Sindelfingen Christmas Market

Easton and McKay participated in their school's Sindelfingen Christmas market performance. It was a fun place to meet up with their friends and pretty cute to see them singing traditional Christmas carols in English and German. This is actually a great local market each year with great food and a good variety of booths.

Easton was in the far back left so we couldn't see him at all. McKay's class was front and center and he sang his heart out. After the performance, Ryan went off with some work friends while the rest of us headed for the fire pits to roast bread on a stick and enjoy some kinder punch.

Somehow I ended up with 7 kids to supervise at the fire pits and everyone was starving - including Jake in the stroller. I gotta laugh at the smile on my face cuz that's not really how I felt on the inside. You know the feeling -- you put on a happy face trying to help the kids enjoy an experience when you'd give your left arm at the very least to be home alone reading a book in your pjs nice and warm. Once everyone got their bread on a stick over the fire, it was crazy keeping them safe! Fire, sticks, children = bad combo but they were happy!

Finally, I was able to corral my own bunch into the school's tent where I could feed Jake and then we were off to go find Ryan. He'd found some great eats as always! Roasted potato wedges with some sort of yummy dip and then some cheese toast. The cheese toast was awesome! They had a huge wedge of cheese that they'd put under a broiler to melt just the top. Then they'd scrape off that melted top, put it on a fresh piece of German bread and slather on a bit of jam. Heaven in my mouth, I say! I would have loved to eat another slice but Morgan announced she had to go potty so we had to run back to the van for a date with our port-a-potty.

Next up that evening: Getting the Christmas tree from our favorite lot!

The OB visit

Morgan accompanied me to my OB appointment this morning. We ended up having to wait over an hour because the nurse at the front desk forgot to put me in the doctor's que. Morgan was a trooper and at minute 45 when I knew I should be close to next in line, she needed a serious diaper change and of course the diapers were in the van. Thinking I'd be next, I tortured the others in the small waiting room. When two more ladies went before me, I couldn't wait any longer. I took her out to the van - which reminded the nurse of her mistake - and we returned fresh as daisies and were seen shortly thereafter. The doc apologized profusely over and over which I appreciated very much.

There's nothing graceful about OB appointments, right? Here in Germany, it's just a tad bit worse because they give you nothing to cover up with - no paper sheet to drape over you. Just you with nothing on from the waist down, the stirrup "chair", and your doc. Awkward. Between being a woman whose born children and having ulcerative colitis, there's not much dignity this soul could have at this point in a doctor's office. So I pretend like I don't care and just get it over with. Ten minutes, I can handle that. I heard the greatest helpful hint from a friend the other day who said she always wears a flowy skirt that she can hike up. Genius! But I forgot that wisdom when getting dressed in a hurry this morning since I'm still excited about my Old Navy maternity shipment stuffs that just arrived. Cute, comfy jeans - HALLELUJAH!!! That and McKay was having serious Fasching Power Ranger costume angst this morning since he couldn't find, didn't like, or I zipped too high certain parts of his get up. Drama!

I think I gained serious points in Morgan's eyes today by taking her with me to the doctor. She saw me get my blood drawn. This alone was big since she has just finished her infant immunizations on a one year delayed schedule (not for any moral reasoning, just that moving here did a number on the number of things my brain allowed itself to handle). Morgan knows what doctors do - they give shots, but she's never seen Mommy get a shot until today. I think it was good for her and she was super sweet to me. "A Mommy a shot?" "A Mommy a ouchie?" But I was brave and showed her it's not a big deal. Yeah me.

The minute we sat down with the doctor, Morgan (who is well-acquainted with office visits) began demanding a toy or treat. She'd already raided my bag in the waiting area and come up dry, so she'd been waiting for this moment. Doc had nothing to offer and I was at a loss so we just talked over her and got on with things. Once up in the chair, however, she stood by my side as the chair was elevated. She looked a bit uncertain and I was glad she was there to take my mind off the fact that I was half naked. As the doctor did the ultrasound, Morgan kept asking if I was getting a shot or had an ouchie from the magic wand. She patted or held my hand and it was seriously so sweet! I told her to look at the screen to see the baby in Mommy's tummy which she did, but obviously didn't quite understand.

As we were leaving the doctor's office, in fact right outside his office door and in the reception area she had a melt down. She kept saying, "A baby!" She wanted the baby since we'd just "seen" it! Our wait had made me late to meet a friend so I wasn't as patient with the funny situation in the moment but have been laughing over it all day since. Poor girl thought she'd get candy, a toy or at the very least a baby out of this appointment and she got nothin' and was letting the world know!

