Shopping Day in Stuttgart

The kids had a day off of school, so we headed down into Stuttgart to explore a little.  There is a great shopping area downtown that we had never been to, and we had heard about a neat little donut shop downtown, also.

We found the donut shop first, but after driving around for 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot, we decided to head on into the shopping area.  The shopping area was great!!  It's a neat pedestrian-only street, and it was a weekday, so it wasn't overly crowded....very neat!

And as a treat to Little R...we ate at McDonald's, which is a rare treat for him these days!

After a few hours of shopping, we decided to try the donut shop again.  Drove around again for a while looking for parking, then decided to take our chances and park illegally...after all, it would only take a minute, right?  R was VERY nervous about it...but we made it in and out without a ticket!

The donuts were WONDERFUL!!  I don't know if it's because donuts aren't something we see here very often or what, but they were well worth the illegal parking risk!! 

Overall, it was a great family day!!  We live in a small town about 30 minutes from downtown Stuttgart, and we don't venture into "the city" very often.  LOTS of people, LOTS of traffic...two things R doesn't handle exceptionally well these days.  But this day was worth the effort...we all enjoyed it!

We love the mix of old & new architecture in Europe!

Konigstrasse...a pedestrian-only shopping street.

It was cold!!  I was wishing for an indoor mall!

Give R the camera, and you get LOTS of pics!

This was just a cool church we saw after leaving the donut shop...so we had to stop and take pics.

R ran inside to snap some quick pics!

The churches here are amazing!!

Basketball Season

After years of Daddy saying what a shame it is that A doesn't play basketball, she decided to give it a try this year!  Her one stipulation:  that Daddy would be her coach!  He agreed, and off they went on a challenging journey!!

They began with a team that only had a couple of players who had ever played before.  They started the season with very little knowledge or skill.  But R was a great coach, and even if they weren't winning games, they were definitely learning...and having fun!

A improved SO much over the course of the season.  And in the last games of the tournament, I was so proud to see her actually get quite agressive!!

It was obvious the boys looked up to R...and he was definitely "in his element" when he was coaching!  He has had a dream of being a high school teacher and coach his entire life...and I have somewhat shot down that dream...telling him when he retires from the Army, I want him to be able to focus on his own kids, not a team full of others people's kids.  After seeing him coach this season, I realize how selfish that is of me...he enjoys it, he's good at it, and he's a great example (most of the time) to the kids he is coaching!  I think any team would be lucky to have him as their coach!

Overall, it was a great season!!  A is still undecided if she will play basketball again.  Cheerleading is still her first love!  But even if she never plays again, it was a great learning experience for her, and quality time with her Daddy...which is always a good thing!

A on the court

Free throws were a challenge for most of the kids on the team. 

Team 6!! 

Little R supporting Sis from the sidelines!

Team talk!

Team 6 with their amazing coach!