Next BBQ

The Saturday of Easter weekend we had a small bbq at our place. We have several friends who are returning to America soon and we wanted a chance to say good-bye.
We had the Dunlaps over. They lived in Würzburg when I moved their to be with my parents. They are such a fun family. They were at our wedding and we have special memories with them. Later they were stationed in our stake again and I got to make more memories with them. We are really going to miss them.

At one point their were 4 men gathered around this bbq. Not sure why, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. I guess there is something about a bbq that attracts men.

Hyrum especially loved Tammy. She was holding him and he was telling her all about his life. It was so cute. They had quite the "conversation".

Good Friday 2

After visit Gpa Spitzer's grave we headed to a bbq hosted by our friends, the Edwards.
You might be wondering what this picture is all about. Well, this was the funniest part of the evening. Alicia had been using the bathroom there all afternoon, but this last time she turned the key and locked it. Then she couldn't figure out how to unlock it. The locks in houses here are like those wonderful old fashioned ones. Our kids have actually spied on their grandparents through the keyhole once. Robert, our host, was so sweet and worked with her for several minutes. Staring into the keyhole and coaching her on how to unlock it. He is so sweet, encouraging and gentle with kids, I just stand in awe of him.

Eventually I got Jared he immediately was successful in getting her to unlock it. Robert and I had even had her standing on the tub trying to shove the key out a window. Then in comes daddy and he fixes everything in 2 minutes. I felt like I was living the scene in the original "Yours, Mine and Ours", where the girl locks herself in the bathroom when the power is out. And the parents are giving her instructions to her through the keyhole.

What would a bbq be like without sidewalk chalk?

The men played some basketball. I am not sure what Jared is doing here.

This tricycle was a big hit. My girls haven't had many chances to ride one.

Bahnka teaching Katie. I love this picture. These two have such a special relationship. They love to tease each other.

I found this red wagon and loved it. I really need to get one for my girls somehow. Every child needs one. They don't sell them here in Germany.

Annie rode this bike for a long time. It took her a little bit to figure out the pedals, but once she learned, she did so good. Alicia even tried it.

The kids had a great time running in these fields. The scenery here in Germany is just gorgeous. It has been a beautiful spring.

Look how dirty that child is. That is a child that had a great day.

This was a highlight of the night. Ray got to ride this monster motorcycle. I didn't get to see his face, but it must have been a happy one.

Book and Blog

Jared's dad has written a fantastic book that is in the process of being published. It is about overcoming the influences in the world that lower our self-esteem and self-image. I am proof reading it right now and really enjoying it. And apparently I haven't even gotten to the good part yet.

Anyway, he has also started a blog that runs along this same line. Check it out:

http://lightmap.blogspot.com/

or there is a link to it on the sidebar of my blog.

Good Friday 1

Here in Germany Good Friday is a national holiday so everyone has the day off work. Last year we visited Jared's Gpa's grave. We were excited to have Richy with us this time. He came for a week and we loved having him here.
Jared talked to the girls about his Gpa and that we were at his grave.

Katie wasn't feeling too cooperative, but we managed to get at least a few pictures with them. It is interesting that we have added another child since last year. I think we will make visiting the cemetery our annual Good Friday event.

Something Old

Again these are old, but so fun.
Anne and Alicia had their first visit to the dentist. This waiting room was so fun and Alicia was upset when we went home and she couldn't play anymore.

The dentist was so nice and made the girls feel so comfortable. When they cleaned my teeth they had the girls go into the waiting room because if it hurt they didn't want the girls to see it.

Isn't this cute!!

On Our Way Home

Here it is...the last post about our trip to America. And it only took me a month to do them all. That is pretty bad, isn't it?

Anyway, we had to take the southern route again to get home. We really played musical cars that time. At one point we had Kathi and Melly in their car, Jared and mom asleep in ours (with David driving), and Rachel and me in my parent's car with my dad driving. Then we dropped Melly off at Provo. That meant that mom and David were back in their car and we had Kathi with us.

We spent our last couple days in Utah having fun with the family. I wasn't anxious to leave my family and America, and to get back to normal, often stressful life. We finished getting our souveniurs for the family at home. Jared and I also took the chance to spend a fun afternoon with Becca and Brandon at Boondocks. We had fun and it was great to get a chance to get to know them a bit more.
We stopped by Gma and Gpa again on our way back down to Las Vegas for our flight home. Gma had been operated on while we were at the cabin, but she was doing great. They loved having a chance to see Hyrum again and I got another chance to say good-bye. We hope they can make it to Germany in the fall.

