Something very special...

When I was in 3rd grade, I was matched with a "pen pal." My pen pal lived in California (which was really cool from my perspective, coming from a little town in Maine), and we would write back and forth often. It was not only often that we wrote back and forth, but we continued our pen pal friendship into adulthood. All of the milestones.... going into high school, graduating from high school, going off to college, graduating from college, working, getting married, having children etc. After all of those years of writing back and forth, we finally got to meet in person, for lunch one day, several years back in NYC. My mom, Bailey, Camden , and I spent a few days there, and she was married, without children (again living in a very cool place - NYC :-)). We continue today, keeping up with each other through Christmas cards and our blogs, but what I am super excited about is that now our kids have become Pen pals too. Her daughter was born a year or so before Mia came into our family, and I guess I had never put two and two together that they are the exact same age (because Mia was almost a year old when we traveled to China). Anyway.. to make a long story longer....Mia and "Julia" are both now in the 3rd grade (the exact same age we were, when we first started writing). Mia got her first letter yesterday, and was thrilled beyond words. Julia even sent her a homemade bracelet and described her life (family, school, where she lives etc). It makes me smile to think that our pen pal friendship has now extended to our kids. It is crazy for me to think that 32 years have passed since we first wrote!!! Something very Special...

Gössweinstein

Gössweinstein is a beautiful little village about 40 minutes from us. It is famous for its 1000 year old castle and also its pilgrimage church (part of the "way of St. James" that leads to Santiago de Compostela in Spain). We spent an afternoon there, and had a nice time checking out the village. It is nestled in the "Franconian Swiss", which is a region in Upper Franconia that resembles Switzerland. It never ceases to amaze me how much there is to offer within a 45 minute drive here. There is still so much to see and explore!

The Pilgrimage Church in Gössweinstein

The sign leading up to the castle...

Everywhere you turn, there is such character!!!

I loved this photo because it shows the air traffic above the village. We must live over a major flight route, because the sky often looks like this. I always wonder where all of these planes are headed - kind of cool...

Inside the Basilica

There is always so much detail to see - often quite graphic!!!

Always candles to light....

Lighting candles inside a little chapel behind the church.

Such cool character!!!

Looking out from inside the chapel

I liked this photo - you can see the Castle from inside the church

Our little purchase from inside a wine shop. We joked that this probably wouldn't pass the FDA requirements :-)

"The shell" that is the directional sign for the way of St. James

My little wine crate that I bought for decoration - the lady sold it to me for 3 euro - definitely a keeper :-)

Camden playing football with Mia - who cares about the view :-)

Such a cute town!

The castle

Thank goodness for timing, sidewalks, nice people, and preventative thinking!!!

Trying to fit everyones' activities into our calendar with one car is sometimes challenging. It is often like a giant puzzle. It is so nice though, because for the most part we can walk/ ride bikes to  almost anything we need to do. Riding bikes to soccer though, is not an easy option (it is possible, but not easy). We had a bit of a crazy week, with lots of happenings. One being a funny situation (OK, not so funny at all the time). We had a big moving truck blocking my car in this week - Driving the monstrosity that we do, it is OFTEN challenging here. The roads are just not built for large cars, but the nice thing is that people are usually very accommodating to oncoming traffic, and somehow, it always seems to work out. The dilemma came when I had to pick Camden's friend up to bring them to soccer practice. Because I didn't know how long the moving truck would take to get out of the way (they were in the middle of unpacking and it was not so easy to close everything up to move the truck), I had to leave early because it could have been have been as much as a 20 minute wait. I got out O.K, drove to his friend's house, parked on the street in front of his friend's house, turned off the car, chatted with Camden, and waited until his friend was to come out (we were 15 minutes early). After 15 minutes, he came out, I turned the key, and the car wouldn't start. UGH!!! I had left my lights on!!!!

