Passports

We had to make another exciting trip to Frankfurt yesterday to go to the American Consulate there. We had to report Dariah's birth and do all the paperwork for her American birth certificate and get her passport. And since Taliah's passport expires in April this year we renewed hers at the same time.
We almost forget sometimes about needing the passports. Travel with the EU is so easy now, there are no border checks between EU countries. Switzerland however is not part of the EU and we sometimes go there to go to the zoo and we have to have our passports, even though it is only an hour away.
The consulate is not a fun place. You can't take any kind of electronics in, or glass (which was only a problem when Zach was little and we had to renew Jesaiah's passport and they wouldn't let us take his baby food in), they even keep your car keys at the guard shack. It is especially boring for the kids, but they have to be there in person as do both parents. At least the boys didn't have to come with this time, we had friends here who stayed with them. What a blessing!
It took us about 3 hours to drive up, we spent 2 hours there and then another 3 hours driving home, not something you want to do with all the kids if you don't have to! Though the last time we had to go to the Consulate we made a family day out of it and went to a dinosaur museum afterwards.
But now everyone is taken care of and our next trip to the Consulate won't be until 2010, Lord willing!