Thanks, Thanks, Thanks

Back to normal, and just in the nic of time. I was about ready to pull the plug on this blog thing, and say you are right Greg!! Luckily I did not have to go that far, Thanks Nicole!! (Greg did suggest I call you the first day this happened)

No bifocals needed

You may have noticed that my blog has become out of the ordinary large. Yes I am aware of this problem and yes it driving me crazy, crazy, crazy!! If anyone has any suggestions on how to return to the regular font size on my sidebar please help, help, help. Otherwise I may have to continue erasing everything off it. Greg has told me many times the electronic world may not be the best place for my journal. But I am a very slow learner, and not that smart with computers!! I would love to contiune posting my Europe pictures, but my sidebar is driving me crazy. HELP!!

A good laugh...

As we were driving down the Auto ban in Germany, Greg was trying to get his sense of direction. He was reading all the signs we passed on the freeway (or trying to read the signs) Greg noticed we had passed a few signs that said Ausfahrt. Feeling a little confused he asked Ian, "so what is in the town of Ausfahrt" Ian looked at him with a smile and replied, "Ausfahrt means Exit" We all had a good laugh!!! And it seemed every time we passed an "Ausfahrt" sign we just had to say the word out loud! Thanks for the good laugh Greg!

Dachau

I vividly remember the first time I became aware of the holocaust. My mom and I were moving furniture in the basement, I was probably around 15 or 16. The TV was on and there was some documentary about Hitler. I remember feeling glued to the TV. I also remember asking my mom that day "Is this true? Did this really happen?" Ever since that day I have been fascinated (fascinated may not be the best word) with Hitler and his treatment of the Jews. When I decided to go to Europe 10 years ago visiting a concentration camp was a must on my list of things to do. It was one of the highlights of my trip then and was also one of the highlights of my trip again this time. I strongly believe this is a must see for all people, what a great way to teach history, by experiencing it first hand. It is a spiritual experience to stand on the ground that real people of the holocaust stood. Look in the rooms that real men and women lived and try just for a moment to imagine how life was for them.

When we first got to Dachau we went straight to the movie, Miranda was kindly asked to leave because children under the age of 6 were not allowed in the theatre. At first I thought they were being a little unreasonable, but as I watched and thought a little more, I wouldn't of let my 6 year old watch the movie. I saw images of death, starvation, torture, and despair, they will always be etched in my mind. I will never forget my experiences at Dachau, I will never forget the way I felt there, and most importantly I will never forget the victims of Hitler, who lost their lives.

" Work shall set you free"

A short history of Dachau...

Established in March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp. During the first year, the camp held about 4,800 prisoners. In 1942, the crematorium area was constructed next to the main camp. It included the old crematorium and the new crematorium with a gas chamber. There is no credible evidence that the gas chamber in Barrack X was used to murder human beings. Dachau prisoners were used as forced laborers. At first, they were employed in the operation of the camp, in various construction projects, and in small handicraft industries established in the camp. Prisoners built roads, worked in gravel pits, and drained marshes. During the war, forced labor utilizing concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important to German armaments production. In Dachau, as in other Nazi camps, German physicians performed medical experiments on prisoners, including high-altitude experiments using a decompression chamber, malaria and tuberculosis experiments, hypothermia experiments, and experiments testing new medications. Prisoners were also forced to test methods of making seawater potable and of halting excessive bleeding. Hundreds of prisoners died or were permanently disabled as a result of these experiments. On April 26, 1945, as American forces approached, there were 67,665 registered prisoners in Dachau and its subcamps; more than half of this number were in the main camp. Of these, 43,350 were categorized as political prisoners, while 22,100 were Jews, with the remainder falling into various other categories. The number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 exceeded 188,000. The number of prisoners who died in the camp and the subcamps between January 1940 and May 1945 was at least 28,000, to which must be added those who perished there between 1933 and the end of 1939, as well as an uncounted number of unregistered prisoners. It is unlikely that the total number of victims who died in Dachau will ever be known.

