Germany Trip March 2010

Somehow the pictures are from topsy turvy. So if you want to get an idea of our little trip to Germany back at the beginning of March 2010 with the Thiessen's then scroll down to the bottom and work your way up. This is just the trip to see Garmish,Salzburg and a some castles. It was fun taking a couple days and having no kids to worry about. Of course they had it rough as they were skiing in the Austrian Alps:0 but oh well, we had some fun too;)

The boys doing what they do best! Defying the law;) In nice weather this path leads to a bridge that you can take some really cool pictures of the castle and surrounding area. Of course, these guys don't follow the rules, they like to make their own! Really, they didn't go up there, this was just for dramatic effects!

Us in front of the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle they copied for the "Cinderella Castle" at Disneyland. We took a carriage ride up but we still had to walk almost straight up the last 10-15 minutes to get there. This is the half way point of where we got dropped off to getting inside the castle. Come ready to walk! Oh, the inside was gorgeous! There's even a "cave room" off the bedroom that you walk through. I never would have thought of having a cave room in my house before, but now I might need to rethink that;)

Picture of the Matterhorn from our balcony. Everything was so pretty the morning after the snow fall. Made the drive to the Castles so much nicer. No Really. The countryside was gorgeous during the drive.

When we got back to our hotel that night this is what we came home too. We took this picture from our room on the balcony. It was just beautiful!! Those are the snow flakes cought in the cameras flash. Pretty neat:)

Here is the outside of the church. You have to walk up a long tiled courtyard then through a gift shop before you can get inside. The lady at the gift shop will ask for donations but it is not madatory. When we left we purchase some bottles of holy water. You never know when you'll need some;)

Here is the inside of the Church that the wedding took place. The chapel was dark and cold, but had a lot of "flair" as catholic churches tend to. There are some really pretty paintings and stain glass windows in this chapel. When we were walking through there was someone playing the organ.

This is the countryside we had to drive through to get to the church that Maria and the Captain were married in. The country was beautiful and we had a great time talking with our guide as we drove to the small town of Mondees. It's on the other side of this lake.

Here is the Gazebo from the movie. THey had to move it from the back of the house from the movie because too many people would sneak in to take pictures. The house is a private residence.

Here is a picture of the back side of the Sound of Music house. This is the bacside that you see in the movie where they tip the canoe and play ball with the Countess.

Paris trip December 2009

Here is a picture of the kids in front of the Louvre and one of the Eiffel Tower from our bus. We Had rain most of the days we were there, but it wasn't so bad. Sheldon and Christian had stayed back at the Arch de Triumph and we didn't catch up to each other until later that evening. Can't wait to go back this summer and hopefully get inside both of these beautiful buildings. Oh I did go under the Louvre! I used the bathroom and we ate at Mc Donalds while we were there. Only would we go all the way to Paris to eat at MC D's;)

It's been a long time

So I have been neglectful on writing:( I guess I just figure I don't have much to write or just feel like it might be a little negative, or just don't feel like doing it!

I guess you can say it's a combination of all three. I should be writing this on the laptop because all of our pictures from our camera have been downloaded on there so I will need to post from that computer. I guess I can write on this one then go to the laptop and add the pictures later if I want? We will see.

So since February what's been going on? We spent almost the whole week down at Ramstein back in February. We came home loaded with exercise equipment and food's galore and really had a nice time. I was able to have my nails done, the boys were able to take in a day of swimming and rock climbing and we spent way too much money. We ate at some wonderful American style food places and just took it easy. We will be heading back down again in May for another week. Sheldon has a conference for work and we will hopefully be able to pick up Jori from their when she takes a hop from Travis. So that is the plan so far.

The boys were able to get some meds and the Doctor was great about giving me 6 months worth of meds for them. We will have to refill them in August so that will be right before school starts up. Sheldon had his medical check up that week and they said that he was having an issue with his liver counts. We are waiting to hear from the Doctor about what he should do next. So we will deal with that as it comes.

School has been school! The boys aren't doing too bad, but then again they could be doing better. It's just so different, and with the grading and how they grade. Malachi has one teacher that want's him to be "creative". Well to her she thinks that if the kids don't draw or paint like Picaso then they aren't being creative. In the states they were suppose to draw as well as they could to the example in front of them, here she want's them to look opposite. I just told Malachi to do his best and good luck;)

Christian is still having growing pains with the youth in the ward. He hasn't been to church or any activity for over a month now. It's hard to want to be apart of a group of people who make you feel unwelcome. That even comes from most of the adult leaders in the YM's presidency too. At least Marco goes out of his way to talk with the boys when they are there and gratefully there are some men in the ward who are taking the time to make the boys feel welcome. The good thing is that the kids from school are very accepting and the boys have some good friends from there. Church is only a few hours each week so at least when they go to school they have friends to sit with.

RS is going well. I taught a slow cooker class last week and we had about 12-15 sisters show up. I brought Chili for lunch with things to eat with it and everyone seemed to have a really good time. For the RS birthday dinner we did a taco bar with beans and rice as a side and that went over well too. I am slowly getting to know the sister's but there are so many more I would love to get to know better.

Well, I have so much more to get done today. I really want to work on the house these next few days. Jon Thiessen will be coming next weekend for a few days, and Jori will be here in a month so I really need to get rooms done.

Oh, we spent a few days with the Thiessen's in Germany when the boys were in Austria skiing for a week. We had so much fun playing dominos and visiting some castles in souther Germany. We even skipped over to Austria to take the "Sound of Music Tour" in Salzburg. It was just nice to go and do things with Jon and Monica. Can't wait to vacation with them again. The summers will be hard because I have the boys in School until July, but we are hoping to be able to do some things this summer before Monica heads back to Washington. We are hoping that her house will sell, then she can stay over in Germany for good! So we're keeping our fingers crossed;)