Other favorites of McGermany and Austria

We stopped by Oberammergau on our way to Salzburg. Oberammergau is famous for it's passion play. In the 1600's the people made a vow that if God would spare them from the plague- they would perform a passion play every 10 years. They have kept their promise and next year is the 41st performance. Oberammergau is also famous for the frescoes on their homes- some have religious themes (like the building behind Kailey) others have fairytales.

We went to the information center and asked what to see and where to eat. They sent us to a restaurant called Zauberstub'ns. It was a magic themed restaurant. The owner even came over and did magic tricks for the kids. He was great!

I love this picture because Madison looks so cute in her new hat! (Plus Jake has on his Manchester United Football hat...)

When we were in Salzburg a little over a year ago- we went to a Salt Mine. It was so much fun that we decided to go back. Well, we went to a different one from last year and they wouldn't let anyone under the age of 4 go on the tour. So- we drove 30 minutes in the other direction (back to Bavaria) and found the other salt mine. It was so much fun! (Even a second time.) They give you these great coveralls to put on

and then you get on a little train and head into the mine- inside the mountain! You get to go down these really fun slides, go on a boat on an underground lake (with a fun laser light show) and learn about salt mining. (One of the educational things that our children actually did NOT complain about.)

See our fun coveralls!?

After the salt mine, the kids were hungry so we headed to McDonalds. Now- I must tell you that we spent significant time at McDonalds! (Hence the name of this blog entry.) At the end of our trip, Jake informed us that he had eaten 10 1/2 cheeseburgers. Uggghh! Anyway, it was snowing and the snowflakes were huge. So, Danny and the kids built this cute snowman.

Ketchup makes a very good snowman mouth!

While we were in Salzburg we saw Mozart's house where he was born. (The front of it anyway.) We also explored the fort on the top of the mountain. Hohensalzburg Fortress is very amazing. It is one of the largest and best preserved forts in Europe. The tour was great- about 30 minutes- an audioguide for both children and adults- fast, fun and informative.

The Carrell Knights. We love a few good swords!

Fussen and The Swan Castles

Fussen was fabulous. (This is the kids in the village of Fussen.) Hotel Kurcafe was great. We had a lovely breakfast on Sunday and the kids were thrilled because they had a chocolate fountain. Shelby couldn't get enough chocolate covered fruit!

Claire and Shelby by Hohenschwangau.
Then we headed to Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Both are castles with swan themes. Hohenschwangau was built (or improved upon) by King Maximillian II of Bavaria. It was a very fun castle and the table decorations make anything Martha Stewart creates look small and dull. This castle was the childhood home of Kind Ludwig II.

All of us at Hohenschwangau- you can see Neuschwanstein behind us.
Ludwig grew up and decided to build something a bit grander- so he had Neuschwanstein started. It is like a fairytale castle (Walt Disney thought so too...) and absolutely breathtaking. Ludwig was either very eccentric or crazy. He had a cave built in his private rooms (it is really cool however). Sadly, Neuschwanstein was never finished because King Ludwig died before it's completion. (The question remains- did he kill himself or was he killed?)

Neuscwanstein is looming behind us. (Side view.)
We took a horse drawn carriage up to the castle and then walked down. The kids had a fun time reinacting what happened when Danny came here a few years ago with his sisters. Poor Jill blew out her knee on the way down. (Just so you know, Jilly, Danny was able to sound just like you when he screamed... We are thankful that your knee is fine now.)

Ah Bavaria!

We are enjoying a wonderful trip to Deutschland! We flew into Friedrichshafen early Thursday morning (we left Dublin at 6 a.m.). Interestingly enough, the dad of one of Kailey's favorite friends is a pilot and he flew us to Germany! We saw him as we were getting on the plane (it's hard to miss us...) and chatted for a minute. He came on the loud speaker as we were enroute and said, "I just want to wish Kailey Carrell and all of the Carrell family a happy holiday..." It was great! We felt famous!

