For today, it was better than a park.

I've complained that we have no parks, and I still wish we had parks BUT with a road trip around the island we are usually able to find a place to play!

Better than a pacifier.

We found a new way to keep Lincoln happy and content . . .

At dinner last night, DJ said "It's better than a pacifier!"

No parks

I think one of the hardest things about being here is figuring out where to play. With three active boys who love being outside, it has been really tough. There aren't any parks nearby. They don't have sidewalks for us to take walks. Even our house doesn't have a backyard. Our front yard has a tiny patch of grass (well, there's actually no grass so I guess it's a tiny patch of dirt). The boys can't play catch or ride bikes at home. We try to get away on the weekends for road trips and that helps a lot. We also go over to the base where they have a running path where we can ride bikes and go walking and even throw the ball around. Here are some pictures from us playing on base and playing at home.

Short hike.

We went on a 40 minute hike at the Alcantara Gorge on Saturday. It's near Taoromina, one of our favorite towns. The gorge was formed by volcanic lava from Mt. Etna. The boys did great keeping up. And I did too!! I had the camera the whole time. I need to do a better job of getting in the pictures. Really, I was there too! The tourist season hasn't started yet, so it wasn't busy and we ended up with our own private tour guide.

We ended the day with a drive through Taoromina. We tried to find gelato but it's not that time of the year yet. The boys settled for doughnuts.

Noah learning to ski.

DJ's ski race in Germany.

Back from Germany

DJ and Noah at the Munich, Germany airport.

We stayed at the Edelweiss Resort in Garmisch, Germany. It's a hotel for military and their families. It was beautiful!

They had a big fire place inside the lobby, and everyone spoke English! A nice change when living overseas.

We ate at lots of great restaurants. We loved the food in Germany!

This is on our way to the museum in Munich.

The boys standing in front of the Deutsche Museum. It's the largest science and technology museum in the world.

We had fun exploring the museum.

We really wanted Mexican food, and found a great place in Munich. Trying to keep Noah busy in hopes that we can avoid any meltdowns from no nap.

Lincoln slept in the car on the way to Munich. He was in a happy mood!

Tom teaching Noah to ski. He loved it, and kept asking Tom to go again. On a side note, Tom's parents taught him to ski at age 3 in Germany too!

This is the ski resort where we all spent a lot of our vacation. During the days, DJ was in ski school from 9am-3pm. When the day was done, he couldn't wait for the next day to start again.

That's Carey. Every morning, we dropped Noah and Lincoln off at the CDC (Child Development Center) on base and we went cross country skiing. It was probably our highlight of our vacation. It was a great workout too!

Here are pictures from the cross country skiing trail.

DJ is the one in the white coat. He's with his group at ski school.

Taking a break from the cold inside one of the restaurants at the ski resort.

We got to see the Olympic Ski Jump from the 1936 Olympics in Germany.

After Tom and I went cross country skiing, we walked around the cute towns and had lunch before picking up Noah and Lincoln.

Another highlight of the trip was meeting up with Tom's good friend Bobby Baker and his family. They are stationed in Garmisch. We had dinner with them a few times, and Tom spent an afternoon skiing with Bobby.

With Bobby's boys and a magician. This restaurant is known for it's magic. He was really good, and the food was amazing!

Tom and Bobby with all their boys.