Finally ready...

Yesterday Eryn was sick (ear infection), and we'll just say we had a challenging day and leave it at that. The interesting moment came around dinner time, when she had a classic six-year-old melt down. She was completely hysterical over whatever the problem was (I'm still not completely clear on that one, and neither is she), and I calmly invited her to go lie down for a few minutes until she was ready to join the family again without screaming at anyone. I even told her I loved her as she went screaming down the hall to her room. Of course she fell asleep within seconds of her head hitting the pillow and slept for several hours.

Why am I sharing this with you? I learned something VERY important. After five children and with our youngest being almost completely out of little-kid stage, I finally have occasional moments where I'm actually the mother I intended to be all along.

So, just for the record, I'm finally ready to start having children now. Do over!

Gratitude

I have a deep sense of gratitude to the Lord today for how blessed we have been the last few months. Who knew that living in a camping trailer on the side of a highway in Texas would be a precursor to living in London?!!? A year ago I never would have dreamed that any of these incredible experiences we're having were on the horizon, and now here we are globe trotting and learning so much about different cultures!

One of the things I'm most grateful for is how comfortable the kids are with the international school they're attending. In addition to it being the coolest school on the planet (beautiful old mansion with exquisite grounds), they're making great friends, learning a ton, and truly enjoying the experience. I also like that the school actually still believes that the arts are important. (Jess even played the key board in a rock band last night at the school's spring music performance.) AND, they seriously go on the most amazing field trips! Jess went with the rest of the 8th graders last week for three days and two nights to Stratford--Shakespeare's birthplace. While there they visited museums, saw a Shakespeare play, and were basically cultured 'til they dropped. (Both my literary side and my mother's heart think that's wonderful!) Aubrey left this morning for a three-day, two-night high adventure trip to a place called Marchant's Hill where she'll go rappelling, shoot bows, etc.--in fifth grade! Derik is headed next week to Cambridge--for "a field trip designed to enlighten the students and support the current course of study in geography and English. Had the kids been here to sign up earlier in the year, they would have gone this month to Spain with their Spanish classes, and the 6th graders went to Switzerland right before we got here for their big field trip. It just goes on and on.

I'm also grateful for the eye-opening cultural experiences the children are having. In addition to our traveling experiences, both the school and church environments are richly multi-cultural. It's hard to be quite as ethnocentric when you've been exposed to so many wonderful cultures, being surrounded by people from Africa, India, Asia, etc. In a lot of ways, the children are adopting a "that's just the way some other people do it" view point that I'm really pleased with. I think it will make them better people in the long run.

I'm even grateful for the things I miss and the things that make daily life challenging. I don't think I'll ever take roads that are wide enough for more than a cart and buggy, a high-capacity washer and dryer, cupboards and closets, a lack of lime scale on everything in the house, or living in enough space for a family our size for granted again. I'll also never look at a U.S. fridge or an actual garage and not think they look immense.

So I guess what I'm really trying to say is that "WE" AS A FAMILY AND "WE AMERICANS" ARE SO BLESSED! Even in a country like the United Kingdom where things are very modern compared to a great deal of the world, a lot of things are 20 or more years behind the U.S. Many of the conveniences we have at home simply are not enjoyed by people in other parts of the world, not even here. (Some of those conveniences I'm not sure if I need or want anymore, but others I'm REALLY looking forward to having again.) People live in such different material circumstances, too! We have families in our ward who are multi-generational in a smaller space than what we consider to be a very small town home in the states. We have other members of our ward whose "home" consists of a single, small room on multiple levels of a building and the connecting stairs and others that live in a tiny flat with only a couple of rooms for a whole family. Most Americans even living what we consider a very frugal life and in very modest circumstances have a much higher standard of living than a majority of the people here.

So, in the spirit of personal reflection, may we begin to see things for what they really are. May we never take what we have for granted. May we experience THIS day, realizing that this day will only happen once. May we never forget that the people in our lives are a gift from God and are our greatest treasure. May we love a little deeper and laugh a little longer. May we live a life of gratitude for our Savior and strive each day to become a more like him. May we make the world a little better for having been in it...

