Happy belated 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everybody!  Sorry this is a bit late, I just don't seem to have time to play on the computer.  Everyday this summer we seem to be out on the go.  This year for the 4th we did some pretty cool things.  We first stopped by the P/x to visit our favorite friends the Sweet Tooth Cakery for a sweet and yummy treat.  Then we decided we wanted to do something to remember what a blessing Freedom is, and what it is all about.  There is a Concentration camp not too far from here, one of the first established actually.  It is Flossenburg concentration camp.  So we decided to check it out.

 Here is the entrance to Flossenburg, and what would have been the SS headquarters and offices.

 One of the guard towers, and the fence goes around a tunnel they built which lead to the cremation room.

The hill behind my beautiful smiling children, is the hill of ashes from those who suffered in this camp.

It really brings to mind, how grateful I am for the blessing of freedom, and that my children have not had to know what true horror is.

This Church was built after the American's freed the camp, they added the church on to one of the existing guard towers.

There were two American casualties that occurred in this camp.  Two brave, unknown pilots.

All throughout the camp there were plaques signifying the different nationalities that were in the camp, and how many casualties each nationally suffered.  In then end close to 20,000 people suffered and died in this camp, ranging from jews, prisoners of war, and German's that were deemed traitors and a threat to the Nazi movement.

It was a great learning moment for my kids, for them to see what can happen when your freedom is stripped away.  

 After touring the camp we decided to climb to the castle ruins on the hill above the town.

These were really fantastic, just what I imagined castle ruins would be like!

 My little warriors hiking through the ancient halls...

 It was a fun way to spend the 4th of July, even though we missed being with family desperately and we didn't get a fabulous parade.  We did get home in time to throw some burgers on the grill and have a little family BBQ.  Then we headed on base to meet up with a group of friends and watched the awesome fireworks show the Grafenwohr army base put on for us.   It was a fun night!

Misc....

About a month ago, Matt and I attended our first ball in the JAG Corps.  Army balls used to be a dime a dozen, but now they are not held so often.  This is our first one in 7 years...granted, we could have gone to one while we were stationed at Fort Iriwn, a couple years ago.  But if you do the math, I was 8 months pregnant with twin boys...not a pretty sight in a Ball gown!  I did not want to BE the ball at the Ball!  So I was very excited to go to this one.  We had a good time, danced a little and enjoyed some good company.  I am still convinced that Matt and I should take some formal dance lessons!

The day after the Ball, we decided to have a look around.  We had already been to the Heidelberg castle and old town, so we decided to drive a few Kilometers out of town and see Schwetzingen Schloss.

  This is a summer palace, but has one of the most beautiful, formal parks in Germany.

I have decided that I want to grow these tree arches in my future back yard.  

 The "boys" on a Saturday morning, fixing all the child locks the "boys" have broken.

 Anya was inducted to the National Honor's Society.

She was pretty excited about this!

 We have been exploring areas near where we live.  About 45 minutes away, there is a cool hiking trail called the Rock labyrinth.  You literally hike through the rocks and boulders they have stacked all throughout the trail.  The kids loved this, they love caves and climbing rocks...so natrually this was a big hit.

 We left our camera at home...so most of these pictures are after thoughts.  It was way cooler then these pictures show, I promise!

 Germany loves it's Italian Gelato.  Here we are sitting outside one of our favorite Eis shops.

 We spent an evening walking around Dresden.

There are some beautiful buildings in this town!

Outside the Crown Gate.  Hannah loved this gate...because of the giant crown on top.

It was a fun city to walk around, but very hard to find decent gelato...which is what we really wanted on this warmer then average spring day!  Still worth the drive out though...even without the good Eis!

Science Club

So, our blog is taking a bit of rest from our travels.  We really haven't been anywhere lately, just recovering and saving for our big trip to England and Scotland later this summer.  I thought I would take some time to update the normal life events.  Things that aren't as exciting as visiting the Alps in Switzerland.  This past year, Anya has participated in science club after school.  She has loved it.  They tie dyed shirts, after mixing their own chemical dying components.  They built hot-air balloons, studied astronomy, woke up at O-dark thirty to watch the Transit of Venus, but the funnest was the bottle rockets.  They each designed and then made their own rockets from plastic bottles.  This took them about a month, as the experimented and fiddled until they had the perfect rocket, that would achieve the most lift.

