A Weekend in the Mountains

Saturday was awesome. We got up early, swam, had a big breakfast, and then headed up to the Alpspitze in Garmisch, Germany by taking a huge bus style gondola up 8,622 feet. My mom HATES heights, but she did super great. In the pictures below here we are on this crazy awesome viewing platform that walks out 42 feet from the edge of the cliff over nothingness! Really freaky. Especially with the winds making the whole metal contraption wobble.

Finally a picture with my mom!!!

 

We hiked down the mountain pass watching all the para-gliders jump off the mountain. Pretty spectacular. Then tried feeding some cows and stopped to enjoy these great huge swings! The Germans make hikes so much fun. There were quite a few stations along this hike with things for kids/adults to check out and do.

 

 

We stopped for a break to let our kids climb. We went hiking with our friend from Garmisch and his two little girls (ages 2 and 5), and they all made it up this wall. Lily enjoyed just playing in the grass watching the others climb. Cooper had a complete meltdown when he had to share his helmet and received a bit of a scolding which lead to more embarrassment and crying. He had little sleep the night before which is always a precursor to a meltdown.

  After eating lunch with a beautiful view, we had to take a gondola back up to the Alpspitze to take the first gondola we rode back down. Next stop for the day, the Munich Olympic Stadium.

 We came to watch our friend Thomasina compete in a World Bouldering Competition and play with her daughter Cedar!

Conveniently, there was a Volksfest going on in the Arena area, and while we were waiting for Thomasina to compete, we were able to ride a few rides and eat dinner at the Volksfest.

Pretty fun way to spend  a day. Although, watching those girls compete sure made me want to climb, and made me want to get fit! I was standing next to so many of the competitors and they are much fitter in real life than they appear on TV or photos. Totally ripped. Inspired for sure.

Saturday night the rain started and it never stopped for a second all the way through Sunday night. It was okay though. We swam at the pool and headed to our favorite bakery in town for goodies, then off to climbing in a Regensburg gym on our way home. Missing the mountains already, but I do think living away from them actually enhances my appreciation for them when we return.

Friday I'm in Love

Well, not so in love with my Fridays now that my furlough days are over, but still excited for the weekend! I won a trip a few months ago to stay at this nice resort in Garmisch two nights, with a free BMW rental car, and we're finally getting around to using it. We're heading down at noon and hoping to get some hiking in and maybe some climbing with the kids.

Four and a half years ago, this was the view from my hospital window in Garmisch.

I was in the hospital meeting my Cooper for the very first time. Oh what special, wonderful, memories. Love at first sight. Well, I suppose it was love even way before I met him for the first time, but holding him finally made it all real.

I remember staring at those mountains, wondering if he would love the outdoors as much as we do, imagining these itty bitty hands and feet skiing and climbing and hiking around with us. In total disbelief that he was actually mine to love and take care of. What a crazy, beautiful thing motherhood is. Life really is beautiful.

Okay, since it is Friday, and I haven't done this in a while, here are some things you might enjoy!

• Doesn't this camping food look so darn good?! Makes me want to build a campfire tonight!
• I want to make a Memento Frame like this for Lily's room. 
• I want to try and make myself a dress like this, but not sure I can do it yet!
• I think I need to bust out my Annie Sloan Chalk paint again for some projects. I love that you can even paint lamp shades! 

and now friends.... The Mountains are Calling and I must Go! 

Foofoo is here!

Friday, I called my mom last minute and asked if she could come to visit and help with the kids. Monday, she was here! Unbelievable! She is good. Too good. Somehow she manages to come help all of us (four daughters) when we need her. We need her pretty constantly. All the grand-kids adore her, and rightly so. I haven't taken a single picture of her with them yet! Shame on me. But plan to take lots this week and weekend. Cooper was wild crazy all day Monday and Tuesday, showing her all of his pictures, toys, house, and hogging her to himself (understandable since we only see her twice a year). I wondered if Lily would remember her and she honestly did. She went right to her! Its been about 7 months and Lily at the time had just learned to walk. Hoping they take it easy on her this week. They really are a handful these two.

Frank with his hands full.

Monday Madness

What a fun filled day. It's been a crazy summer. And my children are starting to get "bored" with too little routine and too much fun! School is needed, or at least "mommy" school. So last night I decided to be committed to "stimulating" them once again. Cole doesn't start school until Sept 2, so it adds a new dynamic to our days to be responsible for stimulating the twins and then a 4 1/2 year old. Who knew tiny pom poms, dried beans, and play dough could occupy so much time.

