Thanks Steph!

Steph left for Ohio on Monday.  We had a great visit and really appreciated all of her help!  There were not too many action shots as we had a pretty lazy week.

Breakfast of champions

Hot Chocolate & a cream puff at R.Dybalski cafe, Pio Street, Lodz

The Lab

For those of you following the Polish lab/hospital drama... Here are pics from the Lab today.


John on his way in.


The waiting room.


The entrance way

Look what we found in the Dinoland parking lot!

A Tucson f-16!

Dinoland

One of the highlights of our trip so far has been a trip to Dinoland!

Poznan

We had a great time visiting the 'other half' of the squadron up in Poznan.  The weather was actually sunny and crisp.  But not freezing!  The town has a beautiful old square, beautiful churches, and great food.  Maggie had so much fun playing with Brady and was thrilled that she had a playmate that spoke English!

 

Visitors!

Grandma Steph is here to help with the girls!  We are so happy to have her here.

We spent part of our weekend in the Western part of Poland in a town called Poznan.  It was a great town with a beautiful square.  We went there to visit the other Americans who are stationed here.  Of course we had to hit Dinoland on the way.  Maggie loved it!  I will post some pictures tomorrow.

Women's Day!

From what we could figure out, today was "Women's Day" in Poland! Not really sure what it means... But something of a cross between valentine's day and mother's day. Also not really sure why it falls on Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day in the Uk!

There were people selling flowers on every street corner for "the women". So... John bought the Smith girls some flowers! We are still a little bit confused by the holiday!

UPDATE: I have just been informed by my girlfriend that it is 'international women's day' and there are incredible events empowering women around the world today. It has nothing to do with gifts or flowers... Apparently I am totally out of the loop. The florists in Poland are doing a great job marketing to the guys who don't want to screw up a 'holiday'!

Lunch with Daddy

Little girl standing up!

Reality check

It was actually sunny and warm today (34 degrees!).  It is going to get warmer this weekend, even hit 57 on Sunday!  Heat wave!  I took some pictures of our town on our walk.  This is the gate at the former entrance to the textile factory that is now a huge mall.

The Manufactura courtyard.

Beautiful building on our walk

The central roundabout that connects the park with the pedestrian street where we live.  The green tram is how everyone gets around.

Church on our block

Reality of Lodz.  This is directly across the street from the beautiful building third picture from the top.  An abandoned building with broken out windows and graffiti.  Makes for an interesting walk!

Bowling!

I'm catching up on some pics from around Lodz.  Maggie and her expert bowling stance.

More pics from Madrid

This was the most amazing breakfast!  Fried churros dipped in chocolate!

Reality of traveling with little children.  Time for a clean up!

Hola from Madrid!

We are currently sitting in our friends lovely home, looking out the window at the beautiful white snow falling!  We can't escape it!  It is so cold here and we left all of our winter clothes in Poland.  For some reason when the weather report said it would be 45-50 degrees in Madrid we thought that sounded pretty warm!  Here are some pics from the last two days.  We are heading out for the day now, so I will write more later.

Little sissy helping mommy pack up.

Enroute with a stop at Amsterdam

Day out in Madrid!  Loved our tour of the Prado

Our wonderful tour guide & hostess Belinda.

Touring the Prado

Lunch time at the museum cafe

Playing at the park outside the Royal Palace.  Not a bad view!

Playing at the Slacks house!