Schwimmbad

We went to a local swimming pool yesterday and Macen had a blast. The kids swam and played while us women chatted. The swimming pool and area was really nice and beautiful. There were 3 separate pools within a huge grassy park. First there was the adult pool, then a smaller pool that was about 4ft or so and then the kiddie pool which has some playground equipment with it. The medium pool had a large winding slide to it and Macen loved it. We went down several times and he would have done it all day if I'd let him. I'll get pics of it next time we are there.

We had a great time and will be going back a lot this summer.

We've started...

Finally! In the last 5 days I have cleaned up a lot of pee and other stuff you don't want to know about, lol. He's fairly receptive to it except first thing in the morning. He can't quite get to the bathroom by the time he realizes he needs to pee. It'll come with time though. Good days and bad days, right?!

Macen starts German preschool in September and it's highly recommended they are potty trained by then so we are on a mission this summer. Wish us luck!

Saying Goodbye

We left the house at 3am yesterday morning, taking James to his office and hanging out with him a little before we had to say good bye. Crazy hours, huh?! Guess who was wound up the entire time, lol. I think that big grin gives it away.

We had to say goodbye to James around 5am. I know Macen doesn't fully comprehend how much the next year will be different for all of us but as I mentioned before he does know something is going on.

About mid afternoon yesterday, we were hanging out at home and Macen asked where daddy was and I told him he had to go to Afghanistan to help other people. He responded that he wanted to go too and he was hurt when I told him he had to stay with mom instead. He then said he needed his daddy blanket. He picked up the blanket which has a picture of James on it, held it up looking at James and just burst into tears saying "oh no". I had no words for him and watching that broke my heart so I just cried with him. Thankfully it was a very short emotional breakdown for him and he was better afterwards. Before bed, he did say "I miss my daddy" but he was easier to console this time.

Here is the blanket we had made for Macen. It's small but powerful, lol. James gave it to him about a week ago and Macen became instantly attached. He sleeps with it and his blue blanket for naps and bedtime.

As we begin this year long journey, we ask for your prayers to keep James safe.

We miss you already James!

ETA: James has gotten to Afghanistan safely.

I'm Almost There

I've made it to Manas AFB my last stop before heading into Kandahar. Things have gone pretty smooth so far, so hopefully that stays the same.

It was much harder leaving Macen and Shantel this time then it has been any other time. We'll see how hard this deployment will be on all of bus.

I'll let everyone know when I've got an address.

Weltenburg Brewery

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day outside and what did we do, a picnic, go to the park, nope we hopped in our car took a ride about 90 minutes south of here to visit a Benedictine Monastary and in Germany that means only one thing, beer. God bless those monks. The brewery we visted was the Weltenburg Kloster brewery We went down to Kelheim and got on a river boat, took a leisurely 40 minute cruise on the Danube River where we got an early taste of the beer whose brewery we were going to visit and ate a light lunch. We hoped off the boat right at noon and went inside to find out about the tours. The 1230 tour was full so we asked for the next one which was at 2pm. We wandered around the monastery, looked in the beautiful chapel and finally found a seat in the beer garden, where I tried two more of the monastary's excellent beers and plate of wurst and potatoes in a cream sauce. Shantel split a plate of french fires with Macen and had a Radler. Everything was excellent.

The time for our tour finally came and despite the fact that 90% of it was in Germany it was really interesting. The brewery is a completely modernized/computerized operation. Our guide, Josef, was exceptionally knowledgeable and kept apologizing for his poor English. His English was still better than my German and he provided simple explanations of what we were seeing in English so Shantel and I could follow along. Josef did let us know that some time later this summer the brewery plans on having English text or placards to hand out to their German challanged visitors, so they get a better explanation.

About halfway through the tour we got to sample their Hefe Weissen, the Anno 1050, the Asam Bock, and the multiple World Beer Cup award winning Barock Dunkel. We finished up the tour got our complimentary 12 oz glasses and then we let Macen play on the rock beach on the river before we returned back to the boat for the quick trip back to the car and then home to Vilseck.

