Well, you've all heard about Ben's fantastic weekend in Switzerland, so now I suppose it's only fair that I tell you now about my weekend home with the kids. Thrilling, right? Actually, we had a good time. Not a hiking through the Alps while yodeling kind of good time, but a good time nonetheless. I wanted to do something exciting and special (it was a four day weekend after all - not to be wasted when one is in Europe) so I decided on a day trip. Originally my plan was to take the kids to the Heidelberg Zoo with some friends, but the plan morphed into a hiking trip to a couple ruined castles. The castles were two of the four that were lit up at the fireworks display I described in this link:
We had a group of 6 families from church. I think in all there were 16 children. The oldest was, maybe, 11. The second oldest was 10. The rest of the children were 6 and under. That's right. 14 children aged 6 and under. They have these AFN commercials warning people not to travel in large groups so as to not draw attention to ourselves. Hahahahaha. We were definitely noticeable. In fact, we even ran into someone from New Jersey who, when told that some of us were from Utah, asked if we were Mormon. When we replied that yes indeed, not only some, but all of us were Mormon, we got the "Ah ha - one dad, 4 wives and lots of kids" comment. Of course we quickly responded that NO NO NO that is NOT the case. Our comments however, were somewhat invalidated by the fact that we were missing 3 of the dads. (Backpacking.....in Switzerland....) I told the man that I had one husband, no other wives, and only 2 children. Unfortunately, my husband was one of the missing ones. Good times. Okay, enough jabber - on to pictures. B had the good camera in Switzerland (for some reason he thought he had better scenery....) so once again I was stuck with the pocket camera. I think it might be time for a second SLR. Yup.
Okay, in picture number one, how many dads can you count? The castle on the right is the first castle we reached. On the way up the trail the kids had a lot of fun climbing on rocks, tree roots, finding bugs, finding sticks and finding hidden treasure for some German child's birthday party. (We did make them put it back!)
And now time for some castle shots...
Note the steep staircase - it was really steep, and really rickety. Let's just say that safety measures here don't quite match up to those in the states...
I can't get a normal smile out of that kid to save my life. Oh, and does anybody recognize I's elbows? Finally, some shots of the valley from the top of one of the castles:
We truly live in a beautiful place.
8 comments:
Hey, what do you know? We're online simultaneously. Cool. Yes kids that their weird smiles. The just reach and age and...well they just can't smile normally. Luckily, I've heard they out grown it. Don't know for sure since Emma still isn't smiling right...
I think his smile is awesome. It almost looks like he's in pain and trying to smile through it. What fabulous pictures, and what a brave thing to do with that many kids! It looks like it was quite the adventure. Way to take advantage of your amazing surroundings!
It's got to be an age thing. I can't get Rylan to smile normally anymore either. If you check my blog and look at her faces...well...let's hope it's truly just a stage:)
I think in my next post I'll go take some pictures of my surroundings so you don't forget how good you had it in Groovytown.
Let's see...new lot for Super Walmart, Goodale Park, Trader Jack's Drive Thru Liquor Store...you know you miss it!
How beautiful... that is amazing! You were very brave to go on that staircase.. it looks pretty high and old! Looks like you are enjoying Germany!
Get used to the "safety measures." Karl and I often thought as we were doing some random thing that there would be no way in he** that it would happen in the States because someone would sue and ruin it for everybody. Like riding the little train that took miners into the salt mines (Berchtesgaden, Salzburg area...). If they were in the US, some idiot would stand up, give themselves a concussion, and sue, even though they were clearly told before the train moved to remain seated. For some reason it just doesn't happen over there. Watch out for the roof terrace at St. Mark's in Venice, too. It's not exactly up to code.
There are a bunch more ruined castles along the eastern side of the A-5 between H-berg and Darmstadt, including the Frankenstein castle, where they have a pretty good Halloween to-do. There's another one where they do medieval jousts and stuff. I'll have to look up the name of it. Glad you're having so much fun in my old stomping grounds. Every time you post a new picture it makes me more determined to go back in a few years.
You know, Nicole, I really had intended to drive around Groovytown and take some pictures of some of the fabulous highlights you mentioned - mostly because I'm afraid that with time the memories will fade and I won't remember how fabulous it truly was. And, yes, Billy Jack's drive through liquor store was totally on my list. As were the parole office that's a trailer and the sign that says "Sons of the Confederacy - join now!" with the big Confederate flag. Unfortunately the dramatic nature of our departure prevented my photo expedition, so unless you do it for me, memories will have to suffice.
Ian always looks so adorable concerned or worried in his photos. And of course exactly like a young Ben. And don't feel guilty about not having pictures on your walls. I've been in my house for 4 months now and have a total of 2 pictures hung.
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