Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Deutschland! We had a fun day, although it was different from the States. I had the last day of my intense German class today, so I brought pumpkin cookies for the class to celebrate Halloween. In Germany, they make things with pumpkin, but it's mostly soups and other salty things. Nothing sweet. So I used the chocolate chips Devin brought me and made the cookies. It was interesting because they don't have some of the things I needed, like brown sugar. I just used all white, and it seemed ok. I also had to buy more spices, so I had to sit down and translate all the spices (So if you come to my house and want cinnamon on your toast, grab the zimt). I'm not sure why, but I was expecting spices to be international, like plant species names. Well, they're not, but that's ok.

So, after my class, I came home and got ready for a little Halloween party we were having for the kids. I was thinking about Devin's aunt Denise, who puts on a huge Halloween party. Ours wasn't that great, but the kids had fun. :) We invited a few friends from church and the children of Dallin's kindergarten teacher. The children were loud and quite a bit wild, but I think they had fun. We taught them "duck, duck, goose", "London Bridges," and Bingo. I made a kiddie bingo game from Halloween stickers. We also made sugar cookies so the kids could frost them and put sprinkles on (also thanks to Devin and the US). :) I think some of the kids got overstimulated because towards the end, Dallin went and got his blanket and told me he wanted to go to sleep. :) So we just sat together and snuggled. After the party, we went trick-or-treating with Dallin's teacher and her kids. Because trick-or-treating isn't as popular here, I knocked on 3 of my neighbor's doors to give them the candy to give to our kids (just in case they didn't get candy, our kids could still knock on their door). All three had bought candy and were excited to have visitors. There is a poem that they say here that's something like "We're five ghosts sent here by a monster who is our master. He's ordered us to gather treats, so Trick or Treat!" Of course it's in German, but you can get the idea. After we had gone to our three neighbors, the kids wanted to knock on the few houses across the street. They were a little less prepared and brought the kids a pack of pretzels, a package of cookies, and some sesame-health-food-something. It was cute that they were trying to make the kids happy. :) The kids were fine after a few houses, so we went home after that. We were going to go over to my friend, Rika's house to trick-or-treat, but Kevin and Ethan went to sleep at 7:15. They were SO tired!

I'm feverishly doing dishes and laundry, trying to get ready for our trip tomorrow. We're driving up to an airport by Frankfurt. The airport (a smaller airport outside Frankfurt) is about 3 hours away. We're leaving really early just in case there's traffic on the autobahn, but we're hoping to stop in Heidelberg or some other cool town on our way. Here's Robin a.k.a Kevin, wearing his mask. It was really cute to see him wear it cause it would partially cover his eyes, so he only had little peepers sticking out. :)

Kevin's sporting the cutest strumpfhose, which all the kids wear here. They're like thick tights, but boys and girls wear them to stay warm. These are my favorite pair. :)

Here are some ladies that came to the party. From R to L: Regine (from church) with her two kids, then Rika with her baby & Ethan on her lap, and me with my kids, and then Silke, Dallin's teacher with her son, David, and daughter, Janina.

The kids before trick-or-treating. Ethan was a perfectly happy little lion until Devin put him down for the picture. :)

We were the only ones out for a little while, but then we saw two other pairs of kids trick-or-treating. We only got 2 visitors at our house, too. It was fun, though. :)

The Good Ole USA

Devin got home! We were definately glad to see him, and also all the goodies he brought back for us. The kids spent the entire day on Saturday wearing their Halloween costumes (you have to wait for Halloween for pictures), and I was so happy to get syrup that we made french toast for dinner on Saturday. It's amazing what you miss when you can't get it. :) Today we made taco salad with the taco seasoning and Ranch dressing. He also brought yellow cake with chocolate frosting that I'm saving for an extra special occasion. :) They have a US military base about an hour away, and I'm thinking of joining the military so I can go shopping at the base commissary. :)

Today we had church and also potluck afterwards. Devin convinced me to try to make a German dish, which was just meat with sauce/gravy. I was a little nervous about making it, thinking that no one would take it, and the ones who did would definately know an American made it. Well, everything went fine. Afterwards, someone came up to me and told me how great the apple cake was, (sure, leave it to the americans to bring apple cake) so I guess no one could tell my dish wasn't genuinely German. They asked Devin to speak in church in 2 weeks. He'll do it in English and they'll have a translator. Hopefully by the end of our time here, he can do it without a translator! They also officially asked me to be the pianist.

