O’er the Ramparts We Watch

To honor our National Anthem this July we made it a point to visit lots of places with ramparts. While Old Glory wasn't ever gallantly streaming we still enjoyed watching o'er the ramparts. Being overseas makes us appreciate the United States more than you could understand- unless you have lived overseas. The trick is not to let working for the government spoil the added appreciation.

So we filled July with lots of day / overnight trips. We went to Flanders fields in Ypres first. Flanders is the northern part of Belgium and the famous WWI poem by John McCrae was written there. (We've included the poem below because it is a beautiful piece… and yes, red and orange poppies really do grow wild all over Belgium.) Ypres hosted one of the bloodiest fronts during "The Great War." The British, with the help of various other nations, withstood the Germans in Ypres and kept them from advancing to England. Both sides lost a total of around 500,000 men only to advance the front 8 miles (in favor of the British of course). The town of Ypres pretty much got flattened by the Germans so everything in the town is rebuilt. There are memorials and gravesites everywhere. We even found an F. Biddulph on one of the memorial walls.

It is often said that the United States saved Europe's bacon in both World Wars but by the time the United States decided to join the trench warfare, the British and their allies had beat the Germans down enough for the U.S. addition to tip them over the top. There is a great museum in Ypres – one of the eeriest parts is an exhibit of gas masks – World War I marked the beginning of chemical warfare. Also, the museum played recordings of air raid sirens and falling bombs. James hated that part. It was a very interesting afternoon but also quite somber to consider the many lives lost in the defense of freedom.

Bimmy wanted to include this poem

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

—John McCrae

To celebrate the 4th of July we enjoyed a traditional barbeque with our neighbors and then drove to Luxembourg the next day. Luxembourg City is built on the ruins of a great fortress. The fortress was built on top of and around the high, stony "Bock promontory". The Bock Casemates are a series of tunnels, rooms, and underground defensive passageways which were carved directly into the rock. The casemates expanded the fortifications and useable space of the fortress and grew to a 14 mile-long network by 1644, with some passages as deep as 131 feet. This earned Luxemburg the title of "Gibraltar of the North". Only a fraction of the tunnels remain open, but it is a fun place to explore. We hiked around the part of the casemates that were reported to be more baby-friendly. Otherwise we would have scraped off what little hair Buster has on the roof of the caves. While walking around Luxembourg City we found it to be one of the cleanest cities that we've visited so far in Europe. General Patton is buried just outside of Luxembourg City but unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the cemetery. In keeping with our theme for the month, it is important to note that remaining portions of the Luxembourg fortress feature lots of ramparts.

The next day we visited the Ardennes region of Luxembourg which is also called the Valley of the Seven Castles. We visited two (which were reported to be the coolest) of the seven – it's a young boy's medieval paradise. The area is beautiful with lots of hills and streams and is very green. This area is near the site of the Battle of the Bulge.>

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg restored Vianden, the first castle we visited. We thought it was pretty cool – with suits of armor, a bedroom with large, very old tapestries and of course ramparts. The next castle we visited, Bourscheid, hasn't been restored and sat mostly in ruins. They have restored the tower portion, complete with ramparts, so that folks can get a good view of the area. James enjoyed all the castles and was a great sport during our wanderings.
We finished our journey with a visit to a quaint little town called Esch-sur-Sure which means "the town of Esch on the river Sure" but the pronunciation of the name reminds us a lot of Bob Loblaw (one of our favorite characters on Arrested Development- see Bob Loblaw's Law Blog).

Lastly, to support the troops Gary Sinise formed a band called The Lieutenant Dan Band. During July, he visited NATO and Jay got his Forest Gump DVD autographed ("To Buster") and posed for a picture with him. You'll notice that it's a bit Gumpesque in that it looks like Jay snuck into the picture. You'll be glad to know that Gary Sinise is a pretty cool guy and travels the world to play for the troops so he can do his part to support them. We're pretty sure that meeting him is way cooler than going backstage to meet the gassy old farts from Air Supply – Roo?

