THE CATES

W50 of Y3

2012-02-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

German Choir

Jeremy has been in the local mens' choir in our little village for the last couple of years (on and off). He comes home with the funniest stories. This week I had the rare privilege to go to one of their practices to see for myself what it was like. I had to be very undercover to get this picture!!

Pinewood Derby

This year Jeremy was in charge of putting on the Pinewood Derby so it has been a pretty big deal leading up to this day.

First the Wolves. Aiden's car is the first one on the right side, silver with flames on top

Jeremy going over the rules with the kids.

Whitney had front row seats for the races!

Announcing second place for the wolves: Aiden Cates!!

YAY Aiden!!!!

The competition for Connor's group. His is the second one in the front row from the left. His is also silver with flames on top.

Connor is carefully placing his car on the track and behind him you can see Whitney trying to get her Daddy's attention! lol!

Announcing second place for Weblos I: Connor Cates!!

YAY!! Connor!!!

Since both of the boys placed for their dens they got to compete in the Championship. This was the competition.

All the men standing around the cars pointing out details, etc... ha! so typical!!

So cute!

Race time! Daddy's pushing Whitney out of the picture... love it!

The kids were nervous!

Brother against brother

Announcing the winners... Aiden's fingers are crossed.

Connor Cates - third place!!!

Good job Connor!!! Aiden didn't place in the championship but both boys were great sports! We had a really fun (and long) day.

W49 of Y3

2012-01-29T07:08:00.000-08:00

My Haircut

Well... after getting it cut 3 times and colored twice in one week I've decided to leave it alone. It's still not how I wanted it exactly but it's ok for now. I've never had short hair like this in my life so it's still just so weird!

Melee (AKA: Polly)

We took care of co-workers dog all week. For some reason Whitney got it in her head that the dog's name was Polly and then she got all of us calling her that. Melee was a good dog and the kids LOVED having her here. They were constantly fighting over her. She did however decide to pee on our 3000 euro Turkish rug we bought in Istanbul. She could have peed just about anywhere in our entire house and it would have been fine. But, she had to pee there! We get the rug back from the cleaners in about 2 weeks. They were only 75% sure they could get the stain out.

W48 of Y3

2012-01-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

Marrakech, Morocco

This will be one of those rare blog posts that is written by me (Jeremy) instead of Amy. She’s got all of the pictures uploaded now… and just doesn’t have enough creative juices to finish the job. So she asked me if I wanted to step up to the plate and get it done. I told her I would, but that I wouldn’t be just writing a few captions for the pictures. I would rather just write and then allow the reader to refer to the pictures after they’ve read. I know many of you probably prefer Amy’s style… and that seeing a huge block of text will make you just want to fast forward to the pictures without reading. J That’s ok. It’s more for me than you anyway!

Every year in January since we arrived to Europe back in 2009 I’ve forced Amy to take an anniversary trip sans kids. Our first year we went to Paris, then the following year we went to Rome. Both trips were amazing and we had a great time. But Amy stresses for about three weeks leading up to each trip about leaving the kids at home with the au pair. During those three weeks her emotions take a front row seat on the loop de loop roller coaster that doesn’t end until we’re safely at our destination. So, when I announced this year that we would be going to Marrakech, Morocco, the roller coaster leading up to the trip was especially fun! Combine that with the unfortunate fact that we were in transition between au pairs (as we so often are) and it made for an interesting time! But the BLUF (bottom line up front… or maybe not so up front) as they like to say in the military, is that we made it and the trip was a success.

We flew out on Tuesday morning from Frankfurt Hahn airport, which is about an hour and 45 minutes from our house. Frankfurt Hahn is our local airport with Ryanair, a discount airline. Our flight was at oh dark thirty on Tuesday morning so we decided to stay the night at a hotel near the airport so we wouldn’t have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning to make it. Tuesday morning we woke up and packed up our suitcases which met the Ryanair guidelines of both measurement and weight. If you deviate from the rules they charge like 40 Euro.

The flight went smoothly. Amy and I were able to sit next to each other and talk for three hours straight without interruption! A miracle in and of itself. As we flew south the sun rose over the Mediterranean. .. beautiful. It was fun to look out the window and see us leaving Europe and entering Africa. As we approached Marrakech we were struck by the color of the buildings and the city in general. Everything had a reddish orange tint. There were expansive masses of apartment blocks and buildings that all looked the same, and they were all covered with white satellites which gave a bit of a polka dot affect on the entire mass of buildings. Imagine a red and orange blanket to the horizon covered in white polka dots and palm trees.

Before arriving to Marrakech, our closest association or experience with Muslim cultures / cities was Alhambra (formerly Muslim) and Istanbul (currently Muslim… formerly Christian). During our time in those two places we got just a taste of the vibrant and distinct design of the buildings, art, interiors, etc. As we walked into the airport, those same patterns and designs were evident right away. We made our way to the line where they checked our passport. Police were sitting in little glass cubicles, checking each traveler’s passport, and the lines were extremely long due to a lack of personnel. I had made arrangements with the hotel for transportation to and from the airport and I was worried that maybe we would be late in meeting our contact. But we finally made it through and found our guy holding a sign that read Riad Litibi Bito. We told our guy we needed to change our money and get cash. Morocco uses a currency called the Dirham abbreviated as MAD. We figured that the exchange rate was about 8.29 MAD for 1 USD. We also discovered that it was about 10 MAD to one Euro. Dividing by 10 was a lot easier than 8.29, so we converted to Euro in our heads constantly to estimate cost. So for example if a cab ride was 100 MAD, that’s about 10 Euro… or around 12 to 13 USD. J

Our contact escorted us outside and handed us off to another guy who took us to his beat up Hyundai Van. We got in and noticed that there were little place rugs under each chair. Nice touch! This guy didn’t talk to us at all and just started driving. He was chatting away on his mobile the whole time. We got our first taste of what the traffic was going to be like during our time there. I of course immediately associated it with my time in South America. No rules, no stopping at red lights, constantly honking at everything and nothing. Mopeds, scooters, bikes, donkeys, horses, hand-carts, weaving in and out of traffic the whole time. When we entered our first huge round about Amy just closed her eyes. I was just laughing and remembering. The roads got smaller and smaller until it looked like we were in an alley were cars couldn’t and shouldn’t fit. Then he stopped abruptly without saying anything and got out. Amy and I look at each other with a quizzical look as if to say, so I guess he wants us to get out. As we were getting out we noticed that he was already loading our bags into a wheel barrow being held by another guy. As we went to the back of the van, the man with the wheel barrow took off with our bags, and a third guy walked up to us and introduced himself in broken English and gestured for us to follow him. At that point the guy in the van was already pulling away and we were left standing with this new guy who was already walking away. So we followed as quickly as we could. As we were walking we noticed that our bags were already almost out of our view, winding it’s way through the alleys and shops ahead of us.

This first walk in Marrakech was a stimulus overload. It had just rained before we landed and it had been the first rain in two months. The ground was cobble stone and mud and we were slipping all over the place as we tried to keep up. After the second turn in the maze of alleys and shops I was completely lost. I looked at Amy and she seemed to be in a panic as she turned to me and said, “hurry up we have to keep up with our bags!”. While we were walking I was trying to take it all in. A blur of shops, people, animals, smells, foods, kids, buildings, ruins, signs, lights, filth, art, and beauty was blazing by. Then all of a sudden our guide stopped, we almost ran into him. He pointed to a sign and said, “remember this sign… very important landmark so not get lost”. Amy quickly took a picture of the sign and then we were off again. By that time of course or bags were completely out of sight. We walked further and turned for the 100^th time into a very small and dark alley with arch that required us to duck our heads. As we walked I noticed that there were wild cats all over the place. Some of them seemed to eating a disemboweled chicken. We continued to walk into what seemed to be an abandoned mine shaft, with wooden bolts of wood holding up either side for support. There were shafts of light making their way down to the bottom from the openings created by the three and four story buildings under which we were winding. Then we approached a door with a small sign above it that read “RIAD LIBITI BITO”. Our guide turned to us, smiled, and said, “Welcome!” He then opened the door and walked into a paradise. There were palm trees, ornate chairs, and furniture surrounding a small serene pool with a water fountain. We were standing in an atrium that rose three stories. Windows looked down from all four sides. We were invited to sit down and were promptly served Moroccan tea and cookies while Brazilian bossa nova played in the background.