In over 5 years, this was the first time something like this had happened. The only child I had with me was Camden. Bailey had stayed after school, Mia was at a friend's house (that of whom I did not have the phone # on me), Bryan was due at the train station in 10 minutes, Camden and his friend were due at Soccer practice, and I was supposed to go to the Brose Basketball game with friends that had an extra ticket - and we were supposed to leave in 1 1/2 hours. UGH!!!!! How was this going to work???? Here is what happened: His friend's Mom came out and offered to bring the boys to practice, I called Bryan on the train and he walked the 5 minutes from the train station to where I was to check out the car, I called Bailey and she walked the 10 minutes to meet Bryan and I. I called ADAC (the  European equivalent to AAA)  - thank goodness we pay that fee each year for situations just like this!!!. The Mom of Camden's friend came back from dropping off the boys and offered to bring Bailey and Bryan home (they could have walked, but the offer and ride was much appreciated). *I stayed behind because the ADAC membership is in my name. Once home, Bryan could walk to pick up Mia at her friends' house (on time none the less).  I waited for the ADAC truck to come with my fully charged fairly new Smart phone - that I am horrible with and had time to mess around a bit with. Camden's friend's Mom brought out a lovely bottle of homemade schnaps that she knew I may enjoy later and then she went to pick up the kids from soccer. (I know it sounds funny that a "soccer mom" would give another "soccer mom" a bottle of scnapps, but we do live in Franconia and that would be considered very typical :-) The ADAC truck arrived, and the man shook his head thinking it might be more than just the battery, but after hooking up the cables it started right up. I drove home and with 10 minutes to spare, I walked to my friends house to go with her and her husband to the basketball game (Bryan had gone the previous week with them to the game and had a great time).

In the end, I couldn't help but smile and be thankful for the way things work out - I wasn't quite feeling that way in the beginning :-)  We are usually quite mindful of details, so it was nice to have that organization come full circle somehow. It reminded me to; always keep that ADAC membership, ALWAYS have the needed telephone #'s in my car, always keep my phone charged, turn off the lights when the car is turned off,  be grateful for responsible children, BUY JUMPER CABLES!!!!, be grateful for such nice friends, and smile because it could have been much worse!!!

I am still a little angry at the moving truck that made me leave early to begin with, but i guess I need to just let it go :-).....

Reluctant Participant :-)

One of the advantages of Bailey and Camden's school this year is that it is very small, and they have a lot more flexibility with things. As a result, very much reluctantly, Camden was required to take band this year (all 7th graders were). The great thing is that they have all the instruments on hand, so literally the kids had their pick at what they wanted to play. Camden wanted to play "whatever required the least practice", and so he was assigned to the "percussion" section as his new forte (OK, well not so much forte :-)). Because of a schedule change, he missed the first several classes, which meant that he was a little lost from the get go. Being that neither Bryan nor I are musical in any way (except for the fact that we enjoy listening to music), we were no help at all. They recently had their first band concert though, and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at the group.   Certainly, they were not Symphony ready, but they could carry a tune as a group, and we smiled when we heard a few xylophone clings from the back (that was Camden :-). The next concert, the teacher is allowing the percussion section to move on from the xylophone to drums, so I think Camden will enjoy that a little more. I loved the speech that the teacher gave...he reminded the students and parents, that in life, sometimes being required to do something that is not something you necessarily want to do, can result in something very positive. While I don't necessarily think Camden will be the next Beethoven, hopefully, he will look back on his year in band and be glad that it was a class requirement (I think he will ;)

Our little guy in the back :-)

The 7th grade band

Not bad at all for only a month and a half of practice...

Homecoming... Bitter Sweet

Last week was Homecoming at Bailey and Camden's school. It started off with the Homecoming Dance, then throughout the week they had school spirit days, and it was all followed by the big football game.

I will start with the "bitter" part to this and then finish up with the "sweet" part (just trying to end on a positive note :-) The idea of "Homecoming", is that alumni actually come "home" to celebrate  the camaraderie of their earlier years. During half time, they gave a little history of "our" school and I admit, I had a tear(or 2) in my eye. It was really sad, because this was the last football gave EVER for the school. This time next year, the school will not be there (Ok, the building will still be there, but no students) and all of its inhabitants will be shuffled throughout other parts of the world. It is so sad for me to think about.

