Halloween Fun

Our Halloween was sort of interesting this year. We began the season with a trip to a pumpkin patch...not easy to do here in Germany. In the States there are pumpkin farms all over with activities for the kids and fun corn mazes but here in Germany we were happy to find someone that had planted about an acre of American orange pumpkins and we could go out in the field and pick some up. Don't let the blue skies and sunshine fool you in these photos, it was freezing!!

Each of the boys picked out a pumpkin that was just their size.

Julian and his pumpkin. He thought it was a ball and kept throwing it, I'm surprised it made it home in one piece!

Daddy and the boys carving our pumpkin.

Emerson and Townsend removing the "guts"...why are boys so enthralled by everything yucky?

Our finished jack-o-lantern

After our fun pumpkin patch experience we headed to Rome for a week and we sort of missed the school Halloween parties and our church Halloween party. Because Halloween in on Sunday this year we weren't going to have the boys trick or treat so they were going to miss out on the Halloween fun altogether! But, because they have such a great mom (come on, I come through sometimes!) I decided to invite a few of their friends over for our own Halloween party. The neighbor kids that live next door came over as well as Laney and Ty Campbell. We don't do huge parties at our house but we did have fun with the few people that came. We started with lunch, hot dogs and yummy cranberry/marshmallow salad and then we played games and decorated cookies. The boys didn't dress up too fancy, we just told them to go up to the dress up box and grab something to wear. Townsend was a king and Emerson was a knight, but I don't have a photo of Emerson in costume. The robe was driving him crazy so he only wore his costume for a few minutes.

Townsend with Laney Campbell

Trying to eat a doughnut off a string without using their hands

Frosting and decorating cookies.

Farewell, Our Beloved Opa

Hyrum's father passed away on October 3rd. I can't really describe the emotions that I have felt over the past few weeks as I have let it all sink in. I flew out to Utah for a few days to be there for the funeral. It was so hard to walk around the house and the yard and have so many reminders of Opa everywhere and yet know that he wasn't going to walk into the room or come in from the garden.

May 1st 1999, on our wedding day. I don't think I realized fully on this day how much Opa would mean to me.

Opa with Townsend and Emerson, doing what he did best, making others happy.

Little man Jules won't remember his Opa and this makes me very sad. I know Opa loved him as he loved all his grandchildren.

I can't adequately describe how much he has influenced my life. First of all he taught Hyrum by example how to be a wonderful husband and father and for that I will always be grateful. He taught my boys how to enjoy a good hike and how to build things. They worked with Opa to build a bird house and then also a swing that hangs in our yard. Mostly I will remember how kind he was to everyone. He made everyone feel at ease when they were talking with him. He had the best laugh and always made me smile.

I know he is in a better place, free from pain. I know I will see him again some day and on that day I will give him a great big hug and tell him once more how much I love him.

The boys were not able to come to Utah for the funeral, it would have been miserable for them to make that flight twice in just a few days time. Because they didn't get a chance to say goodbye I had the idea for them to write notes to Opa and then we would tie them to a balloon and send them to heaven. Here are a few pictures and a little video of our boys saying farewell to their Opa.

Here are the pictures we drew. You can sure tell from these pictures that we all knew he loved being in nature and hiking up mountains especially!

The boys ready to release the balloon with our messages tied to it.

We all watched the balloon float up into the sky until it became a tiny silver speck and then finally disappeared.

We're In The Army Now...

Hyrum is in Utah for a week and a half and so the boys and I had nothing better to do with our Friday night then head over to Netzaberg to enjoy their "community fest." This was an Army sponsored event but it's purpose was to allow Germans from neighboring communities to come and experience what the US Army is all about.

The boys had a lot of fun (see pictures below)! HOOAH (Hooah (pronounced /ˈhuːɑː/) is a U.S. Army battle cry used^[1] by soldiers)

The boys exploring one of the tanks they had on display

They had 45 seconds to apply their camouflage

Townsend's end result

Emerson's end result

Townsend learning how to fire a gun. They actually got to fire some sort of bullet but I'm hoping it wasn't a lethal type bullet...who knows?