Our hostess then joined us and proceeded to brief us over the next 45 minutes about how to navigate around Marrakech on our own. She drew a map of how to get from the hotel out onto the main street (a challenge), how to get from there to the main plaza, what to tell a cab driver if we want to take a cab to the hotel, what to be careful of, how not to get ripped off, etc. She also specifically warned us that everyone will try to guide us to where they think we want to go. She said that locals love to carry tourists off on long trips and then ask for money when they finally arrive at their destination. They even resort to telling you that the street you are walking on is going to close further down and that they can take you a better way, and then lead you off in the wrong direction. She said to only ask directions from other tourists or vendors who are behind a desk or at their shop and can’t leave. She taught us how to negotiate (haggle) with the vendors, and what to look for. She warned us that some vendors will be extremely aggressive and that we shouldn’t say that we’re American, but some other nationality. We ended up telling everyone that we were German, and no one questioned us. Amy had read on the plane that the vendors could be pretty aggressive and that sometimes it helped to say “la” which means No in Arabic.

It was about noon when we finished with our briefing. Our hostess told us that our room wasn’t ready yet. We found that our luggage was safely stored there and so we decided to venture out on own. Armed with our briefing and maps, we headed out the door and into the mineshaft alley. We managed to find our way out to the main road after taking two wrong turns and then doubling back. When we reached the slightly larger alley, there was tons of traffic and people. There were shops all over the place with guys standing in front of them. They all saw us standing there with a touristy expression on our faces. They were like vultures descending upon a carcass ripe with rot. Immediately someone offered to take us to the square. We just started shaking our heads and saying no. Then a man started walking by on a bike loaded with what looked like cow feet which had been freshly chopped. Amy took out her camera and snapped a picture. Two seconds after she took the picture a man approached her, invaded her personal space and started saying something we didn’t understand. He had a wild look in his eye that wasn’t quite right, and I could see that he had some kind of substance all over his thick black beard… maybe food. He started to get in Amy’s face and yell and Amy backed away and started to say, “LA!”. The guy did not like that Amy was saying la. He grabbed her hand which was holding the camera with both of his hands, pulled Amy towards him and started screaming in her face, “LA? LA? LA? LAAAA???” Amy had a death grip on the camera, and the guy had a death grip around her hands. At this point, to me it felt like a dream in slow motion. I tried to shove myself between them, wedging my shoulder onto Amy and pushing the guy by the chest back away from her. I thought I was going to have to start choking him or maybe head butt him in the face or something. Right at that moment four guys attacked him from behind and started pulling him back. But he wouldn’t let go of Amy’s hands. So they started prying his fingers back until he had to let go. Once Amy was free, she backed up and they pulled the guy back as he was screaming LA over and over again. Then these guys all apologized and said that the guy was the local crazy and that they were sorry, and that we should come to their shop and buy something.

At that point were totally shell shocked and just wanted to get out of there so we started walking quickly in the first direction we saw. As we were trying to get the heck out of there we heard guys on the side of the alley yelling at us that we were going the wrong way and that it was closed ahead. Remember our briefing we chose to ignore this and kept on walking. Soon though we noticed that we were getting into a pretty sketchy area. There were no tourists no shops, and everyone was staring at us like we were in the wrong place. Then the street started to end. We stopped and decided to look at a map. But we noticed that any time spent stopping to look at a map was too dangerous. So we decided to double back. As we went back we of course had to pass everyone that just saw us walking the opposite direction and it was obvious that we were lost. ARG! When we got back to the site of the attack we tried to continue on in the opposite direction we came and two kids (visible in the picture behind the bike with cow feet) came up to us and told us we were going the wrong way. At this point we were so disoriented and our confidence was totally shot. I just told him to point us to the square and he then offered to take us. HA! Just like our hostess said. What a mess. We convinced him not to take us and started walking.

We just started wandering and looking for a place to eat. We were in the middle of what are called the Souks. A souk is an old shop. They are tiny little shops that sell everything from spices to cloth, and food to paintings. We wandered and wandered until finally we just started following a sign that we thought was a restaurant. The sign took us into an alley and then up three flights of stairs until we arrived on the roof top of a building. It was a terrace with a beautiful restaurant in a paradise type setting. Much like our hotel, this place was an oasis hidden among the craziness surrounding it below in the streets. We had a wonderful lunch and tried to decompress from the craziness. We also built up our confidence and vowed to get some serious shopping done… right after we went back to our hotel, unpacked in our room and got our bearings!

We were able to make it back to our hotel, which was a victory and triumph. Our room was like something out of the movies. I told Amy that it reminded me of the harem rooms in the palace at Alhambra near Granada, and her wry reply was, “you wish”. Ha. We unpacked, got settled in and planned our next venture outside the walls of the Riad. This time we were prepared to walk with conviction in the same direction. But when we got outside we were immediately sidetracked by an aggressive vendor. Actually, Amy was, and I was roped into staying. But I’m glad we did. The guy was a woodworker, and he operated a manual lathe using his hands and feet (toes) to shape the wood. Pretty crazy process. He had all kinds of wooden boxes and ornaments. He did a demonstration, and gave Amy a gift of what he made, and then I knew we had to buy something. Let the haggling begin! I think we did ok. Amy is ready to give in at the first price, but using my haggling skills from all the other third would countries I’ve lived in, I was confident I got a good price. I have to admit though that Amy throws me off my game! J But we got a great Mahogany box and then we were off to our next stop. Over the course of the afternoon we bought a lot of great stuff. We were limited by what we could fit in our little suit cases which sucked, as we wanted to buy a lot more, but it worked out and we were able to get a lot of great stuff.

Our next destination was the Jamaa El Fna, or the main square of Marrakech. Using the map given to us by the hotel hostess, we were able to find our way, without help from the locals. We had to pat ourselves on the back for the great success. When we arrived to the square, the vultures went right work. A woman approached Amy with a book of small pictures and started grab Amy’s hand. Amy pulled back and put her hand in her pocket as we tried to move away. The lady was trying to grab Amy’s hand again and we escaped to a shoe shining stall nearby. I decided to get my shoes shined. I haggled for the price before I agreed and I could tell the guy didn’t want to set a price first. But I settled on 20MAD. He did a great job, and I could tell that his legs were paralyzed. Speaking in French and broken English he told me that he can’t get good work there because of his condition and that he’s been shining shoes his whole life. I figured out that the guy had polio in both of his legs. So sad. But he did a damn good job on my shoes so I gave him 50MAD.

Weeks before we arrived, I had made reservations for our first night in Marrakech at a restaurant called MK Maison. It got high rating on Trip Advisor, so I booked a table. The reservation was at 7:30, and we had to get back to the hotel to get ready, and give ourselves enough time to find the place in the maze by foot. So we decided to catch a horse and buggy taxi. In the main square there is always a line of horse carriages waiting for tourists and locals alike to use their services. A slight hesitation at the beginning of the line of horses gave the men their cue and they immediately went to work convincing us that we should take a ride. We didn’t want to ride around forever so we began haggling for just a half hour. Eventually we agreed on a price and we boarded our buggy. Imagine riding in a buggy pulled by two emaciated horses by a guy that barely speaks English (but still is trying to explain everything around in Berber, Arabic, and French) as it pulls into the traffic of the main thoroughfare of an extremely busy city. We had to assume that the horses had the right of way because the driver never stopped or slowed down and buses, cars, trucks, scooters, bikes, and people all yielded to us… albeit at the last second. Amy almost died of a heart attack. It was not the leisurely romantic trot she thought it was going to be. Nevertheless, we got to see more of the city including the old city walls which are still in tact and measure more than 20 kilometers in circumference. He showed us around the new town where all of the posh hotels were, and then suddenly stopped at a water trough that was on the side of the road and allowed the horses to drink. We then noticed that there were drinking troughs all over the city on the side of the road. As promised, he dropped us off at our desired location (as close as a horse and buggy can get to our hotel) after 30 minutes and I paid him the 120MAD we agreed upon.

