Our trip continued….

                                

One evening we went over to a local strawberry field and picked strawberries.  Aurora decided to pick the smallest ones she could pick.  It was funny to see all of those tiny red strawberries in our box.

  Daddy and Nathan got to Germany on Friday morning and we went to Legoland on Saturday.

These pictures are for David L., although they aren’t the best pictures.  David is really crazy about Ninjago Nintendo's and this was a display.  The park also had the coolest Ninjago ride!  Wish we could have shared it with David and family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the ride you could flap your wings and literally go in circles or you could just coast along and feel like you were flying!

 

 

We went up into a revolving tower and were able to see the whole park.  Pictures, of course, don’t do it justice but you can see the size of the park.

   Boat rides were fun.  Mandy is behind Nathan, still starting out.

 

I don’t ride roller coaster any more, the one thing I have given up because of my back, so while everyone else was waiting in line I took pictures.  This dragon was coming out of the castle and is made entirely of Legos!  It is amazing what you can do with Legos! A Legos soldier amid the castle, armed with bow and arrow. The log ride.

 

 

 

 

 

This Legoland had an aquarium and in this section you could be face to face with a piranha.   I was literally under the shark to take this picture.  It was a little eerie.

 

There were splash pads all around and Aurora changed into her bathing suit and Gideon just got wet.  Leaving after a long and very fun day.

Next, we went to Gramisch and the Alps.  More later.

Our trip to Europe to see Asia and her family

Mandy and I left for Germany on May 16th.  We had a wonderful trip and returned on June 14th.  Daddy and Nathan joined us on May 31st.  We, of course, went to meet out newest grandson and enjoy a visit with his Mom and Dad and siblings, Aurora and Gideon.  I guess I will just go along with the pictures.  On The Saturday after we got there – Asia, Mandy, Gideon and I went to the market at Herrenberg, a little town close to where they live.  It was a nice day with a cute  town and wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables. 

It was a classic little town and we had a snack of pretzels and pastry.  We had a nice time shopping.

Asia and Ben live in a German neighborhood.  It is very clean and orderly and everyone seems to take good care of their property.  Aurora and Gideon go to a small preschool about 3 short blocks away and there is a small neighborhood park that the kids go to when it is nice.  We went there several times while we were there.  The kids play together with no language barrier.

Gideon was playing in this building.  You pull on the rope and a container comes up with sand and then he would dump the sand down the brown container on the side and then we would do it again.  He loved it.

They have a little water area and the kids pump the pump and water comes up and then pours down the side and into the sand, where the kids play with it.  Aurora is in the blue and her little friend in red, go to school together.

Gideon figuring out what the other kids were doing.

Aurora  and Gideon on the tire swings-  It is a cute little park and the kids enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rather random picture but what Asia’s sees when she is doing the dishes.  This is the view she gets to see each day.  I just thought it was a wonderful view.

Our beautiful Eagan.  He has Asia’s light complexion but looks like he will have more strawberry blonde hair than the light blonde.

 

 

I passed this house each day when we went to pick the kids up from school.  The yards are just kept very nice and the flowers are beautiful.  I was impressed at how hard working the German people are.

On Saturday, we went to a castle with gardens and they had a very nice play area for children.  This is the castle and there were several weddings taking place while we were there.

Mandy took many pictures of flowers while we walked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a small boat that went around the water.  All of the children’s area was based on fairy tales.  Pinocchio, Aladdin and the lamp, etc.  These were little vignettes that when you pushed a button, they was movement and lights and talking.

Aladdin with Gideon and Mandy looking on.

 

 

 

 

 

We went to a little theater and were watching the  screen, when Aurora and then Gideon decided to “entertain” everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

They danced across the stage.

We stopped at a grassy place where they had little water geysers and the kids got wet.

 

Gideon stripped down to his diaper and came down the slide.

 

We found a dragon and so everyone had to climb on him.

 

 

 

 

 

We finished the day with a train ride, went up to Rapunzel’s tower and then ate ice cream on our way out.  A very nice adventure.

There are many more pictures and will post more tomorrow.

Today

we went down and applied for Nathan and Mandy’s passports.  We had an appointment for 9:30 and so we left the house at 7:30.  Glenn was right, we got there just in time.  We disagreed on what time to leave.  I had everything  together and wasn’t at all worried.  We got there at 9:30, stood in line for an hour (even though we had an appt.) and then waited again and finally talked to someone.  I got really nervous while handling all of  the papers and talking to the clerks.  Don’t know why. ????  Hopefully with fingers crossed they will be here on Thursday.  By the time, I drove back home, I was so tired.  Anyway, hope the passports will get here when they said they would.

Prices of passports have gone up, we paid $355.44 for two passports and we have to renew them in 5 years because the kids are under 16!  Wow.  10 days to go before we leave.

On another note, our puppies are getting so incredibly cute!  They are now walking and one of the white ones (there are 2 white ones) has the cutest bark!  I know, I know we don’t need anymore dogs – I am the first one to tell you that but boy are they cute.

Puppies

   Here are some pictures of our newest members of our family.

In our lives

this last week.  We had a very pleasant weekend.  Nathan had a baseball game on Saturday morning and Kathie had invited me to a Relief Society meeting.  I chose the RS meeting and Glenn took Nathan and Mandy to the game.  It was a close game and we technically won but it was put as a lose.  In Little League, you play for a certain amount of minutes.  If you are in the middle of an inning, then the score reverts back to what it was before that inning started.  So, I think we were winning when the time ran out but had been behind the last inning, so we lost.  Nathan had a good game, he is really coming on as a pitcher and is bat has been pretty good this year.  Last year, the coaches determined that he needed to switch stances and arms and so he now bats left handed.  It took the season for him to make the transition but he is doing well now.

