Germany!

Mom and dad finally got back last night from their trip.  It was a looooong day of travel, made just a little worse because mom might have had a teensy hang-over to deal with.  I'm not saying she did but it could have been very possible....

Nana and I held down the fort here and the house was still standing so that's a good thing.  Mr. Walker came out Friday afternoon to help keep me entertained.  It was good fun!

Because mom and dad are still a little jet lagged, we are just going to post a bunch of pictures. 

Horses pulling the beer kegs to the beer hall.  These were the Haufbrau House horses.

The Augustiner Haus.  This is where the first keg of Oktoberfest is tapped by the mayor of Munich to kick off the party.  Mom and dad had their beer here.  Really fun!

The Augustiner Brau kegs

Inside the Lowenbrau tent.

Munchniers LOVE their bikes.  They ruled the road and it was cool.

The Lech River in Fussen, Germany with the Bavarian Alps in the background.

The Benedictine Monastery in Fussen.

An alley way near the monastery

On the hike up to Neuschwanstein Castle near Fussen

Marienbrucke (Mary's Bridge) as seen from the Castle

The Castle from Marienbrucke

And now, onto Salzburg......

Palace gardens in Salzburg, laid out in the 1700's.  Hohensalzburg Fortress in the background.

Flowers in the palace grounds

Salzburg Cathedral

Some detail from inside the Cathedral.  It was a little overwhelming.

St. Peter's cemetery, founded in the 1400s

At the base of the fortress

View of Salzburg from the top of the fortress

Olympic stadium- all of the medalists from the games were inscribed on plaques throughout Olympic Park

My artistic shot of the inside of the stadium

Inside the Haufbrau House- not to be confused with the tent on the Oktoberfest grounds

Getting lost on our bike ride through Munich

We did find grazing sheep and dogs herding them on our ride though

The whole reason we went!

I'm sure we will be recovered by next week and have lots to report then.

Back to the Routine

We are going to be reaching to find things to blog about this week but I'm sure it will be a long post, none the less.

This was our first week of "normal".  No holidays, full work/school week etc.  It was a little tough but we survived.  Mom is still liking her work, dad had a semi-calm week at work and I'm not bored yet in school.

We had a nice couple of days at the beginning of the week.  Cloudy, rainy and cool(er).   It was a nice break from the hot weather we'd been having.  Mom has a great view of the Catalinas from her work and the clouds on the mountains were very cool to watch throughout the day.  Fortunately, we didn't get anywhere near the rain our friends in Colorado have been dealing with- just enough to make the ocotillo cactus grow their leaves.

On Tuesday, we checked out another swim team.  They practice at University of Arizona Aquatic Center and it was pretty impressive and intimidating.  You walk through the doors to see the huge list of NCAA record holders and Olympians from the UofA.  Whew- talk about pressure.  The good news is that mom really liked the coach of the youth team and he taught me some good stuff already.  He said I'm very "coachable".  I think that is a good thing but we will see how things go in the future.

Not much else to report for the rest of the week.  One of mom's patients is fostering some kittens and brought them on Friday.  Mom was instantly in love and if dad weren't so allergic, mom and I would have had ourselves a sweet baby kitten.  Awwwww! (Told you we would be reaching this week!)

This was our first weekend with no social events on the schedule.  We went out to dinner on Friday, cleaned the house, grocery shopped and pulled down some fencing on Saturday.  Sunday, mom and I gave ourselves pedicures and went roller skating in the afternoon while dad handled dinner.

Nana D arrives next Friday and will be my steady companion for a week while mom and dad jaunt off to Germany for Oktoberfest.  Hmmmpf.  I'm not quite understanding why I can't go and was more than unhappy about it until mom reminded me about the presents I'll get when they get back.   We will take a short break next week as Nana isn't quite as skilled as mom when it comes to helping with my blog.  See you in a week or two!

Never a Dull Moment

The fun just keeps going and going around here!  Not sure how much fun it is to read about but it sure fun to be a part of...

We are two weeks behind and lots of stuff happened, the most important of which is mom starting work.  For the first time in 2 years, she gainfully employed at a job she likes.  She has returned to the same old hospital she worked at before we moved to Denver.  It feels like she never left.  A lot of the same wonderful people, some new wonderful people, same problems and issues but she doesn't have to manage them anymore.  That right there makes it all worth it!  Dad is equally excited that mom is working again and so far, after 2 weeks, mom still likes it but lets check back in 3 months and see how that's going.

Two weekends ago was Labor Day weekend/mom's birthday weekend.  Believe it or not, with all the craziness upon us the last few months, mom kind forgot about her birthday.  Soooooo not like her- she's all about the Birthday Month but this year she didn't have the birthday mojo.  Dad and I took good care of her though with a really yummy dinner at one of her favorite restaurants and then Dad upgraded her iPhone for her.  It was a good night all around.

On Saturday, dad bought himself a new smoker and got to makin' us some fabulous food.  First up was smoked, bacon wrapped chicken breast.  Oh my.  They smelled fabulous and tasted even fabulouser.  

He couldn't wait to use it again so we had our good friends Brian and Christina over for dinner on Sunday and Dad smoked some ribs.  They were falling off the bone good and so very tasty.  It has been a good week for left overs in the Goedel household.  We had a great time with Brian and Christina and their kids.  The best part of the night was when Auntie Christina pulled my loose tooth out.  It had been dangling by a string for days and mom couldn't stomach pulling it our herself.  Christina stepped in, twisted it and out it came.  Woo-hoo for me!  It was eerily similar to my other tooth that Ms. Chris in Colorado pulled out for me at dinner one night because mom couldn't stand to look at it any more.  Mom has a little bit of a weak stomach when it comes to these things.  Thank goodness she has tough friends!

On Monday, we headed over to our friend Joe and Amy's for a barbecue.  I think we have run out of friends so that will probably be the end of the party circuit for a while.  We're going to miss it!

This past Friday, we finally hauled the RV out of our drive way and headed up Mt. Lemmon for a night of camping.  This was really roughing it for us because we didn't have any hookups.  That means we had to conserve on our electricity and only used the microwave once.  We did have hot water so we weren't completely miserable.....

Our site was beautiful with great views of the ridge above us.  It was green and lush and cool and a perfect quick get away.  We wanted to spend two nights but mom had a hair appointment at noon on Saturday so we had to come back down.  Priorities you know.

On Sunday, we Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner.  Grandpa doesn't come down from the mountains much when it is hot here so we took full advantage and celebrated his birthday early.  Dad made more bacon wrapped chicken breasts in the smoker and mom and I made chocolate cupcakes.  We were nice and only gave Grandpa one candle to blow out.

 

  It's awesome having family close by again.

We are starting another week fat and happy here- wishing you the same!