This morning, while the twins ate breakfast, Cole punched out bug cards from a bug book I bought at Sam's Club for 12$. It came with bug index cards, a book, and 5 models of bugs to build. We have been catching bugs all summer, so this continued the theme. During nap time, we went on a bug hunt for the bugs in his book :)

Then, after the twins woke up, we sorted dried beans into little jars. And we also sorted pom poms into muffin tins. And somewhere in the midst of it all, we played with play dough. When everyone was a bit stir crazy, including me, we headed out to a playground for fresh air and exercise. In spite of Isaac falling from the steps, we had a good time, esp Cole who found great trees to climb. To cool off again, we headed to our local library and checked out new books for the week. We like to make a library run typically every Monday.

Then headed home for our daily walk with Phoenix, our chocolate lab. With everyone tuckered out, making dinner wasn't too tough tonight. And it was easy an easy meal to make. Meatless spaghetti and salad. 

Baths done, babies asleep, husband home, I decided to make a run for the grocery and make/plan the rest of our meals this week. Boy does it help when we have a plan!

Tuesday - marinated chicken tenderloins (italian dressing) on the grill with saffron rice & broccoli slaw

Wednesday - marinated flank steak (asian) with crock pot sweet potatoes & asian cabbage salad

Thursday - mild chili with white kidney beans and corn (one pot dinner) & corn bread

Friday - pizza

Tired but feeling good about our crazy mad Monday :)

A day at the Volksfest

This week, every day has felt like a fall day.  It's a bit too early for fall, but I'm not complaining. I love cold nights and warm sunny fresh days. Last night, we decided to head to Weiden for the summer Volksfest (people's festival), which is just like a fair or a carnival back in the states. Only, the highlight for the fests here are the large fest tents where families enjoy large beers, pretzels, bratwursts and half chickens while listening to oompah bands.

 

Lucky for the kids, it was family day, so rides were discounted. I seriously can't ride the spinning ones anymore. I felt so sick for about fifteen minutes after getting off with Cooper. What is it with getting older? This never happened when I was a kid, and I thought my mom was just being a wimp when I was younger. I can't even ride on swings for goodness sake?! Has this happened to any of you all out there?

Definitely a fun thing to do about once a year. Both kids thoroughly enjoyed the rides and the treats. My favorite part about the German fairs are the chocolate covered fruits you can buy. They dip strawberries, bananas, and grapes normally in three different types of chocolate on a stick. So good. I need to replicate them at home sometime.

Gardening and Bugs

Well, I am happy to report that leaving the greenhouse door open has helped rid the broccoli of the evil caterpillars. Natural predators, to include Cooper, are doing the job.  He likes to put all the bugs he finds in a small cage, and inevitably, after a week in the cage, everything dries up. Slugs, snails, grasshoppers, you name it. I usually let out the bugs I like, the ones I deem as "good bugs" and let the otherse wither away (grasshoppers are on my good bug list). I feel bad and a bit guilty allowing the green broccoli eating caterpillars and slimy pepper plant eating snails to whither away, but then I get over it. Just a year ago, I wouldn't have let them die. Having a garden has changed my mind quite a bit. Gardening is not cheap, and I really am emotional about my plants! So much time and effort goes into keeping them happy! Cooper tries to take good care of his bugs. I told him he can keep a frog one day if he can keep his bugs living for two weeks. I don't think we'll be getting a frog anytime soon....



Fresh Veggies at a market

Slugs come out in masses after it rains here.

The End of My Furlough Fridays

Oh no! Feeling pretty bummed. My furlough days are ending this Friday.  I was so looking forward to the rest of my Fridays home with the kids. I'll definitely have to make the most of my last one coming up this Friday.

This past Friday, our friend Thomasina and her daughter Cedar arrived and we went bouldering at a great gym in Regensburg all day. Cooper is in 7th heaven again with Cedar here. He'd been counting down the days, hours, seconds for her arrival. Saturday we headed to the gym again and then downtown for some shopping and dinner in old town Regensburg. Sunday we spent the day baking, crafting, playing at the park, and doing fun obstacle courses in the backyard. I love long weekends.

Last night as I was putting Cooper to bed he said, "Mom, I think I'm in love. (PAUSE). I don't think I like being in love." I asked him why not and he replied, "because it feels like I'm only dreaming." Oh this sweet boy.

