Saturday, July 6, 2013

Life with the Germans


We are at the end of week two of what Hunter called the German invasion. We have had an absolutely great time! Tiring, but great.

We have been to moody gardens aquarium and rainforest, schlitterbahn, the beach, the beach again, fishing from our dock, fishing from the boat, fishing from the boat again, more dock fishing, nasa, an Astros game, the alligator refuge, dickinson bayou wildlife park, bands on the sand and band in the park.

We have eaten the all american/ texan foods of bbq, hotdogs, tamales, enchiladas, pizza, and burgers. And lots and lots of Whataburger!

That doesn't even include the Lund's side trip to sea world, enchanted rock, canyon lake, and floating the Guadalupe river. Whew!

Just a few pictures and tidbits for now.  









Hunter, Philipp and Sydney went out for a big boy fishing trip and left Noah behind. Sydney had an awesome time catching kingfish and a couple of theses Mahdi Mahdi ( also called dolphin or dorado). Noah on the other hand was sad.  So, we loaded up and went to the drive through wildlife park where peanut the lama tried to eat my hat right off my head and a camel got waaaay into the tram to eat the brochure Isabel was holding. no amount of food could dissuade her from her yummy paper. 





Sweet Noah is like the energizer bunny.  He was usually still bouncing off walls at 8:30pm while trying to get the others in bed.  But this day we went to schlitterbahn water park for 6 hours then followed that with a boat ride to find dolphins. He could not fight the rocking of the boat and was down for the count before we were even headed back home. He slept for 13 hours that night.  



After four straight days in the sun, we spent an inside day at NASA. Caroline and Noah went head to head on the rock wall while Sydney climbed the pillars. Sydney and c were delighted to find a "NASA style" gangnam style parody on you tube. Apparently dance crazes also translate. 



I wish this picture was not so blurry, but it is still a funny one. They are all in a shark tank pretending to see a big one.  This was our first adventure and Sydney was pretty jet lagged. He was still very overwhelmed by the amount of English in America and was not sure what to do with the very chatty girl he was assigned to.  This was also our first attempt at keeping our herd together. Thankfully they were all dressed in the same clor so you could just stand back and count heads like a field trip.



Noah thinks fishing at the house is about the most incredible thing ever. He checks the trap constantly and has a line in the water most of the time.  We actually had lines in the water within five minutes of arriving at our house on day 1. This is the first of many cat fish noah caught on bait that he also caught.  Noah had no English upon arriving, but also no inhibitions.  He will run up to me and say "amy, hvjhgfdgfc bhjjhbhv jvjhvhhghvgchhgf uhggvghngc?" And wait for an answer with his angelic face turned up to you.  My response was always " show me" with an extended hand.  By the end of day 2 I had learned bait, fish, net, in German and he had learned those and SHUT THE DOOR in English.  Sydney was slower to come around, but the computer game mine craft and love of all things harry potter have made Sydney and c the best of friends. Sydney is no longer worried about how his English sounds and they talk nonstop. Except when they argue over who is cheating at the Hogwarts lego game.



Wooden cutouts are a staple in Caroline's diet. Noah thought they were a hoot and the two of hem would scope them out everywhere we went. This is a pretty easy task in a tourist town. Even the library has one.  But even better than wooden cutouts for noah?  Water fountains!  He loves them, and does not have them at home.  He has taste tested every water fountain we have come across.



We met the Lund's at the airport car rental location. We knew what time their plane got in but not how long customs might take so Caroline was starting to get a little worried.  But she carried her trusty welcome sign around with her as she explored the terminal.  The Lund's arrived on the floor above us and noah took a double take when he saw the sign, the first of the hilarious "elf" actions he has done.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The zebra room

Hunter and I put the bunk beds together last night and C put all the zebra bedding on. She slept in the top bunk last night with all her stuffies. Right now she is in a tent she created out of the bottom bunk.

Mmmmmm SPAM

I brought a can of spam with jalapeƱos back for hunter's dad from Minnesota. Caroline was upset because she doesn't like spicy. So, I purchased my first can of Spam ever and we are having Spam cubans for dinner!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

GB& PM part 5

St ansgar: on our way home from Austin we drove over to Grace and Norbert's farm to see the water levels in the fields. Unfortunatly it was too wet to climb apple trees or run through the ditch with the power of greyskull ( yes a he-man reference). As we pulled through town ( a one stop light kind of place), we met my grandpa at an intersection!

GB & PM part 4

The birthday party: most summers we are home, my mom puts on a party for caroline. This year the boys (parker is 3 and brayden is 4) picked out a theme and all the supplies. GG grace and G G Norbert came over for lunch and a great time was had by all.









GB & PM part 3

Family picture:  we had to take our annual family picture in front of Mom's bushes.  This time around we of course had more issues to deal with- more kids then laps, nap schedules, hungry kids and redneck tooth (c has a snaggel tooth that refuses to fall out, but sticks out enough to gross you out).   For the most part everyone was really good, but toward the end c got silly and this is the pic we got.  Be on the lookout for good pictures from Holly's camera.  For those of you that knew my sisters when they were little, I bet you can guess who belongs to whom!  

GB & PM part 2

Spam museum:   A trip to Iowa is not complete without a swing through Austin.  We went to the SPAM museum first. Caroline of course wanted to make SPAM and even with Papa Marc coaching and a practice round she still lost to the amazing mommy.  However at the SPAM exam quiz show, Grandma Becky kicked all our buns. C discovered she was old enough to enjoy the humor of MontyPython's  flying circus with the spam, spam, eggs and spam skit.    The spam food truck was parked out front so we taste tested spam curds-batter fried spam and cheese sticks.  Everyone agreed they were awesome. Of course we had to spend a few of Papa's points in the gift shop and I got a tin side spam lunchbox and a new long sleeve spam shirt.  We even found a mike the knight look a like in sir can a lot and purchased Parker a magnet and tattoo.

Of course we had to have lunch at Taco Johns and introduce c to potato oles!  Jeanne Tomlinson met us there before we drove by our houses (there is too much "town" between our house and the corn fields now) and schools (Shaw has been gone for a long time, but it is still disorienting when trying to find Putt's house).