St Martin

I will be honest, I have never heard of the story of St Martin until we moved here, much less knew he had a day dedicated to him in Germany.  St Martin was a knight in Roman times.  He was riding his horse when he saw a beggar on the side of the road.  The beggar was freezing cold, so St Martin cut his cloak in two and shared it with him.

Carolyn has German class every morning in school.  She really is picking up a lot from it and was very excited to participate in the lantern parade for St Martin's Day.  Our villages held a church service where they told the story of St. Martin.



In German of course, but we could kind of tell what was going on.  Sidney was more interested in playing with her lantern though.



My mom bought Payson this jacket for when she was born and she is just now fitting into it.  It works out though because now I don't have to buy one for this year.



After the service we all walked outside to follow St. Martin (the guy on the horse), for our lantern parade through  the town.



The girls loved it!  You know how you tell the difference between an American kid's lantern and a German kid's lantern?  The Germans go all out.  I wish I could have gotten pictures of some of the lanterns these kids or their parents made.  An American (or I guess I should say this American) just goes to the local store and purchases one.  The girls loved them none the less!

9 Months back in Oct.

Yes Payson is now 10 months old, almost 11, but here is her Big Nine Month picture.  I know with every child I feel this way, but I really don't know how time has flown so fast with her.



Shortly after she turned 9 months I walked into her room to get her and found her like this.  Again NOOO where is my little baby.  Needless to say she is pulling up on everything and has been for a while.



She still has such a sweet disposition.  She loves to give hugs and laugh at her sisters.  Carolyn and Sidney go from loving on her one minute, to making her a monster or purple smooze (from a My Little Pony movie) that they have to run away from the next minute.  Payson seems to love the attention either way.

Halloween

I was a little unmotivated when it came to Halloween this year.  The girls never would settle on what they wanted to be. (Carolyn kept wanting to be the same thing she was the previous year.)  I ended up making the executive decision that they would be flamenco dancers and wear the costumes we got for them in Spain.  I didn't get that great of a picture of them but they were so cute!



And my little peanut Payson still fit into the giraffe costume that all three girls have worn.



The Army base here does Trunk or Treat for the kids in the area and the girls have been for the past three years.  The girls had a great time and came home with lots of loot.

Oktoberfest

Why did it take us until our last year here to buy the correct gear for Oktoberfest? Who knows, but we had a great time at the NATO Base's Oktoberfest



The best part of the evening for me was the sweinshaxe with potatoes and kraut.  It is by far my favorite German meal.



We had a great time and I am sure we will be pulling out our drindl and lederhosen for any Oktoberfest we can find in America.



The next day we headed back for their children's day.  I can neither confirm nor deny that the main reason we went was because I wanted to eat another knuckle. Unfortunately they weren't serving that that day but we did have a great German buffet.

They had all kinds of activities set up for the kids.  The girls loved getting their faces painted. And what they each chose suits each of them to a T.  Carolyn was a puppy and Sidney was a fairy. Carolyn thought if she smiled it would mess up her paint.



I finally convinced her it was ok to smile.



Here is a picture of Payson to prove she was there.  Just remember girls, your mom and dad were the ones to take you to your first Oktoberfest.

Hog Pickin

Brian decided that he wanted to cook a pig for his Major promotion party.  We rented a huge grill from the Army base here and gave our neighbors lots of entertainment while Brian sat in our driveway and cooked the hog all day.



I took zero pictures that day which makes me sad but we ended up feeding about 50 people over the course of the day, so I will use that as my excuse.  Although Brian says he will not do another whole hog, the day turned out exactly like he wanted.

Here is one picture I did get at the end of the evening of Brian with some of the guys who were there.  The reason he is holding a Patrick Swayze picture is too long to write...lets just say my hubby has much love for Swayze.

Air Force Ball

The night after my brother left way back in Sept. we had the Air Force Ball.  Brian and Dwight David actually went shopping with me to pick out my dress while he was here.  Shopping with two men is an interesting experience.  I was not allowed to look at anything else other than dresses.  We were on a mission.  I loved the dress I found though, and it is always fun to have a night out.



We are very lucky to have a great group of friends here and this is one of the things we will miss most when we move.  Just a couple of pictures from that night.

Monks & Oysters

Our last day in the Normandy region we drove to Mont St Michel.  No cars are allowed on the island that holds this working abbey, but the walk in was beautiful.



We had heard strollers could be a pain here but after many days of sight seeing there was no way we would have made it without the stroller.  This place was packed with tourist so it was nice to have all of our children confined in some way.



One of our only family pics from this trip I think.



The village underneath the abbey was lined with touristy stores.  Its a very charming village but we were not expecting it to feel like Myrtle Beach underneath a working abbey.

The stroller did prove to be a pain when we tried to get up to the abbey.  We ended up just eating in the village and then



headed out to drive the Brittany coast.



It was a gorgeous coast and we stopped at a couple of beaches along the way.



The girls looking for critters with their Daddy.




Payson has grown so much since this trip.



Brittany also claims to have the best oysters in the world. We drove to Cancale, the oyster capital of this area, for our supper on this night.  You can see the oyster racks off the coast in the picture below.



All the oysters for sale at the docks.



This was our dinner that night.  I normally am not a huge fan of oysters on the half shell but these I loved. Carolyn was in heaven. She still talks about the oysters that tasted like the sea. Sidney even had a few as well.

Normandy Again

I know we went to Normandy way back in July and it is now November but this is the only way I keep up with our pictures, which means I have to play catch up.

After the American Cemetery we headed to the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Memorial.



The Allied Forces determined that they had to run the Germans off of this cliff for American landings to be successful.  This is the most massively bombed site of all D-Day targets.  300 Army Rangers attempted a castle style assault on this cliff and only about a third survived.



Everything remains as it was found then.



The bombed out bunkers are considered graves sites.



It was kind of surreal to see our daughters jumping in and out of the bombed out landscape.



After this we headed over to the Dick Winter's Memorial.



Brian and I are both Band of Brothers fans so we really wanted to see this memorial.



Then we visited Ste. Mere Eglise which was the first village to be liberated by Americans.

The Airborne Museum here is dedicated to the daring aerial landings that were essential to the success of D-Day.



We were able to see a Douglas C-47 plane that dropped parachutists on D-Day.



Always love to see the South Carolina Flag.



These were all over the Normandy region.  They were anti-aircraft towers that the Nazi's used to deter allied forces.



Not the best picture but it reminds me of Carolyn eating 4 out of the 6 snails that Brian ordered as an appetizer that night.

Here we go ..

Well we finally found out where we are headed next.  Back to the south we go to Montgomery, Alabama. Although it will only be for while Brian is in school, it will be nice to be back in the land of Duke's Mayo, boiled peanuts, and we may even be able to find a Cheerwine there.  We won't leave until this summer so we will have time to fit in a couple more trips.  We have enjoyed our time here, but are really looking forward to getting back to the states and being closer to family.

Here is a picture from our recent trip to Crete.  One of the things I will miss about here... Carolyn going on fall break means an excuse to check out another country.