Catching and releasing frogs at the park. 

Siblings

My babes.

This week they have been spending a lot more time together than normal. Cooper is done with school until September, and now that Eric is gone, both kids have been going to a home day care together. On top of that, both kids came down with a fever bug on Tuesday, so I picked them up and got to spend two extra days with them this week at home. So nice. Not that they were sick, but that I got to be at home with them!

All this extra time together is making them better friends. I can see their relationship growing so much day to day. Not to say they don't fight mind you. My patience was tested a lot yesterday... but these kiddos are pretty darn great together.

 

In the morning, I put matching shorts I made for them on both to model for me. I used the pattern from MADE and it is awesome! So easy and versatile and the sizes are spot on. Anyhow, I digress. When Lily sat down on the step, she smacked her head pretty hard on the wall (something that happens about 5 times daily with this tough little one). Cooper isn't laughing at her, he was staging a cheesy smile for the camera (my iPhone).

 Without prompt, he quickly kissed her head to make her feel better. So sweet. Although, I think she just about swatted him away thinking he was coming to take her bottle (something else that happens about five times a day with some beloved object she's gripping).

They are handful these two, a handful of  laughter, cries, energy, messes, fun, love, and cuddles! Love these babes.

Mesmerized by iTunes Visualization maker during a Dance Party last night

Furlough Fridays

Yup, I'm officially hooked on having off Fridays with my kids. Loving my furlough Fridays!  This Friday was Cooper's last day of school ceremony (graduation for a few of the oldest kids in the class), so we went to that first thing in the morning. I love his school here! It was such a nice ceremony at this small church down the road from his school. After, we picked up Eric and took him to the train station because his 3 months here are over (limit for staying over here without a visa). We are going to miss him! After, I took the kids to H&M to grab a few things the kids needed and one minute into shopping Cooper had to go the bathroom REALLY bad and couldn't hold it. We made it to a restaurant next door thankfully in time and grabbed lunch from a bakery and headed on home since Lily was ready for her nap.

When Lily naps, Cooper and I pick a project to work on together. Normally we bake or cook, but it was hot, so we decided to try to make our own ice cream at home in a zip-lock bag. It worked great! You must try it if you haven't! We used half a cup of organic whole milk mixed with 1 Tablespoon of organic sugar and a teaspoon of organic cocoa powder in a quart sized zip lock. We then added 2 trays of ice cubes to a gallon zip lock baggie and 1/3 cup salt. Slip the smaller bag in the ice bag and shake for 5-8 minutes. You can feel it getting harder pretty quickly. We snipped the baggie with scissors and squeezed our chocolate ice cream into a bowl, added sprinkles, and voila! Homemade delicious chocolate ice cream! Can't wait to try some more flavors!

Then out to the garden we went to get rid of the evil caterpillars eating my broccoli plants, pick some grean beans, and water our tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, lettuce, and herbs. A daily routine this summer.

Pouty face. Upset because he picked the leaves accidentally with the beans.

Next year we'll be planting more beans. They are so good and so easy! We pick a handful of fresh ones every night lately to eat at dinnertime.

Lily after her nap having a nacho snack

So nice to have this extra time with my kiddos. Can't wait for this Friday!

Gardening Woes

I've become slightly attached to my garden this year and literally have just about cried twice this week over plants. I might need some intervention....

I seriously started the garden back in March! Cooper and I planted seeds indoors, and we finally brought the plants out to the greenhouse mid May. We've repotted, mulched, weeded, watered, and delicately taken care of all our wonderful growing veggies in excitement for the fruits of our labor. And you know what? We haven't had too many fruits for our labor yet... In fact, all we've had are green beans, some lettuce, and one cucumber. We have spicy peppers, but I bought those plants already started from a store.

So, when I started seeing broccoli heads last week, I was psyched! What I didn't pay any attention to was a little white moth/butterfly hanging out in the greenhouse a few weeks ago. I thought butterflies were good for gardens and left it. When I found weird wasp looking bugs, I sprayed them with water and forced them out. Dumb me. I really should read more on gardening and improve my skills... That darn white butterfly has resulted in this disaster!

Cabbage worms. Evil, green broccoli eating monsters. Wasps are natural predators and I wiped those out! I should have removed all the dead stuff and worms last night, but I was too mad and disgusted. Tonight, I shall have my revenge...