Busy Summer

Hello dear friends!  As usual, I have fallen desperately behind my intended plans for keeping up this blog.  I have an idea going forward, but the next three posts will largely be photo dumps.  For those of you who hadn't heard, we are moving this summer to England (more adventures!) and I absolutely must get this finished before we are in the throes of that transition!!  So, please forgive the spare nature of this post.  If you have any questions, please reach out and I'm happy to write back to any and all of you!

 

In May of 2025, around Memorial Day, Rob was asked to give the invocation for a memorial service at an American cemetary in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.  He was blessed to be able to take a couple of the kids who didn't have school or work with him.  They visited the Bayeux tapestry and saw Mont Saint Michel.  They also paid a visit to Omaha Beach.

 

Rob and I also took Isaac and Tessa to two Bavarian castles (and a yummy Bavarian dinner) for their birthdays.  Schloss Lichenstein (not the country, we'd do that in July) and Burg Hohenzollern. 

 

 

For our birthdays in June, following a NATO Chief of Chaplains and their spouses conference that Rob and I hosted (think lots of details and international relations), we headed to Ireland for a weekend.  After an evening of live music in a very friendly pub, we spent the next day over in County Sligo, visiting the Glencar Waterfall and Lough.  W.B. Yeats wrote a poem inspired in this spot. (Please read it here). We found a Franciscan Abbey ruins on our way back to the Airbnb which was lovely to sit and meditate in.  The second day we spent in Dublin, visiting the Guinness factory and a whiskey museum.  We took a walking tour and visited a history museum and then headed home!  We love Ireland!

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Also in June, Brigit graduated from Kindergarten (which they call Vorschule - or preschool- here), which is very big deal.  Beginning school here is even more a rite of passage than in the states and these Schultütten are stuffed full of gifts and school supplies and there is a big celebration, both upon leaving the Vorschule and entering the Schule.  She was very excited! 

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We participated in an international walk/run in Luxembourg and earned some army patches.  The kids went 12 km (approximately 7.2 miles) with me and were troopers! 

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 July was a super full month!!  First, school ended on the 4th of July and Isaac graduated from elementary school.  It's a really big deal here as many of these children will never see each other again after being knit together as a strong class for four years.  We decided not to have Isaac and Elliott continue in the German school system next year, but we are so proud of all that they did over their two year school experience.  

We had guests in our home, from the 7th of July through the 7th of August!  We spent a few of those days with others in Garmisch, but otherwise it was one big house party!  Our friend, Kate, and her daughter from Spokane spent the first week with us and we visited a lot of our favorite spots as well as just walking around our village.  It was lovely to have them!

Rob's brother's family and their parents arrived about the same time as Mr. Randall Goodgame and his friend/road manager John Mark McGaha.  If you arent familiar with Slugs and Bugs and Sing the Bible, check them out here. We have been listening to, loving, and supporting Mr. Randall for nearly 20 years and it was a dream come true for all of us to have these two hang out with our family and lead worship at the chapel for a few days.  

 

Isaac and Frau Ringeisen, his teacher. Below is when the students self-address a card, attach it to a balloon, and release them all together, hoping they will be found and returned. 

 

Mainz with Kate 

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Missoula Children's Theater came through during July, too.  David played Prince John, Ian was Robin Hood, Daniel portrayed the Sheriff of Nottingham, Isaac juggled balls as one of the Merry Band, Elliott is one of those purple guards, Tessa was a horseman, and Brigit is the skunk on the right.  It was a sweet production. 

 

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This, my friends, is Root Beer Baseball.  If you have never played, your life is sadder for it, but it is not too late.  The basic principle goes like this: buy as many cans of cheap root beer as you can.  (Other sodas will work, but are not quite in the spirit of the thing.😉) The batter stands on home plate and the pitcher at a suitable and safe-ish distance.  The pitcher shakes the can of root beer until it is rock hard and underhands it to the batter.  The batter then smashes it as hard as possible and root beer goes everywhere.  Next batter!  The game ends when the root beer is gone or there are more wasps than the participants feel like dealing with.  There is no running or rules or scoring.  We are simply smashing hard-shaken cans of root beer. It's awesome!  

 

This is a Murmelbahn or marble run in the nearby town of Wolfstein. 

 

Rob's parents celebrated their 50th anniversary! 

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Our big kids flew to London with another visiting friend from the States to see several London shows.  Here they are dressed in their costumes to see Six, the show about Henry VIII's wives.  Each is in the color scheme of one of the wives.  They were flying to London and headed straight to the show that day!  What a great adventure! 

 

Then we headed to Garmisch to join our long-time friends the Hyders/Barranteses!  We went to Prince Ludwig's castle Schloss Linderhof and back to the playground I showed you all in March.  Once back in Jettenbach with the younger Hyders, we enjoyed sites around our area and some quiet time relaxing with our friends.  Almost forgot, we also got to see our friend Annie who lived with Marla during college.  She lives in France and she brought her husband and daughter to meet us in Colmar.  So beautiful!  We are so grateful everyone made the effort to come!  

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August

Callum got cooking gear from his grandparents for his birthday and school started back up!  Tessa and Brigit headed back into the elementary school in our village, and we brought all three younger boys back home.  It's been a blessing; I have missed them.  Tessa had a large part in the first day of school play.  She had remembered her lines all summer and we are so proud of her work in learning German. Sie ist ein perfektes deutsches Mädchen! (Or Mädl, as they say in our dialect.) 

Okay, that's where I'll leave off for now.  Everyone back in school and things settling down after a crazy busy summer!  I'll finish off the calendar year next time!