School for the Monkeys right into a vacation

After a little more summer ...

Legoland- lines were long, because the German's are on holiday as well, but we still had fun.

 New student orientation.  Sam went as a Freshman and Emma went because she was giving tours as one of the Ambassadors of the school (She got picked with 19 other students out of over 60 that applied)

 New hair cut and style for senior pictures

Temple trip with a stop at Chipotle!  Yummy, yummy!

 Rob got hit by a car on his way home from work.  He hasn't biked much since.

It was time to go back to school *sigh.*

I was ignoring the start of school this year, so I had very few things ready.  I stuffed random supplies into backpacks (I lost the list of supplies), had them buy lunch the first day and didn't take pictures until the end of the day.

  Here is Joe doing an awesome impression of "I'm actually headed to school, not already come home!"

 Yes, I send my child in filthy clothes most days- um no!

 Not really fair to Emma and Sam who had sports after school, but I forced them to anyways.

 I told Emma I would get better pictures the next day, but as I was running out the door, I yelled, "take a picture of yourself."  And they did!  Serious, Mother of the Year candidate, right here!

* Sigh* is right.  I am with the kids on that one.  Summer is fabulous with that whole sleeping in thing!  Of course, Rob hates it!  He is so glad to have us all back to getting up early, so we go to bed on time!  You know Rob and sleep.  It's his biggest issue in life.   

They only went to school for 4 days before Rob had a vacation and then we all had a vacation together.  I don't quite understand why they start that way, except maybe they are trying to slowly wean them off of vacations.  So after 4 days of school, Rob and I went downtown Stuttgart to the Wine festival, while the kids went to school.

There was some yummy food.  Rob ate a huge ox meet sandwich.  I had spatzele with mushrooms and artichokes in a mushroom gravy sauce.  It was super yummy.  We walked around and admired the different booths and then went to the Rathaus to check out the open elevator. 

Not only does it go up and down continuously and you just jump on and off, it slides to one side at the top.  The sign said everyone off at this point, but we kept wondering if we could ride it when it slid to the right or whether it collapsed a little when it slid over and that's why they wanted everyone off.  Darren (one of the friend's we went with) decided to just jump on and try it out.  He actually made it out alive, so we all tried it.  I don't know how he had the guts to do it, because it gets really dark and you have no idea what is going to happen to you when it starts sliding over.  Amusement ride for adults!

The next day we got up early and drove to Berchtesgaden.  We went up the very windy (as is winding, not blowy) path with sheer drop-offs.

 Rob kept trying to get me to take a good long look, but that is not one of my favorite things.

 We saw the Eagle's nest at the top.

 Joseph lost a tooth up there and threw it over the side of the mountain.  Now there is a piece of Joseph in Palmyra, New York and one in Berchtesgaden, Germany.  We are seeing if we can grow another Joseph.

    We also went and saw the Konigsee

 and went to the salt mines.

The salt mines was definitely one of our favorite things!  The spiel was in German, so we just admired everything and had fun sliding down the railings, riding across the lake and getting scared over and over again by the tour guide, who took a liking to scaring Emma, particularly!  I would say, from the look of his age, he was flirting with her.

Sunday we did a Sound of Music biking tour

and even though it started to rain half way through it was definitely a favorite thing.  Such a fun way to see the city.  Here are some of our favorite things:

 Salzburg, Austria- home to Mozart and the Von Trapp's

 Music hall that the Von Trapp's gave their last concert in before running away- at least in the movie

 cemetery that was used as a pattern for the one in the film- they couldn't get all the film equipment in here, so that's why they had to build a set instead.

Big huge pretzels with chocolate and hazelnut or cinnamon sugar or just salt
The oldest and best bakery, according to the tour guide.  We had to take her word for it, because they weren't open on Sunday's.  They moved all the dead who were in the market place under the bakery's water wheel, but apparently they still make great rolls.  Eww!
 Maria's wedding church

 Hohensalzburg fortress

 Back of the Von Trapp mansion or the mansion they used to say it was the back and the lake that they all fall into.  They forgot that Gretel couldn't swim and had to cut quickly and fish her out.

Singing Doe, Ray, Me with the music that the tour guide kept on the entire time and finding the answers to her challenges!  I got the one about who lived outside of the fortress walls right- the executioner!  And the kids found the match to an art piece.

 A different house was used as the front of the house- I skipped along the gate just like Maria did when she first arrived at the house.  We also touched the gate that Julie Andrews touched!

