Probably what you all have been waiting for....our new home!

Well, here it is, at long last... The Newest Residence of The Jeppson Crew!

I had expected to find a charming, cottage with a balcony made from black forest wood...draped in flowers like hanging Geraniums or petunias. However, when we got here there were NO private rentals available for a family our size. Nor, did it seem, that any would become available soon. So, we filed an exception to policy and we were able to recieve this lovely 4 bedroom duplex. It is new, clean, and fairly spacious. The best part is, it is wired 110w and 220w, so we can use european and american electronics. It also sits in a subburb at the top of a hill...down one side is the Main town of Eschenbach of which we are a part, and down the other side of the hill is the base Grafenwoer, and village of Grafenwohr. We are across the street from the elementary and middle schools, so the girls can all walk to school together. And our home sits at the end of a culd-a-sac, next to a walking/biking trail. It is perfect!

So...Here it Is:

Right after moving in. Yeah, no more hotel!



Our new home

View of the walking path and Bavarian countryside from our front stoop.

Another view of the front with our garage

Our back yard, it is fully fenced and landscaped!

Our Front Entry way, with the refinished bench I picked up at an antiques store located in the ruins of a castle in Fischbach.

Halfbath off the entry way

Living room area (the dining and living are combined, which will make for cozy living quarters...but I think with the rest of the space in the house we will be fine)

Dining area

Kitchen (small, I know...but the funny thing is, it is the same size as the one I had in Fort Irwin. But this one is laid out much better...so I like it a lot more)

Boys room

Hannah and Cora's room

Anya's room, She gets her own room again! Boy is she excited. She got kind of tired of sharing with the boys in our last house. Also, what you can't see in the pictures is, all the bedrooms have built in wardrobes. Which is awesome!

The "kids" huge bathroom. It is enormous, and this camera angle just doesn't do it justice!

Our stairwell. you can view from the top of the third floor, all the way down to the basement. The boys love to go up here and drop balls, clothes, toys and anything else they can find and watch it drop alllllll the way down. We have vowed to not leave any expensive electronics (cell phones) or anything fragile down!

The master bath...off to the side that you can barely see is the shower...and to the other side is a big window in the eaves of the roof. It is pretty big, about the size of the master bath we had in Fort Irwin.

The Master bedroom is huge! It is the whole third floor of the house, up in the "eaves"

Another shot of the master, this is a good view of the built in wardrobes.

Yet, another view. It is like a long L shape, kind of a wierd shape, but this is by far my favorite master bedroom we have ever had.

Last of all is the basement. Here is the bottom of the stairwell. Cora has kind of taken this place over, as her little hidey hole. Not sure what we are going to do with it. I was toying around with the idea of putting the computer here, but Matt doesn't like that idea. So we will see it...Cora may get to keep it.

Storage room, which may become a craft/sewing room

Laundry room, which is where we will probably put a lot of storage and food storage because it is so HUGE!!

Here is a big room. I begged and pleaded with Housing, and they agreed to come carpet this room on Tuesday. When that is done, this will become a family/toy/game room. The kids rooms are a little small, so most of their toys will go down here. I think it will work out nicely.

Last of all, here is our Attic space, reachable by a pull down staircase. I love it because it reminds me of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and how he gets stuck in the attic and rediscovers old family movies. Anyway, we have a staircase just like that now! This will most likely be used for storage space.

We also have a garge with a shed attatched to the back...more storage space! I was not expecting so much storage space, and I don't think we will fill up even a third of it with the stuff we brought. But, it is nice to have just in case!

So that is our home while we are in Europe. Obviously, these are the "before" pictures with all the Army loan furniture. We will post "after" pictures as soon as we are finished moving in with all our furniture and pictures are hung :)

Crossing paths again.

I FINALLY HAVE THE INTERNET!!

I am so excited. This is my first blog using the internet in our home in Germany, sitting on the couch in my p.j.'s! No more USO's, or borrowing other people's, it is such a nice feeling being connected again.

Ok, on to my post. One of the greatest things about the army is all the people we get to meet and friends we create. Of course, the down side is the little heart breaks you feel when it is time to move on. However, it is also amazing how those path's cross again. Since we have been in Germany we have been reunited with friends we had in Fort hood, and Fort Irwin. Plus, in our travels to Utah before we moved we were able to cross paths with a few different families that have become close to us. We got to hang out with the Larson's, and will meet up with them again soon since they moved to Europe as well. We also spent some time (not enough:) with the Swenson's and they, so very nicely, shared their home with us for an evening. And what a lovely home it is! Towards the end of our trip in Utah, we wonderfully had the opportunity to catch up with some dear friends we hadn't seen in a year or so. Remember the Throcks?! Well, we were able to hook up for an afternoon in Utah right before we left and as they were traveling through to Idaho. It all just lined up perfectly, and I was so happy. Not because I love the Throcks (and I do...), but because of this...

and this....

