The Great Blog Catch-up: European Edition

We left on a Monday. 

 We had wonderful friends who took the day to help us make it to the airport in one piece!

We arrived on a Tuesday. 

I used to be able to sleep on planes.  Um, not so much anymore! 

We arrived around 8 am and got right to work.  We worked until 10:30 pm.  The next day we woke up at 6:30 am and went to the gym and then went right to work again.  It was a hard first day, but we didn't have any trouble with jet lag after that!

We have done so much since arriving in Germany 3 weeks ago.  We have signed everyone up for school next year, got shots and scheduled sports physicals, signed up for CYS and classes, toured the local hospitals,

got an apartment picked out, got German licenses and international ones, applied for jobs (Emma and I), and lots more.

We learned this word :Schnecken!  You have to watch out for them on the cobblestone road- they are every where!

We learned that they now have German malls!  Crazy!  They are still different than American Malls, though.  Right along side of the fine clothing is the butcher shop and the backeri and their is a fruit stand in the middle!   I loved it!

Not having a car has made it hard to enjoy much of Germany, so far.  We had 2 families in the ward that have lent us their cars at various times, so we have been able to go to church, visit the Ritter Sport factory,

 the Mercedes museum,

 the Strawberry festival

 There were all kinds of street performers including a couple of kids juggling the soccer ball.  They were amazing!  Max is coming back from putting coins in their hat!

 and downtown Stuttgart.

This is outside the New Palace which is now used as government buildings, so you can't tour it.

Maxwell turned 8 while we were here in the hotel.

Joe got a new bike the same time as Max.  They both needed a new one.

 It had been raining like crazy for days and his birthday was no exception, so we went to the bowling alley

Max got third!

 and then to go see Epic, the movie.  It was certainly Epic!

  The next day we went to an indoor pool. 

Swimming in the rain!

 Emma said her poor American mind had been blown, but I have to say that I was fairly impressed.  Over half of the German's had learned that speedios are not the bombdigity!  But seeing 1/2 of them in speedos and little kids running around butt nekked and having only one dressing room for both males and females was just too much for her!

  The pool had diving boards and a climbing wall that you jumped off of into the pool.  Neither Emma nor I were able to even pull ourselves out of the water to go up the wall!  Rob and Sam went all the way to the top more than a couple times. 

This last week we have settled down and have lots less to do.  It has been a challenge to keep the kids busy and happy and not have their brains running out of their ears while they stare mindlessly at video games and TV.  We love going to the USO-

 they have free soda and cookies and they let us borrow videos without even having to check them in or out.  We also play greed (dice game) and golf (card game) downstairs.  We still don't know when we will get into our apartment (they are patching and painting and cleaning.)  That will be our next big project- once we get in.

Today we got our van!  We are so excited to go see Europe now!