Oh by the way, baby Carter #4 is going to be a boy! When told, Easton and McKay both gave me big grins and then the boy/girl ratio of the family. We're very excited! Dinner conversation tonight was all about names. McKay likes Kip - from Easton's class readers. Easton likes Michael James. Ryan and I each have a favorite of the moment but don't agree. And so it begins!

St Nikolaus and a late snow day!

I interrupt this post to bring you Morgan in a dirndl. It's a little big on her and with luck it will last her a couple years. I get a kick out of her round belly making her apron stick out!

Now just imagine her scaling church pews back to front in her dirndl and flashing a coy grin at anyone who dared ruin her fun. I got a kick out a special forces guy and his wife giving her props! Oh she kills me! Who'd have known she'd been screaming for her life as we approached the nursery door just minutes earlier!

So, back to 6 Dec - St. Nikolaus Day . . .

Sunday evening, the kids were all excited to put a boot outside our door for St. Nikolaus. If they've been good, St. Nik will leave them a treat in their boot. If not, he'll leave twigs or a switch for parents to give spankings! (Morgan's slipped down inside.) For a quick Q&A about the tradition, click here for St. Nikolaus article.

In the morning, the boys instantly ran to the door to check the boots.

I say there's no better way to start the day than with a big hollow chocolate Santa!

A kind neighbor left us a bag of chocolates as well so I could leave the kids' alone.

Then I had to be the ogre that made them get ready for the day. I can't believe how much snow we've been getting! We've heard Easton's international school only cancels in cases of salt shortages so we got him out the door. Thankfully, Ryan is driving him. Bundling up Morgan and McKay was an adventure before we even got out the door. Morgan likes to take the "scenic route" through all the snow drifts challenging her athleticism while McKay wants to get to school to play with friends.

After shoveling a good 8 inches, the snow was still coming down heavily. It was comical to see Morgan try to cut through snow up to her thighs or use her sand shovel to "help" me. Soon Easton's school called for an early release at 1pm - road conditions were changed to a red. I tried to back out and head up our cul de sac's hill and couldn't get any traction. Very wet, quickly accumulating snow = wheels just spinnin'! Some construction guys working on a new home had to push me up the hill. With the hills and intersections I knew I'd have to encounter on the way to and from Easton's school, I chickened out and called Ryan. Luckily, the bases were getting an early release too!

To welcome home the stragglers, we had hot chocolate (although I had already treated myself to the good stuff Ryan brought home from last week's Tubingen chocolate festival - YUM!!!). I've realized recently that having spray whip cream in the fridge is becoming darn handy, practically a necessity! We decked the tree out and the boys hung the ornaments for the first time all by themselves. It's hard to resist being controlling about ornament placement when you've done it "just so" all these years, but they had a good time and were quite proud of themselves!

After dinner we started our new evening duties routine. Easton and I are a team, McKay and Ryan the other. One team's on dinner cleanup, the other on house pickup and bedtime routine enforcement. At first it was a little difficult again for me to let go and allow Easton rinse dishes his way, but putting on silly Christmas carols had us laughing and working together in the sink. He likes the BYU a capella group Voice Male's Jingles II album - especially their version of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer! "Gimme a 'Whoop, Whoop!'"

Day one of the new routine went great and then it was time for FHE! Easton led us singing Silent Night and I'm sure we tortured our neighbors' ears if they heard us mangling a verse in German from Easton's school songbook. We watched President Monson's address from the Christmas devotional and talked about what Christmas is all about. Then the boys got their wish and we watched a Christmas movie - the animated "Christmas Carol."

Ahhhh, I wish every day could be a snow day! Except I'm out of eggs and really want/need to be baking but hate heading out in this stuff!

It's that time of year!

Grabenstrasse, Vienna

Hallelujah!

Christmas Markets!

On our way to Vienna, we stopped in Steyr to stretch our legs. We saw the town's bus with a fantastically melodious horn. Right out of the Sound of Music, "Genau?" (Translation - exactly.) Genau!

Once in Vienna, we visited the heart of the city around StephansDom. Like the spokes of a wheel, long streets each lit up their neighborhood differently. Grabenstrasse (our pic at the top) has a lot of high end shopping so the chandelier theme was very fitting.