It just makes me cry when I see this pictures. It makes me think of "Anne of Green Gables" and finding a kindred spirit. These two are truely kindred spirits, they are the best of friends and I hope they keep that friendship growing for years to come. I have personal, selfish visions of them being roommates at BYU, keeping each other in line and out of trouble :) Back to the photos...I don't think these two girls stopped smiling the whole time we were together.

It is amazing how all our girls get along so famously. We each have three girls that are close in age.

Such good times with good friends

The whole gaggle of us, picnicing in the park

Our 10 kids, between us.

We knew about a month before this day, that it might possibly work out to meet up. Once Anya and C.J. Throck found out, they would not let us NOT meet up. This was truely the highlight of the Utah trip for Anya, meeting up with her good friend again. It was a perfect ending to a perfect visit. It was so nice to spend time with all our dear friends, and we look forward to our paths crossing again in the near future!

Coyote Kissing, Utah and Matt's Birthday

There is a stone coyote that sits at the exit of Fort Iriwn. It is a well known tradition at Fort Irwin, that when you move, as you drive away, you stop and kiss the coyote farewell or you will be stationed there again. We all kissed the coyote, except for the boys. It is fairly gross, hands were sanitized, but what do you do for lips?

Before moving to Germany, we spent almost two weeks in Utah. It seemed like a long time at first, but it quickly flew by! There never seems to be enough time to do all the things we would like to do. The main thing we wanted to do, but did not have time to do, was go to the Manti pageant. I was pretty bummed, I thought it would be awesome for the kids, and fun for the girls to see the temple where their parents were married. Someday we will get to the pagaent! We did get to spend lots of time with good friends, lots of family and doing some fun activities.
Grandpa Overton and Hunter playing "copy cat"

Great-grandma Gale spending some quiet time with the boys

Matt also celebrated his birthday while in Utah. It was a great day! We ended up being able to see most of his family that day, one way or the other. We also were able to do some fun things as a family. One of the things Matt has wanted to do for a few years now is go on the Heber Creeper. It is an old steam train the runs down Provo Canyon, purely tourist. We had never had time to do it before, but this year...for Matt's birthday, we made time. We got to the train station in Heber with only minutes to spare, but we did make it. Unfortunately, the train was so full that we were all in separate train cars, luckily we did find enough seats together that everyone had someone to sit by.

Great-grandma Gale was able to go with us. Grandma Overton came as well, they with the girls sat together in one car.

Matt, the boys, and I, were in another car. During one of the "breaks" the train had, we noticed this toddler boy in the row in front of us. He was about as old as our boys, and was playing with his mother's cell phone. All of the sudden he chucked it out the window!!! Luckily, with the train stopped, she was able to quickly hop off and retrieve it. Matt and I kind of laughed because it was so like something Jack would do, yet we vowed NEVER to let the boys play with our cell phones...especially by open windows!!!

The whole gang that went with us on the train. Now you know why we couldn't find seats all together. It was so neat to have everyone there. Along with my mom and grandma, Matt's mom, sister and two nieces were able to come too.

The girls in front of one of the engines.

After the train ride we stopped at "Granny's" for a world famous milkshake...at least famous in Utah. Anyone born and breed in Utah knows that you can't go to Heber without stopping at "Granny's" for a milkshake! Later I borrowed Matt's mom's oven and baked his favorite cake, yellow with extra chocolate frosting. And we conned his nieces into babysitting the kids, while we went out for a birthday dinner with his parents and sister and her husband at "Los Hermanos". It was a very fun day! One of the best we spent while in Utah.

Sadly, our time in Utah came to an end quickly. We found oursevles packing up for the drive back to California (yes we drove west to fly east...it is the army way! They wouldn't pay for us to fly out of Salt Lake...and we didn't want to pay when it would be free from California...so driving we went). It was a great trip. We feel blessed to have such wonderful family, and friends, and to be able to spend some time with them. Hopefully we will see them all again soon!

Thankyou Utah for a wonderful visit!

The Grand Canyon 2011

As part of our Memorial weekend excursion we stopped for a quick view of the Grand Canyon. We knew that with two toddler boys, we would not be doing any high adventuring. No long hikes, donkey rides to the bottom, or doorless helicopter rides. It was strictly a drive-by, sight seeing excursion; but well worth the drive!

