London

Hi! So good to be back. And yet, I really miss Germany too. Our internet went out in early May, just as things were getting exciting, and we never could get it up and running again. So I am going to try and finish up our last few months in Europe.

The London Towers

We had a wonderful 3-day weekend in London, 70 days before the Olympics were coming. Bruce had to go for business and we all three tagged along this time. It's a fascinating, history-filled cultural city. But we decided we would never want to live there--the traffic is a nightmare! I don't know how they survived the Olympics.  Such a beautiful and cool place though. I left feeling grateful for the relatively small traffic issues in Utah.

Big Ben

Trafalga Square

At the Queen's Palace Museum

The Eye of London

There are so many wonderful things to see and do in London. It really was a fun city to visit. Some of our favorites: Shakespeare's Theatre, the torture tower, Les Miserable and Westminster Abbey. See if you can guess whose is whose.

London Tower Bridge

Toads, Frogs and Polywogs

So we were walking through a pretty field near our house... it's a water shed area and has a stream running through it. We found a pond off to the side and Max made the most amazing discovery: it was full, and I'm talking dozens and dozens, of frogs and / or toads. I'm not sure which, or maybe both? Anyway...they were so cool!

Isn't he gorgeous?

It was so much fun watching the kids use long sticks to catch the frogs. Some of them were really big and a little too much for me. I just couldn't get myself to hold one; and Olivia tried, she really did, but she just squealed and screamed when they squirmed in her hands. Boston was upset with her for losing one of his 'buddies'.

It took Boston a while to catch his, but when he finally did, it was love at first sight. Can't you just see the pride in his smile? Ash was quite the pro at catching them and gave some good encouragement.

Guess who slid in the mud and fell in? Hint: she's wearing pastel 

Ashton making his best frog-face. I think it's pretty good! 

The best quote of the afternoon came from Ashton when he said: "Mom, I'd have to say this is the second best day of my life here in Germany, it's just barely behind Legoland." So now you know, spend 200 Euros at Legoland or 3 hours at the frog-pond. Your results will be pretty much the same. (I'm betting they will be talking about the frogs at family reunions 15 years from now a lot more than they will be remembering Legoland!)

Ava was not overly impressed.

Max was the real natural, of course. He is the guy you want to be with when heading outdoors. He can turn any ordinary occasion into a high adventure, creature catching, best-day-ever event. Such a fun big brother!

And there were hundreds of eggs too, which are now tadpoles. We have adopted about ten of them and Max and Ashton are raising them in a tub on my kitchen table! We're having so much fun watching the metamorphosis taking place. I think it's an important rite of passage for every kid to have some tadpoles at least once in their life...and they are definitely easier than a dog.

So grateful for the simple joys in life.

Needless to say, we make lots of trips to the frog pond these days!

Happy Belated Olivia!

Wow are you really 10 years old? We were so excited when you joined our family, especially after having two little boys already. 

Everyone said, and continues to say that you look just like your daddy, with your pretty blue eyes and amazing hair. It was such a treat to have a little girl-infulence in the family. But we soon found out that you wanted to be just like your brothers! Not much princess-play happening around our house.

Easter 2003

You have always been a spunky one, with a mind of your own. You were born independent! I love that about you, your strength, and self-confidence, and especially what a great helper you are to me. You are my right hand gal, my second pair of hands, my best babysitter. Ava has been so lucky to have you as a big sister! You are so responsible, sometimes I think YOU should be the mom. 

Max and Livi have a really like / really dislike relationship.

April, 2010--just before your baptism

So glad you joined our family! Keep writing stories, loving babies and working hard in school. We love you.

ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG!!!

STAY-CATION

Last month the children had a week off school for "Fasching", a holiday that I never have quite understood. It's a lot like carnival, where everyone gets dressed up and gets a little crazy before Lent begins. It seems pretty funny, to sin all you can for one week and then give it all up and repent the next week. Anyway, we wanted to take advantage of the week and I started looking at vacation homes and destinations. As I was looking, the city of Starnberg, where we live, kept coming up. It made me realize, we don't need to go anywhere to have a great time--people come HERE to vacation. So we had a great week of stay-cationing. We went to museums:

Coolest museum--ever! Huge too, we saw about a tenth of it in half a day.

We enjoyed a little skiing in Ehrwarld, AUSTRIA. I went with the three oldest and Bruce had fun at home with the little ones.

Max in front of the Zugspitze--tallest mountain in Germany.
(We were right on the border between Germnany and Austria--
we were skiing in Austria but the mountain is Germany's)

Lifts were sweet with heated seats, and a dome you could pull over you when cold or stormy.

Then we went to Galaxy--Europe's biggest water park. It was different in that it was all indoor, and had tons of thermal pools with different types of water for different healing affects. It also had tons of saunas, beach simulated rooms and mood rooms. This is a crazy ride that Bruce, Tal AND I went on! It dropped straight down and then shot you out about ten feet onto he landing strip. Crazy!

