Happy Halloween!

Stefanie & Rachel

Happy Halloween from Stefanie & Rachel! Still happy to carve a pumpkin every year!  And thanks to them we had almost 40 trick or treaters this year - the pumpkins got kids attention!

The back of Stef's jack-o-lantern - CUTE!

Munich with McCords

My family has been friends with the McCords since we moved to Hudson 36 years ago. When Mr McCord, who insists I call him Bill but I just can't, emailed to say they would be here for one night, of course we said we would meet them for dinner!! We took them for drinks on the roof of Bayrischer Hof the most prestigious Munich hotel and then for dinner at Spatenhaus, the yummiest Bavarian food there is. We had a fun evening with them, it was so great to see them! We're so glad they included a stop in Munich in their plans!

Fall Break in Gran Canaria

Stefanie, Rachel, Missy & Steve

Steve has been super busy at work and the girls have been busy at school and we've all done a fair bit of traveling, so we decided that fall break needed to be just that, a break. So we booked a hotel on Grand Canary Island for five days by the pool and beach.

Rainbow after a little afternoon storm

We loved our hotel and location. The beach was just a short but challenging walk through the sand dunes away and the pool was awesome. We wound up with terrific weather and we spent our days reading, playing hearts and relaxing. The perfect do nothing vacation.

I don't think the girls actually believed it would be a do nothing vacation until they asked me a third question in the car on the way to the hotel and I answered again with: "I have no idea, you'll have to google it when we get there". I always have an agenda but not this time!

West Point Weekend

Steve, Missy & Dominic

As our time in Germany is lasting longer we have decided to make a few more visits home to see the boys at school. The girls both had away sports tournaments from Thursday to Sunday and West Point was playing football at home so we went to see Dominic!

Dominic was able to get away for dinner on Thursday night when we arrived. There are rules at military universities and leaving campus for dinner isn't always allowed.

Dominic only had a half day of classes on Friday and was able to secure a pass for the day so we headed to Albany to visit Steve's mom and his sister's family. The bonus of this visit was meeting our newborn twin great nephews. Who doesn't want to hold six week old twins? We had a great afternoon and evening with them.

So adorable!!

Dominic's not quite sure about wanting to hold twins!

The next day was football Saturday! We got up early so we could see the parade on the field and watch Dominic's company march. We gave him strict instructions that he could not find a way to get excused from marching, we were there he needed to be in the parade. 

G-1 makes the turn. 

We couldn't actually go to the game with Dominic. Cadets sit together, they are the 12th man on the field. 

It is a nice visual!

But we had an awesome substitution. Our friends Paul and Terry who used to live in Munich met us at the game. Paul is a USMA "old" grad and thanks to a friend, scored us some great tickets. We attended a tailgate in the Superintendent's garden, with cheerleaders, the band and a speech by the Supe. Then a police escorted bus ride to the stadium where we sat in the Supe's box. Great seats for a great game. But the best part was the company! West Point played Lafayette and beat them handily! (62-7)

Paul, Missy & Terry

Missy & Terry - Superintendent Tailgate

During the game Terry and I were able to find Dominic and some of his friends. Men in uniform are just handsome! 

Missy, Dominic & Terry

After the game Dominic had some studying to do so we walked campus and then went to mass with Paul and Terry at the small catholic chapel. It was a lovely mass and really refreshing to attend church in English.

Paul, Terry, Missy & Steve

Afterwards we picked up Dominic and his two best buddies and took them out for a steak dinner. I love spending time with my kids' college friends; getting to know their friends and watching them interact plus hearing stories our kid might not share is priceless.  Johnny and Michael are both great young men!

Johnny, Michael & Dominic

We had such an awesome weekend. It was so worth the travel to be able to see Dominic and Paul and Terry. We are so very lucky!

A beautiful shot of campus!

Oktoberfest Fun!

Since moving to Bavaria Steve and I have tried to embrace as many traditions and customs as we can. One we particularly seem to excel at is Oktoberfest. Some years we go more than others and we always have a lot of fun!

I kicked off the season with a visit with a group of moms from MIS. Definitely a fun way to spend the afternoon. Lunch with friends is always fun, lunch at Oktoberfest with friends is even better.

Then we went with Victor & Veronica when they visited. We had a table with friends at the Marstall tent. Another fun afternoon! Plus we got to join Stefanie celebrating her birthday.

We had been teasing Stefanie that I would haunt her party taking photos,
then the tent photographer came by wearing this sash - it seemed perfect!

Next up was a girls lunch for me, celebrating our friend Lois's birthday. This time we were at the Käfer tent. This was a favorite. Great food and a great band. It was such a fun afternoon!

Also I finally got to the to the Floh Circus (flea circus), I've wanted to check it out since we went on a tour about Oktoberfest. It was as lame as you might have suspected.

At this point Steve was feeling a bit left out so he and I had lunch there one afternoon. We tried Cafe Kaiserschmarrn and we were NOT disappointed. Kaiserschmarrn is this amazing dessert. It's described in English as chopped up pancake that is then covered with some kind of delicious topping but it is so much more than pancakes. Ours was topped with chocolate and banana, I think a new Oktoberfest tradition has been born!

Beautiful day for lunch outside!

Next our friends the Donahues visited. Since they brought their young kids we had to visit Oktoberfest in two different ways. Once on a Sunday morning with the kids. We had breakfast (kaiserschmarrn again) and then the boys rode a ride or two and played ALOT of games.

Jed, Jen
Jacob & Jordan

Jed & Steve

Games!

My friend Janet was also in town with two girlfriends so they joined us too!  The more visitors the better!

Then we properly closed down Oktoberfest with 20 of our friends on the final night. We had two tables in the Hofbräuhaus tent and it was a fabulous party. We had so much fun dancing all night and enjoying the atmosphere. The band was superb and the company even better!

Wendy, Missy & Jen

Last ones there!

The Donahues Visit!

Steve Missy, Jen & Jed

Another busy and fun week. Our friends the Donahues came to visit bringing their terrific sons Jacob and Jordan.   To combat jetlag they hit the ground running when they arrived and we started with a short tour of Munich. We only saw the major highlights, that was enough for jet-lagged kids!

Next was Oktoberfest for breakfast. Sunday morning is a great time to take kids. You can always get a table in the morning and have a yummy breakfast of kaiserschmarrn or weißwurst and pretzel. Then the kids can ride the rides and play the games, Jacob and Jordan really enjoyed the games! We spent most of the day there soaking up the atmosphere!

Jen, Jed, Jacob & Jordan

Jen, Jacob & Jordan

 More Bavarian fun the next day. Steve took the Donahues to Andechs, we really do take everyone and then it was the final evening of Oktoberfest. I had been able to find tickets for two tables at Hofbräuhaus so 20 of us made a night of it. The atmosphere at Hofbräuhaus is electric.  We danced all night and had a fabulous time!

The Donahues spent the next few days exploring the Bavarian castles and little idyllic townss and then spent their evenings with us. It was wonderful having them visit! They ended their stay in Milan, exploring a little of Italy and enjoying the fabulous food!

Quick goodbye as the girls headed to school!
Rachel, Jacob, Stefanie & Jordan