W31 of Y3

This was a hard week. Jeremy was out of town. Whitney got sick and then got me sick. School. Homework. Football. Football. Football... it's pretty much taken over our lives!! No rest.

By the weekend everything was looking better. Perfect football weather! Connor had his first away game. They played Stuttgart in Kaiserslautern. He was so excited to ride a big game bus with his team to the game. I'm not sure if he was more excited to ride with his friends or that the cheerleaders were riding the bus too!

Connor's #54

Whitney loved watching the cheerleaders all day!

Free lunch for players

Game bus

Final score: 26 - 6 the Heidelberg Lions WON!!

After game celebration!! They are so cute!

W30 of Y3

Dürkheimer Wurstfest

Jeremy and I were able to sneak away for the day to go to Bad Dürkheim for their famous Wurstfest this week.

After seeing the ferris wheel and all the rides we did feel a little guilty for not bringing the kids (just a little!).

We ate so much food!!! We wanted to try a little of everything...

Flammkuchen (with bacon and onions) - always delicious!

Not sure what this meat was, some kind of pork. OMG it was so good!

The traveling German bands were everywhere!

Stopped to try on some hats

The winner! We met up with our friend Rich and his son.

My number one absolute favorite of the day - Champignons mit knoblauchsosse!

So much wurst!! (Interestingly, the one food we DIDN'T eat that day!)

Jeremy trying to fit in with the locals... sans lederhosen!! haha!

For a change of pace, Chinese food! I got the prawns wrapped in potato strings, Jeremy got some really spicy (disgusting) noodles.

Listing to a live band singing old American songs in one of the tents.

Ferris wheel

The view of the fest

This was such a fun and absolutely gorgeous day! Great memories!!

Kinderturnen

Whitney has started a Kinderturnen class one afternoon each week. It is basically like a little gym class. They run, play with balls, do obstacle courses, sing songs, etc...

She surprised me with how competitive she is. I hadn't noticed this in her before but she was always looking at the kids next to her and trying to beat them, doing all the activities as fast as she could and getting frustrated with the younger kids that were in her way. I really hadn't seen this side of her but she seemed to be having so much fun. Also her best friend from Kindergarten goes at the same time so they are going to have so much fun!

Go Lions!!!

Well, it's official... Connor is a football player! He has finished conditioning, got all of his equipment, and now played in his first game. He was really nervous because he still didn't really know HOW to play football. His team lost but after the first half they were all doing a lot better. It was a great learning experience for Connor just to know what an actual game looks like, as opposed to just practice. During practice his coaches are always telling him to be more aggressive, etc.. but he says he's worried he will hurt the other kids. After getting pushed around so much by the other team at his game, I don't think that's going to be a problem anymore.

Connor's team before running through the banner

Whitney watching from the top of the bleachers

Patiently waiting for his turn to go in

Connor is finally going in for the first time! He's number 54.

He is clearing holding his man here but he's giving it his all!

Aiden and Whitney are now watching from underneath the bleachers

During halftime we played a mini-baseball game (Aiden's request).

After the game started back Aiden stayed on the baseball field to keep hitting the ball by himself. I felt bad for leaving him out there so I went back to play with him but he had found a friend. He said his friend taught him how to hit and catch better. They played together for the entire second half!

Getting a motivational talk from the coaches after the game ended. The coaches are great. You can tell Connor is really trying to please them.

For now, Connor is liking football and is trying to really learn how to play.
It should be an interesting season!

W28 & 29 of Y3

School

The first week of school didn't go exactly as planned...

The first day we were ready. I took them to school early. Aiden was complaining about his stomach hurting all morning - he was nervous.

First day of school pics. Aiden didn't feel good so they had to sit down for the pictures.

On our way into the classroom he threw up all over this rug. Poor guy.

Second day of school.
Jeremy took him this time.

I guess he started feeling sick again so Jeremy took him to the bathroom. No throw up though. I asked Jeremy to take a better first day of school picture and this is the one he took... in the bathroom!!

Football

After meeting the football coach at the open house he convinced us to sign Connor up. Connor started his conditioning this week. His first day was rough but we were so proud of him. He didn't quit.

Since he started later than the other boys he's the only one here without a uniform on.

While he seems to be at football practice all the time these days Aiden and Whitney get to spend a lot of time together. It reminded me of when Connor was in Kindergarten and Aiden and Whitney were home all day. I'm so grateful that they are so close!


We took the boys out of school their first week for the Labor Day weekend. I felt a little bad for it but we got to go to Italy... so it was ok!

Lake Como, Italia

To drive to Lake Como you go through the Swiss Alps. The drive alone was worth the trip! Beautiful!

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas" You don't see bumper stickers like this in Germany everyday!

Twinners!! With their laptops and headphones! :)

Being chased by a group of Ferrari's!
The scenery was breathtaking.



The Gotthard Tunnel (10.5 miles long). It is the 3rd longest road tunnel in the world - after one in Norway and another in China. It was really long! You enter in Switzerland and come out in Italy.

From the road leading waaaay high in the mountains to our house.

OMG! Our house is so cute!


Aiden and Whitney checking out the view with a very nice pair of binoculars


Checking out her new bedroom for the next week.

Aiden immediately claimed this room because it had trophys in it! lol!

The best part about the house - our own private pool!



First night - Jeremy started grilling some steaks for dinner while the kids swam and Kayla ran around barking at the neighboring donkeys. Heaven!



Success!

Our first morning waking up to this view.

Our house was so high up the mountains that we were literally in the clouds!

Mennagio/Varenna/Bellagio

After researching towns on Lake Como we learned that the 3 most popular are Mennagio, Varenna, and Bellagio. So on Day 2 we set off to explore all 3!

