U2 Concert

Ted and I went to Berlin to see the U2 Concert, it was awsome! 80,000 people were there, that was by far the biggest stadium I've been in. We drove in with our friend Neils Jensen and met up with Jens and Susy for wurst and fries before the show. Snow Patrol opened, I was surprised that I knew some of their songs, not bad but definatley not U2. Finally, U2 came on and Ted and I enjoyed singing and dancing to our favorite songs. We even mastered the "air microphone" together. The stage was set up like a giant alien space ship. It looked dumb at first but by the time the band was hitting their crescendo in their performance the stage did some amazing things that totally looked like it might blast off. Bono said they built it so they could be closer to their fans and with the outer circle and moving bridges, I could understand their point. It was fun to hear how many songs the band had written in Berlin throughout their lives. The song 'Walk On' was dedicated (or written) for Aung San Suu Kyi, I thought it was great that the band uses their influence to try to make the world a better place. Check out this you tube link below. I don't know in what way U2 or even myself can make a difference in this lady's life but learning about it and supporting it is better than ignoring it. I am very glad to have been born into a democratic world but know that many other do not share the same freedom that I take for granted. That night we spent at Jens and Susy's home along with their very rambuncuous dogs. It was a great weekend and the girls loved hanging out with Neeti.


http://360.u2.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMPjLfJNliA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amnesty.org%2Fen%2Fappeals-for-action%2Fdaw-aung-san-suu-kyi-and-myanmars-political-prisoners&feature=player_embedded

Hagenbeck Zoo

We had a great time at Hagenbeck zoo. The girls got their faces painted. Aubrie had a dolphin motif and Kaitlan became a bunny. The best part was getting to feed the elephants! The baby baboon was much cuter than it's parents and getting to see the tigers drag around a huge chunk of meat was pretty cool too.

My Witchie-poo

Kaitlan and her trusty steed. Ever since we got the Winnie the Witch books, the girls love being silly witches. The books are super cute. We read them a lot!

Slip N' Slide

Summer fun on a hot day.

Rissen Days

There was some kind of celebration going on in our village. We waited almost 2 hours for Aubrie to get to walk across this pond. She had fun though and Ted and I was glad she didn't chicken out. Kaitlan had fun feeding the trolls pine cones. My sister needs to teach her to throw better.

Kaitlan's School's Circus

At the end of June Kaitlan's school had a big circus party complete with clowns, tightrope walkers, snake tamers and lots of singing and dancing all performed by the kids. Kaitlan's group was the magicians and all the kids in the Penguin class loved making and wearing their enormous magic hats. Kaitlan didn't sing or do the actions along with her class but was still brave enough to join them on stage. Her German is improving but she doesn't understand everything quite yet. It was fun to see how creative the program was and I am glad to have Kaitlan involved in such a fun preschool.

Aubrie's Nature Week

Aubrie's school had a Nature Week the first week of June. They spent a few days in the surrounding forrest learning what things grow and live there, how to take care of our environment, and building things with what they could find. On the rainy(er) days they listened to stories and made some great craft projects back at school. I really love the way the both of my daughters school programs have embraced living near the woods and encouraging and teaching them to explore and learn more about their environment.

What a day

The day started out wonderfully, sunny and hot, very rare for Hamburg. A group of us decided to meet at the beach by our house and let the kids play in the cool water. Aubrie and her friend Leoni were playing together nicely. Kaitlan was soaking up some rays... Then, suddenly, I couldn't see Aubrie and Leoni any longer! I scanned the beach for 5 minutes then started broadening my search. After 10 minutes my friend DeEtte started helping me look. I checked by the lighthouse, by the car parking lot, the cafe, the pier, the neighboring dog-beach while DeEtte walked into the woods a bit and was hollering for them. After 30 minutes we began to ask strangers on the beach if they had seen our 2 girls. After 40 minutes the 4 of us in the search party began to get seriously concerned and we decided to phone the police. As I'm attempting to make the phone call I'm realizing the gravity of the situation. Aubrie is missing. Thoughts of other missing children are running through my head. Suddenly as the nice stranger is trying to translate for me to the police, DeEtte shouts out "I see them!". I ran to them to see for myself but my feelings suddenly changed from worried, frustrated, and tearful to anger. I held Aubrie's arm and bent down to explain how frustrated I was with their bad choice to wander off. I didn't want to let go of her arm, she was here with me, she can't wander off and she can't be kidnapped if I keep a good grip of her. I thought a really tall tower would be nice to have for her. Maybe that's where the idea of them came from-fair maidens who's parents didn't want them to wander off again or let them be around others who might hurt them. How does one raise kids in this world without a tower? Alas, protection can't come at the cost of growth. I know my kids have to grow up and experience all that life has to offer- both the joy and the pain. I hope I can continue to keep track of them, nurture them, provide for needs and a few wants and teach them all that I can before they grow their strong wings of independence where no tall tower would ever be able to contain them.



As a follow up to the whole ordeal, I had told Aubrie that since I had to phone the police she was going to have to tell them why she wandered off without telling her mother where she was going. This put some of the fear into her that I was hoping for. I wanted her to not just say sorry and be done with it but really internalize how serious the situation was. So I decided to call Ted's brother Reed, who used to be a Salt Lake City police officer. He helped me to see the situation more rationally and we decided he would talk to her and be the loving uncle instead of the mean cop I was originally going for. It was great that Reed could be part of my "village" that day even though we live a continent apart.

Silly girls

Kaitlan got into the play makeup and painted herself pink with the blush from head to toe! Both girls love being silly. Who knew handkerchiefs could be so much fun?

The North Sea

So for my birthday I wanted to spend a day relaxing at the beach. We hadn't been to the ocean yet since coming to Hamburg, but we often enjoy the beach along the Elbe River. So we packed up and headed to Freidrichskoog, about 1 1/2 hours from here. It was the strangest thing to get to the beach, climb up the huge dike and not see a bit of water for miles and miles. Mud Mud and more Mud! In German this is called the "vat" during low tide. This area is also a national nature preserve since no where else in the world does the ocean receed so dramatically. The danger comes when unknowing visitors try to hike the whatever miles out to the waters edge and then are too far out when the tide changes and they are now out to see. We didn't go so far out but found exploring the vat mud very interesting. It was great to see the ocean riding in over about a half hour period and then everything looked completly different. We loved soaking up the sunshine and the girls loved digging in the sand. Sorry about the wind in these videos!

The big 30

So I'm officially older now. 30. Hmmmm, it's still sinking in. A few things I've noticed since my birthday, the skin techture around my eyes is starting to change! Oh and my metabolism is definatley slowing. I no longer think sleeping on the ground really sounds that great any more. And just the other day I thought- well when I was a kid...