If you have kept an eye on the counter on our website, you will have noticed that yesterday was our due date. Oh well… I guess we didn’t tell the baby that we are an “on time” family, since it still likes it so much in mommy’s womb that it decided to stay a little longer. So we didn’t just forget to announce the birth of our baby here… it just hasn’t happened yet. By the way, Facebook will probably be updated more quickly once it has happened, so keep an eye on our updates there if you want to know sooner

We’ve already entered month 7 of Heidi’s pregnancy and today is the day we cracked the mark of 100 days to the estimated delivery date. The last few months have been interesting and exciting – a lot of firsts for us as we watched our baby grow. Well actually, we watched Heidi’s belly grow and the ultrasounds confirmed that it’s the baby causing the growth .

Every book tells you that you can’t feel the baby kick before week 18 and probably later if you’re a first time mom. So either our baby is different or the books are wrong, since Heidi clearly felt the baby in week 16 (and already felt “something” in week 13) and even I was able to feel it from outside in week 18, when all the books tell me I should have had to wait until week 22 or later. We do have a rather active baby, which we are now calling “Squirmy” for obvious reasons.

No, we don’t want to know the sex of the baby before it’s born. For thousands of years, parents have been able to cope without knowing, so we’re sure we’ll manage as well. The baby’s room has been painted in gender neutral colors and the pram we bought is blue, but not “baby boy blue”.

Yes, we have a list of names and no, we’re not going to share them publicly until we have decided on one, which, due to what we wrote in the previous paragraph, won’t happen until the baby is born. In the meantime, we tell people that if it’s a boy, he’ll be called “Agamemnon” (you have to be a big “Friends” fan to get that one) and if it’s a girl, her name will be “Barbara” (if you like that, try putting it together with our last name…).

It’s amazing to witness how the tiny little speck on the ultrasound picture that wasn’t much bigger than 3 cm when we had the first checkup has now grown to a fully functional baby of more than 30cm. There really is a tiny little person inside Heidi and if for some reason that person wanted to come out now, it would already have a decent chance of survival. We’re more than happy for it to stay in there for another trimester, though. In the meantime, while we look forward to having the baby with us, we’re still enjoying the pre-baby life, where we get to have breakfast in bed on a late Saturday morning.

If you haven’t seen it on Facebook yet or heard from us personally, you may now rejoice with us: we’re expecting our first baby. The first trimester is finally over and we no longer need to wait until we can talk about the exciting news.

Some bits of information: the estimated due date is October 30th, but we’ve been told that the first child usually doesn’t care very much about dates. We’re currently in week 13, which means the child is currently about 6cm long (without the legs, which aren’t part of the measurements at this point). When we had an ultrasound about 10 days ago, we were fascinated and amazed to see a very active baby moving around. Little fingers and toes were already visible, as well as the baby’s heartbeat. Heidi’s belly doesn’t show a noticeable bump yet, so her tightest jeans still fit – probably not much longer, though. Morning sickness is pretty much gone by now; what remains is a sometimes strange appetite for a variety of foods.

Of course we’re extremely happy to soon have a third person in our house and we’re very excited about the next couple of months. We’re also looking forward now to going on holiday in New York City for a few days. We had already booked the holiday before we found out about the pregnancy and the timing could not have been better, since the second trimester is the best time for travelling.

Hello again, we’ve been back in Germany for well over a month now, so it’s really time to report on the final days of our trip. The previous part was written on the bus to Chicago, so that’s where we will start today:

Day 15: Chicago

In the morning, the bus took us into Chicago. The city tour was a bit shorter than planned because of the traffic coming into the city, but we did get to see the major attractions and had a short photo stop at the “silver bean”. We were glad that we hadn’t booked the boat trip on the river and Lake Michigan, so we had four hours to ourselves instead, which we used to explore the city on foot. It’s amazing – if Chicago hadn’t been part of the tour, we probably wouldn’t have thought that we missed much, but now we think that we really should come back for at least a whole week. Definitely the biggest surprise of the trip…

After our visit to the top of John Hancock Tower, we were picked up by our bus again and taken to Lansing, our stop for the night. Nothing much to see there… but a good starting point for our trip to Niagara Falls the next day.

Day 16: Niagara Falls

After another early start, we crossed the border into Canada and drove to Niagara Falls, where we first hit all the tourist spots (oh wow, a floral clock…) and then took a ride on the “Maid of the Mist”. The falls are truly amazing and the Canadians definitely got the better part of them. After getting soaked and moving into our hotel room, we met with Heidi’s old cabinmate Tanya for pizza, a nightly walk to the falls and some coffee – and lots of talking and laughter. It was a relaxing and fun evening and the few hours we had went in almost no time.

