Greg, Ellyn, & Kinder

Y3W43 & 44 - Life is About Experiences

2010-03-28T23:13:00.004+02:00

I'd like to say that Ellyn left me the last word, but in reality, she fell asleep and we agreed that we wanted to get something posted before we fly out this week.

A year or so before with left the US, both my parents and Ellyn's mom were asking us what the kids wanted for Christmas gifts. Ellyn and I responded that what the kids needed more than gifts were experiences. We wanted them to provide memories of things that they did with there grandparents and an opportunity for them to develop talents or interests that they hadn't yet discovered.

This philosophy was amplified when we had the opportunity to live in Europe. It's interesting what happens to you when you're living on a fixed timetable. You begin to live life with a certain type of urgency. You find yourself making the decision to just go for it rather than wait. While to many our past three years may appear as an outrageous travel diary of dozens upon dozens of places visited and checked off a list (and we did have lists), we did try to truly experience the places we visited. We did extensive research when we traveled and tried to understand the history and culture hidden within.

In the midst of it all, we learned a lot about this part of the world and ultimately I hope that those we met learned a little bit about us and our home. Life is about experiences, and more importantly, how those experiences shape ones character. Hopefully, we have become a little more aware, a bit more humble, slightly more informed, a little smarter, more compassionate, and most importantly, a lot of fun to be around.

And oh, by the way, if you are interested in seeing a bit of Europe, give us a ring - We've checked that box. ;)

Y3W42 - Well, it snowed again...

2010-03-15T11:53:00.005+01:00

Fortunately, it is beautiful today. But, it did snow this week and everyone was grumbling about it. I never thought when we moved here that we would say that we are tired of the snow. Let it be heard...WE ARE TIRED OF IT! Especially when they are having 60 degree weather days in Michigan. It is just sick and wrong. Global Warming...Seriously?!

Enough of my venting. We spent the week getting ready for our air shipment to be picked up. Well, yesterday we spent the day getting ready I mean. Eight hours it took to sort and get all of the girls packed, making sure we had everything we still needed here and trying to imagine what we will need there. It is certainly starting to seem real when you spend eight hours packing.

Saturday, Greg had a soccer tournament and a Baptism to attend, while the rest of us worked on Eggsibition projects for school. Bailey spent nearly the entire day at art club and then at her friends house. Lleyton did what he does best which is try to destroy as many things as he possibly can in a short amount of time. We managed to keep the project out of his hands though and the girls are thrilled with how it turned out. The joy of painting eggs. It's the simple pleasures, right?

Bailey gave her first talk auf Deutsch at Church on Sunday and everyone said it went well. I tried to listen through the door (being out in the hall with Lleyton as usual) but I couldn't hear her speaking. She was quite nervous about it this time.

Our thoughts have been preoccupied with home this week. And, at the same time looking back. We feel like we accomplished what we set out to do and more and what an amazing experience it has been. We would do it again in a heartbeat if given the opportunity.

I also must shout out to all the people who have been helping me with picking up the girls, taking them to school, picking them up from school, and simply just being there when I ask. It has been so nice to have met such great friends here. I will definitely miss the friends! Not to say our US friends aren't great as well of course. We have heard from several old friends recently welcoming us back and offering help. You are wonderful as well and we are excited to see all of you. Does it sound like I'm sucking up...because it kinda sounds to me as if I'm sucking up when I proof read. If it is coming across that way, I promise it is sincere.

In closing, a couple pictures of Lleyton being naughty. He is a holy terror and is into everything. His favorite pastime is pushing chairs or anything else that allows him to increase his elevation.

Y3W41 - Maastricht One Last Time

2010-03-07T19:08:00.017+01:00

Don't cancel your subscriptions just yet...I know I am a little slow getting these up the last couple weeks. Lleyton has learned to slide chairs to wherever he wants to get into whatever he wants...needless-to-say, I've been a little busy.

We had a couple of surprises this week. One, our friend Mark came to visit on Wednesday for dinner. He was here on a business trip and he sent us an email and voila. It was so much fun to catch up. We haven't seen him since we knew each other in Pittsburgh. I regret to say that I was slacking a little bit in the area of resident "everyday things photographer." So, no pictures. Sorry.

Then, Thursday night we had the Missionaries over for dinner. It had been a while and it is always so nice to have them, and their energetic spirit in our home.

Saturday, we once again and possibly for the last time made the trek to Maastricht. This time we didn't focus on KFC, or America Today, or Root Beer. We did focus on Waffles, waffles, and more yummy waffles. Oh, and ice cream even though it was pretty cold. Oh, I almost forgot. The second surprise. That morning we woke up to snow, again. SNOW in MARCH in BONN. It is the craziest thing ever. So much for Spring, Spring, Spring.

We seriously cannot believe it is March already and our time is winding down.

Y3W39 & 40 - "It's Spring, Spring, Spring again..."

2010-02-28T10:25:00.003+01:00

After it was so cold in Vienna, it is nice to have the weather turning to Spring. The girls had the rest of the week off of school which we spent organizing things for the move. And, playing of course.

And, with Spring, Spring, Spring...comes rain, rain, rain. I have felt a bit like Noah this week wondering if we should be building an ark. Saturday, the sun came out for a while and we walked downtown and found a little park we had not walked through before. Still discovering new things after nearly three years. There were flowers popping up which is sooo nice to see.

Let's see. Highlights over the last two weeks include:

Lleyton giving himself a full body(and I mean full body)vaseline make-over. Yes, this was so much fun trying to wash him with dish soap.

Greg and I giving our final talks auf Deutsch in Sacrament meeting.

The girls getting to play outside in the backyard.

Trying to take in everything we can so that we never forget our time here.

Y3W38 - Wien

2010-02-14T15:40:00.001+01:00

With our Deutschland experience nearing it’s end, we geared up for potentially our last long distance trip. After exploring the possibilities of warmer destinations, we decided to embrace the cold weather and head for Vienna, Austria. Many of our friends had commented that Vienna was charming in the winter so we went for it. We booked a night train cabin that allowed us to leave Bad Godesberg on Friday evening and land in Vienna ready to go on Saturday morning.

We began our adventure at St. Stephan's Cathedral. Bailey, Avery and I braved the elements and went to the top of the North Bell Tower where we got a grand view of the city while attempting not to freeze.

When we came back down to rendezvous with El and the little ones, we saw her chatting with our friends the Kellers. Amazing how one can run into friends within the first hour of a visit to a huge city. They convinced us that we needed to attend the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School) performance on Sunday morning. We had entertained the idea of taking the train to Budapest Sunday, but when we were able to get tickets to both the horse riding performance and to the Sunday Mass at the Burgkapelle with the Vienna Boys’ Choir, we decided to commit to three days in Vienna. Classically, the Kellers decided that they didn’t want to buy standing room only tickets and didn’t attend. It worked out fine for us. After the Mass, we attended the riding performance with the brilliant Lipizzanner stallions. Ellyn went for the first half and I the second as kids 3 and under (like Lleyton) were not welcomed.

Much of Vienna centers around the great Hapsburg courts of Austria of the 19th century - primarily that of King Franz Joseph I and Princess Elisabeth. Their residence at the Hofburg Palace and grounds is home to most of Vienna’s museums and cultural sites. We visited many of the great sites throughout our three days in the city. On Saturday, we went to the Albertina Museum and amazing State Hall in the Austrian National Library. The great hall reminded us of the interior of the Trinity College Library in Dublin, and this time we got to take pictures. The girls also enjoyed visiting the Kaiserappartements which served as the primary residence for Franz Joseph I and Princess Elisabeth and today also contains the Sisi Museum which chronicles the life of Princess Elisabeth. Just on the outskirts of town is Schloss Schonnbrunn which served as the Royal Family’s summer residence. It is an enormous place which not only resembles Paris’ Versailles in layout but also houses Vienna’s Zoo and botanical gardens.

One of the must do’s in Vienna is to hop from café to café. Despite our lack of coffee and tea consumption coupled with the fact that we were the only café dwellers with 4 kids under 10 years old, we were undeterred. The phrase, “You have to sit up and act like princesses” was uttered more than once and was marginally effective. We visited one café named Meierei im Stadtpark. We strolled into the café in full winter gear only to find all the other patrons in suits and dresses. We had to laugh as we watched Bryn pick the nuts out of her bread with her fingers. It’s always good to stretch the little ones once in awhile and challenge them to be on their best behavior. I guess we do that once a week at church.

Our favorite café was the Central Café in the heart of Vienna. A traditional meeting place for politicians, captains of business, and society leaders for the past century, this classy place reminded us of a big city café with live piano music and a maître d’ in a tuxedo. We had dinner at the Central Café before catching our return train and it was a great way to finish the trip.

Y2W37 - Theory of Sickness

2010-02-07T20:38:00.003+01:00

You have heard of the Theory of Relativity - ground breaking stuff. My theory of sickness isn't necessarily as earthshaking, but a theory none-the-less. I think the body intentionally gets sick when the body simply needs some rest, relaxation, and an excuse to watch some movies. As four out of the six of us have been sick the last couple weeks, I find myself asking whether it was just our bodies needing some good old fashioned rest. When I took two of the four of us to the Doctor, she simply said it was not the Strep Throat that had been going around so it is just a really nasty cold. With nasty cold germs in the house, I don't understand why some of us get it and some of us don't. We are breathing the same air, in close quarters, so while not scientific, I think my theory works. This week we have spent some time buying a house in Michigan and fighting off the yucky germs in the house.

The highlights included, Bailey swimming for her silver patch, seeing the Princess and the Frog in English, watching the snow melt, and having Caroline sleep over before she moves back to the States next week.

Also this week, they had a jump-a-thon at school to raise funds to help in the recovery effort in Haiti. The girls were pumped about this. I am proud that they are socially aware of what is going on in the World and want to help those that need the help.

Short and sweet this week.

Y3W36 - Schneeland

2010-01-31T17:33:00.001+01:00

If you are an avid reader of the blog, you will remember our first Winter here where I warned the girls that it doesn't snow here like it does at home. We had a light dusting of snow that the girls referred to as a "Christmas Miracle." Well, let me rephrase. There are some winters where it doesn't snow like it does at home. This was not one of them. It has snowed and snowed, and snowed. Frankly, it has snowed so much that we are getting tired of it. But, last weekend, Greg and the kids enjoyed what we hope will be the last major snow. They built quite the snowman, even by Michigan standards.

I have been trying to remember to write this for a couple months now and I keep forgetting. I found three gray hairs on my head over the Christmas break. I have named them. They will be called Bailey, Avery, and Bryn. I'm hoping there will not be too many more to follow real soon. There will not be a picture of this!

Greg also took some pictures of our common neighborhood views. Some sights we will miss when we leave. He has also been playing with his camera and our adobe photoshop to put some finishing touches on these pics. Enjoy...

Y3W35 - Istanbul

2010-01-24T14:39:00.005+01:00

So, my friend calls up a couple weeks ago and says that she is thinking about taking her two oldest daughters to Istanbul for the weekend. She asked if Bailey and I might be up for accompanying them. I was first a bit apprehensive but Greg thought it was a great idea. So, we booked our tickets and plans began to be made for our most interesting trip to Turkey.

It all started to be weird when my friend tried to check in for her flight and couldn't. We realized after much confusion that the tickets we had booked on Turkish airlines (US site mind you) were for 1:15 AM instead of PM. This is the day of travel by the way. So we called up, tried to figure out what to do, and alas we got it figured out to leave around 3:30 PM. Great, we got there with no problems and then found out our flight was delayed an hour, then two, then more than two. But, they wouldn't tell us what the problem was. We had to have somebody translating for us from Turkish to English. There was a rumor going around our gate that a German plane bound for Turkey had a bomb threat. I called Greg and asked him to look up on the Internet and see if there was any truth to this. The main headline for MSNBC said there were 120 terrorist suspects rounded up in Turkey. We actually considered cancelling the trip but Sally's nephew was meeting us in Istanbul from Barcelona. When he text paged us that he had landed, there was no turning back. We can laugh about this now that we are home safe and sound. We finally got out of Germany and arrived in Istanbul. Thank goodness Sally had her blackberry with her so she could stay in constant contact with the shuttle service/hotel. We felt so blessed to have our shuttle guy there with a sign with our name on it when we walked out of the airport.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel, the White House Hotel. I highly recommend it. The staff was incredible. The location was awesome, about two blocks from Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. We had good food every time we ate, which seemed like a lot. Saturday morning we were up and out early to take a tour...Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, slight detour for carpet presentation, and ending at the Grand Bazaar. Our tour guide totally knew what he was doing when he took us to the "carpet presentation, because the children would enjoy seeing how the rugs are made." Yes, we ended up making a purchase or two. Then, we moved on to the Grand Bazaar. While we knew bartering would be the process for anything we were interested in buying, still it was tiring to have everyone try and get you to buy things. They kept calling the girls "Barbies" which was very funny to the girls.

We had to take a break at Starbucks, not very authentic, but it was a blizzard. No Joke. I think it was the most snow they have had in a long time. Figures. There were so many people (grown-ups) playing in the snow. Snowball fights, building tiny snowmen, etc. You typically don't see this kind of behavior from Michiganders who have snow every year for months and months and months. Fun none-the-less. The girls had a blast in the snow. We finished out the day at the Spice Bazaar, which was a more quaint food oriented Bazaar.

Back at the hotel, the girls decided to put on a fashion/dance show for us. It was most interesting and fun for them. The adults found it quite entertaining and humorous.

Sunday came too early as we were all a bit tired and slow moving. We started at the Basilica Cistern which is an underground water cistern that the Romans built. The water was brought to the cistern via aqueduct. Really cool. We had to go back to the hotel to drop Mike off (Sally's nephew), his return flight was a little earlier than ours. In the afternoon, we debated about what to do. We did lunch first at a great authentic place with very memorable baklava. We decided to go the the Archaeological Museum because they were supposed to have an Alexander the Great Sarcophagus. Turns out, it was a sarcophagus with scenes from Alexander the Great's life but it was not the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. The big highlight of the Museum was a huge Trojan Horse that the girls were able to climb up into. We didn't have time to go the the Topkapi Palace after we exited the museum. And to be honest, we were all a bit tired. I'm not sure we could have handled another site. Next time we are in Istanbul, we will still have a couple of things to do. Since I have been home, people keep asking me if I felt safe. I can honestly say that I never felt any anxiety whatsoever about our safety. We felt perfectly at ease walking the streets of Old Town which is where we spent our time.

Definite highlights of the trip include the absolutely amazing Hagia Sofia (Church turned into Mosque). The call to prayer we would hear from the Mosques several times per day was very cool. The Mosques, themselves, were so huge (so much bigger than I ever imagined). And, just being in a city with such a long, rich history was truly a Humanities Major's dream. You can't go anywhere else in the world to a city that borders two continents, and has been a capital city of three different empires (Byzantine, Roman, and Ottoman). Another huge highlight was the opportunity to have some mom/daughter time with Bailey. We rarely get to spend some time together away from the other kids.

I would love to go back in the summer to see if the city seems different. I think there would be a different energy to the city in the warmth. However, if this was my only opportunity to see Istanbul, I'm so glad I had the chance. Thanks to the Conleys for inviting us along because I really think this was one of the most unique travel experiences thus far. And, a big thanks to Greg, who held down the fort with three little ones while I was away.

Y3W34 - "Tis no normal life, Wyatt, there's just life"

2010-01-17T18:00:00.008+01:00

While this week was as close to normal as it gets, there was more snow than usual. Bailey's class went sledding every day. Can I take a minute and express how much I love a teacher that puts acedemics on hold for an hour, when it is snowy, so the kids can have some fun! Way to go Mrs. Frost-Ohm. For most of these kids, there is never enough snow to sled, so when she sees an opportunity, they take advantage of it. Couldn't we all use a little more fun in our lives? I say that because every bit of time I had this week was looking at available houses for sale in Michigan, or making arrangements with packers, realtors, etc.

I have expressed a couple times when things have frustrated me this week, "I can't wait until life is normal again." Then I remember that no matter where I am, there will still be things that frustrate me.

