Now, I'm officially awake

Sorry about that last post.  I re-read it, and realized how disjointed it sounded.  But after last night's good rest, I think I'm fully out of jet-lag.

Or at least I hope I am.

Backing up, I wanted to show you are final meal in Texas (Mexican food & Dr. Pepper!) and what our luggage looked like at the airport.  I was SO impressed with the skycap!  The skill to put all of our checked bags on one trolley really impressed me (or maybe it just doesn't take much to impress me).

Can you believe that?

Ready travelers

Cute traveler

When we landed in Frankfurt, I forgot to take a picture to compare it to the one at the bottom of this blog of when we had a layover 6 years ago, our first time around.

But I did manage to get a picture of our first meal on the ground.  Exciting, right? 

The reason I took a picture, is because it was a lot less conspicuous doing it around Americans, and I wanted to show you how the people eat every meal here.

Everyone sits on the floor on long pillows on top of a blanket, and then a long roll of plastic is laid down the center between the pillows.  The dinner is eaten on the plastic.  In fact, I was told it is impolite to pick your plate up and hold it in your hand closer to your mouth, which I was very tempted to do.  It's a lot of bending over.

After dinner, you can see what Karis and Kylie have already done (on the left)  You dump whatever is left on your plate onto the plastic.  When everyone is done, dishes and silverware are removed, and the plastic is rolled up with plastic cups (if that's what you use) and leftover food inside, like so...

I hope you get the idea.  I was a little late pulling out my camera.

We've been cleaning our new house for a few days because it has been vacant for a long time and really needed some attention.  However, today, we took a break because the painter came.  He asked for kids to be out of the house, so I left with the kiddos, and Doug remained there cleaning.

We also got a break from cleaning last Friday because it's their Sabbath.  We were invited to go to the VERY large park in town (it could give Central Park in NYC a run for its money in size).  We had a picnic and let the kids play outside.  It was a pretty day. 

This playground set is one of SEVERAL on the park grounds.  I can't wait to visit them all. 

If you look at the boys on top of the blue pole to the right, you can spot Caleb in the green shirt on the left.

And here is our trooper who has had a difficult time with jet-lag...Keira, not me :)

She has been a real trooper and smiled through it all, but to see her fall asleep while she is still chewing food is something to behold.