My little lady getting all dolled up for the fun day!

Mennagio

This is where we caught the ferry to take us around to the other towns.

The kids were really excited to ride on the ferry!


It was so fun seeing the charming towns from the water. The geography of this area was like no where that we've ever been. The huge mountains, blue water, quaint little towns... it was almost unreal.

Varenna

We didn't get off the ferry here but could see the town from the water.

Arriving in Bellagio! (It is said that Bellagio gets a lot of American tourists because they think there is some kind of relation to the Bellagio hotel and casino in vegas... not true) Lake Como is in the shape of an upside down Y. Bellagio is unique because it sits right in the middle of the Y.



Pizza!


Can you see Jeremy...?

Putting our feet in the water

One must eat LOTS of gelato when in Italy!!

After a long day of site seeing it was so nice to go back to our home for a swim and bon fire for a weenie roast!




That night Jeremy and I went to dinner at a restaurant down the hill from our house in Argegno called La Griglia. A true Italian experience!

We didn't understand much on the menu so we just picked and pointed. Mine was good. Jeremy's was... interesting.

Milan

The next day was rainy. We thought this would be a good day to go to Milan - almost an hour away.





Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - named after the first president of Itay

Piazza del Duomo

Jeremy is standing in front of the Cathedral doors. They were so tall!

I was fascinated by the detail on the door. You could look at it for hours without seeing it all. Each square told a story.




St. Bartholomew, one of the 12 Apostles who was skinned. That is not a robe but his skin wrapped around him. The statue was built by one of Leonardo de Vinci's students.

You could walk up the 250 steps to get to the roof of the cathedral which we all thought was pretty cool!







While we were up there it actually stopped raining too!

In the main square people were giving away FREE HUGS!!


But we had to pay 4 euro for the stupid bird seed! The kids loved it though.

More gelato before we started to head home. We did a quick drive through tour of Milan before going home. It was a great day. The kids were begging to go back to our house though. They would have been happy if we never left the house EVER!!

Aiden loved sipping his hot cocoa in the mornings

Our neighbor donkey's.

Day 3 we decided to explore our own town of Argengo a little.




There is a cable car that leaves from Argengo and goes up to Pigra (which actually means 'Lazy' in Italian). We were definitely going to do that!



It was disappointing that there was so much fog. You couldn't see anything on the way up!



Why did the chicken cross the road? (sorry, I couldn't resist)

After arriving to Pigra we understood why the town was named 'Lazy'. Very quiet town.


The clouds lifted and the view was breathtaking!!!

Why is it when you have the perfect background the kids don't cooperate? haha!

Lots of lizards in Pigra (Connor and Aiden were in heaven!)

They have one restaurant in Pigra. The boys still say this was their favorite pizza they had in Italy. And... we had a lot of pizza!

Whitney CHOWED her spagetti!!

Always room for ice cream




I couldn't stop taking pictures. It was so beautiful!

What can I say? I guess we got caught up in all the beauty around us!!
Going back down was a lot prettier than coming up!

Home sweet home. Kayla was always standing guard by the pool. She wasn't' sure what to make of it. She would prance around and bark at it for no reason.

That evening Jeremy and I took a private sail boat ride on the lake.



'I SAIL!'
Comacina Island - Lake Como's only island


There was a storm chasing us! Our sailor was an expert though and we never got wet.


After the storm was over we saw the coolest lighting effects all around the lake.

Even a rainbow over this mansion that was used to film the last James Bond movie here!

Our wonderful British Sailor!

We stopped to get some local fish from Lake Como for a late dinner before going home.

Day 5 we had one mission: To actually SWIM in the lake! We were told there was a beach where you could swim in Menaggio and after extensive research that seemed to be the ONLY place on Lake Como where you could swim. So we set off to find the beach.

Here it is... complete with pools, umbrellas, chairs, but... what? No access to the beach! There was a huge wall built and you would have to jump off of it without hope of getting back up. This was disappointing!

Whitney was being a good little Mommie while we were trying to find another place to swim.


We finally found a little area where you could go in... kind of.

Yes, I even got in. It was freezing!!

Jeremy, and the locals, were up here laughing at us.

These visitors appeared out of no where! I guess WE were actually the visitors. I'm sure they were wondering what we were doing in their lake.

So... when that failed we decided to do the next best thing:

Go skinny dipping in our own pool!! The boys couldn't stop giggling. They thought it was so funny!



Laying out and thinking 'I never want to leave this place!'

For dinner that night we wanted to go to a nice restaurant with everyone for our last night there. We saw signs for Argiturismo al Marnich but really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!

After driving so far up the mountain we arrive to this gate that we have to call down to have them let us in.

That building is the restaurant and everything else is the amazing view.
We were greeted right away by this beautiful dog!

While we waited for our table we were invited to explore the grounds. We walked through their vineyards, fed their sheep and donkey's, and marveled at all the crops they grew there. Everything on their menu is produced right here on this patch of land!


Our appetizers: Fresh goat cheese with fruit, honey, and walnuts and very, very, very aged sausage


More goat cheese and something that tasted like grits

I was proud of the kids. They tried lots of new foods, they didn't complain, and had good manners all night. The owner came to talk with us (kind of- he knew very little English, but that was ok because after being in Italy for about 2 hours Jeremy was yaking it up with all the Italians like he was born there! Honestly, sometimes I wonder if he has a secret life that requires him to speak several different languages).

Before we could leave the boys insisted on conquering the best tree-climbing tree EVER! It actually had a ladder that went up to the lower branches and then you could go as high as you wanted!




That was really scary!

Whitney played it safe and just watched from her swing

It was time to go home. Good bye little house in the mountains!
One of MOST favorite vacations yet!