week 21 and 22

This is Jeremy writing. Movie reference: What About Bob - "I SAIL!"

And now... I BLOG! I'm hijacking Amy's blog to write a quick update because we're getting a lot of noise from readers wondering what's going on and why there wasn't a normal Sunday blog post with lots of pics. We've been pretty busy as of late. Not that we aren't always busy, but Amy's been pretty sick with the flu, and it's taking a lot out of her. She's also been pretty busy with trying to get ready to start work. There are a million forms and applications to fill out and complete. We've also been getting ready for my Mom to come for her visit! She actually arrived this morning. I went to pick her up in Frankfurt, and she is now currently recovering from jetlag.

For those of you worried that you're not seeing new posts because Amy made her blog private, not to worry. We haven't gone private yet... it's just that she hasn't completed any new posts. I think she may do one more post, and then go private.

That's it for now. I may write in the future, or Amy might ban me for life from her blog! She doesn't know I'm writing this. I'm anxious to see her reaction when she sees that I posted!

Week 20

This week was consumed by Potty Training!!! I started on Monday sitting Whitney on the potty and entertaining her for HOURS with not one single drop until Saturday! Uggg!!
I'm not quite sure that she's getting it, but she sure was proud of herself.

Hand me down underwear from her brothers. Sad, huh?

Other highlights from this week was that I was offered a JOB! This was quite surprising actually since I wasn't really looking for a job. I thought I might do something in the fall when the boys went back to school and we had an Au Pair here with Whitney. I heard about an interesting position and inquired about it. Was asked to come to a couple of interviews. Thinking it would be a good networking opportunity I went and ended up getting the job. I still don't know what I think about going back to work. hmmm.....
The job is Health Promotions Officer for the Army in Heidelberg and Stuttgart. It sounds really interesting and will prove to be very challenging I think. The worst part is I have to go to Arkansas for 2 weeks for training in August!
The good part is that Jeremy's Mom is coming here for the whole month of August to help with the kids until they start school and until we get an Au Pair... hopefully by the end of the month. I wasn't expecting to start working so soon but felt like I should take the opportunity while I had the chance. I am just sooooo grateful for Jeremy's Mom to be willing and able to come here so soon and for so long. THANK YOU SHERI!!!

As a side note I've decided to make this blog private. I know it can be a pain for some that want to view the blog that don't have access, but after seeing the way in which some readers gain entry to the blog, I've decided that private is the way to go. If you would like to continue to read this blog post a comment and include your email address. Thanks for your understanding!

Week 19

Sunny and hot every day this week. Perfect for going to the lake!!

We were all so proud of Aiden this week. Monday we took his new bike out (sans training wheels) for the first time. He was really mad at Jeremy for insisting that the training wheels come off and he cried the whole way to the bike path because he was so scared to ride the bike. However, He got on and just took off! He had a few falls in the beginning but ended up riding all the way to the lake and back (5 miles) on his first day!!




He did have to walk his bike up the hills though. Connor was nice to walk his bike with him.


We had to celebrate by stopping at the bakery to get everyone their fave's. Connor likes the croissants, Whitney always gets a pretzel, and Aiden loves the damfnudels!

Loving Aiden's bike helmet hair!!!

Had to throw this one in there too!!

One day this week we took the Elders on base to do some (American) grocery shopping.
The boys just LOVE these guys! They are really awesome!!

Jeremy had Friday off so he got to go to the lake with us finally!!
There is also an outdoor swimming pool right next to the lake. It's small but the water is warm and it's a nice change sometimes.


When in Germany... do as the Germans...

I always take Whitney to the lake with swim diapers and swim suit, however, I noticed none of the German kids have anything on! So... I decided to follow suit and strip her down to get cleaned up in the shower.

The boys were having a lot of fun in the shower. Connor might as well be naked too since his swim suit will never stay up!


4th OF JULY

Here are some wasting-time pictures that Jeremy took while everyone was waiting on me to get ready.

Yes... Whitney has blue fingernail polish on for the holiday
(they match Mommy's toes!!)

