Bernkastel-Kues Firework festival

Hi! This is M&M here and I am going to tell you about my experience at the Bernkastel-Kues and firework festival. It started when Mom and Dad decided that they wanted to go to the firework festival with friends. So we all piled in the car and we drove the 2 hours to get there. We drove and couldn't find a parking spot, so we drove a little ways off and found a parking spot. We then walked and walked and walked. When we got there, there was already a lot of people, so we had to search for our friends. Then we finally met up with our friends at the festival.

The festival was smack in the middle of town. It had a river at one side, a carnival at the other, a town across the bridge, and the castle on the other side, up the hill.

The older kids including Big sis, our friends, and myself wanted to go into town. So we asked the parents and they said yes. So we all headed into town and we got to explore.

We bought some grape juice, gelato, and we had fun talking and enjoying each others company. The village was super cute and cool. We went in this cool store that had weird drinks on these weird tap things.

While we were out having fun in town, the parents had fun talking, watching the kids, and checking out the carnival. Mom and Dad said they took all the littles to ride the carnival rides.

When we all got back, the parents and the little wanted to go into town. So we did a location swap and we stayed at the carnival and the parents and the littles went to town. Dad brought the wagon so Monster and Little A didn't have to walk.

While they were walking around they saw a huge tractor and the people let Monster sit in the tractor.  He really loved it.  There was also a small playground in the middle of town by a fountain with bears (not real of course) that he enjoyed also.

They got dinner and after trying the grape juice that we bought, brought back a few more bottles. Mom and Dad said they loved the cute little German Village.  They loved seeing the castle that was up the hill.  All the food was in the streets in stalls, and they just walked around and picked a few things that looked good.

The village centre had these neat little houses.  Mom said she liked them the best.  The thing that Dad really loved to see was the grape vines all over the hills.  He kept saying how neat they looked just covering the entire hillside and how it reminded him of California. 

After eating some dinner, the olders really wanted to go on some carnival rides, so the parents let us have 5 Euros each and we went on some carnival rides. We went on a fun barrel ride and had a BLAST on it. Dad only gave us enough money to go on it so we said bye to our friends and headed back to the parents. The other kids continued on riding rides while we had fun talking with the parents and enjoying the scenery. After the other kids got back, we all sat down and waited for the fireworks to start. And just as luck would have it, it started to rain, then storm, then have high winds, then THUNDER!!!!! We all had really wanted to see the fireworks, especially Mom, but we were all soaking wet and we were cold too. So we packed up our stuff and left. After packing up the car in monsoon-like weather, we got in the car. We were all really disappointed when we drove home, but we were able to see little fireworks in the distance from another city, Trier. We then found out the next day that they still did fireworks. But they only got in like 2 before they stopped. We still had a fun time with friends and were glad we still went.

First Day of School in Germany

The first day of school came quick this year.  Since we live a ways away from the school the girls will be riding the bus for the first time in their lives.  We had to register them with the bus office and get bus passes.  The night before school started, I was talking to some parents about the bus passes and they helped me see that Little A was given the wrong bus pass.  They had her going to the wrong bus and the wrong school.  It was a little tender mercy from the Lord that this was caught in time.  Poor Little A would have been lost and scared and she wouldn't have asked for help and it could have been so very bad.  But, Luckily this was caught just in the nick of time.  The High School and Middle School are on the same base, so Big Sis and M&M take the same bus to school.  The Elementary School is on a different base, so Little A is on a bus all by herself.

So the morning of the first day of school, Monster and I walked Big Sis and M&M to the bus stop while Kevin took Little A to school and stopped at the bus office to get her bus pass sorted out.

 We have a short and beautiful walk to the bus stop.  We walk down a hill and have a great view of the forest and sky.  I just can't get over how cute the German houses are.  The girls were nervous, scared and excited.

 We scouted out the bus stop the day before, because there are a few bus stops that are close to our house. The way it works here, is that the kids wait at a normal local bus stop and wait for the correct bus number.  Across the street is a bus stop for the German children going to the German school.  We got to the bus stop with a few minutes to spare.  Big Sis's nerves were really beginning to churn her stomach.  In nine years, she hasn't even ridden on a school bus to school.  You can see just how nervous she was as she waved good bye and just like that they were swept off to school.

Since Kevin got Little A's bus pass situated, she was able to ride the bus home.  Monster, Bailey and I waited for her and picked her up at the bus stop.  She came bouncing off the bus excited to tell me all about her awesome teacher and her first great day of school.

