11,256.80 miles

I forgot to post the answer!

We have traveled by CAR 11,256.80 miles in 5 months

adding our Flight over here the total is - 15,550.80 miles

THE WINNER!!!

Congrats to

JILL BUTLER

the only comment left for the Miles Contest...

Since I know what some of Jill's food and drink weakness are...

we plan to pack... some goodies for her....

***(just one question Jill... red or white)

** Side note: We are back from Nurnberg, Germany.

The only way we could get Internet ... was if we stood in the hallway with the computer held up high. So lots of pictures to come.

how many MiLeS have we traveled???

HAPPY Thursday everyone! My husband thought it would be fun to throw this contest out to all of you....(PLUS....***I just love bringing home fun German prizes)

How many Miles have we traveled since leaving our house in CRESTON, OHIO on May 9th???

** All the miles that we have traveled...
(Not counting groceries and going to work)

You can answer by leaving a comment on the blog
or send an email to ijoyful@hotmail.com

***PRIZE - Good questions! Some fun GERMAN item.
Depending on who you are and your age!! (HA!)
Chocolate, Candy, German Food... you can pick!

We will leave the contest open until:
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th

SIDE NOTE:
With all the traveling we have done... we have only lost 2 items.

ITEM #1 - CUTE PINK FLOWER HEADBAND that she only got to wear for 10 minutes. I was picking JP n Crystal up at the airport. I thought I was going to be late... when I got to the airport ... Kora had big presents in her diaper. When I was changing her I must have dropped it on the floor. I didn't realize I didn't have it until about a 1/2 hour later. By then it was to late... it was GONE!
ITEM #2 - When we were hiking in the Swiss Alps I took off Kora's gloves to feed her. We went down the mountain right after I was done. So I didn't put her gloves back on. Well.. needless to say... one of the her little gloves is still at the top of the mountain in Switzerland. :o(

I did get a couple of pictures of the Cute PINK Head band when Mom brought the box of head bands.

SIDE NOTE: Yup.. not much to blog about today! We hope to go to the big PLUM FEST in Buhl this weekend before we leave for Nurnberg (which I am hoping to have internet there for a week)

Labor Day....

It sounds like we sure missed some fun LABOR DAY Parties. On Sunday my Uncle Dale & Aunt Marilyn had everyone back at the pond. (I stole these pictures off of Stacey's facebook)... thanks Stacey...

All the kids... ( and big kid... Chris)

The kids must have been getting ready to play a game... they are all sitting still...

(I love adding captions to pictures that I do not know what they were really doing)
Every year... Doug always takes the kids out on the paddle boat. I am beginning to wonder who the kid is???

Cute picture of Ryder.... he is growing up so fast!

Cute picture of cooper.

It sounds like everyone had a great time. On Monday Grandpa & Grandma Hartzer had the Barna's down for a picnic. Sam, Kora Lily and I got to video call them after they were done eating. They told us about all the good food we were missing out on. (couldn't find any picture to steal on this one...)

kOrA iN a pAmPeR bOx....

I don't think I need to add anything to that story.... she is saying it how it is!

Sunday was a very relaxing day. We went for a walk in the morning up our little mountain... to church and then home to play. Kora has wanted to sit up & play. But she can not hold her self up very long...and I am not going to sit and hold her for hours.... (bad Mom I know)
SOOO... I was reading her books when I looked down and noticed her toy box (yes a pamper box) was empty... and the light bulb turned on in my little head for once!!! I always hear and see people having there kids play with boxes..... but I just thought Kora Lily was too little! Well I was wrong! She sat in this box for 2 hours and loved it!

Kora still gets excited over the same old book. She looks at if as if she has never seen it before!

Kora Lily smiling at Daddy!
We were trying to get her attention... so that she would smile at the camera... but she was to busy looking at her book to look at us.
.... and when she did look up... this was all we got.... and then she would go right back to looking at her book. (how does a 6 month old already know how to ignore her parents...)

... another picture of Kora playing in her box

Weekend with the locals...

This weekend we finally got to spend some time with some of the America locals. We have been so busy traveling everywhere... that we haven't spent a lot of time with the super fun American Family (Dustin, Amanda and Brenna) and Noah (the guy that came from LUK Wooster). Friday night we went to a fun little German Restaurant. We didn't take any pictures... but it had a little area where Brenna could play. Also the lady that owned the Restaurant kept taking Kora for me so that I could eat and talk. :o)

On Saturday we planned to meet up with them again in Strasbourg, France for lunch. We were running late as usual and it was pouring rain. But we walked to a nearby restaurant and ducked inside to stay drive and eat lunch.

Brenna in her "GO BUCKS" jersey. Even though we all had great meals. For some reason Brenna's french fries and burger looked better!

Dustin's meal on the other hand was very different to say the least....

It was RAW STEAK (forget the real name)... it was actually VERY good even though it doesn't look to promising
Noah... who does not like SEAFOOD ... was very glad that we had his back to the lady with the Seafood platter that was as bigger than her. (If you can see it behind Noah)

After eating, Noah showed us a different part of Strasbourg. We took a short walk down to a cute little area called "Petite France."

We walked down to the locks and watched a boat come through. It was pretty neat to stand right by the boat and watch it rise up. It was also a very old wooden lock.

Sam & Kora Lily at the Locks.

