Nato & Robin: July 2012

In July, Nato had some training he had to do in this little village in southern Germany called Oberammergau. We all got to go with him. We stayed for two weeks in a small apartment across from this school for wood carving. These grasshoppers were part of an event they held there one Saturday. To say they were HUGE would be an understatement.

This town has some interesting points to see. Some of the houses are painted with fairy tale stories. This one is Hansel and Gretel. If you notice the pic above each window tells a different part of the story.

We spent Nato's b-day walking around and looking for all the different stories on the different houses.

This is Kofel Peak. They call it Oberammergau's Matterhorn, I guess because it has a similar shape and it is the highest point in this area.

This house has the story of Little Red Riding Hood. There was also a Cinderella, and a Puss in Boots to name some more.

Matthew

Jane

Jacob

Most of the area reminded us of Heber Valley. Many houses have flower boxes in every window.

This is Pilot's House. It is painted with the story of Christ being presented before Pilot and Pilot washing his hands of the judgement of Christ.

Front side of Pilot's house.

We are continuing to work on our language skills here. We have learning in our German language class a small game, "Wo ist der Kieselstein?" or "Where is the pebble?" One child holds a pebble in one hand. The child places BOTH hands behind their back and asks, "Wo ist der Kieselstein?" The other child then tries to guess which hand the pebble is in. They point to the hand they think it is in and say, "da" or "there." It is a pretty good game for a Family Home Evening activity or just when we need some entertainment in an apartment one afternoon. Of course you can always play it in English if your German is rusty.

Jane

"Ha, Ha, you guessed wrong!"

Benjamin

Philip

Usually Nato had class all day, but a few times they were finished with class by noon. These afternoons were perfect times for Nato and the "big" kids to go explore the mountains around us. While Robin and the babies napped.

This trolley took them up to the top of one mountain where they explored and relaxed.

There was quite a nice view and they could see many of the surrounding villages in the mountains.

Awesome Daddy time!

Jane and Matthew

There is a children's book about a little girl that had so much yarn she made sweaters for things that usually don't need sweaters. Like houses, cars and trees. I wonder if she visited Oberammergau lately? Yes there is actually yarn "knitted" or something around this tree.

FYI: the book is called "Extra Yarn" by Mac Barnett.