This Wednesday is the last day of my class. On Thursday, we leave for London, and then when we get back, Devin and I are going to start private lessons for German. It will be much easier that way because we can pick the time and it won't be everyday, which will be much better for the family. It's so hard trying to get everyone out the door and where they need to be by 8am!

The kids are really excited about Halloween. I'm not sure how trick-or-treating is going to go. Halloween is a holiday that is making it's way to Germany, but not everyone celebrates it yet. I'm hoping at least our neighbors will be trick-or-treating, so our kids will have somewhere to go. We're having a little party in the afternoon for our kids and some friends from school and church. It should be interesting! We'll post pictures on Wednesday. Happy Halloween!! :)

Legoland

Legoland is only about 20 minutes from our house, so we decided to get year passes. The kids and I went today with a friend from church, Rika. She's the one who watches Ethan while I'm at class. We had a great time and the kids loved it! It's pretty much exactly like the Legoland in California-- except everything is in German. Dallin was able to go on a lot of the rides, and Kevin could ride on about 7 or 8. I rode one sort of roller coaster with Kevin and Dallin that just spun around (pretty fast) in a circle. Kevin just laughed and laughed a big belly-laugh through the whole ride. It was fun to ride it with him. :) It was pretty cold outside, so the kids were bundled up pretty good. Poor Ethan can't move with all his garb on, but at least he's warm, huh? Kevin and Dallin were excited to ride the ride that the kids (ages 3-6) can drive their own little car. Dallin is a very serious driver, and hardly even smiles at me while he's driving. Kevin had fun, but he didn't quite get it yet. He was just sitting in the car, waiting for the ride to start. The guy running the ride was trying to tell him to press the gas pedal, but he would only press it once. When he finally figured out how to press it continuously, he would just drive into the walls. So, the guy just sat on the back of his car and drove for Kevin. I think he was actually relieved.... he probably thought his ride was broken. :) The baby with Ethan in this picture is the baby of the family that babysits him. They are really cute together. They both love each other, although sometimes it's a little violent. When they first see each other, one usually hugs the other until they both fall down. The boys had fun and were pretty tuckered out, even though we only stayed for 3 1/2 hours. Kevin fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot!

Success!

Dallin lost his tooth! Yeah!! We were all just playing on the floor and all of a sudden he just looked really surprised and pulled his tooth out of his mouth! We were all so excited! Dallin was especially excited that he lost his tooth in Germany and he said that he wanted to loose his teeth all over the world. :) Right after it happened, I was taking pictures of him, and Kevin was getting really frustrated. I looked over at him and asked him what was going on. He was getting mad because he was trying to pull out his teeth and they weren't coming out. :) The German tooth fairy visited Dallin that night and left him 2 euros and some fairy dust. He was thrilled. :)

My sweet boys :)

I can't get them out!

Crabby German Tooth Fairy

Dallin's got another loose tooth! He came to me on Sunday complaining about his tooth, and it was really loose. He decided it was hurting and bothering him so he wanted me to pull it out. I was really wishing Devin was here (He's in AZ). I tried to muster up the courage, but got too queasy when it really came down to pulling the tooth, which made Dallin nervous and then he decided he didn't want me to pull it. So, we've just been going around for the last 2 days, not eating anything harder than oatmeal. I'm so surprised it hasn't fallen out because it's literally barely hanging on, but who know when it'll come out. Last night before he went to sleep, I was telling him to be careful not to loose his tooth in the night and swallow it. He said that the tooth fairy would be so mad if that happened. I told him that the tooth fairy was the nicest creature on Earth, but he promptly told me that the German Tooth Fairy was meaner than the American one, and she would be mad. He also told me that we need to write her our letter in English and German, cause we don't know what she speaks. :) I hope she's OK with really bad grammer. At church, one of the missionaries pointed out that Dallin should do pretty well with this tooth because the exchange rate is in his favor. :)

