Packing

More packing this week and weekend so not much to report.  On Monday the school had the last Honor Roll assembly and Elise managed to get straight A's all four quarters which is great.  At each quarter they have an assembly for 4th and 5th graders and for making the Honor Roll Elise got a Challenge Coin presented to her by the Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge of the Non-Commissioned Officer Training Center.  She was very excited to make it four in a row because now she has the same number of Challenge Coins as Mom.

Elise and the NCOIC

School ended on the 14th so now the kids are getting dragged around with me while I continue to try and sell all of our stuff and pack up everything.  I've had a few bites on the car, but it's not sold yet which is making me a bit nervous  We are down to a couple weeks now.

Elise's actual birthday was Saturday  the 18th.  She wanted to go to Rothenburg this weekend but we had too much packing to do so we had a little family party.  Carissa made her a homemade Dairy Queen ice cream cake, we went out to dinner at the Thai restaurant in town, and her friend Daniella slept overnight.

 

Parties

The past week we basically have been trying to get rid of all of our belongings that we can't take back home.  All our furniture, dishes, glasses, silverware, bikes, brooms, and the car which is what I'm the most worried about.  Our landlord has agreed to purchase our kitchen from us, which was a big relief.  There is has been a lot of interest in everything and we're getting pretty decent prices.  There are a lot of low income families in the military so people are thrilled to get our stuff.  Now that we are actually selling things though it's starting to hit home that we are actually leaving and that we wish we weren't.

Besides packing and selling our things we had some fun stuff this week too.  Haaken's T-ball finished up and the coaches put together an end of the year party at the USO building on post.  Haaken's coaches were an extremely nice military couple.  The husband was a sergeant in the motor pool and is deploying to Afghanistan in July.  His job downrange apparently will be to retrieve damanged vehicles from the field and then bring them back to the base of operations for repairs.  This is the first person I've actually discussed going down range with and it made a big impression on me.  His son is Haaken's age and when we started talking about it you could see on his face the worry and how much he was going to miss his family.  One thing we hadn't realized before coming here is on top of the actual deployment (which typically last 9-12 months or more) how much time the soldier's are away from their family's before they actually ship out.  The infantry will often be away for 6-8 weeks ahead of time practicing in the field here in Graf with maybe a day home on the weekends if that.  Many of the soldiers have been deployed two or three times.  Not to mention the fact that they are moved to a new location every 3 years.  The sacrifices these families make is pretty remarkable.  I'm not sure I could do it.

Friday night there was a going away party for the Dental Clinic.  Including Carissa there were 3 Specialists and a Major leaving.  The whole clinic and their families took over Tortuga's, the mexican restaurant in town.  The Colonel said nice things about each person and some of the soldiers received awards.  When it was Carissa's turn she got a huge cheer from all the soldiers which was pretty cool.  The Colonel presented her with a plaque and a certificate which will look nice in her new office back home.  They also gave her a fancy carved wooden sign for us to hang outside our house in Minnesota.  Finally, they presented her with a "Challenge Coin" for outstanding service in the clinic.

Challenge coins are a military tradition dating back to WWI.  Basically they started as a way to prove identification during wartime - for example if you got separated from your unit and had to prove you weren't an impostor.  They also are used as a way to recognize outstanding service or performance of duty.  They typically bear the insignia of the organization they came from - in this case Bavaria Dentac, which is the dental command for the region we live in.

Saturday Elise and her friend Daniella had a joint birthday party since they both turned 10 about a week apart.  We held it at Daniella's house and the kids played a bunch of different games and had cake and ice cream on a picnic table on the nature trail behind our neighborhood.  We also rented a bouncy castle so the kids had fun on that.  The only tough part about the party was Elise having to say goodbye to her friends when it was over since it probably was the last time she'd see them before we leave.

 Cake and presents

Flip Flop Craft

 Getting ready to take down the Piñata

Munich, Germany

First week of June and we have a month to go.  To be honest, we're not real excited about moving back.  It will be good to see all of our friends and family of course, but a year is too short.  We finally are feeling at home and now have to pack up and leave.  Plus there is still so much to do and see.  We've started packing now - I've been dumpster diving for boxes and we're packing up the stuff we don't need and getting rid of stuff we don't use.  Right now the only kids activity is T-ball and that's almost over.

This past weekend we finally made it down to see Munich.  We drove down Saturday morning and once again lucked out with beautiful weather.  We parked in a shopping mall and spent a little time browsing probably the coolest outdoor/camping store I've ever been in - Globetrotter.  It was four levels, had all kinds of cool gear and clothes, a little room that let you try out rain gear in a simulated rain storm, a climbing wall for the kids and a pool where you could try out kayaks and canoes.

From Globetrotter we walked over to the Viktualienmarkt, Munich's daily food market.  It's huge (140 stalls) and was packed.  We browsed, got the kids smoothies and took some pictures.  Across the street we checked out St. Peter's Church (built in the 1300s) and then headed over to the Marienplatz.  We stopped in a few shops trying to find Haaken a cheap Bayern-Munchen soccer shirt but there were none to be found.  He ended up getting a soccer ball, which he preferred anyway.

 Viktualienmarkt

 Munchen Maibaum

 Marienplatz and the Neues Rathaus

We spent the next couple hours just wandering around, enjoying the weather and people watching.  In the middle of the main boulevard (Neuhauser Strasse) there was a pretty entertaining band that we watched for a while and at the end of it the kids played in the water fountain.