Amy and I congratulated ourselves again after finding our way successfully to the hotel. We felt like real experts then as we zig zagged through the alley ways all the way to our hotel. All the while saying no thank you to the vendors yelling out, “Bon jour!, Bon nuit!, Bon soir!, Hello Mr!, Just looking!, Maybe tomorrow!, Good Price!, etc.” Amy even had the cojones to yell out “La” a few times and wasn’t even attacked! We got ready for our dinner appointment and got another lecture from our hostess on how to get there by foot.

When we set out it was dark. But we were more confident this time around and only made a couple of wrong turns before we were on the right track. But then we started to doubt ourselves after we didn’t arrive at the restaurant when we thought we should. It was one of those times when you’re not sure if you should just keep walking in the same direction looking, or whether you should double back. The moment we double back of course the locals would be on us like white on rice trying to direct us. We decided to stop to look at the map, and as soon as we did a kid came up to us and tried to talk some English. Amy and I looked at each other and thought… oh well. So we allowed the kid to guide us. He seemed friendly enough, and lo and behold he took us straight to the door of our restaurant. So I paid the kid (well worth it) knowing we never would have found it on our own.

Dinner was amazing. The restaurant is part of a Riad (like the one we were staying in) located in a different part of the Medina (old part of town inside the city walls where everything is a maze). Riad is simply a word to describe an old style mansion. Apparently about 100 years ago there were many wealthy merchants, etc. that lived in the Medina and they each had their own palace like mansion. But according to Muslim customs, there was no show of richness on the exterior. Most were well hidden, but when you walked inside it was a rich paradise. Most all Riads have now been converted to hotels and restaurants.

We were welcomed in and shown into a room dripping with a fusion style of decoration. Elements of Muslim, 70s French, harem, smoking room, were all mixed together to create a very unique setting. Amy and I were the only ones in this room aside from the realistic and life size sculpture of Joe Camel’s head on the wall complete with a camel cigarette hanging out of his mouth. They lit a fire for us and brought us snacks and tea. We ordered our meal there (a six course fusion French and Moroccan meal) and then waited to be invited to our table. The interior also had a pool with a large water fall / fire pit surrounded by an atrium full of palm trees and windows from the hotel rooms. We ate until we couldn’t eat any more. They brought out three different desserts and one said happy birthday on it because we told them it was our anniversary, and I think the interpreted that to mean birthday because of their French background, so one dessert said happy birthday on it! I wish I could eat all night but I was about to be sick. So we paid the bill and headed home… successfully finding our room and passing out!

We both woke up at 5:50am to the morning prayers. Five times a day over the loud speakers posted at every corner the Muslim prayers are recited. It was an eerie and interesting feeling to hear the prayers that early in the morning when it was still dark. I had a hard time falling back to sleep after that because it seemed that the morning prayers also woke up all of the roosters and they started to go nuts after that crowing all over the place. It reminded me of living in Colombia where the roosters would always start up around the same time. I never had to set an alarm.

Our objective for our second day was to make our way to the Mamounia hotel and spa where we had reservations for a day of relaxation. But first it was time for our authentic breakfast. Again it seemed that we were the only ones in the hotel. During our whole stay there we saw maybe one other couple. She mentioned that it was low season… which was confusing to us because it was 65 to 70 degrees and sunny the whole time we were there. The hostess said that we could eat up on the terrace if we wanted. So we made the climb up to the roof where they had tables, palm trees, umbrellas, lunge chairs, etc. We felt like the whole place was set up just for us. They brought our breakfast of yogurt, milk, juice, croissants, breads, cheese, butter, jellies, etc. up to us and it was all delicious. I started wandering around up on the terrace and noticed that there was a turtle huddled up in the corner. Don’t see that every day. There were also kittens running around everywhere. I looked over the edge of our oasis and saw that there were squalid houses surrounding us. There were clothes hanging out everywhere drying, cats running around rummaging through garbage, satellites mounted on everything possible, etc.

We headed out after deciding to walk to La Mamounia hotel. Our hostess told us not to take a cab and to instead make the 20 minute walk because if we told a cab driver that we were going there that their fair would be through roof because it’s the nicest hotel in the whole city. I guess none of the cab drivers use meters. All fairs have to be arranged before you get in the car… or at least they should be. So we walked and made it straight there. This hotel was much different than ours. It was all about being ostentatious and showing it’s richness. We were allowed in through the main gate and then walked through a series of gardens before we reached the main entrance. There at the entrance were posted two gaurds / doormen who opened the doors for us. We went in and showed the woman at the front desk our reservations. She showed us to another man and he walked us through the lush hotel to the spa. There we were greeted by two girls and we set up our accounts. It was then that we realized that we had forgotten our swimsuits. We asked if they had any for sale, and they said of course. They brought out some small shorts for me and a tiny bikini for Amy. They said that the suits could be ours for the small fee of 400 Euro ($550). We decided then and there that we would go back to our hotel. I’ve worked in a hotel before so I kind of knew how things worked. I went up to the concierge and asked if they had a driver that could take us to our hotel and back, and he immediately responded, “but of course sir… right this way”. We were escorted out the front doors (which each had two men holding them open) out onto the front drive and before we could even reach the drive, a black 2011 E class Mercedes with blacked out windows pulled up. Two men simultaneously opened the back doors and we got in and the car pulled away and through the multiple security gates. Amy and I just looked at each other and started laughing. It was clear that we were in one of the nicest cars in the city… or at least that’s how it seemed. He raced through the traffic with ease and we were at the drop off point for our hotel in no time. I ran back and got the suits and we were back at the spa in no time.

We changed and headed up to the pool. Again, we were the only ones in the pool. The pool was indoor and extremely well appointed. The entire bottom of the pool was an intricate mosaic. It’s what I imagined Roman baths to look like at the height of the empire. Columns and lounge chairs surrounded the pool. At the middle of the pool was a suspended lounge area with pillows and a bed. The water was warm and Amy and I swam with the entire place to ourselves. We also hit up the huge hot tub. It was like something out of a movie. Soon a girl came and reminded us that our appointments were starting soon and to please follow her. Amy got a facial, and I had a Hammam treatment and massage. I can’t really explain Amy’s facial since I wasn’t there, but I’ll tell you about the Hammam. Before you read this google Hammam so you know what it’s all about.

Before it started the girl came in and said that due to Muslim custom a man would be performing the Hammam on me. What was I supposed to say to that? I just responded, “uh, ok, whatever you say”. Soon a man came in dressed in all white and told me to follow him. I was a little uncomfortable because I had just changed out of my swimsuit and into a pair of paper underwear that they provided. I was wearing that and a robe when my hammam helper came and got me. He ushered me toward some glass doors that I could tell was a steam room and sat me down and told me that he would come back for me in 15 minutes. The heat and steam was stifling at first, but it got better after a while. I could tell that there was eucalyptus or something in the steam. It made it hard to breathe and a couple times I had to suppress a gag. I was the only one in there though, so it didn’t really matter. Eventually the man came to get me. He guided me toward a shower area. He held out a tub of black goop and told me it was olive soap. I wasn’t going to argue with the guy at that point, so I just nodded in agreement. He then started to rub it all over my body until I was covered in the stuff. Then he rinsed it all off and took me into a room with a granite or marble bed with a towel on it and told me to lay face down. Then I felt this scratch pad (some kind of exfoliating tool) rub all over my back. The scratching was almost to the point of being uncomfortable, but I hung in there. He proceeded to use this scratchy mitt all over my whole body. I was sure I had to be bleeding in some areas, but that wasn’t the case. He then came in with a tub of brown clay like mud and rubbed it all over (except where my paper underwear was) until I was covered in the stuff. He took a tub of white stuff and rubbed it on my face. He told me to lay down and that he would be back in 15 minutes. As I lay there, the stuff dried and it was starting to itch all over. He came back after the 15 minutes and took me again to the shower area and rinsed it all off. Then he got out some white soap (liquid like substance in a cup) and told me that it was different type of olive soap this time. He rubbed it all over again and then rinsed. And that was the end of the hammam experience. Pretty interesting. After that it was back to the relaxation room for tea to hang out until my masseuse came. 5 minutes went by before the masseuse came and she took me to the massage table in another room. I won’t get into the details of the massage… just that it was relaxing and I almost fell asleep.