Devin left Friday morning without any mishaps, which we were grateful for. The trains have been striking lately, so it was unclear what was going to happen with his train, and I wasn't looking forward to a 2.5 hour-each-way trip to Frankfurt with the kids. Luckily, he made it and is having a good time in Arizona eating Taco Bell and drinking Root Beer (and I guess going to a few work meetings). We're missing him and we'll be glad when he gets back!
This past weekend and on Monday there was a children's fair in the farmer's market plaza. We got two free tokens from Kindergarten, so I decided to take the kids on Monday afternoon. It was a small little carnival with mostly kiddie rides and booths selling candies. It was really cold, but I just bundled the kids up like on the Christmas Story and they seemed fine. The first ride they went on (3rd picture) looked pretty tame, so I thought it would be fine for both boys to ride. I bought two tokens for the kids, and waited near the ride for our mad dash. I'm thinking this might be normal for Germany because this is how Oktoberfest was, too. There is no line to ride a ride. The people wanting to ride the ride just stand around it, as close as they can without having an appendage taken off by the ride, and when it stops, it's like a fire drill. Everyone just runs out there and tries to get on a seat. If the person riding still has a token and wants to ride again (and again and again and again....) then it's perfectly acceptable to do it. I feel like yelling out, "Hey, I have an idea!! What about a line!" But, wait, I don't know how to say that in German. Well, hopefully in a few months, at the next carnival, I can do this and maybe win some kind of Nobel Peace Prize. Anyway, this is how this carnival was, too, except it wasn't quite as crazy as Oktoberfest. So, we were able to get a seat on the ride we wanted, and the boys jumped in. I went to help hook up their seatbelts and was horrified to see that there were none! The ride went around in a circle and the individual rockets could go up and down. It wasn't like a really wild ride, but I was worried that Kevin was going to jump out. He was really excited about it, though, so I couldn't take him out without a huge fit, so I gave him a heavy 5-second talk about how he couldn't stand up and that Dallin had my permission to hold him if he tried to stand up. I was so nervous, but they did great. They rode that one like 4 times and then rode a car one another 3 or 4 times. They had a great time. After that, we went over to a friend's house from church to have dinner. Kevin fell asleep on the way over (I should probably say 'lapsed into a coma' from the way he was sleeping) and Ethan fell asleep while the missionaries were holding him outside. I thought they looked cute like that.

My German class is going pretty well. I went in knowing only about 8 words, and then last Thursday I was able to tell the teacher about my family and my parent's professions (that was the topic that day). It seems like such a hard language to learn, but I'm really not gifted when it comes to languages. My accent is just the worst thing ever, but hopefully it will get better.

This past Sunday was the first snowfall! It just snowed a really little bit, but it was fun to see. Our neighbors on both sides of us are putting in their backyards, so they both had a big pile of dirt in their backyard. When it was snowing, it was sticking to their dirt mounds cause they were cooler than the dirt in our yard. Dallin was quite upset about the fact that the snow was sticking in everyone else's backyard except ours. :) Hopefully next time Mother Nature won't be so discriminatory.

Kevin & Ethan bundled up for the carnival. Poor little Ethan's eyes were practically the only things peeking out. :)

Dallin has been enjoying riding his bike to the bakery and other stores near our house

Playin' Working Mom

Sorry we've gotten behind recently on the posts. We've been really busy and nothing too interesting has been going on. :)

I decided that I needed to try to learn German, so I signed up for a "learn-German-or-die" course at Inlingua (a language school in Ulm--- they have like a zillion language schools here!) It's really intensive: I go every weekday from 8am-12noon. The older two boys are in kindergarten then and a lady at church is watching Ethan for me. I had major anxiety the day before my class and couldn't sleep, but really everything is going well (with the kids anyway, my German is still horrible). The lady watching Ethan has a baby 3 months older than him, and she just loves Ethan. He seems to really like it there, and he also takes his nap there. They also have a dog which can solve any of Ethan's problems, so that's nice. It's been really weird to pretend to be a working mom for a little while. I really don't know how people do it! I feel like I'm always tired! Anyway, I only signed up for the course for one month, and then after that, Devin and I will take private lessons together twice a week, so it will be less hectic. So we all usually get up pretty early and get dressed and eat breakfast, and then the boys walk to kindergarten with Daddy and Ethan and I drive through rush-hour to get him to the babysitter, and then me to class. I haven't had to deal with rush hour traffic for a long time, so it's really weird. Maybe it's more the fact that I'm actually dressed and up and going at that time, but I'm not sure....

This past weekend Kevin & Ethan were sick, so we didn't get to go anywhere. We stayed home and tried to work on putting together closets and hanging coat racks. I think if Devin were ever fired from Raytheon, he could probably get a job at Ikea assembling furniture.

