Germany

Germany!

While the world came to London for the Olympics, we fled to Germany (at least for the first half anyway) where we met T-man's parents and Aunt K. 

First stop, Nurnberg!

Behind the scenic outer gate of the old city of Nurnberg was this tourist shopping area with traditional crafts.

The girls were troopers, walking all over the city!  Here we are in front of the poorly named "White tower," perhaps the architect was color blind. 

A and Grandma

A and Aunt K, with a view looking down on Nurmberg from the former HQ of the Holy Roman Empire.

On a beautiful Sunday walk through the town.

Next stop, Schwartzwald (The Black Forest)!

A beautiful waterfall in Triberg.

Schintzel, yum!  And yes that's beer, or at least apple beer ( apfelsaftschorle) , a delicious carbonated apple drink we drank frequently.

Hohenzollern castle - a beautiful fortress, surrounded by beautiful countryside. Like Neuschwanstein, the current version of the castle was hardly lived in by its patron monarch.

Letty and Gracie trying on hats.  Letty is sporting the traditional yarn ball hat of the Black Forest.  Apparently someone thought this was high fashion and it stuck for a while. 

On a hike above the guest house where we stayed in the Black Forest.

Our Final Stop:  Bavaria

Hohenschwangau Castle, childhood home of Ludwig II near the Austrian border in southern Germany

 

Fabled Neuschwanstein castle, beautiful architecture matching the gorgeous scenerly around it and matched in quality and magnificense on the inside.

Grandpa served his mission in this part of Germany.  The little one story building behind him was his apartment... and the chapel where his branch met in Kaufbaren.

 

Weiss Kirke (White Church), famous for its overly done Rococo style.  We were lucky to stop in while the organist was playing... and just in time to dodge a torrential downpour.

 

Quality Grandpa time!

 

 

Kids are so easy to please, this was probably Gracie's favorite part of the trip, the trampoline at the last place we stayed.

 

 

Townhall in the famous central square of Munich, the Marionplatz. 

 

 

Being 8 is GREAT!

Happy Birthday Letty!  She is so excited to be 8.  This little girl has blessed our lives for the last eight years in ways I never expected.  Life wouldn't be complete without her.  We love you Letty!!

We were very fortunate that the sun decided to bless us on her birthday.  Upon request we had Thai food and decided to eat in the park.

 The blowing of the candles.  She wanted root beer floats for her treat so I stuck the candles in some little cakes. 

 Unfortunately the Americans around must have been celebrating the 4th with root beer since the few cans that the store stocked were wiped clean.  We improvised with sorbet and sprite.

 I loved this face! I forgot and wrote her card in cursive, she got most of it but when she got stuck it looked like this. 

 For the friend party

 We had a pottery painting party, how's that for 3 p's?

I told her we could do this kind of party if we kept it small.  There should have been 8 total but one couldn't come.

She was sweet enough to include her sister as one of her friends.

Wrapping up

School ended on Friday the 20th of July (a record late for us).  Preceding that came the wrapping up of classes.  Gracie really enjoyed her ballet class.  It was lovely to watch her and hear the live piano music.

 Miss Sophie teaching "good" toes and "naughty" toes

 She was among the tallest in her class

 I adore little ballet shoes

 I felt like I was in NYC in there with the 42nd street poster

Our local school's fair she went to with Dad while we were in Paris

 Last day at See Saw Preschool with her Key worker

Looking so big with her "plaited" hair

A Unique Trip

T-man and I had quite an exhausting day in London one weekend.  After returning we were discussing our next trip to Paris and trying to figure out how we could leave the kids behind.  He suggested that since he had been before that I go with Letty, it took me a whole two minutes to agree.  We figured Gracie would get tired on the trip and Lyssy wouldn't care but Letty has been asking since we got here when we would see the Eiffel Tower.  So off we went for a weekend trip.  It was so fun and seemed very easy with just her.  It happened to be the weekend after her birthday but I told her not to expect such things in the future it just happens that we live only a couple of hours away from a very famous place.   We seemed to hit all of the major first time to Paris locations between where I had planned to go and the bus tour.  Because of the nature of our trip the pics are quite a  Letty fest.

 Notre Dame

 Notre Dame

 Opposite Musee d' Orsay after our trip inside

 She made me cover her eyes until we reached the tower so she could be surprised, so funny.

 Yum yum macaroons.  I should have taken more pictures of our eats but I was on trip planner mode.

 We did lots of origami on the train.  She received paper and a book for her birthday.

 Being the "Mona Lisa"

 The Louvre

 On the way up to Sacre-Coeur

Voici Paris 

 Double decker carousel 

 Our hotel at the end.  We came out of the subway to find Moulin Rouge, ooops I  thought it was a couple of stops down the metro.  Oh well, it wasn't a bad spot just a weird night crowd which we avoided

The lovely bakery that provided our breakfast and after dinner treats.