(Thanks for the socks for Connor Mom!)

We went to one of the Military bases in Mannheim for the 4th. First on our agenda was playing on the soccer field. One of our favorite spots!!


Next we met up with the Missionaries (6 of them) and we all went to Burger King for whoopers (as Connor calls them).


Then we were off to the rides....



This poor guy should NOT have gone on this ride right after Burger King!! He had to pray to the porcelain God afterwards. :(

Poor little Aiden... Jeremy was laughing sooo loud. I could hear him over all the screaming and music. He doesn't laugh like that often enough! I love it. :)

I thought Connor had peed his pants until I realized everyone had wet pants. I am pretty sure it was from the rain earlier.

Whitney was so funny on this ride. She never stopped turning the steering wheel back and forth. I think she really thought she was driving the train. She was taking her "job" very seriously.


This is more Aiden's speed...
Games and Cotton Candy!!!
After the carnival the Missionaries all came back to our place for a BBQ.

They taught the boys self-defense while Jeremy grilled all the meat! lol!
The boys were loving it!


We had a great week and a Wunderbar 4th of July!!! We did miss fireworks though.... They didn't start until 10:45 at night. We intended on going but around 9:30-ish we could tell that the boys would never have made it. We had a pretty full day and everyone (including ME!!) was exhausted. It was a great day though and we were really grateful to have the US Military so close. It was a fitting place to be on our Independence Day!

Week 18

Jeremy was in Italy all week for work so it was just me and the kiddo's all week. We didn't do a whole lot. The boys just wanted to ride bikes every day. We got Connor a bike last weekend but they didn't have Aiden's size, so Aiden and Whitney rode in the trailer behind me. Connor had to re-learn how to ride again but did great!!! We rode on our usual bike path to the lake. It was overcast all week but still warm enough to swim. We had so much fun! It's suppose to be in the high 80's and sunny all this week and we got Aiden a bike finally yesterday. So.... I suspect we'll be going to lake every day this week. Here are some pics from this week:

Week 17

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

A BIG Happy Father's Day to all of you Fathers. Especially to my own Father and to my Father-in-Law, both Wonderful Fathers. Also to my husband, Jeremy, the best Father for my kids that I could have asked for. He is such a wonderful Dabo (as the boys like to call him) - in their eyes he can do NO wrong! He always puts his family first and makes sure that the kids and I have everything we need. He works hard to support us and then comes home at night and does laundry and dishes. We take turns putting the boys or Whitney to bed at night. The boys LOVE it when it's their turn for Dabo to put them down. They love having his attention, he makes them feel so special. When he's at work they all (even Whitney) ask about him all the time, because they are thinking about him. He plans the best trips/vacations for us no matter how stressful things are. Thanks for being such a great Father, I love you sweetie.

Speaking of those fun vacations....

We just got back from a fun vacation to Garmisch, Germany which is in the Bavarian Alps - near the Austrian border. We stayed at a beautiful resort. The scenery was breathtaking! The trip was about 5 hours to get there, not too bad, but we still got a little stir crazy from being in the van for so long.



This picture was actually taken in Austria on the drive down. My camera isn't that good so it was frustrating I could capture exactly what we were seeing.


Finally we arrived! The resort is only a few years old. It was built for the US Military and just about everyone there was American... even the workers. So we felt right at home!
Our room - the kids loved that it opened up to a little yard area. It was perfect.


Jeremy told me about a gorge that is a popular tourist attraction. I saw pictures of it and it looked so fun to walk through and I knew the kids would love it. I took the boys while Jeremy stayed at the room with Whitney for a nap. It was only suppose to be a 20 min hike to get through the gorge. So, I get to the place and tell the guy we want to hike in the gorge. He charges me 15 Euro which seemed like a lot for just a little hike, but I pay it. Then he tells me (in German) to get on this cable car that was really, really little and scary looking. We all get in and are completely confused why we need to get in a cable car. The cable car takes about 15-20 min taking us up this HUGE mountain. We are high in the sky and I'm freaking out. Oh yeah, and there isn't ANYONE around!!! We finally see a building and we stop. There is another guy (who only speaks German) at this stop who helps us out of the cable car. After we get out I turn around to ask him where the heck we are and how do we get down, but he has vanished! So... all alone on the top of this mountain the boys and I start walking. lol! It took us 2 hours to get back to our van. We never did see the gorge. :(

In the cable car. I'm sitting across from Connor with our knees touching. Aiden is on my lap.

