Ben is finally back from SLC and we spent the first weekend cleaning the house (not that you can tell when you look at it today) and catching up on sleep. I just couldn't bear sitting around the house for another weekend, so we decided to go to Luisenpark in Mannheim. This is our first outing as a family in a couple months. At first we were planning to go to the Schwetzingen Garden, but when we drove past it there was a very large crowd in formal attire st...

This is not a leisure or tourist entry, but I figured I should document the experience anyway. After work on Thursday, I decided to stop at the commissary and pick up some things we needed for dinner before heading over to the CDC to get the boys. Taking the boys to the grocery store is something that I try to avoid at all costs because I never know what side of these little "Jekyll and Hide" monsters will come out. Will Carson sit in the cart calmly and enjoy...

When I was in elementary school, I vaguely remember being at my grandmothers house and the adults looking at a book. I also remember going to school and braggin that we had a castle in Germany, but I couldn't remember where it was or how we were connected to it. Since we are here, I figured I should at least find out if those memories were true or if I had made them up in my head. I emailed my Grandma in Florida and she told me that her ancestor's last...

I am marking this as the start of Year Two of our European tour in Germany. Technically, year two doesn't being until January 5th, but since we will be taking PCS before January 2014 and not coming back, I am marking year two from Jan 2012 - Jan 2013. Our first excursion of the year was a nearby one, focusing on Maddox. He has been in a dinosaur stage and we heard of a dino museum about an hour and a half away: Gondwana Das Praehistoruim, Germany's ver...