When I was all done I went up to the pool and found Amy cuddled up in a lounge chair with the ipad fully involved in Plants vs. Zombies! She told me all about her facial and then we decided that we needed to get something to eat before she went to have her hair done. We asked the concierge if there was any place nearby to grab a quick sandwich or bite to eat. “Of course sir, we have a restaurant on the terrace that you’re welcome to use!” So we followed him to our seats and sat down in a beautiful garden where we were waited on hand and foot. Amy ordered a tomato and mozzarella panini with still water and I ordered a salmon sandwich. We didn’t notice the prices on the menu, but when the bill came we realized we had just bought $50 sandwiches! Lol! But they were pretty good sandwiches!

Amy made it to her hair appointment. She had decided long ago that she wanted to chop her hair extremely short… pixie style. And that’s just what the stylist did. We weren’t too happy with the final look though. Since the cut, Amy has gone in again to have more taken off. And she may go in yet again to have more taken off.

So the spa was a success and we headed back to the hotel to regroup and plan.

We decided that we were going to eat at the main square that night. In the evening and into the night there are hundreds of vendors that come and set up stalls to sell food. When we arrived to the square, as usual, we were greeted by an on slot of local vendors trying to get us to come to their stall. What I noticed was that each stall pretty much looked the same and they were identified by number. Each stall had a cooking area, a place for people to sit, a white plastic tent like top under which there were light bulbs hung. Each stall had a guy dressed in a white lab coat trying to convince everyone to come to their stall. Each stall was only about 15 to 20 feet wide, so you can imagine how there was a guy in a white lab coat every few feet. One would start working on us before the other had finished his pitch. Amy was the weak link in this situation because she smiled at the guys and made eye contact and that really got them going. I ended up doing a lot of waiting as she tried to convince each one of them that we weren’t interested.

Finally we decided on a place to eat and the guy in the lab coat was triumphant as we took our seats. We ordered multiple courses of local fare and enjoyed every bite. Amy loved the dipping sauces, and I really like the soup they served with a huge wooden spoon. We were tempted to go to one of the stalls that was selling fried sheep head, but we were way too full after eating all of our courses… in fact probably 50% of our food was still left over and Amy was embarrassed to just leave it there. But we paid and escaped!

The next plan was to go to a night club to hang out and check out the local night life. We heard about a place that did belly dancing… nevermind that belly dancing is about as foreign to Morocco as eating fried sheep head meat would be to a customer in Kansas City… but I digress.

We started walking around on the square, watching the snake charmers, henna tattoo artists and entertainers. We noticed that there were big circles of locals gathered around local entertainers. It wasn’t just tourists gathering at the square. We noticed that it was mostly locals at the square that evening, which I thought was strange. We continued to walk to a main street so that we could catch a cab. As we walked, we were hit up by vendors trying to sell trinkets and such. Some of them were clearly mentally retarded, and others were just small children trying to sell little toys and trinkets. Amy decided that she wanted to buy some toys that shoot up into the air and light up to give to the kids when we got home. We haggled with an older girl and bought three, and then right after our purchase another girl that must have been about 9 came up and tried to sell us the same toys that we just bought. She didn’t speak a language we could understand, but we could tell she was begging for us to buy the toys from her. She kept saying 5 Dirham. We didn’t want to buy the toys, and we didn’t have anything smaller than a 50 (about 5 Euro). So we just kept walking and she kept following. The problem was that we couldn’t just walk completely off the square because we were trying to catch a cab, or at least decide what we were going to do. And the whole time this girl was just standing next to us pleading for us to buy. Amy was starting to crack I could tell, and I was determined to just move on. So we started walking in another direction and she followed along with us. Then an older boy came up and mocked the little girl and she began to cry and yell at the boy while he laughed at her. I noticed Amy’s jaw set as she watched this happen and I knew she was pissed. We continued to walk and change direction, and I even walked off in front, and when Amy joined me again, the girl was gone. Later Amy admitted that she gave the girl the 50. I’m sure the girl just ran off and had gave it to her pimp like boss. So sad.

We took a cab to our destination (and got ripped off… again thrown off of my haggling game) and were escorted by the doormen to the upstairs lounge of a restaurant. We asked the waiter if we were in the right place for belly dancing and he confirmed that they did a show every night. We hung out, ordered some snacks and settled in for an evening of conversation, people watching, and belly dancing. Soon enough the dancers came. The first wave of dancers were older ladies balancing huge plates of candles on their heads and dancing at the same time. They were quickly followed by the younger and more scantily clad belly dancers. Amy went and got change for a 100 (MAD) and got some bills for tipping. We wouldn’t want the young ladies to starve… lol. We had a great time!

Soon after the dance we had a little excitement with a girl that was trying to pass our table and fainted right in front of me and crashed to the floor with a bang. She was immediately surrounded by guests and staff and never really came to. Amy and I figured that her roofie must have kicked in a little early… they had to carry her out.

We caught a cab home and paid less than half that it cost for us to get there, further confirming my conviction that we were ripped off earlier. We walked expertly to our hotel in the dark without getting lost and got a good night’s rest. The next morning we were served our breakfast again, but this time in the atrium. We said our goodbyes to the hostess and promised to leave positive feedback.

The return to the airport was a reverse of what it was on the way in. We left Marrakech with the feeling that we were there for the perfect amount of time and that if we had planned to stay any longer that it would have been too long. We would have liked to do some more shopping, and perhaps an excursion or two out to the Atlas mountains or the Sahara, but we needed to get back to our kiddos and our jobs. Hopefully one day we can return to Marrakech to create more great memories.

**This is Amy... I couldn't resist and wrote just a few captions below**

Right before I was attacked, the guys in the background were the ones that saved me but then turned out to be false guards that were trying to rip us off later!!
That was our menu!! Walking back to our room Jemaa el Fnaa

The souks

Donkey pulled wagon going through the middle of the souks. These and the motorbikes were a constant threat!!!

The camels that take tourists to the Sahara dessert. I wish we could have done that but it is a 2-day excursion Stop sign in Arabic
The restaurant MK One of the 7 courses!! The menu included 2 desserts and then they brought us an extra one since we told them it was our anniversary! Nevermind that they wrote Happy Birthday on it, we knew what they meant. I LOVED how these metal things we on all the lights here! It made the coolest designs on the walls! The Koutoubia mosque is to Marrakesh that the Eiffel tower is to Paris La Mamounia Spa 100 euro lunch!!

The look I was wanting... The look that I got... :/ Bread and salsa for appetizer Looks gross but was so delicious! Our camera died after this picture so this was the last picture of Morocco. We left early the next morning. I had promised Whitney she could have her first sleepover when we got back with a girl from church. They were SO cute!!! SOOOO Happy to be back home with my babies!!

W47 of Y3

2012-01-15T07:43:00.001-08:00

Well... I was super lame this week and didn't take pictures hardly at all. Actually, we didn't do a whole lot either. The weather has been cold (high 30's to low 40's) but sunny, dry, and blue skies! I keep wondering when winter is going to hit but it just stays the same. We went on a walk/bike ride down to the lake one day to test out Aiden's remote control boat he got from Santa. Can you believe it was a dud!?! We couldn't even turn it on. It was SO disappointing!! Aiden handled it so well though. This was the main Christmas gift he asked for from Santa. I tried to talk him out of it because I knew he would be disappointed when Connor was playing with his toys and Aiden had to wait until summer to do the boat. Well, this is exactly what happened. So, since the weather has been nice I decided to give him his moment to shine and try it out. All Christmas long I kept saying things like "stocking stuffers" etc... He asked me why the bucket of money he got from Santa last year said IKEA on it and Connor's Fire Kindle said Amazon on it. The real kicker was when we went to the orphanage and Aiden asked why Santa didn't bring gifts to the kids there... all I could say was "I don't know". (then Aiden quickly said "I know why!! Santa couldn't take them presents and that's why WE are here to help him!") After the boat ordeal Aiden says "I still believe in Santa, but I'm starting to wonder now..." I think a talk is in order...