The monastery was founded in the 600s and it is thought that the monks started brewing beer there in 1050, some people claim this to be the oldest monastery brewery in the world something that is disputed by the Weihenstephan Brewery which claims to have been founded in 768 and licensed as a brewery in 1040. I really don't care which one is the oldest because they both brew darn good beers.

I hope all of our family and friends have enjoyed this post because this is probably one of the places that we will take you to if you come to visit. It was just too cool to not share.
Here are some more pictures.

The view from the river boat as we approached the monastery. If you aren't into biking or running, I really recommend taking the boat cruise instead of driving there.

This crest was on the tank on the main floor. The inscription says For Mary and Jesus. See God really does want us to drink beer, or at least the monks say so.

A couple of pictures of the brewing area. Josef our guide was very knowledge and did his best to give us a quick English run down.

The area where the barley is stored and then poured into the brewing vats.

The two glasses were what we sampled beer the beer from during the tour and got to keep. The stone bierkrug in the middle is something I bought. I'm a sucker for cool beer mugs and I really like the German stone ones.

Daddy's Boy

These were taken last week in Venice and I love them.

Macen has gotten to be quite the daddy's boy and I think he is going to have a hard time with the upcoming year long deployment. We have been trying to explain to him daddy will have to leave for a long time to help other people and we know he doesn't fully understand. However, his emotions are showing us he does comprehend a big change is coming. He gets very emotional when we tell him no, like no he can't have fruit snacks in the afternoon (its an out of town treat for him). A month ago, he wouldn't have had an emotional breakdown over it. He would whine and do his fake crying and then get over it. We are getting tears and inconsolable fits. I'm sure some of it is his age and developmental changes he has been going through lately but it really started when we began to tell him often that daddy will have to go away soon. He knows life will be changing soon.

Venice Day 3 - Murano Island

Murano Island

We went out to an island just off of Venice where they do a lot of glass blowing. These items are sold worldwide. We were disappointed though. We imagined shop after shop of glass items for sale and we had a hard time finding stores. It seemed to be more of a residential island than anything. Don't get me wrong, we did find shopping but we thought it would be streets lined with shops. We had already decided we wanted to buy some winestoppers with the blown glass on top so we were shopping for those. We just weren't impressed with any we saw so we waited to go back to Venice to purchase some. But before we left, we did get to watch a glass blowing demonstration. It was pretty interesting to see the liquid glass form and melt and be shaped.

Wandering around

This is front of a wooden toy store which was really nice. James insisted I pose with the chick hanging out front.

We were also on the hunt for a chocolate store this afternoon. We had success and failure! We found a nice little store where I got to choose the pieces we wanted and I got an assortment. And none of them were very good! As James said, Italy isn't known for their chocolate. I guess I need to stick to the gelato while in Italy. Speaking of chocolate though, we had a layover in Zurich, Switzerland and they serve chocolate when they offer the beverage service! Wow! And it was really good chocolate and it was a nice serving nice! Since all 4 of our flights were with Swiss Air, we got their chocolate 4 times. Macen loved it and was trying to swiped James' chocolate when his was gone. Did I mention it was really good chocolate...

Macen was playing with James new hat during dinner. We had amazing food while in Venice, of course. Who doesn't love pizza and pasta?! In Venice (and this may be true for other places in Italy), they charge you a cover charge or sitting fee when you sit down in a restaurant. Typically its 3.50 Euro per person. So for the 3 of us to sit and eat it would have been nearly an additional $15 added to the bill. We knew this before going so we were on the lookout for it. We did find a few restaurants who didn't charge this seating fee. Other times we just found a little joint where you take your food to go - much cheaper and no seating fees. One of these places, we found amazing brushetta pizza. It was a crispy crust with olive oil and piled with onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and olives. We found it the first day we were there and loved it so much we went back a second time.

James got an iPad for his birthday and brought it along. There is a deer hunter game on it that Macen loves. He has learned how to work the iPad and the game all by himself. Here is James and Macen fighting over the game during our layover.

We had a great vacation....FINALLY! As James said, the weather was perfect. We were surrounded by water which we love. We had amazing food and lots of ice cream. It was relaxing and not rushed. I guess we should have known it was going to be great because all day Monday during our travels and atleast once a day Macen said "Wow! This is gonna be fun"