Here is Anya with one of her Rockets

The girls each got a turn blasting off a rocket, since Anya had made a few different designs.

Even the boys got into the spirit of things...

Getting ready to count down...

What a fun year, and these ladies are fantastic science teachers.  They are so excited about science, enthusiasm radiates from them.  That is what makes an awesome teacher!!

Jack getting in some practice time.

Swiss please...

*****Warning, lots of pictures because I am too lazy to split it into multiple posts*********
 For Memorial Day weekend Matt had another 4 days off work, so we decided to take a quick trip to Switzerland.  My pictures are a little backwards, What you will see first is Hitler's Eagle Nest retreat in Berchtesgaden, Germany.  We stopped there on our way home from Swiss land.  It seemed like a cool thing to do on Memorial Day.  What I knew was that Eagle Nest is perched at the top of this mountain peak, surrounded by other huge mountain peaks in the Austrian/German Alps.  The road is only open from May to October, and in accessible the rest of the year.  What I didn't know was that there are no roads all the way up to the Eagle's Nest.  You take a bus (no private cars allowed) to the parking lot below the Nest, and then you walk into the mountain by way of a long tunnel.  After that daunting walk, you get into an elevator which goes up 124 stories and ends inside the Eagle's Nest  itself.  Hitler sure did not want this retreat snuck up on!

 Here is a view of the Nest with the tunnel access at the bottom

walking along the tunnel.

Anya at the top of the peak behind the Nest.

 Hitler's formal dining room.  Everything in here (besides the tables/chairs and people) is still original.  It is now used as a restaurant.

 As we left the sun came out (again), while we were here...three different storm systems blew in.  This is a parting shot of the "Nest".  You can barely see it, way up there   on the tip of the mountain.

 On our way to Zurich we passed through Reutte Austria.  This is one of three castles you can tour there.  I want to go back now!

 Hannah, sporting her new glasses next to a fountain.  Zurich has hundreds of fountains all through out the city.  All claiming to be good drinking water.  After all Switzerland is known for it's fresh spring water...Evian here we come.

 A view up the river of the sky line of Zurich

The boys in front of Lake Zurich

Luzern, Switzerland

 Luzern in the background with Chapel bridge

 After Luzern we took a drive up through the berner Oberland on our way to Interlaken

 The water in these glacier lakes was incredible.  You could see the bottom even though it was quite deep...that is how crystal clear the water is here.

 How would it be to wake up to this every morning?  I think it would be awesome to have a waterfall in my back yard!

We had a quick trip to Switzerland, it was beautiful and I was glad that we were able to go.

Bouncing Boys!

Cora's another year older!

I can't believe our baby girl is now 7!  It seems like just yesterday we called her baby Cora, and she was my little shopping buddy.  Going everywhere that I went.  I have to admit, I miss those days.  However, it is super fun to see what a fine young lady she is turning into.  She is a super reader, loves math and loves to go to school.  She also has been progressing really well in her piano lessons this year, especially impressive since her instructor is German who speaks very little understandable English...and her music books are all in German too.  Still she master's everything placed before her.

This year Cora wanted a gingerbread house themed party.  Her reasoning is that her birthday will never ever be in December by Christmas.  Well, Cora, that is very true.  So we invited some girls over and we made gingerbread houses.  Then we put one on top of her cake (chocolate cake with the most fabulous nutella frosting ever!) as a decoration.  It actually turned out really fun.

 All Cora wanted this year was an American Girl look a like doll.  She had already picked out the one she wanted and everything.  She got her hearts desire, but because everyone else gave her accessories and gifts associated with the AG doll she hadn't received yet...she got to open her main present (the doll) first.  (we usually like to save the main presents for last...but not this time)

 Jack kept posing whenever Matt tried to take a picture of Cora.  Most are cut out, but it was hilarious!

 Hannah quickly went up and got her doll and clothes too, and both girls preceded to deck out their dolls.  It was fun to watch.

And here she is, complete with her new doll (named Cori), matching jammies Aunt Trudy made (she also made clothes and scarves for Cora with some assistance from her boyfriend), Her dolls new puppy, and a new bed for the puppy from her Aunt and Uncle. 

Look at that smile...I think it was a magical birthday!