Germany Adventure, Day 1 & 2

The title of this post had to be Day 1 & 2 because it was all just one long blur of travel that, because of layovers and time changes, were two calendar days. We left Salt Lake City on Tuesday afternoon and flew direct to Paris (11 hour flight) where we spent 7.5 hours in the airport waiting for our next flight to Berlin. 

Waiting in the Salt Lake airport

Charles de Gaulle airport, where we spent far too long with not enough to do

We arrived in Berlin on Wednesday night at 8:30 pm in the middle of pouring rain. Our luggage arrived just fine, we were able to phone the apartment manager to meet us with a key, and we all managed to fit in one taxi. I wish the taxi driver had used his GPS (or as they call them, navi) to pinpoint our destination before driving WAY past the apartment and then trying to find a place to turn around (he didn't get much of a tip, I figured he could have used the navi much sooner than he did so the meter ate up his tip).
We got "moved in" to the apartment and found out that there was a grocery store open until 10:00 pm just around the corner. It was 9:40, so we hurried off to procure some food before falling into bed. Aubrey picked out some of his favorite cheeses, the least expensive salami that he had eaten his fair share of as a missionary, some breakfast cereal he missed, some tasty juice, and a few other staples (including Coca-Cola for me). We were the last ones in the store, but we got what we needed.

We stayed in a vacation rental apartment on Karl Marx Allee. It was more cost effective than a hotel and we had more room to move about--that's important when you travel with tall people...  It was right by a U-bahn station (subway), so it was pretty convenient and the neighborhood was safe, so I felt we had made a good choice. I'm glad Aubrey was able to help me make the decision about which apartment to choose--he knew the areas we'd be visiting and this was a good place for home base.

The living room with two couches where Carson & Aubrey slept

Our kitchen

The bedroom with 2 single beds where Maren & I slept

The apartment was clean and comfortable, although the pictures on the rental website made it look bigger, but don't they always? No one took pictures of the bathroom, but maybe we should have so we could have a photo memory of the world's smallest shower. Even smaller than the one we had in Italy. At least this one had hot water that lasted more than 10 seconds. Well, all but one morning anyway. The furnishings all came straight out of IKEA, but we like IKEA, so that's okay :)

We all went to sleep pretty quickly that first night so we could be up and ready to go the next morning for our first sightseeing day in Berlin. Stay tuned for day 3...

Pre-Adventure Back Story

It's taken a week for me to feel like I've had time/energy/motivation to start blogging about our Germany adventure. Before I start on a day-to-day description, I thought I should share some of the background to this trip.

Back in 2008, we had been planning  to take the entire family to Germany during the summer of 2009. We'd been saving up frequent flyer miles, talking about possible itineraries, etc. when Gary was offered the chance to do a Summer Term Study Abroad in Italy & Greece. Of course, he jumped at the chance, so our Germany trip was postponed. (Italy and Greece were a wonderful experience. You can look back to the beginning of my blog if you've never read about it.)

In October 2009 Aubrey received his call to serve in the Germany, Berlin mission, leaving January 6, 2010. We toyed briefly with the idea of picking him up, but decided that the timing wasn't great (Christmas, school, weather, etc.). Instead, we planned to take everyone to Germany the summer following Aubrey's return. It was a long term plan that was off in the future in so many ways.

And then our world turned upside down.


                   May 1, 2010


But life has a way of going on. And we must too. I felt it was important to take this trip that had been in the planning for so long. I set aside money from the life insurance, knowing that Gary would want me to go on this adventure with our kids. I let Aubrey know that once he got home, we would be returning just a few short months later. I made sure Carson & Maren knew that this was still going to happen, just like Dad had planned.


It had been so far off in the future, that when it came time to buy plane tickets, I was kind of taken by surprise. Of course, nothing ever can go quite like I planned--we weren't able to use frequent flyer miles like I had hoped and the tickets had gone up so much in price since I looked at them a year before. Needless to say, this trip was going to cost much more than I had originally budgeted. But I was determined that Gary would want us to go, regardless of such "trivialities." Tickets were purchased--we were going!


As the time for our departure grew closer, I began to have lots of apprehension. I'd never undertaken such an trip without Gary. He was the one with the "spirit of adventure," not me. I'd never even driven the California freeways until a few years ago, and I'd never driven in a large city (Gary always drove once we reached our destinations, including England on the other side of the road). I didn't speak the language (but at least Aubrey did, that was a comfort). I was the sole parent, completely out of my element. Could I really do this? Well, if I didn't, I would have been out a LOT of money for the plane tickets, and that was motivation enough. Besides, I wanted to prove to myself I could do it.


So I took a GIANT big girl pill, and off we went. My facebook status the day we left was "channeling my inner Gary."


I know Gary is proud of me. I'm proud of me too. I did something big and scary and not only survived, but enjoyed it! This trip will mean a lot to our family for the rest of our lives. I hope it's not our last big travel adventure together, but if it is, I will know that I did indeed, channel my inner Gary and enjoy the spirit of adventure.