The first Weinachtsmarkt we visited was between the beautiful Rathaus and Bergtheatre. When we visited Vienna in August with the kids, this area was one of favorites because of the music and food festival they host each June through September. YUM! With the buildings all lit up, it had such a great festive ambiance as we endured shivering through the snow/rain mix.

We love seeing each of the huts' wares, but it is most accurate to say Ryan is there for the food! Did you see those monsterous canoli looking things? The creme center is meringue filling.

And if you like marzipan (almond flavored paste, filling, fondant, candy . . .), Europe is the place for you! It comes in all types of varieties! Ryan loves marzipan as do many in his family.

The stick he's holding is what tasted like a pepperoni stick cooked/wrapped in a langos. Langos are elephant ear-like fried bread only it's heavily seasoned with garlic. It was delicious!

When eating at a fair of any type, Ryan likes to differentiate his eating by what he calls his sweet and salty cycles. He's always on the hunt for the next cycle's eats! For instance, here's some of his choices at the Schonbrunn Palace Weinachtsmarkt on Saturday.

Potato soup bread bowl = Salty cycle

Miners' burger sized (Yakima burger joint reference for us Bares) freshly fried donut, sprinkled with powdered sugar and filled with either vanilla, chocolate, or marmelade. YUM!!! Definitely the sweet cycle! Eat'cho heart out, or in spite of it!

On a previous salt cycle, Ryan stood in the longest line to get some of these babies!

Fresh cut and fried spiral potato chips. So good!

Not all the food was fried deliciousness, here's some of the other tasty stuffs!

Many kinds of hot alcoholic and non beverages at one hut. When you order your hot beverage, you pay extra for the festive mug. You carry the mug around with you until you either take it home with you as a souveneir or return it for a couple euros back in your pocket. We love hot chocolate and these huts did pretty good, just not as good as Starbucks. I'll have you know there's enough of those all over Europe too!

The gluhwein hut's other side, some tempting loaded potatoes!

And the gingerbread, their infamous lebkuchen that takes all sorts of forms! These were the most intricately decorated we've seen.

The Schonbrunn market was the creme of the crop! High quality artisans, unique huts and amazing food choices! Now time to hit the gym so we can keep up the pace with local markets!

Recently . . .

As Americans are heading into Thanksgiving, Germany is finishing up it's harvest season of thanks for the earth's bounty. The past two weeks we went to school functions at the boys' schools celebrating Lichterfest and St. Martins. St. Martin was a Roman soldier who became a Christian monk and cared for the poor. Easton school hosted a lantern walk to the Martinskirche in Sindelfingen where the church was doing a reinactment of St. Martin on his donkey and some music - or at least that's what we hear happened with the program. Our kids had meltdowns just getting in the car to go, so after the lantern walk they were in no shape to wait and sit through the evening program. Best intentions, but we enjoyed the nice weather that evening and played on a little playground. The kids all like carrying the lanterns they made in school for the occasion.

McKay's school held Lichterfest last Friday. McKay was so proud and happy to show he was part of this - it was his school party he'd say. All kids love candlelight and were drawn like moths to the flame.

McKay's on the left between two of his teachers, while Morgan, Ryan and Easton are on the right. Doesn't it look like some pagan séance gathering? The circle is to help guide the children during some of their songs. McKay especially liked beating those floor drums and when they got to hold a lit jar and walk as they sang.

Good local fun! The boys both enjoy singing their German songs although McKay's not used to having Easton soaking up the language too. He was really bugged this morning when Easton kept answering his requests with a "Ya!"

To follow up on the previous post, all we did was tell Easton briefly a couple times this weekend that kisses are special and to save them for when he's older. And he simply replied, "Okay." No big deal. Phew! I remember the chasing games when I was that age and how much fun it was.

We were at a playground yesterday and his friend and the little girl showed up. I watched them playing all sorts of creative tag games. No more kisses, just having good ol' fun! That is, until Easton tripped and his buddy tripped on him smashing Easton's nose into the hard floor which gave him a gushing bloody nose! Man can that kid wail! And just twenty minutes before that, Morgan had slipped and bit her lip real good, making it bleed a lot. Thank goodness for two other moms that jumped to my aid mopping up blood and getting me makeshift icepacks with napkins - both times!

