The Kreiling-Little Annual Camping Trip – Lake Placid

While not our first stop, the Lake Placid visit was definitely memorable!  Our first view of the Olympic events was of the ski jumps – wow, are they ever TALL!

Later in the visit, we actually went up to the top of the ski jump and looked around.   It was a great view of the Lake Placid area, the surrounding mountains and the other Olympic venues.   We also saw the kids practicing their ski aerial jumps – skiing down a wet surface, doing their acrobatic jump into a swimming pool.  Way cool!

The highlight of the visit to the Olympic venue was the BOBSLED ride!   We all rode it – IT WAS AWESOME!

Amy & Walter visit Europe – WITHOUT the kids!

If you can imagine it, Walter & Amy actually took a kid-less trip to Spain, Andorra and France.   The kids stayed with Tante Laura & Uncle Craig – THANK YOU! 

We were very fortunate to be invited by our friends, the Marks, to join them in staying at a French home called Tardibail (near Foix, France).   The home was secluded and lovely. 

 

The Marks graciously provided us with the small cottage out back to stay in

While in France, we ate lots of bread, cheese, pate, cured ham & other meats. Walter even gave his special cured ham a name, Leftie, and ate it all week long -

 

And of course, good French wine – here’s our collection of empty bottles on the day we left Tardibail -

We visited chateau’s, saw a cool birds of prey show atop a medieval castle, a medieval walled city (Carcassonne), and the city of Mirepoix (apparently also a cooking term).  Here are some pictures -

On Saturday (July 11), Amy stayed at Tardibail to relax while the Marks went to Toulouse and Walter visited the Tour de France!   I’ll let Walter post his pictures.

We left Tardibail on Sunday and headed to Andorra.   The drive through the mountains was spectacular, although Amy couldn’t watch on a few of those hairpin turns.

Andorra was interesting – the city was located in the middle of mountains but ironically souvenirs were hard to locate – no Andorra t-shirts for us.   We did have some yummy tapas, and of course Walter was happy with his pitcher of Sangria.  He drank Sangria and ate cured ham whenever he could!

 

After a night in Andorra, we headed back to Barcelona and stayed for three nights.

The famous food market – Boqueria -

Architecture from Gaudi -

The famous Gaudi cathedral, still in progress -

We had a wonderful time!

Washington D.C. – part #3

After Nicky’s Leadership conference, we all met again in D.C.   As the only way to travel in D.C. is by Metro (their train/subway system), here’s a picture of the kids on the Metro our first day -

We visited the Air & Space museum -

We didn’t make it to the Capitol, although Nicky did on his conference.  

It rained the Saturday we were there – I’ve never seen so many people packed into the museums.   We visited the Air & Space, Natural History and American History museums.   Uncle Walter sure does like to walk and he walks very fast.   Here we are recovering from one of Walter’s walks -

Finally, some wonderful pictures of our nation’s capital -

The World War II memorial with the Washington Monument in the background -

Jefferson’s memorial -

 

Waiting in line at the National Archives -

 

OMG, a picture with me in it!!!

 

On the last day we visited the new FDR memorial park.  It is wonderful – if you are in D.C. take some time to visit it.   Well worth the time!   Our pictures from the memorial park.

 

 

That’s it!   We had a great time and can now check off D.C. in our “Places to Visit in the United States” list.

Washington D.C. – part #2

Better late than never, here are more pictures from our trip to Washington D.C. in April.   After dropping off Nicky at the Leadership conference, Joey & Amy headed to Philly to stay at Tante Laura’s house for the week, while Walter headed home.  Since Joey was missing a week of school, we tried to make our trip to Philly an educational adventure.   A side trip to Gettysburg was made – here are Joey & Katie very excited about our trip -

But they woke up in time to view some monuments.  I will add an aside here that the program at the Visitor’s Center in Gettysburg was REALLY good.  If you’re in the area, I definitely recommend it.  This is the place where Lincoln made his famous Address -

Two more pictures show Katie & Joey actually reading the Gettysburg Address.   I was very impressed with their interest in Gettysburg.

Finally here’s Tante Laura on a very windy, cold day in Gettysburg -

A few days later, we all visited the US Mint in downtown Philadelphia.  Little did we know that NO cameras are allowed in the Mint so I have no pictures to show.  It was also the Thursday afternoon before Good Friday so no minting was being done.   The museum was interesting, but it sure would have been cool to see the minting machines in action!

More pictures from our trip west to IL

Thought I’d share a few more pictures from our trip to IL – first we visited Oma & Ota in Chicago.   Ota put Nick to work mowing the lawn -

Then we visited with Nana & Grandpa Z.   I have some pictures of the kids pitting the cherries -

Making the pie with Nana -

And the finished product – mmmm, yummy!

There’s always a game of Kings in the Corner to be played 0

Here’s Grandpa Z’s new Jeffersonian Rain Gauge which he received as an early birthday present from all of us -

And to top it all off, as Laura mentioned, the annual changing of the flag ceremony.   Here’s what happens to the old flag -

It’s all FUN FUN FUN when we travel back to Illinois!