The abbey with the red roof- no pictures, sorry.
 The Dwarf garden

 Mirabell Gardens

 The Gazebo, that you can no longer go into because an 80 year old decided to recreate Liesel's scence and fell and broke her hip.  Crazy old lady!

This pear tree was pretty cool.  It was close to where we stayed in Austria in a little skiing village.

 They were having a peasants festival and all the towns had some scene with straw people.

Our last favorite thing was the chicken picture in our apartment.  It was painted by the owners "husband" he said.  Rob said, I am sure he meant "wife."  And then we all said, "are you really sure.  An artist name Cazien? Sounds like a dude to me."   Rob was flummoxed.  In the end he was right, it was a "wife." She came out when we purchased the painting.  It's now hanging on our walls.

Quick, fun trip, before school really started.  The next week seminary started also and now Emma is taking pictures of Sam sleeping in cubby holes and across benches, anywhere he can find.  I have to get those pictures from Emma.  They are kind of funny!

They are giving the Beach away!

We had a couple days at the end of the summer to spare on one more trip.  Sam couldn't go with us.  We waited until after his football camp,

Sam after a hard weekend of football camp where he won two awards

 but the day afterwards, they started 2 a day practices and those were the main try-outs.  I talked to the coach and he said, "technically try-outs aren't done until after the first week of school, but..."  Yah, so he stayed with some friends- Thank you Pickerings!!- while the rest of us ran down to Camp Darby, Italy!  After this year, there will no longer be an American beach- we are giving it back to the Italians.  I wanted the kids to see where we used to go every year for vacation.  We drove to Camp Darby, set up our camp and then headed over to see the Leaning tower.

It really is beautiful. 

We weren't sure of the parking and didn't want to get a ticket, so we parked way far away and walked in.

That seemed to be a theme for our Italy trip!  The next day was supposed to be a yucky day, so we decided to go see Cinque Terre- 5 beautiful towns on the Italian riviera.

So, apparently, did everyone else!  We set off late, so we skipped the town we were going to park at and then take the train up to the first city.  That was our downfall.  I thought it would be quicker to just go to the first town. Nope!!  We got turned around and told no parking- move on.  At least that is what I thought they were saying.  Italians don't speak English for the most part and I don't speak Italian.  We found a spot way up on top of the mountain to park and hiked all the way down.  We checked out the town

and got ready to do the walk to the next town and found out that the path was closed! 

There was no way to get there except by train, which we just missed.  We could have waited for the next train, but it was getting late and we still had a huge hike back up the mountain.  We made it over an hour later back to our car.  So yes we hiked Cirque de Terre, not just the way you are supposed to.  And yes we saw it, just not up close!  It was still gorgeous!  

The next day was beach day.

The red flags were up, so you couldn't swim, but you could go up to waist height without them saying a thing to you and since we just wanted to body surf and crash through the waves, we had a great time.  Apparently, if you had a surf board, you could be out there as well, because there were a ton of surfers doing their thing.

We were supposed to stay one more night, but the kids all got burned bad, even though we put on sunscreen a couple of times.  And the mosquitoes were killing us.  We tried citronella candles, bug spray, long clothes and dryer sheets all over us and they still kept bitting us.  Those are some seriously crazy bugs down there in Italy. 

 He's eating my S'more!

Emma at the swimming pool on base showing you that she can stand at 8 feet 2 inches!

We looked like we had a case of chicken pox after two days- all of us.  So we packed up and spent a night in Garmisch at the very nice Edleweise Inn.

 The Zugspitze in the background

The Hammersbach in the background- what Joseph climbed for scout camp.

We drove through the Dolomites on our way.  Such a pretty area.  

The next day we drove home via Linderhof palace- one of Ludwigs palaces (he of the Cinderella Castle persuasion.) 

So pretty, yet so tiny.  Everything is going to be tiny to us, now that we saw the palaces in Russia.  I think the Russians meant us to come away thinking that!

Rob kept asking me if I remembered this or that.  Things were a little different.  I don't remember the Tower begin so pretty.  I know the base had more facilities than it does now.  Now it's not even properly a camp.  It is overseen by a Major and they are part of Vincenza base.  The beach I do remember!  The girls all seemed to have gotten modest, though- no topless anywhere.  Just lots of bums eating swimsuit bottoms.  Still I am glad that my kids got to experience a little of what I did on vacation as a youth.  So sad Sam didn't get to enjoy it with us!

Joseph turns 12

Joseph turned 12 at scout camp, but we had a cake for him when he got home.  Joseph is our joker, our thinker, our debater (he doesn't argue, like Sam.  He comes up with alternatives and explanations that have serious thought behind them.)  

