Our European Adventure Is Coming To An End

       Four years ago this past March, Micah came home from a 30 day deployment to Afghanistan.  He went straight to work to check back in and when he checked his e-mails I received a phone call.  I was in Kentucky with the boys for a visit.  We got orders.  I was already excited and I didn't even know where we were headed.  How do you feel about going to Germany?  I was thrilled.  This was the hardest thing I've ever had to tell my parents.  I knew they would be devastated, we already lived in Dover, DE and they weren't seeing their grand kids enough as it was.
       When I told my family and cousins we were moving the reactions and questions I received were all similar.  They all had pained, concerned looks on their faces.  Do you want to go to Germany?  Wow, that's far away.  Your poor parents.  I LOVE to travel.  For me this was a dream.  As a matter of fact if it weren't for my children I probably would never have come back to visit in the four years we were here.  Not because I don't miss home, but I would rather spend my money traveling around Europe than spending the money to go back home.  Home will always be there.
       When I got my first chance to come home my family members were all pretty curious about Germany.  Have you learned German?  Do you like it?  Are you home sick?  I have learned very little German.  I can read quite a bit, order food, ask a few questions, but I'm not fluent.  I LOVE it.  It's beautiful.  We don't stay in Germany all the time, we get out and travel all over Europe and it's one of those experiences that, without the military, I never would have had the opportunity to do.  I get home sick during Christmas.  Not so much home sick as guilt tripped by the parents who wish to spend holidays with their grand kids.
       A couple of months ago we received orders again.  This time to Dyess, TX.  Our tentative departure date is October 1, 2013, two months from today.  With the softball season not quite over and very few weekends left I find myself getting overwhelmed and a bit sad that we are getting ready to leave.  We have made great friends here.  My kids started school here.  Luke lost his first tooth here.  The boys learned to ride their bikes and ski/snowboard here.  I know nobody back home understands, but this is home.  So many family members keep saying, you must be ready to get back to the states.  People don't understand the life we live and my dad especially can't fathom why I'd rather spend my last summer here playing softball, traveling and hanging out with friends than at his house in Kentucky.  It's going to be very hard to leave this place and these people.
       Before we ever moved to Germany or even knew we would be living here I had a "Bucket List."  I've always had a list of places I've wanted to visit.  My list included:  London, Ireland, Normandy, Paris, Athens, Switzerland, St. Petersburg, Russia, Pompeii, Rome, Castle church.  Obviously each place had specific places I wanted to visit.  I always hoped one day I'd visit all of these places, but until them I was quite content reading about them and watching the history channel and discovery channel.  After we got to Germany my bucket list got bigger.  I visited places I didn't even know I wanted to see.  I didn't get to see everything on my bucket list, I'm still pretty agitated I never made it to Ireland.  (That was one of my top places I wanted to visit.)  So where did we go?  Here are photos of some of my favorites!

 Strasbourg, France.  Christmas market.

 K-Town Festival.

 Burg Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl.

 Trier, Germany. 

 Edelweiss.

 Neuschwanstein Castle.

 Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber, Germany

 Legoland in Germany.

 Berncastel Kuze, Germany.

 Fun Forrest, Germany.

 Luxembourg American Cemetary.

 Black Forrest, Germany.

 Amsterdam, Netherlands.

 Top of the Zugspitz, Bavaria, Germany.

 Swarovski Crystal Outlet in Innsbruck, Austria.

 Dubrovnik, Croatia.

 Mt. Etna.

 Pompeii.

 Pisa.

 Tuscany.

 Nice, France.

 Eze, France.

 Palace of Monaco.

 Barcelona, Spain.

 Garmisch Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany.

 Rome, Italy.

 Paris, France.

 The Palace of Versailles, France.

 We went on our first cruise.

 Corfu, Greece.

 Santorini, Greece.

 Athens, Greece.

 Montenegro.

 Venice, Italy.

 Prague.

 Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich, Germany.

 Castle on the Rhine River.

 Wine tasting on the Rhine.

Went to Disneland Paris.

 London, England.

 Indoor skiing in France.

And Luke learned to snowboard in Feldberg, Germany.

       With all of this traveling and amazing memories it's going to be a sad day when we leave.  It's been an amazing and fast four years! 

DRASH: Reforger Classic

       The biggest tournament of the year takes place in Grafenwoehr, Germany.  It is called the DRASH: Reforger Classic.  DRASH is a team of men, sponsored by Worth, that are all Vets or current members.  They are the best of the best and do get paid to play softball.  This is their tournament and it is HUGE!  I think there were 16 mens teams, which is a lot for Europe, but only 4 girls teams.  I was quite disappointed that more girls teams didn't make it to the tournament.  I know travel for some teams (those coming from England and Italy) can be difficult and expensive.
       It was a 24 hour tournament for the guys and us girls got good hours to play.  We only played three games each Thursday and Friday of round robin.  All three games were played during the day.  On Saturday the Double Elimination started.  They paired us by seeding and we were the one seed so we played the 4 seed which was Spangdahlem.  Our first game was at 9am and our second I think was at like 2 in the afternoon.  We played a best of three series.  We won both games and made it to Sunday where we played Grafenwoehr in a best of three series.  We won both games, but the second was a close won.  We were down most of the game and came back in the 6th inning to tie it, held them, took the lead in the 7th by 4 and held them again!  It was awesome.
       After the round robin the guys were split into two pools.  It's an Army tournament so the idea is to have an Army team in the championship.  All of the Army teams and a few Air Force teams (not the stronger ones) are in one bracket together.  This almost guarantees that an Army team makes it to the championship.  In the other bracket are the strongest Air Force Teams, Micah's team the Wood and the Rams, along with the Scrapalators, which are the DRASH team.  Ideally the Scrapalators and an Army team will be in the chipper. 
       Micah's team played crazy hours, 11pm, 2am, 5am, 12pm.  It was nuts.  Poor Micah took a blanket and slept at the ball party almost every night only coming back to the hotel to shower.  Micah's team lost to the Rams in the first game, putting then in the losers bracket.  They eventually lost Scrapalators in the championship of the losers bracket.  The Rams barely squeaked past the Scrapalators (who until we played them were beating teams 43-1 in two innings.)  The Rams met the Scraps in the Chipper of their pool and won again!  I lost my voice during their game!  I couldn't believe it, I didn't think they could pull it off twice!  On a side note a young girl went to the merchandise tent and asked if the sold Rams apparel because the Scraps suck.  It was awesome.
       The Rams played Grafenwoehr's guys team in a best of three for the chipper and walked away with the victory.  It was Rams and Lady Rams and Graf and Lady Graf in both Chippers.  It was quite exciting!  Not as exciting as the prizes we got though.  We got rings.  Holy cow they are huge!

 Playing a little defense.

 Base hit.

 Ready to run the bases.

 Micah playing first.

 Getting a hit.

 Ready to run the bases.

 Thursday round robin play.

 Relaxing with Sam and Deb on an air mattress between games.

One of the Scrapalators took the time to pose for a photo for me.

 Our team at the end of the tournament.

 Check out the bling!

 Team trophy with the ring on top.

 All Tourney awards.  Sahtera Wehe, left center.

 Audrey Leos, 3rd base.

 Carla Dillehay, Pitcher.

 Amanda Aaron, Right Center.

 Linda Poe, First base.

 Team photo of our rings.

 MVP Defense, Deb Washington, Short Stop.

 All Tourney, Mandi Randall, Right Field.

MVP Offense, Brittany Wilson, 2nd Base. .750 BA.