Ryan’s been working hard and needed a fun laid back weekend so we tried to oblige. Me and the cubs introduced him to the Sindelfingen pool. This time we even took the kids over to the diving pool to show the boys a thing or two. Unfortunately, only the highest platform was open and I am afraid of heights. Ryan went off and then the boys were egging me on. I finally gave in and it rocked my world! It hurt! I had water up my nose and in my ears for the day and that’s all I’ll share on that subject!A post baby nursing bod should not attempt this! The boys loved it though and so I guess it was worth them thinking I was fearless and cool!
Saturday night we had a fun couple over for games. We ended up playing the Settlers of Catan Deutsch anniversary edition they had given us. It was pretty cool but different because a card you draw at the beginning determines where your settlements are placed.
The board is really neat with the “cities” being Deutschland monuments. We snacked on strawberries, chips and salsa, and Ryan baked up his chocolate cake with 7 minute white icing. YUMMY!After church on Sunday, we met up with our new friends, the Kellers, for our first Volksmarch in the old city of Rothenburg. Ryan and Shawn work together and we both relocated from Leesburg a week apart, oddly enough! They have a cute 3 yr old daughter that the boys love to play with and another baby girl just younger than Morgan.
A Volksmarch is where many historic villages or cities have these group walks through their towns. You pay for your ticket and can select to walk a 6k, 11k, or 21k. You have to answer a series of random questions (in German) along the way and get your ticket stamped at the pit stops in order to get the prize at the end. Since we did it after church, we got a late start and ended up being the last to finish the march. The organizers were literally following us at some points cleaning up the route markers!
The Kellers are in better shape and selected the 11k (6.8 miles) for us so we gave it a shot. The route took us out into the farm country for the first half where we seriously wondered if we were only going to see the distant silhouette of the old walled city that day. And yes, we did have all the kids with us.
I put Morgan in the Baby Bjorn and Ryan got to push the boys in the stroller. I’d made a huge mistake by forgetting Easton’s tennis shoes at his school so he had his snow boots on. Needless to say, Easton didn’t want to walk for long. And where Easton goes, McKay follows. Their poor little friend was dying to walk with them but they were stubborn and enjoyed their free ride. She, on the other hand, walked almost the entire way and had energy to spare! She’s amazing!!!
I really enjoyed being out in the fresh nice spring-ish air and chattin’ my head off with my new friends! I’ll admit my body began barking halfway through and by the end we were all quite exhausted. The start and finish of the Volksmarch were in the sport house where there was rowdy music, lots of food and beer. Our friends were eager for their beer and braut, but since we got there dead last the food was all gone. We got a good laugh out of an old man sitting at a table near us refusing to toast/cheers with because Ryan had a Coke and these guys’ had their mugs o’beer. McKay is still our resident soda lover seen below chuggin' it down!
The workers kept giving the kids these little fruit taffies that they scarfed down. It was actually pretty cute to watch them spread their loot out and chow down. Then they'd jump up and run around chasing one another endlessly! A pure sugar rush!
We found a great place to have dinner while the kids milked us for whatever they wanted. The parentals were too tired to fight and pretty much placated any tantrum. The drive home was nice and quiet as the kids sacked out. I willed myself to stay awake for Ryan’s sake. I was so grateful to him for pushing that stroller with our heavy boys the entire way that the least I could do was keep him company on the drive. Ahhh, home sweet home with the next day nursing our aching bodies, and boy were they aching! We still hope to do more Volksmarches, perhaps just the 6km with the kids unless we get a better offroading stroller!
