I see firewroks at night time?

We had a great 4th of July this year. It was dry and we got

to see fireworks. Ever since Cody has asked every night "I see fireworks at night time?" we tell him no Cody that was just a special thing. He then replies "Not fair!" and still insists he will see fireworks at night time. When it starts to get dark we know what comes next. Cody comes to one of us and says "We go see fireworks now" We tell him no there are not fireworks to go see. Lately he has become so obssessed that he insistes he is actually seeing fireworks and tries to get us to come to the window to watch with him. It is very entertaining and a nice change from his obsession with the car wash, but I am sure in a few weeks this will get very old!

Trip to Berlin!

The boys and I in front of the Reichstag. The big dome on top was awesome! What was even better was becuase Cody was in a stroller and all we got to bypass the long line and take a side entrance for the elevator! Finally having three kids pays off! The dome was added in the 90's and is open to the public for free. The views of the city are awesome and just well worth the walking!
Checkpoint Charlie is not quite what I expected. There are signs on the side that say "You are leaving the American sector or entering in I think 4 languages. we got there right before several tour busses unlaoded! The building on the right is where the CIA sat and watched the other side and spied. It was neat to see.
I have to look up the name of this. I know it is big and in the middle of traffic circle! You can go up to the top, but this was towards the end of the day so the kids were not too interested in the hike up.
Tyler was leaning down to touch the bricks where the wall was and Cody was looking over. I thought this was a cute picture. Part of the wall is still there, but the rest is marked by this brick path. We followed it for quite a distance when walking back to where we parked.

So if you have read the previous post about our GPS then you may wonder how the heck we nagivated the big city of Berlin! Well for 7,50 euro we bought a really, really good map! Not the quickest way to find things and again doens't tell you road construction and such, but we were able to see just about everything we wanted. Berlin has been tops on our list to visit and I wish we had more days to wander and explore. Unfortanately hotels are not cheap so the nights we did have cost us a lot! Like I said though we were able to hit ever major attraction and even discover some others. We walked everywhere which worried me with the kids, but they did pretty good. It wasn't as spread out as Paris and we had Cody in the stroller. He was funny though. He would get out to walk, go ten feet then say "too tired" and get back in. The picture above is Zach in front of what remains of the wall. On the other side is a very detailed history with pictures and tons of information. Zach said he thinks this was called no mans land or something. I was dealing with Cody not being too happy at this point. The pictures tell a very sad story and you could spend quite a while reading all the information.

We are so glad we were able to get up to Berlin and not only mark it off our list, but take back memories from it. On the way home we took the long way to find more of the Havel river. We came across the town of Havelweck and there is also Havelland which is like a county I think. We stoped along the river and walked for a while. Zach says I am not allowed to do any family history for his side till he is dead. He would like to die thinking he found his roots in Germany! So a great trip, full of surprises and a little tiring, but we are very thankful for the opportunity to go!

Berlin Airlift Anniversary

The first re-enactment of the candy drop. I think the picture is too small to see, but all the blacks dots are candy tied to parachutes.
The boys and I on a german plane that looked similar to a C-130. The boys got to sit in the cockpit and the pilots showed them all the neat gages and such.
Why this car was here I don't know, but for Zach it was everything he loves, airplanes and cars! This is a Ford GT for those that don't know (I always mess up the name, not good when you are married to such a car enthusiast) and it is a very very expensive and fast car! That's about the extent of my knowledge there.

I guess I went a little out of order on my posts. We actually went to Wiesbaden before Havelburg. This year marks 60 years since the Berlin Airlift so there was a big celebration held. The orginal candy bomber pilot Gail Halverson spoke along with some others that were children at the time in Berlin. There are a few books out retelling experiences, one being a children's book so the kids got to hear the story. It was a very fun day. They re-enacted the candy drop by helicopter. They had said something about the original place headed out from Berlin, but due to mechanical problems didn't make it. The boys also got to make parachutes and tie candy to them just as the soldiers did for the kids at the time. I am not sure they understood much, but I hope they look back later in life and realize what an important day this was. The chocolate pilot as Col Halverson was known is LDS and came to our ward last year around this time and to hear him speak along with the others that were children at the time was such a neat experience. I was not able to meet him this year, but I am really glad we took the opportunity to go be apart of the celebration even though it was on a Sunday. If you ever get a chance to read stories about this, do! The personal accounts are amazing!

