Georgia On My Mind: February 2013

Friday, February 22, 2013

Valentine's Day

Thankful that for another year we got to be T's valentine. We know that someday soon, some young man will steal her heart, and it will never be ours in the same way again!

Thankful that A will be our valentine for many more years to come!

Also thankful that Little R will always be MY valentine!

We always buy the girls flowers for Valentine's Day...and usually chocolate...but this year we made the smarter choice, and simply got flowers! Little R, on the other hand, doesn't appreciate flowers...so he got a big 'ol bag of M&M's! He just finished them off yesterday...he's been having a few each day!
MiMi & PaPa sent a box full of goodies and cards. Lots of fun stuff for the whole family!

All in all, it was a great day!!

Side note: This picture is a little too "real" for my liking...you can see the dirty dishes piled up in my sink in the background!! Oh well, this time I choose to look at the smiling faces, not the dirty dishes!

Basketball!!

I am doing a horrible job of keeping up with our blog!! There is so much going on in our lives, but I really need to keep blogging, for the sake of family trying to keep up with us as well as for us to have a record of our crazy lives to look back on someday, when our life actually calms down (or doesn't)!

So on that note, let's try this weekly blog thing again!

One of our new activities this season is basketball! R could not be more excited to have two of his kiddoes playing basketball!

Little R is playing basketball for the first time, and it is nothing short of hysterical!! Watching 4 & 5 year olds attempt this sport is quite entertaining! I can't say that Little R loves it, but he happily goes to practice, and gets excited before a game. So hopefully he will come to love the game! He is still quite short, so I don't know how successful he will be, but Daddy sure would love for him to be a basketball star!!

Ready for his first game!

Attitude! He stands like his sister!

Sitting on the bench is almost as much fun as playing in the game!

He has a pretty good shot!

To add to the basketball excitement, A also decided to play basketball for the first time ever! She is the cheerleader of the family, but after years of being the tallest in her class, Daddy finally convinced her she should give it a try. She has done quite well, and is finally showing some aggressiveness on the court! R is the coach for her team, so it has been a fun experience for both of them. She informed us the other day that she probably won't play basketball again, but she is glad she tried it! R's dream of a basketball star now rests solely on Little R's shoulders...we will have to wait and see what his passion becomes.

Only 2 girls on the team, and the other one wasn't here this day. And yes, A is taller than all the boys!

And she has a pretty nice shot, too!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Garmisch, Germany

Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, Germany. Definitely one of the best places we have been in Germany so far! Garmish is a neat little town, in a beautiful area, surrounded by mountains! The views are breathtaking! Edelweiss is an American Resort...all English speaking, fully staffed by Americans! It was awesome! Other than the beautiful scenery outside, you could literally forget you are outside of the United States! That was a wonderful change of pace for our family!

We spent two nights at Edelweiss. The first night the kids had swimming on the agenda! They have an indoor, heated pool...and since our kids haven't been swimming since we left the States in 2011, we decided it was time! They had a BLAST!!

The next day we got bundled up in our snow gear, rented some sleds, and headed to the slopes! No skiing for the Willises for several reasons: first, some of us are way too accident-prone, and would be guaranteed an injury; second, after this little stint in Germany, never again will our vacations include winter weather activities; and third, some of us just have NO desire to learn how to ski! So we opted for sledding instead. Once again, it was a BLAST! R and I even sledded down the hill several times, and it was FUN! I loved watching our kids laugh and scream, and just have good 'ol fashioned fun!

We decided after going back to Edelweiss and warming up, that another swim session was in order! So off to swim again we went! Again, the kids had a blast!

That evening we had reservations at a highly recommended German restaurant in town. They had traditional Bavarian slap dancing, which was pretty cool. Our waiter and the guy who runs the place were both SO friendly! They made us feel very welcome, and accomodated T's dislike of sauerkraut and love of potato salad, with no complaints! It was a refreshing change of pace from some of the other German establishments we've been in! The food was amazing!! Overall, a great experience!

The next morning we checked out and headed home. We let the GPS take us home, which took us a much more scenic route into Austria, and through some beautiful mountains. This was a GREAT weekend trip!! We can't wait to go back and explore some more!!

Their first swim!!

Ready for dinner the first night!

This is the lobby at Edelweiss!

They had these great rocking chairs...with THIS view!

Ready for sledding!

The girls' first trip down the hill!

My first trip down. I was a bit nervous!

The view from our sledding hill.

Little R going down.

Our little guy trudged up this hill SO many times!! I was impressed! But the thrill of going down was WELL worth the climb up!

A little Dance Dance Revolution challenge before dinner.

This is where we ate dinner. I highly recommend it, if you are ever in the area!

Waiting for our food...which took a while!

My food! Jagerschnitzel with spaetzle and mushroom sauce! It doesn't look pretty, but it was delicious! BTW...this is AFTER I had eaten all I cared to eat! It was yummy, but there was LOTS of it!

R and T ordered the same thing! Of course, they found the item on the menu that included the most meat, and that's what they ordered! There is sauerkraut underneath the meat...R's favorite part!