Emerson takes a "shot" at using the rifle

The boys doing push ups for their PT test

They had 30 seconds to do as many sit ups as they could. I was pretty impressed. They just pounded out the sit ups like they were professionals. There was one kid who was crying and he looked like he was older than the boys

This is a video of the boys doing the obstacle course run. I'm glad they got to have a little taste of what soldiers experience when they go to work.

Labor Day Weekend

Hyrum was on call for Labor Day weekend so we couldn't travel very far from home. Lucky for us there are lots of fun things to do just minutes from our house. Here are the highlights from our four day weekend.

Friday: Hyrum had the day off of work but the boys still had school so we got the rare opportunity of hanging out together with just baby Julian. We headed down to Regensburg (about an hour away) to walk around the old town, enjoy some sushi at our favorite sushi bar and watch Julian enjoy gelato on a warm day.

After we picked the boys up from school we went for a family bike ride to the Grafenwoehr duck pond. It's a pretty easy bike ride on the way to the park because it is mostly down hill but the way back is slow going with two 6 year olds. It was beautiful weather and we just enjoyed being together as a family and took our time on the bikes. What a great way to start a long weekend.

Julian and mommy by a fountain in Regensburg

Mmmm...gelato

Little man Jules was worn out by the end of our busy day

Julian and Daddy by the duck pond

Saturday: We headed out to Nabburg (about 45 minutes away) for a hike and a trip to an open air museum. The museum had about 12 houses they had restored and brought from all different parts of Bavaria. There were little houses with small gardens and chickens and big houses with flour mills and water wheels. It was a great place to walk around and enjoy the beautiful day as well as some interesting history.

On our hike we found some donkeys that loved the attention (and fresh green grass) the boys gave them.

My four boys hiking

It was a great day for a walk through the woods.

At the top. There was also a lookout tower at the top which is always fun for the boys even if it makes my heart race when I see them peering over the edge for a look down...200 feet down!

Lunch at a park near Nabburg. Hyrum and I have decided this is the only way to eat out with kids...bring a picnic and let them run around!

Daddy and Julian on the slide

The boys playing in the goat house at the open air museum

Daddy and Emerson in the kitchen of one of the museum houses

Oh the fun of chasing chickens!

Sunday: After church and Julian's nap on Sunday we headed out towards Kemnath (about 25 minutes away) for a hike. Once again we were blessed with great weather. Some of the hikes that Hyrum finds are very hard to locate just exactly where they begin. The instructions were to head to this small town, find a small Catholic shrine chapel and head up the hill. Needless to say we had to ask a few people for some directions and even then we got lost on our way up to the top. It was worth all the hassle though because the view from the top was amazing!

Emerson and Townsend at the top of the hill

Family photo

Monday: Our four day weekend ended with a trip to Bayreuth (about 40 minutes away). We headed to the beautiful Ermitage garden. I had been there twice before but Hyrum had never gone so we decided to make a family trip of it. The garden is so well taken care of and the fountains are neat to see, it was a fun afternoon.

The boys in front of one of the many fountains.

They loved floating leaves down this stream and running along watching where they would go

Posing for a photo

Julian loved getting wet under the spraying fountains (daddy wasn't such a big fan of getting wet!)

Once again we had great weather. Overall it was a great four day weekend and it turns out we don't have to travel far from home to have a wonderful time.

First Day of School 2010

OK, so I am a week late with this post but here goes. The first day of school was Monday August 30th. I was really looking forward to this day for weeks because the boys were starting to drive me crazy at home. They really needed more structure in their day and they needed new toys and friends to play with. They are the best of friends and play so well together most of the time but when they decide to be rotten to their brother it turns bad pretty quick.

