Valentines Day 2012

This year for Valentine's Day Micah planned for the two of us to go on a Rhein River cruise. We were able to find a sitter and set out on an awesome adventure. I took tons of pictures but only chose a few to share. We had the most amazing time. We took a bus on an 1 1/2 hour trip up the Rhein and made our first stop at the Reichenstein Castle. The first documented mention of the castle was in 1213. The castle was absolutely amazing. Inside the castle were over 2,000 sets of antlers. Apparently displaying antlers were a way to show how wealthy you were. On one wall there was a moose which was the largest animal in the entire castle, it was a gift from the Anheuser Busch brothers who moved to the US to make wine. After being unsuccessful at making wine they decided to make beer. The moose is from Colorado. After visiting the castle we hopped back on our bus and headed down the road to Stephan's, a family ran wine store, where we had a wine tasting. After Stephan's we headed back on our bus and drove to boat for a 1 hour tour. The tour was spectacular. After our boat ride we were taken to a romantic dinner and then headed home. Best. Valentine's. Day. Ever.
The Reichenstein Castle.

The gift shop and restaurant where we had a small lunch.
Entrance to the castle.
Couple hundred year old cannons that were never shot.
Micah and I.
The moose in the middle is the Colorado moose from the Anheuser Busch brothers.
View of bridge we crossed from the top of the castle. Under the bridge was an actual moat.
A mini Venus de Milo.
Micah being goofy.
Sitting below one of the many arched stairways.

Old furniture.
Wine tasting.
Micah being silly...again.
Our cruise ship.
Me and the captain.

Edelweiss & Dachau

We took a weekend trip to Edelweiss to go snow skiing. We arrived late Friday night, got checked in, had dinner and went to bed excited to take the boys skiing Saturday morning. The weekend didn't go exactly as planned. I woke up not feeling very well. We got our skis and lift tickets and walked over to the mountain. From the time Tucker got his skis on he cried and complained the whole walk telling us he didn't not want to do this. Good grief! There is no bunny slope. If you want to use the bunny slopes you have to rent an instructor, and me and Micah had this covered. We got on the gondola and rode it to the top of the mountain, the boys thought this was awesome. Once we arrived at the top (the mountain his huge!) we got our skis on. Tuck went 5 feet, fell, screamed and cried, and refused to put his skis back on. He and I walked back to the gondola to ride it down. Sheesh. Micah and Luke made it down the first small hill just fine. Me and Tuck made it to the bottom, returned our skis and played in the snow waiting at the bottom of the hill watching for Luke and Micah. Two hours later they came down, walking. Apparently Luke fell and decided he didn't want to do it any more either. Micah said he and Luke slid on their butts most of the way down the mountain and then walked the rest. After we left the mountain we went to the ER and after about 2 hours headed to the pharmacy. I hadn't been feeling well and turns out I had strep throat. Once we got back to the hotel Micah and the boys went swimming, which was the highlight of their weekend. We left on Sunday and stopped in Munich to visit the Dachau Concentration camp and then to Hard Rock cafe to get a t-shirt. It really doesn't sound like it, but we really did have a great time!
The boys before heading to the mountain.
The entrance of the concentration camp. The sign says "work will set you free."
This building has been turned into a museum.
A guard tower around the courtyard where all the prisoners lined up every day.
This is a replica of what housing looked like for the men and women imprisoned here. Dachau was such an amazing place to visit.
Each tree is in front of a slab of concrete. Each slab of concrete once had a building on top of it. These buildings were the bunks that the prisoners slept in.
Me and the boys walking into the museum.
This is a memorial dedicated by survivors and children of survivors.
Munich. I have no idea what this is, we just thought it looked really cool.
On the way home.
Tucker fell asleep.
I hate how none of my pictures are in chronological order! Micah and the boys. Behind them is the main courtyard. We didn't visit the whole complex. We didn't want to take the boys to the crematorium. Dachau was one of the original concentration camps. The name Dachau was said to have struck fear in anyone who heard the name. It was truly one of the more amazing places we've been since arriving here.

December

December came and went. It flew by and I barely remember a thing. School let out for Christmas break and when I woke up the next day it was already January! Okay, it didn't exactly happen that fast, but it sure does feel like it did. To kick of Christmas break Luke attended a Karate Tech seminar to earn his green belt. It was kinda lousy because it landed on the same day as the squadron children's Christmas party. Micah and I split up and he took Luke to the seminar and I took Tucker to the Christmas party.
After the seminar we made cookies. For some reason when I uploaded pictures the website put them in whatever order it wanted to, so I'll do the best I can.
This was actually Thanksgiving day. We always put our tree up on Thanksgiving and to be honest come Christmas day I'm ready for it to come down! Tucker enjoys putting on ornaments.
Tucker surprised me by voluntarily sitting on Santa's lap! He jumped right up and couldn't wait to get his gift from Santa. I'm a bit surprised he didn't recognize the book he got considering he picked it out the day before.
While we were at the Christmas party this was what Luke was doing. Here he is going over his form with the other orange belts while the parents looked on. The seminar lasted 3 hours.
Luke waiting patiently for his next instruction.
And we're jumping back to making cookies.
The week before Christmas break is watch week in karate class. All sports and youth activities take the two weeks off during Christmas break, which is very nice. Luke got to fight twice in class and won both of his matches. He's getting so good.
Professor Jorge didn't order enough belts, well actually there were a few kids who didn't sign up in time that showed up to the seminar, so Luke had to wait until the next class to receive his green belt. He was very proud to get to show it off. Also, you probably can't tell, but Luke is missing a tooth! The Thursday before school let out his class went on a field trip to the PAX terminal and he was given lunch which consisted of really hard bread. It was that morning that he told me his tooth was loose. I thought it would take a good two weeks before that tooth was ready to come out, but after eating hard bread when the kids returned to class that tooth came right out! He received a dollar a was a bit disappointed. How much did he think he would get for that little thing anyways?
A few days before Christmas we open gifts from our family and friends back home. Luke was very patiently waiting to open gifts where Tucker had been asking every day to open them. It was just killing him that they were all there under the tree staring at him and he couldn't do a thing about it.
A gift from Mimi and Papa Pogue.
And we're back to watch week at karate.
A gift from Mimi. Tucker is obsessed with Jaws, well all sharks actually.
Christmas morning. We heard the boys talking in the hall discussing the fact that Santa had come and if they should wake mom and dad up or just go play. A moment later our door opened and two very excited boys came in to tell us how much stuff was under the tree.
Luke had a Star Wars Christmas. EVERYTHING was Star Wars.
Here are all the Lego's that we worked on Christmas day. Those are Star Wars Lego's.
And here is a picture of Tucker opening gifts from Mimi and Papa. Also in the month of December our spouses group fed the squadron, made cookies for the squadron, volunteered at Project Rudolph and helped feed the Fisher House. We also planned our squadron Christmas Party and attended it. It was one busy December!