Berlin

 

16 FEB 2013 - The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany is a sight to behold. With so much history wrapped up in this landmark, it's not hard to understand why it has become iconic. We enjoyed a fine winter day to wander around the city and take in everything it had to offer.

 

We hadn't anticipated what an amazing experience we would have at the German Holocaust Memorial. Comprised of hundreds of rectangular blocks of granite, this memorial looks interesting from the outside... 

 

but once you're inside the blocks, the memorial has a whole new meaning and gives you a chance to view it in a whole new light. You certainly don't anticipate feeling so small once you're inside the blocks, but that's exactly what happens. Incredible!

 

 

 Located in the heart of Berlin, the Deutcher Bundestag (German Parliament) is a really cool building also with quite a history.

 

We made some history of our own in front of the Bundestag running the first ever Strong Kids Berlin Foot Race. Born of pure spontaneous necessity, the kids covered nearly the entire distance of the lawn in front of the Bundestag. Kjersti came in first, Eli followed just behind and Eve came in a close third. Way to go kids! I'm sure we could pull this off in every major city we visit. Next time we'll have to give the younger kids a bigger head start. ;)

 

 Throughout the city, markers such as this one indicate where the Berlin Wall once stood.

 

Today, time is the real enemy of what remains of the wall. It hasn't faired too well.

 

No visit to Berlin would be complete with seeing Checkpoint Charlie. Another iconic location.

Europe's Largest Indoor Waterpark

17 FEB 2013 - While not very tropical looking from the outside, Tropical Islands Indoor Waterpark is the largest indoor water park in Europe. Built on a former Soviet airbase just south of Berlin, Germany, this monster of a dome is quite a sight to see for the first time.

 

 The thing is just massive. Ginormous is probably a better word. What makes it more interesting is hearing German, Polish and English bantered about by everyone inside. It really makes the whole "tropical" thing just seem surreal.

 

Unfortunately, we didn't take as many pictures on the inside as we had hoped, but if you ever get the chance, spend a few minutes and just check out their website to get the full effect - http://www.tropical-islands.de/en/attractions/

Elder Adam Babcock

15 FEB 2013 - While we lived in Watertown, New York, we became very close to the Babcock family. Adam, their youngest son, became very close to Cody while he served as the Young Men's President in the Watertown ward. In 2011, Adam was called to the Alpine German Speaking Mission. That mission consists of Southern Germany, all of Austria and the German speaking areas of Switzerland. Stuttgart is in the Alpine mission and our family prayed and lobbied the powers that be that Adam would be able to serve part of his mission near us. In mid-February, our prayers were answered and he was transferred to Esslingen which is in our Stake! The day after he arrived, we made a special visit out to greet him. Such a great day!

 

Of course, since we had access to the commissary, we had to make sure we brought him some of the tasty treats that weren't available in Germany. He was happy we brought them. ;)  

 

We had Adam over to our home for dinner a number of times while he was here. Stake conference was always fun too since it gave us the chance to sit with each other at church.

 

It's not everyday you get a picture standing next to Adam and Eve!

 

Most of our visits would end with Cody taking Adam back to the train station to make his way home or to appointments.

 

We made sure we sent every picture home to Adam's mother Kelley.

 

Adam finished his mission in Esslingen on 24 July 2013. He had served a faithful mission and returned with honor! Cody met him in Esslingen to take him out to dinner one last time on the day before he reported back to the mission home in Munich. Adam returned to his studies at BYU and now conducts weekly Skype sessions with Cody to help him with his German. Talk about dedicated service! We love Adam and look forward to spending time with him again!

Bebenhausen, Germany

9 FEB 2013 - Bebenhausen, Germany is a very small walled village that was founded in the 13th century as a monastery. It's located about 20 minutes away from our home in Weil im Schonbuch. While Kjersti was out playing with a friend, we decided to pay a visit. The church, and other buildings located inside the walled village are very quaint and traditional and made for a fun visit.

 The kids loved roaming from room to room, so we had to make sure they didn't get too far away from us. The hallways surrounding the courtyard were really impressive - more so than some of the actual rooms.

 

 It snowed most of the time we were there, but for a few minutes, the sun came out while the snow fell and it made for some wonderful pictures of the courtyard. We were very impressed with this place and we walked away thinking it might just be the perfect place for our family pictures later in the year.

The Stuttgart Old Palace

26 JAN 2013 - We decided it was time to take a trip into downtown Stuttgart and check out the old palace. Inside the court yard of the palace grounds was this really cool knight statue.

 Inside the palace, they had a special exhibit regarding the early Celtic inhabitants of Germany (who knew?) Of course, the kids totally got their "Celt" on and were full gear atop the large fake rock in the exhibit. So fun.

Eve - So Dad, you're saying that if I hit this piece of copper 400 times it will turn to gold?!? Ok. One, two, three...

Goliath and some Snow

20 JAN 2013 - When freezing rain cancels church, you have to improvise. When you improvise, you make Goliath's that looks this. When you make Goliath's that look like this, your kids forget about the lesson and simply want to slay Goliath. Don't make Goliath's that look like this!

 

Eli slaying Goliath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About a five minute walk from the house is an awesome sledding hill. We enjoyed many a day this winter sledding down and walking back up this wicked run!

Mercedes-Benz Museum

5 JAN 2013 - Downtown Stuttgart is host to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. Given the cold weather we were having, we figured it would be a great day to pay a visit!

 

The first Mercedes' bare no resemblance to what we think of when we use that term today. Eli enjoyed the audio tour.

 

 

We learned quickly that at this age, Eve would make a terrible bus driver. Sorry Eve.

 

The tour was great, but despite all of the cool cars, the kids thought designing their own steering wheel was the real highlight!