This weekend we dropped Bailey off at her art class and went downtown Bonn. We are really feeling the push to do everything we have wanted to do but haven't gotten around to yet. Greg took some pics of Bonn, so we can remember what fun it was so many Saturdays.

Y3W33 - Everyday Comedy with Kids

2010-01-10T14:43:00.005+01:00

I am so glad that we didn't have to start school on Monday. The girls didn't start until the 6th (Wednesday). I think we needed the extra couple days to get ourselves ready. So, it is now 2010. I wonder what this new year will bring. Well, since I told Greg that I wouldn't start worrying about the move back to the US until January, I'm pretty sure it will bring some moving anxiety. I started bright and early on Monday morning on realtor.com. We started scheduling the moving company. Greg talked to the respective Ford and Cartus people about what we needed to be doing to be ready for the move. You may think that this seems a bit premature but the time is moving so quickly. I'm glad we are getting a jump start.

We started reading Junie B. Jones Books in the evenings along with the kids reading books. We read, "Junie B. Jones is Not A Crook," and at one point Bailey, Avery, and I were laughing so hard that I could hardly finish reading the book.

We had quite a bit of snow this week, an unusual amount for Bonn. There was enough for the girls to build a tiny snowman. Ahh, the joys of winter. I think this is one of many reasons the girls will love to go home.

Funny kidisms this week:

Bryn refers the movie "Up" as "Chunky Boy" (referring to the little boy in the movie, Russell). I have no idea where this came from.

Bailey was in the bath washing her hair while I was trying to get the other girls dressed. All of a sudden, there was a huge glob of soap suds in Bryn's hair. I asked how in the world that got there and Bailey said, "Oops. I must have flailed." She has a history of flailing. But, this was the first time I ever heard her admit it. So funny.

Bryn was dancing and singing and when she got to the end, she raised both hands in the air for the big finale. When we started to applaud, Lleyton ran into the center of the room next to Bryn and held his arms up in the air just like Bryn. Then, he did it again and again waiting for his applause.

Avery spontaneously started singing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," today only she sang "Baby Jeans is not my lover..."

It is so nice to have constant comedy in my life.

Y3W32 - Brussels, Flanders Field, and a Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T21:31:00.014+01:00

Christmas came and went so fast. I must say that though we considered going to Munich with Ryan and Melissa after Christmas, we were really tired. I think we were all really glad that we didn't have to get in the car and drive so far. But, in our effort to not waste any time here in Europe (we have so little left), we had to go somewhere. We decided to visit the cities and areas surrounding Brussels and Ypres in Belgium. Greg has been talking about going to Ypres for a couple years so we finally made it happen. The last time we visited Brussels, there was a bit of restoration work ongoing. This time all the beautiful architecture was visible and adorned with wonderful holiday accents.

In addition to the Grand Place's elegant architecture and broad spaces, Brussels has quaint side streets filled with restaurants. It was funny to watch the hosts flag down potential patron after patron and then stand quiet as we walked by with our small (but cute) little army of children. We also found time to find one of Brussels most well known sites, little Julien. He is often dressed in a fancy outfit, but for us, he was in his traditional birthday suit.

We went to the four recommended Chocolate shops (Neuhaus, Galler, Godiva, and Leonidas) to get a sample from each to have our own little Belgian Chocolate taste test later at the hotel. I have to say that I was very excited about this part of the trip.

I love Brussels by the way. I can't really put my finger on what exactly I love about it though. We ended up staying in Lille, France because we couldn't find a hotel closer to Ypres that had availibility for our family.. Apparently, Ypres is a hot spot this time of year.

The weather was not ideal in Ypres, but we always find a way to make it work. Greg had done some research about some WWI trenches that are still there. Though it was very rainy, we had to see the battlefields. When do you ever get a chance to see that? And, I must say, despite the rain, they were very cool. The series of trenches that we visited where called Bayernwald because the landscape reminded the German soldiers of the Woods in Bavaria. They had pictures of both English soldiers and German soldiers who had fought there (including Adolf Hitler which was really interesting to see as a young soldier in WWI). The reason they have both English and German soldiers is because control of the trenches had changed hands a couple times.

Then, we made our way to the Flanders Field Museum. Wow. If the building itself is not enough to wow you, then have an amazing experience inside. They give you cards when you walk in with a persons name on it. There are three different terminals throughout the museum that you can enter your card and it will tell you what the person on your card was doing at that time. Avery was very excited to have gotten Marie Curie as she had heard about her in school. Lleyton was a soldier from Chicago, who had six brothers who all were fighting in the war. All seven miraculously made it back to Chicago after the war. They also had a sister, who was in Europe involved in the War effort who made it back. Amazing.

The Ypres salient is well known for it's five major battles throughout the Great War. A salient is a military term used to describe when a bulge occurs in the lines creating a situation when one army can be attacked from three sides. Ypres was the center of such a salient and the Allied forces were hit from the north, east, and south for several years leading to the complete destruction of the city. In one of the five Battles of Ypres, 140,000 people lost their lives to gain about 5 miles of territory.

We took some photos of the War memorial called the Menin Gate which today marks a passage point through the town walls. The gate pays honor to more than 54,000 Commonwealth soldiers who lost the lives in Ypres and who's bodies were never recovered. Every evening at 8:00pm, traffic through the gate is closed and six buglers play the last post.

It was definitely enough of a trip for us. We spent the rest of the week and weekend just hanging out. Our first rest in so long.

Y3W31 - Christmas Traditions

2009-12-31T15:37:00.023+01:00

For the last couple years, we have visited Cologne on the 23rd of December to pick up some last minute items and enjoy the energy which comes with throngs of people bustling through the markets. Thankfully, Ellyn had taken care of business in the present department and we were able to relax and enjoy the day.

A less popular historical site in Cologne to visit that can't be found in typical tour books, is the GeheimStaatPolizei (GESTAPO) Museum. It is generally dedicated to historical events associated with Nazi movement during the 1930's and the atrocities committed before and during the Second World War. The basement level which functioned as a Gestapo prison and interrogation center has been preserved and restored. Kind of a morbid Christmas activity, but visitors come when they come.

Our Christmas Eve's here in Germany have consisted of an afternoon church service (something that is not typical of Mormon Churches in the U.S.), a dinner featuring a Roasted Goose, and an evening program put on by the kids. They did a brilliant job keeping it together, on track, not straying off on odd tangents and ended it with a wonderful message. It was cute to see them go off to different rooms from time to time to rehearse.

Christmas day followed usual protocol... presents, brunch, pajamas all day, etc.

The following day with Ryan and family on their way to Bavaria, we took a short drive to Koblenz where I spent a semester studying while getting my MBA. The kids had fun playing near the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) where the Mosel and Rhein come together and I enjoyed trying to get some natural photos of the girls with my new telephoto lens.

Y3W30 - The Erzgebirge

2009-12-27T21:56:00.026+01:00

The days leading up to the holiday break were fast and furious for us this year as it is for most I suppose. We welcomed my brother Ryan and his family. In our planning discussions, we decided to go to Eastern Germany where Ryan had served his mission 13 years ago. The Erzgebirge region of Germany is home to famous Christmas products and traditions. Anyone who has a German made Nutcracker or Smoker as a part of their holiday decorations will find it was made in the Erzgebirge.

While our travels were hampered by heavy snow and bitter temperatures, the conditions provided an exquisite winter wonderland for us to explore during a 4+ day visit.

Weimar

This small city located in the German State of Thuringia is former home literary greats Goethe and Schiller. The School of Music named after conductor Franz Liszt still operates in Weimar. It is also the namesake for the Weimar Republic. This government established after World War I was effectively annexed to obscurity by Hitler’s Nazi party in the early 1930’s. For us, Weimar was a brief overnight rest place and due to the freezing temperatures only included a short morning tour before we hit the road for Saxony (Erzgebirge). We did have time, however, to pick up a Thuringia Bratwurst. Records show that these sausages date back from at least 1432 (ours were not originals).

Annaberg-Buchholz

Before entering town, we stopped a few kilometers north of town to see an area known as Greifensteine. These craggy rock formations were blanketed by fresh snow which made for a brilliant view and ever adventurous driving.

The sister cities of Annaberg and Buchholz combine along the Silberstrasse (Silver road) to create a charming village in the Erzgebirge mountains. We first visited the Buchholz side of town and the Frohnauer Hammer museum. This is an interesting piece of Erzgebirge history. Most of the early industry in this region was mining and blacksmithing. The Frohnauer hammer is a river powered hammer giant in size and more impressive in the force of it’s stroke. The mill and hammer was first developed in the late 15th century and tours of the mill include a working demonstration.

After the tour, which consisted primarily of trying to calm cold whimpering children, we visited a charming store filled with German Christmas items and then had a traditional meal at a local restaurant.

On Sunday, we stopped by a local church that Ryan served in during his mission. I told him that the local members only remember the strange missionaries, and sure enough, they remembered him. They indicated that it wasn’t because he was strange, just memorable.

It was a real highlight to see people embrace him and even our family. Following church, we briefly visited the local Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in Annaberg.

Seiffen

Seiffen is the home to the skilled woodworkers who have for hundreds of years handcrafted toys, Christmas ornaments/nutcrackers/smokers, and a myriad of other items. Our first stop was the Spielzeug (toy) museum. The museum chronicled the emergence aspiring woodworkers of the 19th century and included high quality exhibits and amazing historical examples. Following the museum, we sprinted for another ‘inside’ venue - a series of local Christmas stores. There, Ryan and Melissa stocked up on some Christmas presents to take home with them. With temperatures way below freezing, we quickly picked up some Christmas Market food and headed for the cars. We had a mountain drive to Dresden ahead of us and some winter storms on the way…

Sächsische Schweiz

‘Saxony Switzerland’ is a mountainous region southeast of Dresden near the Czech border. With sunny skies and slightly warmer temperatures, we geared ourselves up to spend some time outside and view some natural wonders of Eastern Germany. The morning was filled with a welcomed train ride to the Sächsische Schweiz area, a ferry ride across the Elbe river, and a fantastic hike up to the top of the Bastei. As usual, this was a highlight for the girls.

Dresden

Once the cultural center of Germany, Dresden was fire bombed by British and American planes on February 13th 1945. The destruction was massive and Dresden has spent the last 60+ years recovering - particularly since the fall of the wall and the unification of Germany. The best example of this can be seen in the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche. The legendary church was put together using a combination of original and new stones.

Between the Frauenkirche and the Hofkirche (the Frauenkirche's Catholic cousin) resides the Royal Palace. Along it's outer wall, the history of great Saxon rulers are honored with porcelain renderings. We stopped for a few moments to appreciate the breadth and detail of this impressive demonstration of skilled workmanship.

Of course, with Dresden as the capital of 'Christmas Land', there are sprawling markets throughout the city and we spent some free time eating and watching the kids enjoy rides and sweets.

Another favorite was the Zwinger - a combination of historical gardens/fountains (not much to see in winter), fortress, and museums. There, we saw Raphael’s famous Madonna and child with the even more popular baby angels along with other classics from Rembrandt, Vermeer, Albrecht Dürer, and Velasquez. After the Old Masters Gallery, we quickly hit the Royal Armory to gander at the knights and weapons. The kids particularly enjoyed the smaller renditions that would theoretically fit them. Then they pick out outfits for their dads. I got the stylish silver suit with red accents and Ryan got the tacky gold.

Lastly, adjacent to the Zwinger, is the State Opera house designed by Semper with a prominent statue of King Johann of Saxony on his horse. With six kids, there was no opera on our menu.

Having hit the key sights and Christmas upon us, we jumped into our motorized sleighs capable of 180 km/hr on land and headed for home hoping for the arrival of the Weihnachtsmann a couple days later.

Y3W28+29 - Weihnachtsmarkts & Christmas Performances Up The Wazoo

2009-12-13T21:46:00.007+01:00

The week began in the usual way except that my mom was in a slight panic that she did not have Christmas presents for the girls so we spent the days shopping. The afternoons were spent doing the normal soccer, dance, swimming, dance again. My mom also had a pseudo Christmas for the kids which was nice for them to open the presents she gave them with her there.

We managed to fit in a few more Christmas markets. Friday, we went to the Siegburg medieval market. We have gone every year since we have lived here, and it is still one of my favorites. Saturday morning we took in the Ahrweiler market and had just enough time to make to the IBIS Christmas market. We lucked out and were able to get to see Santa right away. We stayed for a couple hours while Greg attended/conducted a baptism at Church.

One of the highlights for Avery this weekend was the ability to take Barney the Bear home for the weekend. Every student gets to take Barney home for a weekend and then share their experiences with the class on Monday. You will see Barney in every picture from the weekend.

It was my mom's last day so we spent the rest of the evening just hanging out a bit together. The girls were tired. It had been quite a busy week and they just needed some downtime. Sunday morning, bright and early, Greg got my mom off to the train station. It was a great visit with Grandma - probably her last to Germany while we are here so we are hoping she had a wonderful time. We had a great time with her.

This week was spent getting a few more Christmas presents, wrapping everything, doing all of the backed up laundry. The highlights included Bailey's talent show, Bryn's kindergarten Christmas performance, Avery's open classroom, and eating dinner at McDonald's. Not that eating at McDonald's is that special, but the fact that we ate inside was a huge bonus to the girls. We were on our way home from swimming when we were directed by the police to go in the opposite direction. They said there was an accident blocking the entire road and we would have to find a different way home. So, we decided to go to the McDonald's that was in that direction to see if the accident would clear while we were eating. It didn't and we ended up being in traffic for another accident going the other way home. So, our fifteen minute drive home took about two hours (with eating time). Ahhh, the joys of driving at night, in the rain, in Germany. I honestly don't know how Greg does it every day.

Y3W27 - Venezia & Berlin

2009-11-29T11:24:00.003+01:00

I really thought on Sunday that the two trips we had planned this week would not happen. I felt so crummy. However, by Wednesday, I was feeling up to travel. Greg and I flew (by ourselves) to Venice for a late Anniversary present to each other. We had that evening and the whole next day to experience Venice. What an absolutely charming place! We walked to our very tiny hotel right around the corner from San Marco Piazzale. There was a bit of mist in the air which made it all the more enchanting. We took several night photos and felt very lucky that we avoided the crowds. We dined at a very small cafe (about four or five tables) just down from our hotel. It was great food and a really nice start to our overnighter alone. Did I mention we were by ourselves? We turned in fairly early as I was still not feeling perfect so we could get an early start.

Everyone told us that Venice is the best if you get to see it before the crowds show up. By 7:30am, we were out and about. Very few tourists, only local people going to work. I wanted to do an early morning gondola ride but the gondola guys weren't even out yet. Apparently if you want a ride that early, you need to arrange it the day before. We went back to the hotel to have breakfast that was delivered to our room at 9:00am. We planned our day and away we went. We went to the bell tower at San Marco Piazzale first to get a view of the square and the canals. San Marco cathedral was very cool but dark. It was a stark contrast to St. Peter's in Rome after having just been there. We walked all through the city, saw the fruit boat, the famous fish market, trying to take it all in. We needed a rest.

Greg suggested that we go to the Gallery d'Accademia. At least we would be able to check our bags and have a bit of a rest. We found out when we got there that the famous Leonardo de Vinci Vetruvian Man drawing was on exhibit. What a lucky find. We stayed there a while looking at the drawing and checking out the rest of the works. We did a tiny bit of shopping, some souvenirs for the girls and a small Christmas present for me. We had our usual gelato (only one this trip). After which we did more walking. It is an amazing city to just walk around. So quaint having to walk up and down bridges constantly that go over all of the many canals. It really is so unique.

We had a sit down in a chocolate shop and grabbed a couple hot chocolates and some local cookies. I will miss that about Europe. It is perfectly acceptable to have a sit down at a cafe, have a couple of drinks and stay as long as you like. In the states, I'm sure we would have been given the "can you move so we can free up the table?" type look. After we had covered most of the city on foot, we decided to take a water taxi. We had to do something on the water in Venice. We found a chic restaurant with a younger looking crowd, yes we can still fit in in this crowd, where we dined at a very relaxed pace (alone) and had a very thick liquid hot chocolate for dessert. After dinner it was time to make our way back to the bus station to catch our bus for the airport. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem with our plane which made our expected midnight arrival in Bonn a bit later (3:30am). This was definitely a change to the way we normally spend Thanksgiving day but there were a ton of Americans in Venice that day, and we all seemed to be having the same "Thankful" sentiments. It was as if we were all communicating it nonverbally.

