Fun things to do in the Neighborhood

Just recently we had some friends' children come and stay with us for a few days. This was a great opportunity to do some fun things. We went to the local dinosaur park in Kaiserslautern. They were starting to put out their fall decorations, and it was really impressive. They made a Noah's Ark with animals two by two made with all different types of squash. This park has really incredible play areas for children. I didn't say they were safe--just fun!! You will notice that Cooper didn't have any hesitation going up in a fun tree house or down a two story slide. We also went to the local zoo. It had a fun bird show and reptile house. The favorite thing was the petting area. They had these small goats that you could go in and feed. There wasn't anyone there to help or instruct, only a food machine with a 20 cent Euro sign. Of course, I didn't have a 20 cent Euro piece. I had a 10 cent, 50 cent, 1 Euro, and 2 Euro, but no 20 cent. Well, don't let that stop us.... we fed the animals foliage from beside the enclosure. We had a moment of goat wrangling when a few of the goats escaped. Cooper and Hadley were impressed that their mom could wrangle goats.

Penguins out of acorn squash

I'm not sure the kind of squash but I loved this elephant

Camel out of butternut squash. My initial thought was how many pounds of squash were used. We love to eat butternut squash in our home...

Noah's Ark

The children liked to roll down this hill. They had a lot of fun but I'm afraid the clothes may never be the same.

Oink Oink

Crazy Robot Treehouse. Yes, both Hadley and Cooper got up to the top by themselves. They did however require a little help getting down.

Cooper peeking out from the Robot's eye.

It took every ounce of my strength to let my little man climb up to this slide and go down all by himself. Let me tell you it was hard to get him to leave. He must of gone down it 10 times.

Sand is always a favorite with our children. Cooper just loves these digging machines. I have never seen these in the states...

So cute..

At the zoo they had a digging machine that was automated. I gave each of the children a 50 cent Euro to ride one thing. Cooper chose this which was no surprise. Oh, do you think they look like brothers?? I couldn't believe how similar they looked in this picture.

Bird show... The children were able to pet the owl.

There is the food to feed the goats. I will remember to take a 20 cent piece with me next time.

Another fun ride at the zoo

I need to do better with ordering my pictures... Oh well, here is a picture of Hadley feeding the goats.

We had such a good time at the park and zoo. We plan to go back again for the Fall Festival/Halloween in October.

Our trip to Neuschwanstein Castle

Yesterday we spent the day visiting the Schloss Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. This is one of the castles that the Cindarella's Castle at Disneyland was patterned after. It was built by Ludwig II. We took a guided tour and it was lots of fun. I had Grant in a carrier on my back due to ~188 steps we went up while in the castle. The children did really well on the entire trip. On the way home we stopped to get gas with our Military gas card ( you can only use in Germany) and realized we were in Austria. We got a good laugh.... not many times in life do you not know what country you are in! Oh, the pictures are a little out of order, but I will work to fix them on another day.

This is a picture Alan took from a bridge not too far away.

Cooper having fun on the bridge. There was a waterfall and running water under the bridge.

It began to rain on our way out and so glad we had an umbrella!

O.k. so I'm not going to get skinny living here. This is the world's largest pretzel. I LOVE the pretzels here. Alan, joked that we almost made it out without buying anything, and then I had to have the pretzel. Hadley and I are the snackers in our little family.

View of the Schloss Hohenschwangau from a window in the castle.

View of the bridge from the castle. This is the bridge we were on in early pictures.

A view from inside one of the courtyards.

Just outside the entrance to the castle.

Entrance to the castle.

Outside view of the castle before entrance

We took a horse and buggy to up to the castle. The children thought it was really fun!!

Once you get up to the castle it is still a little jaunt straight uphill. Cooper was such a trooper, he didn't want any help at all going up. People walking by were really impressed.

A view of the children in the van when we arrived. We left really early that morning and just left Grant in his pajamas until we arrived. He is sooo cute!!

This is out of context but this is my first batch of homemade bread since arriving. Only 3 loaves will fit in our oven. The children had 1/2 loaf eaten before the day was out.

Free at Last Free at Last

Last Wednesday Alan passed his driving test and on Monday I passed the driving test here in Germany. We are now officially legal to drive!!!!! Yeah. Our van finally arrived and we bought a second car for Alan to drive on Monday. It feels so good to have my freedom back. Alan is now back at work everyday and the kids and I are settling into a routine of sorts..... Our household goods will arrive on August 3rd and then drum roll please..... we will be really moved in. I will have more pictures soon of Alan's new/old car. It is a 1995 BMW and probably the first and last one we will own : ) Life is Good!!

Our first castle

Entrance to the Burg Nanstein.

Overlooking the city of Landstuhl from the top of the castle.

The dungeon. Grant was completely unafraid and quite content to remain as long as was needed; Hadley and Cooper, on the other hand, could not wait to leave.

