Alice and Marci

Our neighbor, Marci Hansen, has been Alice's horse-riding buddy for several months now.  Alice finally found someone who enjoys horses and riding as much as she does and they ride almost every morning -- Monday through Friday.

Thanksgiving 2012

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Kristi's family and Suzi's family and Edna.  Teri's family had dinner at the Gardners, but stopped by afterward.  Michael's family is on a 2-week cruise to Hawaii.

Jackson's Birthday

On November 14th, we took Jackson bowling.

He got several spares and came within a few points of beating me.

Afterward, we had pizza.

Nikkail's Orchestra Concert

On November 13th, Nikkail had a concert and they played 4 pieces:

"Minuet" by Luigi Boccherini,

 "Badinerie" by Bach,

 Mozart's "Minuetto," and

the Hebrew folk song "Hava Nagila." 

Mary's Halloween Concert

Mary had a concert on October 25th and they played 3 pieces:

Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King,"

"Overture" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera,"

and "Pirates of the Caribbean" by Badelt.

And this is Mary and Nikkail -- in costume -- after the concert.

Snow Storm

It snowed all day Friday and most of the day Saturday and we got at least 6 to 8 inches.  I wish I'd gotten more steps done before the storm, but I'm glad I got some done.

Retaining Wall and Steps

Michael and I (and the tractor) stacked about 75 boulders around the barn to keep water flow away from it.  We engineered it so that there is now a driving path around the barn.

 On the days that Michael was busy (he does have a full time job), I started putting steps down the hill to the barn.

Halloween

On Halloween, Maryn, Mary, Nikkail, and Brianne went trick-or-treating together.

UEA...Continued

Friday, among other things, Chase, Maggie, Bauer, Kelsey, Draeden, and Jackson played kickball in our back yard (which is perfect for it). 

Alice also took them to a nearby park.  Jada, Katie, Bauer, and Liam are in the foreground.  Chase, Kelsey, and Maggie (barely visible) are in the background.

Draeden, Alice, Jada, Bauer, and Liam.

Our Grandkids Love Hanging Out Together

All of the grandkids were out of school for UEA (Utah Education Association -- teachers' convention) Thursday (18 OCT) and Friday (19 OCT), so Suzi's kids slept over at our house.  On Thursday, they went to the "Scarecrow Festival" (a free carnival sponsored by a local boys' school) and then to "Scheels" (a new sports outlet similar to Cabellas).

Mary, Katie, Liam, and Jackson are on top.  Joseph, Chase, Kelsey, and Maryn are on the bottom.

Chase is in the blue shirt 4 levels up.  Bauer is below Chase and Draeden is below Bauer.

Jackson and Joseph are shooting hoops.

This really isn't a cage! Chase, Draeden, and Bauer were jumping in the "bounce house."

Kelsey, Nikkail, Mary, and Maggie stopped for treats.

This is Maggie, Katie, Chase, Draeden, and Bauer in front of an aquarium at Scheels.  (In case you're wondering, most of them had their faces painted at the Scarecrow Festival.)

This is Kelsey, Mary, Jada, Nikkail, Brianne, and Maryn.

Scheels has various dioramas set up for "Photo Opportunities."  If you get far enough away (like the one with the red jeep below), you can tell that it is a diorama, but if you get closer, they look real.

Maggie, Katie, Chase, Draeden, and Bauer.

Chase, Draeden, Bauer, Maggie, and Katie.

Maryn, Brianne, Kelsey, Mary, and Maggie.

While We Were In Europe

While we were in Europe, Michael finished putting the roof on the barn, our new trees assumed their fall colors, and our chrysanthemums bloomed.  Our trees turn colors much earlier than some in the area.

Bulle to Geneva - Thurs., 11 Oct 2012

Today is the last day of our trip, so it is appropriate that it is "Cheese and Chocolate Day."

Switzerland is so green and beautiful that it is difficult to take a bad picture.  This is the view from our hotel in Bulle.

This is Pringy-Gruyère.  (Pringy and Gruyère are 2 neighboring little towns where a cheese factory is located.) 

The cheese production area has a glass walkway around it on the second floor (the base of which can be seen in the upper part of this picture) so that the entire process can be viewed.  There are 4 vats (3 visible above) and each one makes 16 round blocks of cheese (35 lbs. each) and takes 16 hours to press.  There are 16 blocks being pressed on the top row (most of them visible at the left of the picture above) and 16 more on the bottom row (partially visible above).  There are also two more rows of 16 on the backside (as shown below), so the facility produces 64 blocks of cheese per day.

This is how the molds are filled.

This is how they turn them to start the next row.

This is the robotic mechanism that stacks and the cheese and turns each block over every couple of days for 3 to 10 months until it is cured.

This is the Nestlé-Cailler chocolate factory in Broc (less than 15 minutes from Pringy-Gruyère).

This is how they cover the toffee with chocolate.

This is the robotic arm that packs the toffee into boxes.