At the playground, Easton's friend told me that sometimes Easton and their other friend call him names and it hurts his feelings. This little boy is very talkative to anyone that will lend an ear. During soccer season, he'd tried many times to tell me what games and drills I needed to run at soccer practice while I was trying to herd that little band of cats. I apologized about the name calling, said I would talk to Easton about it, and asked what names they were calling him. He said mostly it's "motormouth." That is Easton's favorite new name, from a Skippy John Jones book. Two weeks ago, he and I had giggled over the name and what it meant. I think Easton liked this name because it truly fit this friend of his! Like, "Hey, I know one of those!" Oh dear.

McKay, our little sponge! His favorite new phrase is, "Ugh! I gotta be kidding me!" Hmmm, wonder where he learned that! It's recently my go-to phrase like when I dropped the carton of eggs yesterday morning. "You gotta be kidding me!" I get such a kick out McKay's version though! Last night when he couldn't get his pajamas on right, I kept hearing him practice his new phrase. His favorite phrase in German is to say Go Away. Great.

Last night as we were getting ready for bed he said he needs to go to China. I asked why and he answered that it's where you learn really good karate. We recently watched the newer Karate Kid, the original one, and Karate Kid II with them on Netflix instant play. They loved it!

I remember my Uncle Tom took me to see Karate Kid in the theater while my parents were moving us into our 6913 West 4th Avenue house - I think I was about 7ish? He has always been such a great uncle! I'll never forget him also chauffeuring my friends and I to a school dance in his old limo with his tux t-shirt, handlebar mustache and chauffeur cap! It was totally awesome!

And Morgan. The girl is such a picky eater lately! I think she's currently living on peanuts, goldfish, bananas, string cheese, beans, yogurt and eggs. If she can carry it in a measuring cup, she's a happy girl! And she can slurp down Ryan's sodas like nobody's business! She's got Ryan wrapped around her little finger and knows it big time! He has such a hard time saying no to her lately - playing on the ipad, giving her gum, soda or whatever she begs for. Time to play hard ball!

Whistle While You Work

Been MIA for a bit lately trying to get a handle on Easton's new school with lots of meetings, doctor appointments, back into my cross fit class, Ryan and I coaching both boys' soccer teams and just life moving along. It definitely didn't help coming down with the flu last week! But now I'm back up and running like new so I'll catch you up.

Easton has early release every Wednesday and this week I used it to have the boys go "room-to-room" with me. The house was a disaster and I often don't have them help me because we all know it takes years off a mother's life to do so. But I knew I needed to and had to have a plan to succeed. Here's how it went down.

Lately the boys have been making song requests as we drive to/from Easton's school. So before starting our cleaning blitz, I let them create a playlist for us to work to with their favorites. Wanna know what's on their playlist?

• Anything You Can Do - Bernadette Peters & Tom Wopat in Annie Get Your Gun
• Dry Bones - BYU Singers
• Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now!) - C+C Music Factory (McKay's FAVE!!)
• Follow the Prophet - Clive Romney's singers
• Scripture Power - Clive Romney's singers
• The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
• Peanut Butter and Jelly - InsideOut A cappella
• Chantilly Lace - Big Bopper on American Graffiti soundtrack (Easton's FAVE!!)
• Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John & Kiki Dee (both boys love it!)
• The Lonely Goatherd - Julie Andrews and kids on Sound of Music
• Lollipop - the Chordettes on American Graffiti soundtrack

It's quite eclectic but it made working with them so fun! They worked pretty happily and Morgan parked her tush in front of the music and danced the entire time. I was amazed I didn't have the whining and fighting we're used to and seeing the kids light up to their favorites was hilarious. McKay really gets into "Everybody Dance Now!" and man does that song throw me back to high school! So it turns out my kids aren't much different than me - they need something fun to listen to as they get their work groove on!

-------------------

I don't know if I've shared this already or not so bear with me. One of our new family rituals comes from Easton's class. Every day he starts the discussion, usually at dinner - What was your cold prickly and warm fuzzy today? Everyone gets a turn to say theirs and it's been fun to hear from everyone each day. It's always fun to realize your family is evolving. It's most noticeable to me as my babies move on to their next stage, but my boys are ready for longer discussions and this is so fun!

-------------------

At McKay's soccer game, he kept running up to me with a grin and hollering, "Mom! Did you see me almost kick it?!" He cracks me up! He hovers on the outside of the moving swarm around the ball with his team. However, at Easton's practice, he gets right in there among the bigger kids. Go figure! Since Easton's practice is first, McKay often is too tired to participate at his own practice and is a puddle of tears.

