Big Sky Country

Montana was packed with breathtaking views!

We took a nice, long walk with all the kids (2 double strollers) to see the horses and enjoy the great outdoors. So nice after being in the car.

The porch swings were a big hit, not to mention the excavator! (Robyn will be posting those exciting pics. on her blog).

We also got to see the big Hungry Horse Dam, go on a little hike (until the skeeters ate us), enjoy Lucy's great food, and just being together!

Washington/Idaho

We enjoyed trying John's aebel skivvers.

The kids had fun playing with these kids...ha, ha.

We were glad we could see Sherill Richarz again, one of our neighbors from when we were first married.

Uncle Roger had quite the "Sunday dinner" for us. It was nice to visit with him. The girls enjoyed playing with the old fashioned toys in the "red room."

John and Shalyn's town had a really cool, big park. We especially loved the retro slide. They just don't make 'em that big or fast anymore!

We enjoyed their cute, little downtown area and...

playing with Pancho.

You Know You Might be Driving in Oregon...

When you get stuck behind a truck like this or...

find some beautiful rhododendrons like these.

I was so happy to see one of my first best friends and her dad again! We loved getting to meet her great husband and cute kids, too! We ate at fun pizza place, especially for kids, and enjoyed seeing their really cool house they've customized.

We were so glad we could spend time with Brian and Erika, especially since we'll be gone for their Big Day. We tried chicken-n-waffles for the first time (they're very tasty with honey drizzled on top), had a backyard cook-out with S'mores, and played Bocci Ball and Wiffle Ball.

This is one of my favorite pics. from our trip. Pure joy! That park had amazingly tall trees. That's Oregon for you.

First Stop: Idaho

We were sad to say goodbye to cousins in Utah, and were glad we had more cousins to look forward to seeing.

I was surprised to see the similarities in these girls' facial features, especially because they're not just first cousins, but second cousins.

I was impressed with how much these girls helped out! What a happy home. We enjoyed a fun, Dutch Oven dinner with the Jacksons and out-of-this-world pizza with the Shelleys. (Robyn will be posting more pics. from our trip on her blog).

The girls loved holding these cute bunnies. It was fun for them to experience a little bit more of what life in the country can be like.

Aunt Renee was nice about letting us play with her chinchillas and giving us some yummy desserts. We were sorry we missed the rest of her family this time.

We were glad to get to see Aunt Korin and a lot of the other Fivecoats. The girls thought all of their dogs were pretty fun. I liked how Alexander called his play dinosaurs "my angel dinosaurs" when he was fighting with them and wanted to pretend they were dead.

Aunt Glenda wanted a picture of us with our Das Buch Mormon. When we first found out we might be moving to Germany, it was Robyn's idea to read The Book of Mormon, a book we'd already been reading as a family every night, in German to help us learn the language. I thought it would be way too hard, and would not last for more than a few days.

At first, we couldn't even pronounce anything, let alone know what it meant. But, with Myles' help and Robyn's desire to stick with it, we have improved our pronunciation and our understanding over the last several months!

The other night when I was reading a chapter book (in English) to the girls at bedtime, I saw the word "was" and almost said "vas." I take this as a good sign!

Road Trip Review

2 crazy parents
3 giggly girls
22 states
30 days
72 hours of driving
4000 miles
countless memories

As we were making our road trip plans, we did begin to wonder if we really were Cah-ray-zee, but wanting to see as many friends and family as we could before moving, we decided to embark on our longest family trip ever attempted.

Now that it's all said and done, I'm glad we did it.

Driving ended up being much easier than I expected it would be. It actually gave the girls a chance to get a nice, long nap every day. The only stressful/high traffic we got stuck in was the DC area, which wasn't surprising.

No matter how many hours we drove each day, the last 20 minutes seemed to be the hardest. My friend, Katie, gave me a great idea that her mom used with her and her siblings when they were young. I passed out a lemon drop to everyone to see who could make theirs last the longest. The girls also did well with not having to make bathroom stops very often. I think it helped that it was so cool during the first 1/2 of our trip that we didn't need water bottles in the car.

