Munich

We went to Munich over Valentines Day weekend. The highlight of our trip was the Nymphenberg Palace, where King Ludwig was born (the one who built Neuschwanstein.) One of museums held old carriages that were used by the family. Most of these were designed to be way over the top made with gold and intricate paintings all over. It was very interesting.

The nice part about visiting this palace was that we could take pictures! It wasn't until I was about 3/4 of the way done, that I found out we were not supposed to be using our flash.... so some of the pics are really dark. It was also great that the tour was self guided, Ellie wanted to do some exploring and wasn't about to stay put for any amount of time. So, for these reasons this was one of my favorite palaces so far.

Inside the palace was glimmering with dozens of white chandeliers, more intricate paintings, mirrors, carvings, pictures, tapestries and an amazingly huge garden outback (which we'll have to go back and see because it was too cold to wander around outside.) In the front they had a fountain and a pond with swans. It was quite an amazing place.

Music Class, Princess Castle And Happy Valentines Day!

Thanks to Tracy Phillips our brilliant organist, primary pianist and amazing music teacher we have a really fun music group for the little ones. We sing songs, dance and play, Ellie has a lot of fun. Thanks for all your work Tracy!




Ellie got a new toy, for V day. She LOVES it. I think it must be a German thing, I don't recall castle tents being popular in the States.

Russian Night

We have a few Russian members in our ward and a German member that just got back from his mission to Russia, I'm the activities chair at church........... presto, Russian Night. Good times were had, especially by the lady in the white shirt, scarf and boots. One of my favorite families at church are the Grebes. Sister Grebe is the kindest person I've met, she went all out making tons of food for us to try. Although she speaks Russian/German I can still understand her or at least understand that what she intends to say is very sweet. That night she and her brother played the accordion for us. The first song she played was the Tetris song, a traditional Russian folk song, but all I could think about was my favorite Nintendo game- totally made me laugh. Members danced and Ellie had fun dancing to the music too.

Autobahn fun?

I'm still getting used to going 110mph on the freeways. (We were driving next to a Polizei (German Police man) for about 1/2 an hour at this rate.) They do have areas that you have to go 80kmph and instead of pulling you over to ticket, the state just takes your picture. The picture takes most of the shame out of getting a ticket ( I think.) Even though Andrew's been "flashed" once (on New Years) no bills yet....