Trip to Bavaria

The last week of March Amazon sent me (this is Brandon posting) to our Munich, Germany office to represent my group. In the spirit of work hard play hard, I had a great week in Bavaria. On the ride from the Munich Airport to my hotel I passed by the famous FIFA 2006 World Cup Allianz Areana. Our office was just a few minutes away from the BMW welt and the 1972 site of the Summer Olympic Games.


Our German team took us out to dinner one evening to a restaurant called Ratskellers, it was located underneath this building, the Munich City Hall. Nice restaurant and great food.



In 1923 Hitler and his supporters, who at that time were concentrated in Munich, attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic. The revolt failed, resulting in Hitler's arrest at this site.

Over the weekend, I made the trip to the German village of Hohenschwangau in South West Bavaria to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle . This was the castle that inspired Walt Disney.

The Bavarian Alps

Hohenschwangau-- King Ludwig II's Home During Youth

View from the castle

View of the castle

Herrenchiemsee

This castle was built by King Ludwig II. It was his weekend island getaway. Versailles was the inspiration for the castle's appearance. I took a short 15 minute ferry ride across Lake Chiemsee to reach the island. The castle was magnificent. The fountains are currently covered for protection during the winter months. The highlight of the interior tour was the hall of mirrors which was approximately 100 meters ( little longer than the equivalent room at Versailles).

Wicked

When my parents come home for conference they have started a tradition visiting one of the kids on their way to Salt Lake and spending the weekend with that family before heading to Utah for conference. Last weekend it was my brother Todd's turn in California. My mom and I were having a conversation about what they could do while they were visiting him and I suggested they go and see Wicked which is playing Los Angeles. So my mom asked if I could help her find out if there were tickets available. In the meantime I headed to Phoenix to hang out with my sister. Well.... since we were so close to California as I was helping my parents get the tickets... my sister and I sort of invited ourselves to tag along. We headed to California for a quick 24 hour trip (without the kids- thanks to the hero of the year Uncle Alan!)

Wicked was AMAZING! I have been listening to the soundtrack for months with absolutely no idea when I was going to be able to actually see the play. It was everything I had hoped it would be! I was blown away by the talented voices of the lead singers. We enjoyed a great evening reuniting with my parents, hanging out with my brother and a fun road trip with my sister (we listened to the Wicked sountrack NONSTOP for the entire drive so my sister could learn the music before the play. It was a blast!)

Thanks Mom, Dad & Alan!

Sunny Arizona

On Tuesday morning Brandon found out that he was heading out of the country for a last minute business trip (leaving that night) for a week. So when Ellie and I woke up on Wednesday morning (to an empty house) we decided to ditch the snow in Seattle and head south to visit my sister and her family for a week. We hopped on a plane in two hours time and have been enjoying the sunshine ever since! I have had a great time visiting my sister and Ellie has LOVED playing with her cousins.

Running in the park

The Curtis Family and Ellie at Alex's Saturday morning soccer game.
Ellie loved cheering for her cousin... but in all reality she wanted to be out there playing!

Bunny Bounce at the Zoo

This is a girl on a mission!

Mission accomplished... look at all of the loot!  

Meeting a real bunny

We had a full day of family fun at the Bunny Bounce at the Woodland Park Zoo.  Ellie got a basket full of eggs and finally said, "I'm done."  

Then we toured the rest of the zoo including the new baby gorilla. So cute!  

Growing Easter Grass

For FHE this week my sister gave us the idea to grow our own Easter Grass.  So we gave it a try.  Ellie loved getting her hands in the dirt.  Can't wait to grow a garden with her this spring!

Yummy Whole Wheat Bread

Some friends were asking me about my wheat bread recipe.  I made it today so I thought I would share it here.

Yummy Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/2 T. yeast

3/8 c. warm water

1 1/2 T. sugar

Combine the above and set aside.

2 c. warm water

1 T. powder milk

3/8 c. sugar or honey

3/8 c. oil

1 T. salt

6-7 c. freshly ground whole wheat flour

1/3 c. wheat gluten

Combine the above including yeast mixture.  Knead for 10 minutes.