He uses this vocabulary that you wouldn't normally hear in a 12 year old.  He came in one day and told me, "Mom, my friend________ and I used to have a friendship like an iron bar, but now it has rusted."  Um, ok?!  Not something you usually hear from a 12 year old boy.  I don't know that I have ever had to tell a boy to stop talking about his relationships and just have fun playing around!  He is a sensitive soul.  He still can't watch embarrassing parts in movies without running out of the room or covering his face.

He is the peacemaker.  He tries to do things to make us happy.  He still has trouble eating lots of foods, but he is trying to overcome it, because he knows that it stressed us out.  He has asked for a smoothie every day, to help him get his fruits and vegetable count for the day.  He pretends to drink it, but for the 1/2 cup I give him, there is always at least a 1/4 cup left.  He really doesn't like it, but he is trying.

When he was little he would place books in the fridge, hide under beds and put things under our pillows.  He would never say a word and just wait for you to find them.  He would wait for hours and not say a word.  Of course this would freak me out when I couldn't find him and he wasn't making a peep as a toddler.  He wouldn't tell me beforehand that he was going to hide either- he would just do it.  It amazes me that his sense of humor is in the doing it and not the discovery of it.  Or is that he just has so much patience that he can wait for hours for his joke to be discovered?  I'm not sure which.  

Joseph has been our hardest mover.  He doesn't like change.  But lately, he seems to doing much better with it.  Runner for mother of the year, I did not make it up to Meet the teacher night, which means we didn't get a schedule for him.  The other kids got their schedules sent via email, but his school apparently doesn't do that.  So, he had to go the first day of school without knowing anything. He wasn't concerned.  He went to the office, as he said a lot of people did, picked up his schedule and found his classes. 

Today, I wondered aloud wether it was an A or B day.  He thought is was B day, the older kids said it was an A day.  I was going to check, but he said, "they have it posted when you go in and I will just look at my schedule on my binder and go to that class."  I love this relaxed Joseph!  Ever since last year, he has been doing much better in school.  He remembers his homework 80% of the time and does it on his own.  I am so thankful for good teachers that helped him get organized!

When the boys in our church turn 12, they are given the priesthood.  The Sunday after he got home he was ordained to the office of a Deacon.

Now he is in class with his Dad.  I'm so glad Dad get's to be with him at this point in his life!  We love you Joe!

High Adventure, Brand new Scout, and a Youth leader

Joseph turned 12 while at scout camp this year. 

(I know my boys just love their birthday's in the summer time!  Never in school to have them make a big deal of it there, everyone always away so no parties and we are almost always away too!)  Rob had to go up with him for the first few days, because he wasn't 12, yet.  He ended up staying and enjoying camp with them.  He stayed on base in Garmisch and then just biked up to the scout camp every day.  Joseph did great.

Sam only has to finish one more merit badge and do his project to complete Eagle, so he went for the high adventure.  Rob ended up splitting his time.  Sometimes he went on the high adventure with Sam- like the  white water rafting

and sometimes he spent it with Joseph, like when they climbed the Hammersbach.

 Emma and I and Max stayed at home.  Rob wanted us to come down, but it rained so much that I was much happier at home.  Rob and the boys had a great time together and now they have all kinds of things they want us to do as a family.

Emma also went to camp this year.  She surprised me when she said she wanted to go.  I did 2 years of camp and did 2 years of certification each year and passed that sucker off and was done.  She went this year as a YCL- Youth Camp Leader.  She enjoyed herself and had fun with the leaders. 

 And the goofy girls who were all obsessed with the other camp across the road with boys! (Peter/Christen)

I went up one day and taught first aid.  We were doing great until one of the girls decided to have a real life emergency in the middle of it all.  Another time that did not endear me to the German medical system.  She fainted, had a small seizure and then after she was awake, she started vomiting.  2 days before she had complained of a headache and then vomited.  She had no head injury before this and did not act sick in any way other than that.  That screams pressure on the brain to me, but maybe I am the idiot here.  They said she was fine, without doing a CT scan and told her mother some things she could do to keep her blood pressure up.  She has had a history of fainting with injuries.  Yah, not the same thing, but who am I, right.  I'm just some nut job nurse from America which has terrible medical care, according to someone.  I am not sure whom.  I read this medical assessment finally, that was talking about how bad our health care was.  When you finally look at the statistics, we are actually awesome at our health care.  The scores are just lowered, because they add into it how much it costs and the availability of it to all.  But I digress...

