Garmisch again

Exactly 3 weeks after going to Garmisch with family, we returned with Mark to visit while he worked. We drove down with Nina Peacock, Matthew the keyboard player's wife.  We had a great road trip, we listened to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to and from our destination.

This is by far my kids favorite spot in all of Bavaria, the pool at Edelweiss.  I have to tear them away to go sightseeing.  When we go down, I usually take them to the pool first thing in the morning when it is empty, then we go get ready for the day.  My kids are fish!

Nina, the girls and I went for a little day trip to the Weiskirche (white church) which is the most famous Rococco/Baroque church in Bavaria.  It truly is so beautiful!

This is a picture of the altar at the front of the church.

This picture is looking to the back of the church where the organ pipes are on display.

Later that evening, we crashed the AWAG party so that we could listen to the band play.  The girls enjoy this so much!  Here is Bailey getting her groove on!

McKenna even got a treat, Craig lifted her on stage for the very last song where she danced and danced and even sang a little.  She told me, "That was a miracle mom, don't you think?"

We got a kick out of the "ice cream" rest stop on the way home.

EuropaPark

For Memorial Day we decided to take the kids away for the weekend to do something "kid-friendly". That way, when we start traveling this summer and seeing more cathedrals, roman ruins and museums and they start telling us how bored they are, we can say, "but remember how much fun EuropaPark was? Well this is Dad and Mom's version of EuropaPark". Something for us and something for you.
EuropaPark is always more fun with friends, especially when your friends are the Ray's:
McKenna's favorite part of the day was standing next to the log ride in order to get splashed:
Then the celebration afterward:
EuropaPark was a lot of fun, but what was even more fun was finding the funny pictures I ended up with. For example, instead of Disney characters bringing cheer, there were uhm, strangish animals that were uhm cute? and cuddly? Or not . . .
Or the one animal that tried to suffocate my 6 year old. (McKenna is in there, just look very closely behind the ridiculously large yellow paw):
This advice sign just inside the airplane ride that we were about to take off on makes me think, "Don't do what with your huh now?!" And just so we are clear, I did exactly what it asked of me, because I always choose the right.
I'll forever wonder why these punks in the background chose to light up AND rearrange body parts in public. AND why for the love, did I just happen to immortalize their actions forever via my own digital camera:
This photo really doesn't need an explanation as it is purely a definition of what you are seeing:
We had such a great day and were wiped out by the end of it. Once we got back in the car to drive home all was quiet and I thought the kids had already fallen asleep when McKenna sighed and said, "Can we PLEASE go back to that park again some day?" I must admit, I want to go back too Ladybug.

Girls Just Want To Have Fun!

Oh my, where to even begin explaining this fabulous week I had with my girlfriends. I better start with the background. Sherisse and Jill are friends from my childhood. Sherisse and I were in dance class together when we were 5-6 years old. Jill moved into the neighborhood when she was twelve. We were all pretty inseparable and what I remember most of all is how much we laughed when we were together. We loved that classic movie "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", you know which one I'm talking about, don't deny it. Sara Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt, and a dancer that looks just a little too familiar if you are a good LDS church goin' fool. We had the entire movie memorized back in the day, so how great that Sherisse found a copy that we could watch while they were here. Talk about a blast from the past. Here we are in our matching PJ's (thanks Sherisse) getting ready to be highly entertained. Is it weird that I felt every line in the movie coming?
Through the years I had stayed in contact with Sherisse as much as I could, she still lives near my parents, so I would check in with her when I went home to visit. Sherisse would catch me up on what Jill was doing, but unfortunately the last time I saw Jill was when I got married!! As I was preparing for their visit, I kept thinking, "What will it be like, it has been so long since we've been together and we have all gone through many life challenges" I had nothing whatsoever to fear, it felt like home the minute they walked through the door. For the first time since I married my sweatheart, I didn't want to sleep in the same bed, I wanted to hang with the girls on the couch in my PJ's and talk until we couldn't talk anymore.
We did a lot of talking and catching up, but we also did a lot of sightseeing and shopping. I tell you it was girlfriend heaven.

We started the week in Heidelberg. Mark and the girls were able to join us. Here we are taking the funicular to the top of the castle. May I just say, I love the word funicular, it is so fun to say. Go ahead, try it, you'll see what I mean.
Tuesday was a down day, I had to work. But the girls were able to go with Mark to work and sit in on a rehearsal. When the two of them walked in, the lead singer Craig asked where they were from. Sherisse - Utah. Jill - Idaho. Craig, with a perplexed look on his face replied, "But, you both look so hip?!" Classic.