I think this is a very very G rated history of Dachau, many horrific thing went on inside the walls of all concentration camps including Dachau.

"To honor the dead and warn the living"

Swiss Alps

So, after a long day traveling around the country I really slept well in my European down comforter. I had forgotten how much I love them. Our hotel was definitely Swiss, and the little young lady who ran the hotel was really really cute. She had suggested that we take the tram up to the top of Schiltorn, I think this was the name of the ski resort or maybe the mountain, not quite sure. What I do know if we had a little bit of a late start leaving the hotel and Ian definitely used his great driving skills to get us to the tram on time. But those driving skills did result in somw pukeing from little Eli. Not so funny at the time, strapped in your car seat. When we got to the tram, we were the only ones without skis. I think deep down Greg was a little jealous of the skiers, Especially when we got to the top. We then rode 4different trams to get to the top of the mountain. It seemed as though it took about an hour to get to the top, well worth the time.



I am not quite sure who's grand idea it was to build these trams that seemed to stretch on forever. At times I wondered if this was really such a great idea. Were we asking for a early death? The skiers didn't seem to be worried at all, just what you have to do to ski the Swiss alps. When we got tho the top the sky was blue, and you seemed to be able to see forever, a endless sea of mountains covered with snow. The sun was bright and it was actually not very cold, a pleasant day to spend in the alps. At the very top there is a restraunt that was used for used for one of the 007James bond movies. Though I am not familiar with the movie it was a cool revolving restraunt. I wondered how they built something like this way up on top of a mountain. 10 years a go I saw the swiss alps all green, I thought this time it was charming to see them covered in snow, and skiers racing down. The day was wonderful, the tram was fun, but scary at times and the views were amazing.

Where to even start...

So we are finally home from our whirlwind trip to Germany. We were gone for a total of 14 long days, and traveled to Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and Italy. I think we really wore Miranda and Ian out with our busy busy schedule, but they were great hosts/tour guides. The flights over were literally the bumpiest flight I have ever been on. The pilot did warn us we were going to have a bumpy ride, but I was still surprised how bumpy it really was. There were literally times we were in the air off our seats, as you can imagine this stressed Greg out a little and I learned that I do get motion sickness when I have an empty stomach, I looked for my barf bag, but fortunately never had to use it. We did arrive in Frankfurt Germany in one piece and we were so excited to see Miranda, Ian and Eli there waiting for us. The last time we saw Eli he was just a little baby, and he has grown up alot since then. He wasn't quite sure about us at first but warmed up quickly.

We flew out of SLC at 9:50 am on Thursday and arrived in Frankfurt at 7:58 am Friday morning. As they say when we got to Germany "we hit the ground running, wasting no time" We started our road trip weekend from the airport and headed to Switzerland. As I remember it, alot of my day went a little like this...


I was tuckered out from traveling and anytime I got into the moving car it put me straight to sleep. So I don't remember to much of the scenery of that first day. What I do remember was stopping in France for lunch. We ended up in Strasbourg France about lunch time and we attempted and attempted to go into the city for lunch but most of the freeway exits into the city were blocked off. After rerouting the navigation system a few times we finally found our way to the town square. When we got out of our car we were to surprised to see men dressed like this on almost every corner.



What was going on, we wondered. So when we finally sat down for lunch in a little cafe, we asked our waiter what was going on in the city. He looked at us and said, in his broken English, "Obama" We then laughed and because at that moment we looked like some stupid American kids who didn't know much about our president. As our waiter walked away he said something to the lady sitting at the table next to us and they both laughed, I am sure he was mocking us.

Strasbourg was a beautiful city, but we all agreed that their food was gross. The french are not really famous for their food, and we learned that first hand that day.

