I don’t have too much to say about the last month.
As always there have been a mix of extremes. Extreme highs and
extreme lows. On the one hand, we’ve felt SO grateful for our amazing
experiences to travel this part of the world, see so many neat places, and have
this incredible experience of living abroad. On the other hand, our family is
undergoing some challenges that would be difficult anywhere in the world, and
so the hundreds of “little things” that are harder and more inconvenient by
living abroad stack up and make those challenges feel a lot heavier than if we
lived back in the states.
But above all, we are happy, we are healthy, we are a
family, and we love each other. We have our faith and each other, which is everything to us.
Some of our different activities this summer have included:
Our gym membership offers an array of free sport classes for
kids. We’ve been trying a few of them out
over the summer. It’s been a fun adventure trying to communicate with the
instructors and getting the kids to participate. We’ve tried ball spiele (ball
play), kinder turnen (kid’s gymnastics), hip hop, and klein spiele (small
games). Each class begins by the instructors explaining how the games will
work, and me trying to interpret what they are saying and explain it to my
kids. Many of the instructors have spoken English, which is so nice (we are so
lucky they do!) and when they don’t, we’ve always managed to figure it out through a game of charades.
We visited a local amusement park about a month ago. It was
filled with roller coasters, fair rides, trampoline courts, farm animals, and
man-powered rides: a Ferris wheel powered by pedaling a bicycle, a swing ride
powered by manually spinning a wheel, a helicopter ride overlooking the park, also
powered by pedaling, and a tower ride where you sat in seats and pulled a rope,
hoisting yourself to the very top. Apparently, these self-operated rides are a
very German thing. I’ve never seen such a unique park. It was the best time trying out each attraction. Our kids (and me because at heart, I'm just a big kid), all loved it and had the best time. Germans know how to make some magical parks!
It’s been HOT this summer. Up to 108 F. And with only one little ac unit in our living
room, some days have been pretty unbearable and some nights have been sleepless.
But we’ve beat the heat with visits to splash pads and swimming pools
(thankfully there are lots of those here) and luckily, it’s been cooling down the last week or so.
In the last month, Mike's work travels have taken him to England, Algiers, Kyrgyzstan, and Ethiopia. It's always fun to hear about his interesting experiences in all these countries. Luckily he's been writing some of them down, and many are pretty funny.
As for me, I got to go on a little solo trip (+baby) to Brussels last month to visit some friends. While there, we went to a local market, explored a beautiful park, and visited Bruges for the day. It was a lot of fun shopping, eating waffles, exploring, and just visiting with each other. How nice it was to take a trip away for a weekend!
The biggest event from the last month was our 10-day road
trip to the UK. We drove to London, Weymouth, Stonehenge, Wales, York, and Dover. We explored
royal palaces and castles, played on beautiful beaches, drove across the most
gorgeous green landscapes, and stayed in the cutest bed and breakfasts. Barmouth, Wales
was our favorite stop – just a beautiful coastal town filled with lots of fun
things to do with kids (crabbing, jelly fish watching, lots of ice cream, sandy
beaches, etc.). These trips have given
us some wonderful life-long memories to cherish!
School will be starting up in about two weeks and I think
we’re all excited for that. Last year’s experience at an international school
(half-German/half English) was in all honesty, extremely tumultuous. This year,
the boys will be going to a new school for Kindergarten that will be taught
completely in English. It has a lot more teacher and resource support, and I
think (and hope and pray) that it will be a better experience. Wish us luck!
Before school starts, we have one more family vacation
planned, so we are really looking forward to that!
On a final note... the other day, I thought it would be fun to remember what it’s like to drive here in Frankfurt, so I set my camera on the dash and captured a little drive time on my way to the gym. When I first got here, driving felt like a big deal. It seemed so different than what I was used to. Now it's so normal. Funny how something so intimidating at first can become comfortable and normal over time. (What a blessing that is). I wonder how it will feel going back to the states. Mike recently went to DC for a week and said the roads downtown felt HUGE and the sidewalks were so spacious! Funny, because compared to the west where we are from, we initially thought DC roads were tiny. Everything is relative isn't it...
On a final note... the other day, I thought it would be fun to remember what it’s like to drive here in Frankfurt, so I set my camera on the dash and captured a little drive time on my way to the gym. When I first got here, driving felt like a big deal. It seemed so different than what I was used to. Now it's so normal. Funny how something so intimidating at first can become comfortable and normal over time. (What a blessing that is). I wonder how it will feel going back to the states. Mike recently went to DC for a week and said the roads downtown felt HUGE and the sidewalks were so spacious! Funny, because compared to the west where we are from, we initially thought DC roads were tiny. Everything is relative isn't it...
Now for a few pictures from the last month’s adventures:
