Ein Sonntag in Deutschland

Sunday was pretty relaxing. After our long trip to France and the Black Forest on Saturday, most everyone slept in pretty late on Sunday morning. Once everyone woke up, we all ate some breakfast, and looked at the clock, realizing it was already 10:20. Leslie's church ward starts at 11, so we had just a little bit of time to get ready and out the door to be there on time. We decided for just the girls to go, and the boys hung home with Dad.

It was neat to see the church building and how the ward worked. Leslie's family goes to an international ward, and they have the service in English. However, people come from all over, and so there are many with accents and many that speak multiple languages. Every first Sunday of the month our church has a fast and testimony meeting, and I was really glad that I was here for church on Fast Sunday. It was neat to hear the testimonies of so many people, with so many different experiences. There was definitely a strong spirit in the room Sunday morning.

Aubrey, Me, and Jocelyn outside of the chapel building

The German Chapel--it was actually the ward's last Sunday meeting at this building. Starting this Sunday, the new building will be walking distance from the house :)

After we got home from church, we relaxed a little bit before heading out for a walk. I met a few of the other families living here, and then we headed to a little pond close by the house. The amount of parks in Germany, and I hear all over Europe, is crazy. There are so many walking paths and trails to enjoy, and the playgrounds are pretty neat, too. Along one of the trails we were walking on is a pond with ducks, and we stopped with the kids for a little bit. Instant entertainment :)

Ducks swimming in the pond

Andrew by the pond

Leslie and all of her kiddos over the bridge

This creepy looking bird sitting by the water

Aubrey is such a good big sister to those little guys.

Fountains in the park

This tower is right outside the windows at home, and you can see it from all around. It glows pink at night, too. We saw it on the way home from the park.

After we got home from walking around the park, we had a typical German dinner. We had Bratwurst, Brot, Salat, und Kartoffeln (some of the little bit of German I remember from high school... unfortunately it has slipped a little bit). It was so good, and I love spicy mustard and bratwurst, so I was perfectly happy :)

Sundays are usually a good one :)

Schwarzwald--The Black Forest

Saturday on our way home from France, we made a little detour and stopped by The Black Forest. The drive up was so pretty, and when we got out at one of the lookout sites you could see so much of the countryside.

There were these orchard/farms all over the hills. It looked really neat from above.

Some street signs of random German things.

When we parked and got out of the car, we were by a little gift shop and a hotel and restaurant. The shops were all closed, but there was a really nice wooden playground that the kids had a blast on. There was even a seesaw... hadn't been on one of those in a long time, but it was really fun. The playgrounds over here--and there are tons of them--seem to be really nice. Nice, smooth wood, at least the ones I've seen so far. It's really cool. Also there was a big lake that was really pretty. After hearing so much about The Black Forest, I'm really glad I got to see it while I was here. Definitely had a good time there.

Andrew on one of the motorcycles by the playground.

Jocelyn climbing up the slide

Some paddle boaters enjoying the lake

Neat trees of the Black Forest

There are so many flowers--everywhere! They really make everything so pretty.

Landon, Me, and Leslie

The kids and I by some Mummelsee Cow.

Strasbourg, France

I know I have barely touched this thing all summer, and I'll go back and make a few posts about summer happenings just for my own memory, but right now I figured I would go ahead and post about being in Germany! I still can't believe I got the opportunity to come all of the way to Europe. Not really something I had planned on doing this young, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Thursday night I flew out of Dulles International Airport and landed in Germany around one in the afternoon on Friday. After I found the Shields in the airport, we looked for about an hour to find the car. The Frankfurt Airport is definitely a tad bit confusing, especially for someone who is as horrible with directions as I am :)

Saturday morning we went to Strasbourg, France. So in the course of a few days, I have now been to four countries: USA, London (just the airport, but we'll count it), Germany, and France. I'm pretty pleased with that list, and hopefully it will grow throughout my life. Anyways, we drove about two hours to Strasbourg, and the drive alone was beautiful. Frankfurt, where the Shield's live, is a big city and they are really close to downtown. During the drive, I started to see more of the green, rolling hills, which I loved.

Some of the scenery from the car window driving along the highway. We passed a few fields where you could see groups of farmers and workers. Also, it was exciting to start and see road signs for Strasbourg and other areas of France. We also passed an Ikea--apparently they started somewhere over here in Europe. They are everywhere.

When we got to Strasbourg, we parked the car and started walking around. For a city, it was extremely clean and it was so pretty.

There were tons of little houses and buildings like these lining the river and streets everywhere.

One of the bridges crossing over the river. Flowers are a big thing over here, and so you see flowers everywhere, especially lining the sidewalks and hanging on people's window sills. It makes everything look so pretty.

Aubrey in front of a miniature door. I guess people were a tad bit shorter way back when :)

Just a view of some of the buildings in Strasbourg.

For lunch we decided to grab some pizza in one of the many restaurants. We walked in and the owners and workers didn't speak one ounce of English. We managed to sit down and point to pictures well enough to order a cheese pizza, an everything pizza, and a Hawaiian pizza for everyone to share. When we tried to ask for extra plates, however, we got nowhere, so everyone just gathered around and ate off of the serving plates. And we got about 2 paper towels for 7 people as napkins :) It must be frustrating not being able to communicate very well with people on a regular basis. The pizza was really good, and as we were walking out, the guy just started saying goodbye in every language he knew.

Yummy lunch!

After lunch we kept walking around and taking pictures of everything we saw. So many neat things to look at and beautiful things to try and capture.