A Whole Lot of Nothing

This past weekend was a bank holiday (U.K. national holiday where pretty much everyone has the day off), so Kyle and the kids were both home on Monday. I had grand plans for what we were going to do with the weekend, considering taking the Eurostar under the English Channel for a day trip to France, going to a castle an hour-and-a-half north of here to watch a jousting tournament, going to Avebury to see a stone circle significantly larger than Stonehenge that you can actually get close to, etc., etc., etc.; there were so many options!

So guess what we did...nothing! Saturday the kids were all extremely tired from their week, Sunday I spoke in church, and Monday was cold, dreary, and raining like crazy. The children didn't want to watch a jousting tournament in the downpour--go figure! I think it would have been exciting and undoubtedly memorable...

But you know what? It was one of the nicest weekends we've had in a long time. We spent both Saturday and Monday resting, playing games, watching movies, bike riding, and generally having a very laid-back, stress-free time, even going out to dinner for Meditteranean food Monday night.

Sometimes weekends like that turn out even better than a jousting tournament. I sure love my wonderful family!

I still want to do those other things, though! Another weekend...

"STUPENDERIFIC"

Proud mother moment...

Jessie's final verdict on her international music experience in Scotland was "STUPENDERIFIC!" (Yep, she's definitely my daughter.) They practiced their hearts out, visited a phenomenally beautiful sea-side castle ruin (where part of the Hamlet that Mel Gibson starred in was filmed), stayed with the nicest people on the planet, and had an all-around wonderful time.

There were two highlights to the trip. The first was having her dad arrive when she wasn't expecting anyone from our family to be able to come. Apparently Jess was so surprised that she just stood open-mouthed while her friends laughed, finally getting over the shock enough to squeal and hug Kyle. (Now that was a good reaction!) The second was being picked by the director to sing a "semi-solo" (her phrasology--we non-teenage varieties call that a small group ensemble) during the concert. She felt very privileged to be selected, and she did a fantastic job. Her adviser from school kept referring to Jess as her "star," and Jess didn't quite know how to deal with all of the attention and kudos. (I can understand, though; all I ever want to do is run away when I perform so that I don't have to talk to anyone afterward...) In fact, she was partially glad to come home just so that people would stop congratulating her. She's still just young enough, too, that she actually missed us. I like that part--big grin.

I'm thrilled that she had such a wonderful experience and that my sweet Kyle could be there to see our not-so-little-anymore star shine! What a talented kid!!

She's Alive--Jessie goes to Scotland

Jess left for Scotland Wednesday afternoon, headed to the International Choir Festival she'll be performing in Saturday night. Apparently she had a successful flight (after a slight fiasco with no id and her not going to be able to fly without it, a maternal mad dash to the airport with her passport, a quick hug, and a "love you, Mom, see you"). Her adviser sent proof this morning that she is, indeed, still alive and is in Scotland:


She doesn't know it, but Kyle is going to fly up Saturday to surprise her. If only it would have been on a three-day weekend so that the whole family could have gone...

The kids spent the bulk of the day yesterday working on their music but then were rewarded with a trip to a seaside castle. Must be rough... (Why didn't I hide in her suitcase, again?)

Seriously, though, I hope she's having a phenomenal time!!! In the words of Mushu, "Our little baby's all grown up and saving China," er, "singing in Scotland." I'm so proud of her.

Visitors, Visitors, We Love Visitors...

Brittany and Charlotte, our niece and sister-in-law, visited this last weekend from Vancouver, and it was a blast! Brit just finished a semester at BYU's Jerusalem Center, and she and Char are seeing Europe before returning home. It was fun to be on their list.

It's interesting how your perspective changes depending on your life circumstances. We were always happy to have people come visit, but not as much as we are now. At home when we had house guests it was like "oh, that'll be nice to have visitors;" but here, since we're way more isolated, it's more like "YEAH, VISITORS!"

Anyway, we saw all of the typical things like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, and the Tower of London/Tower Bridge. But we also did some less-traditional "sightseeing" like eating at the cafe in the crypt at St. Martins. We especially enjoyed the British Museum, and we found out that London is beautiful in the spring, with tons of gorgeous flowers, all of the trees in bloom, etc.


We probably kept them up way too late every night talking and playing games, but what are you going to do (big grin)? It was great to spend time with them. We love you, Brit and Char. Thanks for coming!


You know, ALL OTHER GUESTS ARE WELCOME HERE AT THE SCOTT B & B...