Belated Memorial Day Post (aka the Grand Cemetery Tour)

I told the kids that this year on Memorial Day we were going to do the Grand Cemetery Tour--visit lots of grave sites all in one day. They weren't thrilled, but were willing to go along, especially after I promised breakfast at Kneader's (all-you-can-eat chunky cinnamon french toast, yum!) and a BBQ at Geoff & Marla's in the afternoon. We visited 6 cemeteries and I was able to tell them a few things about their ancestors that (perhaps) they hadn't heard before. We cleaned up the headstones of my paternal grandparents and great grandmother (my namesake). We spent lots of time in the car being silly. My favorite line of the day was when Carson, not quite 18 years old, replied to some comment made by a sibling, "I'm so old." Really? Give it a few years son!

Here are a few pictures of the day. We started out first thing in the morning at American Fork City Cemetery at Gary's grave.

After breakfast, we headed to the Provo City Cemetery to see their Nana's (my mom, Karen) grave. There are also lots of my dad's relatives buried in the same area.

Next was the longest drive--to the Ogden City Cemetery. My maternal grandparents (Dale & Dorothy Wright), great aunt (Virginia Schweitzer), great grandparents (Adolph & Grace Schweitzer), and great great grandparents (William & Emma Weber) are buried there.

We drove to the Centerville City Cemetery next. The kids' great great grandfather, BH Roberts is buried there, along with their maternal great grandparents (Lawrence & Olive Roberts).

My paternal grandparents (John Elmo & Blanche Henrichsen) and my great grandmother namesake (Else Johanna Anne Marie Nybo Williams) are buried in the Elysian Burial Gardens in the Millcreek area of Salt Lake. These headstones required a lot of trimming of grass and clearing off, so we spent quite a bit of time here.

The kids were about done, but luckily we only had one more visit to make. Gary's dad, LaRelle Hatch, and grandparents, Hugh & Ardean Hatch, (the kids' grandfather and great grandparents) are buried in the South Jordan City Cemetery. You can see by the look on Carson's face that it was time to head on over to eat!

We ended the Grand Cemetery Tour by eating yummy grilled chicken and Nathan's hot dogs with several family members at Geoff & Marla's house. I tried to take  a few pictures of my great niece with her grandparents, but she wasn't super cooperative. She's a real cutie and loves her grandma the most. And grandpa is ok too.  :)

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful Memorial Day!

Graduation

It's been a long time coming, but today was Carson's graduation. He's so happy to be done with high school and so ready to move on to the next phase of his life. I'm ready for him too, but am going to miss him a TON when he moves down to school for fall semester (luckily for me, it's only down to Provo, so I hope to get to see him a little bit anyway).

Here are a few pictures (or maybe more than a few) that I took last night at the American Fork Amphitheater and this morning at the actual graduation. (pre-photoshop since I messed up a couple of the settings...)

In his thoughtful pose

I've got an idea!

Carson in his natural state--texting :)

Looking Good!

Finally, the day has arrived!

I love this guy!

My Kiddos

Proud Mom and Happy Son

The family

Right after filing in, we're trying to get his attention from the audience

Choir singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic"  Carson is the tallest one in the back row near the right hand side

 

 

Acknowledging his adoring fans

Diploma Time

  

Jumping for Joy!

 I'm so proud of Carson and all his accomplishments so far. I know he's going great places and today is just the beginning. I love you my tallest son!

Computer/Phone issues

Computers--you love them when they're working, but can't stand it when they have problems. SOOOO, until further notice, contact us by cell phone numbers or email :)

So, It's Been a While

Yeah, it's been quite some time since I've posted here to my blog. Don't know if it's that I haven't been feeling very reflective, I've been busy with the daily-ness of life, I feel like I'm always tired, or some combination of all three (probably). But I'm still here, moving along, JSYK :)

Disneyland 2012

 Those of you who know me well know how much I love to go to Disneyland. If we lived closer, I'm sure I would have an annual pass to go far more often! But for now, I'm happy to have just gone with my kids for a great weekend together at The Happiest Place On Earth. It's a special place for our family and we had a great time! Here are a few photos to document our latest visit.

The boys were so excited to ride the new Star Tours. It was pretty crowded, so it was hard to get a picture without anyone else in the shot. So, as Gary would have said about the person on the left, "What about THAT guy?"

They were SO excited when we saw a couple of Storm Troopers. Luckily we weren't the droids they were looking for...

Gotta love the Jungle Cruise!

Kind of a blurry photo, but it shows Carson's awesome hair after California Screamin' (and those awesome chops as well)

It's hard to think of something new for the photo each time we rode Space Mountain

Carson's always creative :)

It's not a trip to Disneyland for the Hatch Family without a picture of these characters (the animals, not the kids)

I'm fine on The Tower of Terror as long as I can hold on to someone, or in this case, two someones

 

Waiting to take off on California Screamin'--LOVE this roller coaster!

 

So sad that this one turned out blurry :(   But it was pretty late and pretty dark, so the camera had a hard time picking a setting and since the person behind us in line took the picture, I should just be glad we're all in it and smiling :)