OK this isn't Bruce or Tal because I never got the timing right on them.
But when I practiced on this stranger--it turned out great.
Notice how he is airborne...yes, painful landing.

Skiing was so much fun, that Bruce took a half-day off and we went up again, just the two of us. Needless to say, it was a memorable date, skiing in Austria with my man! This was just a few weeks later and the snow had melted considerably. It was 60 degrees and beautiful! 

Road Trips

We recently decided that we need to take a little more advantage of our stay here in Europe. So Bruce has been taking turns bringing someone from the family along with him on his business trips. It is against the law to take your own children out of school for anything other than sickness, so if we end up missing over here, just check the local jailhouse and you will probably find us! It's been so fun for the kids to have some alone time with dad, and hours on the Autobahn equals lots of time to chat and catch up. (Averaging 200 km/hour isn't too bad either!)  Bruce is such a great dad and husband--I'm one lucky lady! 

Here are Tal and Max in Berlin, one of the places they requested to see.

Checkpoint Charlie

The Iron Curtain, or rather, what's left of it

Tal and Max have adjusted really well to Germany and the language is coming along quickly. They are not afraid to speak and can already understand quite a bit. We tell them to try to "sound" like Boston or Ashton when they speak because they have awesome pronunciation!

c-c-c-old

Brandenburg Tor

Olivia wanted to go to Zurich, Switzerland with Dad. We have some good friends there who work with Bruce, and who have three little girls. They arranged for Olivia to go to school with their oldest girl for a day. Olivia had the time of her life, and the Schluchter's were so kind to her while Bruce was in meetings. She loved watching movies and playing her favorite music for her dad in the car. She's a very good co-pilot, manning the laptop and keeping dad alert at all times. (She and Ashton recently received their mid-year grades and they both did amazingly well. We are so thankful for their hard work and great attitudes!!)

Future trips in the works: Venice, Italy and London, England...and I better be able to tag along!

Happy Birthday Boston!

Wow! Boston you turned six today--it's hard to believe six years have already passed since you were born. You have been such a delight to our family with your crooked little smile, your awesome facial expressions, and your newly-found talent of pantomiming! You keep us laughing...never a dull moment with you around.

Great pose!

Having some pizza after a fun day of skiing!

We love having you around...whether you are doing this:

Or this...

Or even this!

Who could be mad at that face?

Never forget, you have a best friend and great example in Ash. You share just about everything. You are lucky to have such a great big brother, along with your other two brothers, and your two sisters of course.

Buddies

Cohorts in crime

You are the best and we love you so much!

ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG!

King for a day at Waldorf with Frau Maingast, your  favorite teacher.

We had a very American party in the McDonald's double-decker party bus in Starnberg, Germany.
The kids had a blast...Tal and Max expressed several times how amazing I was to be able to sit in there for 2 hours with all the chaos and noise. Isn't it nice when they start understanding and appreciating the things  we do for them?? 

Merriest Christmas Ever

I think we had the best present ever this year for Christmas--our family was all together again! It was such a wonderful reunion to have Max and Tal join us in Germany. They flew in with Bruce's dad. We were disappointed that his mom couldn't come too, as planned, but we are so grateful that she is ok after her heart attack. It is soooo fun to have our two oldest boys back with us again. They are such a joy to have around and they have brought a wonderful spirit into our home with them. Thanks to Bruce and Mary for taking such good care of them.

Ava couldn't get enough of Max. She had an instant affinity for him, and wouldn't leave his side, even when he had crashed on the couch!

We have enjoyed showing Grandpa Gunther a few of our favorite sites in Munich. The Hunting and Fishing Museum was really cool. They transformed an old church into the museum. The architecture was really beautiful. It has been such a pleasure to have him here in Germany with us!

The Petting Hall

The Main Hall

Saying good bye to the warthog

 We were happy to have Boston with us...he had decided to hide in a secret tunnel he found in the museum and spend "A Night at the Museum". It took us a while to find him, and that was after we had all left the museum and realized he was not with us! He was so disappointed that he could't sleepover with all the cool creatures and weapons.

We enjoyed Boston's nativity play with him as Joseph. (Yes those are burning candles in his kindergarten--only in Germany! Every morning they would have all the lights off when the kids arrived and about 20 different candles burning to set the mood of the Advent Time.)

Here's Ashton in his play. He was "Snowflake #7" and did a fantastic job memorizing and reciting his lines-- in German of course. Here he is leading the snowflake dance.

We are so thankful for all our friends and family members near and far! We are thinking of you all with a longing for home at this special time of year. But we are so grateful for this unique experience we are having abroad. Thank you to all those who remembered us and sent us a Christmas card. It was especially appreciated and brought us much joy.

Frohe Weihnachten!

All together at last! (Ava is on Bruce's back)
Boston's sad because we just busted up his sleepover with the moose!