Rothenburg with the Starbucks

I just love this entrance into Rothenburg.   To the right is a church, nestled inside part of the city’s wall.  I love the half timbered house up on top. 

Ryan and Katie skipped school, we took the boys to a friends house and took off to our favorite German city.  It was chilly but we didn’t have any rain and even had some blue skies.  None of that mattered to these four who just enjoyed being together.  It was a great day.

Can I really pick a favorite street in Rothenburg… it might be this one.

We wandered down a side street which I hadn’t ever been on before and found an alley with a view.

Love this girl.  Almost 13.  Almost done with 7th grade.

Love this park area just outside the city’s wall.

At this point we started shedding layers and Ryan volunteered to carry everything, all the backpacks, all the jackets, and even Katie.

Back in the center of town, we climbed the City Hall Tower…

I know I’ve taken these pictures before… but I just can’t help taking more.

Love this kid.  Almost 15.  Almost finished with 9th grade.

 

When we saw this flower market, both Monae and I immediately walked to opposite ends to take a picture.  It made us laugh. The German Winter has been extra long this year and I’m missing the flowers that usually decorate each window sill this time of year.  I guess we both needed to take a picture of some color!

Spargel season… German white asparagus.  Can’t wait to eat some spargel soup at our favorite restaurant.

We finished out the day with a walk along the wall.  I know it’s blurry, but I love this one of Brianna running towards me.

Heidelberg with the Starbucks

Tuesday night our good friends from Georgia came in to town… Aaron and Monae Starbuck with their oldest two (of seven)… Brianna (14) and Austin (12).   They had spent a couple days in London and Paris and rented a car from there, pulling into our house at just after 9:00pm.  It had been almost exactly 3 years since we’d seen them (which I still can’t quite believe) and it was so fun to have them in our home.  We gave them a tour of the house and then settled into the living room to chat until 3:30am.   It was so much fun to catch up.   Ryan and Katie took Brianna and Austin and they played Wii, played foosball, and got reacquainted.  The four of them were the best of friends when we lived in Georgia and it was fun to see them picking up right where they left off.

Wednesday morning came much too soon.  Ryan and Katie were missing school Wednesday and Thursday to hang out with their friends, but Ryan still wanted to go to seminary on Wednesday and Brianna and Austin decided they wanted to go as well.  After three hours sleep they went to seminary and came back home after Chris ran a PT test with only 1 1/2 hours sleep.  Emily and Megan were good to me and got up and ready by themselves, came in to say goodbye and headed off for the bus without me leaving my bed.   What good girls.

When we finally got ourselves up and ready, we headed out to explore Heidelberg.  We parked at P13 right under the castle and headed straight up the stairs to see it and check out the view from the top.  It was a cold day.  It seems like Spring will never come to Germany – it’s been cold for so long!

Down from the castle, into the main square and over to the Old Bridge…

Chris met us at the Goldener Falken for a great German lunch. 

Ryan and Austin and their flammkuchen…

I think Brianna and Katie’s cheese spatzle and German salad was the winning meal. 

CYS Basketball

Tate, Mark, Ryan and Alexander enjoyed playing CYS Basketball together this season (December – March).  All of these guys are soccer guys and haven’t played much basketball but decided to sign up and give it a go all together.   Coach Aston (Mark’s Dad) was head coach.  Chris assisted.  They had a lot of fun on Monday/Wednesday night practices and Saturday games.  It took them awhile to find their game but they had some fun close games at the end of the season and really learned a lot.   So grateful to have these great friends for Ryan.

Eagle Board

I think Ryan must have beat the record for the fewest amount of days in between his project and his Eagle Board of Review.  He worked H-A-R-D to finish up all the paperwork quickly and send it in so his Eagle Packet would be finished and ready.   The rush was because it takes 6 or 8 weeks for the Eagle award to get here and he really wanted to finish up with his Eagle Court of Honor before we left Germany.

Along with his write-up of how the project went he had to get five letters of recommendation, which he got from Brother Aston (his YM president and Basketball coach), Brother Mouritsen (his scout leader), President Tillett (his former Bishop and current 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency), Mr. Osbourne (his 7th grade Language Arts teacher and NJHS leader) and his mom.

Chris drove him up to Wiesbaden to meet with the Transatlantic Council representatives for his board review.  Meanwhile the girls and I  decorated his room with streamers and posters.   The fact that this project is done is something to celebrate!

Relax, Ryan.  You deserve it!

This week’s random life details…

• Flights are booked.  We're headed to Colorado Springs from Tuesday, April 16th to Wednesday, April 24th to go find ourselves a house!
• We have a skype meeting with a builder in the area tonight to ask him some questions.
  Katie was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society last night.  So proud of her.
• 4 people came to look at our house last night with the real estate agent so we left to go eat dinner at Ikea.  Then I took just Megan to go grocery shopping.  Much needed one-on-one time.
• Ryan got a 100% on his major 3rd quarter project and a 98% on his 300 word memorized poem... class average was 75.  He recited it a couple times for us Wednesday night which was our 'entertainment' for the evening and a quick break from everything else.
• Emily dressed up as Heromine from Harry Potter yesterday for 'Dress as your favorite Character' Day at school.  She looked darling.  Did I take a picture?  No.  Dang it.   Megan was a cowgirl for her book 'Annie McRay'.
• Emily just finished the last Harry Potter book a week ago and is delving into a couple more long series already.
• I've been tutoring Yvonne’s son, Caleb, in Spelling for the last 4 months and just had to quit because of everything else going on.
• We finally got RFO's (Request for Orders) and our REPORT to CARSON DATE is June 18th.  That's when Chris will start in-processing.  (It's earlier than we thought.)   
• Tonight Chris and I are going to Ryan's weekly High School Soccer pasta dinner and then off to help the Easter bunny with baskets. 
• Ryan's JV team plays here tomorrow and I'm excited to watch!
• We have nothing tomorrow night.  Empty on the calendar.  Totally free.  Can't believe it.    
• Chris is in charge of the 5th Sunday combined RS/Priesthood lesson.  He's been thinking about it and working on it for a long time.  I’m sure it will be great.