Friday morning came very early. Greg had made up his mind that we were doing Thanksgiving dinner on friday. So we all got up and started cooking. We cooked all day, had a wonderful dinner, and by 7:00pm my mom and I were on the train to Berlin. Talk about a whirlwind kind of week. Wow. Sorry no time for Thanksgiving pics this year.

We arrived in Berlin shortly after midnight and our hotel was literally right outside the train station. We began our berliner adventure with the Reichstag. My mom made it clear that that was the one thing she wanted to do so we waited the hour and a half or so to get into the building. It certainly is worth it for the view and the information. We hit the Brandberg Gate and the Holocaust memorial on our way to Potsdamer Platz, checked out the Christmas market there for a bit. We decided to grab lunch at a really cool authentic German restaurant called Lutter und Wegner. We had Sauerbraten und rotkohl (red cabbage). Really delicious. we continued walking until we reached the Topography of Terror and finally Checkpoint Charlie. We spent a bit of time here as it is a fascinating museum. On our walk back, we decided to hit the Christmas market in the Gendarmenmarkt area which is right in front of the Opera house. It was really neat to see the energy of the Christmas markets. We wanted to see the Brandenberg Gate lit up at night so we walked along the Unter den Linden until we ran into it.

We headed back to the hotel feeling like we had accomplished quite a bit in one day. We had a bit of trouble trying to decide what to do with our second day in Berlin. Should we go to Wittenberg? Should we go to Pergamon Museum (one of my favorites)? My mom let me sleep in too late and at long last during breakfast, we decided that we would just hang out in Berlin and try to see some more of the city. We started in the same general direction but managed to find Hitler's bunker where he spent the final days of his life. It is essentially just a sign that marks the spot but it is a bit out of the way and I was feeling proud that we found it.

Next, we walked to the Benderblock building where we saw the Stauffenberg memorial (if you've seen the movie Valkyrie, Tom Cruise played Stauffenberg). Almost more interesting than the courtyard of the Benderblock was a building down the street that clearly had many, many bullet holes in the facade. We made our way to the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche, which is basically one tower that survived the war. I'm really glad we saw this church. They had pictures inside of the church from 1919 until present day. It was interesting to see the changes in the building, the roads, the city. Amazing chunk of history. There happened to be another Christmas market right outside the church so of course we had to check it out. We did a bit of shopping along the Ku'damm when we thought we had better make our way back to the train station, collect our stored luggage, grab a sandwich for the train, and get to our correct platform. It was a great weekend. I'm so glad I had the chance to take my mom and show her a city that she had always wanted to see.

We made our train with no problem but couldn't find the car where our seats had been reserved. After standing in the hall of the train trying to make our way through a hundred people to get to car ten. Someone told us there wasn't a car ten. That's the reason for the gridlock of people trying to make their way through the train cars. While we didn't want to try and go back through all of the people, I asked if we could just sit in first class until the aisles cleared. We ended up being able to stay in 1st class all the way to Cologne. Brilliant. We arrived home around 11:30pm. One of these days I really need to catch up on all of this sleep.

Y3W26 - Schweinegrippe

2009-11-22T11:03:00.001+01:00

Avery was sick all week. Low grade fever, no cough, headache early on, and the Doctors kept saying it couldn't be the Swine Flu because she didn't have the right symptoms. So, on Wednesday she developed the cough. I took her to the doctor and they said she had bronchitis. They put her on antibiotics, which was a complete nightmare to get her to take, and voila she was better in a matter of days. However, then other people in the school had the same symptoms as Avery and what do you know? They tested positive for Swine Flu. Did she or didn't she...that is the question.

While most of my week was spent dealing with sickness and preparing for my mom to come, it was a good week. It felt very productive.

My mom came on Saturday morning. We picked her up in Siegburg and were off running. We started at the Christmas market in Bonn, with the mushrooms of course. As usual, we spent time looking at all of the available goods along with eating, eating, and more eating. It was a very nice day.

At the end of the day though, I started with the headache, then the fever, etc. By Sunday morning, I was flat. Greg was extremely nice to step in and teach my lesson for me. Although ny mom came to have fun and experience Christmas in Germany, it was kinda nice having her to fill in where I was lacking while I was sick.

Y3W25 - German Classics

2009-11-15T12:58:00.007+01:00

The first classic event of the week was St. Martins Day on November 11th. By this time (the third year in a row), we knew exactly what to expect, where to be, what to do, so it was a fine evening. It wasn't very cold and it was so much fun when we have friends to hang with.

Greg had a blast of a weekend as he got to spend it playing soccer. I will let him fill you in on the details...

I got a chance to play this weekend down in Munich against a team of former TSV Munich 1860 players. My friend Matthias, a life long fan of the Bundesliga team, had contacted the club about arranging a match against their former players. It was great to get back on a quality pitch against excellent players. The team included Martin Max amongst others. Max twice led the German Bundesliga in scoring playing for 'Sechzig', and scored 20 Bundesliga goals as recently as 2004.

We played them close for the first 60 minutes, but they pulled away the last 30. I seem to get a little overly competitive about these things. Down deep, I wanted to prove that despite 3 major knee reconstructions and a lack of dedicated training in the last 10 years, I can still compete head to head with these former German 1 Division players. Maybe it's some deep underlying insecurity, a sign of past regrets, or simply a over active competiveness that isn't properly putting in check. Whatever. It was fun. In the end, I accounted for myself well and most of all I got to get back to something I absolutely love doing. Most of all, it was fun to watch my friend live a dream. He got to play with 1860. It was like those spring training baseball fantasy camps. Guy was grinning ear to ear before, during, and after the game. That kind of excitement from a friend just naturally rubs off on everyone else.

Prior to the game, we cruised over to the home stadium of both Bundesliga teams based in Munich. It was recently constructed to support the local teams but also the 2006 World Cup in Germany a few years ago.

Saturday was interesting. The kids and I went to Bonn first thing because we had to get a couple birthday presents. It was fun because all of the Christmas decorations were up in the department store but we didn't have the Christmas crowds of people. We got some of the awesome Ciabatta bread at the Bonn Markt and it didn't even make it home. We devoured the entire thing in the car on the way home. Then we wrapped the presents and I took the younger two girls to the Miller party that I was sure started at 1:00pm. Turns out it ended at 1:00pm and we completely missed it. Heidi was nice enough to let my kids stay and play for a couple hours. It was so nice of her. I really think I'm losing my mind sometimes.

Y3W24 - A Whole Lot of Nothing

2009-11-08T20:11:00.002+01:00

While it is hard to believe that we did nothing of note last week, it is mostly true. Of course, we have all the normal everyday things with a bit of travel and Christmas research thrown in. I was getting slightly worked up about all of the things coming up: a couple upcoming trips, Christmas shopping, starting to think about moving back to the US. And, it was almost as if I couldn't stop researching these items. I was spending every spare minute on the Internet trying to figure out some solutions to what was stressing me out. Saturday, I decided that I'm giving up. I'm just not going to worry about all of these things and have a day of rest. We did that. A full rainy Saturday of nothing. It was great physically but mentally I was still bothered. Then, Sunday morning we walked into Church and a member of the Bishopric asked if he could talk to both Greg and I. I had been released from my RS calling a couple weeks ago. He asked me how I felt about teaching Sunday School and I must have made a "You are insane" kind of face because he immediately started clarifying. It is not the main Sunday School in the Chapel (in German) but a smaller mostly English speaking Sunday School Class working from the same manual. While I still looked like a deer in headlights, something very spiritual occurred to me. I wasn't able to shift my focus from all things temporal and stress inducing myself. I needed help doing so. That is when my very loving and compassionate Heavenly Father stepped in. By giving me this calling, he is essentially forcing me to shift my focus to those things spiritual and in turn give my mind a rest from the stressful temporal things. How blessed I feel to have a Heavenly Father who knows me personally and gives me what I need, even if it is not what I would choose for myself.

Another spiritual but cute thing is in Avery's bedtime prayer tonight she said, "Please bless Jesus that He will have a good week."

Also, I wish playing with Tupperware and pots and pans would make me even half as excited as it makes Lleyton.

Bryn told me this week that I was one of her best friends, after Saffron, Caroline, and Bob (her teacher's husband). Fourth place isn't so bad.

I have also been noticing this week that we have local law enforcement/judge/jury residing in our house by the name of Bailey. One must watch their P's and Q's around this one. Have you ever wondered where this saying comes from:

From an old printer's axiom. Back in the early days of printing presses, each line of text had to be set up one letter at a time. Since the letters in the press were reversed (so they'd print forward), the print maker (or typographer) needed to be careful not to confuse one letter for the other. Reminding someone to "watch his p's and q's" means to pay attention to the details.
An alternate meaning for this idiom, and the one most commonly accepted as historical fact, dates back to the Olde English Pubs of yester-year. In order to remind the patrons of how much Ale or Mead they had drunk as the night progressed, the bartender would write on a chalk board (or the like) each (P)int and (Q)uart that had been consumed by each patron. It allowed said patrons to keep up with their tab, and prevented disagreements from happening between bar and patron. The term is actually correctly stated as "'Mind' your p's and q's." In this instance it is considered a warning to not get too drunk to pay your tab. Likewise in today's parlance it is a warning to pay attention to anything in general.

Y3W23 - Christensen Spooktacular

2009-11-01T09:08:00.002+01:00

The week leading up to Halloween is always a busy one. This year was no exception. However, I told the girls they just had to find costumes in the costume box. I was not going to make costumes or purchase costumes for such a non-event that Halloween is here. They found another option when the Conleys (some friends from school) allowed the girls to come over and look at their costume box. Of course, they all picked something from the Conleys. Bailey chose the devil/angel combination. Avery chose Pocahontas. Bryn of course chose a princess. Lleyton liked to hold the pirate sword so he was a pirate.

Saturday was Halloween and first thing in the morning we had a baptism to go to at Church. Immediately following, we ran downtown to get food for the weekend. It was very, very cold walking around town. The girls came up with a plan - how they could still trick-or-treat and get candy but at the same time stay out of the cold. We would agree to buy large sums of candy for them and Greg and I would facilitate trick-or-treating inside our house. Of course we agreed to this plan. Lleyton had a bit of a fever and I wasn't crazy about the idea of him being out in the cold for a couple hours anyway.

We then carved our pumpkins and made plans for our first annual Christensen Spooktacular. Avery had a birthday party to go to in the afternoon and as soon as she got home, we went to work. We put a jack-o-lantern in each bedroom. Greg and I alternated bedrooms, wearing a different costume each time the girls would knock at the door. We were such things as a butterfly, bat, cat, witch, pirate, painter, etc. This pretty much went on until we either ran out of candy in that room or ran out of costumes. We then bobbed for apples and had a pumpkin seed eating contest. Bailey stopped at one. I think Bryn ate half of a seed. Avery was the big winner with a whopping 20 or so. I lost count after 15. We put Lleyton down and settled in to watch, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

It really was fun. I would love it if they would go for it every year but somehow I think we are not going to get off so easy in the future. Still, it was a great evening to spend together doing fun things. We get so few of those kind of evenings.

Sunday was also fun as we invited the Millers and a friend of Greg's from work to come over for BBQ Beef sandwiches and homemade donuts and cider. A really nice way to end October. Unfortunately as soon as October ends, the stress of the upcoming holidays starts to creep into my mind. This year instead of creeping, it has hit me like a Mack Truck. Any present ideas for nine, six, four, and one year olds are welcome. I know it seems too early but we have to be proactive in case ordering in necessary from the US or from the UK.

Happy, Happy Halloween!

Y3W22 - Tinkerbell & Fall

2009-10-25T13:08:00.005+01:00

I think it was early August when Bryn first started asking when her birthday party was going to be. Especially when Avery's birthday rolled around, she seemed much more interested in when her party would happen. When her birthday finally got here and it was essentially a sing song in the Termini Train Station in Rome, I think it lacked a little something for her. However, when we returned at 1:30am we decided it might be a good idea to take a day off before the birthday celebration began. So, Thursday was the big day. She dressed up like Tinkerbell the entire day and I'm sure it seemed like forever until Dad got home so we could celebrate. We made homemade pizzas (below Bryn is making hers) and had cake and ice cream of course. It must be really hard when you are four and everyone elses birthday in the family is before yours. Hopefully it lived up to her expectations.

By Saturday, the girls were still in "I'm resting" mode. They really didn't want to do much at all. But when it came time to do the yard work, they were all about "helping" Greg rake the leaves. By Sunday after Church they were ready to get out of the house a bit so we stopped at Rheinaue Park on the way home and tried to get some Fall pictures with all of the beautiful colors. This week has been sunny and all the leaves are in full color. It is really something to see. I tried to take some pictures of our garden because I love the view but I'm not sure the pictures really capture the brightness of the colors.

This was the best of the pictures we took:

Here are a couple pics of the garden:

Y3W21 - When in Rome...

2009-10-21T15:52:00.029+02:00

The week started out with a bang as we celebrated Bailey's 9th birthday. She wanted a Pferdefreunde Geburtstag party which is so nice because we can get all the party stuff here. The cake was a bit tricky because I wanted to stick as close to the theme as possible but still keep it simple. After a few tries at making flowers with frosting, I decided it was much easier to walk to the store an buy some of those candy flowers to ornament the cake. Good decision as I have decided making frosting flowers is definitely not my forté. It was a lovely party. I'm liking these small family parties. Here are a few pics of the festivities.

Bryn had her kindergarten assembly in front of the whole school on Wednesday. They did several dances and sang songs. Very cute!

On Friday after school, we headed to the airport for our much anticipated trip to Rome. I had heard horror stories about taking kids to Rome - that it is a nightmare for strollers, that it is too crowded, restaurants are not family friendly, etc. I am happy to say that we found Rome to be quite the contrary. We felt very safe walking around the area of our hotel, even at night. We took the metro everywhere, and though it was crowded during rush hour, the people were very nice and tried to give us as much room as possible. We took the stroller everywhere and never had a problem except maybe in the Roman Forum on the ancient roads. While there are always a few stressful moments when traveling with four kids in a new city, we found it to be a delightful place. We had four days and we tried very hard to make the most of them - Carpe Diem. A short disclaimer - this will be quite travel loggish.

Day 1 - Getting our bearings and seeing a few things along the way

We started the day at the Yellow Bar almost every morning. Our hotel gave us vouchers for breakfast there each morning. Excellent start to the day. We walked to the central train station, got our metro passes and we were off. Bailey said we had to start at the Colosseum. You walk out of the train station and Bam! There it is. It is massive and unbelievable that they were able to build something of this mass before heavy machinery. However, we didn't go in just yet. We walked past the Roman Forum to Circus Maximas where they used to hold chariot races and 300,000 spectators. Now it is just a field but the girls ran up and down the hills anyhow. We decided to begin at the Baths of Caracalla mainly because it was on Bailey's "must do" list. I really thought it would not be much different than the other Roman baths we've seen, but here again the ruins were massive in size. And, we walked through a cool local market on the way. We love doing the non-touristy things when we can.

We walked a long way to the San Giovanni in Laterno, and were pleasantly surprised to find such a gem of a cathedral. The walk being well worth it. This church and the adjoining Lateran Palace was the Papal residence before they moved to Avignon in 1309. The pictures do not do it justice. However, Greg's close ups of the pillars in the Cloisters are quite nice.

Next, we trained over to the Spanish steps where we learned the hard way that you are not supposed to eat on the steps. From there we walked over to the best gelato place in Rome - San Crispino and had some scrumptious gelato. After lunch we took in the Trevi Fountain. It is amazing. And, the girls threw in some coins so they are certain to return. We had the pleasure of walking by the Marcus Aurelius column erected in AD 180 on the way to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was really quite remarkable. ( I am not giving it a worthy description but I don't know what else to say except it was amazing.) We walked a short couple of blocks to Piazza Navona to get a glimpse of some classic Baroque fountains.