Place dough in greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.  Divide into two greased bread pans.  Let rise for 15 more minutes.  Bake at 375 degrees for 28 minutes.  Enjoy!

Girls Weekend in Monterey, California

I spent a long weekend in California with six of my closest girlfriends from my days at BYU.  It was a fabulous reunion and tons of fun.  It was so nice to reminisce and enjoy some quality girl time.  

At Pebble Beach

Checking out all the cute little shops on Cannery Row

All dressed up and nowhere to go.....

Valentine's Day Cookie Craziness

We had some of Ellie's friends over the day before Valentine's day to make our annual heart shaped cookies.  WOW... it was so crazy but SO fun.  The kids loved helping cut out the cookies and decorating with sprinkles. We all enjoyed the end product!  YUMMY!

Special Delivery....

Ellie and her friends Kaya and Gage handed out Valentine's Day cards at a local Assisted Living Center.  As soon as the trio walked through the door all of the faces in the room just lit up!  It was precious to watch.  They loved passing out the Valentines... although Ellie had a little difficulty giving away all the chocolate bars without sampling a few along the way as you can see below. 

She's a BIG girl now!

Ellie is officially potty-trained!  It has been a LONG couple of weeks.  Thankfully, we both survived!  YEAH! No more diapers!

A New Excuse

So all children come up with excuses as to why they shouldn't have to go to bed.  Tonight I heard a new one from Ellie.... "But Mommy, I have to clean my room first."  

I just hope this excuse will come up in her later years in life when her room is truly messy.  

I'm a Nookachamp!

I ran the Nookachamp 1/2 Marathon this weekend . The race was located in Mount Vernon, WA. It rained before the race and the entire afternoon after... but we got lucky and stayed dry during the race! Brandon and Ellie were there cheering me on. I couldn't have had a better cheering squad! Thanks for supporting me! Post race picture with my friend Angela.

The Adventures

While in Costa Rica we went on a number of adventures.  Here are a few:

The Jungle Boat Ride:  We saw at least 10 crocodiles, a pink flamingo, tons of monkeys (a few of us even fed bananas to the monkeys), lots of colorful iguanas and birds.

The first crocodile sighting

Ellie checking out the crocodiles.

It took her a while to see them at first but when she did see them she would get So excited and would start saying "chomp chomp chomp" and doing the crocodile arm motions.

Surfing

A few of us took our first surfing lessons.  It was so much fun!  

The Surfing Crew

The Jungle Zip Line:

Doing the Superman through the jungle

We really were in the middle of the jungle

Crazy Brandon

Christmas in Costa Rica

We spent the holiday in Paradise surrounded by family..... I'm not sure it gets much better than that! We enjoyed a week long vacation with the Clarke side of the family... and loved every minute of it! I don't think I have seen Ellie so incredibly excited for each and every moment of the day for the week that she was surrounded by cousins AND a pool! 

After much anticipation she is on her way.....Our first full day in Costa Rica was a Sunday so we headed to the local branch. Ellie loved going to primary with the other kids and even joined in (including a HUGE smile) when they sang I am a Child of God in Spanish.... which her dad has taught her to sing!Her first dip in the kiddie pool. I LOVED that the kiddie pool was covered by a hut.... even though she only spent the first day in the kiddie pool.. I thought it was a great idea to prevent the otherwise inevitable sunburn!Brandon and Ellie playing in the waves at sunset!Her favorite place... and where she spent ALL of her time!

It was fun to see how much Ellie changed in just a weeks time.  The first day in the water she wouldn't let us let go of her...but by just the second day she was swimming with her floaties in the deep end and would have nothing to do with us!
Christmas dinner! The balancing act
Uncle Nate playing with the monkeys... literally. These little guys were vicious... they would pit pocket you if you didn't empty out your pockets before heading in the cage.... unfortunatly one of our fellow travelers wasn't fowarned and the monkey stole their keys and headed to the top of the tree! They also stole a ladies sunglasses off her face through the fence!
Our favorite time of day was from 4-5 pm when the sun was setting and it was high tide. We would all head out to the ocean to ride the waves.... too much fun!
Cousins!
Christmas Eve sing-a-long at the resort
Christmas morning!