Wednesday we went to Soufflenheim France (I think, the days are a blur) for a little pottery shopping. Thursday was Rothenburg. Here we are in a little quaint cafe:
And then on the outside of the wall, looking over the city. Self timers on cameras rock!
Someone in Rothenburg stole my door, someday I'll have to get it back:
Friday we went to Dahn to visit a castle ruin and do a little basket shopping:
Saturday we gathered more girls and went to Cologne. Janelle and Nina joined us and we had a fabulous time.
We even got a special visit from Sherisse's husband Greg who joined us for the day. Nice to have a big strong man around, to save us from ourselves. Plus, he is brave . . . he was totally outnumbered . . . and he survived. I just want to say to Greg, "Thanks for taking such good care of my friend!"
Here are a couple of fun signs we saw along the way. If you are from Utah, you say Dang a lot. If you are from Germany. . . not so much.
Anyone up for a "krap" cake?

Another really cool think we found in Cologne thanks to Janelle is this gate full of locks. The gate is near the cathedral. The story is that sweethearts come here to seal their love. They secure a lock to the gate and then throw the key over the bridge into the water. Janelle added a lock to this gate for her and her husband. Love that!

What did I learn about myself this week? Thankfully, that my core personality has not changed from when I was a care free kid. Even through all our life experiences, both tragic and wonderful, and our time apart, we were still so completely compatible. That must mean our core stays the same. I felt young again, I laughed a lot. And it is not because I don't do these things with my own family, it is just that I have feared I am a different person because I'm older and have responsibilities and so I have to be an adult. Plus I have been away from home for so long and I think that has changed me too. I learned that it is okay to let your inner kid out, to have fun, be silly and enjoy life. I also learned that my girlfriends have turned out to be fabulous, strong, compassionate, independent, faithful women who enjoy motherhood just as much as I do but have also found a niche for themselves in the professional world. Here are a couple of gals that are the types of women you want to have in your back pocket.

And just for the record, I only deserted my husband one night . . . after all, Sherisse hadn't seen the movie "13 going on 30", we had to make sure she was hooked up. Doesn't Jennifer Garner feel like she was one of your childhood friends? I just love her.

So, to Sherisse and Jill: Thank you so much for one of the funnest weeks I've had in a long long time! And for helping to make me feel young for a bit. So, when are you coming back?

Hey, why not?

It is good to have friends, especially the type that are super fun to hang out with AND have yearly passes to Disneyland. That is how a last minute trip to Euro Disney in Paris came about.

Here is the conversation:
Twila: Do you want to go to Disneyland with us this weekend? You can get in for 15 euro per person because we have passes?
Leslie: Yes, and for future reference you don't ever have to ask, we will always say YES! Plus, we have a new baby to break in!

The day was cold and wet, but we didn't care one bit. There were no lines and every ride was wide open. We did everything in both parks in one day. I think from now on Euro Disney should be a winter thing, not a summer thing. Mark and I felt the day was a sort of training process, we learned the ins and outs of a great park visit, since we went with Professional Disney Park Adventurers.

What were our favorite rides?
Bailey: RC Racer in the new Toy Story Section
McKenna: tea cups and Crush's Coaster (she is finally tall enough!, then in a sad voice, "she is finally tall enough")

Mom: Peter Pan (no new fabulous roller coaster will ever trump Peter Pan for me, it is the most magical of all)
Dad: well, driving the Volvo, of course!

And what ride did we barely survive: Hollywood Tower of Terror. And when I say barely, I really mean barely. As soon as you enter the Twilight zone and your mirror image becomes a ghost, and that cute little girl turns into a ghost, that is when we lost McKenna. And when I say lost, I mean pain was inflicted on her parents hands, her face was white, and she closed her eyes through the whole thing, begging for it to be over. But she is a funny sort of girl, because now that we are home, she tells the story to everyone she sees but giggles through the whole thing. The child likes the thrill of being scared!'
It was challenging staying warm but we made it happen. We huddled every chance we got in the lines,

poured hot chocolate into the little ones stomachs,
and went inside for a few shows.
One of my favorite moments were when we were shown the miner's car we would ride in on the Snow White ride. That was just so classic!
Remember in Toy Story 2, when Rex says, "Hey, how do you spell FBI?" And he'll never defeat Zurg because he can't push the fire button and jump at the same time??

Let it snow . . . . PLEASE

Another crap-shoot day, (that is the nastiest word I can use without completely offending my peeps). Car back at the mechanic, this time it's a new fuel pump. Should be about another million dollars in euro. Waited 9 hours to get ADAC to do their job. Broke my phone, cuz I threw it across the room in frustration with a mean 'ol German ADAC dude. He actually yelled at me, THEN hung up on me! Cried in front of my German neighbors (I'm sure they wanted to run away and cover their ears and hum Edelweiss), then cried some more in front of my bishop and my mom. It is bitter cold and raining ice up, not down, because of the wind.

But in keeping with my goal of being an optimist (I'm hangin' by a thread), here is the low down in the Frandsen hood. Tomorrow might be a snow day, meaning no school for the girls. We have extra girls tonight, our good friends the Hartungs are staying the night. It is a torture kind of a sleep-over because I have strictly told them it is a school night until the Army decides it is not, so they can't stay up late. I checked again before I turned out the lights, because I am a good, fun mom (the more I say it the more it might come true). School is not canceled.

