Unfortunate

Thursday morning I started to notice Keanna's eye swelling. I quized her about her recent activities, my girl certainly couldn't have participated in a fist fight. I watched as her eye grew throughout the day. Friday morning, I took her to the doctor to find out the swelling was most likely caused from a bug bite. Doctors orders were to give her some anthistimine and ice the eye. I asked about swimming on Saturday and he said "NO!"

Justin was taking the youth to Galaxy swimming in Munich. They claim to be the largest swim resort in Europe! We were so sad to miss it. :(

Picture Tagged

I was picture tagged... so here I go. Thanks Ardis, this was fun :)

Dream job: Ha, ha I don't know... maybe an exercise machine tester. I could get in a workout and get paid for it.

Guilty Pleasure: always and forever chocolate. My recent favorite is the Biscuit Ritter Bar.

Favorite Flower: I don't really have a favorite flower. However, I find it impressive when beautiful flowers such as this grow without being tended to.

Favorite Vacation Spot: This is tricky. I love the beach, but I get a little freaked out with my little ones playing in the water...so it's not THAT relaxing. I think I could enjoy a cabin in the mountain. Is it against the rules to post 2 pictures?

Favorite Color: Its been yellow for a very long time. Within the past year it has changed to sage green.

Favorite Car: This is a tough one, most of my life I have completely ignored cars until moving to Germany. I have realized that there are many nice cars audi's, BMW's etc. I think the Volvo XC90 has to win my vote for safety and size. Maybe not the sleekest, but safety wins me 10 times over.

Hobby: blogging, of course

Favorite Restaurant: All of them. I don't really have a favorite, we never ate out enough. Small and simple things like Wendys frostys, taco's, amercian chineese resturaunts. Hmmm... can you tell I am hungry.

I tag Tara, Stacy and Carina

Happy 30th Birthday Justin!

Happy # 30 Justin!

I have always imagined throwing a big Birthday Bash for Justin on his 30th birthday. With the relatively few men who live in this area, and family being far away, Justin asked if we could have a family celebration. He asked on several occasions to just have a simple party at home with his family.


Who could blame him? Who would we invite, all the sisters from our ward? Here are some pictures of him and the girls.


Ayla giving her Daddy a kiss

can you count 30 candles?

I told Justin we would be going on a Birthday date on Saturday. All he needed to do, was wear his tennis shoes. Even with Keanna's clues he was unable to guess what was in store for him. Below are a few pictures of us on our date at the ropes course. We used our old camera, which might explain the poor quality of the photos.

We had such a fun time. It was a perfect date. Happy Birthday, 30's not so bad.

PS. we apologize for our terrible yodeling music from our last post. Hopefully, this birthday music won't be so teeth gritting.

Day 4, More of the Italian Dolomites

On the last day of our Austria/Italian trip we wanted to see more of the Dolomites (but without getting drenched and pushing our bikes/trailer/kids the entire way). So we loaded up in the van and started driving up. Above is a view from Sella Pass, elevation 7400 feet.



More views of some impressive Dolomite peaks at Sella Pass.

We stopped some hikers and had them take some pictures of the family. We had taken some beautiful pictures the last few days, but I think these two pictures are my favorites.

I took some pictures of Emily before we loaded up in the van. I love how she is doing her hair these days. The kids thought that Emily's hair was pretty funny looking. The wind was blowing really hard.

We were eager to get home. So we typed our home address into our Navigon and were on our way. We were a little suprised at the route it told us to go, but we followed the directions.

The view was incredible. We would start at a pass at about 7300 feet, do about 50 switchbacks down (no exaggeration) and then we would be on our way up another pass. We did this little routine for 4 passes.

We enjoyed the views, but we were anxious to get home. Ayla was taking her nap and we had a limited amount of gas. We wanted to get to Germany before gasing up again (which costs us about 1/2 as much), but the switchbacks and elevation changes were not helping our gas mileage.

At about this point we realized that our navigation system had instructed us through a 1 1/2 hour detour which had brought us back to the starting point. Although we took a nice little loop around these gorgeous mountains, I had watched our fuel gage drop and was convinced our brakes were shot. Emily was convinced that our Navigon was playing with us. Keanna was convinced that we were lost. Ayla had waken up from her nap and was convinced she was absolutely starving. Yet we had made NO PROGRESS.

We love our Navigon, and we can't imagine doing Europe without it. But this time it put us on a wild goose chase (a very scenic one). Perhaps next time we won't blindly trust our Navigon. Despite how Emily and I felt about the detour, we made it to Germany for fuel, the kids survived, our van still has functioning brakes, and we had a wonderul trip.

Biking Alpi Di Susi, Day 3

This is the mountain Alpi Di Susi, we took a tram up into the middle of these. Wow!

The beauty of these mountains just kept expanding. We decided to rent some bikes for the day and enjoy the beauty up close. We had a wonderful day full of memories and laughter.

The girls crammed into the wagon

Mom on the bike trail

These are such adorable pictures of my family with such a beautiful view.

I know a lot of pictures, I just couldn't choose.

I love these pictures of my girls

Our ride was so beautiful. We loved the view and the girls loved the flowers. The girls had a variety of wildflowers to pick. Many of these flowers were unique to us, because they only grow at very high altitudes.

The kids are packed tightly into the wagon, breaks are needed and well deserved. What could be better then throwing rocks into a stream.

Ayla says "fthwee, fthwee, nine, fthwee, go" (this is her countdown to throw a rock).

We started up the gravel trail up the mountain. Much to our dismay the rain clouds had little mercy on us. Luckily, the wagon had a waterproof flap. Justin and I weren't quite as lucky and we were successfully drenched.

Most were coming downhill as we were creeping up hill. Most were equiped with rain jackets and super power hiking boots. Many would exclaim (in their native language) "2 kids, look two kids." We must have looked ridiculous, wet, unprepared and with 2 kids. I am sure they thought we were just stupid Americans. Maybe so, but it was fun.

We finally made it to the top, our refugee. This included a park, resturaunt, Tirol Yodelers, a great view ,grazing cows and goats on the mountain side. the kids played at the park while Mom and Dad rested.

Just imagine sitting here, with this view, with family and the yodelers. Wow!

We did it!!!

Here are a few pictures of Keanna she sure knows how to turn on the charm

We were excited for our ride down. After all that hard work we thought this would be the payback. In actuality it was a little scary. The trails were really steep and the rain turned into thunder and lightning. I was on top of a little hill and I heard and saw the thuder and lightning nearly at the same time, I was terrified. Here I am wet, on a metal bike on top of a hill. What would my kids do without a mother?







Luckily, we found a little shelter to stop at until the thunder and lightning passed. It was amazing to see the fog rolling on the ground as we glided through it.



After turning in our bikes we walked quickly to the tram to find out the storm had damaged the tram and we would be unable to ride it back, instead we would ride a bus. 2 buses came and left before we were agressive enough to shove our way onto one. Living in Europe, we are learning to be much more agressive. What a wonderful day.