Italy

Here are just a few pictures from our trip to Italy.

Side street with pretty flowers.

I thought these pots were quite charming.


Our view

A very relaxed Brice and Misty

Our room

High School Musical 3

HSM 3 opened in Frankfurt last night. One day sooner than it does in the States. That means I get one whole extra day to have those songs stuck in my head. And one extra day to have Kayla continually ask when it comes out on DVD.

So Brice and I played the part of good parents and took Caden and Kayla to see it. We went downtown to the English Theater (slimy, old and smelly) because we don't speak us no German. While Caden tolerated it, I don't think Kayla blinked once. This is her kinda thing and yes I'm glad that it ISN'T Caden's. If I didn't have kids, this movie wouldn't be my cup of tea but it is nice to have a family movie that the kids enjoy.

I read that it is estimated to gross $40 million it's opening weekend, so we were expecting a large crowd. I guess Europe just isn't on board the HSM band wagon because there were only 10 others in the theater. Of course it could be that they prefer to watch it in their own language.....possibly the German theaters were full.

So now we will be buying the soundtrack because my 4 year old daughter needs a few more love ballads to learn.

Sometimes You Need a Professional

Our attempts at a group photo of the grand kids.

I'm not sure all of the props at Picture People would have helped. We'll try again in a few years.

Rothenburg

My favorite city in Germany is Rothenburg. It is a romantic, walled city with a lot to do and tons of charm. Our family has been before and I wanted to take my sister and mom there too. To keep my stress level to a minimum, I left Avery at home. Thanks again Brice and Kim. My mom, my sister, me, Caden, Kayla and Shauna's 2 boys made the 2 hour drive one Sunday afternoon.

We stayed in a lovely little hotel.

http://www.klosterstueble.de/ISY/frame-en_hotel.html

This hotel had great personality and an even better breakfast. We feasted on fresh pastries with Nutella.

Rothenburg has a world famous Christmas store. A store that adults could spend hours in admiring the thousands of ornaments and Christmas decorations. In our case it was a store that tiny fingers wanted to touch everything shiny and breakable (one reason Avery didn't come with us). The kids actually did well and enjoyed looking at the store. However, the teddy bear store was more suited for them.

Kayal in front of the bear store.

Caden in the hotel room with his souvenir. The bunk beds in the background were a big hit.

Town center

Charming buildings and shops

The highlight of the trip for me was in the hotel room. As Shauna and I were waiting for the kids to fall asleep we played "props" with our earplugs. Our imaginations were very creative kept us quite entertained. We were laughing so hard our sides were hurting. We did make efforts to stay quite, but our giggles did wake Caden up. Oops.

We ended up cutting the trip short because some of us were feeling under the weather. Despite the cool weather and sickies it was a fun few days.

Rhine River Cruise

Our first adventure with my family was a Rhine River Cruise. We had never been on one and it was something we had on our to do list. It was a beautiful Saturday....perfect for being out on a boat. Since we had our 3 kids plus my sister's 2 kids (6 and under) we opted for the short version of the boat ride. The scenery was amazing, although I'm sure we missed most of it because we did have 5 kids with us. Our plan was to take the boat all the way to the last stop, hop off and tour a castle, then get back on and head on back. Well I was either taking someone to the bathroom, or keeping someone off the table, or keeping Avery from throwing something into the river because we missed our stop and the boat was on it's return before I noticed.

Lucking there were a few stops on the return trip so we were still able to get off and see a castle.

This is Kayla posing with a castle in the background. Don't you love her hair. It's too fine and short to braid, but she insisted.

Caden posing in front of a castle. Maybe the same one as Kayla...who was keeping track. Notice his nice sweatshirt that is 2-3 sizes too small. In the rush out the door that's all he could find.

This is the view of the river from the top of the castle.

Here is a cool room inside the castle. It was filled with weapons and animal heads.

Me and the kids at the top of the castle.

The highlight of the day was having my mom climb up to the castle. It was a VERY steep and long climb up. She did great and then she wanted to die. We were all very proud of her and I hope she recovers some day.

Getting Sick..........

of looking at my face when you check my blog? Well, don't poke your eyes out yet, updates to come soon. My mom and sister have been here the past few weeks and I've been busy traveling, visiting and having a great time with them. Lots of pictures and stories to share. I promise.