Saturday was quite the adventurous day! First of all, Russ and I chaperoned Emma's Girl Scout Troop to a Hand's On Science Museum in Pirmasens Germany. The museum was fun and filled with tons of experiments that the kids could do... then we let them play outside in the gardens.
The grounds were beautiful (minus the graffiti in this one) and there were also several weddings going on!
Girl Scout Overseas Troop 95... and one little brother...
This is the view driving through the German countryside. The yellow on the side are fields of a crop (I think some sort of a grain) that has yellow flowers. These fields are everywhere and as you look out on the horizon in any direction, you see these patches of brilliant yellow!
... and you also see random wind mills everywhere!
more yellow fields... SO! We got home from the field trip about 2 hours sooner than we had planned... so we thought... hey, why don't we go to France for dinner! So we ran by the house, grabbed our passports (just in case) and I hit the internet to try to find a nearby town with a good restaurant. We picked the town of Bitsch (yes... we had a good laugh and thought, we had to go there just because of the name even though it is actually pronounced Beesh) and read about a fancy hotel with a great restaurant and it was only about an hour's drive! EASY PEASY! But our 'quick trip for dinner in France' turned out quite different than we expected!
The restaurant was not supposed to open until 6:30 and we arrived in Bitsch at 5:30. As we were driving into the village you look up and see this monstrous fortress! We drove up to it and walked around it. It was centuries old first built by the Romans! It was added onto over the years and even used by the French army in WWII as part of the Maginot Line. The Maginot Line was a line of defenses built up after WWI between France and Germany and when the Nazi party began to come to power, the French army refortified the Fortress and used it in their early defense. You can see it off in the distance below...
This is a real drawbridge! We were not able to go inside the fortress because we got there as it was closing, but we walked around the perimeter...
OKAY... Now for the adventure part. As we are leaving the fortress, we drive by a French grocery store and decide to stop in for a look. We buy a few bottles of wine and on a whim, I grab some cheese and bread and we let the kids get a bag of chips. (These chips were puffy and one was jambon & fromage flavored (ham & cheese) and the other was ketchup flavored. uh... gross! But, when in France!!! So it is now 6:30 and we are starving! So we make our way down to the restaurant and guess what! It is closed down for a week. What? So we drive by another and it too is closed. So we figure, let's drive to the city center and just find something there! We pull in across from a church and as we get out of the car, the church bells begin to ring calling people to 7pm Mass! So, we look at the kids, we are all starving, but the idea of going to Mass in France in a beautiful old church was awesome! So we bribe the kids :-) and we go! It was so beautiful! It is amazing how we could follow everything regardless of language! Of course we could not understand the Bible readings or sermon, but because of the liturgy, we knew everything that was going on. I think that is the beauty of it! Some things just transcend language! And it was also a little miraculous... the kids were hungry, Leo had to pee, it was in FRENCH and they were the best behaved EVER!
So, NOW CAN WE EAT??? We walk around and try to find a restaurant. Europeans tend to eat very late and eating is an event. You are not rushed, the table is yours for the night and meals tend to take over 2 hours but can easily go past 3... so I was worried that we wouldn't get home until midnight! But for some reason everything was closed! I need to Google it and see if we managed to hit a French holiday or something! The only place we found that was open was a kabob (turkish food) restaurant and while I like it, we wanted French food in France that day.
So it is now 8:30 at night and there is nothing to be found... so we drove back home and ate bread & cheese with ketchup chips! How is that for dinner in France?
c
And the kids have taken to wearing our shirts for jammies... Emma's favorite is Russ' Mr. Bones shirts from when we were stationed at Tyndall...
Emma getting her medal 'stamped'.
Emma and her friend Hannah. Hannah lives in the village next to ours and her and Emma have become good friends.
Leo belonged to a 'Marathon Club' which met after school on Thursdays. Basically they would run a little every Thursday and their distances were noted so that at the end they would have run 26.2 miles... the distance of a marathon. The last meeting they ran the last mile and crossed the finish line! Russ and I would meet up with him most Thursdays and run with him. This is Leo's friend Henry running with him... Henry is in Leo's class and also lives in our neighborhood... Perfect! Russ and I have also became friends with Henry's parents so that is great also... The funny thing is that We were also stationed with them when we lived in England but did not know them!!! They are not military, though, Mark is a civilian.
