Amelia's Birthday

Mia wanted a princess birthday this year. Pop the balloons on the trampoline
Mia had a case of bug bites that had gotten to a scabby stage so she thought she needed band-aids on all of them.
2 of her german/american friends Sarah (in the middle) and her sister Angelina.

Morgan's Birthday

Morgan has a very strange sense of humor. She loves cats so this year we made her a Kitty Litter Cake for her birthday. It is crumbled up cake and vanilla oreos mixed with a little pudding, sprinkled with more oreos (some with green food coloring) and the piece de resistance ?-- tootsie rolls! We actually made 2--one for her to take to school to share with all her classmates. Only one kid wouldn't eat it.

clouds and rainbows

The cloud formations here are pretty fabulous (except on the all gray sky days!). We do a lot of cloud watching. We find a lot of shapes. This particular day had been one of the blue sky days with lots of fluffy white clouds. A storm system moved in bringing rainbows too. I had been out walking the dog and had to hurry home to get the camera.

Swimming

Mia loves to swim--she has no fear of the water. She is jumping into a 12 foot deep pool. She also learned how to dive this summer. She does need a flotation device still. This is a neat one. It has foam pads front and back and as she gets stronger you take pads out (there are ten). She currently has half of them out. For some reason i can't load the video clips of her diving so these 2 pictures will have to do.

This is her straddle jump This is her Russian Dancer jump (sisterly influence)

Gaby the goggle girl

Rainy Night Camping

So what do you do when it is pouring and you only have a tent? Play Nintendo of course! The computer generation.

Mia had gone puddle jumping earlier in the day. Total prune feet!

Mia likes to play Go fish.

More fun in Garmisch

Garmisch-Partenkirken is such a nice place to go. It is on the northern side of the Alps near the Austrian border. There is a lot of skiing in the winter and in the summer lots of people go vacation there for rafting, kayaking, biking, camping, and lots and lots of hiking. This time we went back to the gorge, it still had raging water in it, and we went to the Eibsee (Eib Lake). It is a private lake so we had to pay to get in. We decided to rent a pedal boat, which was lots of fun. It was hilarious watching Mia trying to pedal. We did jump into the lake though it was freezing because it is glaciar run-off. As soon as I jumped in, Murry did too. I think he was really surprised how cold it was.

Garmisch

Hiking in the Partnach Gorge. A lot of the path is cave-like cut into the side of the gorge so you walk behind waterfalls.

Typical hiking-Mom carrying a pack, Mia, and holding the leash. Mia and Murry both want to be with me always. Gaby is actually right behind me too. I'm just so popular :)

At the top of the gorge it opens up and the river is not quite so fast. It's a pretty color green and COLD.

The Eibsee

Boat Ride down the Donau (Danube)

One day we went "exploring' and ended up on a river cruise down the Donau to a monastary/brewery (weird!) We sat on the outside upper deck because it was a beautiful day. They served ice cream, pastries, and beer (of course) though they never seemed to get to us! When at the monastary we stayed on the river bank throwing rocks into the river and a stick for Murry when he decided to swim. We then took a motorized canoe around the cliffs to a hike/bike trail and walked back. We found a cliff cave to explore and saw some more beautiful river scenery. Herons
The cave
Our boat on it's return trip
The motorized canoe
Gaby on the boat

The Kelheim war memorial (some ancient war)
The monastary/brewery

This is on a cliff face. The Germans put saints, religious statues, and Virgin Mary's everywhere.