This year the girls had camp with the German wards in our stake.  The German wards expected the American ward to do most of the work, which was a shock to the American ward and therefore a lot of scrambling went on last minute.  Also there had to be a "coming to Jesus meeting" at some point when the German's were told to back off the American girls.  Culture clashes, I guess.  When I went, I stayed for lunch and we had to run to the kitchen to get the mayo and mustard.  They brought out butter and ketchup for their sandwiches.  Um, Yuck!  Emma said she watched a girl eat a ketchup and jelly sandwich.  Wow!  They also took them up to a lake and the girl's all got an eye full, as most of them still aren't used to the European way of just throwing off your clothes to take a dip or sunbathe.  It was a learning experience for all!

Samuel turns 15

Samuel turned 15 on the boat, but we still made him a cake when we got home.  

When Sam was little he wouldn't stop trying to tie his shoe until he was crying his little eyes out and I had to force him to stop practicing.  I would hear the beginning of his piano songs tons of time more than the ends, because if he made one little mistake he would start from the beginning, again.  He argues with us, incessantly.  He taught himself to do a back tuck.  And even though he is one of the shortest and skinniest kids in his grade, he is good at football and running.  What do all those have in common.  Stubbornness.  That kid just won't stop until he dies or wins.  Everything is like this big challenge he has to win.  I'm not sure it's the best attitude to have all the time.  In fact when he is trying yet again to win an argument with us, I can guarantee that!  I hope it will soften with age and he will learn that sometimes it's good to give up a little.  He has a cute face and cuter smile and that rugged charm from his face scar, so he gets away with a lot, too!

Emma finally likes him and invites him places with her.  The other day he saw some of Emma's friends and he turned to me and said, "Mom, tell Emma to put in a good word for me."  "Say, What??" I asked him which one he liked and he said, "I'm keeping my options open."  PLAYER!  I never thought I would here anything like that out of that kid.  

We went ahead and secretly betrothed him to this cutie, who left in July.

We were all so sad.  She is a great girl- down to earth, plays hard, willing to do all kinds of fun things, none of the mean girl, manipulative stuff and she is super cute to boot!  Sam and her and Jack were great friends.  

And now he is a freshman, 120 pounds, 5'4, playing football with men who have beards.

The last time he did that, he got that scar on his face.  He comes home every day now and moans.  I'm not so sure this is the best sport for this guy, but he keeps at it.  He won two awards at the all European Football camp he went to.  Most improved Receiver and Most improved Defensive back.  Most improved isn't always the most impressive of awards, but the fact that they knew a freshman by name in that big of a camp made it impressive.  And not just once, but twice- with two different sets of coaches!  They had people from Belgium, Italy, Czechoslovakia and all over Germany there.  This included local national teams.

Next order of business- bulk Sam up, somehow.  They were talking about putting him on the Varsity squad, but decided against it, thank goodness.  Then they wanted to use him as a running back, but decided he just wasn't big enough to break through.  It seems he will play starting as a corner back on JV now.

I wonder if Sam has friends still.  He does his own thing and when we ask him who he hung out with, he says, " everyone."  "Well who did you talk with."  "Everybody."  Emma saw him on the first day of school eating alone.  He said it was because his friend was being slow getting his food.  Everyone knows him, however.  We were talking to one of the 'men' on the football teams' mom and the 'man' came up and she introduced us.  I started to say that we were Sam's parents while trying to point him out and the 'man' stopped us and said, "oh everyone knows who Sam is- ever since football camp."  I guess there was a funny incident where they were playing 7 on 7 and you were supposed to 2 hand touch the receiver.  Sam slipped or dove or something and ended up doing a 360 around the receivers legs, instead.  Their team almost got disqualified for it.  They all think it was a riot.

He still won't attend a dance.  He is going to be just like his Dad in that.  I don't know what I am going to do with that kid.  It's not like I can force his stubborn body out on the dance floor.

He still gets all A's in school and yet still has no homework.  He got put in some AP class this year (I can't remember which one, because I am running hard for Mother of the Year this year and have no idea what any of my children are doing.) and he was not happy.  He would rather not have to have homework or work really hard at school, thank you very much!

Yet every once in awhile I can still get him to pull my hair for me (he used to do that all the time- I love it!)  He remembers his duty and does it without anyone asking at church, school and on the field.  The other day he saw that the Deacon's were low and so he just hopped up and went up and helped pass the sacrament.  Afterwards, he was the only teacher who remembered that their job was to clean and put away the sacrament, so he did it by himself without another thought.  Now if only I could get him to do that at home!