Monday and Tuesday of this week rang in the first (hopefully annual) Thurman sibling city take-over. Our target this year was Berlin, the very cosmopolitan German capital, a 2 hour bus ride (2.5 hours by train, 1.5 by car) from Dresden. We left at 9:15am on Monday morning (and almost didn't make it because of how crazy the three of us are), and got to Berlin a few hours later. Berlin was a blast. I'm honestly not sure whether it's pure genius or absolute folly to unleash the three Thurman siblings unsupervised in another city, but we did it, and Berlin [View Full Entry]

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What a great day!! This may just have been the funnest (is that actually a word, or is it the most fun?) day that we've had with Jonathan. We laughed hysterically nearly the entire day, hiked some great trails, saw incredible things, and weren't ready to come home when it was time. Seriously. I had to literally pry your son/brother/grandson/nephew/friend/relative/pizza-finisher from the rocks in order for us to make the train home. Jonathan is a hiking maniac, and told us in no uncertain terms that he intends to come back and continue hiking through Swiss Saxony (die Sächsische Schweiz). By th [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone!! Thanks so much for your awesome comments. Jonathan REALLY enjoyed reading them, and they made both of us laugh. Andreas and I are having such a great time with Jonathan. He is such a sweet spirited, good natured, funny kid. Jonathan and Andreas have developed several inside jokes for which I'm either too dense or not cool enough to understand (Jonathan just assured me that it's a little bit of both... thanks, kid.) some of the jokes, but one of them will say a few words, and the other will scream with laughter, with tears flowing down their cheeks. [View Full Entry]

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Jonathan and I have really been enjoying the museums here. There are so many fun, interactive, creative museums to visit. We wandered into the Technische Sammlung yesterday (literally within walking distance of our house, an added bonus!), and stayed for over 3 hours, playing with things, experimenting, and trying to solve logic puzzles quicker than the other (or quicker than the other museum guests). I was surprised when Jonathan was so open to wandering into yet another museum, but his open-mindedness really paid off. The Technische Sammlung is a museum dedicated to explaining different [View Full Entry]

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Jonathan and I decided to take it easier yesterday after a very full weekend, and many more activities in store for this week and next week. We hit the old part of the city (Altstadt) again, revisited the palace and the Zwinger, and spent some time in my favorite church in Dresden, the Kreuzkirche (The Church of the Cross, loosely translated). The Kreuzkirche has been completely destroyed and rebuilt a total of 5 times in the past 102 years-- it has been flooded, set on fire twice, bombed, and vandalized, but the congregation has still always pooled the resources to rebuild [View Full Entry]

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Jonathan surprised us yesterday morning by being the first one up. He had gone to bed later than us the night before, so we were still fearing that we might have to peel him out of bed again. Fortunately for us, he was up and at 'em, and never looked back. He woke up before me again this morning, so I feel pretty confident that his jetlag is gone. Hooray!! Jonathan is going to eat the floorboards and everything in this building. He is constantly hungry (not a complaint, but it's funny how much we have to dance around to accomodate [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday and today have been very long, very busy days. Jonathan has been suffering from some pretty extreme jetlag. He couldn't get to sleep until well after 2AM on his second night here, had to be woken up at 10:30 so that he wouldn't sleep too long (or have his internal clock realign with EST time!), and then had a really hard time getting to sleep again last night (another 2AM bedtime). This morning was also difficult for him, but we are all hopeful that he will make the adjustment soon. Jonathan's appetite is astounding. He will eat anything, and in [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was a long, but very exciting day. I arrived in Frankfurt at 7AM (my flight left Dresden at 6:00AM...), and Jonathan's flight was scheduled to arrive at 9:05. His flight was delayed over an hour, so his nervous/excited/giddy sister had to curb her enthusiasm for just a little longer. The last hour's wait was incredible. Jonathan looks very much the same as he did in December, but bigger and broader. His shoulders are enormously wide and he is very muscular. He has his same shy grin, but more self-confidence and a more developed sense of humor. I had forgotten how [View Full Entry]

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