Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

December 5, 2015

Saturday

Hohenschwangau/Neuschwanstein Castles

Saturday was a Castle Day!  Just outside of Fussen are the two famous castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.  "Mad King Ludwig" built Neuschwanstein, his dream castle, to overlook Hohenschwangau, a smaller "castle/summer home" where he spent his childhood summers.  There is a beautiful, glassy lake in the valley below the castles and the whole area is surrounded by gorgeous mountains with a perfect view of the Alps in the background.   A pretty dreamy spot to spend your childhood summers, if you ask me.  

Schwan means swan in German.  Both castles have the word in their names because they are built in Schwan County.  Appropriately, there are swans who reside on the lake near the castles and the image of the swan can be found in many places around the castles, in the carvings on the furniture and in paintings and tapestries that adorn the walls.

Hohenschwangau

"Just" a summer home

The M on this gate stands for King Maximillian.  He was Ludwig's father and Hohenschwangau was built under his direction.

Neuschwanstein

If anyone ever films a movie here, I volunteer to be the princess who runs down that staircase.

GERMANY! Oberammergau and Fussen

Dec 3-4, 2015

Thursday/Friday

United Airlines/Munich

We found out in November that Arthur would be making a business trip to Germany the first week of December.  Well, I decided that I'd better go with him to keep him company, so we made arrangements for my sister Emma to come watch the kids for us for 10 days, booked my flight and frantically prepared to go on our first trip to Europe! (It was my first stamp in my passport!  Super exciting for me).

Arthur had meetings four of the days, but we got to explore a lot together in the days before and after the meetings.  We left on Thursday morning and arrived on Friday morning in Munich.  After we got an international sim card for my phone, some Euro, and our rental car, we drove south toward Fussen.  On our way, we stopped and explored the charming village of Oberamergau and had lunch there.  I would love to return to Oberamergau in 2020 when they put on the Passion Play which only takes place once every 10 years and has been a tradition in that town for over 400 years!

Everywhere we drove, there were beautiful green meadows, broken up by woods and villages.  Each village had a church with an onion top steeple that is so charming.  I loved it. The architecture inspired Disney's Fantasyland at Disneyland.  It looks like it came right out of a story book.

That night we arrived in Fussen, where we stayed in the Hotel Hirsch, which was founded in the early 1900's.  Made my little history heart happy.  We wandered around the town square that evening and into the Christmas market.  We also ran into this scary parade of school children dressed in raggedy orange robes and masks.  They carried cow bells and sticks other noise makers and I think maybe they were scaring away the evil spirits?  So that was kind of special.  (I got video but no pictures of them.) 

By the end of that day, (after having gotten just a little bit of bad sleep on the plane the night before,) we were dead tired!  I lost track of how many times I fell asleep during dinner.  I remember Arthur "waking me up" from some very extended blinks during dinner.  I just could NOT keep my eyes open anymore!  So as soon as we paid for dinner, we walked back to the hotel and crashed!

November in a Nutshell

I was not good at taking pictures this month.  Being pregnant and feeling super blah all the time in combination with preparing to go to Germany the first part of December while also trying to squeeze in 2 birthday celebrations, Thanksgiving and a quick trip to CA in November were all contributing factors.  So for better or for worse, here is a little slice of November:

A trip to CA with the entire family.  We went out to be there for my sister's wedding, but 2 days prior to the wedding the groom called it off.  Everyone except our family were already en route and we wanted to be there to support Emma at that difficult time anyway, so we went as planned.  We took family pictures and ate cake and arranged flowers.  We hugged and cried together.  And we had a family dance in the gym at the church.  It's been a tough time for Emma, but I'm glad for the chance we all had to be together and hopefully buoy her up.  As an added bonus, we were all there to hear Jacob give his homecoming talk in church, which was awesome!  What a treat to have everybody home and together for a few days!

The Carters came for a visit and we got a whole day with them!  It was so nice to catch up and spend time with them and of course we had to celebrate the three November birthdays together.

Thanksgiving:  We had our feast with our friends, the Statens.  I didn't get any pictures over there, but here are the kids working on our favorite rolls.  We had a great time visiting and eating and playing games.  So grateful for family and good friends.  And rolls.

Hayden's Bday

November 28

Hayden's 8th Birthday Party

Hayden turned 8 on the last day of November!  8 is a party year, so this guy had a Star Wars party like every other boy turning 8 this year.  Luckily, there is no shortage of Star Wars party ideas on pinterest, and Hayden was very involved in helping me research and pick out his party activities.  The best idea I had was for Dallin to film all the kids in a Star Wars movie trailer.  Since my energy has been really low, that was perfect!  I got a little breather from all the chaos for a second while I got the dessert ready, and the kids had a blast running around with light sabers and being movie stars.  Because of the holiday weekend not very many of his friends were able to come, so we were really glad there were a few who didn't travel for Thanksgiving!  We also got to borrow some really cool Star Wars stuff from our friends the Steels who just have cool stuff like life sized Yodas and giant R2D2 drink holders and inflatables for the front porch.  Those were pretty exciting.  

We love Hayden for his enthusiasm, charisma and commitment to living a full, busy life.  He has a fun-loving personality and always has a smile on his face, unless he is reenacting an epic scene from Star Wars or Harry Potter.  He loves to challenge himself and try new, difficult things.  We love this kid and are so grateful he came to our family.  

Oh Christmas Tree

November 27, 2015

Jemez Mountains

It's been a couple of years, but this year we went up to find a Christmas tree in the mountains.  For some reason, the road into the cutting location was closed (and they neglected to inform us of that at the ranger's office!)  So a couple of things happened as a result.  We got stuck in a snowy/muddy ditch right at the beginning while finding a place to park along the turn out up to San Gregorio Lake.  Thank goodness, there was another family there getting ready to leave, and the dad helped dig/push us out, while the Mom took pictures for us!  My kind of family.  :)  And secondly, we had to hike in to the area instead of drive up and park, which meant further to haul the tree out to where the car was parked, etc.  Which meant we weren't as picky about our tree this year, and it was kind of a Charlie Brown tree.  But once it got lights and decorations on it . . . yeah, it was still a Charlie Brown tree.  Gave the family room some character.

Dallin's Bday

November 20th

Home

Dallin had a birthday this month.  He turned 14 which isn't a "party" year,  and in fact he went to his first school dance that evening, so we just had a yummy dinner of his choosing, and cake and then he and his friend Charles when to a dance at school where he asked about a bajillion girls to dance.  What a guy! 

Dallin is a go-getter.  He is responsible, loves people and music (especially a cappella music.)  He works hard, looks for ways to help and isn't ashamed to watch Pride and Prejudice with me.  We are so grateful he is in our family.