After spending a couple of hours in France we headed to Switzerland for the night. So of coarse another nap for me in the car. We arrived in Interlock en, Switzerland that evening, checked into our hotel and went to dinner. This meal was probably my favorite meal of the whole trip. I enjoyed some great schnitzel, it was just as good as I remembered it. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a good night sleep. Our first day in Europe was over and we had already touched in 3 countries, like I said we hit the ground running!!!

Cleaning day

Mondays are usually cleaning day at our house, we do all the laundry. At least we wash the laundry and hope that it all gets folded before the day is over. We also try to clean the bathrooms. Kaitlyn loves to clean the bathrooms, I do not. I can imagine as she gets older she will become more like me when it comes to cleaning the bathrooms, but right now I will take advantage of a 3 years help, if you can call it help. She loves to wipe everything down, the problem with is that she thinks after one wipe she needs a new wipe. So needless to say we go through alot of wipes. I recently showed her the broom, she loves to sweep, but is a little deadly with it and can accidentally jab pretty hard, especially in the small bathrooms!!

10 things...

10 things I love about you

1. I love your cute little facial expressions , they make me smile

2. I love the sassy you bring to our home, in a good way

3. I love just being with you at home, just me and you

4. I love snuggling with you in my bed, you are my new permanent alarm clock

5. I love the way you do your silly silly dance

6. I love watching you adore Matayia

7. I love hearing every night "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bug bite!"

8. I love watching you play with your friends, you are a good good friend

9. I love hearing you sing at the top of your lungs wherever you are, just because you love to sing

10. I love being your mom, you make me happier than anything in the world

I love you Kaitlyn

10 things...

10 things I love about you....

1. I love your little giggle, I can't help but laugh when I hear it.
2. I love your strong conscience, You always know what is right and wrong and try you best in following your conscience
3. I love that you are really good at sleeping in!!
4. I love watching you be a big sister
5. I love to hear you read, you have such great expression
6. I love the cute little notes you leave me.
7. I love how thoughful you are, you are always thinking of others
8. I love to see you grow up, though I tell you I want you to stay little, it excites me to see you grow. You have so much potential in that little body.
9. I love that you want me to come to school, to help read or just to have lunch.
10.I love that I get to be your mom, you help me to be a better person.

I love you Matayia

Exercise Night

Greg likes to exercise in the evening after he gets home from work. In our home this is called "workout night" this is quickly becoming a favorite activity for Matayia and Kaitlyn. It is also a favorite with me, because it becomes a little alone time for me. Matayia and Kaitlyn act as though they have been banished from the basement all day and the only time they can play down there is on workout night. The toys down there instantly become brand new as if they have never been seen before. One night I decided to go downstairs and see what they were all doing, and this is what I found.





If you can't tell they are doing their "push ups" notice that Kaitlyn has a hard block she is trying to touch her nose to. Of coarse Matayia insisted that Kaitlyn needed it there so she could do her push ups right. I think Matayia would of broke her nose if she would of followed the rules of correct push ups!!

Sunday Spirit

Last week at the Generaly Young Womens Conference President Monson gave a great talk. He talked about having Courage, courage to not judge others, courage to live a virtuous life and courage to stand for Righteousness. As a I sat on the floor of the Gunnison foyer (because I was in my jeans) I was really moved by this talk. I loved that President Monson started with having courage to not judge others. This is of coarse something that I believe the youth in today's world really struggle with. But what was more interesting to me was, though I am no longer in the youth category, I still struggle with this. I have always struggled with this, Greg likes to make fun of me when my first impression judgements of others usually prove to be wrong when I really get to know the person. I need more courage, more courage to see all people as Christ sees them, as children of God. This is the way I hope, people see my children, and the way they see me. I pray I will have more courage, courage not only to not judge but to always stand for righteousness.

Alternative to a baby sitter...

Package supplies should be marketed as toys. Matayia aand Kaitlyn thought it was great fun jumping on the big huge bubble. I though it was great fun wrapping them up so they couldn't get out!!

Matayia thought Kaitlyn looked like a little penguin!