Townsend's teacher, Mrs. Martin, was the only first grade teacher this year that had taught first grade last year. All the other teachers were new to first grade so I am pretty confident that he will have a good year. She is really into science experiments and hands on learning and I know he will love that.

Emerson was not so lucky in the teacher department. Two days before school started his teacher (a 70 year old man) decided it was time to retire. So Emerson had a substitute teacher all last week and talking with that teacher there is no telling when a new teacher will be hired. Oh well, at least the substitute teacher is our Bishop's wife and she is really great. It's not the best way to start off the new year but I know he is in good hands.

I continued the tradition of bringing them a schultute for their first day of school. This year they were filled with toy cars, candy and a ball with a basket game inside it. I think it helps get the school year off to a fun start.

Townsend with Mrs. Martin

Emerson with Mrs. Andrus

Berlin Trip Day 3 and 4

Saturday morning we headed over to the Berlin Zoo. It was really fun to take Julian to the zoo and have him recognize animals that we have read about in books. He still isn't talking at all but I could tell that he really liked seeing the animals up close and in person. In the zoo is an aquarium with a great fish, reptile and amphibian exhibits. I think the boys really liked the snakes and the jelly fish the most. Another highlight was when we went to visit the polar bears and it just happened to be feeding time. The zoo keepers threw the meat into the water so the bears had to dive in and get it. That was really cool because the boys were standing right up near the glass where the bears were eating the food.

We got to the zoo just as it was opening and it was pretty deserted. Julian really liked the elephants and giraffes.

Four crazy monkeys posing for a photo (well, I guess one of them is a crazy gorilla).

The Berlin Zoo playground was fabulous. If I lived closer I might buy a season pass just for the playground! We spent about an hour eating our lunch and letting the boys run and climb and swing and jump.

This is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Allied bombs left only the shell of the west tower intact during WWII. After the war the Germans decided to leave the church as it stood instead of restoring it. This church really is amazing when you stand in front of it and imagine what Berlin must have looked like after months of bombing.

Our next stop was the Natural History Museum. The main attraction here was the enormous brachiosaurus skeleton, the tallest dinosaur specimen in any museum in the world. The boys also enjoyed the displays on human evolution and a movie about the big bang. We could have easily spent hours and hours in this museum but after a busy morning at the zoo we were all tuckered out.

Emerson studying a display of animals in the Natural History Museum. We will have to come back and spend more time at this museum, there was so much more to see.

Hey look, the sun came out! It was cold and rainy the whole time we were there except for a few precious minutes on Saturday evening...what a difference the sun makes!

Our plan for Sunday morning was to check out of the hotel and then head back into Berlin and walk around a bit more. However,as we pulled out of our parking space at the hotel it started to pour down rain; so we just put a movie on for the boys and headed home. After we drove for a few hours the storm let up a bit so we decided to hit the historic city of Leipzig. This picture was taken in the town square in Leipzig.

Goethe, the famous author of Faust, studied at the University of Leipzig. This is a sculpture of Faust being directed by the Devil. Legend has it that you can rub the foot of Faust for some good luck...hey it doesn't hurt to try:)

This photo was taken in front of the Town Hall. It is one of the largest in Germany with over 600 rooms! Even after living here for 2 years the old architecture of Europe still amazes me.

Townsend posing at the base of the Bach statue. Johann Sebastian Bach worked at St. Thomas Church from 1723 until his death in 1750. His remains lie beneath a bronze epitaph near the alter of the church.

This is the organ in St. Thomas Church. It's neat to imagine hearing Bach's original music coming from this organ each Sunday.

We spent about 4 hours in Leipzig. We did a walking tour (thanks Lonely Planet guidebook), we ate some extremely yummy pastries and we walked the streets that Goethe, Bach, Schumann, Wagner and Mendelssohn walked. All in all a pretty interesting side trip and a bonus to our Berlin vacation.