Home Sweet Home

This is the mailbox of our new home in Germany. The owner loves motorcycles and thought this was pretty stylish! This is actually a US postal service box kind of funny, not at all like the ones on most of the German houses. We have no idea how he acquired this?? This is actually the side he wants to move into once we move out, so he is fixing it up to suit his taste. Who knows we may become fond of this and do it in our next home.

This is the picture of the big yellow house (we think a more melon color) that we live in . We live on the right side and there is a garage you can't see off to the side. There is a small yard and patio in the back. There are really pretty bricks that make up the front drive. You can notice that most of the windows are all covered with metal shades, not attractive, but super useful! We would however love screens to keep the bugs out.

For the first week here we didn’t have any furniture or toys. You really had to be creative in how you did things. We didn’t break open our new package of paper towels because it was our table. Our new laundry baskets were lounging chairs for the children during quiet time. The stroller served as a high chair for Grant and a place to put the DVD player. We have to give a special thank you to a friend of mine who sent us with a bag full of toys from the dollar store. They have been a huge help!!

Germany update

Hi everyone - just an update on our first week in Germany. We now live in a big yellow house. Kind of funny how unattractive the outside is ... The inside is really nice however : ) We have spent the first week doing errands each and every day. Getting things set up for our house, appointments to get a German drivers license, inprocessing for Alan, etc ... The weather here is interesting, the hottest part of the day is from about 4 to 7 pm, and it doesn't get really dark until after 10:00 pm. It has taken a little adjusting for the children to go to bed when it is still so light outside. We went to the BX/PX last Saturday and in the bike/toy section we struck up a conversation with a couple that happened to be members of the church; it is such a small world, especially in the church!!!

We received our temporary furniture and can't wait to get our own things. I can, however, appreciate having a chair to sit upon and a table to eat on, since we went a week without one. Our next-door neighbor has really taken care of us. She let us use one of their cars for the first weekend, stocked our kitchen before we arrived, had blow up beds ready and a roast in the crockpot on arrival. I can't wait to pay it forward to another person that is moving here in the future.

My notes on Germany and how sometimes it can be a little strange and some new fun ways to learn German. (Please note these are mostly household things : ))

1. No disposal - WHY WHY WHY - we have to put all of our compost food items in a bin to recycle. We also have mandatory plastic, paper recycling and are given a tiny trash can for other things that don't fit into the other categories. I am all for a greener planet, but I just want to throw something away without having to decipher what can to put it in ...

2. No air conditioning - we have had some hot days and that is probably enough said. The buildings are incredibly energy efficient and stay relatively cool if you keep the metal shades closed during the day. We also have four desk fans going in the house. There aren't any screens on the windows, but the metal shades are fabulous; you can black out any room in the house if you want to. Yeah!!! for good nap times. I will send post pictures soon.

3. No ceiling fans - just seems like a good thing if you live without air conditioning : ) We have asked the owner if we buy them would he install them. I only found really ugly brass/white ones at the BX, but we are going to look out in some German stores and find some fans : )

4. Washer/Dryers - as stated above we got a new set and they are so slow. I just want to wash and dry my clothes in a reasonable amount of time. We had to get a condenser dryer so it limits what we can do. ... I will be so thankful in a few years to have the biggest and most efficient washer/dryer that is on the market. Don't give me jewelry; just appliances that really work.

5. Three small refrigerators - we now are the proud users of three small refrigerators. I am not complaining, but it just seems really crazy. The built in fridge is the size of a dorm fridge in college, without the freezer. One was left in the in basement from the former tenants, and the Army gave us another one to use. Eventually I will have a system as to what will go in which fridge.

6. To say "see ya later" in German you say "tschuss" which sounds like "juice". It sounds a little funny hearing Hadley say "bye [pause] juice" to everyone. She is so friendly and has already met some new friends. We walked down to the local grocery store and I decided to learn one new word a day and we found out that strawberry is erdbarre in German. I'm not sure if that is spelled right, but that is how you say it. The German woman who told me was so very nice. I took the children around to all the things with strawberries in them and we practiced saying it.

7. I am looking forward to going to the German preschool next week sometime to see if Hadley and Cooper will have a spot in the fall. The idea is to help them learn German as soon as possible. I am going to sign up for language classes through the USO soon; that is as soon as our van arrives. I will keep you posted.

Well, I will post some pictures soon of our new place and the childrens' crazy antics :)

Graduation from fellowhship

On June 18th Alan graduated from his Neurophysiology fellowship. It actually feels like we have all now graduated from his fellowship... His parents and brother were able to attend on their way up north on vacation. I am so incredibly proud of him and his accomplishments. He has been single minded in his determination to learn everything he can to be able to help others.

Alan and I on the shuttle bus on the way to the Strathmore Music Hall. He is wearing the new Army uniform. It is quite a change form the Army green.

Alan and his parents and brother

Isn't he so handsome!!! So glad he is mine..