This is the "tasting room."  Every product of the Cailler brand is displayed here and you can eat as much as you want.

Strasbourg to Bulle - Wed., 10 Oct 2012

Today was a rainy day and we spent several hours driving from Strasbourg, France to Bulle, Switzerland.  I didn't realize that I had only taken 2 pictures today, but I'll make up for it tomorrow.  We stopped in Ribeauvillé, France -- population 5161 (can you tell we like small towns?).  They were having a medieval music festival there from September 15th to October 21st, but we found out (when we got there) that most of the events were on the weekends and there was nothing going on today.  But, we enjoyed wandering around the old part of town and Alice found some pistachio fondant that we enjoyed.  Ribeauvillé (Ree-boh-vee-LAY -- it really sounds cool when a French person says it) has buildings in the town square that date back to the 1500s-1600s and is a delightful place that we would like to visit again in the future.

Haguenau to Strasbourg - Tues., 9 Oct 2012

Today, we explored Alice's ancestral homeland.  Some of Alice's ancestors (the Greiners) were glass makers, so I decided we'd start by visiting a glass factory about 15 minutes from Rohrbach-lès-Bitche. 

This is Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche (the REAL St. Louis) with a population of 634.  They have a world renowned glass factory that dates back to 1767 (http://www.saint-louis.com/en/history), but we learned -- much to our chagrin -- that they are closed on Tuesdays.

This is the only glass we got to see there.

So, we drove another 15 minutes to this glass museum in Wingen-sur-Moder (population 1643).

This is some of their glass and crystal.

Hundreds of Alice's ancestors lived in Rohrbach-lès-Bitche (lower left -- population 2115), Bettviller (top center -- population 838), Guising (upper left -- population about the same as Bettviller).  Those towns almost form a circle about 2 miles across and we have visited them before.  This year, most of the work we've done is for ancestors in Hoelling (upper right).

This is Hoelling.

Alice's 3rd great grandfather John Young (Jean Jung) owned a bakery in Rohrbach.  Last time we were here, we ate lunch at a small bakery next door to where the Jung bakery used to be.  That one went out of business, so we ate lunch at this bakery that is a little bigger and is located on the edge of town.

The Rohrbach-Bettviller loop is still visible in the center of this expanded map, but almost every town where Alice's "Jung" ancestors lived from (at least) 1585 to the 1840s is shown here.  Besides the Rohrbach-Bettviller area, she had many ancestors in Montbronn (bottom center -- population 1668) and at least one from Gersheim, Germany (top left -- population 6781).  This expanded map is only about 10 miles by 10 miles, making it very apparent how close Rohrbach is to the German border.

This is Gersheim.

This is the view from the bridge in Gersheim.

Munich to Haguenau - Mon., 8 Oct 2012

This was our last day in Germany and we unexpectedly discovered what was to become one of our favorite towns in Europe.  The plan was: Alice would do laundry while I went to climb a tower, then we'd leave town.  I found a laundromat just one mile from the Ulm Minster (Ulmer Münster), which is the tallest church in the world (530 feet).  Having previously climbed the second tallest (515 feet) -- in Cologne (Köln), Germany -- I wanted to climb the highest.  Alice, having no desire to climb towers, was very content to do laundry -- and we actually finished at about the same time.  HOWEVER, having seen the town square in Ulm, I insisted that we both go back.  We both LOVE Ulm.

First of all, on the way to the town square, you cross this picturesque canal.

Then, you walk into the town square and face the tallest church in the world -- the Ulm Minster.  Its construction began in 1377 A.D. -- and it was financed by the town instead of the Catholic Church.  In 1530, a referendum was held and the town converted to Protestantism, so the Minster became Lutheran.  There are 3 levels.  The first is about halfway up (230 feet/392 steps) -- where you see the fencing if you click on this picture.  I climbed to that point and was about to quit when I saw a sign:

So, I climbed to the second level (335 feet/560 steps) -- where the cone on top begins.  I looked up and saw this:

Even if there had been another sign, I wouldn't have climbed that!  But, I had already climbed more steps than the "mere" 509 of the Köln Cathedral, so I quit.  The last 208 steps are for those much braver (and less acrophobic) than me.

But Alice was more interested in the open-air market in the town square.  Imagine eating and shopping at the base of the Ulm Minster.

And here's the view of the open-air market from 335 feet in the air.

From the second level of the Minster, you can see gargoyles and (what I later found out was) the Danube (Donau).  We hated to leave Ulm (and hope to go back someday), but we wanted to get to the chocolate outlet store before it closed.

As you drive into the quaint little town of Waldenbuch (population 8559), it's hard to imagine that it's the home of the Ritter Sport factory, museum, and outlet store.

But it seems appropriate that our last stop in Germany was to purchase German chocolate.  Here's Alice with her goodies.  She started throwing out the travel books (that we had already used) to make room in our suitcases for chocolate.  (Unfortunately, she threw out "Let's Go France" as we were about to reenter France.)