Oktoberfest = 17-20Sept2009

It gets harder and harder to come home from Germany. If we ever disappear without a trace, check Barvaria first!!

Papabear worked the night before so after he came home at 7am we took to the road. (with me driving *gasp*)

Our first stop was to see the Otzi the Iceman at the halfway point between home and Germany. We went just to see him, but the museum had a FOUR floor display about Mummies around the world. We saw Natural (frozen, dried out) mummies and ACTUAL Egyptian mummies! My first! Littlebear said that this was the best part of his vacation. (Although he does NOT want to be mummified when he dies...LOL! "Mom, I don't want my brains pulled out of my nose")

I can't believe that Otzi's clothing and weapons are still intact. It's amazing to see something that old...and in that great of shape. Amazing! They didn't let me take pictures inside, so I don't have pictures of him. :o( Here's his website, for those so interested: Iceman

On to Deutschland!!!

On Friday we connected with two other couples and headed out to Linderhof palace. I've seen this palace at LEAST 3x and it still impresses me as my favorite palace.




This is where I would love to live. Just like this...in this house. *sigh*






Schloss Linderhof. You can see Papabear and one of the couples we went with.






Our Family (I have no idea what Littlebear is doing...Ganstah Giggle??





The Gardens at Linderhof





I love wrought iron work...and this pergola was covered with ivy in the process of changing to scarlet. Wow!



I'm a fan of art...all kinds. Painting, sculpture, architecture, handicrafts. Barvaria is covered in muraled houses. Here's a few.








Here's the detail of the above house.











Here's a detail of the above house. The whole building is scenes from everyday life. So cool!






We put Littlebear in the Resort's camp adventure program (babysitting.) I fought this tooth and nail, but in the end I gave in. He had a blast. Sightseeing isn't his thing. He whined through Linderhof and was just a party pooper. From then on we put him into the programs. He LOVED it! All of his best friends (literally) were in there. They took the kids to the reptile house, a boat ride, and this "winter lodge" which had video games and facepainting. Littlebear wanted a picture before we washed it off.





A Firefighter mural for Opa M.
Fuerwehr Partenkirchen= Firehouse of Partenkirchen (city)




Edelweiss Lodge and Resort (and my car)





My new Desktop picture



So, you're asking yourself: Where the heck are the Oktoberfest pictures??...Well *laugh* There's a story. The day we were supposed to go (1st day, parade, opening ceremonies) the group we were going with had a late start. Finally, at 10, we were ready to get on the hour/half train ride to Munich...then Papabear had an idea. We needed to be back here by 4 to pick up the kids from Camp Adventure so, since we've been five times, we should stay behind and watch the kids for the hour before they went into Parent's Night Out. So we let the 3 other couples go and we headed out to Garmish to....SHOP!!

I went online and found a yarn shop...plugged it into my GPS and headed out with a heart full o' bursting. It's a crappy photo, but this is the shop. She spoke better English than half the people I know. And she loved to talk!!





This is the size of shop I'd love to own. It's about as big as a bathroom and just stuffed with 'nummy yarn. However, I was REALLY good. I bought some German wool for a scarf and three groups of Barvarian buttons (the flag, an edelweiss, and Saint George for Littlebear's sweater)





My Yarn in my Val Gardena bowl (But Val Gardena is another Blogpost.)It is gray, pink, orange, and a smidge of blue. We also bought German lace curtains on the bolt for the camper (cut what you need, they're already hemmed)I'll go find my camera and see if I can't include them in another blogpost. This one's long enough already!!




And that's it. We had so much fun! I love this part of the world and I can't wait to go back. It always amazes me whenver we leave 65 degree dry weather and open the car door to 82 degree humid weather. Ha!



Tschuss!
Ang

Easter at Home

Baskets!!
**Thank you Easter Bunny for your box from home! It meant alot!**

Sugarhigh!!

Love, Ang

Base Easter party

We headed over to the Base's Easter Party this year! Fun! LOTS of food, games, and candy. For some reason I chit-chatted more than took pictures. I'm sorry for just having a few.

The cake walk. Littlebear was so sad that he didn't win anything. He did get a booby prize though (hehe, I said "booby")

I saw so many spouses there that I've never met before. Again, I don't see how they do it. If I was locked up in my house 24/7 I'd go crazy. And I'm more of a shut-in, catlady than most.

Love, Ang

Happy Birthday Papabear!!

Birthdays on a weeknight are a low-key affair in our house. We'll go do something fun this weekend.

MMMMM Frosting (homemade Cream Cheese)

Papabear's gone all "European" on me and now doesn't like true AMERICAN tub frosting. So, for this one, I added 2/3 box Powdered Sugar, 1 stick butter, pkg of cream cheese, 1 tsp Vanilla, dash of milk. I was told to make it with just a half box of sugar next time and double the vanilla. It was still good!

