

Sick of us yet?

Oops. I think we were going to update 2 months ago. C'est la vie. So, Basel, right? I think we left off with the hot picture of me in front of the Rhine. If we can recall it right, we ended up at the Hauptbahnhof (central station) at around 12 (this is July 18th by the way), and decided we should take off to Basel, Switzerland, about an hour away. If we had enough money in our pockets for the train, we would go. The tickets came to 19.80 euro and we had 20, so off we went. Reesey sure wanted some lypsol on the train:

Being the responsible individuals we are, we ended up pulling out some Swiss francs from our Canadian car payment fund/account for some sloppy Joes, a.k.a. buns, meat and cheese, Swiss style. And no, the f***gen thing (car) still hasn't sold yet. Yes, friggen. It just so happened we landed in Basel for "All Basel Day" or some other civic holiday which poured every citizen into downtown. The train station was about a 5 km walk from downtown Basel, so we set out at a leisurely pace. A little while later, we made it to the Rhine, which is right beside the downtown part. It was pretty neat to stumble upon it. Jodi looks pretty pleasant, although I think I was preoccupied about how I would get our camera back if the fellow taking the picture decided to run:

(I think I was already hurting/whining about my new sandals. Their comfort was a definate treat). We crossed the bridge (which was really nice) and into downtown, and began the difficult search for nourishment in the 40°C heat. Along the way, we started to wonder why some streets were roped off and many people were crowding about. Jodi got a "butterbretzel" - her favorite German food - and I got a subpar sandwich, to be split three ways, of course. And one spicy water which contained only backwash after one pull by Reese. After the 'meal', we made a little bit of a wrong turn, indicated by the row of sex shops along the street, in a seedy area of the downtown. We quickly made our exit, and then began the search for a bathroom for Erika (we are seriously considering diapers for her again), and then finally found the theater and the Basel Münster:

The theater was pretty impressive (first picture), but the Münster itself wasn't too great. We are starting to realize that Freiburg's Münster is awesome. The best part of Basel was behind the Münster which overlooked the Rhine and a good portion of the city at a vantage point of about 80 feet. On the way back to the bridge, we walked along a really neat street with really old places. The one Jodi liked dated back to 1435:

Well, that about wraps up the Basel trip. We have a couple more things we want to post about before getting back to the present. In line with that: Tim/Les's visit, Füssen (Jodi's 30th birthday), Erika starting kindergarten, Reese our breakdancer, and a fun two weeks with Grandma Green. My parents are coming next week, which should be a lot of fun. Here we come Disneyland Paris!

Jodi and Jeff