In the distance you can see that we are eye level with the clouds! OMG!



The walk was beautiful. I had bought ponchos for the gorge because they said you get really wet there. As you can see, we are still wearing the ponchos because I was still thinking that we were going to see the gorge. lol!

My little animal lover! Aiden found a caterpillar. Towards the end of our hike he didn't care if he ever saw another caterpillar, slug, or snail. They were everywhere!

It was kinda weird that we kept seeing these crosses along the way. The boys didn't like them.

They're getting tired of me taking pics. lol!

In the middle of no where we would see these little huts. go figure!

The boys were really excited when we came upon a little fenced in area with some baby goats. I wasn't paying attention but I guess Aiden must have touched the fence at one point because Connor went to try and pet one of the goats and Aiden yelled "NO! Don't touch it Connor! I touched the fence with my forehead and it shocked me!" Now THAT would have been a good picture. Poor little guy!

We heard some really loud bells ringing and couldn't figure out what it was. After we got closer we saw it was a bunch of sheep in the field. We couldn't believe how loud those bells were.

No one tried to touch the fence around these guys! We had so much fun watching them play though.

So when we finally reach the bottom of the mountain I notice this sign posted. It looks like these are all the different paths that we could have taken on this mountain. It is a total miracle that we made it down in one piece without getting lost!

That night we got a babysitter from the resort for the kids. Totally worth it!

Jeremy and I walked to the downtown plaza that is lined with beautiful buildings and restaurants. We decided on this one (Alpinehof), but when we went in we couldn't find anywhere to sit. They don't have hostess at German restaurants that seat you. Jeremy asked one of the waitresses if there was anywhere else to sit. She took us outside and told us to sit at this table with another couple already sitting there. This is a common thing in Germany apparently. It turned out that the couple spoke enough English for us to communicate and we all laughed so hard all night. It was really quite fun.



The next day the boys went to the Adventure Kids Club where they got on a bus that took them all to a reptile zoo, the rode a boat on the river, they fed them lunch and entertained them all day! The boys loved it. Whitney was too little so she went to a little preschool with other kids her age. The teachers said they were all really surprised at how happy she was and she transitioned really well there. Whitney would love to go to a preschool everyday. She is so social!

Jeremy and I had our own Adventures without the kids this day. It was SO wonderful!
We took a bus to a small village and visited a local cheese factory. We saw the cows that made the milk, we saw how they turned the milk into cheese and then we ate A LOT of cheese and yogurt. It was great!


They treat their cows really well here. They actually get a summer "vacation" where they go way up in the mountains somewhere all summer without milking. At the end of the summer they dress them up with flowers and parade them through town. They have a very natural diet which makes the milk, cheese, yogurt, etc... very healthy.


The cheese factory

The village of Ettal. So charming!

After the cheese factory we went to a working Monastery. You can click on the link if you're interested in the history of this Monastery. It was quite incredible. The Monastery itself was beautiful.

I had to take a picture of some real Monks! lol!

After the tour of the Monastery everyone went to buy some beer or Snapps brewed and bottled by the Monks. Here's Jeremy trying to decide what kind of Snapps to try. ha ha!

If you asked the boys what their favorite part of the vacation was it goes in this order:

#3 - the babysitter
#2 - their Adventure Club day without Mom and Dad
#1 - SWIMMING!!! Every day!

Other favoites...

cuddling outside late at night


The scenery of the majestic Bavarian Alps right outside our window!

This trip is definitely going down as our favorite so far. What a great way to start the summer!!