This is made super fun by Morgan who too is also worn out from big brother's practice and wondering what snacks she can banshee scream out of mom this second hour while I try to also coach. We're in this stage right now where anytime we arrive somewhere new, my kids hound me for snacks, even if I've prepped them beforehand. Often another mother will try to help me out and try to share something they've got but it only reinforces my kids' bad behavior. Any snacks I bring end up strewn across the field and often fought over, especially by a weeping child who is supposed to be practicing but just wants the snacks everyone else is getting. Why do I do this to myself?!

That's only one element behind my decision to not coach next spring. The bigger reason is that I think my boys need a regular cheerleadering mom on their sidelines for once focused solely on them. It's a hard pill to swallow for me because I see the need of the community and feel particularly good about helping out in this way that I can. Many families here have dads that would love to be coaching but is either deployed or having to travel for work, protecting all of us.

---------------------

Speaking of protecting us, I'm sure you're all hearing the buzz about the European Bin Laden terrorist threats. We've been paying particularly close attention to this given Ryan's work with European Command, but we continue to feel safe in our surroundings yet mindful of the need to be aware and vigilant at all times.

I've been reading a bit about how Europeans view Muslims in their midst and we watched an interesting Christine Amanpour town hall meeting entitled "Holy War" asking if American's should fear Islam. It's an interesting look at the spectrum of Muslims and their views. I've been enjoying my recent book "Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future." I've never been much of an end-of-days person, but this book is an interesting look at the context behind Rosenberg's "eerily prophetic" novels that are guided by Old Testament last days prophecies. I think I wanna read them now too.

---------------------

Have you seen "Holiday" with Cary Grant and Kathryn Hepburn? We caught it this week and it was fun to chat about what's important in life - the pursuit of wealth and influence or living life to it's fullest. Nothing like our recent job hunt to help us always be evaluating ourselves. I like what I heard in Conference yesterday - you really are given two things in life: time and agency to choose how your time is spent. I'm glad I found such a great guy to marry and spend this time with!!! He had a birthday last week and had to spend it taking care of the kids and nursing me back from the dead. The fact that he's a better cook and baker than me is just icing on the cake!

---------------------

Today is the day Germany celebrates it's reunification, but it's not widely outwardly celebrated from what I've read. Easton's class talked a lot this week about the Berlin wall coming down - a full 21 years ago already! Apparently, there are still growing pains as the East and West come together, but it was a big deal this summer that the whole country got behind their German World Cup team which was pretty representative.

We got out and enjoyed a beautiful autumn day knowing they are numbered. It is the rainy season! We took the kids out for a walk in the woods behind some nearby horse pastures. We really don't take advantage of the beauty around us enough!

Ryan has an internal GPS and so we didn't get lost as we wandered from trail to trail, crossing bridges and streams as the fancy took us. Germany sure is a beautiful country!!! The boys had whined at the initial thought of the walk but we all had a good time together enjoying the fresh forest air.

Morgan was a happy trooper until her little legs were worn out with our pace. Then she got a ride on my or Ryan's shoulders for the duration but seemed to like Daddy best. She kept stroking his hair, saying, "Soft. Soft. Soft." Oh she's so fun and chatty lately, nearly 2! After a couple hours wandering, we got back to the car and took a nice drive through winding country roads. McKay of course konked out as we knew he would while Morgan and Easton giggled together with the wind whipping around them. What a nice afternoon!

I gotta say I was very impressed with how easy it was to watch General Conference online this weekend! Usually there are delays in the live streaming and this year is was so easy and clear! I love the church's newer Conference site! Not having to wait a week for sessions to be loaded is fantastic! We watched each "morning" session live at 6pm after stuffing our faces. We made our favorite enchiladas today followed by some good ol' chocolate chip cookies.

Coming soon: Morgan in her new dirndl dress!

Elbow Heroism

Ever heard of Nursemaid's Elbow? We hadn't til last Sunday.

We woke up late after getting back from our Austria trip and were getting ready to go to a friend's birthday party. I was exasperated while trying to get a very uncooperative Morgan dressed. I had hold of her wrist and was pulling on her hand to get it through the armhole at the very moment she decided to stop standing on her own legs. The force of her sagging and my pulling dislocated her elbow apparently. I didn't realize it in the moment because although her screaming increased, she was already pretty unhappy with me. A minute or so later though, the cry was a hurt cry and then I felt bad because she was holding her limp wrist. Hello Guilt, take a seat on my shoulders please. Fantastic, thanks.

