End of Summer in Bavarian Alps

We tagged along with Ric when he had to be in Garmisch for a conference. We stayed here, at the Army lodge, a very nice upscale resort, popular during ski season.
A beautiful place, set in the mountains, but a little weird to be overrun with Americans all in one place.

Can't argue with the indoor pool though. Nightly swimming of course.

One day the kids and I hit the nearby town of Ettal, home of the largest monastery in Germany. Here the monks run a brewery and sell beer out of their little gift shop next to the church. Eh, it's a living.
The beer deliver trucks parked outside.


And after touring the church, we headed next door to a cheese factory for a snack of... (wait for it)... cheese! And fresh yogurt and fresh bread and butter. The kids tried out the age-old task of milking a cow from these udders placed under a table. Turns out it's pretty darn hard to squeeze those stinkin' udders just right.

At night we went out for German food. This involves my typical ritual of being hopeful that THIS time I'll like my meal, but mostly just being dashed when it's some bland meat served with potatoes on the side. I'm am COMPLETELY NOT a picky eater. I like everything as long as it tastes good. German food does not taste good. I've actually yet to order something at a German restaurant that I really, actually like. I swear. These people have no taste for good cuisine.

But those Bavarian boys can dance in their Lederhosen! We enjoyed some local dancing this night.

The second day, the kids and I hiked to a nearby lake, the Riesersee (see means lake). A very small, but very picturesque lake just a short walk up the mountain from our lodge. There's another hotel here, you can rent boats, and just hang out swimming and sunning for a day. Food fare= pizza with Salami and hot dogs with sliced bread. Do you see what I'm saying about the food here??!


The boys were brave enough to swim out to this very far dock and hang out. They met a local German boy and we wound up staying for hours while they stared down at the fish, jumped off the dock, and basically just lazed around.

I was hoping that the kids didn't notice the ladies sunning, in complete view of everyone, thonged and topless. I was descrete enough not to snap photos.


It was a great end of summer week. The last time we came down here (see 4th of July) it rained for 4 days straight. Seeing Garmisch-Partinkirchen in the sunshine was a real treat.

Next stop, Back to School.

Big Trip for a Big Kid

Today I sent my oldest off.

Ethan was invited by good friends to join them on a trip with their son. Not a playdate, not a day trip, not a sleepover, a VACATION. They will be gone for 5 days. Not in Waldenbuch, not in Stuttgart, not in Germany... in Italy. With sunscreen, banana bread and books for the car, and passport for the boarder, he was off this morning. Last night he slept like a baby (with me); I tossed and turned and wondered if I should just call the whole thing off. But I know that he's in good hands (the Dad's a Navy fighter pilot, I'm pretty sure he can navigate a BMW) and that he'll have a great time (including a day at the beach). After all, he's only been saying since he was 4 that he wanted to go to Italy and eat pasta every day. So now here's his chance.

And for us left behind, we'll wile our days as a family of 4 which will be a new experience for all of us. Alex and Evelyn are already plotting fun things to do since they don't get to go to Italy (yet). And enjoying then winding down of summer. And I'll be counting the days.

Visit in the US and Quick Trip to London

The night before we left for the US, we wrapped up Ethan's 9th birthday celebration with some homemade cupcakes...

while Dog tested the patio furniture. (She's such a DOG. At least, that's what I tell her all the time, yet she won't stop being such a DOG. Imagine.)

Arrival at Nana's house with plenty of FUN chores, like blowing pine needles off the deck.

And on for a week in VA with Nanny and Pop Pop and Aunt Christina and Uncle Rob. And the POOL, where Evelyn got to be a great swimmer. She's following in her brother's footsteps of learning to swim at the Zschoche's backyard pool.

Aunt Christina, cousin Jana, and Evelyn hang in the hot tub.

And cousin Robby, the fish. He and Ethan look so much alike!

Then back to Nana's cottage with the goofy, goofy Arnot sisters. Isabella (middle) is 8 and Elle (5) and Evelyn show off their super cool, Dollar store fun sunglasses. I think the 3rd Quarter earnings for the Dollar General in Seven Lakes just rose.

And the even more goofy, Arnot clan. From left, Katy, Frank (Grandaddy), Aunt Heidi, Uncle Mike, Judy (Nana), and Elle.

And awaiting us back home was one little boy with one fewer tooth...

While Evelyn and I had a great visit with the family back home, Ric and the boys took a trip to London. No documentation since I had the camera, but they had a whirlwind of a tour to see all the Harry Potter sites around the city, checked out the new Harry Potter movie, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, The Lion King at the theatre, The Tate Gallery, Madame Toussouds, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and a couple of dinners of Fish and Chips to round it off.

