Cast of Crazies and the Ostereiermarkt

We normally take our 'adventures' with a group of friends I like to call the Cast of Crazies. The Ryans, Buchanans, Slieters and DuPrees are all in our unit and we are all essentially neighbors. You can be sure it will never be dull with this bunch...ha ha. Here we are, all riding the train into Frankfurt to visit the Easter Egg market. The other pics are from a display of gnomes we saw in a store window - I always thought of them as happy, friendly little people - not sure what is up with these!

Skiing, part drei

Up top, the kids loved being able to play in the snow. It was really neat; Germans bring their kids along and just find ways to entertain them. We took a sled for Michael, and they both enjoyed taking a ride in it. We also built a snowman!

Skiing, part zwei

The weather was absolutely fabulous for day 2! It was beautiful and sunny as we headed up top - these pics show Samantha and Joe Ryan, riding up in the ski gondola, along with the beautiful snow on the trees. The ski areas are really picture-perfect, as was the view from the gondola!

Skiing over Presidents' Day in Garmisch

We made plans early in '08 to spend the Presidents' Day weekend skiing. What a large undertaking, as none of us had ever skiied before. We stayed at a German Gasthaus and not at the American hotel this time, but still had a blast. We spent our first day in ski lessons (well, everyone but Michael - he went to daycare!) and then we all went up on the mountain on day 2. Justin caught on very quickly; Sherri and Chris, not as fast but we were still functional by the end of the lessons. Sherri had the distinction of making the first fall of the day during ski lessons. Nice. These pics show the boys eating breakfast and then checking out the snow.

Faschnacht, part zwei

The customary thing to shout, to get them to throw you stuff is "Helau!" More photos, of Germans in costume. It really is a lot of fun; the normally-all-serious Germans really go all out on some of their costumes. These are just a sampling; notice the nurses have some lovely liquor IV bags.

Faschnacht

Germans are big celebraters - any excuse for a party seems to be good! In this area (Mainz especially) they are known for their huge Faschnacht celebrations. Faschnacht (called Fasching in Bavaria) is similar to Carnevale or Mardi Gras; a celebration 'blowout' held before the beginning of the somber Lent season. We are big Mardi Gras fans, after the years in LA and several trips to Mobile's MG, but what struck us is the average age of the partiers here! Even more, uh, 'seasoned' folks really get into it. They really do the costume thing, too - and you get a lot of attention (and plenty of free refreshments) if you are in costume. We actually were participants in the Mainz-Kastel parade, walking the entire route in costumes! The kids got a chance to truly be a part of a German tradition, and they were both a big hit with the locals. (That's Joe and Tracey Ryan, our neighbors/one set of the Cast of Crazies, with us.) We went to watch the Wiesbaden parade, again in costume. It was a lot of fun.

Groundhog Job Shadow Day, Feb 08

Justin was finally old enough this year to participate in Job Shadow Day. He was thrilled to be going to work with Chris. Our neighbor, Jacob Slieter, was also going to shadow his Dad, but since John's workplace wasn't able to participate, Jacob went to work with Chris, too. Due to the mission requirements, the boys were only able to stay a few hours but plan to go back and do 1/2 day with Chris, and then the remainder of the day with John Slieter. In these photos, they are pre-flighting the aircraft, checking out the cockpit of the RC and also test-driving the seats in the white plane.