We wrapped her wrist and forearm in an ace bandage and headed to the party thinking we'd keep our eye on it. Our friend who has a great deal of emergency medical training took a look at it and gave me all sorts of worse case scenarios relating to her growth plates and such while being a laid back wait-and-see type of guy. What do you do?!

On a side note, when we got home from the party and were getting out of the van, I was admiring one of McKay's German classmates riding his bike with no training wheels. McKay said hi to his friend and was starting to walk inside. The little guy stopped his bike and began talking to me, of course, in German. I was unloading the car and the little guy kept repeating himself to me so I could understand but there was just no hope. I've been a complete slacker on the language front.

Then I hear McKay holler, "My mom doesn't speak German yet." His voice was apologetic and matter of fact. Across the street, the other boy's mother burst into spontaneous uproarious laughter! She couldn't help herself, it was a gut laugh! She quickly translated what McKay said into German for her husband and they were still laughing out loud minutes later as I sheepishly chuckled to myself walking into the house with all our pool gear. It was just too classic. I really wish I'd stuck to learning German last fall and hope I do better this year as Easton starts at the bilingual international school here. I better start practicing!

Back to Morgan's arm . . . After a rather sleepless night, she was still obviously not willing to put weight on that arm or even move it. Later that evening after we'd gotten our crew plus two young visiting cousins to bed, we hit the internet to see if we could figure out what to do with her. We immediately found descriptions of Nursemaid's Elbow and boy did it fit! The name bugs me. It does nothing for my guilt. But would you be surprised to find there were youtube videos showing doctors in their offices and mothers at home resetting arms?! Holy Cow!

Ryan was all excited to go try the simple procedure right then but I couldn't bear the idea of how Morgan would cry in pain, not to mention wake up the other four kids we'd just gotten to sleep and who would have to be settled down again. So he tried it first thing the next morning and WALAH! It worked!!! Within an hour she was back to climbing up to the kitchen table and grazing everyone's leftover cereal. Only this time she had five bowls to graze instead of three! Gross. But it sure makes her happy and feel independent. I knew she was cured and that did wonders for assuaging my guilt and the anxiety welling up in me of taking five kids between 1 and 6 to a doctor's office!

Ryan, you are my Mr. Incredible!

World Cup Fever!

About a week before the World Cup began, my neighbor put up his flag. In the year and a half we've lived here, we hadn't really seen German flags unless they were in official places so it was something new to start seeing them everywhere. To my knowledge, there's no national day like our 4th of July.

The match was at 4pm. We made a run to the pool to cool off but the pool began emptying at 3. All the German decor is out in force now daily -- cars with window flags, rear view mirror flag covers, car hoods wrapped in the flag, plastic flower leis hanging on necks and rear view mirrors . . . the kids at McKay's school wear the team's jersey and sport flag tattoos on their cheeks and arms. We also see other countries from all over represented by their car and home flags waving. With the tournament well underway, we also have been seeing and hearing kids blowing those infernal horns too. Whose idea was that anyways?! But it's really quite exciting and Ryan loves the fervor which is akin to what he experienced on his mission in Brasil when they won the World Cup in 1994.

Americans don't rally behind soccer and the World Cup like many countries do so this is new to me. It is real fun to see Germany cheer their team on. Our AFN satellite has a 5 second delay from what our neighbors see with German cable. You can tell when they score and you hear them start celebrating as you then see the goal. I must say "Well Done!" on a decisive 4-0 victory, Germany, and giving us a great show tonight! Wish I hadn't been so exhausted, I love the game, but with McKay snuggled up after our pool outing we both crashed through most of it. Some fan I am!

After the match today, we sure got a kick out of driving around! Here's a bit of what I was able to catch on the move.

Traffic circles were the favorite! People would circle around them many times honking their car horns, shouting, and blowing the other horns. If you passed a biergarten, you'd sometimes hear boisterous singing too.

Here's a tractor, much like I see every day around our town which is surrounded by fields. This tractor, however, was pulling a large wagon load of happily drinkin', loud and proud flag-waving fans!

This pretty much epitomizes what we saw and heard for two hours straight tonight! So fun! I'm a little upset by the Burger King behind it. This was taken near an American airfield as these guys left the traffic circle. I wish you could hear all the honkin' and hollerin'! Ryan was thrilled to honk along with the rest of them!