Day 17: Washington, D.C.

We took the bridge back to the US early in the morning and the trip down to Washington took the whole day. In Pennsylvania, we were able to see the beginnings of Indian Summer, with some of the leaves on the trees already turning bright red. When we arrived at our hotel in the evening, we were quite happy that we hadn’t booked the evening tour and were able to relax a bit after the long drive.

Day 18: Washington, D.C.

The next morning we went on our city tour in Washington. To be quite honest, we probably would have enjoyed it more if the bus had just dropped us off and we had been able to explore the city on our own. But we were dragged from one “most sacred shrine” of the nation to the next – quite frankly, the near-religiousness of the patriotism started to get on our nerves a bit.

We spent the afternoon in the Museum of Air and Space, which was good fun. Before heading back to the hotel, we found some good food in chinatown (yep, Mexican… what did you think ), so we didn’t have to leave the hotel again after a long day out. Did we mention it was hot, too? 34 degrees Celsius was a bit more than we would have expected at the end of September…

Day 19: Philadelphia & New York City

Another early start and we were on the last long bus transfer of our journey across the US. Our first stop was Philadelphia, where we got to see the Freedom Bell and again wondered what the near-religious adoration of a cracked piece of old metal was all about. While we certainly appreciate the value of freedom, we didn’t think that it’s the bell that guarantees it (in fact, it would seem like you have to give up a lot of freedom to be allowed to see the bell…).

In the afternoon, we reached New York City, our final destination. After a quick stop at the hotel, we went on an evening tour, during which we had dinner at South Street Seaport, looked at the skyline from Brooklyn and finally had a great view of the city at night from “Top of the Rock” at Rockefeller Center.

Day 20: New York City

In the morning, we met our tour guide again for the regular city tour. We saw most of the important sights during this four hour trip and were then dropped off at the Empire State Building. The weather was quite bad and the top of the building in the clouds, so we decided not to go up. Instead we spent the next few hours at Macy’s, where we walked several kilometers without buying anything. Again, we had dinner before heading back to the hotel, where food would have been quite pricey.

Day 21: New York City

The last day would have been our travel day only, but our tour manager Helga had promised us another trip into the city, to give us an opportunity to use our Empire State Building tickets. So we went up there in the morning, while the clouds were still high, to see the city from above one more time. When we came down again, the rain started, so other thant a quick walk to Times Square and a look around the big Toys ‘R’ Us store there we didn’t do much. And then, in the early afternoon, we were taken to the airport, where we were amazed by the inefficiency of Delta’s checkin procedures. Our plane left almost on time and only 7 hours later, we were back in Germany – tired, exhausted, with lots of impressions, 1600 pictures to sort through and the plan to go back to some of the places we saw, without a tour guide, three busloads of people and 5:45 am wakeup calls.

Hello again from our tour across the US. We are still doing well – in fact Heidi is off all medication now and only experiencing minor dicomfort in her back. So far we have been blessed with really great weather, too. Right now we are sitting on the bus on the longest journey of the entire holiday – from Sioux Falls to Chicago in one day.

Day 7: Grand Canyon

We left Las Vegas in the morning and continued our journey east to the Grand Canyon. Along the way we drove for a while on the famous Route 66 and stopped in a small village that probably wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for that traditional road. In the early afternoon, we arrived at the Grand Canyon and were immediately taken to the small airport to start the 22 most expensive minutes of our lives (at least not taking into account MRI scans and the like which we didn’t pay for ourselves): a helicopter flight over the Canyon. Heidi had the best seat, right in front, next to the pilot. Good thing we had decided that she was going to have the camera. She took some amazing pictures and it was a great experience to see everything from above. After the flight we also had the chance to go to two viewing points and spend some time admiring the different colours and the changing scenery as the sun was setting. It’s truly an experience we can recommend to everyone.

Day 8: Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon

In the morning we left our hotel and drove to the Grand Canyon again. After driving along the rim for a long time, we got to spend some time at another viewing point before driving on through Arizona to the Glen Canyon Dam, where the waters of the Colorado form Lake Powell. Shortly afterwards we arrived in Utah and continued our journey through magnificent landscapes until we arrived at Bryce Canyon Village just before sunset.

