~A Piece Of Heaven In Holland~

~Don't we look relaxed? We were in robes for three days straight!~
~Jaclyn, Ann, Denise, Kim, Kristine, Arica~

~The hotel rooms are under the grass to the left, the spa resort to the right~

~The relaxation room that we would recover in after our spa treatments~

~We ate dinner by the fire in our robes on Friday night~

~Don't be fooled! These chairs were not easy to get into. We waited here for our massages~

~I loved sitting out here at night and looking up to a full sky of stars~

~This is the path to the outdoor sauna in a log cabin~

~The weather was perfect. It was warm with blue skies the entire weekend~

~One of the many pools - Can you see us in our favorite spot in the corner on the chairs?~

~The rooms were simple, but we spent very little time here~

~I had the best raspberry mango smoothie here~

~We ate dinner at this cafe'~

~Kristine by the fire, just kidding - but this is how relaxed I was all weekend~

Bienenfleissig ~ "Busy Bees"

~This castle is only 45 minutes from our house~

~Keanna, Emily, Kristine, Kade, Cynthia, Ayla - it stopped raining long enough for a picture of our adventure outside the beautiful Hohenzollern Castle~

~Kinder Carnivale - My little Mexican soccer player~

~Superman was all smiles~

~With a little help from the gutter guards - he scored pretty high~

~Cole & Jack having a blast bowling~

~Kade & Cole at the Kindergarten Valentine's Day party~

~February 14th - My valentines at my favorite gelato cafe'~

~"Training Holiday Weekend" ~ Day 1 at Rhein Falls in Switzerland~

~It was so much fun going over the bridge to the castle~

~Kristine so close to the falls with the rainbow over her head~

~The boys had to slide over to the icy corner for this picture in front of the falls~

~These falls were beautiful~

~Steve & Kade having a bonding moment on the bench~

~Day 2 - Kade hiding in a log along the creek~

~Day 2 - Schwabian Alps Waterfall~

~Lichtenstein Castle~

~Day 3 - Black Forest Waterfall with my boys~

~Momma bear with her bear cubs~

~A little hot chocolate after a busy weekend at the waterfalls~

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~Weekly Update~ My journal of our Germany Adventures~

Well, well, well, it has been a very busy couple of weeks. I will try to save the important details for this blog. We celebrated the last of our Carnivale events and the boys had an opportunity one more time to put their costumes on. Let me just say.... new costumes for next year. Cole played musical chairs, and other fun games in hopes of winning some wonderful prizes. We couldn't end our day without some Berliners (donuts) and french fries - yum! The Germans didn't know what to think about our little "Mexican" soccer player running around - I think I was offending them. They are die hard Fussball (soccer) fans here and Kade was wearing their competition? Oops - but I ran out of costumes - I had no choice. Silly me!

The next day we had the opportunity to have my friend Emily (her husband graduated with Steve from dental school) come into town with her girls and and a friend. I decided to take them to a castle that I had heard about that is only 45 minutes from our house. The bad thing, it was pouring down rain. The good thing, it was an incredible castle. We just ran through the stone tunnels up to the castle in hopes of staying as dry as we possibly could. We were soaked, but we were laughing and that is all that matters. We made our way up the long curvy entrance and the ladies realized that they had left their purses in the car and they needed 24 euro for the castle tour. I refused to get out in that rain again and walk all the way back to the car. I counted the money that I had, and joined with what they had in their pockets, we were 50 euro cents short. I took all of the money and courageously went up to the window. I did my best American flirting to talk the nice man into letting us in with not enough money. He laughed and let us in - I don't know if it was my flirting or the last ditch effort to add a Reese's peanut butter cup with the pile of bills and coins? I like to think it was my flirting, right? He even offered us the English guide book which was normally 3 euros, but he knew we were broke - with the promise of returning it after the tour. We finally were safe from the wind and rain and made it in the castle to the start of our tour. They had us slip on what appeared to be Jolly Green Giant slippers and we just cross country skied our way through the tour to make sure our enormous slippers stayed on our feet. We all agreed that we thought it was a cheap way to get the floors cleaned and shined up - we all wanted to sneak a pair home to help out with the cleaning of all of our hard wood floors in our own homes. The tour was in German, but we had our English book (wink, wink). It was a beautiful castle and I love that it is so close to my home. At one point I looked over at Emily and chuckled. I said, "Can you believe that a year ago we were both dreaming about coming to Germany and exploring the country. Now we are standing together in this incredible castle together." It was a dream come true for both of us - oh, where a year can take you.