Sam, Kora Lily and I in Petite France, Strasbourg

It would down pour, clear up, down pour, clear up...and so on. So we left Strasbourg and went to the huge grocery store "Cora" and then came home. We had a good day in Strasbourg... even thought it rained ... I could have spent all day there :o)

This week....

Nothing too exciting has happened this week. Sam is still enjoying his job over here and we just found out that he (Kora n I might get to tag along) may be going to Nurnberg, Germany for some more training for a week this month. We went there with my Dad, Mom, Grandpa & Grandma but we didn't have time to tour the city. Kora has been missing her visitors and thinks that when she wakes up from her naps that someone besides me will be here to play with her. I have been working on our scrapbooks and getting my Uppercase Living business back up n running. Since we will be home in 4 weeks from tomorrow!!!! YAHHH!!!!

Things that happened this week.....

**** I was really hungry for Spaghetti this week. So I bought a BIG pack of hamburg and made big pot of spaghetti for dinner. I planned for leftovers that I could heat up all week for lunch. Well when we sat down to eat ... Sam says... "Wow hunny this is really salty." I was thinking seriously Sam... “It can't be that bad”.... but then again... my husband usually eats anything I put on his plate. So if he say's a bad comment about my dinners it must be bad. I took a bite...and sure enough... PURE SALT..........What did I do.... well we like to add sugar to our spaghetti...and since I knew I would be eating it all week.... I added a little extra...... ok maybe I added a lot of extra SUGAR.... or so I thought. Here I grabbed the salt instead. I know you are thinking “how can I mistake SALT for SUGAR”... but my little unmarked containers here are all the same. So needless to say we had to throw the WHOLE pan out! I was very disappointed!!!!!

**** Kora was really fussy on Thursday. I tried everything all day long and nothing seemed to make her content. So by the end of the night we decided to fill up her bath tub and leave it in the shower and let her kick the night away. Sure enough she was as happy as can be... (video to come)

**** Really enjoy the cool crisp fall air that has rolled in.... love it!!!

Kora Playing in her high chair.

She loves sitting in this thing... have I mentioned before this is the best invention. It is a cloth high chair that fits any chair. Once I sit her on it I pull it up and tie it around the back. Sometimes I feel like it may be hurting her... but she loves it and she never has a mark on her skin from it.
She was trying to tell me something in this picture...

She was getting mad at the water bottle because it was bigger than her....

This weekend we plan to meet up with some friends, go to France to visit a WW2 cemetery (about 1hr away) and check out the events in Buhl.

Good news from home....

We have received good news from home... that our Cousins Gregory, Brad and friend Rachel have given there life to the Lord. We are very happy for them and rejoice in this great NEWS!

Greg

Brad
(*** Sorry guys... these were the only pictures I had on this computer! )

Rachel & Kora Lily
She stopped by for a visit when she was in Europe.
Wish you all the best!
Lots of Love from the Gardner's!!!!!

Kora Lily - Watch Me Grow - 26 wks

Kora Lily is 26wks old and growing fast. She loves to play and is starting to roll over. She will not crawl yet... but some how she ends up in a different place then where we will leave her. She still loves to take long naps and sleeps all the time. She also enjoys eating her Cereal and White Carrots. (We are still trying to translate which vegetable this is... if anyone knows???) As soon as I come out of the kitchen with her bib.... her hands start flying everywhere! She gets so excited to eat! She loves to sing or some people may call it jabber. She has been so good at traveling and thinks that her life is in a car seat. As I am writing this now she is playing in her exersaucer and screaming like a bird. We are not sure where she picked this up from!!!! This must be how Sam and I sound to her.... lol.. or she can hear all the birds that are always in our little pond outside the door.

This cute outfit came in the mail from Grandma Gardner.

Kora loves the outfit and hat... :o)

Some snapshot of Kora Lily

Yes... She was singing in this picture

Laughing at Daddy...
Big Girl Picture

What did I do face

More Smiles
Kora Lily didn't want to sit for to many pictures.

This was what she looked like when we came....

She still is in need of some hair....

VIP Guest.....

Kora Lily was sooo excited to have JP n Crystal visiting. She loved all the attention and the new hat that Crystal brought for her. Here are a few random pictures from our time together.

Kora Lily in her new hat. I was not organized ... so I was flying around getting things together for our Venice vacation. I left Kora in her high chair and was trying to get things together. JP and Crystal put this hat on Kora and were taking pictures of her. She was laughing her head off. Little did we all know... she was leaving very big presents all over her... the cloth high chair and the chair. We were getting ready to leave for Venice and I picked her up and it was EVERYWHERE.... needless to say not a fun way to start a trip. ** But thankful it happened at home and not in the car :o) **

Crystal, Kora Lily and I at a little pizza place in Venice.

JP in Crystal at Neuschwanstein Castle on the scary bridge

When we were in Venice it was very HOT. We were always looking for shade. Well I wasn't very good at picking the spots. As you can SEE this tree was FULL of BIRDS!!! Good catch Crystal!

JP n Crystal helped us out with carrying Kora Lily up and down the steps in Venice! This was the biggest bridge that we crossed.

Walking the little alleys in Venice

All of us in Venice - (even though the picture didn't turn out... it is all we have)

JP n Crystal in Venice

Crystal loved the little Elevators... Kora Lily laughing at JP... before our hike in the Alps.

We had a great time with JP and Crystal. It was amazing to visit Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland with them. As with all of our visitors... we wish they could have stayed longer... but we were thankful that they came to visit.