Choosing Our Adventure

I'm not gonna lie, Coronavirus and all that goes with it, has got us down in the dumps sometimes. It is hard. But we can do hard things, and we are determined to make our own fun and stay positive as much as possible.   The kiddos actually went back to school!  Kinda. They started back 2 days a week in person and 3 days at home online.  First day of 8th grade!     And first day of 6th, 4th, and 1st grade!  The elementary kids actually transitioned to 4 days at school and 1 day at home after just a few weeks. We'll see how long it lasts. We are definitely learning to be more flexible.     Over Labor Day weekend we took an afternoon to visit Wheeler Historic Farm.     We packed a picnic, looked at the animals and farm machinery, and took a wagon ride. It was low key and socially distanced, but it was getting out of the house.     It is a beautiful setting there.     Early in the morning of September 8th (before sunrise)...

    This little girl had the hardest time deciding what she wanted to do for her birthday! Every detail changed 10 times over the past month. In the end, she chose the food and we surprised her with a trip to Build-a-Bear to make a stuffed animal. She hadn't thought of that idea, but loved it!   For her birthday dinner she chose a baked potato bar, which everyone enjoyed.   And she asked for a chocolate cake with purple frosting. She was happy with the end result and the chocolate hearts I added for decoration.   The one thing that she was really clear on was wanting to camp out! Dad and I were pretty over camping after this past Summer, so we compromised by setting up the (still broken) tent in the backyard and having a campfire in the fire pit. The kiddos dragged out all of their comfiest bedding and had a sibling sleepover, which the littlest sister loved!     We are so thankful for this wild little girl! This past year she started tumbling cla...

 Sometimes we all miss living in Germany, but no one more so than this kiddo.  So when he came to us and said that wheat he really wished we could do for his birthday this year was to go to Garmisch and stay at Edelweiss Lodge, like we had so many times over the past years, we tried to re-create that experience here in Utah.   First, there was Doner for dinner. We ate at a Utah chain called Spitz . This wasn't exactly like our favorite Turkish Doner shop in Gross-Gerau, but it definitely had similar flavors... if a little bit more healthy and Americanized.     Then we drove to the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Utah. We had booked a really nice room for one night so that we could enjoy pretending we were back in Europe.   The hotel was quite empty, and we wore our masks whenever we came into closer contact with others. It really did feel enough like Germany/Switzerland to make us all happy.  It was just what the doctor ordered for our travel loving family....