First Europe Adventure: Trier, Germany

We finally had all the kids at home and were settled into our house, so we decided to do a family adventure before school started.  After asking around and getting suggestions from others, we made a day trip to Trier, Germany on this rainy day.  We found an underground parking garage right in the city center.  Trier is a city that was founded by the Romans and contains many well preserved structures.  It is also one of the oldest German cities and we found out that it has eight UNESCO sites.  We made the Porta Nigra our first historical Roman stop.

The Porta Nigra is actually a Roman city gate and is the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps.  The name actually comes from the dark stones, since Porta Nigra means black gate. Originally the city had four gates, but this is the only gate that remains today.  This is largely due to the fact that it was turned into a church in the 1200s.  But then when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, he dissolved the church in 1802.  Word has it that he wanted to completely tear down the building, but the locals convinced him to turn it back to its Roman origin.

The Porta Nigra was turned into a UNESCO site in 1986 and has been protected ever since.  Cars are not allowed to drive through the gate, but tourist, like us, can buy tickets and walk all around and through the gate.  The halls, columns and archways were simply beautiful.

The views from the top were really pretty awesome too.  It was great getting a full city view.  From the window, we saw a huge church in the distance and made that our next destination.

After descending the circular staircase, we walked in the direction of the church we had seen from the window.  As we were leisurely walking we came across one of the cutest town squares we have ever seen.  It was like something from an old fairytale, complete with a clock tower.  We found out that this is called the Hauptmarket, which is the market square.

As we continued walking we turned the corner as came face to face with a gorgeous cathedral.  We learned that this is called the Cathedral of Trier or St. Peter's Cathedral and is the oldest cathedral in Germany and also a UNESCO site.

The oldest part of the cathedral was built in the fourth century. This church boasts of Romanesque towers, Gothic vaulting, and a Baroque chapel.  It was really neat seeing all the different architecture and works of architectural art all around and intertwined.

One of the most impressive sites and sounds was the organ.  While we were walking around, we found out that an organist was going to play the organ in only a half hour, so we decided to get tickets and stay for the organ performance.  The sound of the organ in the church was super impressive.  It was incredible hearing the echoing of the pipes.  Monster had enough pipes after about 10 minutes, so I took him out and we walked around the church while Kevin and the girls enjoyed the rest of the music.

It was well past lunchtime when the organ performance was completed, so we went on hunt for food. A friend recommended a restaurant called Kartoffel Restaurant Kiste, so we went on a hunt for the restaurant.  We found it and sat down to our first German restaurant.  German's love their potatoes, so we had some carb stuffed food.  It was good, but very very heavy.  We didn't have a reservation, but luckily the let us have an outside table.  We have learned that it is important to have a reservation for any restaurant in Germany.

We left the restaurant and made our way back to the Hauptmarket.  We enjoyed walking around the market and seeing all the shops and the products they had to sell.  We found a gelato store and decided to end the day with gelato.  There are still so many more things to see in Trier and I know we will be going back soon to hit them up.  We enjoyed our day out in Germany and are excited to be living here for the next few years.

Big Sis at Europe International FSY

Hi. I'm big sis and boy what a full week I just had. I had the opportunity to got to the European FSY for my first time, just 1 day after we got back from Girls Camp. But I must warn you, if you read this, be prepared to be reading for a while because I've got lots of good things to tell you about.

Day 1:
All of the youth from all of the wards meet up at our church and so we could all get onto the buses together. I am so glad that Girls Camp came first because I got the chance to already know half of the youth that were going. It was so much fun seeing all the people I recognized. Addy is one of my friends from girls camp and she was riding in the same bus as me and so it was nice to have friends to sit next to on the ride up.

The bus ride was about 4 hours long and everyone was pretty much just sleeping since it was so early in the morning. When we finally get to the campus, there are already people dancing and welcoming us. We were in an area that was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it was still very beautiful.
We had to check in and then we got to meet our councilors who were going to be with us the entire week. Our councilors showed us to our rooms, and I got even more excited when I saw who was sharing a room with me. I had Corynn, Katie, Addison, Tessa, Maddison, Alana, and then there were 4 other girls that I didn't know, Sofia, Tina, Maleyna, and Aseneth. Me, Alana, Maddie, Addie, Aseneth, Maleyna, and Tessa are sharing a room and the 4 other girls had a separate room.

We all get together and play get to know you games with our councilor, Elena.