Day 9: Bryce Canyon and Salt Lake City

After another early start, we spent the entire morning at Bryce Canyon. We were taken to different points and given lots of time to explore and admire the interesting and unique structures and colours formed by the rock.

In the afternoon we arrived in Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, where we had a look at the Capitol (almost an exact copy of the one in Washington D.C.) and Temple Square. It’s safe to say that we were happy to leave, as we found it to be a rather creepy place. It’s so bizarre to see the name of Jesus mentioned everywhere, but in such a wrong and twisted way…

Day 10: Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks

From Salt Lake City, the bus took us to Jackson, Wyoming – a small town near the entrance to Grand Teton National Park. The mountains are up to 4200m high and we were able to see some snow at the tops of several of them, although they didn’t appear so high since we spent most of the last few days at rather hioh altitudes between 1500 and 2500m above sea level, basically going from one plateau to the next.

In the afternoon, we reached Yellowstone National Park and got the chance to see Old Faithful spew hot water high up into the air. We also stopped at the “Fountain Paintpot” before spending the night in West Yellowstone.

Day 11: Yellowstone National Park

The next day was entirely dedicated to Yellowstone National Park. We got to see lots of hot springs, terraces, geysers, waterfalls and of course deer and buffalo. It was a great day with wonderful weather, lots of sights to see and enjoy and the smell of rotten eggs welcoming us almost everywhere .

Day 12: Mount Rushmore

After spending the night in Cody (a town apparently founded by Buffalo Bill), the journey continued through the Bighorn Mountains, the last part of the Rocky Mountains along our way, towards Rapid City. In the afternoon we arrived first at “Crazy Horse”, an unfinished rock sculpture of a riding Indian carved into the side of a hill and then at Mount Rushmore, the finished sculpture of four US presidents.

Day 13: Badlands National Park

The next leg of our trip took us to Badlands National Park, where we saw bizarre sand stone formations that were completely different from everything we had seen before. In the afternoon we visited the world’s only corn palace (it seems the idea didn’t really catch on) before stopping in Sioux Falls for the night. From there our journey will take us to Chicago.

Day 14: On the road

Sioux Falls to Chicago – a picture says more than a thousand words:

Hello from sunny and hot Las Vegas, where we have a day off travelling today, so we are finding some time to summarize the first few days of our trip. First of all, thanks to all of you who prayed for Heidi’s back to get better. The two long flights, first to New York and then on to San Francisco, went without any problems. Heidi has now been able to reduce the dose of her medication and her back has been doing very well in the last days.

Day 2: San Francisco

Day 1 was the travel day, so this account starts with day 2. After very few hours of sleep, we went on a morning tour of San Francisco, seeing all the major sights. The weather was very nice, so we had a great view over the city from the Twin Peaks and also a great view of Golden Gate Bridge. In the early afternoon we took a boat trip around the bay and saw the bridge from below, went around Alcatraz and so on. We spent the rest of the afternoon in Fisherman’s Wharf, where we had Clam Chowder from a bread bowl and enjoyed watching the sea lions at Pier 39. After a walk back to the hotel, we had an early night.

Day 3: Yosemite National Park

Another early morning and we took off to Yosemite. The waterfalls had little to no water, but the sights were spectacular anyway. After a stop in Yosemite Valley, we went on to Mariposa Grove to see the giant sequoia trees. Wow, those are huge. It was very nice to have some time to walk around. We stayed in Fresno for the night and had some nice Mexican food at a mall near the hotel.

Day 4: Los Angeles

Around noon we arrived in Hollywood, where we had about two hours to explore Hollywood Boulevard and the surrounding sights. We saw some familiar names on the Walk of Fame and also the foot- and handprints of some well known people in the Chinese Theater. After Hollywood, we drove through Beverly Hills and went on to Rodeo Drive, where we had a look at some of the shops where we will never be able to afford buying even a small item. In the oldest part of Los Angeles, we had a look at some old houses and a Mexican market before arriving at our old mexican style hotel. In the evening, the bus took us to Santa Monica, where we had a couple of hours to have dinner (Mexican again…), explore the shops and walk around Santa Monica Pier. Heidi also got her feet wet in the Pacific for the first time.