Friedrichshafen isn't a huge town- but it is on Lake Constance (or Bodensee if you're speaking German). Switzerland is just across the Lake. Anyway, it was really snowing when we arrived. Consequently- our rental car wasn't available because of a little accident that very morning. They ordered another one for us, but we needed to wait for it. So we spent the day in Friedrichshafen. We all squeezed into a lovely Volvo station wagon (a car that I have always appreciated- and it really was quite nice) and drove into town. We did all the wrong things. Even with the Sat Nav- we had a few adventures. My favorites were when we momentarily drove down a one way street- the wrong way- and when we drove down a pedestrian walkway. (I had to giggle as all of these people looked at us like we were complete idiots! They weren't too far off the mark.) I am just glad that it was Danny driving. We had a nice lunch at a little restaurant (K42) with a nice view of the lake. Sadly, it was very overcast and we couldn't see much. Then we took a little walk around the shopping area and bought all the kids boots. (They were on sale...) Then we went to the Zeppelin Museum. Friedrichshafen is famous (?) for creating the German Zeppelin and was almost completely destroyed in WWII because of this. So we saw the Museum and it was fun. The car still wasn't ready so we had a little snack at McDonald's and then went to pick up the car. And what a car it is!!! Danny rented a 9 seater. We got a Fiat Ducato. It is a 9 seater that makes other 9 seaters look like bugs. It is more like a bus. It's huge! But, it has snow tires and we didn't even have to pay extra for them.

So we headed to Munich and our hotel- the Holiday Inn. We arrived at the hotel and Danny put our 6 suitcases on a trolley to take up to the rooms and then he went to park the car. After going up on the wrong elevator and finding the correct one- we found that the elevator was too small to fit all of the luggage. So, Kailey took the girls up to our connecting rooms (hurray!) while Jake and I tried to get all of the luggage up. Jake took up two suitcases and came back to help. I rearranged the rest and got them all on the elevator. Got off the elevator and discussed with Jake that it really isn't a good idea to leave luggage right next to the elevator in the middle of the hall- unattended. Our evening was good. The rooms were nice. Kailey, Em and Madi slept in with Danny and I. The early risers/ bed jumpers/ slobs slept in the other room.

Friday the 13th. We had a lovely breakfast buffet at the hotel. Then we headed into Munchen. We took the subway instead of the big car and Jake complained about it the whole way into the city! We went to the City Center (Marienplatz) first to see the Glockenspiel- think of the coolest german cuckoo clock ever! At 11:00, 12:00, and 5 p.m. the bells play and these lifesize figurines move. There is a king and queen who are looking down over a festival (this is my interpretation anyway). You see the revelers dancing and playing and the knights even joust on horseback! I thought it was amazing!

The Rathouse- or City Hall is huge and very old. Then we headed to the Bavarian Film Works to take a tour. Of course- Carrell luck- we had to wait over an hour for the tour so we had lunch at McDonalds. (I can not believe how many McDonalds' I have seen here! Crazy...) The tour was very fun. Kailey, Jake, and Shelby were actors in a very short film that our tour group helped make (and Danny provided the voice to part of it as well) and we got to see it at the end of the tour. We have a copy if you ever want to see it. Then we went back to the Marienplatz because of the shopping possibilities. After we were done at the one store we went to (and all 5 bigger kids had what they wanted) we were ready to eat dinner. Danny had gone somewhere and I was standing in the middle of the Marienplatz with all 6 kids- probably looking like it had been a long day- and this very kind German woman (a grandmotherly type) came up to me and said something in German. I looked at her and said, "I am sorry, but I don't speak German." She said, "Well, could I be of some help to you?" I told her we were looking for a good restaurant. She told us of a lovely little Italian place (which is what the kids wanted) and gave perfect directions on how to get there. What a lovely lady! The restaurant was great. The food was good, the atmosphere was warm and cozy, we were all happy to be there!
After dinner we went to Circus Krone. The Krone Circus (as we would say it) is the largest in Europe and has been around for 90 years! It was wonderful! We saw amazing acrobats, a 14 year old juggler, 4 elephants that were really close to us (we were on the front row and I kept thinking of the tv show of when performing animals go mad... luckily they didn't... but those are really large animals!), 4 tigers (that were thankfully behind tall fences), horses, donkeys, camels and some very cute llamas who had serious teeth issues. We all loved it.