Devin's work is going good. He's going to go back to Arizona this Friday for a week for meetings (which coincided with our trip to London, so we've changed our tickets to Nov 1). I've sent him with a list of things I "need" from the US (Ranch dressing, Taco Seasoning, vanilla extract, maple syrup, etc.) It will be really weird to not have him here, and I'm pretty sure I'll be up all night scared to death, but hopefully we'll make it though. I just found my can of pepper-spray, so I'll sleep with that under my pillow. :)

I ordered some Halloween costumes online for the boys and shipped them to a friend in Arizona (Thanks, Gigi!!) and Devin will pick them up when he's there. I always want my boys to be something cute and coordinating, but they never want to. Well, this year, I was showing them the costumes that were still available. Kevin really wanted to be Robin (from Teen Titans, but I think it's the same as Batman's sidekick), and so I really wanted Dallin to be Batman. Well, Dallin said he really wanted to be Superman, which is what I bought him for last year, which he loved until it was time to go trick-or-treating and then he put on an old costume. So, we already have a Superman costume packed away somewhere in some warehouse somewhere, so I didn't want to buy another one. But, I also wanted him to like his costume. So, as a horrible mother, I decided to see if he would be fine with Batman if I gave him some coins. He was very happy, and I was very happy. Well, later that night, during dinner, he said, "So, Mom, what are you going to pay me to be next year?" Yikes, maybe I've started a horrible tradition. (Or maybe I can get the boys to dress up as the 3 pigs and pay Devin to be the Big Bad Wolf.) :) Ethan is going to be a lion, which I think is adorable!

The other day we were looking out our window and saw a neighbor girl riding a unicycle. Devin held Dallin up so he could see her. We were just talking about it and how it worked and then Dallin said, "My babysitter used to ride a unicycle." It freaked me and Devin out because he remembered that from when he was just barely 3 years old! His babysitter when we first moved to Tucson rode a unicycle to our house (funny, huh?) and he remembered that!

Oh! Great news!! We also just got our shipment today from the US!!! It's like Christmas in October! So now the boys have their bikes/scooters, and we have more than 8 pairs of clothes! We're all pretty excited. :)

Trash Day

Today was the first Trash Can day that we've been able to participate in (We've done "yellow sack" day, but not containers). We finally picked up our biomuell container (brown ones in the picture) at the recycling center, so we can put all our lovely food waste in there, and our restmuell (all the rest of the garbage that can't be recycled) container came in this past Saturday.

So, when we saw our other neighbors putting out their trash containers, we decided it must be trash day, so we hurried and got ours. Well, we were a little embarrassed to find that we had the biggest (by far) restmuell container. If you look at the picture, the black trash cans are the restmuell, and the brown are food waste. Keep in mind that the trash is only picked up every 2 weeks.

We are the only people (with trashcans in this picture) with three kids, but all have at least 1 child and another has 2 children. I was talking to my neighbor (the one you see in the picture) after I took the picture, and as I was talking to him, his trash container opened a little and I saw that it was only half full!!! I'm pretty sure my dryer lint for 2 weeks wouldn't fit in that container. Geeze. But, we were pretty proud of ourselves for fitting in 80 liters, even if it is bulging a little....

Radioactive Cantaloupe

This past Friday at Farmer's Market, we got what I thought was a cantaloupe (the lady just pronounced it "melon-e when I pointed to it). We decided to cut it up with dinner, and I was a little startled when I cut into it. It was green. I'm never sure if food is just different here, or if it's past it's prime. I had Devin look at it, and he insisted that it was radioactive, but the boys (who are cantaloupe addicts) wanted some anyway. They all loved it, and I was brave enough to try a bite of Dallin's before he snagged the last piece. It was actually very good! It tasted pretty much like normal cantaloupe, but it was really juicy and good. We'll try to get another next week!

Ethan ate three pieces!

Fun at the Farmer's Market

So this past Friday was Farmer's Market again in Soflingen (our area of town). I took the kids there after kindergarten and we had a great time. They had booths selling pastas, fruits, veggies, flowers, cheese, breads, fish, and honey & jams. I bought a little from a lot of the booths just to try. We liked it all, except the pasta. I had bought some raviolis with tomatoes & cheese inside and we didn't love it (although it was ok). We got a very small jar of creamy honey that was really great! I'll get a bigger one next time. The veggies were really good. The boys were holding the carrot bunches in the stroller on the way home and couldn't resist a few little munches on them. :) I also really loved the small flower arrangement we got-- it seems so cheery! :) Flowers are a lot cheaper here. Those cost me 6.50.
This next picture is from a park we went to this past weekend in Ulm. They have spectacular parks here in Germany. Devin & I suppose that it's because you can't really sue anyone if you get hurt, so they make really fun things to play on (Devin really loves them, too!).