Then after while, we meet up with our guy half of the group. There councilor's name is David. Every company had 10 boys and 10 girls and the group was called a company. we played more fun get to know you games. After learning everyones names and having a little free time, we go to our very first devotional.

We are introduced to our FSY head leaders, and all of the councilors.

Afterwards, there is a sign up for a variety show. I brought my violin with me, and so I decided to sign up. I already had butterflies in my stomach as I was signing up. I did a little bit of exploring around the huge campus and I found this big map that you can put pins as to where you gave been or lived before. It was really neat to see how many places so much people have been.

The cafeteria is sort of set up as a circus tent, same design and everything, and that was where we have all of our meals. They are always serving really good things to eat. After dinner, everyone gathers and we have a FHE lesson. Then our individual companies have a FHE. We learn some really important principals in these lesson that they give us. After the lesson, our company plots up and we got to our individual dorms. We stay up and talk with our councilor some more and then finally get tired enough to sleep. Such a full day.

Day 2:
There are 2 girls in my room that wanted to get up super early to go running. They set an alarm on one of there watches for 5 am. The only person that it woke up was me, not them. It was so hot in our room, and we couldn't open our window, so the room was like a sauna. After 5 minutes of that alarm going off they finally woke up and left. Everyone else gets up eventually and we have our room morning devotional and then we got to breakfast. It was a very good breakfast in my opinion. We have a company scripture study session. It was really nice because they allowed us to do it outside which made it super peaceful.

We have a morning side devotional next were they introduce our lesson teachers for that day. Me and Addie go to the lessons together. We could only attend 3.5 of the 4 lessons. We had to leave early because we had to try-out for the variety show. I think we did really good. At dinnertime, it was so hot in the tent that almost everyone was eating outside. It felt really nice outside, the hot sun with a cool breeze. After dinner, we had the casual dance. It was out in the tiny courtyard and so it was super crowded. The dance was from 5:45 to 8:45 which is a little too long, but still so much fun.

After the dance, all to boys where shewed away to their dorms so the girls could have girls night. There was a really funny lip singing preformed by some of the boy councilors, which made it even more funny.

We danced for a little longer and then went to our dorms. I was so tired that the other girls said that I was the first one asleep. Haha. Anyways, it was such a fun day and I learned a lot of really important things.

Day 3:
I was super tired this morning because we went to bed late and woke up early. Also my feet are a little sore from the dance. I got to do our morning devotional in our room, and then we got down to breakfast. It was the same thing as yesterday, but it was still good. We have another morning side devotional, and then we have the chance to go to different classes again. We have a great lesson about Christ and the Word of Wisdom, then we have a lesson about how to teach like a missionary. It was an interesting way of looking at the Preach My Gospel book.

We have lunch and lots of free time after the lessons. I got the sudden thought to go and do family history, and so I went to the main hall, and did indexing. It was so much fun to do. I did indexing for about an hour and then we have dinner.  Afterwards, we gather as a company again and we use a scripture verse to give our company a name, "The Righteous Ones". We make up a cheer and create a banner.

 After we are done, we present it in front of everybody. We get 3rd place overall for the best banner and cheer. Super cool.

After everyone had finished presenting their banner and cheers, us girls are the ones that are shewed out of the room this time. We go to our dorms and have a little midnight snack. We talked about girly things and had fun joking around. After we finished talking, we went to our dorms. Our room had fun playing around some more. Tomorrow I know if I get into the show or not.

Day 4:
We had our normal morning routine, devotional, breakfast and stuff like that, but today was a little different, we had to wear Sunday wear all day today. So us girls got ourselves all pretty and things like that. Before we go into the morning lesson, I got told that I did get into the Variety Show, and that we are preforming this afternoon. Yay!!! We have a great lesson about Christ-like attributes and then all of the people that were chosen go to the great hall to do dress rehearsals.

We do rehearsal and then it is time for the real show. Everyone comes in and then we start. I was third to preform. the first person goes, then the second, then before I know it, I'm the one on the stage. I was so nervous I actually started playing another song, but I was able to transition back to my actual song. Then people started to clap to the beat which threw me off a little. Finally, my song was finished. The rest of the show went on. I asked my friends afterwards if I sounded ok, they said that I was so awesome and that they didn't even realize that I changed songs in the middle. I was so relieved.