I would love to just live in one of those little apartments above the water, with people all around and the river running below me. So pretty and calming.

Being in France, we had to take a few pictures of some French Pastries through the windows of some of the restaurants and bakeries. Yum!

A train/bus. Some sort of public transportation :)

We walked by this old and ridiculously ornate building. It was such a pretty church and the detail on it was crazy. Can't imagine how long it would take to build that.

Some of the little details around the city. A door handle, an "access forbidden" sign (in French and German), street signs, an old lamp post with a cross on it, a creepy looking dog, old Kodak film thing, and a trashcan that reminded me of a fire hydrant.

The post office

Me in France :)

I'm not really sure why I took a picture of people collecting trash and cleaning up, but I saw them a few times, and their outfits were just so bright that they deserved a picture. Keeping the city clean in style.

I guess if all else fails in the United States I can transfer my job over to Frankfurt. It's funny seeing McDonald's and Burger King all over the world, and it's funny to see all of the changes in their menus. Different from the United States.

This man had some homemade looking saxophone instrument, but when he blew in it, it didn't make any noise. So he just walked around Strasbourg with that held up to his mouth and he hummed. Whatever works.

John pulled Jocelyn and Andrew along in the wagon, and it was crazy how many people would stare at it and even take pictures of it. I suppose wagons are not very common over here in Europe, and not many people had seen them before. Not sure, but that's what it seemed like.

After we walked around, and had a little trouble finding the parking lot again, we headed on home. It was so neat to see yet another area of the world, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to travel out here.

Andrew and Jocelyn outside of the parking garage

The parking garage was right next to an art museum, so by the entrance was this little statue. Weird, but interesting looking. So I snapped one more picture, we loaded up, and we were off. Back to Germany.

Climb On.

Right now my uncle is working in DC for a short period of time while the rest of his family stays back in Connecticut. Many weekends he heads home to see them, but sometimes he comes down to see us, which is awesome. It used to be a lot harder to see Uncle Carl, especially because he was often somewhere out to sea, so it has been pretty neat and the little boys have really loved having him so close to us. This weekend Uncle Carl drove down and brought his rock climbing stuff along with him.

Over the past few years, Uncle Carl has accumulated quite a collection of rock climbing gear, and has taken a few classes so he knows everything to do. I guess a few weekends ago when he came down they were talking about rock climbing, and he found this little place called "Rappahannock Rocks." This is the rock face, and on the other side is the river, which was beautiful.

Bryce was the first one to start climbing. There was a little area on the side to start climbing up, so all of us took that approach. However, once Bryce got to the actual rock face, he couldn't quite figure it out and got frustrated and wanted to come down. Also, he was super nervous.

So then we sent Rachel on up to give it a try, and turns out she is afraid of heights. She was so afraid that she was going to fall and wasn't strong enough to hold herself up, so down she came.

Uncle Carl belaying everyone

Ryan wanted to go next, but because they were all having trouble I went climbing next to try and show them a few different ways you could find holdings in the rocks and how to use your body to push yourself up and around. I ended up at the top where we anchored the ropes, and came back down. It was really fun.

Climbing back on down

Then we sent Ryan up, and he was actually pretty fearless and got pretty far for his age, I thought. He needed a little boost in the beginning in order to get from one rock onto another because his poor legs are pretty short, but after that, he did a lot by his self, and he seemed to be having a pretty good time. Once he got to this big crack in the rocks where you put your feet and hands to climb, however, he wanted to come down.


After he watched a few more people try it out, Bryce tried again. He got farther than he did the first time, but he wasn't able to get past the rock ledge because he was scared he was going to fall, so he came on down and was done climbing for the day.

Rachel tried again, too, and got as far as Bryce did. She stood there for a while, but then she wanted to come down. I think if she wasn't afraid of the heights, she would have climbed right up without a problem :)

Uncle Carl also taught me how to belay, which was pretty cool. While Rachel climbed, I controlled her ropes so he made sure I knew what I was doing. A little test run, if you will.


Then once he was confident in my belaying abilities, Uncle Carl climbed up the rock face. However, it was nice and easy for him. He takes his four boys climbing in Connecticut when he goes home, so they have a little bit more practice with the rock climbing :) Once he got to the top, he switched onto a repelling rope and repelled himself down.

Once Uncle Carl finished climbing, he hooked himself onto the white rope while I belayed Ryan, and he tried to climb a little beside him in order to help him get over some of the rougher parts to where he could keep climbing by his self. He got the farthest of the other kids, but still was a bit small to do the whole thing.

Rachel wasn't so sure about it! Ha!

Rachel and Ryan in front of the rock face

The river was right by where we were climbing. If we had known, we would have brought our bathing suits because people could have been wading in the water while others were climbing, but when we started today we had no idea where the rocks were or what they looked like. It was beautiful, and there was nobody there, either.

I climbed up to the top once more, and this time I just stayed on up there to break down all of our anchors and wrap everything up. We packed up, hiked the trail back to the cars, and headed to Wawa on the way home. Near the end of our day, Uncle Carl was saying how hot it was and Ryan said, "Yeah, it feels like a good day for some 44 ounce slurpees from Wawa, right?" One time when Uncle Carl came down he took the boys to Wawa and got them huge slurpees, so I think the boys feel it is some sort of tradition now. Well, we went and Ryan got a 32 ounce slurpee, of which he probably drank about 10 ounces before he was so full, but it was definitely a fun way to end our first outdoor climbing adventure!