Great Saturday

We had a great Saturday.  At 10:00am the Chuggs, the Flakes {who just moved here – we knew them in Maryland and Ft. Lewis} and the Bowsers {we knew from Ft. Lewis} came over from Ramstein, an  hour away to spend the day with us.  The men took off for a 10:36 tee time and the 19 children hung out at home, jumped on the trampoline, ran to the park, and played games while the ladies chatted and prepared the food for the BBQ.  When the guys got home we ate.  At 6:00pm we loaded into four vans, granting all requests to switch vans to drive with their friends, and drove to the Neckarsteinach 4 Castle Illumination.  We pulled off the dirt road overlooking the large field and backed in right by the Gillespies, Astons and other friends in our ward.  The large field kept the kids busy for hours.

 

The four-castle town of Neckarsteinach lies on the Neckar River about 15 km east of Heidelberg.

Neckarsteinach’s foremost sights are its four castles, which stand on crags or the slope leading down to the Neckar. They are the Vorderburg (“Fore-castle” or “Further Castle”), the Mittelburg (“Middle Castle”), the Hinterburg (“Hind-castle” or “Hinder Castle”) and the Schadeck (also called the Schwalbennest, or “Swallows’ Nest”). The castles were built between 1100 and 1230.  The castle below is the Mittelburg, which is the only one that is privately owned and lived in.  Two of the other ones are freely open to the public.  You can park below and climb up to them… It’s on my list of things to do!

 

For hours Chris took all the kids down to play flag football.  They loved it.  One of Katie’s favorite parts was when she and Dad set up a fake play where Chris pretended to give it to her and she took off running.  The entire team chased her and Chris sailed it right in the end zone.   Ryan’s favorite was dodging Bobby making him roll off onto the side, and heading in for a touchdown.   Chris is such a fun Dad!

Ryan with two of his good friends, Tate and Mark.  You can see all our vans and chairs behind.

At about 9:30 we sat in our chairs and talked waiting for it to get dark.   Finally at 10:15 it was dark enough to start.  First three LOUD firework type ‘booms’ went off and echoed through the valley.  Then three of the castles lit up with red glowy lights as if they had been hit and were on fire.   After a few minutes the fireworks started.   It was a great firework show!   Then the three castles each exploded with what I can best describe as a ‘firework waterfall’.  It was cool.

Happy Birthday Dad!

 

The kids were pretty excited for Dad to open his presents…  Katie had purchased BYU cups which she found while we were shopping at the big PX.  She spotted them in a display of a bunch of other teams and held them up surprised.  We bought almost all of them.  He now has a new favorite cup – replacing his gigantic IKEA clear ones.  He also got a pedometer, a frame with one of the pictures of Chris and I from Paris (Matthew is pointing out Mom and Dad),  a new t-shirt, the 2011 RISE UP BYU shirt (which he is very happy about) and another BYU football T-shirt.  (again, very happy) and BYU shorts from his sisters (of course, thrilled).  After all of his Y stuff he looked up and said, “I’m just so easy to buy for.”   $$ from his parents and my parents will go towards a new movie making program which he is very excited about.

Chris requested Chicken Enchiladas and homemade German chocolate caramel brownies for his birthday food.  When we lit his candles the kids were all trying to suppress giggles.   Yep, trick candles… and the kids thought it was so funny that once he blew them out they kept relighting.      Happy Birthday, honey.

Girls trip to Seiffen, Germany

 

When Emma suggested a spontaneous shopping overnighter to Seiffen she had no idea six of us would jump on board so quickly.  With packed bags, snacks for the road and enough Euro to do some serious damage we met  outside Emma and Megan’s houses and drove 5 hours North-East to Seiffen, close to the Czech border – but still in Germany.

Now first, let me explain how these girl trip shopping adventures go…  Day one is purely window shopping, discussing, taking notes, validating each other’s opinions and thoroughly analyzing what each store has to offer.  It’s long hard work… and certainly no man is cut out for it.   Day 2 is about revisiting EVERY store, helping each other make decisions, more validating, making purchases and spending money… all of it.  

Seiffen sits in the heart of the Ore Mountains, which are famous for many Christmas traditions. As the silver and tin deposits declined, former miners had to look for new ways to feed their families. In addition to lace making and weaving, the inhabitants went into wood carving. Nutcrackers, "smoking men", "pyramids" (carousels with figures of the Christmas story) and Schwibbogen (wooden arcs with candles in the windows, symbolizing the opening of a mine) are the most traditional of many Christmas goods made in the Ore Mountains. Seiffen is also a center of the wooden toy industry.  The reason to come here for our German Christmas decorations is that it’s so much cheaper than anywhere else in Germany… and they took our VAT forms so we don’t have to pay German taxes.

