September 2014 Highlights

Lazy summer gave way to busy fall as we jumped right into activities!  Some of our favorite moments:

First day of School!  4th, 9th and 11th grades

A weekend trip to Center Parcs France for an awesome water park.
Unintentional bike crashing led to driving lessons....thankful for helmets!

Remembering Dad on September 9th, who passed away a year ago.  

A favorite wine festival of ours with unusual floats, wine queens, village bands, and the bakery stick players!
 Our favorite moment?  refills of your wine cup from the guys in the parade!

Only Zach came to the festival with us this year, so he cashed in on tokens to play sharp shooter games!  He shot them all and COULD have picked the nice sharp darts for his prize....instead we lured him away with a promised ride on the whirl-a-kid ride.  No seat belts, no regulations, no speed limits....gah!  I couldn't watch.

Football season at Kaiserslautern High School!  Nate and Alex in the pepband:  not nearly the same
as the American marching band experiences we grew up with!  They only have 3 home games,
only play if it's NOT raining (ha, it's Germany, it always rains in the fall!)

So, to have a more interesting experience, Nate joined the cheerleading team and became the school MASCOT!  Daily conditioning routines and cheer practice not only got him points with the girls, he has also become very well known on campus!  He loved every minute of it, until he wanted to be in the fall play...then there was conflict with the coach.  All in all, a great time.  And, his play was excellent.

Sometimes, an opportunity stares you in the face and you know you must seize it!  Such was the case for the Rotterdam, Netherlands weekend!  A humorous facebook video posted by a couple trumpet players in the Rotterdam symphony, led to a little research and ultimately conductor facing seats for an amazing concert!

About a week later, more amazing music:

As if our month wasn't full enough, we watched our good friend, Franziska in her amazing
 performance as Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.  The opera company was magnificent!  What a treat!