I cannot believe how busy life is with three little ones. Take today for instance. Today, the Sabbath, is supposed to be a day of rest, right? Well, Ben got called into work this morning… he left at 7:00, I was up with the kids at 7. I had a lesson to prepare for the Beehives… Ben came home at 11:00, long enough to pick up the girls to go to his church meetings. They like to go early with Dad and hang out on the bench and color. Go figure. We had church until 4:00, came home, put the lasagna in, Ben got home at 5:00 from meetings… we ate, Ben did dishes while I did a "simple" Halloween project with the girls… not so simple… Ben made cookies… Ben crashed on recliner at 7:45 where he still is at this moment passed out. I read to kids, prayers, bed, pick up mess around house. And this was SUNDAY when there's supposed to be no school or work, but a day of REST. Yesterday was a crazy busy day too… even though we didn't really go anywhere. Except Ben. He went to Media Market THREE times to find the right cord to get our AFN working again and it still doesn't work. And he was gone TDY Mon-Fri so I was holding down the fort here, taking the girls and dragging James to school every morning at 7:45 in the freezing cold dark and rain. Girl Scouts, ballet, violin, swimming, cleaning, laundry, cooking, dishes, bedtime, write PTSA newsletter, and don't forget to exercise and eat right! etc. And I really think I do it to myself because I've taken on all these little extra projects… like why not read a Dickens novel by Oct. 31? And why not sign up for the 10k pumpkin run on Halloween? Need to get training! And why not do a gazillion Halloween DIY decorations with the girls? And why not volunteer in both their classrooms for Halloween parties? And learn German. And read two chapters in the Book of Mormon every day. And start and finish a Halloween cross-stitch to be done by Halloween? Oh, and renew my teacher's license and organize our downstairs storage. And I can't forget to blog about our so called "charming" life. Do you see my problem??? We're constantly told to simplify, and yet I don't know where to cut because I think all of my endeavors are either necessary or worthwhile. But I can't do them all at once, that is for sure. What ends up happening is a lot of projects left unfinished. It's good for me to get this down in writing because as I read back on it I realize how INSANE I am. What do you think should be the first to go? The cross-stitch, right? Yes, you're right. But it's so cute. It will be so cute for Halloween. I only have about twenty hours left on it! ;)
Anyway, I digress.
The week before last Ben had a four day weekend, Columbus Day, so we seriously crammed in some fall activities… and it's a good thing we did because this past week the weather has turned horrid! As in December weather instead of October weather. Within a week's span of time we hit the volksfest, a Black Forest run that included a trip to Europapark, and a visit to the nearby pumpkin fest at Ludwigsburg Palace. So, brace yourself for some serious fall festivities picture overload!
The first event was Volksfest here in Stuttgart. Volksfest is every October and Fruhlingsfest every spring at the fairgrounds not far from where we live… it's like a carnival on steroids and I honestly cannot see what the allure is… I think it's only fun if you are stone drunk. It seems like everyone here on RB lives and breathes for the fest… but it's all I can do to go each time and it's only because the girls beg to go because their host nation teacher won't shut her yapper about it. She's probably drunk as a skunk in one of the fest tents.
We went on Wednesday which is family day which means discounted rides. I called Ben at 4:00 to see if he could still get off early and he said, "It looks like I can't come. I need to stay for a VTC." Thirty seconds later his boss called me and said, "Ben is taking you guys to fest tonight. What time do you need him home?" Hooray for awesome bosses! He had overheard our phone conversation and was not about to let Ben bail on us.
This year we caved and splurged for the lederhosen and dirndls… and it was so much fun to get the kids dressed up.
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| Waiting for bus to go to fest. Look at those dirndls!! |
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| James, keeping it cool in Mater the tow truck. |
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| I had the camera on the wrong setting, hence the overexposure. |
Friday morning we were to head to Europapark, the largest amusement park in Europe, and it's located in the nearby Black Forest. I read that they go all out for Halloween, so I thought it would be a fun day trip. However, at precisely 2:00 a.m. the morning we were to leave, both James and Caroline woke up at the same time puking. Yes, you heard that right. As we finally got back to bed after clean up and getting the kids resettled I thought there was no way we were going to swing it. But the kids woke up happy and anticipating our visit to the park, so away we went! And James puked all over his clothes, blanket, and car seat on the way there. And I may have spent 20 minutes in a gas station bathroom scrubbing his precious handmade blankie from Nana. Yeah. But the rest of the day went great! I loved this park… it was huge… which makes it hard to get oriented at first… but they went all out for Halloween. The grounds were decorated SO CUTE…. I couldn't get over it. The park is organized by country-themed areas. Our favorite area was Austria, but we didn't discover it until 30 minutes before closing. That's life, right?