Havelburg and the Havel River

Tyler, Cody and Ryan sitting in front of the Havel River. There was a boat tour, but we had to move on to Berlin so weren't able to go on it.
Map of Havelburg. You can see how the river creates an island. The city has flooded 4 times, been almost completely destroyed by fire once and then in WWII it was bombed pretty heavily.

Zach was only able to get two weeks of leave so we had to decide what destination was tops on our list and Havelberg won! It is not too far from Berlin so we made a big trip of it. Unfortunately we got a valuable lesson in prepardness! We have GPS and really rely on the thing way too much. We always take the atlas too, but in this case that was not enough. You see the car adapter cord for our GPS quit working so we had to revert to the atlas to get us to Havelburg. So we had it as far as the battery could get us and then we were on our own. Unfotunately an atlas doens't tell you detours and raods that are closed down for construction so instead of it being a 4 1/2 hour drive to Havelburg it was close to 6! It was a fun adventure though and the kids did really good. The ladies at the Tourist information office were excited to see our last name and dug out the few bits of info they had in English for us. And we did discover our last name is not pronounced the way we have always known. It is more like Ha fel and from what we found it is Czech.

BUrg Eltz and Scout camp

Last summer when Jennifer and Christen came we went to Burg Eltz. By the time Zach came home from deployment the castle was closed so since summer hit the boys have been itching to take dad to Burg Eltz. We finally found a day since moving and all. We had great weather and Cody did sooo much better than last year! I actually got to hear the tour! I think this is my favorite castle so far. It's not too bad of a hike to get to it compared to some we have ventured to and the view is amazing. So now we can mark it off our list of places to take dad!

After a very tiring week

of walking from place to place I can say "I did it!" I was exhausted every evening, but it really was a lot of fun. I had two extra boys to get to and from plus Tyler and Ryan, but they are good kids and were very helpful hauiling the cooler to and from the van. I had 8 boys in my den and another den leader helping. This picture is the boys lined up getting ready to play cricket. Along with cricket they learned to play field hockey, but ran out of time for soccer. They got to shoot BB guns and do archery every day as well as make crafts and learn some basic scout skills. On Friday we performed a skit for the crowd of boys and families and then did the ending flag ceremony. the T-shirts came in for the last day too! Last year they never came at all! So all in all I was tired, we all were, but it was a lot of fun, great weather and a good experience. Ryan and Tyler loved every minute of it so now maybe we can get Tyler's Bear badge done! He had lost motivation for a while. If they asked me to help next year I would for sure!

What have I got myself into!

A few weeks back our scoutmaster called and asked if there was any way I could help at day camp this year. They seemed to be high on kids, low on adults and were really pleading with me to help. I had already arranged to rent a week at the CDC for Cody and both boys were registered for camp so I really had no excuse so said yes. She was so happy then followed up with "Great I will let them know you would like to be Tyler's den leader!" I about died and said "Den leader?" Talk about really getting tossed in the deep end! After being assured I would get training and it was really just about keeping the boys in a group and not losing any I was feeling much better. Training was set for Monday then camp is the remaining days in the week with a family day on Friday. I was beginining to panic a little when I realized it was Wednesday and I had not yet been given any more details. I guess my email address was entered wrong so I got everything in one lump today. Come to find out being a den leader is a bit more than keeping tabs on the boys. I had to do online training, our group will be performing skits, songs and cheers, we have to make a flag and I need to have a cooler, tent, and backpack with me of certain items at all times! I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with it and on top of that I am very nervous to be leaving Cody at the CDC from 7am to 3:30 when Zach gets off. He has never been there that long and Sembach is quite a drive from Miseau. So all I can say now is "What did I get myself into!!!"

Diaper/pullup free!

Oh the joys of potty training! Cody is not 100% potty trained, but he is making very good progress. It has been a much different experience with him than Tyler and Ryan. Cody does not quite understand when he is dancing and crossing his legs that means he has to go and go NOW! He did ask to go this morning, but typically I have set times of the day I tell him it's time to go. And the funny thing is no matter what he can manage to get something out! He does especially well when we are out running around which makes life so much simpler. He has not had any accidents at night either so that makes 3 for three kids! We hope by the end of summer that we can officially considered him potty trained and he will be taking himself, but for now I am just very happy he is doing as well as he is!