Trevi Fountain

Marcus Aurelius Column

The Pantheon

Piazza Navona

The faux 3D ceiling of the the Sant'Ignazio di Loyola was next and it was also well worth the trip. Then we made our way to Trajan's column and Trajan's market where there was an anti-racism demonstration going on in the city. Originally, we planned on staying out until dark to see the Colosseum lit up after dark but with the mob of people walking around, we thought it best to make our way back to the hotel. As you can see, I'm having a hard time narrowing down the highlights. Everything was just so old and so cool.

Day 2 - Pompeii and Naples

Due to some issues booking a train online, we had to skip the Yellow Bar and go straight to the train station to see about getting some tickets to Pompeii. This trip was on Bailey's must do list and mine as well. Where else can you see Roman life from 79AD stand still, preserved due to the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It was so vast. I studied the art from Pompeii and Herculaneum in my Art History classes at BYU but had no idea how much was excavated until I got there. While much of the art has been removed from the villas in Pompeii and placed in museums, it gave us a real sense of the layout of an ancient Roman town. We hit Naples on the way back and detoured to the Archaeological Museum which housed many of the frescoes and statuary from Pompeii. I thought this would be a relaxing day with having an hour and a half train ride both ways, but when we returned back to Rome, all of us were very tired. We did however grab an ice cream in Termini train station to celebrate Bryn's birthday. We sang to her right there in the middle of the train station. That will be one I certainly will not forget for some time.

Day 3 - St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican

I was stressing about this day. I did so much research that said that the queues were very long and I was very worried about our family having to wait. We got to St. Peter's Basilica around 10:30 and saw a very long line, found out that was the line we needed to be in, and waited. The line went so quick that I had to call Greg who was casing the area to find out where we had to go to get to the Vatican later, because I was afraid we were going to have to go through security without him. He made it there just in time. Once inside we were pretty much sectioned into two lines, one for the Cupula or one for the tombs. We chose the Cupula not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into. Soon it was clear we were climbing to the top of the Dome. We could take the elevator/stairs route or just the 530 stairs. We chose option A but I was getting nervous about the time. It ended up being a good decision. Close up view of the Dome, plus the mosaics up there are amazing, plus an outside view of Piazza San Pietro. We had only about 20 minutes inside when we got back down to the bottom but it truly was enough. What a beautiful place. The majesty of the Bernini's Baldacchino. Wow. We purchased our Vatican tickets online hoping to skip the line, and I'm happy to say we walked right in with five minutes to spare of our reservation time. I was so nervous about taking our kids there but we were truly welcomed, congratulated, and made to feel comfortable by all of the workers there. They went out of their way to help us with elevator access, helpful information, etc. We knew that we couldn't do the whole museum so our objectives were fairly reasonable - try to see some of the more famous pieces. For me, the must sees included the Sistine Chapel of course and the School of Athens in the Raphael rooms. We saw those and more and had a very pleasant visit. We walked past the Castel Sant Angelo which houses Hadrian's tomb but we decided to skip the tour and just admire it from the outside. We walked back to the Piazza San Pietro and took a couple more pictures while eating yet another gelato before we decided to call it a day.

St. Peter's Basilica

The Vatican

Day 4 - Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Bocca della Verità, and Aventine Hill

Another full day. We started at the Palatine Hill, which included the tour of the Roman Forum. The girls loved this. We took a ton of pictures here. Everywhere I looked, there was an awesome photo op. The girls played house on 2000 year old ruins for hours. Priceless. We saw the Roman Curia where the Senate met and where Julius Caesar was assassinated. We went from there to the Colosseum. Here again, you look at this massive structure and wonder how they were able to construct such things with limited resources. Once inside you can see the caverns that were under the floor that consisted of lifts and cages. We took a bit of a walk over to the Santa Maria in Cosmedin which houses a medieval drain cover (the Bocca della Verità) which legend states that if you are a liar and you stick your hand in the mouth, your hand will be snapped off. It was made famous in the movie "Roman Holiday," when Gregory Peck pretended to be hurt after sticking his hand in. When we arrived, there was a little line we had to wait in to have our turn. The more surprising thing about this trip was the church. It was a quaint and surprisingly unique church. Not to mention the added bonus of the Temples of the Forum Boarium from the Roman Republican era, which sat across the street. This was Lleyton's favorite part as we let him out of the stroller/baby carrier to run around for a while. We proceeded to walk up the Aventine Hill to see a view of St. Peter's Basilica from a distance. It was a glorius park where we enjoyed sitting in the sun and resting for a while. It was a pleasant way to end our time in Rome.

Four days, four kids, 2000+ years of history to cover...the bottom line is, we would do it again in a heartbeat. We covered a lot of ground in four days and I'm so happy we had the opportunity to go.

Y3W20 - Flying Solo

2009-10-11T20:38:00.007+02:00

The kids and I flew solo last week while Greg took his third trip back to the US. A mixture of business and pleasure as usual, with a special honor thrown in. We would have loved to have been there to support but somehow the idea of flying home for a weekend with four kids seemed a little overwhelming to me. Thus, we stayed here and it was business as usual for us. We were happy to have him home on Friday. The weekend was rainy and we mostly stayed in and took it a bit easy.

Below are some recent pictures we received from a recognition event held at the Automotive Hall of Fame and the formal awards cermony the next evening.

Greg received a leadership award from the Automotive Hall of Fame. Each year, 3 or 4 young leaders (under 40) from the automotive industry are recognized for achievements and potential as future industry leaders. The young leader award recipients are permanently recognized in a display at the Hall of Fame which is located adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

Bryn has once again made me laugh out loud with her Brynisms. She was talking about her sisters getting new shoes. I asked who that was, and she said, "Avery and Bailey, of course." I then proceeded to say and who is Lleyton? Her response, "The dog." She then listed all the ways Lleyton is just like having a dog. There were several times this week Bryn has made me laugh.

Mom: "Bryn, will you please get in your seat and get your seatbelt on."
Bryn: "Mom, you are making me grumpy."

And, on that note...Auf wiedersehen until next week.

Y3W19 - Walking at last

2009-10-04T09:57:00.000+02:00

Actually Lleyton has been walking for some time now but due to some technical difficulties, I haven't been able to get a clip of him on camera. 1. I cannot find the battery charger to our digital camera. (I am happy to report that we did find Lleyton's shoe that was missing for close to a week and the kitchen scissors just this morning.) 2. The camcorder would take too long to download just a simple clip, and I just haven't had time for that. 3. Our desktop computer completely died. No warning at all. Just shut itself down and never turned back on. Am I worried, am I stressed? No, because Greg has been doing an excellent job of backing up all of our files on an external hard drive. Apparently we learned our lesson last time our computer died. Anyway, I finally remembered that Bailey has a camcorder and I used hers to get these clips. Not the best quality but video clips none-the-less. Enjoy.

The highlights for the week were not having to go to the Doctor's office the entire week. Woohoo! The girls played on the Wii all day Saturday and loved it. It was Unification Day here in Germany so everything was closed. We brought the Fall clothes up from the Keller. And, finally we had a wonderful evening at the Millers house for pizza and s'mores. Yum. It definitely tasted like home. I didn't take the camera though. Darn it. Oh, and General conference. It is so nice to listen to something spiritual in English. It is so much easier to understand the point of what is being said.

One un-highlight (for Greg) was U of M's inability to beat MSU. Michigan seemed like they had it made in the fourth quarter with two touchdowns but MSU scored in overtime to win it. Unbelievable. They can't beat anyone they are supposed to, but they can beat Michigan. Hail to the Spartans?

Y3W18 - Restful Week At Home?

2009-09-27T21:27:00.003+02:00

Well, it was a week at home alright...but, restful? Not really. Greg had a bunch of work guys here from the US that he was entertaining. Needless-to-say, we didn't see much of him. Then, we had a series of Doctor visits. Avery is still having some eye issues that have needed attention and Lleyton had a great fall. Luckily all the king's horses and all the king's men were able to put him together again. He did have a pretty nice goose egg, but it is healing nicely now.

On to the highlights:
Of course we did our usual Saturday morning market. Avery had a birthday party to attend. Greg took the kids on a bike ride to Rheinaue Park while I prepared my lesson for Church. The girls and I went to see the movie, "Up." I didn't have to teach my lesson because the Stake leaders were there and we had the third hour together.

Of these, I think the biggest highlight was the movie. Loved it. We all did. It is rare that the girls keep wanting to talk about a movie the day after but this morning when we were getting ready for Church, they were still asking questions about it, and really pondering the content. Definitely worth seeing in my opinion.

Y3W17 - Birthday Trip Weekend

2009-09-21T16:23:00.018+02:00

We started the week by celebrating Lleyton's 1st birthday. Being our "Little Prince," we went with a knight theme for him. I can't believe it has already been a year since Lleyton joined our family. What a ride. He is walking fairly steadily now but I have not been able to get a video clip of him yet.

We made good on our promise to forego birthday parties with friends this year and have a family trip instead. We left Wednesday evening and drove to Günzberg so that we could be at Legoland bright and early the next morning. While we ended up getting there bright and early, it was a little like Clark W. Griswald in Vacation when they get to Wally World and there are no cars in the parking lot and Clark says, "First ones here!" It was a drizzly day, which kept most people from going. But, not us. We endured the rain the entire day and actually had more fun than we thought possible. The best thing about being at an amusement park in the rain is, the workers let you go on all the rides as many times as you want, and there are NO lines. We were fairly wet when we left but the kids were troopers. We drove to Füssen that night and stayed at a really nice apartment like hotel.

Of course we had to go to Neuschwanstein the next morning. We took the tour in Deutsch because it was the next available tour. I'm not sure the children appreciated this very much. But, we didn't want to wait another hour for the English speaking tour. Places to go, people to see you know. Well, at least places to go.

We took the Deutsche Alpenstraβe, lined with beautiful mountains, onion domed churches, and Bavarian architecture to get to the highest peak in the German Alps, called Zugspitze. We took a gondola up 2,900 meters or 9720 feet above sea level to the top and caught some amazing views. It was an extremely clear day which was such a nice little blessing. Especially since the day before had rained the entire day. While the view from up there is amazing, I find it is an anxious time for me. While Greg takes postcard like pictures, I try to reign in the need for four children to be adventurous. I am always relieved when we are safely down on the ground.

We had a bit of a drive to our next destination...Berchtesgaden. Our hotel was actually in Bayerisch Gmain and close to a little town called Bad Reichenhall which had some nice Eis Cafes.

On the way to the Kehlsteinhaus (Hitler's Eagles Nest) we stopped in Ramsau to see one of the onion dome churches.

The whole experience at the Kehlstein Haus was quite the process. We decided in the end that we would not tour the inside of the house but take in the beautiful sites surrounding the house. It was a gift from the Nazi party to Adolf Hitler for his fiftieth birthday. I'm just going to put in a little plug here to let Greg know that I would not be disappointed if that is what he got me for a fiftieth birthday present. Wow.

With a full agenda planned, we zipped to Almbachklamm. A gorge nested in the Southern Germany Alps, it was the surprise of the trip. The girls led the way the entire hike as we spent a few hours going up the river, have a quick lunch, and coming back down.

With time getting tight, we then drove to the Königsee. We debated whether or not it would be too much to do the boat tour, but decided to try it. It was soooo worth it! Probably the highlight of the trip for me personally. There are no motorsports allowed on this lake and it is so quiet. At one point our boat stopped, our tour guide pulled out his trumpet and played outside the window. The echo was amazing. I think we got the best tour guide! It would have been a shame to have missed it. We went back into Bad Reichenhall for dinner and ice cream of course.

The next morning pretty early we started our 6 1/2 hour trek home. We took a small detour to Playmobil Land which is a huge playscape land kind of thing based on the playmobil toys. Everyone loved it and it got us out of the car for a couple hours. 3 hours to playmobil land, 2 hours to play, and 3 1/2 more hours home, so we thought. Stau (traffic jam) after stau after stau landed us back home around 2 hours later than we expected. We had to do some navigational tricks along the way to avoid just sitting on the freeway. The kids were remarkably good.

Was it worth it, you ask? So worth it. Props to the German Alps that no one ever talks about. You always hear about the French Alps and the Swiss Alps, but no one ever talks about the German Alps. Hopefully some of these pics will get people talking!

Y3W16 - Giethoorn, Netherlands

2009-09-13T14:47:00.000+02:00

One of the real perks of living abroad in Germany versus vacationing in Europe is the opportunity to dedicate some time to visiting the smaller, out-of-the-way places that travelers have a hard time prioritizing over Paris, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and all the other major cities. Some of our best memories are from day trips planned to explore these local places. A couple months ago, I was asking each of the girls which place they most enjoyed visiting and Avery answered that Münster was her favorite. Münster? Last summer, we took a day trip to Münster – visiting the zoo in the morning and then taking the scenic route home through Münsterland with its many Wasserschlosses. In all we saw three moated castles that day. One even had an extensive playground on the grounds equipped with trampolines.

We’ve asked around and done our own research and as a result come up with some real gems. This weekend was one of our best. Browsing through my travel book a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon the description of little village in the Netherlands named Giethoorn. Historically, it was a farming town which sat on marshes filled with dense peat. The picture below shows it’s appearance – dense, black, and hard almost as if it was a black brick. This peat was harvested from the ground and used primarily for fuel in the stoves but also for home construction.

The excavation and transportation process resulted in miles (~4.5 miles) of canals throughout the community. The homes are a treasure chest of classic thatched roofed dwellings – all of them connected to the walk ways with arched wooden bridges (how cool would it be to have your own bridge as an entrance way).

People travel the canals either by ‘punts’ (think Venice) or by small boats with quiet electric motors that keep the peace. Visitors such as us can rent these vessels for a couple hours.

We took advantage and enjoyed two hours cruising the canals and nearby lake. Even the girls got to drive the boat!

In addition to Giethoorn, we also had discovered a national park, De Hoge Veluwe, in nearby Gelderland which is an odd dry, arid section of the Netherlands surrounded by lush green landscape. Driving through the park, one would think that they were in the western United States or Mexico.

One the of highlights of the park, strangely enough, is an amazing museum – the Köller-Müller Art Museum. This park and museum were both the donation of Helene Kröller-Müller (1869-1939). Her personal collection grew to include 91 paintings and 175 drawings by Vincent Van Gogh including classics such as the Terrace of a café at night and the Potato Eaters. It was fun to watch the girls point out particular pictures and realize that they had visited the sites in southern France that were portrayed in the paintings, and not only were they recognizing the places but they were actually looking at the art.

At one moment, we looked in careful amazement at Georges Seurat’s La Chahut which utilizes his trademark pointillism technique (tiny dots of paint that combine to form a greater scene and blending of colors). In addition to the art collection, we were able to stroll the gardens filled with sculptures (some on which you could climb...)

The Visitors Center at the De Hoge Veluwe has a museum, Museonder, which describes life underground. The visit invoked memories and thoughts of El’s dad. As we looked at displays and exhibits describing the flow of ground water, we envisioned Grandpa Frank (a geologist/ground water specialist) being all excited to describe the details to anyone that would listen. He and Bailey would have definitely slowed us down. While I never met Ellyn’s dad, I’ve heard enough stories to know that he would have been enjoying himself at this place.

Y3W15 - Prinzessin Lillifee Geburtstag

2009-09-07T13:26:00.001+02:00

For about a year now, Avery has told me that she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake birthday. I made sure I could order what was necessary from the UK to get it here in time. No problem, until a week before and she changed her mind. Luckily, she decided to go with a Prinzessin Lillifee Birthday so we could just run down the street and pick up what we needed. It was great. We went with just a family party this year. It was really nice. We started a bit late but I was much less stressed than in previous years and to be honest, I think she enjoyed it just the same.

Her birthday was Monday and then we spent the rest of the week trying to get used to the new extra cirricular activities schedule, and all of the parent information meetings. The week absolutely flew by.

