Thanksgiving in Austria

For Thanksgiving this year, we tried to organize a big sledding experience for several families in our ward.  Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough snow yet for them to open the big sledding runs that we were hoping for.  But we still managed to have some fun!  We even put Sawyer and Violet in a ski school for an hour (which ended up being a horrible waste of money--the instructors literally had them walking around in circles the entire time. Violet even asked if next time they could actually go down a little hill!)  We stayed with two other families in house, and there were 3 or so other houses filled with ward families in the area as well.  Overall a pretty fun time.  On our way back, we made a little detour in Vimbuch to visit the Christmas Market that my Tante Gabi helps with every other year.  To my surprise, all of my aunts were there when we came by!  It was great to see everyone!

I have to throw this last one in there.  I was on the committee to help with the Super Saturday shortly before Thanksgiving.  Poor Nathan had to cut over 400 blocks of wood for me.  He worked on it for like 6 hours straight the night before.  I felt so bad.  My dad welcomed him to the club ;).  

Garmisch

There is a Dental Conference in Garmisch in October every year.  We were excited when the AF agreed to fund the guys this year.  So we decided to join Nathan for the week.  I had also discovered 2 weeks earlier that I was pregnant, so this was my first week of feeling super yucky.  Despite the constant nausea, we had a good time just hanging out at the hotel (Edelweiss Lodge & Resort) and swimming all day.  We also got the super exciting news that Nathan had been accepted into the Orthodontic Residency while we were there!!!  There was a lot to celebrate!  

On our way home from Garmisch, we stopped in Munich and went to the aquarium with the kids.  We then went and stayed the night with my cousin Sven and his family. Sven took us on a tour of Munich the next day.  It was a short visit but it was nice to see them!  And we really loved the city of Munich.

Halloween

Back to the Future

For years, my sisters and I have talked about throwing a Back to the Future Party in October 2015, as that marks the date of the 'future' as seen in the films.  Well the time finally arrived, and since I was in Germany all by my lonesome, I had to enlist the help of my awesome husband instead.  He was super supportive and, together, we pulled off a really fun night!  We played some games, watched some movie clips, wore costumes, and just had fun!

(I was pretty impressed with my free-hand for the sign)

The dehydrated pizzas (aka sugar cookies) probably took the most time.  Nate patiently sat and folded each one of these 'pizza envelopes'.

Nate also did a fantastic job on his Griff costume. He even had the voice to go with it and spouted out Griff quotes all night long.  "Baattter Up!!!!"

I was super impressed with all of the creativity in costumes.

Thanks to Mandy for recreating the cake!