Week 37

This week wasn't too eventful... it barely justifies a blog post, but I couldn't just skip a week!


I thought I would write about the traffic here... A Stau is a Traffic Jam on the Autobahn. One day this week I was driving to Stuttgart. I left my house at 6am to avoid traffic. At 7:20am, I was 3.5 miles from my exit into Stuttgart, when traffic completely stopped. 6 cars ahead of me a Semi-Truck over turned and was completely blocking the entire Autobahn. After an hour the firemen came around to each car and instructed everyone to turn their engines off and not to smoke. It was a really cold day and was raining hard all morning. Around 9am I finally found someone walking by that spoke English... he had talked to the firemen who said it would be a minimum of 3 more hours!!! Finally a little after 11am they realized that it was going to take longer than that so the firemen and policemen went to the very back of the line and directed each car, one by one, to back up and turn around going the opposite way on the autobahn. When they got to me I could barely drive because I was shivering so bad from freezing the last 5 hours and also because all the windows were fogged up so I couldn't see. There were 5 rows of cars on a 3-lane autobahn so we were all jammed in tight. Everyone was yelling at me in German and blowing their whistles. It was really scary! Finally 5 1/2 hours later I got to my office and could use the bathroom!!!! I spent 30 minutes there and then just had to turn around and drive back.


The boys were out of school half day on Thursday and all day Friday. It's been getting cold here too so they were all going crazy from being inside for so long. Friday night we decided to go out for pizza and some bowling. We had so much fun!!





Jeremy took his game very serious! ha ha!! He was even true to the Mavs and wore his Maverik shirt. :) As you can see he won:

Whitney has been so funny lately whenever we tell her not to smile. She will be busy doing something else and as soon as we don't "don't smile" she just gets the biggest smile ever! She'll look right at you smiling but acts like she thinks she's not smiling. It's too cute!


Like I said... it's been getting cold here. The highs have been in the low to mid 40's and rainy. So, we've been spending more time indoors. I caught the kids playing really cute this weekend.

Week 36

HALLOWEEN

Another great Halloween!! The day before we had a test run and went to a costume party at the library. The boys were a little too old... it was more for Whitney's age. All the girls were princesses, fairies, lady bugs, etc... Whitney was Elmo. She wore the same costume that Connor and Aiden both have worn before. She was definitely the most popular kid at the library. All the other kids were literally lining up to wait for their chance to hug Elmo. Whitney was a good sport about it. Some of the kids were scared of Elmo. So Whitney would just hold her arms out and say "Come On". Too cute!


FINALLY... the real thing!! Here are my scary little boys...

My little pirate actually fell asleep before we even started Trick or Treating!!

We went and picked up 2 little German kids from our church. They had never heard of Trick or Treating before so we definitely wanted to show them how fun it was!! The little girl speaks a little English but the boy doesn't speak any English at all! No one seemed to care.

It was my brilliant idea to kick off the night by watching Where The Wild Things Are...


I thought the movie was TERRIBLE!!! It was such a mistake to go there. The little German boy cried through half of it. It was NOT a kids movie. I was really embarrassed for taking them and could not wait to get out of there!

Finally it was over and on to Trick or Treating...

I was quite busy with all the kids so no pictures got taken. The Missionaries met up with us after the movie and went Trick or Treating with us. It was a great night! Afterwards we all went to the food court for a late dinner.

Week 35

This week was busy as we were trying to get back into the swing of things after our trip to Italy. We did manage to fit in a little fun though...

We started off the week with a Halloween package from my parents. The kids were so excited! We had been so busy getting ready for Italy that we hadn't thought much about Halloween yet. So the package was just what we needed to get us in the mood. Thanks Mom and Dad!!
( the boys... and I mean Jeremy too... especially enjoyed feeding Whitney the sour pop rocks!!)


They also sent a package of caramel apple candy corn... OMG! These things are SOOO good!

This weekend Jeremy and I were invited by the Garrison Commander of Baden-Wurtenberg to attend the German-American Friendship Concert at Schwetzingen Castle. This castle is most notable for its spacious and ornate gardens and also features one of the few surviving
theaters in the rococo style. It was not well-lit outside so I was sorry not to be able to see the impressive gardens. I could tell it was amazing even though it was dark. The theater however was quite impressive! The Army band and chorus played a great mix of songs from the William Tell Overature to a tribute to Michael Jackson. It gave me goosebumps when they played Mozart and knowing that Mozart played in the very theater 3 times! Another highlight of the night for me was when they played the German National Anthem and you could hear all the Germans in the audience singing. Then they played the American National Anthem and all the Americans were singing along. It was a great night. The pictures aren't great because it was dark. Sorry.

During intermission they provided free hor d'oeurves and drinks!