Greg was in St. Petersburg, Russia from Tuesday to Friday on business but managed to take a few pics while they were out after work.

The weekend proved to be a bit special as we had the opportunity to go to the Knight Festival (Ritterspiele) at Burg Satzvey.

I've been thinking lately about some of the things I ask myself during the day and how funny it sounds when I think through them later on. For instance, just this morning I said to myself, "Why is there a half eaten pop-tart in my closet?" How boring life would be if I didn't have the occasional half eaten pop-tart in my closet!

Y3W14 - School Begins Again

2009-08-30T20:28:00.001+02:00

We arrived home from Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday was the first day of school. Avery was starting the German equivalent of the very first day of "real school." This is the reason for the schuletütes. They are large cones filled with school supplies and candy for their first day. Because Avery was starting Year 1 this year, she falls into the "real school" category. The siblings, so as not to feel left out, also get a schuletüte but it is a bit smaller in size. It was great. The girls were very excited about their cones, as they called them. And to be honest, I think the excitement of the cones helped with the anxiety of starting school again. It was a fun tradition to take part in.

Other highlights were one of my conversations with Bryn this week:

Mom: Bryn, is that a nasty old cookie from Lleyton's seat that you are eating?

Bryn: But mom, I like nasty cookies.

Mom: Well, that makes perfect sense then.

The weekend was fun, fun, fun. Saturday, we surprised the girls and took them to the Rodelbahn (kind of like a bobsled), not far from our house. If that was not enough fun, we drove through some classic German towns in the Ahr wine region. We walked a bit in Ahrweiler and had a traditional German lunch at a Metzgerei (butcher). After which, we went to a friend's birthday party. The invitation was for Bryn but we all went and had a great time.

Y3W13 - Two Days in Stockholm...

2009-08-24T10:10:00.015+02:00

is not enough! Bottom line is that it was a really fun city. We did as much as we could do with the time that we had as usual, but we certainly could have spent a few more days.

The week was spent doing all of the back to school things. You know, getting schuletütes, getting house shoes. Wait a minute...what the heck are schuletütes? What am I supposed to put in them? Am I supposed to make it or buy it? So, as you can see we spent some time finding out what they were and what I was supposed to be doing with them. All of this had to be accomplished before we left for Sweden because we were returning the day before school started.

Saturday morning at a 6:00am departure, we took off for the drive to Frankfurt Hahn airport to catch our 9:00am flight. The girls were champs I must say, especially since I overslept by about 15 minutes because my alarm didn't go off. We arrived in Nyköping, Sweden around 11:00am, caught a bus to Stockholm city and we were off. We walked around town a bit to get our bearings which led us past the Kungliga Dramatiska Theater (the theater's school produced such actors as Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Max Von Sydow to name a few).

Then to a very cool indoor market, that reminded me of Quincy Market in Boston. We made our way to the tourist office to get our Stockholm cards which allowed us free transportation and free entrance to almost everything. It was great.

We began our Stockholm adventure by walking along the Strandvagen to get to Djurgården. We started at the Junibacken Museum, which is a children's literature museum of Astrid Lindgren stories. If you have heard of Pippi Longstocking, this is the author. It was wonderful. I kept thinking how much my mom and my mother-in-law would have enjoyed it. The girls loved it. It was like walking into the world of her stories and they had a train that takes you through a tour of some of her books. Wow, what an amazing start.

Next we walked to the Vasa Museum. It is an incredible museum that houses a ship. The ship set sail in August 1628 and after minutes of sailing her maiden voyage, she sank in the harbor. It wasn't until 1961, that they were able salvage the Vasa. We watched a film about how they managed to salvage the ship which the girls loved. The most incredible thing is the massive size. You expect there to be a ship in the museum but you never expect it to be as gigantic as it is.

We ate at the Sjö Cafe with this beautiful view. And, walked back to the city center while the sun was going down.

We stayed in what turned out to be a really chic hotel that was once a liquor warehouse. Yep, we are all about style, AND hotels that have family rooms that can fit all of us.

Day 2, we knew we had to get an early start. We grabbed a bus into the city center and started with a city hall tour. Bailey especially loves the tours.

The Rådhus is well known as the site of the Nobel Prize banquets and ceremonies. The banquet is held in the Blue Room while the prize is awarded in the nearby theatre. All the Nobel Prizes less the Peace Prize are awarded in Stockholm. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Olso. It was decided that Norway would be the home of the Peace Prize back when Sweden and Norway had a formed a union between them. Since the formal separation of the two nations, some have subtly voiced their disagreement. However, cooler heads have prevailed as it might be a bit odd watching a couple nations fight over a ‘Peace’ Prize.

Next, was our walk through Gamla Stan (the Old Town) with unique shopping areas and the Royal palace. It is also the location of the Nobel Museum. We didn't do the whole museum but we took some time out for a Nobel sundae, complete with a chocolate Nobel medal. We had read that this is where the winners eat the week that the prizes are awarded and if you look under the seats of the cafe, the prize winners typically sign the underside of the chairs.

Stortorget square is also the famous site of the Bloodbath of November 1520. When the Danes lured the Swedes into the square and executed 90 men while everyone watched. If you look closely, you can see three canon balls left over in the sides of a couple buildings.

We didn't have time to take a Fika (the Swedish term for pretty much wasting time having coffee and cake, however, Europeans don't see it as a waste of time) at Chokladkoppen, but we did make Greg go in and purchase some cinnamon rolls (kanelbulle). We had to at least try them on our walk around Gamla Stan.

We took a boat to where the archipelago begins to a place called Fjäderholmarna. It was so nice to be on the water and it was a restful small place. The girls climbed on the rocks and played. We ate at one of the small restaurants (there were only a few to choose from).

Then, we took the boat back. We planned on doing the Skansen outdoor museum when we returned but we had a bit of bad weather and Avery somehow misplaced her jacket, so we thought no to the outdoor museum idea. Instead, we changed our train tickets and took an earlier train back to Nyköping so we could catch our 8:00am flight the next morning.

It was definitely a whirlwind tour of Stockholm and we could have used a few more days to relax and take in a bit more of the sites, but I would not trade the two days we had for anything. It was definitely worth the trip and I would love to go back someday.

Y3W11 & W12 – Christensen Roots in Denmark

2009-08-16T21:02:00.000+02:00

This last week and a half, my folks have been visiting. Ellyn and I have been saving our first choice venues for last. When we arrived, she named Rome as her must see location and I had wanted to see Scandinavia. The appeal of visiting the former home of our (Christensen) ancestors was enough to get my Mom and Dad over.

In order to avoid the horror of 8 to 10 hours in the car with Lleyton, amongst other things, we booked a night train with 6 beds. Leaving Köln around 10:30pm, we slept our way to Copenhagen, Denmark, arriving just before 10:00 am with the whole day in front of us. Wanting to see various parts of the country, we decided to visit København (Copenhagen) for the first couple days and then spend 3 days visiting various parts of the Denmark. Our family comes from two primary locations. Ancestors from both my dad and mom’s side come from the island of Fyn. We visited the largest city in the region named Odense. Additionally, the Christensen side of the family came from the northern most part of the Jutland peninsula. They were primarily from the city of Hjørring. Our travels were a delicate balance of seeing the things that one ‘needs’ to see, while trying to draw some connections to the past. The map below highlights the places we visited.

Copenhagen
For the girls, Copenhagen was all about Tivoli, Denmark’s oldest amusement park opening in 1844. It is a combination of restaurants, theatres, carnival activities, and amusement park rides. We spent the afternoon and evening of our second day at Tivoli. One thing that we particularly noticed was the fact that the park resides right in the middle of the city. From inside the park, you can look out and see the Rådhus just outside the park walls. It was a charming place with its Tivoli Garden Guard marching to the beat of drums. This group made up of 100 boys between the age of 8 and 16 has been a part of the park for 100 years. The girls loved the rides and gigantic cotton candy.

Ellyn and I were particularly impressed with the earlier part of that same day when we traveled by train 40 minutes to the north to the small city of Hillerød to see the Frediksborg Slot. After seeing so many castles (and churches), we find ourselves getting a bit numb to the sight of another 800 year old structure. This one however was so impressive it ranks up there with our favorites in all of Europe. It also houses an impressive collection of art including works by the artist Carl Bloch – the painter of many familiar Biblical pieces used frequently by our Church in their publications.

My folks were excited to see the original Christus sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen. Replicas are found on many Mormon Temple grounds and in visitor centers – most famously in Salt Lake City. The Christus is accompanied by individual sculptures of each of the apostles in the Vor Frue Kirke (Church of Our Lady) in downtown Copenhagen.

Other interesting places included the Rundetårn, a tower dating from 1642 that employs a spherical ramp in lieu of stairs. Legend has it that the king, Christian IV, rode to the top on his horse during the opening ceremony of the tower. Years later, Peter the Great repeated the same ride when visiting Copenhagen. The girls also enjoyed seeing the Hans Christian Andersen character, the Little Mermaid, immortalized in bronze in the Copenhagen harbor. A local Danish woman asked us, while we were visiting the site, whether we were disappointed (the statue is quite small and apparently some of the locals don’t understand the hype). We simply replied that while the hundreds of tourists are a bit overkill, it reinforces the charm of Copenhagen.

Odense
From Copenhagen, we travelled to the northern tip of the country and the city of Skagen. On the way, we stopped in Odense. Odense is most famously known as the home town of Hans Christian Anderson. His house is now part of an impressive visitor’s center dedicated to his life’s work. It was of excellent quality and included some amazing artifacts attributed to his life. Bryn really got into hunting around for particular items (the museum gave the girls a card with pictures of specific items for them to find throughout the exhibit). It was a great chance to gain a better knowledge of his compelling life story and his remarkable journey from extreme poverty to becoming Denmark's most well known citizen.

Skagen
With our arrival in Skagen, we had officially traversed from Danish city life to small town living. Skagen, while still a harbor/fishing town now draws much of its income from the tourist industry. It is a quaint village on the northern most tip of the country. In Skagen, we visited the local Art Museum dedicated to the many 19th century artists who gathered in the region. We rented bicycles and rode around the peninsula, visited the very tip of Denmark, ate fish in the harbor, had classic Danish ice cream cones, and did a bit of swimming.

On our second day in the area, we hiked from our hotel to Den Tilsandede Kirke (the Sand Covered Church). The church was overcome in the late 1700’s by migrated sand dunes, and today only the church tower remains.

Hjørring
After our hike to the Sand Covered Church, we began to make our way back down the peninsula towards Kolding where we were to pick up our night train back to Köln. On our way, we stopped in Hjørring. Knowing in advance that wouldn’t be anything specifically attached to our ancestors remaining (our ancestors immigrated from Denmark to the Utah Territory in the 1850’s/60’s), we simply enjoyed walking the streets and looking at historical buildings and churches that were around at that time.

Our quick visit allowed us a couple hours in Kolding to have a good meal prior to the ride home and snap a final family picture before boarding the night train.

Back in Deutschland
The remaining few days with my folks in town were filled with a trip to Burg Eltz in the Mosel river valley...

and a visit to the Bundesliga home opener fussball game between FC Köln and VfL Wolfsburg.

Y3W10 - Frankfurt/Mainz

2009-08-02T21:46:00.004+02:00

The weeks of summer are rapidly slipping away it seems, so every nice (above 80 degree) day, we head to the pool. This week was no exception to that rule. We took advantage of the nice weather and spent an afternoon laying in the sun, and enjoying the freezing cold water. The not so nice days we spent cutting hair and a few more organization projects.

On the weekend we had the pleasure of finally catching up with some family friends in Frankfurt, the Dzmuras. We have been meaning to visit for the entire two years we have been here and finally made it happen. It was a really nice visit. I think the kids really enjoyed each others' company as well. They also have a store that had American things, and I'm embarrassed to say that we all looked like kids in a candy shop putting so many things into the basket. A few of my favorites were Hostess Ding Dongs, Spaghettios, Velveeta Shells & Cheese. I know that it is not the healthiest assortment, but fun having a few things we miss from home. Thanks again, Kim, for the hospitality.

On the way back from Frankfurt, we stopped in Mainz. It is the home of the Gutenberg Museum. We got to see some of the first printing presses and some of the "Gutenberg Bibles." The girls were a bit out-of-sorts, not wanting to go to a museum but we tried to explain the importance of the printing press - how and why it revolutionized life for the masses. It didn't really do that much for them at the moment, but hopefully later on in life they will realize how cool it was that we went, saw, and learned for ourselves.

One other highlight from the week was Bryn's building of the wood blocks. I took one look at her creation and said. "You built San Gimignano." She said, "These are just my towers." But, later in the week she kept bringing me to see her "San Nono" creations. Bailey also built the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and the Tower of London. I have to say I think it is very cool that they have these places in mind when building. It is good to know that something is sticking with them when we are dragging them from place to place. Lleyton was doing his best Godzilla impression knocking the cities down as fast as they could build them. All good fun.

Y3W9 - Lleyton has Mad Skills

2009-07-27T22:18:00.011+02:00

After a few weekends in a row traveling, we laid low and watched a bit of the Tour de France finale. Being here in Europe, coupled with the return of Lance Armstrong, and the lack of massive dopping suspensions, the Tour seemed to receive a bit more interest. Things seem to be shaping up for a nice show down next year as Armstrong has announced his move to a new U.S. based team sponsered by RadioShack (are they still around?) and this years winner, Alberto Contador will searching for a new team. Hopefully, Lance can regain even more of his past form and test the theory that cycling is a truly great team sport.

A few firsts for the "der kleiner man". He is starting to stand up without the aid of surrounding objects. He is not yet attempting to move his feet without the aid of something semi-stable, but we're pretty sure it is coming soon...

Next, he decided that he will not be intimidated or contained by a flight of stairs. This traverse was naturally completed with Ellyn still sleeping. She would have never condoned of such behavior.

Lastly, we think Lleyton is developing one of his most critical skills. An ability to sleep. Thus far he has followed his dad's lead - sleeping poorly. You'd think that the son of Ellyn would have some natural talents in this area. After rather meager attempts in other methods, we utilized the... dump his crib in the closet area (small room in our house), close the door, and visit him in the morning. Thankfully, after a couple days, he seems to be getting into a rhythm. Our pediatrician has always said, "If my favorite person came and visited me in the night every time I made a noise, I keep on doing it too..." There must be an age limit on that rule because I've tried it many times and I never get a response from Ellyn.

For you soccer fans, the Bundesliga begins in just a week and a half. FC Köln fans cannot wait for the return of favored son Lukas Podolski (Poldi). Hopefully, I'm able to score a couple tickets for their first home match of the season against defend league champions, VfL Wolfsburg. I've got my people working on it... English Premier League is begins the week after.

Lastly, while I've had an easy time developing appreciation for many non-traditional American sports. One I'm still working on is Cricket. I did catch a small bit of the world 20/20 Cricket Championships a couple months ago, but the thing to watch right now is the England v. Australia battle for 'the ashes'.

Test Cricket (the most traditional form of the game) consists of 5 - five day matches. Winner of the best of 5 gets to keep 'the ashes'. Have to love it and embrace the diversity.

Y3W8 – Le Tour de France

2009-07-25T07:38:00.018+02:00

During the week, El snapped a few pictures of Lleyton as he passed the 10 month milestone. He is really finding himself comfortable on two feet moving all over the furniture.

On a bit of a whim, we hastily planned a weekend visit to see the Tour de France. I was browsing the official site a noticed that the race was scheduled to stop in Colmar on Friday. Colmar is located in the Alsace Lorraine region of France. To my surprise, Ellyn's first reaction was absolute agreement that we should make it happen. This is an atypical response to a inquiry on my behalf to attend a sporting event. The girls, coming off a F1 racing weekend, were definitely game (before you know it I’ll have all of them joining me to watching sports on TV).

After spending Friday evening in a quant little hotel in the small German town on Endingen am Kaiserstuhl some 30 km from Colmar, we headed for the Tour fairly early in the morning. While in Colmar, we ran into some friends from Ford and enjoyed some of the pre-start festivities.

We ended up just meters from the starting gate and the rolling start allowed us to capture a few pictures of the riders without them passing in such a blur.