Cole had a parent / teacher conference day off from school and was invited from his friend Jack to go bowling. The boys had a blast and we counted and they had rolled the ball 97 times between the 3 of them. Me and my friend Laura got to roll the ball 3 times total, they were enjoying themselves so much - we decided to let them rock and roll! Plus, then we got to talk while they were entertained - which is all that really matters.

On Saturday I got to go out with the ladies for an opportunity to experience a mall in Germany. You may be thinking, how do you experience a mall? Well, they do the malls a little differently here. When you go to the mall, that is your activity for the day. You start out early to make sure you can find a parking spot, and then you shop, eat lunch, shop, drink a cappuccino, shop, sit, talk, watch people, etc. As you can tell, this is a big event. The best part of the day for me was that I was shopping and right next to me was the cutest little dogs. Dogs in Germany are amazingly well behaved (unlike American dogs) and you are able to bring them to restaurants, malls, etc. I thought it was awesome. After 5 hours of shopping, I was definitely done. I had shopped and was ready to drop! It was good to have a German experience at the malls.

I am a member of the International Women's Club Stuttgart - which is the group that I went with for my spa retreat (remember... naked menthol leg wrap?) I really love this organization and one of the things I like best about it is that it has very few military women members. They do monthly meetings, monthly lunch, monthly dinners, monthly chick flick movie nights, and lots of other cultural events like museum tours, etc. I haven't been involved with this club as much as I really wanted to. I was quite happy then, when the chair of the club called me and asked me if I would be the Charity Events Coordinator for the club. We have 3-4 main charity events a year - and my only weakness will be that I don't speak German - we have to get local sponsors for donations. I am excited and flattered for the invitation and it became official when I was voted in at the monthly meeting on Tuesday. I am ready for the challenge - especially for a good cause.

We had a great Valentine's day. Cole had a party in his class, and he wanted to make sure that Kade and I would be there to celebrate with him. Can I just say that it is priceless when I walk in his classroom and he just has the hugest smile on his face and he is so excited that we are there. I wouldn't miss that face for the world. We had fun putting all of his valentines in the mailboxes, playing heart bingo, making heart shaped pb j's, and he made a valentine for me and Steve. We washed everything down with some cupcakes and juice. It was a very fun party for the kids. I made Steve and the boys a delicious Valentine's meal and took all my boys to my favorite Gelato (italian ice cream) cafe. I am the lucky lady of 3 valentines that melt my heart everyday. Kade looked over at me during ice cream with his big, beautiful brown eyes and said "I love you so much." I am in heaven! My gift from Steve is a fabulous ladies spa weekend in the Netherlands. We have 6 ladies heading out for 3 days at the spa. This should be a much better experience then the last. I have signed up for a 60 minute massage on Friday, a chocolate pudding body wrap and a facial on Saturday. I am out of my mind excited - you will hear all about it in my next blog - stay tuned. And yes, swimsuits are required!

It is great, once a month Steve gets a 4 day "Training Holiday" (which are free vacation days) - and boy did we get some good training time in :-) We decided to enjoy the beautiful areas close to our home and take some day trips. We ended up making it a "waterfall weekend." The first day we headed to Switzerland which is only 1 hour from our home. We visited the Rhein Falls - which are a beautiful set of raging waterfalls right beneath a beautiful castle. Being from the Pacific NW - I found myself thinking "this is what everyone was telling us to come see?" We walked along the river and headed over the bridge to the castle. That is when it became magnificent. We were inches from the waterfall. Never in the US would they let you get that close. The days have been cold and clear with beautiful blue skies, so the lookout points were all covered in ice. We skated our way out and got some great pictures - we had such a fabulous time. There was a rainbow over the falls which we were able to capture in our photos. The second day we drove to a town in the Schwabish Alps where we had a beautiful 20 minute hike in along a creek to get to our prize waterfall. The boys had an awesome time throwing rocks and sticks in the creek. We finally made it and enjoyed the climb to the top where we got to enjoy a picnic lunch that I had packed. The third day we took a trip to a town in the Black Forest - which we were very sad (OK not really) to see that we could only walk up to the base of the waterfall and that the path to the top was closed because of ice. The boys were very disappointed but we made it up to them by offering them some delicious heisse schokolade (hot chocolate) at the really cute cafe in town. They were over it within seconds. What I loved most about these trips was seeing all of the excitement from Cole & Kade. They continue to amaze me at how much they love these new adventures in their lives. I have friends that say their kids will not go and see another castle or waterfall. My boys love to go to both, and they love to climb the hills and reach the top. They run along and race each other, laughing all the way, and that makes for such great memories. These are going to be a great three years, full of bear cub adventures. I love my "European boys"!