On the way home we stopped at the park to play. BTW - I didn't mention we have a new aupair. All of our aupairs have always been American and several of them struggled with homesickness (especially around the holidays, like our last one). We decided for our last 6 months in Europe to get a European aupair instead - thinking homesickness wouldn't be a problem. Now, we are wondering why we didn't do this earlier. Olja is from Serbia. We are all having so much learning about her country and teaching her about ours. She totally spoils us and cooks us meals from her home (she is a great cook!!!) She speaks English very well but some of the slang makes for great entertainment! The boys love to get her to say jibberish words that they made up and then laugh at how she pronounces it. Everyone has fallen in love with her and I'm wishing we could take her back to the US with us!! I'm so glad she will be with us during our final months in Germany and that she will be our last and final aupair while we are here!!

W46 of Y3

2012-01-08T12:13:00.000-08:00

This week my sweetheart and I celebrated our 12-year wedding anniversary. I spent pretty much the entire week looking for pictures from early in our marriage but was disappointed to only finding a few. I wish I took as many pictures back then as I do now! Here is a timeline of the best 12 years I could have ever hoped for!!

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

12 years later and still madly in love!

W45 of Y3

2012-01-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

This week was busy recovering from Christmas, playing with toys, putting stuff together, etc...
As always, Connor's birthday snuck up on all of us! We had reserved a big, empty building to have a big party with all of his friends but only a couple of kids could come so we thought it wouldn't be as much fun to do all that with only a few kids. It's hard having a birthday on a holiday. So, we decided to just do Miramar again. Connor didn't care, he loves that place!

They love to play on the octopus. It took forever but all 4 of them finally made it to the top without falling or being pushed off!

We had to force Whitney to take a little snack break. She is such a fish!!

Everyone knows that Miramar becomes FKK from 7pm on. We planned to leave by 6pm, before everyone got naked. A little before 6pm an announcement (in German) came on overhead and everyone started cheering. We had no idea what was going on. The lights all went out and loud music started playing. It was a laser show, and it was awesome!! All the boys immediately started dancing and splashing in the water. We wanted to stay longer for the laser show but the boys were constantly reminding the adults what time it was. They were scared to death for the "naked hour"! It was hilarious!!

On the way home Whitney fell asleep and did NOT want to wake up to watch Connor open his presents

Awww...

After presents we were invited to a New Year's Eve party at our friend's house

She has this great grill to cook meats on top and potatoes and veggies below. It was sooo yummy!!!
Birthday cake and chocolate fondue!

Watching Cars 2 and trying sooooo hard to stay awake!

It's midnight!! Cheers!

Fireworks!!
One thing we can always count on in Germany are the amazing Fireworks on New Year's Eve. This year was no exception! We've always watched them from our house in our own village so it was fun to see them somewhere else. We ran outside at midnight behind our friend's house where you can see a great view of all the neighboring towns. There were fireworks going off in every direction! It was amazing!

After watching fireworks we went back to their house to light some of our own. The boys were loving it!! We had to break it to them though that they will never get the chance to do this again in the US so they should enjoy it while they can (and it's legal!)

It's after 1am and this little guy wouldn't stop until every match in the box had been lit! lol!

What a great night and a great year!

2012 I can't wait to see what you have in store!!!

W44 of Y3

2011-12-25T01:38:00.000-08:00

Gingerbread Houses

Candy, Graham Crackers, Frosting, Let's go....

BOYS!! They just build them so they can break them down and eat it all! I guess that is half the fun.

SCHNEE!!!

So, the kids were so disappointed after our big trip that there wasn't snow in our village yet. Then... we woke up to huge, giant flakes coming down FAST! It was a beautiful sight. We didn't waste any time and got out to play in it all day!!

Pulling Whitney to the field to play

No one was happier than Kayla. She did about 40 circles in the field without stopping!

Snow angels!

The beginning of a huge snowman

Snowball fights

Lame attempt at building a ramp to sled down...

Poor Kayla had huge snowballs all over her legs. She couldn't even walk and we could pull them all off either!

So she rode home on the sled with Whitney

Kid's World

Unfortunately the snow was completely melted the next day. We decided to get our energy out at Kid's World instead. Always fun! Connor brought a friend which made it even more fun!

Time out for a bloody nose

Whitney kicking the boys at King of the mountain!!

Think: 'Wipe Out'...

Ice cream and "Sooshy" break

Christmas Eve

Chipwrecked at the movie theater

Christmas Eve Dinner

We didn't have anyone fly in for Christmas this year. It was a very stress-free, relaxing, fun day!
I let the kids help plan the menu for dinner to make sure everyone had something they liked. (Jeremy - ham, Connor - 'taters' like Uncle Philip makes, Aiden - Jello salad, Whitney - Macaroni and cheese)

And for dessert - I got Cream puffs sprinkled with "snow"

Kayla's Christmas ham bone

Our Christmas Eve tradition is that the kids get to open their present from my Mammaw (which is always new Christmas PJs). It could have been hay in those boxes and the kids would have been just as excited. Looking at presents under the tree for weeks has been torture for them!

So cute and cuddly in their new PJs!

Now they're all ready for Christmas stories by Daddy!! Such a magical time for kids!

Ok. Stockings are stuffed and presents are ready. Just a few hours until total chaos!

Christmas Morning

The boys were ready to go around 7ish but Whitney did NOT want to wake up. We finally got her to move but you could tell something was wrong

The traditional picture on the stairs before seeing all the presents. Whitney couldn't even hold her head up.

All Connor wanted this year was a Fire Kindle. He was constantly bugging everyone about it! We set it off to the side so it was hard to see. Connor was starting to worry as he looked for a gift from Santa for him and couldn't find anything. hee hee... We're so mean! :)

PRESENTS!!!

Couldn't care less about her presents. It was so sad. We couldn't enjoy opening presents while she was so sick. We tried to get the boys to take a break from presents until Whitney was feeling better. INSTANT tears!!! So the boys opened theirs and Jeremy and I saved the rest of ours for later as well as Whitney's.

Shocking gum

SO SAD!

SO, SO, SO SAD! Even her throwing up did not deter the boys. They had a one track mind.

My present from the boys. They BOTH got me almost identical pearl earrings. I guess you can never have too many.

After the boys finished opening their presents the Monkey bread was just coming out of the oven. They ate while I put Whitney back to bed.

Playing with their new Fire Kindle and iPad while Whitney sleeps on the floor.

After sleeping for a few hours Whitney seemed to be feeling better. She immediately asked for oatmeal, toast, and juice. I knew that was a good sign. She kept her food down and wanted to open her presents. So we had Christmas part II for Whitney.

After all her presents were opened she surprised us with her new outfit she picked out all by herself (from her ears to her toes!!) I'm so glad she started to feel better!!

Traditional Christmas Day Smorgasboard!

Playing with new toys

Later that night we had so much fun skyping with Family as our day was winding down and theirs was just starting.

We had a few little bumps but overall it was a great day!

W43 of Y3

2011-12-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

Peace light Ceremony

For those of you who never heard of this (like ME!), there is a flame in Jerusalem that has been burning since Christ was born. Every year around Christmas people from all over the world travel to Jerusalem to bring the flame back to their countries. Aiden's den leader traveled to Vienna where the flame was taken and light her candles and brought the flame to Heidelberg. We had a Ceremony where the flame was shared with everyone.

Before sharing the flame we had a short program. Here are the 3 adorable angels!

I'm lighting Aiden's candle with the flame.

School Christmas Program

I had to miss their school programs this year. Luckily Jeremy recorded it and took pictures for me.

Why are only 2 kids singing here?

The journey begins...

The trip to deliver the boxes to the orphanage was officially underway. Everyone was so excited to get there and see the faces of all the kids when they saw their presents! We collected shoeboxes for 120 kids plus extras! We loaded all the shoeboxes in our mini-van and Shauna's mini-van and the 2 families caravaned all the way across Hungary!!

Gyor, Hungary

After driving for about 11 hours on day 1 we arrived at a small town in Hungary, Gyor, where we stayed our first night. On our search to find a restaurant that was 1. open 2. served food that the kids would eat 3. could seat 9 people we ended up finding a Christmas market!!

