Santa comes to Germany

Santa stopped by the base yesterday for a few hours.  Apparently the DoD is cutting down on programs due to budget deficits, but it still has money for Santa to fly around in an F-16 (he didn't really, they just rolled him over in one).  See some of our pictures.

We are midway through December now and we've had one slight snowfall, but nothing since.  We are staying busy with end of the year parties and activities.  I like the end of the year because things really really slow down at work the last couple weeks of December.  It is easy to take some time off and catch up on projects.  Happy Holidays to all.  Love Erik and Emily

Rallye Racers

Last weekend (Aug 23, 2013) we had the chance to indulge in an activity I really wanted to see while living in Europe, a World Rallye Championship race stage!  If you are wondering what that is, you can go to www.wrc.com, and it will show you.  They are the sup'ed up little race cars that go over hill and dale tearing around corners across the country as fast as they can.  We went out to a stage location on a Friday evening to see what we could see.   It was really well organized and easy to find, out in the rolling wine country of the Mosel Region.  The cars have a really nice buzz sound to em as they are tearing through their gears.  Emily and the boys were kind enough to tag along, but I don't think they were as interested as I was.  And to tell you the truth, when you see them in real life, you really only see about 200 yards of the track, a car comes, and goes, and that's it.  It's not like the 60 second highlights of an entire race where you see them jumping over a rise, or wiping out around a corner.  But it was fun.  Interestingly enough, German's are a weird crowd.  Who would have guessed.  Everyone just kind of stands there quietly, no one gets too rowdy, no obnoxious drunks, and everyone minds their own business.  We found ourselves "shush'ing" our boys, but then thought, 'we're outside, they can be loud if they want to!'.   It was a good time.  

Erik's Swiss Alpine Excursion

So last weekend I took a trip with my friend Mark to area of Interlaken, Switzerland to do some hiking.   More specifically it was south a little past Lauterbrunnen to a parking lot at the end of the road in Stechelberg.  It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.  The weather worked out well for us so we had great views.  I wanted to get up to a Swiss Alpine Club Hut, so we chose the Rottal Hut and went for it.  From car to Hut it was a little over 6000' of climb in about 6 hours.  It was awesome.   The Rottal Hut is used by mountaineers as a base camp for summiting the Jungfrau, one of Switzerland's highest peaks.  I'll tell the story more in an email, but I wanted to get the pictures out here before I went to bed tonight.    -Erik

What we've been up to...(or another possible title could be "How I might need to spend more time washing windows"

Here's Dane with his funny outfit of the day, I think the post has a few more examples.

 Funny outfits for everyone!

 This isn't the best example of it, but Henry has a really good scowl.  He doesn't give attitude with it, but he sure looks like he's cranky.  I'm usually not the recipient of the scowl, so I think it's cute.

 Hank has reached an age where he knows how to make jokes now.  He didn't see his brothers do this, he just went for it one day all on his own.  Too funny.  Oh, and enjoy the close up shots of his boogers.

 The other boys getting in on the action.

 Even on a different day, it's still funny.

 One of my new obsessions is making homemade oreos.  Let me explain it to you like this:  Say you only ever had Chips Ahoy cookies your whole life, your whole life!, and then someone made for you a real chocolate chip cookie.  Would that blow your mind?  (stop singing, Annie)  That's what it's like making your own oreos.  It's a game-changer, people.  If you're looking for the same life altering experience, then give it a whirl.  Here's a tip that I found in a review, instead of Dutch process cocoa, get the Special Dark Hershey's kind.  It's half and half, and makes the cookie part very dark brown/black and delicious.

Here's Alec with his pirate hat on, enjoying the frosting mixer.

 Sarah's modeling the stand full of cookies.

 Henry is too funny.  So quiet, but he knows he's being funny.

Henry bumped his head on the bottom stair right between his eyes and then it swelled up and bruised.  It was sad, of course, but funny too because he looked like baby Frankenstein.  The bruising sort of made it look like a unibrow, and the swelling made it look like his brow bone went all the way across his forehead.  Poor baby Frankenstein.  

 Whenever we're ready to go somewhere and I ask them to wait at the door, they ask for a picture.  It's usually a pretty inconvenient time, but I love that I'll have a big collection of pictures of all the boys lined up at the door ready to go.  

 Reid's showing his kung fu moves, note how he's holding on to the dresser for stability. 

 More of Dane's creative outfits.

 Alec got in on the dress up fun.

 Today the boys have fevers and fell asleep next to each other in the "birds' nest" in the playroom.  I love when they have a chance to spend time together just the two of them.  They really have that special twin thing sometimes.