Camping in Saxony

Townsend and Emerson had been working all summer long to fill up a jar with m&m's so they could earn a camping trip. They each started the day with 10 m&m's and then if they did something naughty we took an m&m. It was a pretty good plan and helped improve their behavior...sometimes:) After looking at weather forecasts we decided to head up to Saxony for our campout on Friday August 20th. Hyrum was able to leave work about 2:00 PM so we got a nice early start for our 3 hour drive. Why Saxony? Well, we had read about a cool castle in Augustusburg that we wanted to visit, they had a rodelbahn close to the campground and we could also hit the big city of Dresden all in one weekend.

Julian did great for his first camping trip. He slept like a champ in his little portable crib in the tent. All 5 of us barely fit in our old tent but it still works for now. Hyrum was our campfire starter extraordinaire and Townsend and Emerson enjoyed s'mores and playing with sticks in the fire.

Dresden was HOT. We have had a pretty cool summer, temperature wise, so I think the high 80's we experienced in Dresden was sort of a shock. I don't do well when I'm hot and the boys are definitely more cranky and apt to complain when they are hot. Also it was the Stadtfest (city festival) that weekend in Dresden so not only was it hot but it was also crowded. Oh well, we still had fun and got to see some neat things.

The castle at Augustusburg is lots of fun. For one price you get to see 5 mini museums. There is an old motorcycle museum, a hunting museum, a natural wildlife museum, a carriage museum and a torture museum. Guess which one the boys liked the best? The torture museum. They had the display set up in the dungeon of the castle so it was super creepy and had a haunted feeling.

All in all it was a great weekend. The campground was fabulous and the weather was perfect for camping. We'll have to do that again next summer:)

Julian enjoying the fresh air at the campground

Our tent. Yeah it was a tight squeeze to fit us all in there but at least we slept nice and cozy warm at night:)

Julian always woke up first and Hyrum would take him for a walk around the forest in his pj's and jacket. Pretty cute.

This is a photo of the boys near a fountain outside the Zwinger museum complex in Dresden. We drug all three children through an art gallery a precious stones exhibit and an Arabian historical artifacts museum. The precious stones museum had a peach pit with 185 faces carved on it, that was the highlight for the boys. The art gallery had quite a few pictures depicting the death of St. Stephen (tied to a tree and shot with arrows) which the boys also found fascinating. They are just too young to appreciate the fact that they saw Raphael's Sistine Madonna.

Townsend in front of the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Dresden was fire bombed right at the end of WWII and this church was completely destroyed. It lay in a big pile of rubble until 2005 when it was finally rebuilt. The dark stones are original to the church and put back in their original places as well as could be determined. The light stone is all new.

We stopped at this really bizarre playground in Dresden. There were donkeys to ride, a big fort to climb on and rabbits to pet. Julian found this old wagon and liked being pulled around in the sand.

The very bright church in Augustusburg

Outside the castle in Augustusburg

Walking down the hill from the castle to the most excellent bakery we have found yet in Germany. Mmmm...delicious cake!

A Trip To Speyer

It had been a few weeks since we ventured too far from home and I was getting restless. Call me crazy but unless I have a trip planned and something to look forward to I go a little insane, stir crazy, caught up with cabin fever...you get the picture. It is so cool to have my sister Paige just 4 hours away so we decided to head over to her part of Germany for a few days. Just an hour outside of her little town of Kaiserslautern is a town called Speyer. The main attraction is the huge Romanesque Cathedral that is on the Unesco World Heritage Sites list. This church was enormous (and I've been to quite a few churches here in Europe!) The interior is very solid and boxy, very Romanesque. Of course the boys favorite part was the crypt in the basement that holds the remains of 14 kings.

Also in Speyer is a "technical" museum. The boys loved going inside all the airplanes and boats and space ships they had on display. The favorite part of this outing was the huge slide you could go down from the top of one of the airplanes on stilts all the way to the ground.

We always have fun visiting Paige. Just to be in a new part of the country and have new playgrounds to visit and things to eat and see is so much fun. Thanks Paige for a fabulous weekend!

The Cathedral in Speyer

Julian and I in front of the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) in Speyer

The boys down in the CRYPT...spooky!

All Catholic Cathedrals have one of these where you can pay money to light a candle. Usually they are just little shelves with rows of candles on them so I thought this one was really cool with all the neat metal work surrounding it.

Hyrum and the boys slipped inside this Cathedral for a free organ concert. This isn't the famous Cathedral but one of the smaller ones in the town.

Two monkeys in a tree. The weather was just perfect to relax in the park for a bit of lunch and let the boys run around and get some wiggles out.

Paige found a nice place to relax and read her book.

The boys sitting in the lap of one of the kings statues outside of the Cathedral.

This is the slide at the technical museum that the boys rode down about 5 times each!

Townsend in front of a real Nazi U boat submarine at the technical museum.

Julian having fun at the park with Auntie Paige.

Medieval Festivals

Germany really knows how to put on a good festival. At Christmas you can't drive through even the smallest of towns without reading an advertisement for their Christmas market. Summer is no different. Each city has either a medieval festival, a town festival, a kinder festival or some sort of market each weekend. We headed up to Nabburg for their medieval festival and had lots of fun. The festival included jugglers, musicians, knights in shining armor, washer maids that flung water at you as you passed by their booth and of course lots of yummy food. The boys loved playing all the medieval games but I think their favorite part was when they were allowed to run and knock down a row of knights (along with about 30 other kids!)

It's really great to attend one of these festivals and think about all the history that is all around you as you walk on cobblestone streets and look up at the old buildings.

We also went to the medieval festival in Weiden which wasn't nearly as good but still lots of fun. We head over to Weiden every Sunday to listen to a free concert in the park. We usually bring a picnic and spend some time at the playground or take a walk along the river. I'm so glad that we live in a place that offers so much culture and fun activities so close to home.