Europe For Real

After three years of planning and saving we took our semi- dream trip to Europe. Semi because we had three kids along. But it was alot of fun with them with just a few melt downs in 18 busy fun filled days.
The best part was visiting our exchange students families in Finland and Germany. We started off in Belgium and flew into Brussels. We didn't stay long and that evening after visiting Brussels we flew to Stockholm Sweden where we spent 3 days. We all loved Sweden and Finland , what beautiful countries and the people were very nice. The food was really good too. We loved the fresh fruit and Chocolate! After Stockholm we took a ship to Finland and were greeted by Anni and her parents. It was really good to see her again, It's hard to believe its been 4 years. Her family were wonderful hosts and we were able to see lots of Finland and just a few of thier 60,000 lakes!
Off to Paris on a plane, the airlines in Europe are great if you just want to fly within Europe. Paris was very crowded and busy but it was nice to see some of the things we have read about. It is true about the language there, use French they respond a lot quicker. Our favorite building was Nortra Dame, loved the gargoyles. Everyone had their fill of museums by time we left by train to Germany.
Mario met us at the train station (trains and planes are the way to go to move around in Europe) We met his family later in the day so whlie we waited we took a tour of Frankfurt and we up a tall building and had a great view of the area. Frankfurt kept only a few old buildings after WWII, mostly they rebuilt the city with new ones. Germany has many old palaces and castles to visit and it was fun to see many different kinds of each. We finished our trip by going up the Rhine River Valley to Koln, Germany then onto Brugge, Belgium. Brugge was very old with lots of canals and cobblestone streets.
Tired but happy to go back to our own beds we flew back home from Brussels for mom to plan a wedding!

Apartment Hunting

They also went shopping!!! Don't they look good with those headbands.

The girls went apartment hunting in Boise. They decided since there were no parents around they could jump on the bed and off the couches. They had a fun weekend together. They even found an apartment so they accomplished their goal.

Megan and Amanda lovin' school

Well since Megan is at school without Chance right now, she hangs out with Amanda a lot. They went boating one weekend. They had a lot of fun tubing and wakeboarding.

Water is wonderful

Two days without running water because our main water pipe broke! With record heat for around here, 101 degrees. That was a fun test to see how well we could do. The neighbors were kind enough to let us us their hose so we had water for our toilet and drinking. All that storage water came in handy too, even though I hadn't changed it since 2004. The plants got that water even though it smelled OK. I think I need to look at it more often.
After digging a trench for 6 hours Brent and Jeff were very sweaty and dirty so with no shower that worked the next best thing was to put on swimsuits and shower with the hose! Brrrrrrr! It made for a quick one. So water really is wonderful.

You Go Girl

Snowboarding 2010

Fun in the not so warm sun.