Slides, Swings and Slippery Leaves

Last weekend we took advantange of a "nice" day and headed to the playground. Jim and I both were fighting off a cold, but it was either take the kids out and let them run around or kill them... :0)

Its been snowing and icing over every morning for the past few weeks. The weather seemed to lighten back up over the weekend and now we are in the low 50's for highs and in the mid 30's for lows. Its foggy every morning but at least its not icing over.

Nothing momentous happened at the park, other than kids laughter that is amazingly contagious.But we shot some video's and some pictures, so enjoy! There are 4 videos in total, three of them were too large to post on here so I loaded them onto youtube, I will attach the links at the bottom of this email.

Oh and yes, they have matching jackets and yes... they are Dora.. I know, I really fought this one but we had a limited selection to choose from, and they both needed jackets... And you cant get one a Dora coat and not get the other one one.. It has actually worked in my favor, they are like mini beacons, I can see them for miles, and can take mental stock of where they are at with in seconds. (Gotta look at the bright side when talking about Dora)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6FUFcUko9Y

this is the first video, its the girls spinning... on the spinning thing. :0)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sh-XiMYd6A

This is Carmen on the zipper-thingy. Jim rode it later (didnt get a video) but he did almost drag his bottom on the ground, quite entertaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioNS3w7Aap8

This is Jims video with his commentary, its a long one so might take some time to load. But still worth the watch.

Garmisch Germany

This weekend we headed to Garmisch, its a cute little resort town. Its at the base of the Alps with some of the prettiest mountains to be seen. We went for a few days "away" and to take some family pictures. It was supposed to be a rainy cold weekend, but it, luckily for us, turned out to be partly sunny and cloudy. It rained in the afternoons but even that wasnt all the time.

The drive was three hours long. And I don't think it is possible to do it shorter, Jim averaged about 100 mph's most of the way. Now we were on the autobahn, but the world flew by! We also got lost because the gps wanted to take us on a unmarked, unpaved road.. but we were close, in the right valley, just not a real street.

The hotel itself is a nice retreat to go to. It was right in the heart of things and it had three places to eat. It had a pool, spa, and hot tub and a parking lot in the basement (which was surprisingly nice!) The room was average american size and style. It was a military hotel so everyone spoke english (a nice perk) and everyone was just trying to get their time away from work the same way.

We had a lovely time, even managed to make it out into the mountains to take family pictures. We got a few great shots and you will be seeing them on our christmas cards this year. The ones we didnt choose you can see on our picasa web album (I will post the link below) The scenery was amazing, the mountains is something Jim and I both love so it was easy to just sit back and enjoy.

The girls were typical, we wanted to bind and gag them within minutes of leaving the house, but we worked our way through and they returned to the house alive. :0)

We have plans for the "next" trip, when that will be, we dont know yet... but its worth it for sure.

So check out our pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeniferlawson0117/GarmischGermany?feat=directlink

brought you to by the letter of the day!

We headed back up to Grafenwohr today for a Sesame Street concert. It was a fun day, tiring but still fun!.

First we had lunch up there, then did some needed shopping at the HUGE PX! Around 2pm we rolled into the parking lot for the show at 3pm. We figured we would hang in the parking lot till it got closer to time as it was chilly and windy outside. But there was already a line around the block! We were late, as it would seem. We jumped in line and started making plans on how to explain to Carmen that there wasnt room and she wasnt going to get to see Elmo.

Luckily there was room, we ended up sitting on the gym floor. The USO was running the show so we got a nifty USO scarf and a sesame street light/wand thing. The kids loved it and didnt put them down till bed time tonight. (and that was a struggle)

A few minutes later the show started and away we went. Five of the popular characters were there, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Zoe and Rosita. They ran, jumped and sang, all of five songs. Yeah, it was over in 30 minutes. The parents were relieved to have fulfilled their obligation but the kids were surprised to be leaving so soon. Oh well, they will live. :0) As will mine. Carmen talked all the way home about how she loved Elmo and how much she loved seeing him, and how he was singing to her. Adorable!

They asked us not to video tap so I didn't but before they made that announcement I got this cool video of all the kids playing with their elmo wands.

Here is the last one, its the closing of the show, it still pretty dark in there so you cant make out all the faces, but Carmen was signing with all of her heart, she had such a good time!