To my surprise, the girls only ended up watching 3 DVDs. They had the most fun taking turns deciding what other activities they wanted to do, such as listen to the radio or a book on CD, play with paper dolls, color/water color, play a certain game, tell a certain kind of story, eat a certain snack... One of Macy's favorite story telling games was to assign everyone a part (like, think of a girl's name, or your favorite food, etc.) and then incorporate them into her story.

We got to see parts of the country we'd never seen before and eat food we never even knew existed. We got to spend time with people we love and miss.

Stay tuned for more details of the Watson's coast to coast tour.

auf Wiedersehen

If we didn't have so many wonderful friends and family members, it wouldn't have been so hard to say goodbye!!

We are grateful for everyone's love, friendship, and support. We couldn't have done it all without you!

We're off to see the Wizard one last time!

This year, Macy was a Munchkin. Carly got to be a Jitter Bug (loved the glasses!), tornado, and an Oz Girl.

We were SO happy the performance was right before we moved, so they could do it one last time. I think this was the best so far!

Carly and Macy have both taken dance from Miss Amber since they were 2. We were so blessed to have her right next door. I have memories of them scooting chairs over to the window so they could watch for her and yell "hello" whenever she came out of her house. She has been such a creative, fun dance teacher, sticking to her motto of her Ruby Shoes Studio: Keeping Life Magical. We're sure going to miss Miss Amber and her fam!

My Birthday

My B-day this year happened to be the last day of school, plus the weekend we were moving, so it was pretty busy. Friends and fam. helped make it a memorable one with a surprise lunch, thoughtful gifts/treats, watching the kids, and one last hike in the Utah mountains!

Poor Macy wiped out in the parking lot after our hike, just a few feet from the bathroom she was running to. Robyn was so sweet about taking good care of her, a nice B-day present for a mom.

Last Days of School

Why I Like Spring by Carly

I will tell you about Spring. I love the birds. I like the flowers too.

So ...

What's your favorit thing in the Spring. Let me gess. Wait, I did not ask you if you wer a boy or a girl. Boys like playing. Girls like red roses. I like both.

Oh. I like playing at the park. Do you like playing at the park?

I love Spring!

Die Puppen

Aren't these the cutest dolls you've ever seen?!

A couple of friends made these for us as going away presents to take with us on our journey.

It's extra fitting, as the girls' 2 first favorite words they learned in German were "die toilette" and "die puppe," which, of course, sounds like "poop," but means "dolls."

We haven't gotten to use a lot of German yet, but I was proud of Robyn for ordering her drinks on the plane in German. It's odd to want to be polite, but not be able to when I don't know how to say something, so I just have to be quiet.

Guten Morgen?

Here I am in our apt. in Germany utterly amazed that I slept so deeply our first night here, and that the girls are still sleeping in.

(We forced ourselves and the girls to stay awake until after dinner to help with our time-change transition).

When I woke up to light at 9 o'clock, I asked Myles if it was 9 AM. He said, "yeah," and headed off to the immigration office and then to his 1st day of work.

I took advantage of the quiet time, and kept thinking, "Man, it's going to be a rainy day," because it kept getting darker.

The moment it dawned on me to look at the time on the computer screen, which did in fact say PM, I heard Myles turning the key to our apt. and couldn't help but laugh!

Myles:
I saw beers and wine in people's hands and thought, "What is this, party central?" I guess they are getting ready for Ricky Martin... (He's coming to a stage across the street from our apartment this Saturday along with 100,000 fans.)

The embarrassing thing is how many clues I ignored. I kept thinking:
- This is a strange time zone to have sunrise at 9:00. I'm not used to seeing the moon at this time.
- Why is the foreigners' office closed, and why is the man sitting on the steps telling me it's Wednesday! I'm sure it's Thursday!
- Why are all the shops closed, even though all the bars are open? Oh yeah. On the sign it says the shops don't open until 10:00.
- Why are there so few kids at the school? I thought it was year-round here. Maybe they're closed for the same holiday as the foreigners' office.