Then, we found the best Italian restaurant that everyone loved!

We got up early the next morning and made it to Berettyóújfalu where we met with our local contacts. The GPS took us right through the heart of Budpest. It was so fun to see all the places we went to before. Shauna's family hadn't been there before so they got a quick tour of the city.

Berettyóújfalu, Hungary

Our local contacts have lived here for 8 years. We went to their house to lay out the plan for the day. They also gathered up a few translators and volunteers and then our 2 families and that was it.

Reorganizing all the boxes into the vans

Ready to go!

Now, I am posting a lot of pictures of the orphanage. I want to remember all their faces but also out of the 120 boxes we collected, close to 70 came from my own family and friends. I want all of you who helped with this to see the impact you had. I literally got goosebumps when I saw one of the kids pull something out of a box that I recognized. Something that one of my dear friends gave to them. It was really hard to not let them see me crying!

Before they opened up their presents though we had all sang Silent Night in Hungarian and then we shared with them the peace light and explained the background of this. Then one of the Hungarian volunteers would call out the name on each of the boxes. As the child would walk forward to get their box she would hand the box to Connor, Aiden, or Whitney for them to hand the box to the other child. It was such a sweet way to transfer the gift and the kids gave them a sweet look or smile and said thank you as they collected their box.

When all the kids had boxes we realized one kid without a box. We made extras just in case that happened! However, there was a new child that had arrived the late night before that no one knew about. Luckily there was an extra soccer ball in one of the cars that we could give him. This was his first day in the orphange.

Then we counted to 3 and everyone ripped into their boxes all at once. The look on their faces was priceless! It was so much fun to watch their faces as they looked at each item in their boxes. Connor described it pretty good when he said "I never felt that happy before". It was a great moment! Jeremy loved walking around and showing all the kids what some of the things in their boxes was, like the etch-a-sketch for example. He saw a group of kids trying to figure out what their glow sticks were. They were using them like swords. Jeremy went over to explain what it was but they didn't understand. So he made it light up and the kids freaked out! They acted like Jeremy had just invented fire or something. It was so fun!

As everyone checked out each other's boxes and played with some of their things many of them were more interested in Whitney. She got so much attention! Especially from one little boy. He was taking care of her and always had one arm around her and made sure no one bumped into her. He asked one of the translators if he could show Whitney his bedroom. The kids and I all went with him to his room. His 2 sisters came with us too. The sisters were 10 and 11. The boy had to ask his caretaker how old he was - she said he was 8. His room had 3 beds back to back with a thin blanket on each bed and no pillow. There was a small closet but one of the kids opened it and there wasn't a single thing in it! There were a few drawings on the wall and then a shelf above each of the beds with a few nick nacks on it. On his shelf were a few stuffed animals. He gave one to Whitney and wanted her to keep it. That was so touching! We stayed in his room for about 20 minutes. Whitney had all the kids laughing so hard. They were hugging, kissing, tickling, laughing and never understood a single word each other said. Kids truly speak the true love of Christ. It was amazing! When we left we got the 3 kids names and address and promised to stay in touch forever.

Saying our final goodbyes

Kocise, Slovakia

After we were done at orphanage we drove about 4 hours to Kocise, Slovakia.

We loved the house Jeremy found for us there!

Whitney loves to go right in and claim her bed first thing!

After getting settled we went out to explore and go to the Christmas Market. Luckily downtown was a very short walk from where we were staying.

Christmas market fare for dinner. Langos for Mama!

Some kind of meat for Jeremy and Connor (which Jeremy said was THE best Christmas Market meal he's ever had)

Doner burritos for Aiden and Whitney. Something for everyone!

The breakfast the next morning was interesting. A bunch a rolls/breadsticks, tons of deli meats, and full sized Mars bars for each of the kids. So funny!

The next morning we drove through Slovakia to our next destination: Krakow, Poland. The kids were SO EXCITED to see our first snowflakes as we were driving through the mountains. There were signs for chains and it started snowing really hard. We started to get a little worried.

As we approached a small town we saw a car that had flipped over.

All the cars started going on a bunch of muddy, narrow, side "roads" so we followed. Luckily, everything turned out ok!

Krakow, Poland

We made it! Again, our apartment there was really nice and funky! We had a huge red beam that went right through the living/dining room area. The kids thought that was awesome!

Once again, Whitney stakes out her territory. She immediately puts her boots away nice and neat...
... and crawls into bed! lol!

After getting settled we went outside to the Christmas market which was literally outside our back window! Great location.

Not a lot of variety for food at this market... meat, meat, and more meat!

Santa was really drunk! He grabbed the kids and insisted on a picture and then opened his bad and kept saying "Money! Money!" After that we saw lots of drunk santas. The kids knew to stay away.

Dinner's served.

There was a long line to get these. 2 of them was 7 Zlotty (which I thought was a lot but turned out to only be $2.00). I had to get a couple to try. We all took a bite and hated it! It was a very strong tasting cheese that was grilled and then you dip it in the jelly. They looked better than they tasted.

I wanted ALL of this! I just love the Polish Pottery!

Connor had to get a real Silver-tail fox tail. Yuck!
Hot nuts! Everyone loves these.

Aiden watched this guy make a sword and initial it. This was his souvenir.

Whitney liked watching this lady making candles. What a long process!

I loved these signs. They were in Slovakia and Poland. There must be a lot of people that are using horses and wagons here.

After the Christmas market all the kids got baths and we pulled out the couch bed so they could all watch Bedtime Stories before bed. What a great day!

Good bye Krakow!

On the way home we set up forts in the van and drove about 12 hours. The kids were surprisingly SO GOOD on the long journey!

A few hours still away from home we saw some more snow. The kids were so excited! We had to let them get out and play in it for a little bit. Sadly, nothing was left by the time we reached our house but they had some good fun in the parking lot.

So, let's review....

Germany to Hungary to Slovakia to Poland and back to Germany all in 4 days in a mini van with 3 kids. Whew....

Now... time to get ready for Christmas!

W42 of Y3

2011-12-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

St. Nikolaus Day

This day always sneaks up on me. I guess it's because we never even heard of this day before moving to Germany so I always forget when it is. Fortunately, the kids are reminded by their teachers and friends at school and don't let me forget. I'm guessing this will be one thing from Germany that we will have to continue after moving back to the US.

Santa's workshop

I took the kids (plus Whitney's BFF) to Santa's Workshop at the library to do some crafts.

The boys were trying to act cool and pretend they were miserable being there but I caught them getting into it a few times... hee hee!

Lizzy was concentrating really hard!

Whitney was so mad that her gingerbread house wasn't working right! She wouldn't even look at the camera! lol!

Everything else that I didn't get pictures of this week:

Getting ready to go to the Orphanage this week
Christmas shopping
Wrapping gifts
Making cookies
Jeremy singing 'O Holy Night' at church

Such a busy and FUN time of year!!

W41 of Y3

2011-12-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

Whitney's Kindergarten had a little Christmas market at the school

We went to go see Santa (the same one for the last 3 years) at the Christmas Market on base in Heidelberg, but the boys refused to sit on his lap. (Sniff) The first year I don't have a picture of them with Santa. Now I just have to figure out how to keep Whitney little forever!

Scouts

We are collecting 120 shoebox-sized bins full of presents to take to an Orphanage in Hungary for Christmas. Saturday was our big collection day for the bins. We have to go through the bins and make sure everything is ok in them and then add to it with other bulk-sized donations that we recieved. Then we wrap them and organized them by which house the child lives in. It's actually quite a process. The TV station was going to be there to make a commercial spot that day so everyone was all dressed up in their uniforms. The guy called and was sick so everyone was dressed up all day for nothing. The boys looked so nice though.

It was a long day. We ended up spending almost 9 hours there but we got a lot done and the kids were so good and actually had a lot of fun.

W40 of Y3

2011-11-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day was spent watching movies, eating snacks, and playing games all day while I cooked.

The turkey was finally done!

Buffet style!

Thanksgiving dinner.... SO GOOD!