We stopped and grabbed some dinner which happened to be near a traffic circle. It was so fun to see the different cars doing their celebrating. Here's Morgan enjoying her apfelshorle (carbonated apple juice) and giving me her cheesy grin.

Easton begged and begged for pepperoni pizza and then drank a ton of apfelsaft (apple juice, no bubblies) while waiting for it to come so he never even ate a piece. [Sigh!] Can you read the boredom on his face? Miraculously, he was hungry for popcorn the minute we got home since they were going to watch Wall-E.

Upon returning home, I saw my neighbor's flag waving in the evening breeze. We have very happy neighbors tonight!

I had an interesting chat with McKay's kindergarten teacher this week. We were talking about the World Cup and how she uses it to teach the kids geography and math as they keep track of the matches each day. She noted that four years ago when the tournament was held in Germany, it was the first time she saw everyone proudly waving, wearing, and decorating with the flag. That it was a real turning point she witnessed with great joy. All over Germany, big screens were set up all over for people to gather and watch the matches. She is in her 50s and said she couldn't do all this as a child because the flag was associated with the Nazis. She is very happy to see such a sense of national pride again in the younger generations. Many Germans sure LOVE soccer!!!

Kids around here can dribble circles around US kids of the same age! In a friend's town, when they recently signed their two boys aged 7 and 9 up for the local year-round team, they discovered the kids practiced four days a week, two hours per practice! Six year olds were being taught how to do diving headers on mats! Compare that with the one hour practices twice a week I ran this spring concentrating on bare bones basics! No wonder there's a skills gap! As I've talked a with a few friends, many of them won't sacrifice the family time missed for that type of intense commitment and wish there was a more laid back alternative while others just love it. Either way, the German team sure is doing spectacular and it's fun to be here for it!

Stockholm III

What's not to love? Some call Stockholm the Venice of the North. I wouldn't. It's truly its own place and sure doesn't need comparison for prestige! It stands just fine on it's own!

Sadly our Rick Steves' guide didn't make it to us in time for this trip so we had to research it old school. Old school, in my frame of reference sadly means pre-Rick Steves. I am sorry if this offends any of your finer sensibilities. Feel free to educate me!

Man, we sure wish we had better weather here! HaHaHa!

There were so many reasons to be in Stockholm and enjoy the great weather and sites on Sunday, June 6, 2010! It was Sweden's National Day, the last day of the food festival, the beginning of Love Stockholm counting down the two weeks before the royal wedding, and of course the end of the marathon tourist weekend!

There were only two things on our site seeing list: the Vasa Museum - a 1628 grand war ship that sank on its maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor; and Skansen - the oldest European open air museum.

VASA MUSEUM

In the early 1600s, Sweden fought many wars for control of the Baltic Sea among the Danes, Poles, and Russians particularly. In the 1620s, Sweden signed treaties with the Danes and Russians but King Gustav was fighting his cousin who'd assumed control of Poland. King Gustav kept local support for the war going by making the war about religion - us Swedish Lutherans against those corrupt Polish Catholics.

Don't ya think those boots must have been fun to walk in?

Gustav commissioned a grand ship be built to show the world his supreme power and might. Historians believe the ship, named Vasa, gets its name from his family and their symbol of grain. It had beautiful, ornate painted wood carved statues by many German carvers all over it. None of our pictures of the enormous ship turned out well since they keep the museum, which was built around the ship, climate and light controlled for the ship's preservation. It was pretty dark in there!

A few crucial errors led to the ship's demise on its maiden voyage. They hadn't loaded enough ballast (food and war supplies) into the low cargo holds to offset the ship's high center of gravity and the low lying cannon gun holes were left open upon setting sail. The ship sank within hours, a little over 1,000 meters into it's maiden voyage in the Stockholm port. Wind caught the sails and the ship began leaning to the side, taking in water through the open gun holes as this model shows.

The funny or humiliating part of the sinking was that the water was only about 30 meters deep so the ship's tall masts with Swedish flags flying proudly were all that remained above water. In fact, many of those on board clung to them until rescued by local fishing boats. The ship was raised from the harbor floor amazingly preserved in 1961. Pretty cool stuff and fun science behind its raising and continued preservation. I wish we'd had more time here to read all the exhibits!