Beaker sings Ode to Joy

Not a video of Buster roaring - but that will come soon. In the mean time enjoy this video. Also be sure to check out the "I drink Your Milkshake" video on the right bar.

June - Star Wars & Lake Como Baby!

So it appears that we had to come to Belgium to experience a Star Wars exhibition. That’s how we started out June. We went with some State Department friends Jay knew in Lagos, Nigeria – we all have kids within a year of each other. We paid our respects to the Jedi Master Yoda and tried to begin the Star Wars indoctrination of James - at least we just want to make sure he knows the ways of the force and also understands that Jar Jar is lame. June, the month of our much anticipated trip to Lake Como in Italy, turned out to be much better than we expected – and we had pretty high expectations. It’s like Ferris Bueller said, “It’s so choice, if you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.” Ok, so you can’t really pick up a Lake Como but you get the point.

The pictures really don’t do it justice. It’s dotted with quaint little towns that have lovely villas over which you could easily break the 10th commandment. So back to Star Wars, much of the Nabu shots were at Lake Como – that’s where Amidala and Anakin picnicked, married, and delivered some of the most romantic and profound (LAME) lines of the whole series. Click on the Lake Como slide show on the right if you want to see more than what we included here.

We also spent one day in Milan and one day in Verona. Milan has The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci which we got to see, very cool, spiritual, and amazing that it’s lasted all these years. In case you were wondering, John the Beloved does look a bit feminine but so did one of the other apostles – read the Da Vinci Code for details on this one.

So what did James like about the trip? It’s easily the gelato -- preferably mint. He didn’t care that his parents bought him a really cool backpack carrier he just wanted the gelato. I think his dad made an addict out of him. We are also glad to report that he only blew his pants out once, at the apartment where we were staying in Bellagio. Lots of random Italian ladies would come up to him and say, "Bello, bellisimo!"

James has aspirations to join the military – he’s commando crawling everywhere and he’s very speedy at it.


We suspect that he’ll grow up to do something involving electrical cords because we can’t keep him away from them. He held still long enough for Emily to confirm that he knows how to sit. He also likes to roar and will sometimes do it for hours.

May - Up to no good

We had an eventful month in May. We started it out with a visit to a Belgian Blue-bell forest. It’s a spectacular little forest just outside of Brussels with flowering plants that blossom every spring. We spent an hour hiking around and enjoying the blanket of purple-blue covering the ground. Jay only sneezed once or twice and James enjoyed looking around.

While Jay labored hard to save the free world, Emily went on several outings with a group of women from our ward. She visited a tapestry factory outlet just over the border in France. It definitely proved to be tapesterific. Em bought a couple of items but mostly wandered around wondering how the stuff was made. Fortunately, she happened upon the factory’s loom museum where a man showed the ladies how the machines worked. It was really amazing but also very loud…Buster didn’t like that part.

Emily also visited the royal gardens Leopold II built during his reign. He started out bringing plants from his personal colony in Africa and needed a place to house them. The gardens and greenhouses grew from there and are truly spectacular. The greenhouses are mostly linked and the complex is huge and covers acres of land.

Em and Buster also visited an abandoned castle (Beersel). Apparently Victor Hugo stayed there at one time and did some writing…although not any of his famous pieces. Em and Buster also visited a chocolate factory with an outlet. Em reports that the place smells awesome! Three kilos of chocolate costs 30 Euros. Any takers?

Buster James keeps growing. He’s got a little snaggle-tooth breaking through his lower gum. So far, he’s not too grumpy about it. Buster still doesn’t sit unassisted, but maybe it’s because he just gets bored with sitting. He has started to get up on his hands and knees and dive for stuff… so we don’t think it will be long before he’s crawling. Buster has a funny personality and makes really funny faces. The problem is that whenever we get a camera out to catch them he goes stone-serious. Just before bed time he giggles and laughs like a crazy person. It really makes the exploding poopie diapers worth it. You’ll be glad to know that with the onset of solid food something else becomes more solid…well you get the picture. Of course, nearly all of you have experienced this already and the others will have the opportunity to very soon.

Here's a video of him jumping like a fool.