Day 5 & 6: Las Vegas

We left Los Angeles in the morning and drove through the Mojave desert to Las Vegas. On the way, we stopped at an outlet center in the middle of the desert for some cheap shopping. Less than US$ 80 for three pairs of Levis was a great bargain. We arrived in Las Vegas in the afternoon and checked into our hotel one block away from Las Vegas Boulevard before going on a nighttime tour, where we saw the water, fire, light and sound shows at a few hotels, as well as walking through some of the Casinos and big hotels. This is just crazy… all designed to get people to spend more money on gambling. Well, it won’t work on us.

Today we finally got to sleep in (normally we get a six o’clock wakeup call) – which worked so well that we almost missed breakfast. After writing this, we will probably explore Las Vegas some more before coming back for an early night – tomorrow it’s an early start again and we will go to the Grand Canyon (where we have booked a helicopter flight). We will post another update in a few days – in the meantime, we try to post short updates on Facebook.

We have added a new gallery of pictures, which were taken on our recent trip to England. We spent a few days there to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and had a good time with friends in London and donkeys in Devon. You can find the pictures here.

It’s been a long time since we last wrote something here. That’s supposed to change… but it’s not always easy when there is so much happening and so little time to talk about it, especially since we like to spend some of our after work time away from the computer.

We have now been (happily!) married for almost 11 months and are already looking forward to spending our first anniversary in London. But of course we have also been travelling quite a lot since the last entry here – August was a long time ago. Last year in October we spent some time in Belgium (Holger did the yearly system administrator training and Heidi came to visit for a few days) and then relaxed for two days in Aachen afterwards. Heidi went on a business trip to Italy in November and in December we went to the East to celebrate Heidi’s mom’s birthday. Afterward we really enjoyed our first Christmas as a married couple back home in Solingen.

The first week of January brought with it our first trip of the year. We went to the UK for a week to meet with our bosses and colleagues for some things that needed to be discussed in person. After a very short weekend at home we then went on to be part of the GO conference in Mosbach for two weeks – after which we needed some time to get rid of the bad colds we “acquired” there. In the beginning of March, both of us travelled to the UK again for the International IT Committee meetings – Holger as a participant and Heidi to take the minutes. We were able to get away for the weekend and take a trip to Edinburgh, where we spent two wonderful days in great weather, enjoying the nice city. Right after we returned to Germany, we took another trip to the East for a birthday celebration and to visit friends and supporters.

Heidi’s trip to Belgium in April was cancelled because the other participants of the meeting couldn’t make it due to the ash cloud over Europe – her disappointment was very minimal. The next few months will bring a lot of travelling anyway. First there’s another trip to the East at the end of May, to attend a confirmation service and then in the beginning of June we travel to London for our anniversary. In mid-July we are part of the Transform 2010 conference in Rome and after that a family reunion in the East. In August we will take a few day trips to Holland for the summer GO conference… and then it’s finally September and we get to go on our long planned holiday. We will travel across the US from San Francisco to New York by bus. Our travel plans pretty much continue until the end of the year, but for now this is enough. We are hoping to integrate a calendar into this page soon, hopefully that will make it easier to see what we are doing and where we are.

In the last few days we have posted a bunch of new pictures to our gallery. First of all, we uploaded pictures from our honeymoon in Tenerife, so that everyone who supported this trip financially can see what a wonderful gift they gave us. And then we decided to take the pictures showing London at night from our recent semi-work trip to England and Scotland. We love those pictures – it’s amazing what a long exposure and a mini tripod can do even if the camera is rather cheap and simple.

We made it! And not only that, already we have three weeks of married life behind us. The wedding was a great experience that we’ll remember for a long time. A big thanks to everyone involved, be it as a guest, helper, visitor to the wedding service – you helped make this day special and it turned out to be exactly the way we always wanted it.

A very special thanks to all those who contributed to our honeymoon trip with their generous gifts. We enjoyed the time in Tenerife very much and got back quite relaxed from the stress of all the wedding preparations. Pictures from our holiday will be in the gallery soon. And the second part of our honeymoon – albeit with some regular work during the week – is already coming up. In only a few days we’ll make our way to England – first to London and then on to Carlisle (where our team has its offices) for about five weeks, before we make our way down to London for another few days. Our thank-you cards will thus have to wait a little bit longer – but we’re working on them.

We have changed our website a bit now. The information for wedding guests is now gone, so that the articles are now on the front page. You will also find our facebook status in the sidebar – we update it (with small updates) even more often than this website. And of course we have uploaded pictures. We don’t have all the wedding pictures yet, but we chose our favourites among those we already have and posted them to the gallery. We will certainly update the galleries a number of times in the next weeks, so it’s worth checking occasionally.