Look at those views!
Truely amazing!

Here the girls are, at the old look out tower.
You may notice that their aren't many pictures of the boys. I wondered why that was for maybe a nanosecond, then it dawned on me. All the pictures I have of the boys are away from the view...next to shrubs, trees and the trail...well AWAY from any kind of edge to a seemingly bottomless canyon! Yes, I am a bit paranoid, but only because I don't put anything past these boys! They are much too quick, and there are two. It always seems like we are pulling one out of trouble, only to find the other in trouble and needing saving too.

Anyway, It was a fun trip. The girls were awed and amazed. Hannah didn't even want to get out of the car (pouting because we had entered a "scenery pause" where all electronics;i.e. Nintendo d.s., must be turned off). "Why do I want to see some dumb old canyon?" she says. Then she gets out, her jaw drops open and all she can say is "WOW"!!!

As a sidenote, I do apologize for any mispelled words. When I use the spell checker it selects all my words as mispelled. I think because I am on a German network, so all my words are mispelled in German! Still working on how to change that, just one of the fun quirks you encounter when international.

The 2010/2011 School year is finished!

The kids all did really well this year. We couldn't be happier or prouder. We wanted to give a special shout out to Anya. She recieved the "Presidential Academic Achievment Award", signed personally by the President of the U.S.A. . Way to go Anya!!!

Last California Camping Trip

We went on one last camping trip before we left California. There is a nice little area we like to camp at that is only about 20 min. from our house. It is called Rainbow Basin, and the rock formations there are really very beautiful. Our kids love to camp, and the boys are no exception. They really got into helping dad find firewood, set up camp, cook the foil dinners, stoke the fire. Mom almost had a nervous breakdown...but we made it through the weekend without any disasters, thankfully!

What is a camping trip without smores. Our kids (like most I am sure) are smore-aholics.
It was really windy that night, so windy that the wind was blowing our tent up even when staked. So we had put a cooler in the corner that was blowing around. Right at bedtime we realized the cooler had been leaking water all over Anya's sleeping bag. It was completely soaked to the point of being able to wring cups full of water out of it. So she got the airmattress and mom and dad's sleeping bags with the boys. Mom and dad got the hard ground with a few blankets. Luckily it was a very warm night!

Cora loves to camp! And snack!!

Matt and the girls went exploring for awhile, and they came across some interesting, yet gross, finds in the desert. Hannah's bones still have the claws attatched!

As we were driving away we came across a desert tortoise. We had seen these in captivity, there are some kept at Fort Iriwn, but never in the wild. They are an endangered species, so we thought it was cool that we got to see them. Fort Irwin has to obey all these different kinds of regulations because it is located right in these turtle's habitat. We saw this one on the side of the road, basking in the sun.

It was a fun adventure! My goal is to get my blog updated this week. We will see how I do! I know it has been slow going, but I don't have internet yet. Can you believe it! We had put in the request (here it is a request), and even got a confirmation letter in the mail. Well, we waited and waited and our phone/interenet was never turned on. Finally the translater (bless her) in Matt's office, called the company for us. Come to find out the canceled the request because there was an active phone line already from the previous tenant until July 19th. Well, instead of just hooking us up on the 20th, they canceled the request altogether and never notified us (we are finding out very quickly that customer service is very different out here). So we put the request back in, and supposedly it should be up and running the beginning of August. Crossing fingers! Until then, I have to go to the local USO if I want to use the internet....it is not far, but time consuming with kids. So we will see if I complete my goal!

We are now the German Jeppson Crew

We made it to Germany. We stayed in Grafenwohr for about 10 days, and then moved to our new home in Netzaberg. It has been glorious so far, I love being in Europe. We don't have a car right now, but we haven't let that stop us. We have some awesome friends here that are letting us borrow their Chevy Traverse, and we have also been taking the train. The German train system is amazing, and cheap! So far we have been able to go where ever we want to go for 15 to 30 Euro total! Awesome, and cheaper then gas! I will post more as my internet connection gets better. For now, this picture is the trademark of Grafenwohr. This is the "Forst Hause" and the water tower. Both were built in the early 1900's, and were the main residence for the chief forester. Now, the Forst Hause, houses the commander of Grafenwohr. It is gorgeous, and built using the romantic swiss style. I was hoping to find a house just like it...but alas, I had no such luck. Instead we are in a modern duplex...but that has it's perks too. That is for a later post! Just know we are here, and enjoying Germany!