We arrived around 1:00 and wasted no time getting into the first store.  From there we hopped from store to store down the hill and back up the other side.  The streets of Seiffen are lined with one Christmas store after another.  Some with mainly Nutcrackers, some with mainly pyramids, but most with a mixture of everything. Last year we came in November when it was snowy and cold… this time it was gorgeous.  It’s so great having Christmas in July.

The miner and his wife… popular Christmas decorations based on the history of this mining Christmas town…

The Seiffen octagonal church is kind of iconic in Christmas decorations all over Germany.  Little wooden replicas sit on Schwibbogen or within miniature Christmas villages.  The church has a unique graveyard sitting beside.  Each grave has a beautifully tended flower garden on top.  I love it.

This is a huge Schwibbogen.  People put these in their windows to light them up… 

 

 

Geneva in our cute blue decorated room…       (Holly – this room was warm and not near as hysterical as last year. We missed you.)

Melissa at our hotel’s  yummy breakfast buffet…

Outside our Hotel… Emma, me, Geneva, Brittany, Mindy and Megan… ready for Day 2 of shopping.

The miner’s wife… and then Geneva and I standing by the white nutcracker.  This guy is one of the ones I bought this year… only much smaller… and Geneva already has him.   I just love him!

Cute little Christmas store with the minor symbol on top… and an old Seiffen School…

Everyone had their own interests and it was fun to see what everyone was excited about.  Megan and Mindy loved the miniatures.  Some people were shopping for Schwibbogens, or pyramids, or tree decorations, or a bunch of different things.  Who knew I would be so drawn to nutcrackers.  I already have a couple picked out that I’m going to buy next year!

Geneva had to pull out her flower girls as we waited for our Italian  lunch.  She kept loving these in every store and decided she just had to get them.  She’s so happy with her girls!

The ladies outside our full trunks ready to drive back…

Beautiful German countryside on the way home…    

Side note: On the way to Seiffen,  we saw a huge truck which had tipped over on the other side of the autobahn and was blocking ALL lanes of traffic… and since most autobahn don’t have hardly any type of shoulder, NO ONE could pass.  We were shocked at how many miles of cars were stopped behind it.  Most people were out of their cars, talking to each other, and although they probably didn’t really know what was holding them up, they had a good idea they would be stuck here for a good couple hours.  It’s called a STAU and it’s rather frequent here in Germany.  Luckily we haven’t been stuck in one that bad, and thank goodness we weren’t stuck in that one today – taking up precious shopping time.  It did make me think that I need more water and ‘snacks’ in the back of the van in case of just this kind of emergency.  About 10 km down the road we could see a polizei at the end of the stau telling cars to turn around and go back the other way.  Another kilometer down the road they had blocked off traffic and were making EVERYONE exit the autobahn.  That caused a major STAU itself.  It was quite something.  

River Neckar Park

The park by the Neckar River is one of my kids favorites.  It was a nice day so we met several friends for a park day.  We didn’t bring bathing suits but that didn’t stop my kids from having fun in the water.  Matthew didn’t even think twice about walking up the little stream with his shoes on.  They spent a lot of time splashing around and had a great time.

            

Matthew thought it was so fun to get his shoes all wet.  I just love his squinty eye smile.

 

While the kids were playing in the water a huge flock of ducks came right on in.  Matthew was so intrigued.

FIFA Women’s Soccer Semi-Finals

 

We were anxious to see the US women’s soccer team play live – here in Germany -  so we quickly booked tickets to the semi final match where the US and Germany were both headed if they won their final games.   Well, the US lost their game to Sweden and Germany lost their game to Japan so we ended up with tickets to the Sweden – Japan game. 

We left home and headed to Frankfurt with several hours until the game but because of crazy parking traffic we were running to the stadium and missed the beginning including seeing the first goal.   Still, the game was so much fun.  The field and stadium were incredible and it was so exciting to be there in person.   A couple things we noticed that were different were the guys with bread baskets around their arm selling pretzels and brochen – crusty rolls.  The other funny thing was when the whole crowd started this strange whistling – it made us laugh. 

When the game ended and Japan had won it was fun to see them so excited and emotional.  You can see in the bottom of the picture someone excitedly waving their Japan flag back and forth.  Japan really did play well.  It was fun to see!