Our guests: One of my co-workers, Rich and his son David

and Amelia, an friend of Katheryn's who is also an aupair about 5 minutes away

The next day we brought up all the Christmas bins first thing. The boys were so excited to decorate. They did almost all of it all by themselves!

Whitney just played with the decorations

She did help Katheryn put together the nativity... kind of.

Our first Christmas Market of the season: Frankfurt!

HEAVEN!

That night Jeremy and I went to the Christmas Market in Hemsbach. I felt a little guilty being there without the kids. It was nice to take our time walking through all the booths though. The Christmas Markets in Germany will be one of the things a miss the most this time next year!

W39 of Y3

2011-11-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

One thing that Jeremy has wanted to do ever since we moved here was to see a live soccer game. He had tickets for the 2 of us to go for this game for months. When the game finally gets here it just happens to be on the same night of Connor's end-of-the-football-season party. So, we had to split up. Aiden took my ticket and the two of them had a special time seeing the soccer game together.

Whitney and I went to Connor's party. We were in London when the team played in the Superbowl and WON!!! So it was fun to hear all about it at the party. I felt bad that Connor missed that game.

One of the parents video taped every game and several practices. They played a great video of all the highlights of the year. Everyone really enjoyed that!

Each of the coaches said a few words about their players. Connor's coach said that he was one of the most improved players that he has ever coached. Connor didn't know a thing about football before he started and at the end of the season his coach said he was one of the most knowledgeable players on the team. He said no one ever needed to tell Connor twice who his man was. lol. He also pointed out that Connor was a 4th grader playing on a team with mostly 6th graders who had a couple years experience already and that he held is own very well. I was hesitant to let Connor play this year, but I'm really glad I did. It turned out to be a great experience for him.

One last battle song in the microphone.

W38 of Y3

2011-11-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

London

We finally made it to the UK!

After a VERY early flight we were on the bus from the airport into the city.

After getting to the city, the first item of business was figuring out the tube. At first it was just a big mess but we actually started getting pretty good at it.

Waiting for our train

The phone booth outside our hotel

Waiting for Daddy to check us in. We finally made it!!

We were all starving!!! The restaurant down the street from our hotel had cartoon network... in English! The kids didn't say a word all through the meal.

Fish-n-chips and mushy peas of course!

After lunch we took a taxi downtown to Piccadilly Circus, the Times Square of London.

This was one of the kids favorite shops for obvious reasons!

After buying some tickets to a show that night everyone was exhausted so we went back to the hotel for naps. The hotel was fabulous!! If anyone is looking for a great place to stay in London let me know!!

It was time to get up and get ready for the show. Whitney was SO tired and did not want to wake up so I put her in the bath thinking that would wake her up. I was standing at the sink getting ready and looked down to see she had fallen back to sleep in the tub. Poor girl!

The show was in Oxford. They had their Christmas lights up already. It was beautiful!

We decided on The Wizard of Oz. We thought it was one that all the kids (and us) would like - and we DID!!! The kids will tell you this was one of the biggest highlights of the trip!! Watching them in pure fascination at the show was the highlight of my trip!!

Checking out the orchestra before the show starts

There was a scene when the good witch made it snow in the show. Then it started snowing in the audience. The snow was pouring down on us!! The kids thought that was so amazing!!

The next morning we all woke up to a hot breakfast. Jeremy had snuck out and went to the Greek market next door to buy food and made eggs and pita bread before anyone woke up!

Walking through one of the MANY beautiful parks. I was surprised to see so many great parks while we were here. The fall leaves were gorgeous!

I had to take a picture of my cell phone!! Right when I looked down it was 11:11 on 11/11/11.

First stop was Buckingham Palace. We got there in time to see the changing of the guard - but so did thousands of other people!! I think it was extra crowded because it was England's veterans day this weekend too. It was really crowded! The crowd itself was a sight to be seen.

Big Ben! The weather was great the entire time we were in London. It was chilly and a little foggy at times but it wasn't too cold and never rained. Aiden insisted on just wearing a sweatshirt instead of his winter coat and ended up wearing my scarf with it later.
Occupy London

The London Eye in the background

Sandwiches for lunch

The London Eye and Big Ben together

Lots of activity by the Eye

The boys really wanted to go inside this "haunted house" but after looking inside decided they did not want to go. lol!

These pigeons stole Whitney's waffle!!

One of the MANY street performers

We took a Thames River boat cruise from Westminster to Greenwich where we were so excited to see our friends there!

Going under the London Bridge

Sipping on some hot cocoa at Starbucks while we waited for our friends to arrive

The boys are finally reunited!! They are wearing their school uniforms and look so grown up!

They treated us to a magic show that night

We had authentic, homemeade Paella for dinner and it was AMAZING!! Everyone loved it. The kids got a lesson about how to eat the shrimp. It was a great night!

Walking to the bus

Always racing everywhere we went

Waiting for the bus to take us to the museums: National Science Museum and Natural History Museum

After spending ALL DAY at the museums (and still didn't see half of everything!!) We walked down to Harrods.

Everything was quite fancy!!

A statue of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed: "Innocent Victims".

They had a huge section just for Harry Potter

Taking the tube back home. The kids were experts at getting around by the end of our trip. They liked all the TV's all the way down the escalator.

That night we all went to a Turkish restaurant down the street for dinner. Great food, Great friends, Great time!!

The next morning we went to the Greenwich market and the old Royal Naval College where a lot of movies are filmed

The boys started wrestling and Whitney jumps on the top of the pile! I love it!

National Maritime Museum

Leaving their mark in the world

The Greenwich Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World, making it the official starting point for each new day and year!!

We went to see Tin Tin in 3D for one last activity together

A quick bite at Pizza Hut before rushing off to the airport. Connor and Aiden have decided these boys are their new "brothers". They both cried all the way to the airport after saying goodbye. We just love the entire family and can't wait to see them again soon.

W37 of Y3

2011-11-06T10:29:00.001-08:00

Halloween was on Monday but all the festivities took place over the weekend. So on Monday the school had a hat parade. The kids had to decorate a hat for whatever vocabulary word they wanted.

Connor's word was hunter

Aiden's was jungle

Jack o lantern burgers, mummy dogs, and bloody fingers that night for dinner

Dirt for dessert!!

Followed by a little Halloween Bingo!!

Play-Offs

Saturday was the play-offs to see what 2 teams would play in the superbowl next week. The boys practice hard all week long.

I worked in the concession stand the first half of the game

These 2 played in leaves for most of the game

THEY WON!!!! They are playing in the superbowl next week!!

We're so proud of you Connor!!!

W36 of Y3

2011-10-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

Since Halloween falls on a Monday this year we celebrated Friday AND Saturday instead.

Mannheim Fall Fest

Friday we went to the Mannheim Fall Fest which included trunk or treating, cake walks, bobbing for apples and bananas, cookie decorating, bouncy houses, haunted houses and MORE! It was a good time for everyone!

Scream ghost, Foofa, and a dead football player

Ready for trunk or treaters

Connor did his own nails!!

Waiting in line for the haunted house... which was actually pretty scary!

When the fest was over they lit up a "stage" and played music on the sound system so all the kids could dance. All 3 of them were right in the middle dancing away. I was having so much fun watching them I didn't want to run back to the van to get my camera. I was wishing I could keep that memory of them dancing and laughing and having so much fun forever.
It was a beautiful night!

Saturday we started the day out by seeing the new Spy Kids Movie

After the movie we went trick or treating in Heidelberg. Only half of the costumes made it for the second night. One of Connor's friends on the football team joined us.

There were A LOT of kids trick or treating! There was actually a line at most of the houses.

After trick or treating Jeremy and the boys went through the haunted house and then we walked back to the car cutting through the big playground that was completely dark and empty. The boys thought it was soooo fun to climb up the structures and go down the slides in the dark. Whitney didn't like it so much.

Overall it was a great Halloween weekend... and it's not even Halloween yet!

W34&35 of Y3

2011-10-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

I got a little behind on my blogging since our trip to Copenhagen. It has been a beautiful past couple of weeks here in Germany. Perfect Fall weather!

The day after we got back from Denmark Whitney celebrated her best friends birthday at the local park. These 2 have such an adorable friendship.