Dallin and Kevin have been playing pretend a lot lately, which I think is so cute to watch. In this picture, they've taken over the vacuum box and turned it into a space shuttle. :)
I know this is a pretty random picture, but it just makes me laugh. I had just cleaned the windows and I noticed these two perfect little baby handprints. I started to get frustrated, but then I thought that in 20 years, I would probably just love little baby handprints on my clean windows. : )

One-Month Anniversary

Yesterday was our one-month anniversary of being in Germany! I can't believe it's already been a month! So, in honor of our anniversary, we wanted to write down the random things we've learned so far:

*Everyone has regular (I'm not sure the real name of them, the non-flip kind) cell phones (but they're called handys). If you ask for a flip-phone, everyone will think you're nuts.

*Cell phone plans aren't based on minutes. Any German land lines are free to call, but to call other cell phones outside my provider, they charge me 21 cents/minute. To call a US land line, I'm charged only 9 cents/minute. It's always free to receive calls on the cell phone.

*From our house phone (land line), it costs me like 19 cents/minute to call any cell phone.

*Ikea says they only take EC cards (German debit cards), but if you buy a huge cart-full of kitchen gadgets and paraphernalia worth 350 euros and can't remember your EC pin, they will take a Visa card, after calling the manager and having the 30 people behind you in line cuss you out in German.

*If you visit us and go to church with us, take the stairs. It's much safer than using the elevator. We are using it to train our children to be in the special forces.

*When you park in a parking garage, you have to find the cash machine thing that you take your ticket to and pay there, before you leave. If you wait to try to pay at the exit like the US, you will cause a massive pile-up the size of Austria.

*Don't ever try to drive a car bigger than a 4-door sedan. Don't ask, just don't do it. Bad things happen.

*Bring change with you to the grocery store because to get a grocery cart, you have to put a 1 euro coin in this little lock thingie on the cart which unlocks it from the other carts. You get this coin back when you put your cart back in the appropriate place and lock it to the other carts. It's amazing what 1 euro will make you do if (like me) you aren't used to always putting your cart back....

*When you buy water or juice or milk, if it's in a glass container or a plastic container that says "Pfand," that means deposit. You have to take the empty container back to the store and put it through this machine that gives you money back for it.

*In regards to body piercing, the only rule I've noticed is that if you can pinch it, you can probably pierce it.

*In regards to hair dying, I've really not noticed any rules. It seems like it's just free-for-all.

*You have to sort your trash compulsively. You will have your paper garbage (which you have to take down to the recycling center), plastics/foil garbage (which go in yellow sacks, which you get at the town hall from the lady at the counter who doesn't speak english, and that you set out on "yellow sack" days--don't ask me when, I just do it when the neighbors do it--- and the garbage guys pick it up), food waste (goes in your "bio" garbage can which you have to buy at the recycling center, and gets picked up at the curb. Oh, and you need a sticker on your bio container or they won't pick it up. You get this at the town hall), and lastly, the restmuell, which is the rest of your garbage (This will be put in the tiniest container and picked up every two weeks. You will buy a sticker at town hall to put on your trashcan, which you buy at ABT.)

*You will have the best bread ever here. You might want to get some exam from your dentist first, though. Some of the crusts are pretty hard.

*If you don't like bratwurst, don't order currywurst because it's not going to taste any better. In fact, it is a little freakier.

*If you order a pepperoni pizza, you're going to get a pizza with hot peppers on it (and a 5-yr old who will never forgive you). If you want the closest thing to pepperoni, order a salami pizza.

*Waitresses will not bring you the bill unless you ask for it.

*The tip is included in the bill, so you just round up to the nearest whole number.

*If you're out of shape, you should probably go to the gym a few times before attempting grocery shopping. You will think all is well and good until you go to check out. You will need to unload your cart very quickly so you can bring your cart around to the other side because there is no bagger and you need to put all your groceries back in your cart before it's time to pay, oh and you have to bring your own bags and if you forgot, you have to pay for the plastic store bags (about 16 cents/each). Nevermind that your children are putting chocolate eggs on the conveyer belt. If you don't finish this all in your alloted time (the time between the person in front of you finishing, and when the person behind you thinks he should go), the person behind you will get very antsy.