~Carnivale 2008~

~My new German tea set - I cannot wait for a tea party~

~I found some great German foods at the market on Schmotziger Dorschdich "Women's Day"~

~Weil Der Stadt Carnivale 2008 - We made some great memories~

~We were all ready for the Carnivale~ It was beautiful blue skies and freezing outside - we all had to put 3 layers of clothes on under our coats and costumes and wear our boots - brrrrrr~

~The Mighty Pirate & My Two Supermen~

~These were the witches that put the rope around me and took me down the street~

~We loved all of the bands & the music - 50,000 people were watching the parade~

~German Witches~

~Don't be fooled - they are up to no good~

~A crowd favorite ~ The Ratatouille Float~ They handed out gummy rats to the kids~

~I had to take my coat off while the horse poop was being cleaned off of it from my roll around on the road with the witch~ I also had to put my boots back on here~

~Weekly Update~

Guten Tag Friends & Family:

Well, this has been one of my most favorite weeks since we have been here in Germany. Do I say this every time I write?

This week in Germany they all celebrate Carnivale / Fasching a.k.a. Mardi Gras - German Style. And despite how serious everyone seems most of the time, boy do these Germans know how to have some fun. On Thursday, we celebrated Schmotziger Dorschdich a.k.a. "A day for women to celebrate and be naughty". I love it! On this women's day, if you are a man wearing a tie, expect it to be cut in half with a pair of scissors. Women kidnap the town mayors and bring him out to the town square and spank him with a paddle. A little different then the way we do things in the states. I decided to take advantage of my "women's day" and me and my neighbor Martina started with a great trip to the local outdoor farmer's market - where I bought myself some beautiful tulips (my favorite). I even found one of the things that I was searching around Germany for. It is very common to have friends and family over for coffee, tea & pastries here, and I didn't have any tea cups and saucers. Well, I found some and I love them - I know that they are going to be put to good use.

Next, we were off to the German Supermarket so that she could show me some of the tricks to her delicious German cooking. I bought some great cheeses and sauces, and yummy hazelnut chocolate pudding. It is so much fun to go and try new things. I want to be able to learn some traditional Schwabish (this is our region of Germany) meals to cook for you all when you come to the Hotel McLean. It is very sweet because Martina invites me to her home now everyday to teach me her secret recipes - I am learning, but it is difficult because they use very different ingredients then what I am accustomed too. Now after I master these meals here, I just need to figure out how I can make these recipes when we come back to the states. I am growing to love German food - it just takes a little getting used to.

Now it was time to celebrate "Women's Day" with a night out with some of my German girlfriends - Steve was very kind to stay home and watch the boys. They wouldn't tell me what I was about to be getting myself into - so I was a little nervous - but was definitely up for the challenge. We started off at an outside witches dance (Carnivale around here is all about witches, devils, etc - a little creepy, but unique and who am I to question traditions?). We were greeted by a bunch of fires and fireworks and people dressed up in traditional German witch costumes and they danced around and did their performance and it was amazing - I love how different they do things then we do. After the witches dance, we were off to the Brauhaus - for some real girl party time! When we walked in the restaurant - we could barely even walk because the place was jam packed. Everyone was in costume and they were dancing to a huge marching band in the middle of the restaurant. My head was spinning and my eyes did some amazing people watching. I saw girls on each others shoulders, on tables, dancing, having a great time. I was right at home - because I am a dancer at heart & I love to get my groove on! We found some more friends that we were meeting there and we all found our place at a table. We were dancing and laughing and dancing and laughing! The best part was that I was dancing on top of the table right next to a 65 year old women dressed up in a clown costume! What a hooty hoot! Everyone tried to talk to me, and I just pretended that I couldn't hear/understand them because the music was too loud. I was having a German experience and didn't want to ruin it with my English twang! We danced until midnight and then decided the ears were ringing and it was time to call it a night. My cheeks were so sore from smiling so much - everyone needs to experience a moment of time in another country and see how much fun it is to celebrate our differences!

