Tyson turns 2!

Tyson turned 2 years old on June 3^rd!  It was a special day!  We drove downtown and took a ride on the swan boats at the Boston Public Gardens.  Next we met up with Stephen and took a ride on the carousel, followed by lunch together in Back Bay.  That evening Tyson had his current favorite meal for dinner, spaghetti.  He was very excited to blow out his candle and ate a lot of cake.  We sure love this little boy and can’t believe he’s already 2!

 

A few days later we celebrated Tyson’s birthday with a little party with friends.  We had a construction vehicles theme as Tyson is really into all vehicles, and particularly construction vehicles.  I enjoyed making Tyson a construction vehicles cake.  At the party we played inside for a while and then did some fun outdoor games.  What a fun day!

Tyson's birthday gift from mommy and daddy was a balance bike.  He was very excited about it!

Here we are waiting in line for our turn to go on a swan boat ride.

Tyson loved the carousel!

Yay for cake and a candle!

Tyson's birthday cake for his party with friends.

We had a construction themed party.

Tyson went crazy over all the food, particularly the cookies, goldfish crackers, and muffins.

Here the kids are completing a fun outdoor obstacle course.

All the dads got wrapped up in caution tape and streamers.

Time for limbo!

Our great friends, the Killians and the Orgills.

Happy birthday Tyson!

August in Boston

We moved to Boston at the end of July for Stephen to start a new job in private equity with Advent International.  Though we had an apartment set up, it wouldn't be available for us to move into until September.  We were so blessed by an amazing couple in our new ward in Belmont (suburb of Boston) who offered to let us stay in their home with them for the month of August.  Below are some pictures from our August activities.

 



People in our new ward reached out right away!  A new friend named Madison took Tyson and I downtown and showed us around.  Here we are at the public gardens.

We quickly discovered our new favorite pizza and pasta restaurant, Comella's.  Fortunately (and unfortunately), it is a one-minute walk from our new apartment.

Stephen cooked some amazing shish kabobs for my birthday!

We discovered and fell in love with Walden Pond.  We went there many times.

Tyson's favorite spot to sit is right where the beach meets the water.  He loves to play there in the sand.

It takes less than 20 minutes to get there - not too bad!

I found this awesome music table at a secondhand store for only $15.  Tyson loved it and it encouraged him to stand up (as he was still scooting and crawling at 14 months).

Tyson had lots of fun pretending to talk on our cell phones.

Tyson is a great eater!

Upon purchasing a walker, Tyson finally decided walking was more fun and more efficient than scooting.  He made great progress during the month of August and finally started walking right about 15 months in early September.

Summer birthdays!

We celebrated Stephen's birthday in July and Shara's birthday in August.  Tyson was born in June, so we are all summer birthdays!  Below are a few pictures taken on our birthdays.

Stephen received pictures to put on his desk at work so he can remember his family during his busy days!

Having fun with Tyson on Stephen's birthday!

Celebrating Shara's birthday!

What we've been up to....

It has been about three months since I last updated our blog!  Much has happened!  Below you will see just a few pictures from our fun adventures since returning to the USA.  Our first stop was Oregon where we spent a wonderful weekend with Stephen's family.

Tyson had so much fun reconnecting with his cousins.  Here he is with Benjamin and Karl.

Here's a picture of all eight grandkids on the Blunck side of the family on the 4th of July.

We took a family picture!

Our next stop was Utah where Stephen spent a few days and I spent a few weeks.  We attended the Debenham family reunion and enjoyed being with family.

Tyson with Grandma Debenham.

We went to the new Aquarium in Lehi.

The family reunion was full of adventure!  Stephen and I joined a bunch of the cousins for a horse ride while family members watched Tyson.

We met up with Ryan, Dani, and Afton and took a tour of Ryan's new workplace, Qualtrics.

Tyson with his Grandpa Debenham.

Tyson enjoyed hanging out with his cousin Ryzen who is just four days younger.

Traveling Europe - Munich and Southern Germany

This post is a little late, but our final stop on our Europe trip was Munich and southern Germany.  We hopped aboard a bus in Switzerland and took a 4.5 hour ride to Munich.  We envisioned the long bus ride being a complete nightmare with Tyson but amazingly enough he slept 2.5 hours of the ride and so it wasn't too bad.  Poor Tyson was teething the second week of our Europe trip which made life a little hard on all of us!  But Germany was wonderful!  See pictures and descriptions below!

Our first stop in Munich was the Munich Residenz, the former palace of the Bavarian monarchs.  It was absolutely gorgeous inside.  It was definitely the most impressive palace I have seen on the inside.  No matter where we went on our Europe trip, Tyson insisted on stealing our audio guides and scooting around on the dirty floors. :)

Another picture from the Munich Residenz.

We visited Marienplatz, the city center of Munich, and watched the dolls in the tower pictured above dance when the clock struck noon!

Next we hit up an open air market near the city center where Stephen got his first humongous German meat sandwich and he loved it.

On our second day in Germany we took the train to Hohenschwangau where we saw the famous Neuschwanstein Castle (the castle Walt Disney modeled Sleeping Beauty's castle after), and the Hohenschwangau Castle.  Here we are at the lake beneath the two castles.

This is the Hohenschwangau Castle, a 19th-century palace which was built by King Maximilian II of Bavaria.

Here is the amazing Neuschwanstein Castle.  I loved the way it was set right up on top of a small mountain with the valley down below.  This castle was built by King Ludwig II, though he didn't spend much time here before he died young.

Here we are with a great view of the castle!

On our third day in Germany we went North of Munich to the memorial site of the Dachau concentration camp.  The Dachau concentration camp was the first concentration camp built.  We learned about what happened there and saw where different events took place.  It was horrific.  The large empty square behind Stephen is where people were forced to stand still for hours each day during roll call.

Each rectangle behind me represents a building where people were housed at the camp.  The camp ended up with thousands more prisoners than it was intended for.

Our next stop was the Nymphenburg palace.  By this point in our trip we were starting to get burned out, so instead of touring the palace we just walked around the huge gardens.

A view of the palace from the gardens.

On the final day of our trip we visited the BMW welt, a place that showcases all the latest BMW cars.  They let you get in the cars and see what they're like.  Stephen loved it.  This was his favorite car.

This was my favorite car!

With some extra time to spare, we decided to check out the English gardens.  The best part of trips are almost always the parts you don't plan!  We happened upon this huge festival in the park with a big band playing and tons of people eating traditional German food (and drinking tons of beer).

We got these delicious pancakes with applesauce.

As we continued through the park we came upon this place in the river where people surf!  They line up and take turns surfing this huge wave in the river!  It was awesome.

The river is also very popular to jump in and ride down (with no tube).  Tons of locals were doing it and Stephen decided to join on in!  He jumped in the river in his clothes and rode it down a ways.  The current was actually quite strong.

Here's a picture I caught of Stephen in the river.

Overall our trip was absolutely amazing!  An experience of a lifetime!  We arrived back in London really late Saturday night and flew back to the United States on Monday afternoon.  We are so grateful for the opportunity we had to spend six months in London and to travel Europe.  Our next location will be Boston for the next two years.  More adventures await us!