The update has to be quick, Brian is home sooner than I thought and the computer in our basic source of entertainment.
We left for Poland on Saturday, via Newark via Paris and finally to Warsaw. About 18 hours of travel and the kids really did quite well. Jane was the worst on the way to Newark, but they both settled into their life on an airplane well. We were very, very tired upon arival and everyone took a good nap. We arrived during the Warsaw Marathon, which was right outside the theater where we are staying. It took the cab driver some time talking to the police to let him drop us off closer. (It would have been a nightmare to lug everything a couple of blocks.) We have a cute little apartment in the theater, which is great to be so close when Brian is working. We brought walkie talkies that work for quick messages. The apartment is little, which is only hard because we have heard there are bigger places. However things have been worse and the apartment is clean and newly refurbished with high ceilings and nice window light. Colin summarized it well when he excitedly told me "Mom, we have a real toy kitchen!" It will be more than adequate for our simple meals. We typically eat two meals in and one out on the road. It will be a feat to keep the kids from bouncing off the walls (as they literally do) but there is a park and playground (thankfully) about 2 blocks away. I brought lots of clothes to layer as it gets colder since we will still need to play outside.
We keep forgetting the camera when we go out. We are very near the Old Town, which is beautiful and will be fun to photograph. It is mainly re-constructed because about 85% of Warsaw was bombed in WWII. Brian is commenting this is not so brief and he is threatening that I will have to watch a sappy show with him that I do not want to watch right now. . oh well, will try to do better later.
We were lucky to photograph our sister-in-law's sister and fiance before we left. They were very, very fun to photograph and we got some great photos of them. They were so fun to photograph I wished I could be in Seattle to shoot their wedding the end of November. No luck there, still in Poland the end of November. They were really very great and did not take any bad photos.
Our new neighbor had beautiful twin boys recently and she let me do some photos as a baby gift. She is actually an old neighbor because her natal family's house bordered our property growing up. I even learned how to ride a bike in her family's garage.
I think the boys surprised everyone because they were so anxious to be born they came a bit ahead of schedule, but everyone is doing great. Happy babyhood boys!
I took some photos of Colin's preschool class before we left. I can tell Colin misses playmates his own age already. He had 2 time outs yesterday for being too rough with Jane. I love some of these group photos. In the one where the little girl is covering her ears it was because all the boys were yelling cheese at the top of their lungs. And the little guy with the crazy eyebrow, so great! (I let all the kids so some silly faces in their individual shots.) We will miss preschool while we are gone!
Hello from Poland (more details later) but for now, my kids are in bed and I wanted to post a few last photos. I shot a fair bit right before we left and got some photos I was very happy with. I did some photo for my old friend Parth, and he and his kids were very cute. It had been raining the day we shot and it created a beautiful, almost humid light.
I took these for a neighborhood friend in late August and loved how they turned out. We met these kids at our Music Makers class about 18 months ago and I had wanted to photograph them ever since! Their mom is a very talented jewelry maker and we traded photos for jewelry. We had a very pleasant end of summer evening.
Our beautiful baby Jane. She was having a good hair day. Still at a slight loss as to what to do with her hair. I bought the tiny rubber bands and she will leave one alone for a little bit but not forever. Whenever I brush he hair even if I do not put anything in she has to check to see if there is something to pull out. Apparently the cute barrettes I bought her are tasty. I do not want to cut bangs because she still has a lot of hair filling in in the front, and I do not want to cut the back off because sometimes it curls all cute like this. Oh well. I hope to work it into a smart little bob someday.
We spent Labor Day weekend near Seattle with Brian's family. Brian's parents and siblings try to get together once a year. This allows the 3 siblings who do not live close to have some family time. Sadly, we did not take any photos until the clean up time on our last morning. We are usually too busy keeping track of Jane these days to take meaningful photos. The above is a collage of 3/4 photos Brian took over the entire weekend! Kind of sad, but nice to see everyone.
We will now highlight the newest Stucki, Miss Grace Elizabeth! She is only the 5th granddaughter, versus 13 grandsons. It was fun to see her so young. Becca was such a trooper to be out and about 3 weeks post partem as I know I would not be up to what she did. She is a strong Stucki!
I love the Gerber mouth.
Entire Brandon/Becca family with new baby girl! Colin had a great time playing with the boy cousins.
We got home Saturday night after a long journey home. Jane got a lollipop stuck in her hair not once but three times! I had a run-in with a McDonalds Playland that has left several painful bruises on my legs. I went in to pull Jane out since those playstructures are really not intended for 1 year olds. However, they are also not intended for 34 year olds either. The strangers who were in there were kind and did not laugh even though it probably was funny to see me come tumbling out.
We are in extreme preparation mode. After purchasing and canceling tickets to Poland 3 times (and having a fun run in with Lot Airlines where they hung up on me 4x) we got tickets and travel on the 26th! Brian still has a great deal of work to do on the basement remodel, I have tons and tons of details to take care of, and Brian picked over 60 pounds of pears today, plus apples, and there are tons of tomatoes that still need to be procesed. The peaches are beautiful this year, but the eating grapes got a fungus from the wet June (sad). Wish us luck to get most everything done!!
My nephew took a few family shots for us the other day since we were all dressed and presentable one afternoon (but I did make Brian change his pants). I posted this on facebook but need to not neglect the blog too.
I wanted this as the final dance photo to the last post but again, blogger was being weird. Oh well. Jane got in on some dance fun too. We try to have dancing time most days, and she is a good little shaker.
Colin also got a dance lesson from Maggie. I love the concentration on his little face. 
He is dressing himself now. He loves the shiny shorts. 
Maggie taught him to spin her, but her sister stopped her when she was trying to teach him how to dip her. A dip probably would have ended with tears.
My sister's family was down from Seattle recently and Colin loved all the cousins. Cousin Maggie and Colin have a great time together. He will do most play things Maggie tells him to do (which Maggie enjoys) and he has learned a lot about organized play from her. They are very cute together and amazingly, do not seem to get tired of each other. We have had a lot of tea parties this summer with Nana's Curious George tea set. We had a couple of extra chocolate cakes so this also turned into a birthday party for both kids.
