Sunday afternoon walk: German Fire Trucks driving by

Malta Trip via Germany: Sunday in Germany

It was a nice flight from Salt Lake to Amsterdam.  It was really fun to hear Dutch and German spoken all around me.  This a short 1.5 hour flight to Munich.  I visited my two favorite non-US countries in the same day!
I had to figure out how to get to my hotel since the free (?) airport shuttle wasn't running today because of construction.  I asked a nice guy working behind one of the air carrier counters how to find my hotel and he was very helpful in pointing me to finding my bus platform and bus number.  I then discovered Googlemaps.com.  It is AWESOME.  You just type where you want to go and it shows you the next 3-5 trains or buses that are departing to get there based on your current GPS coordinates.  Only it doesn't tell you the fare price, I had to figure out how to pay train and bus fares again.  It turns out they take euros on the bus luckily.

After checking into my hotel and having some energy I went on a walk to the Flughafen Besucherspark (airport visitor's park).  It is a fun kids park perfect for a weekend stroll and play.  Lots of kids toys:
can't get in the helicopter, but it is life size

pully rope swing ride, pretty cool

 a few old airplanes to walk through

 a platform up on top of a hill over looking the airport to watch planes take off and land.  Great view, pretty cool, this was a popular spot. Probably 3 times as many people on the platform as you see here.

On the walk I saw some big fire trucks and thought of my boys.

 I saw some interesting trees with big stilts on them.  I think these trees have outgrown the training wheels, but I'm not sure what the stilts are for.

 This is random walking path a couple miles away from the airport, but Holy Cow they made this asphalt path with incredibly straight edges.  In the US this would be messy edge that turns into dirt or grass gradually.  Here they use knife edge precision to separate the walking path from grass/weeds.  Pretty cool.

 Kind of funny, the random Statue of Liberty totem pole honoring the great country of the USA and the gun toting crazies that live there.

 Here is a random piece of art that I found noteworthy.  I climbed up it a bit, this doesn't give justice to how big it really is.  The "I" beam cross section is at least 7.5 feet. I didn't make it all the way up to the end because it is 15-20 feet off the ground.

 Another happy example of bird stencil window stickons to help the birds not crash into the window.

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby is 4! It's hard to believe. This last year has brought alot of growth for her. Leaving her home in Germany, starting Pre-school, and growing alot! We are so glad to have our Abby.

Some highlights of her birthday was going to Home Depot with Dad, getting her own big bed, and lots and lots of presents.

Holzer Halloween

Here are some of the scariest trick-or-treaters around. They are all wearing "antique" costumes. Abby is following in her father's footsteps, yes, Kyle was once this cute little bunny, Kirsti is wearing a costume my mom made for my older sister when she was a baby bear, and Elli is also donning some duds from the Holzer costume box which all adds up to alot of time saved and tears that would have been shed if I had tried to sew something. T-you Grandmas!
Despite some serious rainstorms we had a great Halloween. Especially thanks to some umbrellas borrowed from G&G Holzer. Its amazing what you don't have on hand when you've moved a few too many times. The girls were great and loved every minte even in the rain.

Beautiful Colors

We have been surprised and pleased with the beautiful fall colors that we have seen out our window this year. We had no idea what would be awaiting us in the fall when we bought our home last winter.

Conference Report

In the spring and the fall we get to watch the prophet and the apostles from our church instruct and uplift us. This is a wonderful time for our family and its always exciting to prepare and look forward to. My Mom and Dad joined us for some of the time. As you can see it was great. Cute conference bottoms. Excited for the begining and to see the prophet.
As the conference wained on Elli and grandma did too.

We would hope Grandpa and Abby are taking notes here but I think there
is some Tic-tac-toe going on.

Take Me Home Country Roads

I love that song and I love John Denver, but even more, I love going home and visiting my beginings and those I love there. I bravely ventured out and took the girls solo this time, they were very very good travelers and we had a great time.

These are Grandpa's Buster Girls. They sure do a lot of giggling when we visit

Buster Girl in training

Grandpa Buster

The woman who makes it all possible. Its interesting no matter how old you become you still need a mother. This visit I really noticed how much a mother really is the center of the home. We also really enjoyed visiting with my little Bro's (not pictured) they were very sweet to us.