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| Europapark in the Black Forest |
This was the London bus, which James ADORED but Caroline got really sick on. I just thought her facial expression was hilarious in this. She's sitting next to James and me.
So, we had some highs and lows at this park. The definite low was when Em and I waited in line 40 minutes for this popular roller coaster type ride… it's new and seemed like a lot of fun. As we finally got to the front of the line, we boarded the ride, but were shortly afterwards told to get off because there was something wrong. We waited 10 minutes while employees scrambled to fix it, and then an announcement came on that the ride was shutting down pending repairs. Em burst into tears. She was heartbroken and I couldn't believe our luck! I was so mad we wasted an hour of our precious time (we only had seven hours there on account of the puking and all.)
BUT, tender mercy. The park was getting ready to close at 7:00, and Em wanted to go to Austria to do the swings… I grabbed both girls by the hand and we ran as fast as we could and got on the swings at about 6:55. They had a great time swinging high up in the air, and I spotted a cute alpine roller coaster nearby. So as soon as we got off, we ran over to it… by now it was 7 and I wasn't sure we would even be able to get on… but we walked right on to the ride with the last group to go! So, the girls had a blast on it, it was the first roller coaster Caroline really enjoyed because there weren't a lot of hills, but it was still fast and exciting. As the coaster pulled in, everyone started to get off but eyed the controller to see if maybe she would let us go again and she gestured for all of us to sit back down. Everyone excitedly scrambled back on… bonus… another turn! IT was after 7 for sure, she was just being nice. So, around we went again, so much fun and as we pulled in the coaster slowed down, but the controller lady signaled to us with her thumbs up and launched us forward again… basically we got three rides in one turn… You couldn't wipe those smiles off our faces… the girls were grinning ear to ear. As we got off everyone cheered and applauded the nice German frau. Wow, I wish everyone was as cool as that. She could have easily kicked us all off at 7:00, but she was just going the extra mile to be a nice person. It made my girls so happy and it ended our day on a very high note.
We spent the night at a nearby Best Western hotel which was like the nicest Best Western I've stayed in with the best European hotel breakfast I've ever had! You wouldn't believe the vast selection of breads, cheeses, yogurts, eggs, cereal, fruit, and yummy hot chocolate, etc. All included with the price of the room!
Anyway, I wish I could eat like that every morning. After breakfast we asked the receptionist if there was any hiking nearby, and she was like, "Yeah, there's a trailhead right behind the hotel." So, we just went a-wandering and came upon the most beautiful little hike I've been on in Germany.
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| Hiking is my happy place |
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| She lost two teeth on this two day trip! |
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| Hooray for fall! |
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| Me and my little ducklings |
This life sized cuckoo clock was right across the street from the Best Western
We then spent the second half of the day in nearby Freiburg, but I'm not going to lie, I was quite disappointed… it was way too crowded for our liking. Hard to navigate the narrow streets with a stroller and two scooters. I wish we would have gone instead to the nearby Titisee. Oh well…
We did take a funicular up to the top and got some better views from there. And we did happen upon a really fun market in the town square. We got James a wooden train for Christmas.
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| She OWNS that helmet! |
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| Freiburg has a system of miniature canals that go through the streets… runoff from the nearby mountains. |
We enjoyed getting away from the crowds and taking in the views from up top. Freiburg is supposedly the sunniest and warmest place in Germany. And supposedly the Germans here are sunny and warm as well. However, the tourist info lady wasn't that sunny and warm towards me. Maybe she had had a long day.
And that's a wrap. I am NOT blogging about the Pumpkin fest in this post. That is just way too much. I'm trying to simplify after all ;) Haha!
