Changes....

We have had lots of changes going on here. The day after we got back from Spain, Bailey and Camden flew to the U.S. to visit with their grandparents. It is a little scary putting your 15 and 13 year old on an international flight by themselves, but they managed a 5 hour layover and customs alone and came through safely on the other end -so proud of them! I don't know though if it was more unnerving for more me or for my Dad - I think his heart rate reduce significantly upon the kids arrival :-) We miss them like crazy, but know that they are having a great time! They even got to celebrate the 4th of July this year in America :-) - very special!!!  It is especially weird for them, because when they come "home", they will be coming to a new "home" - one that they have never even seen. Exciting on the one had, sad on another, and just plain weird to boot!

Soon after the kids left, the movers came to pack up all of our stuff! It took 2 trucks (16,000 lbs - yikes!!!), and even though I thought we had "thinned out", I have quickly realized we have a lot more "thinning" to go!!! Once our house was empty, we still had almost a week to go before we actually moved. It was quite freeing living "without stuff" and just meeting friends and enjoying our last days in Bamberg. One of our friends let us stay in her apartment (she was out of town), and so Mia was still close to her school and all of her friends - which was huge!!!

That brings me to Mia... While we have lived in Bamberg, we have had lots of friends move away (it is part of life when you work and go to school on a base). I guess I never realized that that is only our "American" situation living over here. In the real Bamberg, no one ever leaves! It is the best city ever -  Why would you leave? ;-)  And so, as Mia had to say goodbye to the people at school, I quickly realized what a unique thing it is for someone to leave. Almost every child in the class brought her a going away gift, the girls put on a play for her (organized totally by themselves with props and everything :-))I laughed, as one of the props was a beer bottle for a boy who was supposed to pretend he was drunk - I laughed thinking how that might not be allowed in the American school ;-). They even had a going away party with more gifts and a poster with lots of pictures!! There were a few tears too :-( The kindness was amazing though!!! School doesn't get out here until the end of July, so she had her last day at her old school one day and started immediately at her new school the next (it is against the law to miss school, so we had to do it that way). Quite overwhelming! We felt it would be good to move her the last month because that way she can meet kids and get used to everything before 4th grade begins (4th grade is an intense year here, because that is the year that you decide which direction you will go - gymnasium, real schule, or hauptschule).

And so, last Tuesday morning, our time came to an end in Bamberg. We packed our car up with the last remaining things and drove at 6:00am to Amberg (yes, Bryan says it is Bamberg without the "B" for Beer), for Mia to start her new school that same morning. We brought her safely there, met our new landlord and then the packers arrived with the 16,000 lbs of stuff and I have now even convinced Bryan that we definitely need to thin out even more!!! Lots of changes

My oldies babies getting ready to fly across the Atlantic alone - yikes - how did they grow up so fast!!!!!

It is a little weird seeing your children up in the sky  - yes that little dot is Bailey and Camden!!!

Random photo - after the kids took off, we went to Ikea. They were having a celebration there for the Summer Solstice. Mia made a flower crown by hand and then won a smoothie for tossing a ring on the cross (yes - only in Europe, would you have a religious cross at Ikea :-)

One of our many going away gifts - so kind!!!

Mia spent the night at a friends'  house one of the nights when all of our "stuff" was already packed. It was so weird to have no kids at home!!! We decided to walk around and take everything in one last time while we were still "echt Bamberger" (Real Bamberg citizens :-)) As I have said a billion and one times - I can't believe that we were able to live here for 6 years. As Bryan says, "it is all down hill from here "(Just kidding - I hope ;-)) I am quite nervous though that we are "ruined for life!"

Amazing!!!

The rose garden is in full bloom and I loved this picture with the Nuns taking in the view!

So pretty!! The smells were even better than the view if you can believe it!

It almost looks like a movie set - Oh how I am going to miss this! My runs will never be the same!!!

One of the things we always talk about is how nice the lack of liability is here. You have this town famous for Bier and a region famous for wine and you never see Police trolling the streets in the old city, you never seen drunk or obnoxious people. I guess people just manage and they don't tend to have problems... If you look carefully at this photo, you can see two people sitting on the ledge of the bridge.....

If you look even closer, you can see they are drinking a glass of wine... It is the middle of the day, no one even bothers them, no police, no one judging them, no one telling them to get down, no one saying that they need plastic wine glasses instead of glass. They are just enjoying the afternoon, minding their own business.  No glass will break, they won't fall in the water, and they will clean up after themselves - so simple!!!!

On the way home from a friends house, we saw one of the "Johannes Feuer" Fires - in celebration of Summer Solstice!!! Each town has one! I love the traditions!!!

This was the view of our apartment 6 years ago, when I first walked in and said instantly, "We'll take it"!!!!  (even without having seen the rest of the house) This was also the same view that I saw as I was closing the door to say goodbye. Six INCREDIBLE Years with more memories than I ever thought possible. I can't imagine looking back on my life and not having had the chance to experience the amazing goodness of Bamberg!!!!  We still have a little place to go back to there, but it will never be quite the same.