The Mayor of Schwetzingen and COL Butcher


Connor is in scouts now. He loves it! This weekend they did a walk covering the entire base. Jeremy, Aiden and Kayla went for support. :)


My friend from work invited us to their home for a halloween/pumpkin carving party.
We had a blast!!

Playing with the other boys


There was even a girl there Lauren's age who just bought this guitar that day! Lauren plays the guitar and actually brought it to Germany with her. They hit it off!!

Whitney liked hanging out with the "big girls" best!!
(she can barely see over the table! ha ha!)

Pumpkin Carving

(Of course Aiden is more interested in their dog... as usual!)

Connor was really into the carving this year!
Even after everyone else had their fill... Connor kept on going.

The masterpieces!!

Aiden refused to smile here because he didn't like how I did his pumpkin.
He said he wanted a fish!!!!! Geez!

Chili & Cornbread at the little kids table...

Decorating Sugar Cookies


Lighting the pumpkins

Aiden wanted one all by himself. He liked his pumpkin better after it was all lit up.


After church today we went went on a walk around the lake and had a picnic while Jeremy was in meetings.
It was such a beautiful day!


Kayla wanted to chase these ducks sooooo bad all day! lol!

Connor wanted to take pictures today.
I was actually impressed... he told us where to stand for the pictures and got a few really nice ones...

There's Kayla (in the back) staring at the ducks again!!



We were walking along the path and then these heads popped up out of the water and scared us! There were about 12 people in the lake scuba diving!!

Connor is scared to walk with Kayla right here because the ducks are close!!

Week 34

ITALY

I don't even know where to begin with this post!
We finally made it over to Italy. We only stayed 4 days but still managed to see quite a bit. I definitely want to go back when we have a week or two to do it right.
I will try to (briefly) highlight our trip.

Day 1

The first day we drove about 4 hours to Garmisch (on the German/Austrian border). We couldn't believe how much snow there was! We stayed at the Edelweiss Resort again... the boys LOVE it there. It is in the Bavarian Alps so it was pretty much winter there!

We took one of Lauren's friends with us. She is also an Au Pair here in Germany and just happen to have the whole week off! The kids loved her. Here they are standing in front of the famous Zugspitze Mountain (the tallest mountain in Germany) but you can't hardly see it for all the fog.

Whitney walked straight to her little rocking chair that she loved the last time we were here!

We had 7 people with us.. so we had to get the 2-story suite. The boys were freaking out that we had stairs in our hotel room. lol!

Running to the pool!!!

It was so nice to stop half way in Garmisch to relax and have some fun!

Day 2
We continued through the German and Austrian Alps. What a beautiful drive. We stopped in Innsbrook, Austria to use the WC. I can honestly say never before have I had a male bathroom attendant that actually held the stall door open for me AND pulled out an appropriate amount of toilet paper for me to use....

We didn't spend much time here but I had to get some pictures as we drove by. The scenery on this trip was awesome!


After about 5 hours we got to Vicenza. Our hotel called us before we left Garmicsh to let us know that they overbooked the hotel and we got bumped from our 4-quad suite and they tried to put us in a single room with 1 queen sized bed and a couch... FOR 7 PEOPLE!! We had to stay at a different hotel and pay for 2 rooms. Also, Whitney developed croup on our first night and had a fever. Those 2 things definitely put a damper on the trip.

Our first night in Vicenza I stayed at our hotel with Whitney, the girls went out on the town, and Jeremy and the boys went out on their own. They said it was the CDC club (cool dudes club). They started this "club" actually the last time we went to Edelweiss and Whitney was sick then too. They had to go to dinner without Whitney and me so Jeremy said it was the CDC club. The boys gave themselves names: Connor's name is 'Spike' and Aiden wanted to be 'Love Animal X'.

Whitney and I started the SPC club (special princess club) my name is Twinkle Toes and Whitney's name is Rainbow Cheeks.

Here are pics from the worst room of the entire trip and also the most expensive!

The boys were very curious about the "2 toilets". They thought the idea of a bide was hilarious!

I gave Connor the camera since I knew Jeremy wouldn't come back with any pictures. However, Connor wasn't much better. These are the pictures he came back with.

Day 3
Things were looking up. Whitney seemed to be feeling better and the fever finally broke. We drove 30 minutes to Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet.

Our first priority was lunch! The funnest part of traveling to new and exciting places is trying the local food. Jeremy found this cute little restaurant nestled in a small alley.

Mmmm... Pizza and Pasta! Yummy!

After lunch Gelato's in City Center

Beautiful city!!! The Arena in the middle of city center was quite impressive. It is actually the largest arena after Rome. It was amazing to see the condition of this arena after 2000+years!!

