A Last Hurrah Before School Starts

We have wanted to visit Northern Germany since we moved here three years ago.  A lot of Germans visit the North Sea or the Baltic Sea during their summer holidays and we wanted to know what all the fuss was about.  We thought the weekend before school started we would head up and spend a few days on the beach.  I guess Germans have thicker blood than us wimpy Americans...the water in Northern Germany is not exactly warm and we spent three days wondering why we hadn't spent 6 hours in the car heading South (toward warm and sunny Italy) instead of North!  With this said we did have a fun trip and the bonus part was we got to spend the entire time with Becky Platt and her boys (seriously DON'T know how she puts up with the crazy family we are but it was lots of fun to have friends along).

Day One:  We stopped for lunch about 4 hours into the trip.  Here is Brecon and Emerson walking around the beautiful gardens on the Freundschaftsinsel in Potsdam.

This is the only shot I had of all 6 boys (just pretend I'm not there).  Connor, Julian, Brecon, Emerson, Cael and Townsend

This is the house we stayed in Kroepelin...super cute.  We got used to the train that went by every 45 minutes or so, just across the driveway from the house.  Julian LOVED the train...I'm not so sure the rest of us loved it in the middle of the night!

Day Two: At the beach in Kuehlungsborn...too cold, too cloudy

The cool air didn't stop those Platt boys from trying out the boogie board!  We went home after about an hour or so hanging out that morning.  We put the babies down for naps and by 2:30 or so...

...the SUN came out.  We hopped back in the cars and drove to the beach again, the afternoon was much nicer...not HOT but at least sunny.

Cael and Emerson being sculpted into the sand.

Daddy helped the boys build a sand castle with a deep moat all the way around.

Connor and Julian hanging out in our rented beach chair/bungalow.

Day Three: Started off cloudy again so instead of hitting the beach we decided to take the old steam train to Bad Doberan.

Emerson is part monkey.  Here he is showing off his talent while waiting for the train to show up.

Julian and Connor enjoying the world as it passes by out the train window.

Brecon and Emerson watching the train track and enjoying the scenery from the back of the train.

Cael and Townsend, buddies on the train.

Favorite picture from the whole trip.  I love how Julian's face is all scrunched up, "not the kissy Mommy!"

The sun came out later in the afternoon and so we stopped for a bit of refreshment.

Cool old convent in Bad Doberan.

Inside the Gothic Muenster in Bad Doberan

After the whole day on the train and wandering around an old city I was ready to call it quits but the boys wanted to hit the beach one more time.  I'm so glad we did.  This last evening at the beach was the best time we spent at the ocean.  I think we stayed and played for about three hours!  Look how happy Julian is!

The big boys spent the better part of an hour building and then trying to protect this sand structure from the oncoming waves.  They worked really well together and tried many different tactics to keep the waves at bay but in the end the ocean won...bye bye sand structure.

Look at these kids...they totally LOVED the ocean waves.

Day Four:  It was pretty much rainy the whole day.  We found a great indoor pool about 30 minutes from the house and played there for about 5 hours.  That's the longest we have ever stayed at an indoor pool but this pool was pretty cool.  There were about 6 different water slides the boys could go down, all by themselves, and they had a wave pool and a pretty cool baby area.  We were all worn out after the pool so that evening we just stayed inside and watched movies.  Sometimes it's good to take a minute and actually RELAX on your vacation.

Day Five:  Headed for home.  It was a fun trip but we still aren't quite sure why the Germans love to vacation in the rainy cool Northern country.

Temple Trip (and then some!)

Hyrum had Friday off this last week so we planned a trip up to Freiberg to visit the Temple and to have some fun in that part of Germany.  We invited along my friend Becky (whose husband has recently deployed) and her three boys.  We also had another friend, Miranda, along to help with kid control.  Becky and Miranda went to the Temple Friday evening and then Hyrum and I went on Saturday morning.  It worked out great so we could always have two people watching the 6 crazy boys at all times.

