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!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Aaaahhhh- another good, busy week for us back in the Old Pueblo.  Mom and I had our last two days off on Monday and Tuesday and we tried really hard not to spend them running errands.  We tried to enjoy them by being lazy and I think we did a pretty good job.  We did manage to drag ourselves out of  the house to try out a new swim team.  Everyone was very nice but mom wasn't overly impressed and I kept getting kicked in the head so I didn't like it too much either.  We are continuing our search this week and will keep you updated on that super exciting process.  We also made it to Target- so then there is that.

I finally started school on Wednesday and I think everyone in our house was ready for it.  I decided on red and khaki for my first day.  It was a hard decision with so many choices- blue and khaki, white and blue, red and blue?  Jumper, skort, shorts, dress, pants?  These things keep a girl up at night!  Anyway, off I went and it was a great day.  I like my teacher, found some friends, had a yummy lunch and good recess.  

Mom picked me up after school and took me to Frost to celebrate.  Nothing like a little bubble gum gelato to end the day.

This was my fancy "first day" hair-do.  I told mom I always like to wear my hair fancy on the first day so this is what we cam up with. ROYGBIV.  Pretty cool, huh?

The rest of the week was pretty quiet.  Mom spent her free days getting errands done and buying shirts and tops for HER work uniform.  The hospital was implementing the uniforms for all staff when she left two years ago.  She thought it was a silly idea then and she still thinks it's a silly idea but when in Rome....

Friday night, we met our friends Eric and Janet for dinner.  Eric is dad's old boss.  He and I spent a lot of time chatting over our noodles and it was great fun.

Saturday morning, mom finally made it back to Sabino Canyon to go for a nice long run.  It was beautiful- the creek was overflowing all the bridges, the trees were green, the sky was blue and she made it all the way to the top for the first time ever.  Seems like that high altitude living has some benefits.

After that, mom and I headed to my friend Madeline's birthday party.  She had it at Skate Country which is a big roller skating rink.  Mom said it looked exactly like the one she used to go to when she was a kid.  I have never been skating before so we were in for an adventure- not necessarily a fun one either.  I just could not figure out this skating thing and fell more times than we could count.  Mom finally went and got me a rolling walker that helped me to stay on my feet.  Even that was a little frustrating but after many trials and errors and a few tears I started to get the hang of things.  Just in time to leave.  Mom was very proud of me though because I never gave up the whole two hours and now I want to go again!  Woo-pee says mom!

Dad's Saturday was equally fun.  He spent it replacing all our door hardware.  We went from circa 1992 gold knobs to nice black lever handles. It looks so much better.   He's so happy to have projects to do again!
Saturday night, we headed to our friend's house for dinner.  Dad bikes a lot with Mr. Poore and they have been up to visit us in Denver.  His son is in second grade too so we tore the place up.
Sunday was a semi-quiet day.  Mom and I went to church in the morning and Dad continued with the door knobs and RV stuff.  Now we are enjoying a nice rain storm and watching The Jedi Strikes Back. Mom actually has to go back to work tomorrow so we will see how things go next week!

Home Sweet Home

We are slowly but surely gaining our footing again but we are still kind of tired!  Let's see- I can't remember where we left off last time so if any of this repeats, we will just blame moving fatigue.  After four very relaxing days at La Paloma resort, our furniture arrived on a Thursday.  Dad was working so mom spent a couple of days unpacking.  It was much better than the unpacking in Denver 2 years ago when Dad was sent out of town for a week on the day the furniture arrived.  That kind of sucked.  This time, Dad got to come home every night after a long day of work to help unpack boxes.  Much better!

The Saturday after our stuff arrived, we took a break and headed up to Show Low, Arizona in the White Mountains.  Grandpa Vern spends his summers up there and Uncle Tim, Aunt Dana, Brooke and Faith were in town for a visit.  We took Grandma Sue up and had a "Goodel" time (get it?? Ha!)

The weather was perfect so we spent most of our time outside.

On Sunday, Grandpa took us all fishing and true to my luck, I caught nothing.  No one else did either so we just enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

We got in a couple of really fun family kick ball games.  Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue even got in on the action and let me tell you- you cannot under estimate their skills.  Both of them nailed the ball and got on base.  Thankfully, they were on the kid team cause I would not have wanted to be playing against them!

Dad had to head back on Sunday for work but mom, grandma and I hung out until Monday morning and came home to a hot, hot Tucson.  Thank goodness for our pool- makes everything tolerable.

