The new year brought us to sunny California and a visit to our brand new tiny dancer aka Pearson David. He was 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long.  And extremely adorable!  An entire week with David, Ashlie and baby Pearson?  BRILLIANT.  Enough said.

Well, a lot of time has passed...and tons of excitement in the Lohner family.  We really don't like to get bored!  Only boring people get bored, right girls?  Just so ya know, each one of our trips starts with a 4:15 wake-up call, thanks to Mike.  For some reason, he really wants to get there early and enjoy an ENTIRE DAY,  and seems to forget that people with sleep deprivation have a hard time enjoying sights.  Anywhere.  But we like to keep him happy so it just keeps happening.  (p.s. post by mamacita)

A trip to Heidelberg, Germany:

Wiesbaden
Schloss Heidelberg
Mannheim
Bad Winfen
Schwabisch Hall
Frankfurt Temple

Heidelberg Schloss

Medieval awesomeness!

Heidelberg Schloss

ensuring "viel gluck" on our trip

We LOVED the Weinacht markets in every village and felt right at home.   Must be the Swiss heritage kicking in!  Corinne admitted Germany is her favorite yet.




Sydney, John and the entire Lunt family were able to spend two nights and an entire day in London traipsing around with us.  Glorious!

London Eye
Parliament buildings
Westminster Abby
V &A museum
and a bunch of other London stuff (and lots of fun being with cousins)

Mike even took the kids out for a midnight hunt for the disturbingly fascinating urban foxes.  Unfortunately, they didn't see a single hint of one.

Covent Garden 

Big Ben

Parliament buildings

Grandma and Grandpa Lohner came to London!!!

St. Paul's Cathedral
more London Eye
Parliament buildings
Westminster Abby

shhhhh....don't tell them.  Besides, two whole days had passed since we'd been there :)

A trip to the Cotswold's and an invite to have lunch at Prince "Someone important's" retreat in the country.

And then the ultimate Christmas vacation in the south of France!  Michael McKay in tow...

Geneva airport--in Switzerland AND France
Skiing on the slopes of St. Martin
puzzles, games and fine dining (thanks to yours truly)
tons and tons of snow
Annecy--gorgeous

Santa visits the slopes

Christmas eve entertainment

Our St. Martin's chalet

snow bunnies

Michael at m&m world--home away from home!

Tower of London

i'm only writing this post because we have a 1000 page views now.

and all of us feel a little something like this:

except with a whole lot of dancing.

don't worry-update coming soon.

for ze muzzer

well, dear goodness.

eet haz been tuu long since i haz posteed on ere and mi muzzer *throat nosie* haz noteeced.

(I think that was a rather successful mix of accents, mostly french).
 Technically, I have all sorts to blog about...Germany, Michael being here, Christmas-time, going to France tomorrow,  grandparents being here.... But I just can't find it in me to make a post that sounds like a family post.  So, sometime after we get back from France (or during), I will make a wonderfully informative post that doesn't put you to sleep and includes lots of pictures.

In the meantime, if you're just absolutely dyyyyinnngg to know what's going on, visit these three blogs.  They're side blogs for the three sisters in the lohnerlicious familia and many times, are unrelated to things that are actually happening in real life.  But at least you'll get a sense of what's going on in our heads.

my(corinne's)blog

leetleseester'sblog(chandler)

ashlie's

a trip home

I cannot even tell you how stinking excited I am that Mom decided to post about France and Italy because now,  I can post about Texas.  Not that I was more excited to be in Texas than France and Italy.  That's certainly not what I'm trying to say....

Moving forward.  We got there late on Wednesday night two weeks ago.  Immediately, we took a side trip to Kingcaids (BEST HAMBURGER PLACE IN TEXAS).  Not a single person in this family has had a nice, greasy, half-fast-food hamburger or delicious french fries or a soda with free refills in three and a half months.  It was SO GOOD!  We can pretend like we're adapting to the London ways and all...but really? Let's face it, I'm American.
Then, we went inside to our house.  I swear, that place has either expanded or I've shrunk because it feels HUGE compared to our house in London.  I could even go upstairs and not hear people talking downstairs.  It felt so nice.
The next order of business was, of course, to go to Target.  We got loads of American crap food (i.e. goldfish, chips, salsa, fruit by the foots, lucky charms), and we also managed to do some clothes shopping.  By then, we've been awake for over 24 hours and Mom said that she was "going to fall over dead."  So we headed back to aforementioned mansion.  BUT WAIT!  Mom saw something of mass importance and we made an emergency stop despite our extreme fatigue. It looked a little something like this....a little.

In the next couple of days, The Pregnant Lady arrived (refer to David if confused as to who this is) as well as BOTH big brahs.  And a happy reunion ensued!

tiny dancer? I THINK SO.

 

Note: This photo may or may not be allowed on this site by subject.  He only said no facebook so let's all band together and NOT TELL HIM IT'S HERE.

We did lots and lots and lots of shopping and eating.  Then, our fake Thanksgiving (Sunday) rolled around in which we saw Matt, Liz, Caleb, Will, Jameson, Brooks, and unnamed male fetus.  It was so so so so happy.  We got to prance around with this little fellow--all of us in our underwear.  Or maybe just him.

 more dancing pregnant photos.

And when REAL Thanksgiving rolled around, we took pictures with crocheted mustaches! (courtesy of Ashlie).

Meanwhile, Chandler and I had a friends reunion spectacular. 

And it's true, we're back in London.  Tiny roads, organic food, and rain.  Not sure how
I feel about that.

love,
a texan.

Grandma and grandpa Pearson spent a few glorious days with us in London.  It was really good therapy for us!  We really needed to give them hugs and see their faces.  We had a great time showing them a bit of our lives here:  Covent Garden, Pineapple, Richmond Park and Santa's reindeer.

Corinne giving grandpa kisses...a rare occasion!

Richmond Park

We also went to Blenheim Palace, which is the birth place of Winston Churchill and right up grandpa's alley.  He spent some serious time pouring over Churchill's history.  The girls, grandma and I loved the palace (gorgeous), the gardens (immaculate) and Winston Churchill's velour siren suit and matching slippers!  Nice!  We also drove through a bit of the Cotswolds and Oxford.

Paris is one of the most unbelievable places!  It is so elegant and gorgeous!  Wish we could've stayed indefinitely.

Places we visited:

The Eiffel Tower--all the way to the top
Notre Dame--saw part of a Sunday service and Quasimodo's bell :)
Saint-Chappelle--went to Vivaldi's Four Seasons concert here, absolutely fabulous!
The Louvre'-- FIVE glorious hours of awesomeness
Musee d'Orsay--one of the most incredible collections of impressionistic art ever!
Monmart
Pantheon
Hotel Des Invalides
The Pompidou
Arc de Triomphe
Champs Elysees
Jardin des Tuileries
and the list goes on....

We left Paris with only a small token from Notre Dame in our pockets, but we saw as much as we could possibly see in four days!  Brilliant!