My parents once took me to see a replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind (1577) which was on tour from the UK to the US west coast. That was 1987 and I was eleven. We saw it on a day trip from my grandparent's house in the Newport harbor in Oregon. I still remember walking aboard and how cool I thought it was, but how small for all those men. The Vasa was three times as big! Very cool and especially interesting to me as I just recently finished reading Treasure Island and am now in the thick of Robinson Crusoe!

Just across the street from the Vasa Museum, is the beautiful Nordic Museum. We didn't have time to go inside and see the 300 years of costumes exhibit but I think I could have enjoyed it. Did Rick Steves recommend it? It killed me not to know. [chuckle, chuckle]

Well, hello there, little guy!

We kept coming across little families of geese. So fluffy and adorable!

SKANSEN

We walked through a nice park on our way to Skansen and saw people of all types spread on their picnic blankets soaking up the day. Skansen was a great place to be that day with the weather and National Day activities. It's the oldest open air museum and has collected buildings and farm steads, cultural elements, and animals from all over Sweden to be experienced in one place. There were many living history exhibits much like those in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia or the one in the Black Forest.

We talked with a handful of living history docents in their exhibits: a flat bread baker, an influential wealthy copper miner's son from the 1700s, and an inner-city working class young woman preparing to get married. It was the custom in many villages to give a young girl a plant to nurture over the years that would be used to make her wedding crown like the plant and crown shown below.

When I saw The Allotment Hut below, it looked so familiar! This one is from the 1920s.

These are all over in and around my little German town so I was thrilled to finally know what to call them and understand their origins! The Skansen hut here said these allotment gardens played an important role during the food shortages during and after WWI. In Germany and pretty much all over the world, the allotment gardens (or community gardens as they're called in the states) sprung up as a result of industrialization and urbanization by 1850. City workers were given or leased an allotment of land to grow their own food from the town, a private land owner or a church. Many would build a little hut on their allotment to double as a shed and sleeping quarters. The gardens now serve less as food security for the population, and are now seen more as a hobby and are often used for social gatherings as well as growing fruits, veggies and flowers. Food security and hobbies. Self reliance and food storage. Note to self. [Twinge of guilt.] I also read of them being in the Philipines too.

In looking up these gardens I found it interesting to note that Einstein was part of an allotment association in Berlin. He didn't keep it up to code and there is record of an association letter to him with a deadline to get his weeds and fence in order or he'd loose his lease for it being a nuisance.

Speaking of food security, Ryan sure enjoyed what he thought was the perfect food stand offering - the Suovas in a flat bread cone.

That would be "lightly smoked and fried reindeer meat in a flat bread cone with crushed new potatoes (mashed) and cloudberry creme fraiche." He liked them so much he had three over the course of five or so hours. Me? Not so much, they weren't my favorite. Too much gamey-flavor, chewy texture with the sweet and sour of creme fraiche and berry sauce. I was, however, very appreciative of their food display and English menu so we knew what we were ordering!

Skansen has their own dance troups that perform and I loved it! First there was a children's group and then the adults. The children's dances all had to do with love, courtship and such as circle games played to song. So cute!

I enjoyed seeing how this played out because each dance had one or two children in the center who had to pick a partner when the music cued them to. One song had them yank the partner out of the circle, another had them drop a hanky and the selected one had to pick it up and follow, while my favorite was a demure smile and coy look over the shoulder to be sure the partner was following. Simply adorable! And what fabulous colorful costumes!

Watching these fun dancers in their layers of thick clothing made for colder temperatures on such a warm day and sweating profusely sure made us thirsty! We headed for the water spigot to fill up our water bottles and the best dried, crisp apple chips I've ever had!

As the crowds began to grow at Skansen in anticipation of the National Day celebration concert, we decided to head out. The Skansen celebration was expecting the Royal family in attendance and as luck would have it, we happened on the parade preceding their arrival and finally did get to see the family in their horse drawn carriages and royal guardians on horse back. The size of this celebration was akin to a regular sized town in the States doing a 4th of July parade and concert. It was a little strange given some of the big national celebrations in big cities we've been to.

But Sweden has only been celebrating their National Day for a few decades now. Ryan was disappointed there were no fireworks. One of our docents reminded us that there's no fireworks on account that it doesn't get dark until about 11pm or later right now! Being that far north, the sun was up by 4am when we got up to catch our train and flight home Monday morning.

And that concludes this installment of Carters Travel: Sweden!