Emma also had her Brownie ceremony where she received the patches she had earned since coming to Germany. This is her giving a presentation (she is a good little public speaker) about one of her hobbies. Emma likes to write stories! 
Leo's closing ceremony for T-Ball... here he is holding his trophy with both of his coaches! Leo is a natural with T-Ball... he has a good throwing arm, pretty good aim and can hit the ball! 
And finally, Leo's graduation ceremony... 
His teacher Mrs. Cortez... she is great and taught the class bilingually half English/half Spanish.
The kids were asked what they wanted to be when they grow up... Leo's response? An Army Man. 
We stayed at Davey Crockett's Ranch which is about 10 ninutes from the Parks... we had our own little cabin in the woods!
The drive up to the parks... we were so excited. And then Russ goes look kids! Look how cool!!!! And Leo announces... "yeah cool... look at that car!" (see car below) he was totally unimpressed with the gates to Disney... he just thought the car was cool...
Welcome to Europe! Soldiers with Machine guns are everywhere... including "The Happiest Place on Earth". Americans sometimes don't realize how good they have it...
The Buzz Light Year ride was great... it was a combination lazer tag ride... super fun!
Of Course all the Star Wars stuff was a hit...
Trying to pull King Arthur's sword from the stone...
Emma was all about all of the characters... Leo pretty much had nothing to do with any of them... except if one of them had a sword...
The big hit was a stunt show involving fire, jumps from buildings and cool car and motorcycle chases... super fun!
It was cool and rainy the whole time... but not too bad... we just bought sweatshirts and I bought a baseball cap and pressed on!
At the cabin, they had a breakfast cabin that Russ would walk to every morning and grab our French breakfast for the morning... baguettes, chocolate, coffee.... 
Up in Cinderella's Castle!
Belle and Beast!
The grounds were beautiful (minus the graffiti in this one) and there were also several weddings going on!
Girl Scout Overseas Troop 95... and one little brother...
This is the view driving through the German countryside. The yellow on the side are fields of a crop (I think some sort of a grain) that has yellow flowers. These fields are everywhere and as you look out on the horizon in any direction, you see these patches of brilliant yellow! 
... and you also see random wind mills everywhere!
more yellow fields... SO! We got home from the field trip about 2 hours sooner than we had planned... so we thought... hey, why don't we go to France for dinner! So we ran by the house, grabbed our passports (just in case) and I hit the internet to try to find a nearby town with a good restaurant. We picked the town of Bitsch (yes... we had a good laugh and thought, we had to go there just because of the name even though it is actually pronounced Beesh) and read about a fancy hotel with a great restaurant and it was only about an hour's drive! EASY PEASY! But our 'quick trip for dinner in France' turned out quite different than we expected!
The restaurant was not supposed to open until 6:30 and we arrived in Bitsch at 5:30. As we were driving into the village you look up and see this monstrous fortress! We drove up to it and walked around it. It was centuries old first built by the Romans! It was added onto over the years and even used by the French army in WWII as part of the Maginot Line. The Maginot Line was a line of defenses built up after WWI between France and Germany and when the Nazi party began to come to power, the French army refortified the Fortress and used it in their early defense. You can see it off in the distance below...
This is a real drawbridge! We were not able to go inside the fortress because we got there as it was closing, but we walked around the perimeter...
OKAY... Now for the adventure part. As we are leaving the fortress, we drive by a French grocery store and decide to stop in for a look. We buy a few bottles of wine and on a whim, I grab some cheese and bread and we let the kids get a bag of chips. (These chips were puffy and one was jambon & fromage flavored (ham & cheese) and the other was ketchup flavored. uh... gross! But, when in France!!! So it is now 6:30 and we are starving! So we make our way down to the restaurant and guess what! It is closed down for a week. What? So we drive by another and it too is closed. So we figure, let's drive to the city center and just find something there! We pull in across from a church and as we get out of the car, the church bells begin to ring calling people to 7pm Mass! So, we look at the kids, we are all starving, but the idea of going to Mass in France in a beautiful old church was awesome! So we bribe the kids :-) and we go! It was so beautiful! It is amazing how we could follow everything regardless of language! Of course we could not understand the Bible readings or sermon, but because of the liturgy, we knew everything that was going on. I think that is the beauty of it! Some things just transcend language! And it was also a little miraculous... the kids were hungry, Leo had to pee, it was in FRENCH and they were the best behaved EVER!