Saturday- Valentine's Day. We went to Dachau, the former Concentration Camp. Now doesn't that say love to you? I don't know what I wanted our family to learn from this. Kailey did say, "I don't know if I want to be here. I feel sad inside and I don't like it." Hopefully this experience will mean something to my children at some point. Dachau doesn't have nearly the horrors of some of the other concentration camps. It was mostly a work camp. On the entrance door are the words, "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work Makes You Free." It was the first concentration camp and the model for all of the others to follow. Political prisoners were sent there in 1933 and it housed people there for 12 years until it was liberated by U.S. Soldiers in 1945. Over 200,000 people were prisoners here and more than 43,000 died. It was amazing to stand in the roll call area and feel cold with warm clothing- coat, hat, scarf, gloves, boots- and think about the prisoners who had to stand in the same area with only their prison uniforms on. Sometimes they stood there for several hours a day. We are blessed with way too much and we still complain.


After Dachau we headed to our next destination- Fussen. Fussen is a beautiful little village that is very close to the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. We are staying at this cute little hotel (there are maybe 40 rooms) called Hotel Kurcafe. There is also a bakery/ candy shop and restaurant downstairs. This blog will have to be continued later- I am just too tired to finish tonight! Auf weidersehen.

Our New Names

We just found out last week that we will be staying an additional year in Ireland. Hurray! We are excited that the adventure will continue. So, Danny decided that we each needed to adopt an Irish name. True Irish names have the gaelic spelling and phonetically it doesn’t work. (In my mind anyway. It is probably logical to many whose brains function an a higher level than mine.) Here are our new identities: (pronunciation included)
• Madison is Eire (Air uh) Her real middle name anyway. (Originally Danny wanted to call her Emer [Eemer]. However, considering she is too little to understand yet another name- I vetoed that.
• Emery is Ailis (Ay lish). She picked her own name.
• Claire is Clare. Claire refused to choose an Irish name (even when Danny recommended the lovely Derblah) so we let her keep her given name as it is the name of one of the counties in the Republic of Ireland.
• Shelby is Ciara (Keerah). She wanted to be Naoise (Neesha) but later changed her mind.
• Jake is Rory. (Which incidentally is the name of an adorable two year old african/irish boy at church who has cute little corn rows. I immediately think of him when I hear the name…)
• Kailey is Aoife (Ee fah).
• Danny is Eoin (Own). I voted for Dermott and got vetoed.
• I am Siobhan (Shiv ahn). Every body else got to choose their names except me. Danny chose for me. Oh well- (I refused Derblah too.)
• Mimi is Roshene. (This may be more English than Irish- but Danny felt that it was a name that needed to be used!) Now her entire name is Mimi Nicole Roshene Carrell.
We are happy to give you an Irish name too! Just let us know if you’re interested…

The Bahamas

Last year our good friends and neighbors, the Flory's met us in Florida for a bit of sun and fun. They suggested we do it again this year. So we did. We followed each other to LaGuardia and flew to the Bahamas. The sun was bright, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and the water was as beautiful as I have ever seen! We flew into Nassau and went straight to Harborside at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. What a wonderful place!
The memories include:
* The walk to Atlantis. We would take a 10- 15 minute walk to the pools. We walked around the marina and these HUGE yachts.

* The pools. There are several beautiful pools, but our favorite was the kid's pool.

Emery at the kids pool.


Madison loved the water.

* The slides. The Leap of Faith was the coolest and only the coolest actually rode it. (Danny, Jake, Jerry and Shelby) Jake took the fear to the next level by refusing to lay back on the ride down- instead he would lean forward!

Jake takes the leap of faith!

* The sea life! They recreated the lost city of Atlantis and you can look into the "Big Dig" where the lost city is supposed to be. The fish really are amazing. They did some serious work to make this look real.

Shelby, Taylor and Jake with some wicked jellies.


Claire with fish that literally lined up for their photo op.

* The Beach- The sand was great and the water was beautiful! Danny and Jake scuba dived.

The little girls loved the sand.