Our last stop in America was in Arizona. We wanted to see Mandi and Ben one more time. Like with all our plans we were running late. We didn't get there until about 10pm. But they were still awake. We spent some time talking. Ben and Jared went outside to enjoy the cool weather. Can you guess what they talked about? Sports, of course. Mandi and I stayed inside and had a more philosophical discussion.

Mandi and Ben finally got to meet Hyrum. I just love showing off my baby. I love this picture. It looks like they are sharing a joke. Notice the green and purple dogs. The green one is Scout and he belongs to Blaik. We loved it so much that we bought the purple one, Violet, for Katie. She loves her and calls her By-Lah.

The next morning Blaik and Hyrum finally got to meet each other. They have been waiting for this since Blaik was born and I was pregnant with Hyrum.

I think they liked each other.

Hyurm got to try out Blaik's bumbo seat. He loved it. He loves sitting so this was paradise for him.

Jared and I took a tour of their town, saw the school where Ben teaches, shopped at Walmart and even mailed a package home. We did our final packing before we left and it was a good thing too. We would have missed our plane the next day if we hadn't.

On the way out we got a picture of the huge dam and Lake Powell. This was the first time both of us had ever seen it. I love the blue water against the red rocks.

We made a quick stop in St. George. Gma and Gpa got to see great-grandchild #43 (I think) one last time. Isn't that amazing!!! I wish I had more pictures of me with my great-grandparents.

We also said good-bye to Jared's Gma. We are going to miss them all, but are sure glad we got to see them.

Hyrum was such a good boy on the flight home. He only had one fit. I would probably throw a fit too if my diaper was majorly poopy and leaking. And yet they still make me go through security and my mom got picked for a random ammo check. Then had to get my diaper changed in a strange bathroom.

The girls were so happy to have us home. We were a bit concerned about how Katie would react. She had refused to talk to us on skype and to go in our room while we were gone. She loved talking to Hyrum though. But when she saw us she immediately went to us.

It was a great trip and I am sad that it is over.

Twain Harte: Oh the Food!!

One of the highlights of our time at Twain Harte, of course, was the food! Here is a sampling of the places we went. The first couple days there was so much snow, we didn't make it out of Twain Harte much. Luckily, with the power being out too there were a couple places running on generaters.

This was one of our favorite places that we ate. Great mexican food.

They even had a karaoke machine. Mandi, Ben and Melly did a beautiful performance of "Hit Me Baby One More Time". They should go on the road.

March Madness was in its final stages while we were there. Someone was looking out for us, because the few days of power that we had were when BYU played their final game. We stayed in that night and I made some munchies for dinner. I loved having all the American food that I can't get in Germany.

This is the "Rock Pub" in Twain Harte. This was by far the favorite place. The food was awesome!!

And the desserts were to die for. Here is just one. The ultimate chocolate cake. The woman who works there makes the desserts personally. There was the best carrot cake and cheese cake also. I would go back just for that.

The pub had burned down a couple years before. The rebuilt it and kept the atmosphere of the original. They had all the many different currencies from arounf the world. Amazingly, there weren't any euros. So we contributed a €5. It is the last one on the top. They had so many before the fire and were building up the collection again. So we left our mark on Twain Harte.

Twain Harte has a casino run by them: http://www.mewuk.com/ We ate there our first night. The buffet wasn't worth the price but absolutely everything else was wonderful.

They had a sports bar and grill. I got some wonderful shrimp. Jared ordered a lemonade in almost every restaraunt we ate at. We don't get lemonade in Germany, unless I made it by hand. He ordered one here and when the waitress came with the drinks she kept walking past him looking for who it belonged to. When Jared said it was his her comment was: "I guess you struck me as a beer-man".

Another restaraunt in the casino was this one. They gave us this table on our first night in Twain Harte and again when we went for breakfast a couple days later.

Check out those HUGE pancakes.

I wanted to go back and get this french toast that Rachel ordered there. But we didn't make it back. Looks so yummy!!

Kathi begged my dad to do a slot machine with her. She carried the same quarter around with her. So the second time we went Jared went to the slot machines with her. She won about a quarter. Then my hubby gave me some money and let me go at it. I have never gambled before. Kathi and I were absolutely giddy. This casino is smart. They don't give you winning from the slots, but gives you credit and when you are done with that machine you print out a reciept to either play at another machine or cash-in. Well, as we noticed it is so easy to just keep playing your winnings. Luckily I only won about 5 dollars...since I lost it all. But it was fun to do it just once in my life.