The school this year, is really small, so in order to even have a football team our guys had to actually be combined with another school about 45 minutes from here to make a team large enough to play. It was nice because they combined the Homecoming Dance with the other school too. The competition for the Homecoming game was against the local German team (and by the way, "Football" to Germans means soccer, so the fact that they even have an "American football" team is very rare). We  won the game, but we were all super impressed too by the German Sportsmanship. They had just lost, and knew it was not only our homecoming, but also the last game ever. They rallied around our team for a cheer (oK, maybe "cheer" is not the right word for football payers yelling?) and then had our team run though a formation - so impressive and you could even hear our players talking about the respect they now have for the German team.

We were also really happy for Bailey. She was elected by her class to be the Homecoming Princess for her grade.  Again, one of those memories that will stay with her forever!

The game was one of those nights that you really wish you could just bottle up, keep forever and then open periodically at later dates. It was VERY cold, but as I looked around at my 3 kids, they were all so happy. Camden running around with his group of friends, Bailey hanging out with hers, and Mia (well, she wasn't too excited, but she was super happy about the prospect of a sleepover the next day, and of course she had her electronic game to keep her busy :-) When everybody is having a great time, it just seems like all is right in the world!

Bailey before the Homecoming Dance

A bit paparazzi-ish - but we had a to get a few photos :-)

Homecoming under the lights...

Bamberg Barons - the last game :-(

We are in the blue and Germans are in the grey... Coin toss to begin the game

Go Barons!

Bailey being goofy with friends :-)

So happy for Bailey and her friend Josh (Josh was the picked as the prince for the 9th grade)

I adore these guys!!!

A great Win!!!

Just one of many "lasts" that we will continue to celebrate this year!!!

The Barefoot Park

Last weekend, we packed up the car with a few snacks, towels, and 5 kids (3 of our own, 2 borrowed :-), and drove towards Wurzburg to experience a "barefoot park." With a little reluctance from the "kinder", we took off our shoes and began a 3 kilometer hike through the forest. Apparently "barefoot parks" can be found throughout Germany, but I hadn't heard of it until I saw the idea on a blog I read. Always up for any type of an experience, I definitely wanted to try this. So the concept is simple... You take your shoes off and walk through the normal forest path. Along the way, there are many small little "obstacles" that you walk over. Some of the obstacles included walking over: rocks, pine cones, sand, wood, bridges, and even walking through mud. Of course there is a reason to this madness, and it would be the benefits of reflexology on your feet. After 1 kilometer in, you totally forget that you are walking without shoes. It is actually quite refreshing (both figuratively and literally - "literally" because of the fact the morning was quite chilly). With a few complaints along the way from unnamed participants, the overall experience was really fun. The results were also really good because our feet felt fantastic afterwards -  we had a great run the next day as a result.   There was a lot of laughter, as we wandered these 3 kilometers through the woods and through a field. It was a fun time, but often our idea of fun is a little different :-) I even thought it would be a brilliant business to bring back to the U.S. - not sure though with liability if it would work...

Here is where our trek began..

This is the directional sign that you must follow through the forest...

And so the trek begins...

The big kids leading the way

The little kids following...

And the parents following in the way back...

Over rocks...

more rocks...

over wood...

Through mud...

more walking...

over stone...

I really like this photo - it was at the end of the forest, but we still had the field to walk through...

The grass was so warm from the sun and felt great on our feet...

You gotta love the church steeple in the background :-) So Pretty!!!

Over the farm land

I'm not sure if they are running because they are happy or if they just want to get to the end :-)

a little pause before we finish... it was funny because at this hut, they had a fire pit and Bryan joked with the kids that before we finished, our hike included a walk over hot coals :-) They were not amused!

just a little bit longer :-)

the old fashioned water pump to wash feet at the end...

Ahhh...Finished :-)