Trains,planes and automobiles

This is not a relaxing trip to say the least. It's been wonderful and beautiful but I have never been more ready to say goodbye to my suitcase and the clothes I brought with me as much as I do right now. I don't know if it was the cobblestone streets and my weak ankles or just being tired but in Paris I fell. No surprise I know but it happened. My left ankle and right knee swelled up immediately. Right by Notre Dame so at least I had a beautiful view as I fell in front of everyone. I can walk (thank goodness) but it kills. What do you do though when you still have 6 days left in your trip that includes planes, trains and taxi's? You buckle up and make do. I did see a doctor in my hotel room yesterday in Munich(cost was 180$). She suggested I go to a hospital and have x-rays taken. First she suggested an ambulance which I said "no thank you but I think I'll take a taxi". Mark took me to a hospital where after seeing a doctor(and students, I felt like I was in Grey's anatomy minus the good looking doctors)getting x-rays(which they made me do in my underwear, I think just to make fun of the American)and then seeing the doctor again it cost just 100$. Crazy, US Er's would never cost so little. It's a little strange having students feel your ankle and knee while talking in German. They were all very nice though and very thorough. Now we are in Leipzig and then heading to Berlin tonight. It's been an amazing trip and despite having an ankle that compares to an elephants, it's been great. I get to see my babies in 4 days. I'm so excited. Ich liebe meine Kinder. I think I said that right.

Hanging out in Luxembourg, Luxembourg

I don't have any photo's yet to add to this post but I wanted to get some thoughts out. We have been in Luxembourg for three days now and tonight we leave for Paris. I'm a bit nervous because of the strikes and riots that are going on but we are hoping (based on what people have told us) that the Parisians will take a break for the weekend and not riot, instead go spend some time with their families and relax from all that striking and fighting with the police. I hope! I'm missing the kids a lot. You think you wont because as a parent(and especially a mom) you are kind of ready for a vacation but then of course you realize how much you miss their cute little faces and getting hugs and kisses from them. That's how I'm feeling today. I miss my kids.:(
I love Luxembourg though and the people. I love how they speak both French and German and in their conversations they will go back and forth in both languages. I can pick out certain words in German and understand a tiny bit what they are saying but then the French flies right over my head. I'm really excited to see Dagmar and her family next week. I'm tagging along with Mark as he goes from city to city in Germany meeting some of Germany's biggest sellers with Amazon. It's a coincidence that the last town we visit is only 1/2 hr from the town my host family lives in. The Hagerbaumers are picking me up next Thursday and taking me out to lunch and to hang out with them. I haven't seen them since I was 17, yet we have kept in touch every Christmas. Dagmar's parents send my parents a card every year. They are good people.
You don't realize how young of a country we live in until you go outside of the US. I love all the old churches here, the fort that goes right through the city and I love all the cobblestone streets, though they are making me feel a bit lopsided for some reason. Things I like so far on the trip; being with Mark,the people(saying Merci goes a long way here),croissants, croissants and croissants. Things I don't like; being away from family,not being able to speak French and that everything seems very expensive. That's vacation though, right? Hope this finds everyone well.

Times they are a changing

Sofia started 6th grade this year(middle school,oh my)atI MS. What a big change for her. I think she looks too young to be in Middle School, as do a lot of her friends. Sofia said to me one day "middle school is going to be fun, right mom"? What was I to say " No, it was some of the worst years of my school years"! Instead I told her it was a lot of fun and she would love it as well. Now almost a month later, she does love it. She doesn't love all of her teachers (who does?) but she likes going from class to class, she has some great teachers(one being a neighbor of ours) and she's made some new friends. Maybe she will be the 1st kid to love Middle School. Ha ha.
Miles started 1st grade and going all day. He wasn't so sure about his teacher(since Sofia had been talking about how she had his teacher and didn't like her and that she was mean, which she wasn't)and didn't want to go. The first day he came home and said to me "Mom, guess what? My teacher is really nice"! Phew, I was so happy to hear those words and hear how happy he was. He has class with two friends, Maggie Noble and Ben Hawkins, both from church. He as well is still happy with his class and loves going. A big plus for Mark and I is that at night he's completely worn out and goes to be much better. Thank goodness. It was weird to not take photo's of all three kids on their first day of school. It was strange to not be there for Kiah's first day of school and to have her come home and tell us all about it. Now we talk on the phone and she tells us about school and all that goes along with it. Such changes in our home this year, from college aged, to middle school, to Miles going all day. It's going to be a great year and I'm excited to see the kids continue to grow.

Two weeks in Utah part uno

I can't possibly blog about everything we did in Utah and post photo's. That would take too long. Plus Mark is out of town on a hike, so I can't call him to figure out how to do what I want to do with this post. I'll try and get by on my own though. We spent two wonderful weeks in Utah, mainly in Logan visiting my parents. We were able to see family and friends during that time and also catch up with my parents who we hadn't seen in two years. With my foot surgery last year and being in a cast most of the summer we weren't able to visit them. Because of that we decided to spend two weeks in Logan. I said that already, sorry. It was a bit bittersweet because we also dropped Kiah off at school, so it was fun to be with her but sad to leave her. Here is a photo of all that we packed. We had to pack for us but also Kiah's stuff to drop off for school. We were jammed pack to say the least, oh and we had Hope with us. That was fun.
Now on to the trip. Here is a photo of my beautiful niece Kim and her nephew Alex (my nephew's son). Floating down Logan canal is a must. Miles and Sofia loved it. Here's Mark canoeing out at the marshes. We always spend a day or two with the Zollinger's out at the farm. I love this barn and so do the kids. Maybe if one of the Zollinger's read this, they can tell me how old the barn is? I know it's a Historical landmark but I can't remember when it was built. If you look real close you can see Sofia at the end. She's about to swing from a rope. The kids love it there. I wish this photo could truly grasp how beautiful of a night it was when we were driving past the Logan Temple (where Mark and I were married). It was a gorgeous summer night and the moon was breathtaking. The kids were griping about us going down memory lane while in Logan but they love to see the temple an finally gave us a break and didn't make fun of us. No trip to Logan is complete without a day spent at Bear Lake. The blue water, the raspberry shakes and tots with fry sauce. yum. Unfortunately the day we decided to go was so windy that we couldn't even play in the water. That didn't stop us from having fun though. The kids still waded in the water, we went to LaBeau's (where I worked and lived for a summer as a teenager) and took some great family photo's. Kiah and her tot dipped in fry sauce. Family shot that Mark was adamant to get. We celebrated Sofi's 11th Birthday in Ione,Idaho at Mark's aunt Marcia's house. I don't think it was her ideal birthday, she'd rather have been at home with friends but we made do with what we had. Plus we left the next morning to drive home and we left Kiah in Idaho. I think Sofi was a bit sad about that. Despite their complaining about each other, they are very close and Sofi really misses her big sister.