Kathie and I had a nice time at the RS meeting and then I came home and changed clothes and the Ricks came over.  We picked dewberries – they are everywhere this year – and made freezer jam.  Yum.  Then we had a nice Passover meal.  We had great food and desserts.  Jessi and Lizzie stayed when the Turpins left earlier.  They came dewberry picking but were just leaving when we got back home.

We have very cute puppies.  They remind me of the 101 Dalmatians in that they are so fat!  They will look like our bulldog, Bull.  Their mom, Sandy, is going to need surgery.  Sigh.  How do we do this?  Her femoral head on her left side is deteriating  (sp?)and will need surgery.  Don’t know if we will but probably as she is in pain and is hopping around.  The pregnancy was probably not good for her but this is a long time thing.

We are counting down to our leaving for Germany.  Mandy and I leave May 16th and then Nathan and Daddy are coming on the 31st. We have around 4 weeks and are trying to push school to finish what we can.

I am trying to figure out what to do next year.  I am trying to find an online program that will work for Nathan.  Maybe Mandy also, haven’t decided.  I have checked out several programs but haven’t come to a conclusion.  I know that it’s a ways from school starting next year but I try to have everything ordered and in line before the school year ends, that way I don’t have to worry about it over the summer.  We will see.

It is so wonderful that we have had rain so far this year.  Everything  is so green, all of my roses are blooming like crazy and even a climbing vine that I thought was dead.  It is growing and blooming beautifully.  Last year, we didn’t mow once because there was no grass and we have already mowed this year and  it needs it again.  We are so blessed!

Puppies

We have puppies.  Sandy had 6 puppies last night/this morning.  I have been through several puppy/kitchen births but Sandy took it the hardest.  Anyway, we have 4 brown puppies and 2 white with brown patches on their eyes.  They are good size puppies for a small dog.  We will take some pictures later when they aren’t so new and Sandy has gotten used to the idea of her puppies.  That  means for now we have 12 dogs on the property!  Groan.

The week, so far

It has been a hard week, I guess because it has been so busy.  Nathan has started back into baseball (ugh) and practices.  Mandy has been introduced to a orthodontist (oh joy!) because she is going to need a retainer for a underbite.  Then Bull also got hurt around a week ago. 

I will spare you pictures.  He evidently got kicked by one of the cows.  He probably had it coming as he chases them.  We have tried to stop him and may need to tie him up some.   Nathan noticed it 8 days ago, what ever day that is.  He was laying down, looked awful and when I started looking  at his underbelly (?) was purple and hard.  Now 8 days later, he has a hole in the said underbelly that is as large as my two fists.  It is just open and gaping.  The skin has died and he still has an infection but is much better.  We are giving antibiotics twice a day, doing hypro- something (spraying his wound with water) twice a day, and now the Vet told me to put sugar in his wound.  Yes, I said sugar!

I am a little confused by this but it is supposed to help the wound.  Who knew?  Not me. 

Glenn is getting back from Canada tonight but is leaving for Germany on Saturday.  He will be there a couple of weeks.  He told me but I am not sure what he will be doing.  Nathan is sad.  He misses his Dad and two weeks is a long time.  More, later.

Lego’s First club – Magnolia Makers

Mandy belongs to a Science club called the First Club, our group is called the Magnolia Makers.  There are 7 kids in our group, aged 6 – 9.  Mandy is the only girl.  We have been working all year to build things that move.  We have built a car that actually is remote controlled and the last part of the year  we have been working on making a model of something that makes a snack.

Our kids decided on the banana split and they researched the history and then made a cute model of a little restaurant and a little machine that moved around and was supposed to be the ice cream dispenser and also dispensed toppings and whip cream.  It did go around but didn't have to actually dispense the ice cream.  We went to an exhibit and competition yesterday.  I think the kids enjoyed it and it was fascinating to watch what the older kids made.  The older group 9 – 12 were doing robotics.  Their machines had to actually do certain things, scoop things up, move them from one place to another, move around obstacles without hitting them, etc. 

So, this is our group.  We had to make a poster with info on each of the kids, history about our snack and then our machine. Wait, one of the kids is missing – have to find another picture.         Some of the boys and our model.  The silver things are bowls, they are seats and a person for each of the kids.  The right side is the “kitchen” of the restaurant.  The judge talking to the kids and looking at the models and poster.  Each judge had on some kind of crazy hat.  It was easy to spot them!

The group received a trophy to put in their meeting room.   I think Mandy had a good time and this club has been good for her.  We wanted to have shirts for each of the kids but didn’t want to spend a lot of money and so we had them printed in black and then each of the kids used fabric paint to color their own shirt.

We took a couple of pictures of the older kids “robots” and the competition:

One of the older kids robots.  They had to be able to pick up and scoop things up.

   Some of the “unusual” judges.  It was a nice day, we stopped and had lunch and then went home.

Agency

Our theme for this year in Primary is Choose the Right.  It is all about having our agency and learning to make the right choices.

Today, I did sharing time and something interesting happened.  The first part of my presentation was posting one “A” and one “B” on the board and giving the kids a definition of each plan.  We were pretending to go to Disney World.  Plan A was that we were all going but that I choose all the rides they would take, what they would eat and where they would play but I guaranteed that no one would get lost or hurt.  Plan B was that we were all going but the kids could choose what rides they wanted and where they wanted to eat and play but I couldn’t guarantee that someone wouldn’t get lost or hurt.

In both Junior and Senior primary 1/3 of the kids chose plan A and 2/3 chose plan B.  It was  interesting.  By the way, Mandy chose plan A with no choice and Nathan chose B with his own choice.  Kind of made me feel a little like what Heavenly Father might have felt like.

Happy new year

 

 

Happy new year everyone