Does life get any better than this? Rolling down a hill with your best friend, on a beautiful Fall day, without a care in the world. I hope Whitney never grows up!

Football
Yes, it's still taking over our lives!! I complain about it more than Connor does though. In fact, I've never once heard him complain about it. He plays 4 nights a week in the dark, plus a Saturday game, he's covered in bruises, he doesn't get to watch tv or play video games anymore because he barely has time to do homework when he's not playing, but he never complains. I'm really seeing a different side of him since football started and it's been very positive. He wants to make his coaches happy and he doesn't want to let his team down. I'm so proud of him!

Getting bunny ears from his team mate

After each game all the parents make a tunnel for kids and coaches to run through

Aiden and Whitney were so excited to play on the field after all the players were cleared.

I barely recognize Connor with all of his gear on. He looks so grown up and handsome!

This game sealed the deal for play-offs. Connor was so happy!

Waiting to eat the caramel apples! These guys make everything so fun!!

The second week I was out of town for work... :(
It was fun hanging out with my colleagues but I missed my babies terribly.

I made it back in time to see my little Aiden performing in his Spanish concert with his class at school.

Carving Pumpkins
It is finally time for the annual carving of pumpkins... always fun!

Instead of carving a pumpkin I made a pumpkin cake for dessert. Whitney helped me decorate.

My little snuggle bug. I love her!

Aiden was taking his pumpking carving very serious! Both of the boys insisted on doing their pumpkins all by themself. 100%!

All the pumpkins turned out great. I was so impressed with how good the boys did on their pumpkins! Fall has GOT to be the best season of all.

W33 of Y3

2011-10-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

Denmark (and a little of Sweden)

We finally made the trip to Copenhagen over Columbus day weekend!! My best friend from College lives there. I've always known we would see her and her family while we were living in Europe... I just didn't know it would take us SO LONG to make it up there! Copenhagen was nice, but seeing all of them was really the highlight!

It's about a 12 hour drive (with kids) so we split up the trip on the way there. We stayed outside of Hamburg the first night.

Outside the hotel room. I love Fall!

We had to take a Ferry from Germany to Denmark

Seriously? We are in the middle of the Baltic Sea and they want to play the same video game they've been playing for the last 8 hours.

Thank goodness they had a vending machine selling sardines in case you got hungry on the boat!

After the ferry ride we still had a couple of hours to get to Copenhagen (or Kobenhavn). The weather was exactly as I had expected it for some reason. But, luckily this was the only time during the whole trip that it was actually raining. We lucked out with the weather!

We were surprised to see 7-11's and then realized they were everywhere here!

We made it! Aiden with their cute little boy. These two were buddies all weekend.

Whitney loved their little girl!!

And so did I!

They watched movies every night on the little DVD screen.

Copenhagen

Our day to tour Copenhagen was a little disappointing. We had planned to spend most of the day at Tivoli, see the gardens, and go to the amusement park. We looked it up ahead of time online and saw the hours, etc... the boys looked at a map of the amusement park and got really excited for it!

Then... we get there and it's closed this week so they can decorate it for Halloween! We were so bummed. We had to regroup and quickly think of a new plan. The problem was that we already parked the car by Tivoli so we were limited.

Trying to put on a happy face

The birds helped to cheer the kids up.

French hotdogs were a hit (their version of pigs in a blanket)... those were real smiles!

Stroget

Copenhagen's famous pedestrian street and the longest in Europe!
** on a side note: everyone here really does have blond hair and blue eyes! We fit right in.

Home of the Legos

They were filming some kind of a show right here on the water.

We decided to take a canal tour on the Nyhaven

These are restaurants that the water goes right up to

The little mermaid statue - a Copenhagen icon

Church of our Savior. I would have loved to have been able to climb to the top and see the view.

The tunnels were just barely big enough for the boats to pass through

This was a great way to see Copenhagen. Really beautiful!

More walking and eating on Stroget. I had the best waffle here!

We had to go back to The Little Mermaid to get a picture of Whitney with her!
The mute swan is the national bird and symbol of Denmark

Frilandsmuseet

This is one of the largest and oldest (opened in 1897) open-air museums in the world! It consists of old buildings, homes, etc.. from all regions of Denmark dating from 1650-1950. All the buildings were moved here piece by piece, except for a windmill which is still in the original spot. It was really interesting... even the kids were into it.

This pose was totally their idea!

Doesn't she look like a little Danish girl here from the 1600's? (except for the clothes)

In front of the original windmill

A beautiful rainbow!!

Whitney begged me to take a picture of her being a jaguar! So cute.

Later that night back at home. These 2 got a little closer... :)

Vick served the most delicious dessert. It's a unique "cake" that this guy has gotten famous (and rich) in Denmark from. It was so good!

My sweet friends. They are making American pancakes with real maple syrup just for us.

Malmo, Sweden

The next day we decided to take the longest road and rail bridge in Europe, the Oresund to Sweden for the day.

As you're crossing the bridge you pass by an off-shore windmill park. Denmark is actually the worlds biggest producer of wind power and gets more than 20% of it's electricity from wind power!

We are now in Sweden! (or Sverige)

The view of Malmo from the bridge and you can see the famous Turning Torso, the tallest skyscraper in Sweden

Connor taking a drink from the fountain

Mexican for lunch... in Sweden? Why not?

It was soooo good!

TGIF!!

I sooooo want one of these!

That night... hot dogs! Just like Ikea's.

My friend, Vick, and I went out to eat at an Indian restaurant (our favorite tradition from college) and on the way home we stopped by the LDS temple in Copenhagen.

The next day we took a nice stroll through one of the most beautiful forests I've ever been to.

People here have money!

It was surreal to be walking in the forest with my dear friend again but this time with husbands and kids in tow. It was good to see that our friendship hadn't changed even though everything else had!

Vikings museum in Roskilde

We spent the afternoon learning all about Vikings. This was definitely one of the biggest highlights for the boys. We all learned a lot about the Vikings.

They found 5 Viking ships dating back around 800-1100 at the bottom of the sea and had them on display (as well as they could put them together). They actually built a boat that looked exactly like one of them and sailed from Roskilde to Dublin and back in it. This is a model of that boat.

One of the original ships found

Picking out souvenirs from the gift shop

This was a culture shock - in Denmark the babies ALL sleep outside for naps. At the daycares all the strollers are outside at naptime. Outside restaurants the babies are all outside and the Moms are inside having lunch. There are baby monitors in the buggies so the Moms can hear when they wake up. Apparently the fresh air keeps them healthy all through the year... even in the dead of winter!

Bath time!

"Turn left and get on the boat"

One last Danish danish

Saying good bye to Denmark... I hope to see you again soon!

W32 of Y3

2011-10-02T10:56:00.001-07:00

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY!!!

His birthday started off with the traditional face breakfast

Then, McD's for lunch with his friends

Had to stay for Connor's lunch too so included a pic of him with his friends too

PRESENTS!!!

The Birthday Party!

Then the Birthday Party the next day. Aiden said that all he really wanted to do was play a game of baseball for his party. So, we played baseball, kickball, balloon games, mother may I, and red light green light. We had great weather and so much fun!

I don't think I've ever seen Whitney's face so dirty in my life!!

Baptism Day

Aiden got a leather briefcase (that locks) for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Cates. That was at the top of his birthday wish list and he carried it all day on his baptism. He thought he was so grown up!

He got baptized with another little girl in his class.

We felt a little bad because the other girl who got baptized had both sets of grandparents who flew from the US to Germany just for her baptism. She also had several friends, neighbors, etc... that came. We didn't really have anyone else besides our family coming but we invited our friends from the German ward - and they all turned out for Aiden. He felt so special that they all came to see him be baptized. It was so wonderful to see them all there!

awwww.... Both of the boys got new suits from Grandma and Grandpa Cook. They looked so handsome!

My 3 boys!

Whitney loves "cars what have no roof". Brother Lorz gave her a ride around the parking lot in theirs. She thought it was so cool!

Ice cream with daddy after the baptism

We love you Aiden!!!

W31 of Y3

2011-09-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-18T12:40:00.001-07:00

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!