On Sunday we were invited by our neighbors (Nagels) to a huge Carnivale Parade. I decided to mix a little bit of American love in and had them over for a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes with fresh squeezed Italian orange juice - yummy & I got to use my new dishes! After breakfast we all got on our costumes. The only costumes that Steve and I have are US military uniforms - which I don't think would have gone over to well?!? The boys both dressed up as Superman and Steve and I borrowed the boys' pirate hats from our trip to Disneyland. We were ready for some good times. The parade village is very cute and only about 10 minutes from our house. It brings people from all around Stuttgart so we had to park over a mile away and walk into the village. The streets were full and we were in for a real treat. We later learned that there were over 50,000 people packed into this small medieval town. We met up with our Kagel (bowling) friends and we were out of our minds when the celebrations began! 72 different sets of participants in the parade. There were floats, bands, witches, pirates, devils, animals, and other crazies! They must have smelled my American blood, because the witches were singling me out. At one point I had a rope around me and two witches were pulling me down the middle of the parade and twirling me in circles. My big bellow laugh came out - which I think only encouraged them - and I was not quite sure what I was getting myself into? They finally released me and I made my way back to the group. Not five minutes later, another witch had pulled me out and wrestled me to the ground, and another witch had ripped off my boots. I know you are all thinking that you would have gone "Mike Tyson" on these witches - but it was hysterical and I was just taking it all in. You know... rolling around on the road by a witch would have been "fun" but............... earlier in the parade some horses had come by and left some treats for us on the road right in front of us. And unlike the parades in the states... they don't have the clowns with the "pooper scoopers" coming around after to clean up the mess. So needless to say..... I was rolling around with a witch, on the cold road, with my shoes off, and now I was covered in horse poop!!!!!! And believe it or not, all I could do was laugh. I was laughing so hard, I had tears. Steve got it all on tape! My neighbor, Dieter helped me get my coat off and helped me to get it all cleaned off - but I definitely had a "sweet spirit" about me. I got all situated again and got back to the front of the parade, and yes, another set of witches came and now he was hugging, twirling, and dancing with me, messing up my hair and he even had the nerve to feel me up! That was the most action I have had in months! Steve then had had it, he threw the camera down and tackled the witch to the ground (OK, that was my addition to the story - wouldn't that have been awesome?) Talk about an interactive parade.... by the end, we had been handed pieces of pie and large pretzels off of the baker floats, we had fresh soup from the restaurant floats, and the witches and people on the floats were throwing candy to the kids the whole time. Cole & Kade were afraid of the witches at first, but when they learned that if they dance, smile and look cute that they could get more candy... they caught on real fast! What a cool & "crappy" day :-) I was being a real good sport wouldn't you say?

These were memories that I will always have with me. I love trying out new traditions and I absolutely love it here in Germany. Every time I think about leaving this place, my eyes get filled with tears. I cannot believe how kind everyone has been to us. We have been made to feel so willkommen here - it really is a magical place. We are so blessed to be able to truly experience this place and take part in their traditions and culture. And the fun still continues... on Tuesday we are off to a Kinder Fasching party here in our little village that is for the local kids. Once again we will get dressed up in our costumes and take part in carnival games and eat new foods - someone said something about bratwursts hanging from strings with hands tied behind your back??? You gotta love it here! I will definitely be on the lookout all year now for some new costumes for the boys and Steve & I to wear so that we can be all ready for Geman Carnivale 2009! I wouldn't miss it for the world~

My Boyz Have Skillz!

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