Day Trips

So the first part of our Summer was spent with the Van De Graaffs until July 4th.  After that we had Jen and Darin visit.  Then we had two weeks of Soccer camp and Carter went to EFY.  Next we had a week where nothing was scheduled.  Although some of us wanted to sleep in every day and stay in jammies the entire day (the mom of this clan), we needed to have some day trips exploring the area.  So I relinquished a few of my days for the one down week this summer and we went to the Dinosaur Museum and to a nearby Lake with friends.  Both were really fun! 
DAS PRAEHISTORIUM DINOSAURIER MUSEUM IN NEUNKIRCHEN:

It was a really interesting museum.  Its always fun to contrast and compare what different countries do.  This one seem to want to make the “hunting other dinosaurs” point very clear.  Lots of models and displays with reenacted hunting each other scenes with torn flesh and blood and goar.  Not really over the top, but just more than we would probably do in America. 
 
After seeing several hunting scenes the kids started hunting each other!  Cole attacking Hanna reenacting the fossils above! 
 
Now this is super interesting if you are into having your head really close to giant snakes, which I am not, (but apparently ALL of my boys are), but at least separated by a plastic dome.  You have to look high up to see the snake is sleeping in the rocks:
 

And of course we visited the play/ climbing area where the kids climbed and climbed and tunneled every square inch.  Jake sure loves his Birthday BYU hat.  I think he wore it every day after June 17th the entire summer!!
 
The museum was located right near this industrial park that is old and falling apart, but that they are trying to fix up I guess?  I wanted to take pictures at it for photography purposes, but they had it all fenced off.  Carter enjoyed exploring it with my while everyone else watched a movie in the car. 
 

Iron Women

We have been training and planning on this race for close to 9 months.  It is an awesome set of women standing in this photo with me.  I cherish their determination and drive.  We each completed a full Iron Woman Race….. but the catch is we had two weeks to complete it!  The fastest one was Rebecca who just had a baby like two months ago…. what the heck?  She finished in 3.5 days.  The next fastest was like 6 days where a lot of people finished at and then I was at 8 days.  It was hard to find time while doing soccer camps….it meant losing lots of sleep.  We often were up at 5:30 or 6:00 going for 20 mile bike rides.  It was fun to catch up with these girls and have social time first thing in the morning.  It all went as planned and I only had one mishap with my clips on the bike …..trying to go up a hill and not making it, not getting out of the clips…… I ended up with a pretty good scratch up the back of my calf where the metal cog for the chain scraped down my calf muscle.  I also got a flat tire on one bike ride and had to wait for Jeanie to come rescue me in Niedermohr!  It was so much fun and sooooo worth all the hard work. 

We had a BBQ to commemorate the finish.  Jeanie is wearing the official race shirt for biking that we all received.  This is an official registered race out of UTAH that a lady started a few years ago.  Now people from Germany, Utah, and Idaho participate.  We got cute necklaces for finishing that were presented that night.  love these ladies:  Kari, Jeanie, Rebecca, me, Candice, Kim, Jeanette, and Jamie. 

Soccer Camps

In the few weeks we were not traveling this summer, we held Kwik Kicks soccer camps again.  It was awesome again.  Carter and Hanna were really good coaches and did a great job!  I was proud of them!  Carter did the first week which were the 7-8 year olds and Hanna did the second week which was the 5-6 year olds.  It’s a lot of work while we are doing it, but the players have fun and that makes it all worth while!  Some of our fun games this year were :  Wake the Bear, Sharks and Minnows, Musical Cones, Freeze Tag, and their favorite: Mission Impossible! 
                 
James, Josh, Jacob, Kaiden, Laney, Austin, Chase, Aedan. 
   
Hannah, Austin, Sawyer, Cole, Noah, Maddi, Ethan, Isaac, Hailey

Last morning with Jen and Darin

 

We opted to go to Dachau on our way to taking Jen and Darin to the train station to get back over to Switzerland to fly home.  Dachau was easier during the summer months when it wasn’t gray and cold out…., but a sad and disturbed feeling still resides. 

It was such a short, but fun few days with Jen and Darin.  We feel so blessed to have had them visit and share in our adventures in Europe!  Thanks for coming ALLREDS!!

“May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men”. 

Crematorium

Ash Grave

Castles in Bavaria

Jared took a few days off so we could head to Bavaria and show Jen and Darin castles and the Alps.  First stop was Neuschwanstein.  Such a great view and place!  We are lucky to see it twice in one summer.  We hurried to the view at Marienbrucke (Marien’s bridge) and then Jen and Darin ran down the rest of the way to make the last tour of the day.  We stayed back to explore the water falls and nearby creek in the valley below the bridge. 

 

The view of Hohenschwangau is always cool from Neuschwanstein

 

I played with my camera for awhile and we hiked around this beautiful area:

Since it was the last tour of the day, there were no people to bomb these pics of the front of the castle. 

 

We stayed two nights here: in Oberammergau.  The village with all of the painted stores and houses down in Bavaria.  Oberammergau is also known for their Passion Play they perform every 10 years to show respect to God for saving them during a plague.  This old barn/house converted to hotel is pretty quaint.  I guess we are used to places like this now.  I’m not sure Jen and Darin were quite as enthralled!!

After checking out Oberammergau the next morning and taking some photos, we headed to the Linderhof Castle:

Linderhof:  A definite favorite of mine:

We ran into this fun group of French couples dressed in costumes of the time… and had to have a picture or two! 

 

This guy was only a little TOO anxious to have a photo with two lovely ladies from the States: 

I LOVE THIS PHOTO!!  LOVE these PEOPLE: 

     

This cute cemetery and church were located right across from our Bed and Breakfast.  I really admire how the Europeans take care of their cemeteries.  There are always fresh flowers and they are perfectly groomed.