The big girls snorkeled.


Atlantis is gorgeous.

* Time spent with family and friends?


PRICELESS!!!

Christmas and Beyond...

'Twas the Day Before Christmas and Mom finally got her act together! We make gingerbread houses every year but we had to make our own from scratch this year. Claire, Shelby, and Jake had their own while Kailey and Emery shared one. (I made three batches of gingerbread dough and thought that was sufficient...)


Claire with her creation

Shelby and her house

Jake and his gingerbread cottage

Emery and Kailey showcase their artistic prowesss

The Nativity was the best one yet. Kailey read Luke 2 while the rest of us acted out the story. Emery was Mary. Danny was Joseph (as always). Jake was the Shepherd. Mimi the Sheep. Claire and Shelby were both angels. I was the innkeeper (all 3 of them). Claire, Shelby and I were the Wise Women. Madison was the sweet baby Jesus.

Christmas Day was wonderful and Santa and dad were much too generous.

The view of Christmas Morning...
Our missionaries came to call their families and have dinner with us. We enjoyed them for 4 hours!

St. Stephens Day (Boxing Day in Canada and the day after Christmas for the rest of us...) was a busy day. The kids and I flew back to New York in the afternoon. Danny took us to the airport and then headed to work to enjoy his busiest week of the year- all alone. Our flight was really pretty good. There were moments when I thought, "I am never doing this alone again!" However, I probably will. The kids really were good. Madi decided that she liked the sound of her scream. (We discouraged this.) Emery accidentally spilled her soda on Kailey's socks. Claire spilled her water (but the flight attendant took a long time to come and get the dinner trays.)
Danny arranged for a car service to pick us up- so we made it home to Fishkill without any problems. We were home before 9:00p.m. NY time.

It was very nice to be back home for a week. However, I wasn't quite prepared for what else was waiting for us. We had vermin and I HATE vermin. Luckily. their tracks were only found in the basement and kitchen. Our rooms were vermin free upstairs. So, I called an exterminator and told him to get rid of the little beasts. (Don't tell my kids. They still have no idea...) The only other little problem was that the battery in our big car was shot. THANK HEAVENS for good friends and neighbors! Jerry jumped the car and drove it around and realized that we needed a new battery. Pete went and bought the battery and installed it. They really are too good to us.

Our week in New York was very nice. The kids loved time with friends (Jake loved time with the Bucko boys and Mikey. The girls couldn't get enough time with Taylor. Claire and Emery enjoyed some time with Ethan, Aidan and Sheridan too.)

Jake and the Bucko Boys

Claire and Ethan

Emery and Aidan

Thanks for the memories!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Ireland is a unique place to be. There are things are extremely different from the USA. Some of these things are annoying- but there are a few that I truly love. The Christmas Season includes many of these things. First of all- it is completely okay to say "Merry Christmas!" (or Happy Christmas if you want to be more Irish.) The Christmas break from school is the Christmas Break. (Not winter recess.) They also celebrate the true reason for the season. What a novel idea! Yesterday was the last day of school for Kailey, Jake, Shelby and Claire. At Sutton Park School- this means it is play day. Literally! Danny and I watched 4 different plays and our kids were in 3 of them. Claire's play was, "Robin's Christmas Sing Along." It was Christmas as seen through the eyes of a robin. Claire was one of the carolers and she had a few lines that she and another little boy sang together. Claire is wonderful. She just stood up on the stage and sang her little heart out as if no one was watching her. Shelby's play was "Pinocchio" and she was Jiminy Cricket. As far as we were concerned- she stole the show. (Take that for what it is worth- we are her parents remember...) She spoke up so everyone could hear her and used a lovely little English accent. It was great. Jake and Kailey were both in "Panto Pandemonium." A Panto is an English Christmas play that is usually a twist on a fairytale that includes slapstick humor and songs. The panto was really cute. Neither Kailey or Jake had big parts in their play- but were great singers. In the evening, the school had their annual carol service at the local Catholic Church. As we had 3 kids who were not feeling well (Jake, Shelby and Claire), I stayed home with the 5 youngest and Danny went and supported Kailey. (He really needed to go. Last year he got a work call 5 minutes into the program and was present for only the last 5 minutes of the service. He has been in trouble with Kailey for a year.) However, I did hear the Intermediate School practice so it was like I was almost there. Kailey had two of her friends over after school and I made them sing my favorite song for me. The song is called "The Carpenter." It is so beautiful- it always makes me cry.