Then everybody goes outside to do our tradition FSY group picture. It took about 20 minutes to get everybody just right, but then they took the picture and we go back inside.
(1st one)

(Better one)

Dinner was a German dumpling. I thought it was dessert because a German dumpling is a bread roll with jelly in the middle and vanilla pudding and cinnamon on the top. Can you see how I thought that it was dessert? Anyways, it was my most favorite dinner by far, and then we listen to the FSY choir. I twisted my foot in my heels on the way to listen to them. Note to all those who wear heels, don't put them on halfway and then walk, it will not feel very good in the end. My bad. The choir did so good and then we have our company testimony meeting. It was super spiritual. All of us girls go back to our dorms and go to bed. It was a very long day and I felt really good that I got to share my talent with 400 other people. It made me very happy.

Day 5:
For the first time this entire week, it was actually cold at night. It felt so good at the time, that was until we had to go outside. We have the usually morning routine. We eat breakfast as a company for once, then have a morning side devotional again. Afterwards, we got to 4 separate classes. Me and Addie and Tessa go to our classes together. It was fun learning about so many great things. I went to the classes about Family, Service, repentance, agency, accountability, honesty, integrity, dating, and friends. Most of the lesson doubled. No way I could learn all of these things one by one. After these lesson, we have the FSY service project. The project this year was that we got to hand decorate shirts for orphanages in Georgia (not the Georgia in the USA). They asked us to create and draw  something super unique and different for each individual kid. I  decorated my shirt to be hundreds of tiny hearts shaped as 1 big heart with the words "We love you" in the Georgian language. It felt really good while I did this. After I finished, our company played some games together. I learned some games that our councilor grew up knowing in Switzerland. Yeah she is from Switzerland. I definitely will teach them to M&M and Little A. When everybody was done, they announced that we had over 600 shirts to donate to the orphanages. We were all so proud of everyone. We have some free time afterwards. Us girls used that time to get ready for the formal dance. We go as a company to the dance and then the fun begins.

The dance wasn't one of those boring ones, when everybody just sits and does nothing, every single person was up and having fun. I had so much fun dancing with my friends and company. We took some fun company pictures.

Me and a couple of my friends also had fun at the Photo Booth. 

One of our company goals was for all of the guys to ask a girls to dance. I, at least, danced with 7 out of the 10 boys in our group. It was so much fun. After the dance was over, they showed a slideshow of all the pictures they have of the entire week. It was so much fun seeing all the funny moments we had together. It really was a great week. After the slideshow finished, we have our very last company devotional, then our last goodbyes. There was lots of crying and tears. It was a really dumb idea to wear mascara, but then again, all the girls were wearing some too. We have our last laughs and goodbyes, then we got back to our rooms. It rained and some of our stuff got wet, and so we stayed up extra late trying to dry everything with the hair dryer. Poor Addy had to get a new mattress put in because the other one was completely wet, but everything was dried and packed up after an extremely long time. We got to bed at around 12:10. I was so tired. Tomorrow we go back home.
Day 6:
We brought down all of our things and put them down in the great hall. We have our last breakfast together, and then we get onto the buses. Everyone was crying when we had to say good bye to our councilors. Even I was crying. We said our last good-byes and set of on the drive back home.

All of us were so excited to get home that we were almost tracking the church to see how far away we were. When we hit the 30 minute away mark, the bus all of the sudden jolted to a super slow pace. It was because a police car came and stopped us. Of course we all were a bit naughty and so nobody was wearing their seatbelt, or sitting in there chairs, and so when we stopped, everyone was yelling, "Quick, sit down and put on your seat belts!" Lol. We get escorted to a bus maintenance shop and we sit there for about 30 minutes. Then we drive to another shop and sit there. Everyone is confused and our only legal guardians were three 18 year olds that didn't know any German and didn't know what's going on. After a really long time, we finally are told that the bus was leaning to one side which means that the bus was no longer safe to drive. I personally think that it was because there was hundreds of luggages that was only put on one side of the bus, but I don't actually know.

We finally are allowed to get off the bus and get fresh air. We sit at that dealership for 3 more hours and then we finally get told that the second bus that was driving to the same place as us in coming to get all of us who were stuck in the broken bus.

After 30 more minutes of waiting, we see the bus and we all get on it. We finally get to the church parking lot. I felt really bad for some of the other kids because some had their luggage put into our bus even though they were riding in the other bus. Anyways, I finally see my family for the first time in almost 2 weeks and we drive home. I had such an amazing experience and I absolutely can't wait to go to my next FSY here in Germany. And now, to this day, I still see almost all of my friends from my company weekly at either swim practice, at school, at church, or at stake dances. We still have monthly get togethers to play games and hangout. We are great friends and I am so grateful that I have FSY friends close by.