Today marks the 4th anniversary of our arrival in
Munich. This last year definitely held
the most changes in our lives in Munich so far as we left behind our
travel-orientated lives to prepare for our first child! And as today is our Germanniversary, we
continue our annual tradition of looking back on the prior year and reflecting
on our favorite and least favorite moments of our 4th year in
Munich.
Highs:
Here are our favorite moments of this last year (in no
particular order):
- Learning I am pregnant, and then finding out we are having a son!
- All of the travels we fit in pre-pregnancy and early-pregnancy: Scotland, The Rhine region, Hallstatt, Portugal, Switzerland, Paris (Julie only) and Israel (Julie only). Hey – Noah got to go to Brazil for the World Cup last year…
- All the friends and family who visited us!
- Going to Frühlingsfest and being able to fully enjoy it, beer and all
- Driving out into the countryside late at night to watch the Geminid meteor shower. After so many tries over the last decade+, we finally were successful with a meteor shower and saw more shooting stars than we ever expected. (the photo is not of the meteor shower since we didn’t take a camera with us)
- Our first trip back to the US in over a year and a half, and seeing family and friends (including meeting my nephew Tegan for the first time)
- Finally seeing two of our favorite Bavarian spots covered in snow and ice – the Partnachklamm gorge and Schloss Neuschwanstein
- Our 2+ weeks of Christmas vacation, where we focused on relaxing and spending time together. We watched all 7 Star Wars movies, Noah cooked a lot of delicious food, and we played a lot of video and board games. In about a month, it won’t be just the two of us anymore, and it will be a LONG time before we have the luxury of spending 2+ weeks doing nothing.
- Discovering Trustedhousesitters.com and having two wonderful couples stay in our apartment and take amazing care of our dogs for two of our vacations. How I wish I had known about this website when we first moved to Munich!
Lows:
And now the lesser favorite moments (also in no particular
order):
- A super hot summer + no air conditioning. We had to simply shut the living room door and avoid that room as it reached the 90s with all the windows. The rest of the apartment wasn’t much better – upper 80s. And we aren’t exaggerating about it being hot – Germany reached its highest temperatures in history!
- Having nausea for all three trimesters (though if that is the worst that happens for my pregnancy – I will gladly take it!)
- Spending Noah’s birthday sick with a cold (on top of the morning sickness), then passing the cold on to him. Happy 30th Noah!
- Missing out on Oktoberfest this year – Thanks Max! J
- Noah’s embarrassment over calling a Kinderarzt (pediatrician) and saying he was looking for a Frauenarzt (gynecologist) for his baby. He gave the receptionist a good laugh.
- Hard to fulfill pregnancy cravings! You can’t go get a Wendy’s Frosty or good
queso here. And 2 days after I started
craving non-raw sushi – our sushi place closed down for a month for their
August holiday. The plus side – I probably
would have gained a LOT more weight if we were back in Texas the whole time.
Thanks Munich for a
wonderful 4th year, and we can’t wait for what awaits us this next
year!!
