School Days

I love summer and I'm sad to see it end so quickly.  The boys are back to school, sniff-sniff and a little cheer...  The boys love their teachers and I'm grateful that everyone loves to go to school.  

Injuries for the summer

1) Hunter

He was slowly approaching our friend's hawk who never bites and is great with kids, when he quickly lunged and got Hunter good on his hand.  I didn't get photo evidence of that one, but it was a quick and mean bite.  Don't trust a hawk.

2) Cole

We were playing mini-bowling at a local entertainment venue.  He was messing around and putting the ball down behind the tray where the balls sit ready to play.  As he tried to get the ball up the ramp, another ball shot down the alley and CRASH - his finger was smashed between two balls for just an instant.  He got lots of sympathy from the Insta-care office, stitches, and a splint for two weeks since he fractured the tip of bone - it was there to keep him from bumping things.  I told him since he couldn't play piano that he couldn't play video games either - poor kid.

3) Skyler

We were camping with Grandma and Grandpa.  The first morning there, Skyler was sitting on Grandma's lap eating breakfast next to the warm fire.  Skye jumped out of her arms and quicker than a blink of an eye, he fell face first in the fire pit.  Yes, there was a fire going.  Grandma grabbed him as fast as she could - which seemed slow motion to her.  He was watched over by guardian angels - he burned his chin just a little and then a bad burn on his wrist.  All the hairs on his face were singed - the eyelashes were curled up too.  Honestly, it could have and should have been so much worse.  I'm so grateful that he was spared a greater injury.  And for the record, he is now terrified of fire and we are grateful for it.

you can see his curled up eyelashes in this pic. 

 I didn't take a picture of his arm till 3 days later.  In fact, two weeks later, blisters suddenly appeared.  It has been more than 5 weeks of daily band-aids and medicine.  

Let's go make a boat!

There is a small town south of here that does this boat building contest.  We had to bring oars and life jackets and creative thinking-caps.  I think it was a two hour max to build a boat out of the provided supplies: 2 sheets of cardboard, 2 rolls of duct tape, and 1 large board.  Hunter brought along his best friend and Papa teamed up with Cole.  I kept little kids occupied and tried not to help but, in the end, I did help get some tape on Hunter's boat to meet the deadline.  Cole couldn't go out on the lake since he broke his finger the weekend before (oh - I should post pictures of that one!), so Papa tried to row their boat, but made it only 1 paddle length.  Hunter and his friend made it half-way through the course - I just had to put all the pics on here to see it in action.  I found out about this in the paper and I hope it becomes a yearly tradition - even though we don't live in that cute town!   

Alpine Sliding Rock

You climb up the rocks then take a ride down the rocks on a nature-made waterslide!!  The ride was bumpy and intimidating when sitting at the top, but it was a great time!  We all did it - well, not Skye, he had to just get his feet wet and watch the fun.  And FYI, the water was FREEZING, FREEZING, FREEZING!   I have a video of Cole, but it gave me grief trying to download it to Blogger.  

Danny is 5!

All about Danny:
He loves to shoot hoops in our backyard
He loves to say "Te Amo" (I love you) while making his hands in a heart shape for his Mommy
He says he can't stop growing because his body wants to grow up.
He still naps - almost daily.
He's extremely active and busy all the time, it's exhausting.
He loves little things to put in his pocket.
He says he wants to be a Dr when he grows up, what kind of doctor?  "One that works."
What's the best part of being 5? - he gets to go to Preschool, get snacks, and play with friends.

I love you Danny!!

Europe - final destination Rothenburg, Germany

En route to our final city we stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial.  It was very sobering, to say the least.  There was a museum in the main building, filled with a timeline of photos and information - it was overwhelming.  

They rebuilt a replica of the bunkhouses - showing us the beds and shower rooms. 

The motto of the camps was "work to be free" - very holy ground there when you reflect on the evil of that time.

Rothenburg  - it is a small time capsule of a middle-age village!  It still has it's original wall that protected it for hundreds of years.  It was so charming! And really a gem!

There is a tour hosted by the "Night Watchman" - this guy is making bank!  He does two tours per night - one in English and one in German.  He tells about the history of the town and he is extremely captivating.  Reminded us of Monte Python - very witty man!

Here you can get a view of just how many people were there for the tour - and it was like this every night!  Seriously - that's good money.  

Standing just outside one of the main entrances and looking back over the city at dusk.

We went for a morning stroll along the wall which surrounds this beautiful city.  

I loved looking at the old homes and seeing their beautiful flowers decorating the windows and small spaces.  I don't have flowers in my yard, but it made me wishing I did take time for flowers!  

Ausfahrt means "exit" - and we saw a LOT of AUSFAHRT signs along the highway.  We absolutely loved this t-shirt.  

We toured a midieval crime and punishment museum.  Here are a few of my favorites:

The mask of shame.  There were actually MANY different types of these masks.  The accused or guilty had to wear them around to be publicly humiliated.  This one had to do with gossip.

This was a torture device for bad musicians - they clamped on their fingers and forced a reed thing into the mouths - so it would whistle as they walked around.  Absolutely humiliating!

The baker's chair.  Nicknamed because most often it was the baker who had to sit in this chair - it would be placed over water and they would be dunked and tortured.  If the baker's loaves of bread weren't the right weight - to the chair!  yikes.  

Another picture of Rothenburg.

And that is the end of my world travels for the summer.  Isn't it amazing how much we saw in just 15 days!?!  Loved it and loved it - thanks again to my parents for letting us be a part of this amazing tour!!!  It definitely makes me want to visit Europe again, SOON!