The first picture is from the lead group heading out of town. You can see the yellow jersey rider (overall race leader at the time) Rinaldo Nocentini and green jersey sprint leader. On the far right, one of my colleagues from Ford snapped a great picture of Alberto Contrador, the current leader and likely winner, futher down the stage, and in the center picture is the man, Lance Armstrong, buckling up his helment as he heads out from town. Bailey caught Lance while she was taking video and this is a snapshot from the clip.

As the party was breaking up, we strolled the streets back to our car and prepared to drive a couple hours to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) on the border of Switzerland and German. Along the way, we visited Rheinfall. The largest waterfall in Europe, Rheinfall is most impressive due to width/breadth than sheer vertical drop. This area of the Rhein river as it departs from the Bodensee is dotted with Medieval towns and villages.

That evening, we strolled the streets of Stein am Rhein, a small village on the Rhein river highlight by classic Swiss buildings with interesting frescos.

One word of advice. If you think you can get an affordable meal in Switzerland (or Scandanavia for that matter), forget about it. We search to the point that the girls where ready to attempt a complete mutiny when we finally found what appeared to be a solution with small Italian restaurant located along the river. After being convinced by the waiter that the kids could eat for nearly free, we received our $100 bill. Apparently, Ellyn and I ate $50 worth of spaghetti. I told myself that it didn't matter since I had $80 in Swiss Francs left in my pocket from our last trip that needed to be spent otherwise...

The next day was highlighted by visits to the city of Konstanz on the Bodensee and a small island named Mainau – traditional known as the ‘island of flowers’.

It was a nice opportunity for the girls and Lleyton to play on the extensive grounds and see the animals at the working farm in addition to natural beauty of the island.

Y3W7 - Happy 7th of July?

2009-07-12T21:32:00.002+02:00

As I said last week, we weren't able to celebrate the Fourth properly, so we made good on our celebration on July 7th. We were all decked out in our Red,White, and Blue with sparklers to boot.

The week was rather uneventful but the weekend was filled with Formel Eins. Greg took the girls to the qualifying on Saturday which was a long day for them but Bailey especially thought it was very cool. Greg went with some friends from work to the actual race. Greg will have to enter some commentary here.

Y3W6 - Balance

2009-07-05T11:37:00.007+02:00

This week I have lost my cell phone, my Church bag, and something else that I can't remember right now. After deep reflection I have decided that the issue is balance. With so much on my mind all the time, I can't possibly keep up with all of the mundane things. My girls have recently been giving us the business and telling us that we are mean because we are not doing what they want at every given moment. The WE in this sentence is HUGE because usually when this kind of stuff starts, Greg gets off easy and it is usually mom that is mean. We have had several conversations about what constitutes being mean and how not getting your way does not necessarily make your parents mean. It does make me reflect though, we expect so much from them and don't always consider what they would like to do on a given weekend, trying to capitalize on our time here and seeing as much as we can see.

After spending several days this week finishing school, going to going away parties, going to the pool, then seeing Ice Age 3 in English, we thought we were handling the balance thing quite well. It turns out that they didn't want to go anywhere on Saturday and they ganged up on us trying to sabotage our Saturday in the Netherlands plans. We made a last minute change of plans and went to Burger's Zoo. It was a nice day and I think the girls had a great day. On the way home we stopped at the town we intended to visit, 's-Hertogenbosch, unfortunately most shops were closed but it was still cool to walk around the city. It's all about compromise. I keep telling myself that if they don't learn about compromising now, they won't ever expect to have to compromise with anyone when they are older. Then, I go back and forth in my head thinking they are only kids - this is really the only time in their lives they can make a fuss about what they want.

Obviously, I am confused about the best way to have balance in our lives. Here are some pics from the week...Enjoy!

Oh, I almost forgot. For years we have met my family up north Michigan at our cottage for a long weekend over the Fourth of July. This year, especially, we were missing having that opportunity. In case we had any doubts about whether we were missing the fun up there, they left this message (click on audio file below) for us while we were in the Netherlands.

We didn't really celebrate the Fourth properly yet. Most of the other American families were already on Holiday and we just had to take advantage of the good weather and free weekend to go and see something new. We are planning on a pseudo 4th of July celebration next week.

Y3W5 - All I want for Christmas is...

2009-06-28T21:15:00.000+02:00

That's right folks, Bailey is officially front toothless. It is really quite funny. Sorry I have yet to take a picture though. It will have to grace the blog next week. She is feeling so much better this week. She still has to wear the splint for another week but she has almost full movement now and she is not in constant pain. A definite improvement.

One of the highlights this week was Sports Day. It was a beautiful day and the kids had so much fun in their events, minus Bailey. She, however, got to be one of the official scorekeepers of the day. Here is her very official scorekeeper look...

Avery and Bryn were quite the athletes. I took some short clips of them in some of their events.

I think they had a really fun day. It was so hot that we probably would have gone to the pool if not for the fact that our first of the back-to-back going away sleepovers was happening that night and I still had to get some things ready.

Friday night was Baileys turn, four of her close friends came to spend the night. Two of them are moving away in a couple weeks. We had homemade individual pizzas. They decorated and all signed pillow cases to have something by which to remember each other. They built a fort and slept in it in front of the TV. Well, I'm not sure how much actual sleeping was going on. In the morning, Greg made us blueberry muffins and pancakes for breakfast (omelets for the adults with the left over pizza toppings - yum). One down and one more to go.

Saturday night was Avery's turn with two of her clostest friends for a Libby Lu sleepover party. It was not enough to just have her friends spend the night, she wanted a full out themed girly party. We had homemade personal pizzas again. It was time for the Libby Lu-ness. Hair, outfits, make-up, hairspray, glitter tattoos...voila, we had our divas for the evening. They performed with spoons to the Clique Girls, "Shoot the Moon and Smile." I love the Diva poses. They were a little bit harder to convince to go to sleep, it was like musical beds for a couple hours until they all ended up in the bunk beds in Avery's room. In the morning, Greg made us waffles while the girls decorated a picture frame for the girl who is moving. They had a blast doing this.

On Saturday, while there was a lull in the action, Greg and Bryn made Dream Bars. Not just any Dream Bars, but the best in the world Dream Bars. I'm not kidding. It was difficult for me not to eat the whole pan. Sooo Good! The only problem is I don't think he followed a recipe so I'm not sure they will ever be recreated exactly. YUM!

We were so tired on Sunday afternoon that we stuck our kids in front of a movie just so that Greg and I could rest for a couple hours. What a fun week.

Y3W4 - Partying Despite The Broken Bone

2009-06-21T20:58:00.006+02:00

We started out the week with Lleyton turning 9 months. Here are a couple cute pics...one of the benefits of having three sisters, is there are always plenty of pink toys laying around to chew on.

What started out as a "this will be a great catching up week" turned out to be a "Oh my, I am sooo behind week." Why, you ask? Tuesday, Bailey broke her collarbone. Poor kid. I really have never seen her look so pathetic. I picked her up from school early but I had no idea that she had a broken bone. Wednesday when she didn't seem any better, we took her to the doctor who referred us to the hospital for some X-rays. They gave us a splint to have her wear which seemed to make her even more uncomfortable. She also lost her left front tooth Wednesday morning which improved her mood slightly. All-in-all, she was a trooper. She even went to a half day of school on Friday afternoon.

Thursday was Bryn's end of the year kindergarten program with singing and dancing. It was really fun to watch.

It was also the annual Summer Fete on Saturday, where we went for a short time beause Avery was dancing. Poor kids, as soon as their music started, so did the rain. Bailey went with us to watch but she was pretty disappointed that she couldn't dance. We decided it was probably better for all of us if we left early. I was nervous about Bailey getting bumped and she felt bad that she couldn't participate in all of the games. We went to Vapiano instead and had a brilliant lunch. That evening was a going away get together for the Leshes. They have been here a little bit longer than us and we have become great friends.

We ended the week with a BBQ at our house with some friends from school. It was good fun and we all have a bunch of girls that really enjoyed playing together.

Y3W3 - Dutch Coast? Why not?

2009-06-14T15:47:00.005+02:00

School on Monday was back to normal as usual. However, Tuesday, Bailey found out that she was being moved up a class in German. She was very excited and I must add that I have been impressed with her speaking/understanding lately. Way to go, Bay!

Thursday was another holiday and we were excited to go to Fairytale Land again until we looked at the weather report. It was supposed to be heavy rains so we changed our plans and decided to go to 1 1/2 hours to Liège, Belgium to go to a shopping mall. Our first mall in two years. It was good, we were out and about, and out of the rain. It was nothing special but just fun to be somewhere new.

On the way home we stopped at Ardennes Cemetary. It is the location of the soldiers that lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge. It is always amazing to see the rows upon rows of crosses. Those willing to lose their lives to fight for all the rest of us. We felt like it was a fitting stop as the anniversary of D-Day was last week. Inside the chapel, they had an amazing marble map of the progress of the Allies.

The weather for the weekend was supposed to be great so we felt like we had to take advantage of it since we have to be in town the next couple weekends. We decided to go to the Dutch coast. We had heard good things and we tried to do a weekend there at the end of last summer but couldn't find a hotel room. This time we lucked out. Friday after work, we picked Greg up and drove to the Netherlands. It is about a three hour drive from our house.

We arrived in good form so we walked the little town of Middelburg and ate at an excellent Mexican restaurant called Paso Doble. Delicious!

The next morning we were all about driving the Western coast line and finding a beach. We stopped to get some necessary beach supplies, i.e. buckets, shovels, etc. We found a great spot and spent a good portion of the day there. The girls loved it. At one point, Bryn declothed herself completely because she was a little wet. We ate fresh fish, hit some nearby small towns, had a couple ice creams, and headed back home. It was a great weekend and one we are definitely looking to repeat before we leave.

Y3W2 - Just laying around

2009-06-07T21:01:00.001+02:00

Well, since the week began with a whirlwind trip to Switzerland and since we had the entire week off of school, we planned some serious relaxation time. Only, I didn't realize how much actual laying around would be going on. Avery got a fever on Tuesday. Thursday we had to go to the Missionaries Zone Conference in Dusseldorf and deliver their lunch, wait until they were finished and then clean up everything. We left our house at 9:30am and returned to our house after 4:00pm. It was a long day and I was so exhausted when we got home. Friday, Bailey and Bryn got the fever and pretty much slept the entire day. The weekend wasn't much better as I woke up with it Sunday morning and I was supposed to teach Relief Society. I felt so bad but had to call our RS president at 7:00am and tell her that there was no way I could make it and teach so I emailed her my lesson that I had spent four weeks preparing and let her give it instead - it takes so much more effort when you have to translate it and practice it auf Deutsch.

Lleyton seemed to have sidestepped the virus. We were very careful to keep him out of the hands of the sickies. Here are a couple shots of him. He likes to pull himself up on anything and everything these days.

I forgot to mention that before we had a bit of sickness hit, we were able to enjoy some sprinkler time in the backyard. The girls even had Lleyton "twirling" the jump rope. Also, here are some pics of the girls opening the packages my mom sent to them. Always so much fun...Thanks Mom!

Y3W1 - The Swiss Alps and Riveria

2009-06-02T21:43:00.018+02:00

One of the highlights of our stay in Europe has been the opportunity to visit the Alps. Having spent our college years in Utah, we where afforded the chance to hop on a bike, put on a pair of shoes, or jump in the car, and within ten to twenty minutes we could be in the mountains. Ellyn doesn’t have the same nostalgia for the outdoor sports as I do, but I know that she does share my affinity for their beauty.

While our present location doesn’t afford us the option of riding a bike to the Alps, Germany does have a significant difference in elevation diversity compared to Michigan [this is the moment when Ellyn's mom (and other life long Michiganders) chimes in with a comment about the Porcupine Mountains in the UP (upper peninsula)]. This is not a shout down on my beloved home state, I’ll defend the lakes and outdoor life available in Michigan with the best of them, but when it comes to mountains, you need to call a spade a spade. Longing to get outside, seeing an excellent weekend weather forecast, and coupling it with a German Holiday (Whit Monday), the stars were aligned for a 5 hour drive to Switzerland.

We got ourselves down to Bern by about 2:30pm with no particular agenda in mind. We strolled the old town part of Bern enjoying the architecture, saw an interactive movie about the city’s history, and ended up in the Rosengarten with a fantastic view of the city and ample space to let the kids run around. It was a nice change of pace, not running from museum to museum or church to church, just relaxing in a park in a new city.

The next day, we made our way ~45 minutes south to the Bernese Alps. On our previous trip to this area, we hit the amazing triple peak range of Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. Wanting to change it up a little bit, we drove to the small little mountain town Kandersteg (population ~1,000). It’s a great place to begin hikes and climbing. We chose a moderate loop that took us around a small glacier lake called Oeschinensee surrounded the Gspaltenhorn (3,437 m), Blümlisalphorn (3,660 m), Fründenhorn (3,369 m), and Doldenhorn (3,638m) peaks. It was made easier by a gondola ride part way up the mountain. The girls enjoy running, climbing and posing for pictures while Lleyton rode along in the backpacker.

After a couple hours of exploring, we grab some lunch near the lake and headed for the highlight experience of the day, the Rodelbahn (sport toboggan run). The girls and I took a couple runs – it was great fun.

As we were driving out of the valley, I posed the idea of returning to Bern via Lake Geneva - not exactly the most direct route to Bern. Our chosen route included a drive through the mountains and the Jungpass - once again, delivering some spectacular views.

We were excited to see Château Chillon located on the eastern banks of Lake Geneva. Our scenic drive landed us at Château Chillon five minutes after closing (we got hosed by a 20 minute traffic jam in an obscure town named Bulle). We were generally cool with the idea of walking around the shore as the highlight of the place is its location on the lake and we’re hitting castle tour burnout. The sunshine glittering on the water with the mountains in the background made for an exquisite view. We ended the day with some dinner in a nearby park.

Wanting to get back home in good form, we spent a little extra time on Monday, driving through the Emmental valley checking out the classic Swiss farm, chalets, and covered bridges.

In other family news, my brother Tyler and his wife Minde welcomed a brand new baby girl into their family. Riley arrived just as we were leaving for Switzerland. We got the good news of her healthy arrival before our trip and the final edict on her name when we returned. We know how it is picking a name, each of our kids were nameless for at least a day before we could decide. Sometimes the hospital checkout date was needed to provide the pressure necessary to get us to choose. Avery is fired up about the name Riley. Her best friend in Ann Arbor is named Riley. Congratulations go out to Ty, Minde and big brother Chase.

2 Years in Germany

2009-05-27T23:00:00.028+02:00

Year 2 came to an end with our first trip to Scandinavia. A couple months ago, we booked a trip to Oslo and the Fjords region along the western coast of Norway. A long holiday weekend here in Germany afforded us a brief window to take a rapid fire trip without holding the girls out of school for more than a day.

Thursday, we flew out and by early evening we were strolling the streets of downtown Oslo. The main pedestrian walking street in Oslo is along Karl Johans Gate. It is capped by the main train station from which our hotel was located on one end and the Det Kongelige Slottet (Royal Palace) at the other. With darkness not falling until 10:30 or 11:00pm each night there are opportunities to take advantage of long days. Another reality to get used to in Scandinavia is the scandalous prices ($55 for a large pizza, some chips, garlic bread and some water).

The sticker shock is offset by brilliant scenery and sights that are truly unique to the rest of Europe. Our stroll through Oslo the first evening was a pleasant way to get acquainted with the city as we geared up for a big day Friday.

Friday’s priority was to visit the outdoor museums and exhibits located on the Bygdøynes peninsula. From the city center the Bydøynes area is best accessed by a short ride on the ferry. Our first stop was the Norsk Folkemuseum. The highlights were the Gol Stave Church made of beautiful timber (from 1200’s) and the Setesdaltunet (buildings/farm houses from the Setesdal region in southern Norway dating from the 17th and 18th century).

From there we visited the Vikingskipshuset (Viking ship) and the Kon-Tiki Museet. The first is a small museum that contain three Viking ships that where built in the 9th century. The later houses the balsa wood raft and reed boat that Thor Heyerdahl used to sail across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to demonstrate the abilities for past civilizations to travel and colonization across the world.