 Neuhauser Strasse

For lunch we ate at Zum Augustiner in their courtyard.  Everyone except Carissa had goulash soup with pretzels.  Afterwards we slowly made our way over to the Hofbrauhaus so I could have a beer.  We sat in their large courtyard and enjoyed the Oompah band and people watching.

 Zum Augustiner

 Sidewalk Art

 Hofbrauhaus

 Relaxing on the patio

Hofbrauhaus Courtyard

We really didn't feel like doing any museums that day so we left Munich and instead of driving home went a little further south for one last night at Edelweiss.

Kos, Greece

This past Wednesday we left for our last hurrah, a relaxing vacation in the Greek Isles.  We chose the island Kos, mainly because Ryan Air had tickets for $150 for all five of us.  Not each - total.  First we had to drive to Frankfurt though, as our flight left early Thursday morning.  We stayed in a cute little town that we didn't get to see because we got in late and left early.

This trip was intended to be a beach vacation for the kids as a reward for dragging them all over Europe.  We booked a nice hotel that had a couple pools and what looked like a great kids program.  When we arrived we found out that the property had been sold to a different company that catered to couples over 40 which was disappointing.  It was a beautiful resort though and the kids hit the pool right away.  We had dinner at the resort that first night and afterwards the kids put on a 'show' for us at the resort's amphitheater.

Dinner at the Resort

Adriatic Sea

The Night's Entertainment

Our reservation included breakfast and the resort provided a huge breakfast buffet, with eggs, bacon, pasties, fruit, etc.  What we did on this trip was entirely up to the kids so right after we hit the pool.  The main pool is what is called an Infinity pool, built so that it looks like it drops off right into the sea.  The kids hopped around the different pools, played in the kids playground area and had a great time while Mom and Dad relaxed in the sun.

View from the room

Infinity pool

A little later in the day we decided to check out the beach, which to our disappointment was not sandy.  It was pretty rocky so instead of the kids building sandcastles we took a short walk.  We spent quite a bit of time skipping stones and saw some wildlife along the way as well.

Resort Grounds

Random Goat

Having fun on the beach

That night we drove into town for dinner.  We had dinner at a place along the water - the food was fine but really no different than what you'd find at a Greek restaurant in the States.  We followed dinner with a stroll around Kos Town.

The next morning a storm rolled in after breakfast.  The pictures don't really do it justice, but it was actually quite beautiful.  While the rain poured outside we spent some time in the game room playing air hockey and ping pong.

Storm Rolling In

Resort Game Room

That afternoon we headed back to Kos Town to check out some ancient ruins.  Kos has been inhabited since the 11 century BC.  Due to it's location it was an important military outpost and trade center.  The ancient town was very sophisticated and had many buildings - unfortunately most were destroyed by earthquakes.  The ruins are still there, with placards describing what each pile of rubble used to be.

Behind Lydia is an incredible mosiac floor

Apparently the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, grew up and studied in Kos. One of the main sights in Kos Town is the Tree of Hippocrates, under which he used to teach his students. The current tree is only around 500 years old, but is most likely a descendant of the tree under which Hippocrates taught.

Tree of Hippocrates

 
That night we ate at another sort of generic Greek restaurant off of one of the town squares. We wandered the streets afterward, got some dessert and let the kids play at a park before we went home.

Kos Town

Saturday we spent the whole day at the pool just relaxing and having fun. The kids started a craft hosted by the hotel near the kids area. Elise and Haaken (Carissa) did mosaics while Lydia did some painting. That night we asked for a recommendation for a place to eat from a hotel worker. They directed us to a great Greek Tavern with some much better, less generic, traditional Greek food.  It probably should be noted that Kos has a real problem with cats.  We counted over 30 stray cats round trip (about 20 minutes) to the restaurant and back.  Bob Barker would not be pleased

Sunday was our last day and we had been throwing around the idea of taking a ferry to Bodrum, Turkey (only 25 min away). We let the kids make the call and they decided they wanted one more day at the pool. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and we all had a great time relaxing. That evening we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

Water Aerobics

Chillin'

Monday we spent the whole day travelling back to Graf.  Unfortunately we now have to get serious about packing up - only one month until we return home.

The Koch's Visit Graf

The Koch's came for a quick visit this past weekend - probably spent more time in the car (7 hours each way) than they did at our house.  They arrived late Friday night so we pretty much put the kids to bed, spent a little time chatting and then hit the hay ourselves.  Saturday we drove down to Regensburg because I didn't think they had spent enough time in the car.  We went to all the usual spots.  That night we made tacos at the request of our kids.  The kids kept busy putting together a puppet show that we were treated to that night.  Dan and I stayed up that night, well I did anyway.  Dan fell asleep while I was talking to him.

Lunch on the Danube

View from the bridge

David and Goliath (16th century)

Gelato stop

Outside the cathedral

Puppet show

The audience is riveted

 

Haaken and Abbey's turn

Sunday we got up and Dan and I did a little shopping at the grocery store.  Prices at their grocery store in Switzerland are about 4 times what we pay here so he stocked up on some staples and bought some American food they can't get in Lausanne.  Afterwards we went to a festival the town was having in our neighborhood.  The kids got their faces painted, made crafts and had some treats.  After a couple hours there and some lunch the Koch's had to get on the road back home.