The girls are desperate, they really want a snow day. They want to sled, play wii, soak up their Grandmother, bake cookies, eat pancakes, and just be kids for the whole day. So in their desperation they performed a ritual presented to them by their Social Studies teacher. Wear your PJ's inside-out and backwards and do a snow dance before bed. Uh, our girls took that literally. This is what they came up with:

Where in the world is McKenna you ask? She absolutely positively does NOT want a snow day. She has a Christmas party to attend with the promise of cookies, cake and all the other stuff her mean Dietitian of a mom only lets her eat in moderation. My mother and I would rather not have a snow day as well, we have pedicure appointments tomorrow for heaven's sake! So Grandma and McKenna rebelled against the song and dance:

I guess we'll let Mother Nature make her choice, all whilst watching and listening to the AF and Army dispute and come up with different ideas of whether or not people should or should not go to work/school. It is a bit of a ridiculous system that I laugh at (in a cruel kind of a "making fun" of way) Those of you that live here, can I get a hua, hua (raise your hands in the air like you just don't care . . . please)

States Vist - Utah

This is such a late post on this part of our trip. But I'm doing it now and it is kinda nice, bringing back those memories. The view out my parent's back door is breathtaking all year long. This time of year it is getting warmer but you can still see all the snow on the mountain tops. Love That. This is a picture of the whole family, no missing pieces, all together. That's a keeper!
I think the best thing about the Utah part of our visit was (okay shopping was really fun) renewing all our relationships with our family. It was fun to see my siblings in their roles as parents and how I loved seeing all my nieces and nephews play with my children. My children needed that more than anything, it was like a happy comfy drug.
This is what McKenna was into everyday at Grandma's house:
While we were there we celebrated my Grandfather's 90th birthday party. Such super lucky timing in that I got to catch up with my cousins and watch my kiddo's play with even more little family members.
We also caught up with Mark's sisters, Amy and Kelly. Plus we got to hang with Clark and Gage, and more of our great friends.

I also got to catch up with friends, some I hadn't seen in a long time, some we had recently said goodbye to from Germany. Going back to the states was good for my soul. It had been 3 whole years and it allowed me time to renew my friendship with the good 'ol USA. It filled up my cup and I came home refreshed and with a bit of a healed soul.

States Visit - Part 1 Texas

I've been meaning to post about our trip to the states. We have been back for almost 3 weeks and we are still trying to get our legs back. I keep wondering if that is normal, to have to take more time than you were on vacation to recover from it. Yesterday life stopped cold turkey, which is why I'm am blogging, I can't do anything else, nor do I feel like it.

I have strep throat along with McKenna which really happened at the most inconvenient time (when is sickness ever convenient). My Dr appointment was with an AF doc who I can only presume is a new, just out of the gate doc with an insane amount of arrogance. I can explain with the one statement he made that left me speechless, but let me set it up first. I have a sore throat that on a scale of 1-10 is a definite 7, except for when I swallow, then it is a 10+, the nodes on my throat are so swollen you can see it without feeling for it and there is a huge white streak on the back of my throat. I have no other cold symptoms. So when you combine all this, it is a pretty clear case of strep. BUT my arrogant doc says this about the white streak at the back of my throat (after he has disregarded all other symptoms because I don't have a fever which I told him I have been taking 800 mg of ibuprofen which would mask a fever) "That's probably just food debris" What the?! Really? because I haven't eaten in the last 32 hours! Conclusion: the rapid strep test came back positive (shocker) and for the first time in my life I felt like singing that fun song titled "I told you so, I'm sick, I'm sick, I'm sick, I just wanted to come in for an appointment because I have nothing better to do and I'm a useless dependent of the AF that has a goal in life of wasting your time". LaLaLaDeDA

So here are a few pictures of our time in Texas. We went to Utah first but I haven't transferred the pictures from Mark's computer over to mine yet.

The main reason for the visit of course, was shopping, so how convenient that we went while graduation took place AND we had time to fit it into our tight shopping schedule. Whew, almost missed that one:
Here is the Fab Four with Mark's parents and my mom.
Our dear German friends, Freddie and Claudia were able to join us in Texas for graduation and all our other shenanigans!

Red Raiders! Get yer guns up!

Hopefully this experience has motivated Bailey to follow Mark's example. I think she looks pretty darn good in this get up!

We had lot's of "Texas" experiences that involved Texas Land and Cattle, BBQ, Mexican food, the Cowgirl Museum, Children's science museum, downtown Ft. Worth and the Stockyards.

Longhorn Cattle Ride at the Stockyards:
The girls dancing at Billy Bob's:
Mark rode the bull for the second time in his life and I must say, the bull was scared. It had to be!

Bailey rode it too, but the bull magically turned into a kinder, friendlier bull soul during her ride.

We were also super lucky to get a visit from our dear friends the Hammons. It was so good to see them again and re-new our friendships. The kids fell right back into old times, as if they hadn't been apart. We love the Hammons!
Here is the picture that best sums up our Texan experience. That doggie didn't have a chance! Yeehaw!!