Mom and I spent most of the remaining week running boring errands, getting doctor's appointments out of they way.  Not the most exciting of weeks but we finally did get up to Mt. Lemmon for some cooler weather and some hiking.

We hit Saturday and finally had a full day to unpack and organize.  We are really, super proud of ourselves because as we have mentioned several times, we came from a three car garage with a basement, and after completely unpacking, we still having empty shelves in the kitchen and in our one storage closet!  How cool is that??!  Now, mom can go shopping again!  Not really.  Our goal is to keep some empty shelves.  We will see how long that lasts.
After a long day of unpacking, we needed a break and headed to our camping friend's house for dinner and to get me some play time with someone my age.  It was good for everyone.
Sunday was one more day of unpacking and organizing but in the afternoon, we headed to my new school for a "meet and greet" with faculty and staff for all new students.  I got to meet my teacher and holy cow, does she have energy!  She showed us around her class room and showed me the job chart for the first week.  I am the pencil sharpener and I love to sharpen pencils.  Didn't that work out well?  She also told us about our first field trip.  She is taking all 18 of us to the pet store to pick out our class room pet!  Mom and dad were a little taken back by that but in a good way.  More power to Ms. Gervais if she can wrangle 18 of us at a pet store.  I finally start school on Wednesday and everyone is very excited about it.
We will catch you all next week!

Living Out of Boxes

It has been another crazy, mixed up few weeks in the Ol' Goedel household.  We have been saying our goodbyes, packing, driving, digging through suit cases and boxes, unpacking, putting away, hanging up and occasionally swimming.  We are a little tired on this end of things but we are so very happy to be back home....

We left Denver last Friday and mom and I had one last hurray on Thursday evening.  My swim team had our end of season banquet.  All 149 of us kids were there and we had a great time.

This is my soccer coach.  Both of her daughters were on the swim team and we spent most of our meets hanging out with them.  They were a lot of fun and we will miss them bunches.

This is coach Daniel and coach Brittney.  They were pretty awesome with all of us crazy kids and I learned lots from them.
We were the very last ones to leave the banquet room because I had to say goodbye to everyone so it took a little while.

We came home to packed boxes, unhooked TV's, no dishes.....It made for a long evening.  The movers came back Friday morning and got us all loaded up.  It took us a few hours longer to load up the odds and ends we were going to need on the other end of our journey and we finally headed out about 4.  We spent the night in our RV south of Pueblo, Colorado.  If you ignored the noise from the highway, it was a great spot to spend the night- beautiful views, a playground for me, full hookups for the RV which meant hot showers for everyone in the morning.

 
We made it to Albuquerque Saturday afternoon and Uncle Adam and Auntie Erin were awesome enough to bring us dinner and we had our first semi-relaxed evening in awhile.  It was great.  Sunday morning before we left, Nana and Mr. Walker made us a huge breakfast to make sure we had plenty of energy to make it to Tucson.
So, finally, after two and half years + 8 hours of driving, we finally made it back home!  We drove straight to our house and made a bee line for the pool and jumped in clothes and all.  It was the best swim.  Ever.  It was so good to be back where we belong.

Even though we had arrived, our furniture didn't come for another four days.  We headed up to our favorite resort for a few days to wait it out.  We made quite the sight, rolling up in our RV and tumbling out with crumbs on our shirts, chocolate all over our face (well me anyway), suitcases, duffle bags, garbage bags of dirty laundry, a dog kennel, a geriatric dog that couldn't walk and finally, our fish tank full of water and guppies.  We were klassy with a capital K!
Unfortunately, dad had to work for the week but mom and I  got to take full advantage of the resort lifestyle.  The highlight of my stay was the swim up bar.  Mom and I swam up everyday- she ordered a margarita (everyday) and I ordered a Shirley Temple (everyday) and life was good.  But.  All good things must end and we had to head home on Thursday when our furniture arrived.  We have spent the past two days unpacking.  It's going a little quicker this time around though because everything just goes right back where it came from two years ago.  Not much thinking involved, thank goodness!
We are almost settled in which means it is time for our next adventure- we are heading up to Show Low for the weekend to see Grandpa Vern.  Uncle Tim, Aunt Dana, Brooke and Faith will be there too so it will be a fun, family weekend with lots of good pictures so stay tuned!
Adios from Tucson!