We were greeted by a steady rainfall as we ferried back to the main harbor. Seeking shelter we visited the Rådhuset (City Hall) where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented every December.

As the rain started to subside, we walked around and caught dinner at Aker Brygge – a shopping area along the Oslo harbor area. To close out the day, we visited the Vigelandsparken. It is an impressive park filled with 212 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland.

On Saturday morning, after a nice breakfast at the hotel, we ventured off for an adventure to the Fjords. 5 hours on the train to the small station in Myrdal, and then a dramatic descent nearly a thousand meters landed us at the base of the Sognefjord. One of the most significant sites along the journey was the area around Finse. With an amazing amount of snow and barren landscape, this area seemed popular with locals looking for a late season cross country ski excursion.

The descent from Myrdal to Flåm was made on the famous Flåmsbana train. After a long day of train travel, we let the kids play and took a walk through the hills around the Fjord. The brilliant scenery was something to behold.

With a boat trip through Fjord from Flåm to Bergen scheduled for later in the afternoon on Sunday, we had the day to explore the area. We chose to walk/hike to the Ostenes farm houses nestled in the mountains. The trip to Bergen on the boat from Flåm to Bergen provided for some fantastic views.

We essentially had little time to see much of Bergen as we simply strolled from the docks to the train station to catch our night train back to Oslo. The kids were cooked and ready to rest. The 7 ½ hour ride went quickly as we slept the entire way. The girls weren’t terribly excited about waking up and getting off the train at 6:30am, but we managed.

Our remaining hours were highlighted by a trip up to the Holmenkollen ski jump overlooking the Oslo Fjord valley. The jump itself is undergoing a dramatic reconstruction, but the views from the sight were a fitting end to the weekend.

Y2W51 - To My Horror...

2009-05-17T15:53:00.002+02:00

Bailey had a much deserved play date with three of her friends on Monday since she has been asking for it for many months. Her friends Heidi, Seyoung, and Wagma came to play. It was great because they entertained Avery and Bryn as well.

This week there were several times where I said to myself, "And, to my horror..." The first one was Tuesday morning when I came into the bedroom and found this...

Yes, that is Lleyton standing up in his crib. So, I spent some time readjusting the crib so the mattress was lower. I feel really lucky that he didn't tumble out of the crib before I came in.

The second thing that happened this week was Thursday morning when Bryn was getting dressed, she started running up the stairs, fell, and cut her chin badly. There was so much blood. But, we contained it pretty quickly. I called the Doctor right away and luckily got her in that morning. They were afraid to do stitches because it was so swollen so they just tried to squeeze the cut together and put steri-strips on the cut. I just think she is in for a pretty good scar.

All that, and Lleyton started crawling pretty well, which meant I had to be on my A-game knowing where he was every second.

Saturday, Greg had to conduct a Baptism at our Church, and right after that, Bailey, Avery, and I went to the International Charity Fashion Show (which some of the girls' friends were in). It was very fun and the girls got all fancied up for the show (hair, nails, make-up, the works). Also, Lleyton turned 8 months old so Greg took him outside and tried to snap some cute shots of him in the garten (back yard).

Sunday, I had to conduct RS again but at least I didn't have to do it alone this time. After Church, my German teacher had his annual picnic for all of his students. It was really fun. Of course Greg got a shot of me eating again.

Y2W50 - Alles Gute zum Mutter Tag

2009-05-10T14:01:00.000+02:00

The week was pretty darn basic. However, the weekend was incredibly busy. Saturday, we needed to go to the market first thing in the morning to grab a few things (after Greg made imported blueberry muffins though). We had about a hour and a half until we had to drop Avery off at a birthday party. Then, we were on our way up to Köln to meet a friend of ours from Ann Arbor Ward at home. We spent a little while with Brad at the Dom.

We could only spend about an hour and a half with him before we had to drive back and pick Avery up from her party. Then we went to some other friends for dinner (the Millers). We just have the most fun with the Millers, and our kids love to play with their kids. It is always a win-win.

Sunday at Church, I had to conduct RS which I have done before but this time I had to do it all by myself auf Deutsch of course. So, I was a bit nervous. It turned out okay I think. For the first few minutes though, the person teaching the lesson was not there, so I was sweating bullets until somebody told me she was out in the hall. Phew! I was thinking, I can handle conducting in German but to wing an unprepared lesson in German, that may be overstepping my capabilities just a bit. Thankfully the teacher was there. We came home, had a great dinner (Chicken Marsala) one of my favorites and awesome brownie sundaes. Thanks for the Sanders hot fudge, mom! Then, the girls put on a presentation for me with singing and dancing. And, of course gave me the presents they had been working hard on all week. We took our annual Mother's Day picture which actually turned out pretty good this year. It was a great weekend. I am so blessed.

Y2W49 - Rheinaue, Bonn, Rhein...and Swine Flu?

2009-05-03T13:19:00.005+02:00

The week started out normal enough although Lleyton and I seemed a bit under the weather with a cold. On Wednesday, I had signed up to drive for Avery's field trip. She begged me and gave me the, "You never go on field trips with me" plea. I of course gave in and pretty much decided that whatever it took I would go on the field trip to Knauber with Avery's whole class (22 students) to pick out a gerbil or two. Lleyton threw up twice during the night so I thought I would have to cancel on her. But, he seemed a bit better in the morning. We took extra blankets just in case. We went on the field trip and everything worked out fine. However, Lleyton got worse and worse the rest of the week. I probably would have thought nothing of it until I heard that everybody and their brother had no school in the US because of this Swine Flu epidemic. Friday was a holiday which was great and the weather was really nice, but that means I had to take Lleyton to the hospital instead of just going to the Pediatrician. Let's just say that I was a little fired up about the way the cue was working. After two hours of waiting, they saw him for about five minutes or less. It was just a virus they said and gave us some eye drops and nose drops. I asked if they wanted to take a blood test just in case we had somehow been exposed to the Swine Flu, after all we did have a visitor from the US the week before. They assured me it was nothing to worry about. In my head I was thinking, "Don't you just want to take a blood test just to be safe?" It appears we have both recovered so I guess I was worrying for nothing.

Basically all we did over the weekend was walk down to the market, Greg took the girls on a bike ride along the Rhein (and apparently got ice cream), we took a walk in Rheinaue Park, and had a picnic in our "garten" or backyard. Here are the pics...

Y2W48 - BW Visit

2009-04-26T13:57:00.000+02:00

The week started with my incredibly important Birthday, and getting my mom back to the US. Then, Bryn performed in her assembly (in front of the whole school). It might explain the "deer in headlights" look on her face. She was cute though, as were all the kindergarteners.

On Thursday morning, our good friend Bryan flew in to visit us. I picked him up at the train station and we started the sightseeing ASAP. We started by going to Bad Godesberg mainly so that I could guage the time so I wouldn't be late to pick Bryn up from school. We took a walk down the Rhein that afternoon, hoping that Lleyton would fall asleep in the stroller. No luck with Lleyton but still a very beautiful walk. We picked up the girls from school and played there for a while until we met Greg at home. We then went downtown Bonn and saw the city a bit before we grabbed a bite at a pretty good Mexican restaurant that we had never been brave enough to try before. All-in-all, it was a packed day but that was just the beginning of the packed weekend to come.

Friday, Greg took the day off so they had a guys day out. They hit some of the usual haunts... a drive down the Rhein to Remagen and then on to Koblenz for a visit to the Deutsches Eck.

From there it was on to the Mosel Valley - which never gets old. They went on a tour of one of our favorite castles, Burg Eltz and then briefly visited Cochem stopping long enough for a few pictures.

All this needed to be completed before 5pm as we had lined up a babysitter so we all could go out for the evening. Before we could go out for the evening, they 'needed' to take a hot lap around the Nürburgring. The famous race track opens to the public on weekdays after 5pm. Greg and J.R. had attempted to take a spin around the ring last summer, but arrived early in the day and couldn't wait around all day. Bryan recorded the entire 22km lap, but we'll spare you the pain of watching the whole thing. They thought it was pretty cool.

That evening we planned on showing Bryan the Dom and eating at a classic German restaurant. Our plan was slightly derailed as our first restaurant of choice was closed (for the month of April?). Greg quickly called a friend who lives in Köln for some advice and after a nice walk we found ourselves at an even more authentic German restaurant than we originally planned. After dinner, we grabbed a little ice cream and took a walk around the Dom.

Saturday and Sunday included such things as Maastricht, Den Haag, and Keukenhof Gardens with plenty of picture taking going on. The kids were great as I'm sure they were a bit tired. Bryan constantly keeps them entertained by carrying them on his shoulders, swinging them around by arms and feet, etc. They will be going through serious withdrawals next week as I'm sure I won't be putting any of them on my shoulders to walk around town.

Maastricht was great as always. Bryan - we told you the waffles were the best ever.

We finished the day with a little English Premier League Football - Manchester United vs. Tottenham Hotspurs and barbeque beef sandwiches.

The next day was a power trip to Den Haag with full on Museum going - Mauritshuis and the M.C. Escher Museum.

And, of course Keukenhof - it is just amazing all of the flowers.

We didn't make it home until 10:00pm on Sunday night. Monday morning we just had enough time to drop the girls off at school, drop into the childrens store in Siegburg for some souveniers, and drop Bryan back off at the train station. Wow. What a weekend!

Y2W47 - Life after Tuscany

2009-04-19T14:07:00.002+02:00

Well, the drive back was pretty uneventful which was a nice change. It was really nice to be back home. The first few days we had awesome weather and the girls were dying to have a picnic with my mom down at the Rhein. Toward the end of the week, the weather forecast was starting to look like rain so we decided to go to the Gestapo Museum in Köln on Thursday by train. Lleyton was boycotting the car seat after so many hours in the car last week. It was great. My mom really enjoyed it and we spent all afternoon shopping and walking around Köln. Friday, it rained all day so we were fortunate that we did all the outside stuff earlier in the week. The girls worked on crafty things all day that my mom had given them for Easter. Saturday, we thought it was better to stay close to home instead of another road trip so we just did Bonn. It was fun until my mom didn't get the Berliner she wanted. We looked in every Bäckerei and couldn't seem to find any Berliners. Usually, they are everywhere. We ended up getting some in Bad Godesberg on the way home. It was a nice casual day. Sunday was another beautiful day so after Church we went and sat by the Rhein River and just enjoyed the weather. We had to treat my mom to one last ice cream treat (Spaghetti ice) before she left to go home. As if it wasn't hard enough getting her here...someone who had been changing her flight to get her here inadvertently cancelled her return flight. I was a few more hours on the phone with Northwest trying to get her on her original flight. They did and all worked out great. It is amazing what customer service people can do when they want to help!

Another highlight this week was that Lleyton hit his 7 month milestone and started popping up on all fours.

Y2W46 - Toscana

2009-04-15T21:44:00.050+02:00

After nearly two years in Europe, we finally made our maiden voyage to Italy. This is a bit interesting as it was at the top of Ellyn’s pre-foreign assignment vacation spot list. Perhaps this is the result of an unresponsive spouse or just a bit of bad luck and unique circumstance. I’ll go with the later.

This trip, like the Ireland weekend before it, was not without adventure. We had carefully choreographed a delicate plan that involved the precise pickup and delivery of not only ourselves but both of our mothers to Tuscany. Work and vacation villa availability schedules combined to yield a plan that involved precise airline arrivals in multiple countries. The original plan had Ellyn’s mom landing Friday morning and accompanying our family part way down to Italy that same day. After an overnight rest in Basel, Switzerland, we would pick up my mom at around noon on Saturday in Milan, Italy. From there, we would drive together in our two cars to San Gimignano, Italy. The total driving time is about 12 hours with each stop approximately 4 hours apart.

Everything went immediately south when Sharon’s (El’s mom) flight to Europe was delayed one day (missed connection) due to bad weather in Atlanta. This threw our whole plan into disarray as she didn’t arrive in Düsseldorf until Saturday morning – the same time as my mom was landing in Milan. On top of that, after 24 hours of delay, the airline couldn’t manage to get her bag on the flight. El and I stayed up until 4am talking on the phone with Delta and Northwest (sweet merger transition) having plans to enable Sharon to fly into alternative locations accepted and then taken away due to differences in policy between the two companies. I was starting to think that this was a reincarnation of the DaimlerChrysler merger.

In the end, Ellyn hung back with Avery and Lleyton, picked up her mom on Saturday morning while I travelled ahead with Bailey and Bryn to pick up my mom. I wasn’t enamored with the idea of Ellyn driving such a long distance without me, but it turned out to be easier than trying to stay together on the roads surrounding Milan on the return trip.

We had booked a fantastic villa in Tuscany south of Florence near the small Italian hill town of San Gimignano. It was a 17th century church that had been renovated by the owners, an Italian architect and his English wife who live in London. What a lucky find.

On our first day, with Ellyn driving in from Milan, my mom (Linda) and I along with Bay and Bryn went into San Gimignano. There we had what would be the first of many Italian Gelatos. This place is noted by many as one of the best. It was fantastic. Here is a bit about Italian Gelato.

From there we met up with Ellyn, Sharon, Avery, and Lleyton at the U.S. Military Cemetery south of Florence. As always, it was immaculately kept and served as a good meeting point outside the city. We then visited Piazzale Michaelanglo which offered great views of Florence. With the day only beginning, we ventured back to the villa where we enjoyed the pool. Later that evening, we took the full team into San Gimignano to experience the Italian Gelato together. One might think that a couple Gelatos a day might result in significant weight gains, but when one walks and often pushes/carries kids about 5+ miles per day weight gains are of no concern.

The following day, we ventured off to Siena. It is a classic Italian hill town that was once a fierce rival to Florence. Ultimately, Florence became the dominate city of Tuscany as evidenced by its current population slightly north of 400,000 people while Siena has about 60,000 permanent residents. However, in some ways, it is the traveler who wins. Highlights of Siena include its amazing Duomo (Cathedral) and grand Piazza del Campo. Avery, desiring to go to the top of the Palazzo Pubblico (City Hall) tower, climbed with me and was rewarded with a fantastic view. One off the wall tip… when in Siena, stop by a local Chinese Restaurant. We picked up this idea from some online research, thought it a bit odd, but tried it, and were rewarded.

After Siena, we visited a small walled city named Monteriggioni. The girls walked around with the moms while Ellyn and I strolled the city streets separately.

The highlight of the day for Sharon was an evening trip with her brillant son-in-law (me) to the Florence airport to pick up here long lost luggage.

The next day, it was another drive through the Tuscan hills to a small monastery named Mount Oliveto. Much of the drive was on a route known as the Crete Senesi offering some of the most classic Tuscan scenery to be found any in the region.

After lunch, we abandoned plans to go into Florence and decided instead to visit Volterra. It is a city known for its Etruscan roots and location high, high in the hills of western Tuscany. Once in town, we visited an Etruscan museum and strolled the streets in search of alabaster carvings and biscotti. Check out this picture of a hot trixie I snapped in Volterra. I also got her to pose with my mom.

We also got these pictures of the girls that I like. I’m enjoying my new Digital SLR Camera. A must have to properly document these trips.

The following two days were spent in Florence braving some of the best museums in all of Europe and frequenting some of the most impressive Cathedrals. The travel to Florence by train gave us a nice break from driving. The slide show below indentifies some of the highlights.

With restrictions on picture taking, classics such as Michaelanglo’s David and Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ and ‘Primavera’ have to be seen in person. A couple of our other favorites were the ceilings of the Florence Cathedral’s Baptistery depicting the Final Judgement, and the original bronze North Doors of the Baptistery which took Lorenzo Ghiberti twenty-one years to produce. He then spent another 20 years doing the East Doors which Michaelanglo named the ‘Gate of Paradise’. Some of the original panels are on display at the Duomo Museum. The Florence Cathedral Dome designed by Brunelleschi was the largest of its time, and is brilliantly observed from Giotto’s Tower. The Santa Croce church houses the tombs of Galileo, Michaelanglo and Machiavelli while the Bargello museum’s most famous sculpture is Donatello’s bronze portrayal of David.