When I finally asked a college student who looked tired what time it was.... (but college students ARE tired in the morning!)

At least I don't have to tell my new boss :)

I guess we're "Livin' la vida loca!"

Gute Nacht!

Flying Spaghetti and Meatballs!

When we told people we were moving to Germany, one of the most common responses we got was, "Wow, that's going to be an adventure!" Little did we realize how BIG of an adventure it was going to be before we'd even landed!

The picture above is of our flight route that one of the girls decided looked like "spaghetti and meatballs."

We took off from NY City's JFK Airport, as scheduled, only to be told an hour our so into our flight that a door had not been properly closed, and we'd be returning. We had to circle around for a few hours first to get rid of enough weight in order to land safely on the runway. When we were greeted by several ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks, some accepted it as normal protocol; others speculated we were being left in the dark about something. I guess we'll never know. I'm just glad we were fine.

After taking quite awhile to fix the problem and refuel, they announced that the crew would be going over time if they took us back. (By this time, we could have landed in Germany). After a few more hours, we got to sleep in a nice hotel and wake up to a great breakfast. The girls started referring to our fellow passengers as "our friends," and shared their toys with a crying toddler. We met the neatest people from Greece, South Africa, Germany, Brazil...

The next day, we stood in lines for several more hours again to repeat the whole process. One of the girls commented, "We've been here before." Yes, it kind of felt like Groundhog Day!

Poor Carly could not fall asleep on our overnight flight, so she was exhausted when we finally landed. The trains after the plane were nice, but very crowded. A saint of a woman gave up her seat so all three girls and I could pile on hers and the one next to hers. On one of the elevators, we heard a voice making an announcement in German. Carly said, "We can't understand that!" I said, "It's German." She said, "We're in Germany?" We'd traveled for so long, it didn't occur to me that she didn't realize that we'd finally arrived.

At the train station, after experiencing our first pay-to-use-the-bathroom experience, we had to try our first crepes! (Banana and chocolate. Ham, cheese and onion).

When we finally made it with all of our luggage to pick up the keys to our apartment, the office was closed. Myles asked someone if they knew why. They said, "Oh, maybe they're out to lunch." A while later, someone else tried to get into the office, but couldn't, and let us use their phone, but nobody answered.

Robyn said, "We look like we're homeless out here," yet nobody walking by made any eye contact. Myles left to see if he could find a different phone number. I said a little prayer that we could get the keys. Not 2 minutes later, a woman that I'd seen walk by earlier stopped and asked me something in German. When I didn't respond, she said, "Oh, you speak English. Are you, by any chance, trying to get into that building?" She said the woman who usually worked there was sick, but she could help me. Then, Myles showed up, and it was all worked out. She was very friendly, and brought water to share, which was exactly what I'd been wanting.

Before Myles could even finish bringing our luggage up to our 4th floor apartment, someone else was over to welcome and help us.

The girls were ecstatic to put their things away in their own dressers and make a list of what we needed at the store.

We have had a wonderful month visiting friends and family from coast to coast (more on that when I get a chance).

Now, it's good to be home.

On the Road

So far, so good! We've traveled many miles, visited great friends and family, and have seen some beautiful country. We've tried new foods like chicken-n-waffles, finished the Fable Haven Series, and have learned a little more German.

animals by Carly

We went to the Jackson's house and they had baby bunnies. We got to hold them. When we held them, we would feed them grass, dandelions, & leaves. They loved them.
There was a big black dog. I thought it was a bear at first and Macy thought it was a gorilla at first. The dog licked me with his huge tongue.
My Great Granddad shot this cougar and hung his skin on the wall. When I was 3 I went into the house and I saw it there and I got freaked out and ran to the couch.