The view from the top of the arena

We were surprised at how low the ceilings were inside the arena.
People were really short back then!

Having fun down town

This is "supposedly" the entrance to the house of Juliet.

This is the balcony where Juliet would wait for Romeo. Beneath the balcony you can see a statue with people gathered around. The myth is that if you touch the breast of statue that you would be lucky with love. Everyone was lined up to cop a feel!

Of course the boys had to try their luck...

My romantic husband... he didn't even close his eyes!!!

That's ok.. I still love him!!

A wall of post-it notes where people have declared their love for their significant others

Driving through Verona was a little tight at times. You can't really tell here but if we wanted to open our doors, we couldn't. Our mini-van could barely fit through some of these alleys. We had to fold our side mirrors in just to get through!

That night we checked into a different hotel and had plenty of beds for everyone this time!

Whitney's bathtub..

That night Jeremy and I went out with my friend Megan. Her husband is in the States right now so she brought her kids over to hang out with the Au Pairs and our kids.

We went to this great restaurant in Vicenza that night. Galileo stayed there while he studied over 300 years ago. The restaurant was built on top of a cave below. We had several courses and WONDERFUL food! I had something called fagotinni. It's home-made pasta stuffed with pears with a cheesy/proscuitto sauce over the top. It was SO GOOD!

This is the ceiling in the room where Galileo sayed.

It was so great to see Megan again too!!

The kids were sound asleep when we got home. Aiden and Megan's little boy were so cute cuddling together.

Day 4
The next morning we woke up early and drove about 1 hour toward Venice. Jeremy's family had been on a week long cruise that just finished in Venice. They spent the day in Venice with us before catching their flight to go back to the US. The kids were SO excited to see Grandma and Grandpa!!

We hopped on a train from the hotel to go to Venice

Whitney was a very serious traveler!!

VENICE... AT LAST!!!

Waiting for our water taxi

St. Mark's Square

In front of the Basilica

These people were crazy about the pigeons... feeding them, putting food in their hair so the birds would climb on them. They gave food to the kids to feed the birds too... it was gross!

Souvenirs

The train ride home. Everyone was tired.

That night we stayed at the Sheridan... yes, another hotel!

We got to see Jeremy's Grandpa who celebrated his 90th birthday on the cruise!!

Day 5
Time to leave already. The drive home was interesting. We started in Italy and watched the sunrise over the hilltops covered in vinyards. We were wondering how the workers were able to work on the vinyard when they were on such steep hillsides. I would have taken pictures but my camera just couldn't do it justice. The view with the sun rising was breathtaking. A few hours later we were in the Alps of Austria again and in the dead of winter, so it seemed. Everything was covered in snow. A few hours later we were back in Germany with the beautiful trees and the changing colors of the leaves. 12 hours later we were finally home!

Week 33

"Massive" Leaf Party!!!

We went to a lake in Mannheim that has a beautiful walking path around it. The trees were magnificent with the leaves changing colors.

Before you knew it we were up to our eyeballs in a "massive leaf party" (as Connor called it!) So much fun!!

Oktober Fest

How do you celebrate Oktober Fest when you're in Germany???

You make German Pretzels, of course!! :)

Week 32

Aiden Bday
My sweet little boy turned 6 this week. We went to the Frankfurt Zoo and celebrated the weekend before (Jeremy had the camera in Kansas City). On his birthday I took cupcakes to his classroom and got to see some of his friends. This is his best friend Jaden. Too cute!



Kayla
After school was out Jeremy had the biggest surprise ever for the kids...
Jeremy brought Kayla back from the US with him. He recorded their first reaction to seeing Kayla. They had no idea he was bringing her back.

The Party
That night we had the Missionaries and the Lorz over for dinner... or should I say breakfast (Aiden's request)

Week 31

Ladenburg

We went to Ladenburg with the Lorz from church this week. We spent all day there and had so much fun! They are so sweet. The kids call them Oma and Opa (Grandma and Grandpa).

Check out their cool convertable. The boys love to ride in it!


Had to take a pic of the PDA... it was everywhere!

The boys thought that the statue on the right has his hands over his face because he doesn't want to see the other ones behind. ha ha!

Took a Ferry across the river.

We found a Wonderful Italian restuarant. Pizza and Pasta! YUM!!

Aiden was taking pictures. For some reason he took one of our waiter. He was not too amused.

Karl Benz Museum
The man who is regarded as the inventor of the automobile, Karl Benz, spent the last days of his life in Ladenburg between 1906 and his death in 1929. The museum houses a replica of the first car.

The first "car"!

The original VolksWagen with the Pretzel Fenster (Pretzel Window)

Aiden is so funny. He is posing like the manequins

The first garage