Spice cake. I used my MIL's recipe for extra moist cake. Papa had THREE pieces! Amazing, since he isn't a sweets person.

A Staged "Blowing out of the candles" picture.

Papabear using his BRAND NEW non-smoker lungs on his birthday cake! Yay!!

This was Littlebear's first cake. All I did was read the directions and supervise. I love it when he asserts himself in the kitchen. I rarely ever find pleasure in cooking. It always just seems like a chore. All that work and it's gone in 15 minutes. Thank goodness I live with two cooks.

I'm getting my butt kicked by a cold this week...so not much else has been going on.

I signed up for a knitting/crocheting social network called "Ravelry" and finally got my invite this week. It would be completely boring to you if I gushed about how excited I am. But, if you're a Raveler, my username is "mundenang". It is so nice to interact with people who you can talk to about knitting (without having to watch their eyes glaze over!!)

Love, Ang

Halloween

I LOVE Halloween! We didn't do much...but we did it with great joy! Papabear had to work again this year.

Carving our pumpkin. This was LB's first solo pumpkin. He gutted it, carved it, and smashed it the next day. I just supervised.

LB loves saluting nowadays. He makes the poor dog salute all the time.

I said "act scared"......I'm not really sure how he got "lift your shirt" from that. LOL!

We didn't have any police tape....but we did have "Dead body" chalk outlines and this tape outline on our driveway. *laugh* he moved and that's why that one side looks goofy.

Here's a recap of what his costume was. I couldn't talk him into anything cuter. *sigh* But notice the "I'm so cute" head tilt to the side. *laugh*

Love all of you,
Ang

Boyscout Halloween Party

We had Littlebear's halloween party on the 30th of Oct. Here's a few pictures:

LB is on the far right. He used his knght's costume with his skully mask. I kept calling him the Nazgul Yes, I do realize how nerdy I am. (snort)

Making Toiletpaper mummies.

It was just Soooooo crazy. I'll miss these guys too when we move.

Love, Ang

Pugs and Kisses...and the Fall Festival

I love sweet little pugs and kisses.

We also hit the "Fall Festival" at school tonight. They used to call it a "Halloween Festival" until they got heat from the religious groups....so they just changed the name. LOL! I guess that soothed everyone's feathers.

We've been going to the school festivals for about three years now (they have 2-3 a year) and the ticket prices usually sell for 4 tickets to a dollar. Tonight they were 2 for a dollar, but all the games/rides/booths were twice the ticket price they normally are. I guess the"Recession" is even hitting Elementary Schools. But mmmm that two dollar(!) hand-dipped caramel apple tasted good.

My inlaws are coming this weekend. They're headed back home after an "around the country" tour. Tomorrow is also L.B.'s last day of Kung Fu.....Oh crap...that means I have cookies to make.

Toodles,

Ang

Labor Day Camping- Najavo Lake, Utah

Papabear came home Wednesday night and said "Hey, lets go camping over Labor Day weekend."

Our neighbor went up the week before (to work on his boss's house) and reserved a space for us. Otherwise we would have never gotten a spot on such short notice.

So I slapped together some supplies and we headed out.

Here's the view from our camper door. We had a huge area for Littlebear to ramble around in. Our Vegas neighbor was also our camping neighbor....so he didn't mind Littlebear's hoots and hollers.

Grandma M gave Littlebear a tent for Christmas a couple years ago. We've set it up a few times in the back yard...but this is its maiden setup.

Littlebear and Daddy playing "Trouble"

I love the rock faces out in Utah.

Friday was glorious! Overnight a cold front moved in and brought rain/wind. This was the temp when I decided to get out of bed the next day. Trust me, getting up to go potty at 2am was CHILLY!

This is our neighbor, "German" Richard, fishing with Littlebear. It was sooo cold. (I was snug in the camper reading Anne of Green Gables *wink*)

Littlebear in his Hammock. This "baby forest" was between our campsites.

I love to camp. This weekend was just what I needed to break that bluefunk I had been in for a couple weeks. I'm still nervous about moving...but I'm not petrified.

Love, Ang

Disneyland/Aunt K

The last time I wrote, Littlebear was in CA and Kate was coming for her birthday. Well....here's the pictures.

Kate's Birthday-
Kate and Steph came up and hung out with us. They spent friday night here at the house and the rest of the nights up at Fremont Street. For some reason I didn't get many pictures from this time. I hear she's coming up later this year...so I've kept my bird a little longer (*grin*)

Here we are at a local bar watching our pal, Chris, and his band. Kate was sure a good sport. I'm sure she would have rather been 1/2 into her La Bayou by now.

For her birthday I knitted her a pair of Forrest Green, Gray, Black oven mitts. For some reason I didn't get a picture of them.

Littlebear's Disney pictures: Grandma made me a CD of all of their pictures.

They also took him to the California Adventure. He had such a good time that week.

Love, Ang