It was a Humanities majors dream, and I enjoyed it as well. The kids did great as we tugged them along to church after church and museum after museum. All of this history is rubbing off as we continue to have to explain to Bailey that we often have to limit ourselves to the highlights as time is limited. It’s much better than the opposite of constantly trying to keep them enthusiastic about what to them (and even us at times) feels like more of the same.

Our last full day in Tuscany had to include Pisa. Bailey was terribly persistent about her desires to visit the leaning tower. We were pleasantly surprised as the Cathedral and Baptistery were also very impressive.

We spent only a couple hours there and enjoyed a bit of shopping in our favorite little town of San Gimignano.

We ended our stay in Tuscany and headed for Lake Lugano. It is a picturesque lake nestled between Lake Como to the east and Lake Maggiore to the west. While the city is located in Switzerland, we stayed in a resort, Parco San Marco Hotel, located on the north side of the lake in Italy. It was a challenging ride as staying together through Milan and other areas was not without its issues, but we arrived in time to visit Melide Swissminiatur. It is a fun little park with replicas of all the classic sites of Switzerland, reconstructed at 1/25 their actual size. The girls had fun running through the park, riding on the miniature train, and driving the bumper boats. A quick dinner in Lugano was followed by a coastline drive to the hotel. We were all hammered and glad to go to bed.

Easter Sunday included a small Easter egg hunt in one of our rooms and a series of musical performances by the girls.

I drove my mom back down to Milan so she could catch her plane back to the U.S. We spent the day hiking in the San Grato park overlooking the lake and mountains, touring Lugano, and climbing Mount Bré.

Our final stop was to the Castagnola Cemetery to get a few pictures of Rudolf Caracciola final resting place. For those of you who have been catching the blog for the last year or so, know that one of our oldest and best friends, J.R., has been researching and writing about the ‘Ringmeister’ for some time. Not a bad final resting place. Check out the view.

The next day, we made the trek back to Bad Godesberg. This was one of the best visits we have embarked upon since the start of our ‘Christensen’s Adventures in Deutschland’ experience.

Y2W45 - Seahorses & Spring Musicals

2009-04-02T21:50:00.005+02:00

I am happy to say that Bailey at swimming class this week passed a major milestone by getting her seahorse badge. Way to go, Bay! Wednesday was a busy day at school. First, there was the weekly assembly. Then, after the assembly was the Kindergarten & Reception Spring Musical, which meant Avery and Bryn both participated. Lleyton was not super cooperative during the musical so my pictures are not stellar, but in the pictures below you can see Avery in the white shirt in the back row and Bryn in the lower left hand corner. At the end of the day, Bailey had her class open house, where they invite the parents to come and see the class and the students show off their work from the term. Can't wait for Easter Break...both my mom and Greg's mom are flying in and big surprises are in store!

Y2W44 - Eggsibition

2009-03-29T15:46:00.003+02:00

We got home from Ireland really late on Monday night and jumped right into school and making the girls "Eggsibition" Projects the next day. We only had Tuesday evening because they needed to be handed in by Wednesday morning. This year at least we talked ahead of time about what the girls wanted their themes to be. What I didn't realize is that this year they all wanted to make their own project. Unlike last year, when my egg blowing out exercise was making me sick (because I was pregnant with Lleyton), this year I vastly improved. Below are some pics of the final projects. We were so tired from our trip all week that we didn't do much other than what was required.

Saturday, after Bailey made us some green eggs (we didn't have any ham) we were going to just chill but ended up shopping downtown Bonn in the morning, then the girls got their much needed Spring haircuts, and in the afternoon it was downtown Bad Godesberg shopping for us. So much for taking it easy.

Y2W43 - Dublin, Ireland

2009-03-23T21:31:00.002+01:00

Ellyn says that it is important that we note that Lleyton recently past the six month mark. With that is mind, Bryn is 3 years 5 months, Avery 5 years 7 months, and Bailey 8 years 5 months. I guess I get it with kids younger than a year. Here are a few pics of Lleyton.

With Ellyn deep into the production of the 'Christensens – The First Year in Deutschland' blog book, I am once again making a guest appearance. I’m starting to feel like Jay Leno when he sub’d in for Johnny Carson only he seemed to be on as much or more than Johnny himself.

Anyhow, this weekend we fired off to Ireland for a visit to Dublin and the surrounding area. Having not spent any time in the city on our visit last year, we couldn’t resist the 280€ airline price for 6 people. The trip was one of the more challenging as we dealt with bladder issues, spilled milk, foot injuries, and stomach queasiness. Through it all we persevered, and as the pictures indicated there were plenty of moments of happiness intertwined with the trials. Note the pictures of Avery and Bryn taken approximately 10 minutes apart.

The weekend included a tour of Trinity College and a viewing of the Book of Kells, shopping on O’Connell and Grafton Streets, walks through St. Stephens Green, strolls through the Moore Street and Blackrock markets, and visits to Christ Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedrals, and Dublin Castle. Additionally, we drove out to the Powerscourt Estate and Gardens, and attempted a trip to the Wicklow Mountains before the queasy stomach got us.

One of the best parts of the weekend was the energy surrounding Ireland’s attempt to pull off the Grand Slam in the Six Nations Cup – Rugby Championships. It had been 61 years since Ireland had run the tables and beat England, Scotland, Wales, Italy and France in rugby until they pulled it off Saturday evening. We had dinner in the Temple Bar District of Dublin, and the streets and squares were alive with fans packing the pubs to watch the match. We joined them for a brief period after our meal as a couple establishments had turned their TV’s out on the street so people could gather around. It was a brilliant opportunity to surround ourselves in a little Irish enthusiasm and culture.

It was good to get back, and despite some of the challenges, we were able to see some great places and enjoyed learning a lot about Irish history. A little 'you have four kids!' dose of reality has to be expected.

Y2W42 - Rheinfels

2009-03-15T13:34:00.000+01:00

Monday at swimming class, I was watching Bailey do the backstroke and it was quite good. I have been so pleased with the progress she is making. No fear of the water anymore. She has been jumping off of the diving board without any kind of water flotation device. This week she was learning how to dive. It was truly one of those moments where your heart smiles. Look out Michael Phelps! Avery has taken these five weeks off of swimming but when she saw that they were learning to dive, she is thinking of re-signing up for the summer class.

Wednesday was Avery's Class Assembly. Her class theme was Water and how important it is. She had to memorize the sentence, "We need water to wash our hands." She did a great job of speaking slowly and clearly into the microphone. Here are a couple pics.

We took the opportunity to drive to Koblenz on Saturday and South along the Rhein River to Sankt Goar and the Rheinfels Castle. The girls are getting a bit desensitized to the cool castle thing. While Greg and I are always up for a cathedral, castle, small village, the girls are becoming accustomed to these as if they are everyday things. But, they always find a way to entertain themselves. We try to encourage their interest and remind them that this stint in Europe is fleeting and pretty soon we will no longer have some of the opportunities that we do here. We are more than ever trying to see everything we can so we have no regrets when it is time to leave. The only little damper that was put on this glorious day was when Bryn accidentally pinched Avery's finger and gave her a blood blister. Avery was having a hard day forgetting about her finger and just enjoying the day. We plowed through and despite her ailment, I think she still had fun running around the castle.

Y2W41 - Bryn ist in die Schule

2009-03-08T10:39:00.005+01:00

It's true. I have officially three kids in school now. Bryn started Kindergarten (pre-school in the US) on Monday. She was slightly unsure at the beginning especially since two other children were crying uncontrollably. She gave me a look like, "Where are you leaving me?" She did fine the rest of the week and she is loving it. I am loving the lunches we have when she gets home as she tells me about her day. What humorous conversation!

I also have some potential time to myself depending on if Lleyton takes a morning nap or not.

This was Book Week at school so it seemed like everyday there was an event. One day they took books to swap with their classmates. One day they were able to dress like their favorite character. I am feeling bad about the fact that I didn't get a picture of them in their costumes. I will just tell you what they were...Bailey was Roald Dahl's Matilda (Bailey's teacher had a picture that I borrowed off of their website), Avery was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, and Bryn was Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. It was quite the ordeal to decide on a character and then find the appropriate costume. Somehow telling them that this isn't going to matter twenty years from now lends no help to the situation. Bryn was a little confused as to why the next day she couldn't be Sleeping Beauty, and then the next day, Cinderella, etc. I'm not sure starting school on Book Week is the way to go for 3 year olds.

I also had a Church event at my house that night for the younger RS sisters. It was nice and we ended the evening with Banana Splits, you really can't go wrong there. No pictures for this either. I am such a slacker.

We were all so tired by Friday and the girls had done such an awesome job of helping me around the house to prepare for the event that I let them choose a movie on i-tunes, and I bought it for them. Oooohhh, big spender. I know but when you don't have the option of picking up movies at the store (in English), the girls are so excited about what they can pick out on i-tunes.

Saturday, Greg went to the Temple. The girls and I did some shopping downtown. It was such a beautiful day. After raining for three or four days in a row, it was a nice reprieve. I am extremely sick of all of the rain. I am ready for Summer.

I can't remember exactly which day it was but Greg made waffles for breakfast. Avery announced she would not have waffles and instead had shrimp with cocktail sauce. It was all I could do to watch her eat that for breakfast! So Gross!

Y2W40 - Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon

2009-03-01T21:46:00.010+01:00

We just returned today from a fantastic trip to the Southern Regions of France. From our home base of Avignon, where we rented a house, we did a lot of driving whilst visiting ancient cities, mountainous regions, and the French coast. Our spirits were further buoyed by sunny skies and warmer temperatures (mid to high 50’s).

A quick shout out to the girls (and Lleyton) as they were enduring travelers both by plane and car. Due to either earlier flight schedules or ambitious day trip plans, they were asked numerous times to change bed/wakeup times -- they were always game.

Secondly, for those of you who are interested in how we pick different sites once in a region, here are a few ideas from our experience. First principles - I’m a big proponent of thorough trip research prior to departure. While I try and leave the day to day decisions of what venue we will actually visit to a bit of flexibility (weather and kid permitting), we definitely leave with a plan.

The first place we consult is our collection of Eyewitness Travel books. I like them for their presentation. The pictures and diagrams you get in the books are first rate. We’ve also had good luck with their lodging recommendations. The house we rented in Avignon was found off of a website recommended in the travel book (Gites-de-France).

Recently, we’ve been taking a look at Rick Steves' website. His recommendations highlighted a few ‘out of the way’ places that are typically included in your travel book but not highlighted like the more popular sites. As his ideas appear to all be driven by his personal favorites and experiences, not a team of travelers and investigators, he doesn’t cover every nook and cranny of Europe, but typically has more depth about the places he does recommend.

Lastly, always look for advice from friends and family who might have previously been to your place destination. So far, it has worked well for us. I often float ideas by colleagues at work to get an endorsement.

In the case of Southern France, I was the family member who had been there before, and as a result had a few sites in mind that were ‘musts’ for El and the girls (Lleyton doesn’t venture an opinion at 5 months… neither does Bryn for that matter, but Bailey and Avery certainly like to voice their ideas).

Here are the highlights of the trip…

Aix-en-Provence – city of fountains and home of Paul Cézanne. We strolled the large boulevards and narrow shopping districts. The kids enjoyed riding the old merry-go-round near the grand fountain on the Cours Mirabeau. They also enjoyed visiting Paul Cézanne’s studio located north of town and his garden. His studio is preserved with the original furniture and design. While we tried to emphasize the art history, Avery refers to the experience as the ‘garden exploring place‘.

Luberon – Rural area east of Avignon along the Montagne du Luberon. We visited the town’s of Isle-de-la-Sorgue, Gordes, and Rousillon. The market at Isle-de-la-Sorgue was crowded even for a chilly February morning. We bought an expensive/giant hunk of cheese and enjoyed seeing the 19th century waterwheels that have powered industry in the town for over a hundred years. Gordes is most impressive viewed from afar as it rests on the top of the rocky hill. We stopped for a longer visit in Rousillon. The home of one of the largest ocher deposits in the world. The red, orange, yellow, even purple sand was used throughout history to make an array of colorful dies/paints. The houses and structures bear the results. We hiked through the canyons amazed by the views. A real favorite of mine for the trip, but not for Bailey as she came up with a strange yet minor eye swelling issue that was with her for about 24 hours.

Arles – City of Roman-Gaul and Vincent Van Gogh (also movie ‘Ronin‘ – JR). The sites of Arles are well chronicled – Roman Amphitheatre and Arena, Saint Trophimus Church and Cloister, and Van Gogh sites including Café la Nuit. While I think that Ellyn did actually view all the sights, every time I turned around, she was standing still, her head tilted back, eyes closed, facing the sun. Its been a bit cloudy in Germany lately. Lunch at a quaint French café provided a excellent break and an authentic meal.

Cassis – Mediterreanen sea port city surrounded by high cliffs. In Cassis, we ran/walked on the beach, ate ice cream in the sun, looked at the boats in the port, and drove in the mountains along the Route des Crête. While El and I didn’t get ice cream for ourselves, we did plenty of “let me clean that up for you Avery/Bryn, it looks uneven... type of licking“.

Carcasonne – Medieval Cathar castle city. One of our longer days of travel, this Cathar Castle resides in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. After frequenting so many castles, you’d think that we would have had enough, but this place has been restored several times throughout history. Once again, Bailey got fired up at Ellyn and me because we skipped 4 or 5 stops on the 25 point-of-interest audio tour. She absolutely believes that we do ourselves and the historical site a disservice when we miss any portion of the tour (this is not the first occurrence and surely won’t be the last).

Pont-du-Gard – Grandest/Largest/Greatest Roman Aqueduct. The Pont-du-Gard can’t fully be appreciated until it is seen in person. It spans a large gorge standing 160 ft high as part of a 31 mile long water delivery system that operated for approximately 500 years. It was constructed 2,000 years ago.

Avignon – Palais du Papes. The highlight of this town is definitely the Palace of the Popes. In the early 14th century pope Clement V decided to move the papal court to Avignon and for the next 100 years the Church leadership resided in France. The palace/fortress still stands on the banks of the Rhône river. The Palais Musee and the 12th century bridge – Pont St-Bénézet (popularize by the song Sur le Pont D’Avignon – apparently known to all Montessori Music Teachers) were visit highlights. While some might try to hype you up on the more hip/modern Avignon, we’ll stick with the 12th to 14th century version (maybe it had to do with the fact that it was Wednesday morning in late February).

St-Remy-de-Provence. Our last stop on the five day adventure. We skipped the Roman archeological site and went to the St. Paul-de-Mausole hospital were Vincent Van Gogh spent the last year of his life. Despite 4 major mental breakdowns/seizures, he completed 150 paintings while a patient at the hospital including Bailey’s favorite: Starry Night . The pictures here are a bit poor in quality (you have to hate it when your camera battery dies at the end of your trip and you're forced to rely on your cell phone camera).

Y2W39 - Karneval

2009-02-22T13:56:00.003+01:00

Okay, I completely blame my friend Rachel for the tardiness of this post. I planned on getting it done before our little vacation but I wasted so much time on Facebook, that I neglected my blogging duties. It is Karneval time again, so the whole week we saw people (even little kids) dressed as French soldiers. It was a busy week leading up to Karneval at school. They changed their minds several times about their costumes which for some reason stresses me out. And, of course the girls had to be in the school talent show again so there was much practicing going on. Here are the pics:

It is pure craziness as the whole town gets decked out in costume (adults included) to celebrate. I was a pirate this year, Bailey a cat, Avery an Asian princess, Bryn was Sleeping Beauty(not much of a costume since she truly believes she is Sleeping Beauty), and Lleyton was a cowboy.

Bailey and Avery decided to do the talent show dance together. They did a great job especially since most of our practice time was used up when we were all sick. I was so proud of them. Especially Avery at 5 years old, getting up in front of the whole school to do a dance with her sister. They were a bit disappointed that all of the acts were cut a bit short just so we would get out of school on time but it was really fun to watch none-the-less.