Old Stomping Grounds

While in Belgium Mike, Charlie, Ed and I got a chance to slip away and visit the base we were stationed at in Germany for 3.5 years.  We had a great time visiting our favorite places in the town we lived in.

Sharing a beer (not with the baby of course!) at our favorite german restaurant - Restaurant Daus

Stopping in the town square for a cappuccino at our favorite cafe - Cafe Am Markt.

The view of the Mosel River from Mike's favorite thinking spot. 

The kindergarten where our friends took their boys to school.  Maybe some day Charlie will be lucky enough to experience school (and life in general) in a foreign country.

The house our friends rented in the same town we lived in.  A lot of wonderful memories made in this house!! 

It was so amazing to get to visit a place that holds so many great memories and experiences for us!

Christmas Markets

One of our favorite things about living in Europe was the Christmas markets so we made sure to hit up a bunch while we were in Belgium.

Brussels

Charlie's first ride on a merry go round

Brugge 

Aachen, Germany

Strasbourg, France

Bernkastel, Germany

Trier, Germany

Charlie was in or traveled through at least 4, maybe 5 different countries throughout our trip!!

Belgium for Christmas

We spent this past Christmas with Mike's brother, Bryan who is stationed in Belgium.

We flew from Montgomery to Baltimore and than caught a military plane from Baltimore to Germany.

Charlie was a trooper and slept for most of the overnight flight.

When we finally arrived in Belgium Uncle Bryan, Aunt Tiffany, cousin Beau and Sophie took us to a playground near their apartment.

The view from the balcony of the apartment.

During our visit we were able to go to Bryan's promotion ceremony from Major to Lt. Col.

Charlie was not very interested in the ceremony.

matching cousins take a drink break

the Skarda men

We were also able to visit the location in France where Mike's dad was stationed 50 years ago.

Charlie and his cousin Beau enjoyed their time together.

Christmas morning.

When we got back from Belgium we had a second Christmas in MD.

5 generations

After all of that traveling we were exhausted on our trip home.

Because of some bad weather we had to spend the night in Atlanta.  Charlie got to sleep in the big bed with mom and dad!!