*Apfelstrudel is the most heavenly thing you will eat for dessert.


We have had an amazing month so far, and are really enjoying it. We've learned a lot and I'm sure we'll learn lots more.

A Whole Lotta Rockin'

Yesterday was Reunification Day in Germany, so Devin's work was closed (as was pretty much everything else). So, we decided to go to Munich to see Oktoberfest. Some of you may be confused as to why we decided to do this because we don't drink, but we heard there's a lot of other stuff there, too, and we just wanted to check it out.

So, we packed up our double stroller, baby backpack, and our three kids, and decided to head out to stick out like sore thumbs. Our first indication of the day was the man sitting next to us on the train, finishing a beer as we sat down. It was an 8am train. The kids really liked riding the train. It was pretty crowded, but we got on on the second stop, so we were able to get seats before it got too full. It was a 2-hour train to Munich, and after about an hour, I started smelling a pretty foul odor. I noticed Ethan had a dirty diaper, so we got the things to change him and noticed it was leaking all the way down to his ankles. Beautiful. The bathrooms were the size of an airplane bathroom with no changing table, so we just had to change him at our seats, much to the dismay of the poor people around us (we know how to say "I'm sorry" in German). We arrived in Munich without any more mishaps, and headed over to Oktoberfest.

We were there right at opening time of the rides (10:30am), and there were already hordes of people there. Everything was unbelievable. There were HUGE beer tents (they really shouldn't even be called tents. There's 14 of them which can fit a total of 100,000 people in them) set up just for Oktoberfest, huge rides (not just the little carnival rides), and lots of booths set up selling food & souvenirs. We looked around a little, and decided to ride some rides first. The boys rode the merry-go-round, went to a haunted house (Dallin liked it, Kevin cried just at the end), and we all rode the ferris wheel. The boys also did a little carnival game where you throw a ball at the tower of cans and try to knock them all down. Kevin got bored of his tower of cans, I guess cause he decided to take a shot at his neighbors tower. :) There were lots of people, but the lines weren't too bad. The kids had a great time riding the rides. After that, we decided to eat lunch. The beer tents are full at 7:30 in the morning (we learned later), so we couldn't get a seat in there. We decided to go to a nearby biergarten in Munich where the kids could play and we could eat outside. (We went with a friend from church and she knew where it was) It was fun and relaxing to eat outside. There was a playground there that the boys liked (Ethan LOVED going down the slide!) and Dallin and Kevin liked "exploring." After that, our friend ran back to Oktoberfest to get fruit on a stick, which was really good, and we all headed to downtown Munich before our train left. Downtown Munich was really nice. There was a huge pedestrian plaza with lots of shops. It was really peaceful just walking down it. There were lots of people doing magic tricks or playing music. We could have spent 4 hours just listening to the music! Everyone was really good. We were trying to catch a 5:50 train, so we had to hurry, but we know we want to go back to Munich to spend more time there! Up to this point, we had a great day and really enjoyed Munich.

We were hoping that by catching an earlier train, we would miss the hordes of people going home from Oktoberfest. Well, as we were walking to the train, we were very surprised. It was extremely full. There were two trains that left for Ulm that were 1 minute apart, so we ran over to the other train, thinking it was less full. It wasn't. It was jam-packed. We didn't have any other choice, though, because the next train left 2 hours later, and I'm sure it was going to be as full. So, we pushed our way on with the strollers. As we got on, it felt like an oven. There were so many people in there, and we were all sweating. I looked at the guy sitting down near me (Most of us were standing), and he was sleeping, but in an un-naturally deep way. There were like 50 people next to him, and I was practically in his lap, and he wasn't even stirring. I was wondering if he was dead, but he would later let us know that he wasn't, don't worry.

Things started to settle down a little bit as people tried to go to other train cars. A man sitting near me gave me his seat because I was holding Ethan. I was really grateful, but I always feel bad for the guys having to stand up! Devin standing up with the stroller, taking care of Dallin & Kevin. About 30 minutes into the ride, the "dead man" stands up and his friend, I guess, realizes that he has to throw up. He was, um, very wobbly on his feet, so say the least. The good part is that his friend did help him make it to the bathroom, for which we are all grateful. The girl sitting next to me (his friend) said he drank 4 liters of beer. I was pretty sure that he was going to get alcohol poisoning, but I didn't know how to say that in German. Poor guy. That girl was the one who told us that they got to Oktoberfest at 7:30am to get a seat in the beer tents that open at 9:30am. Crazy! Anyway, a little while later, I noticed some commotion happening next to me. The girl sitting on the floor next to me had just thrown up all over herself and the floor. I threw Devin the jackets that were within 6 inches of "it" with the baby backpack, and tried not to breathe in. The chick was so drunk she didn't even care she had barf all over her. Our friend handed the chick a plastic bag so she could clean it up, but she couldn't manage it. She just smeared it everywhere, so her friend had to clean it up. So sad.