The Romantic Road, Fussen to Munich, Day 8

Waking up to Castle Neuschwanstein on the mountain side was even more fun than falling asleep to it because we were going to get to see it. The plan for the day was to visit both castles, Neuschwanstein and Schwangau; and that's what we did. Castle Schwangau is the smaller (yellow), more cozy of the two castles, and Neuschwanstein (think legos) is the famous and phenomenally interesting castle built by "mad King Ludvig." (It's actually the castle that Disney's Cinderella castle is based on.) Neuschwanstein is complete with a room made into a cave, with full valley views out of the cave's mouth, and an area where the king could communicate with his servants through a series of panels without actually having to speak to anyone. I thoroughly enjoyed both, but I think I liked the crazy castle more. It was actually not finished during Ludvig's lifetime because he went bankrupt and was deposed, being labelled "mad" as a nice bonus.

Of course you can't take any pictures inside, but you can take great pictures of the views from the windows:





After we toured both castles, which included hiking up and back, it was time to hit the road again, this time headed to Munich. We were only 5 miles from the Austrian border, though, so we drove into Austria just to do it (and to get slightly cheaper gas). The kids enjoyed getting to add one more country to their "countries visited" list, even if they were only in it for a short time.


Back into Germany, we headed for Munich, this time on open highway. You know how you always hear that there is no speed limit on the freeways in Germany? Well, it's true, and it's frightening. We drove white-knuckle speed for a good deal of the trip into Munich, but there were cars passing us like we were standing still. It's an experience, that's for sure!

Once in Munich, we went to the Marienplatz to see the Glockenspiel. The verdict? It's a big, boring clock with barely-discernible figures on the side of a tallish tower on a very dirty building in the middle of a busy square. Ooh, aah. We went, though, didn't we? And we weren't the only tourists standing there staring at it. Go figure.

Driving in Munich was slightly less insane than driving in Paris and Rome had been, but only slightly. Our hotel that night was nice, though. We pretty much had an entire floor to ourselves, the in-house restaurant had fantastic food, and the owner even packed us each a bag of breakfast food to take with us to the airport because we were leaving too early to eat the breakfast buffet. If you're ever staying close to the Munich airport, go to the Airporthotel Theresienhof!!! We flew out the next morning VERY early, had a great flight, and made it home by lunch time.

(Actually, we had a great flight except for the few minutes spent dealing with the passport official at the Munich airport who was very put out that we didn't get our passports stamped on the way into the country. {And you thought I'd forgotten...} He did let us all go through and get on the plane--after lecture #34, of course, which is reserved specifically for stupid Americans who cross the border without getting stamped--but he wasn't happy with us. As I walked away, I could still hear him loudly telling his coworker how stupid some people are and that there are some things you should just know. Dude, let it go; I'm sorry already...!)

So what is the overall verdict on a Paris/Romantic Road holiday? The kids dubbed it AWESOME, and I have to completely agree. I couldn't have asked for a more interesting few days, and I'm thrilled that we went. What a phenomenal experience!!!

The Romantic Road, Rothenburg to Fussen, Day 7

Day 7 is when we found out why being so flexible in your vacation planning is essential -- we had only seen half of what we wanted to see in Rothenburg. So instead of getting up in the morning and driving the 160 miles to Fussen, where we were going to stay the night, we went back into town and spent all morning there.

This morning included the Crime and Punishment Museum, a peek in St. George's Church, a walk to the edge of the city to look out over the surrounding countryside, and a walk around the outside of the wall. The view from the city's edge was breathtaking. And if you have a spare moat that you don't know what to do with, by the way, you should consider turning it into a park:


I loved being in Rothenburg, but boy am I glad I didn't live in medieval times! For most people, life was spent wondering where your next meal was coming from and making sure that you had one, storing food in case something did happen, and simply trying to provide basic shelter, protection, and clothing. From a social standpoint, life was strict, to say the least. I've definitely decided that being accused of some "crime" just because someone didn't like you, having a couple of people substantiate the trumped-up charges, and then being executed two days after that just doesn't sound like a fun way of life to me, regardless of my romantic ideas of knights and ladies. And living in one of those cities must have been horrible, especially in the summer when, er, "everything" in the streets baked and started stinking. No wonder rich people went to their summer cottages to avoid it! I'll take our modern cities, thank you.