Saturday we spent the day in Seiffen, a cute town known for it's wooden toys.  Sunday we spent at the castle in Augustusburg.  I think everyone had a fun time, there were only a few meltdowns with the boys but mostly they all had fun together.

Julian playing in the water at the park in Stollberg.  This is our favorite place to stop for lunch on our way up to Freiberg.

Townsend playing at the park.

Julian and Connor at the playground.  These two were so cute together this weekend.  I even caught them holding hands once.

Emerson, Cael and  Townsend at the outdoor museum in Seiffen

Cael, Julian and Townsend playing in the water trough at the outdoor museum.

Julian and Connor on the steps inside one of the farmhouses on display at the museum

The real reason I come to Seiffen is to look around all the shops at the German woodwork

The very cute town of Augustusburg

Family photo outside the castle in Augustusburg

Miranda and Brecon on the roddelbahn outside of Augustusburg

Munich (or München for you die hard German speakers)

Summer vacation lasts a little too long for me.  My kids get bored, they get grumpy and I go insane.  I have to get out and do something with all this time on our hands.  I just can't stay at home for more than a few weeks without getting the itch to go and do something different.  Last weekend I went to Munich, dragging along a helpful 10 year old girl with me (thanks Victoria Briskin).  We drove down Friday morning, ate lunch at McDonalds and then hit the Deutsches Museum.  We have been to this museum twice already but the boys love their exhibit on mining and I knew Julian would love the children's museum exhibit.  After the museum we walked around the old city a bit and then got some bratwurst on rolls for dinner.  All in all it was a fun filled day.  Hyrum came down on the train after work on Friday and met us in Munich around 8:00PM.  Saturday we had a blast at the zoo and after lunch we went to a great outdoor swimming pool.  We got home Saturday evening tired but happy to have experienced something different than our day to day routine.

Julian loved the children's museum

Townsend and Emerson playing around at the children's museum

Julian and Victoria relaxing at the playground

The Victuellen Markt where we always go for yummy bratuwurst.

The boys usually just eat the bratwurst and save the roll to feed the pigeons.

The Munich zoo has a great aquarium.

Hello...crocodile?

We were so lucky to see many baby animals.  We saw this cute baby elephant but there were also baby giraffes, monkeys and ducks to be seen.

We were lucky enough to happen upon the sea lions during their "show."  Townsend said this was his favorite part of the zoo.

Julian feeding the goats at the petting zoo.

Here we are in the University district enjoying what is probably the best gelato in Munich.  They had the craziest flavors to choose from.  I got a scoop of chocolate/ginger...it was fabulous!

Summertime With Friends

Since coming home from the States we have been so lucky to spend many fun days playing with friends.  Here are just a few of the things we have been up to:

Vilseck Army Post hosted a carnival and I took the boys and brought along Cael Platt as well.  They had to be 8 years old to ride this without an adult...I guess I fudged a little bit on their age because there was NO WAY I was going up on this thing!

Julian loved the bumper cars.  I took him 3 different times while we waited for the big boys to finish their rides.

We took a trip to Regensburg with a bunch of friends.  The best thing about Regensburg is the gelato, probably my favorite chocolate gelato in all of Germany.  L-R: Julian, Connor Platt, Emerson, Cael Platt, Townsend and Breckon Platt.

Another day out with friends, this time the Campbell family.  We went to Playmobil Funpark near Nurenberg.  This is Emerson and Laney Campbell burying Townsend's legs in the sand.

Emerson and Townsend climbing aboard the pirate ship.

Julian having fun at Playmobil.

We took another quick trip to Regensburg.  Here is Townsend showing us where we are on a map of Regensburg.  We brought along my friend Miranda for this trip.

We had come to Regensburg for a music festival.  Here is the African drumming group.  Julian loved dancing to the drums.

We have so many great friends here in Germany.  I'm glad we have the chance to spend our summer vacation with fun friends.