After, that, we changed trains and had wonderful journey back to Ulm. There were only a few people on that train (because it didn't originate in Munich) so we all got seats. We got home around 9pm, and were so tired. I was holding Dallin while I was checking email after we were home, and he looked up at me and said, "Will you rock me until I'm 8?" So, I may not be able to post anymore, because I've got a lot of rocking to do. :)

Daddy & Boys riding the merry-go-round

This is the inside of one of the beer tents. It was cool to see that many people in one area. I just hope there's never a fire...

This is the outside of the "tent"

All three boys fell asleep when we went to the biergarten. They were so tired!

Dallin & the giant pretzel at Oktoberfest.

Team Pratt on the ferris wheel

The infamous train ride home

This is the town hall (rathaus in German) in Munich. It was an amazing building.

Kevin, exploring in the biergarten. He is obsessed with sticks and carried one stick home with him. :)

Castle Video

Here's a video that we took of the area of the castle. It was just an amazing place. Sorry our camera isn't great, but at least you can get an idea. To read more about Neuschwanstein, click here.

Neuschwanstein Castle

This past Saturday we decided to go exploring. The famous castle, Neuschwanstein, is about 1 1/2 hours away from our house, so we decided to go there. It was SO beautiful! It was just amazing. The area around the castle is just so beautiful. The leaves are starting to change, but the weather isn't too cold yet, so it was a great time to go. We've heard it gets pretty crazy busy at this castle, so we ordered our tickets early, so we didn't have to wait at all. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but the outside was just as pretty. The inside of the castle is only 1/3 finished. King Ludwig died and all construction was halted at his death. You can only go inside the castle with a guided tour and the tour is only about 30 minutes long. It was still interesting to see, though. Behind the castle, there is a bridge called "Mary's bridge" (in english) that you can stand on and get a great picture of the castle. It was above the waterfall and it was just beautiful. We had a great time!

Right after we walked out of the castle, Ethan said "Mama" for the first time! It was so exciting! He can say "Uh oh, thank you, Daddy, and Nana," but he's never said an "M" sound. I was starting to get a little worried, but he finally said Mama. He seemed very proud of himself. :)

We're standing on Mary's bridge. The pile of baby in the backpack is Ethan. He fell dead asleep. Two Asian tourists (on separate occasions) took pictures of him. :)

You had to park down the hill from the castle, which was a 40 minute walk (uphill) to the castle. They had horse carriages and buses they used to ferry people up to the castles. They really packed people on those like sardines!

Daddy & boys

This is the wood floor of Mary's bridge. The bridge is really high up (you can see on other pictures after I post them to gallery), so I was a little more than a little nervous when I walked out on the bridge. The floor is wood, which creaks and flexes with all the hordes of people walking on it. There are also little spaces between the wood so you can see down, which freaked me out. After we went on the bridge, I noticed a sign saying that the wood planks were put on there about 200 years ago by King Ludwig. What???? I don't think I'll ever go on that bridge again. I'm so surprised we didn't fall through the wood and plunge to our deaths! Well, at least we got our picture and now we can just forget we were taking our lives in our hands...

Medieval Market

Two Saturdays ago we went to a Medieval Market in Soflingen (the area we live in). They have a little plaza that we have Farmer's Markets on Fridays, and they had this market here. We took the kids and had a great time. They had lots of booths selling things, lots of food, beer, a little theater where they had a little show, and a real blacksmith. The boys really liked it. We got meat on sticks which were good, but a little messy for Kevin, who couldn't eat it from the top down. He had to start in the middle and work out. :) The boys also got wooden swords (don't worry, Dad, you could have made a better one. :) ) and the blacksmith wrote their names on it. Well, actually, he only wrote the name on Dallin's because we went to him at the very end and by the time he was done with Dallin's name, the fire was out. Kevin "took it like a man" (like my mom would say) and we're going to try to write his name with a sharpie. :)