After we left Rothenburg, we made the drive to Fussen. The first half of the drive was much like the day before--pretty, pretty, pretty, hee hee we're in Germany, pretty, pretty--until about an hour after leaving Rothenburg when the alps were suddenly on the horizon. What an amazing sight!!! I've lived in and around mountains for most of my life, but there's just something exciting about seeing the alps for the first time. I'm pretty sure I surprised Kyle when I thumped his leg and excitedly burst out with "I can see the alps," but I couldn't help myself. I am Tigger, after all...


The rest of the day we spent getting to our hotel, finding somewhere to eat, and getting situated. I was pretty excited to see Castle Neuschwanstein lit up from our hotel room's balcony. Because it was so dark and the castle was about three miles away, though, it was impossible to take a picture of. This is the best I could do. Just picture a white fairytale castle hanging in mid-air and glowing in the dark and you pretty much get the picture. It was a great last sight before drifting off to sleep.

The Romantic Road, Frankfurt to Rothenburg, Day 6

We awoke bright and early the next day--which with kids means we made it out of the hotel slightly before checkout time--only 125 miles of driving on the day's docket. This was our first official day on the Romantic Road (die Romantische Straße). Yeah!

Here's a good description of the Romantic Road from Germany's tourist website: "For more than 50 years, the hallmark of the Romantic Road has been its wonderful combination of nature, culture and hospitality. Germany's most famous and popular tourist route runs for 350 romantic kilometres across a rich and varied cultural landscape along the river Main and through the Franconian wine country to the Alps. This fantastic route between Würzburg and Füssen offers visitors the opportunity to see small historic towns with impressive buildings and places of historical interest that have lost nothing of their original charm. The route leads through the charming Tauber Valley, the Nördlinger Ries situated in the heart of a giant crater, the picturesque Lechfeld plain, Pfaffenwinkel (Parsons' Corner) - a land of farmers, artists and monks in the foothills of the Upper Bavarian Alps - before finally ending up at King Ludwig's famous fairytale castles." http://www.germany-tourism.co.uk/EGB/highlights_of_germany

It gives you a glimpse of why I wanted to see this particular part of Germany. Cool, huh?

Our main stop on today's route was in Wursburg to see the Rezidence. This magnificent baroque palace, complete with incredible gardens, is definitely worth the stop. You can't take any pictures inside, which just about killed the photographer in me, but the palace feels like you've stepped into Beauty and the Beast, with massive, ornately carved columns and archways, sweeping stairways, immense rooms, and incredible artwork throughout. We didn't actually see Belle or Beast, but the gardens truly were stunning (see pic), and it was a fantastic excursion despite the rain.

Then it was on to Rothenburg. Rothenburg is a walled medieval town tucked into a breathtaking, heavily-forested area with sweeping hills and lush valleys. On the drive, the road twists and turns, every bend offering a fresh view of the "ooh" and a slightly different glimpse of the "ahh." It was everything I dreamed it would be, and I LOVED it!

Upon arriving at our B&B, we found that the booking agent had only reserved one hotel room for us instead of two. Luckily the owners would cut us a deal for the second one, charging us only slightly more than double the quoted price for the convenience of having a place to stay for the night--lucky us. We didn't really have another option, so we paid for both and headed into town.


The first thing we all did, of course, was scramble up onto the wall that encloses the original city. Hundreds of years old, you can almost feel the history around you--centuries of people living in the city for safety, busy city life bustling in the streets below, and the nightwatchmen walking the walls to make sure all were safe and the city didn't catch fire. What life must have been like for them! (I was almost envious until we went to the Crime and Punishment museum the next day and it put it all in perspective...) We then spent some time just walking the beautiful town, enjoying the picturesque streets, quaint storefronts, and interesting town square.

We even went to an interesting toy museum, with dolls and other toys dating from the 1700s; this was not Derik's favorite part of our trip.


After the museum we passed the time until the nightwatchman's tour at 8:00 with a little shopping and some fantastic dinner (yep, more schnitzel, some amazing fish, and apple streudel to die for). The nightwatchman tour is given by the actual nightwatchman of the town, and his descriptions of the town and history of the area are witty and entertaining, making the tour a definite must-see. (He doesn't care much for energetic, talkative six-year-olds talking so much that he can't do his spiel and ruining his punch lines, though... If that were to happen to someone, ducking out of the second half of the tour and buying his DVD the next day would be a good solution... It's an interesting DVD.)