We missed being together, but all of us had a great couple weeks of travel.

Happy Birthday, Ethan from Legoland

Ethan's been saying since we moved here that for his birthday he wanted to go to Legoland. So off we went...
On the way home from Garmisch, we stopped at the Land of Legos. Many structures throughout the park were made almost entirely of legos. Pretty cool, huh?




The kids (and the adults) loved this Miniatures Village, with entire cities built to scale from Legos. Munich, Berlin, Venice, Lucerne, among others.

We all agreed that for an amusement park, it was very manageable (not gigantic) with rides both cute and thrilling for big kids and little. Can't wait to come back.

Happy Birthday, Ethan, my big, big, big kid! Thanks for sharing such a fun day with the family!

Happy Fourth of July from Wet, Wet, Wet Garmisch

This weekend we headed down to Garmisch-Partinkirchen, a little ski town in Bavaria, nestled on the German side of the Austrian Alps. Mostly it reminded us of Colorado, with the tallest mountain in Germany located here, the Zugspitze and a view of the alps from all angles. We stayed at an Army resort, The Edelweiss which seemed like a good idea at the time, but then it felt odd to be surrounded by Americans all weekend in and out of town.

We passed on the $200 fee to ride up to the top, figuring that we've seen the view from plenty of 10,000 ft. peaks that we don't really need to pay all that gelb to just "ooh, ahh" from a chilly, snowy top in Germany. Instead we stayed low and walked around this pretty lake, the Eibsee, at the bottom of the mountain.






Then a quick view of the Ski Stadium, built by Hitler for the hosting of the 1936 Olympics. It remains mostly unchanged in the past 70 years, except for the updating of the ski jump, where Garmisch still hosts winter events.
Most of our weekend was on and off rain, so we traveled with umbrellas each day in the backpack. And usually had to pull them out at least once.

There was one break in the weather for just a couple hours, enough for Ric to build a fire. What camp-out is complete without the S'more?


And we were happy to be sheltered from the rain in this little cabin. We'd toyed with the idea of tent camping this weekend, and with the daily 4-5 rain showers, I was mainly SO GLAD that we went with the cabin.


Plus, this "rustic cabin" had a microwave, refrigerator and a TV. So on the first night when Ric went back up to Munich to see Bruce Springsteen, the kids and I got a dose of "America's Got Talent" and "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition." When the kids went to bed I continued the TV time-suck with old episodes of Sienfeld, House, and the marathon coverage of Michael Jackson on CNN. By the time I went to bed at midnight and wished I had just read my book instead ("The Help"-an awesome read!), I was realizing why it's good that we don't have TV at home.
And one day we hiked into a nearby gorge.

Ric and the kids stop to look at the gigantic snails living the forest.



And we got in one ride down an alpine slide before the rain interfered (again).

No picture of the fireworks on that rainy night. We stayed at the cabin expecting them to be cancelled for rain, but hastily pulled chairs (and umbrellas) out at 10:30 when we heard popping to view them through the trees from our campground.

Last Day of German Kindergarten

Now for this little girl, school was memorable this year and so were her teachers.

Evelyn went to this German Kindergarten up the street from our house, completely immersed in the language with only a couple other English-speaking children in her class. Despite sometimes feeling out of place in the beginning (noting that when her teachers spoke, she heard: "WAA WAA WAA"), Evelyn adjusted nicely and really liked going each day. With four or more hours a day of complete language immersion, she progressed quickly to understand basic instructions and also able to speak a little German. Often at home after school while she and I would work on a puzzle quietly, she'd babble away in German with a combination of actual words and made up German-like gutteral sounds.

Here children go to Kindergarten from ages 3-6 and then start 1st grade, so I tried to convince her to stay another year at this K, knowing that with 12 more months at this school, she'd likely be fluent in at least her understanding of German. But with 2 big brothers at the "big kids school" on post riding the bus each morning, the draw to go with them was too strong. And too, as sweet as it is that this developmental school lets the kids play and play and play until they're over 6 with virtually no curriculum instruction, I also know that Evelyn is ready to learn and ready to go to American Kindergarten. So her short year at this school has come to an end.

So with us traveling most of July and the Kindergarten closed in August, her last day was June 30. This is Evelyn with her primary teacher, Frau Deuschle:



And here she is with her "German teacher" who teaches the English-speakers German, and Evelyn's favorite teacher, Frau Gradinger:

Bye-bye Kindergarten Tilsiter Weg!

Evelyn Rides a Bike

oh, little girl on a bike. We laugh so hard because she can't stop screaming when I let go. It's too funny. I love these moments, they are so, so, so, so fun!