WARNING! These are 12 year old girls singing this and being silly. (I told Kailey that I was sending this to Grandma Nef so she would behave.) Just listen to the words and imagine how beautiful it would be when sung by a choir of children singing from the heart... Or you can laugh at these crazy girls and see our cute baby. The Carrells do wish you a very Merry Christmas and lots of your favorite things!

Two Very Important Birthdays!

I am very late in highlighting the birthday of my very favorite boy! Our Jake was born 10 years ago on November 12, 1998. He was born at the DUKE Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. What would we do without him? I remember the day that we had the ultrasound that confirmed that we would soon have a baby boy. As we were leaving, I asked Danny how he felt about having a boy. He responded that he wouldn't spend his life surrounded by girls. (How little he knew then.) We are so thankful for Jake. He is a great kid and we adore him!


Today is the birthday of another person on my list of most favorite people. I have looked up to this person my entire life and am thankful to call her one of my best friends. My sister Nancy is a true gem. Nancy is the person I call when I have no nerves left. She helps me laugh when I want to scream. She appreciates the good things in life- including my sometimes odd humor. Nancy works harder than 3 average people combined. Nancy has the talent of making me feel really good about myself. I'm sure she shares it with more people than just me. I love you, Nance! Happy Birthday!



(Susan, Diane, Nancy and Karen- the Nef Sisters -- This photo is actually from 2007- we forgot to get a sisters picture this summer.)

Halloween and even more Excitement!

The day that we left the ship, Claire had really pink cheeks that turned into a lovely rash. The next day her eyes were super puffy too. Poor kid! Was she allergic to something? We will probably never know. Thankfully, it went away after a few days.

Halloween was fun, fun, fun. Kailey was in Waterford with a friend. (She was a rockstar by the way.) Jake was Elvis. Shelby and Claire were old grannies (their idea). Emery and Mimi were both Snow White. Madison was a pumpkin. We went trick or treating at a lovely gated community with some good friends.

The day after Halloween,we went to pick up our Kailey in Waterford (which is almost 3 hours away from our house) and were just a few miles away from her when we stopped to refuel the car. Unfortunately- the wrong type of fuel (unleaded instead of diesel) was used. Thankfully, I wasn't the one who did it. The cashier told Danny that it was okay to keep driving, it just wouldn't run as well. About a mile or two later, we found out that this young man was very wrong. The car started to chug up a very slight incline. Thankfully we were right by a shopping area and were able to park the car there. I know the Lord hears our prayers. The kids all prayed and we were able to find a good mechanic who drained the tank and got our car running again. A miracle in itself in Ireland on a Saturday afternoon. The parents of Kailey's friend were so kind and let us stay at their home until the car was fixed. We made it home that night without incident and will never forget Waterford.

Arrivederci Roma!

Day 12: It's been great, it's been really really great but some of us are
cooked! So, we got up and had a lovely breakfast and then we left the ship. That's when the fun began. Today was very overcast and rainy at times- I think the weather is trying to prepare us for our return to Ireland! Anyway, we had to wait for a shuttle bus to take us into the town of Civitavecchia where we had a rental car waiting for us. We picked up a lovely van (it makes the Homy- the beast we drive in Ireland- look small) and headed in to Rome. It took us about an hour and a half to get there (with the shuttling etc). After about 10 minutes in the car, Emery was ready to go back to the ship. "I want to go back to the hotel!" The other kids were almost as excited as Emery to see Rome.

So we started at the Colosseum. We didn't know where to get tickets and someone asked if we wanted to go on a tour ("no waiting!"). There were a couple of other people who had joined this tour and we thought that it sounded like a great idea. Then we met the tour guide and the 25 other people who were already in the tour group. Did I mention that it was raining at this point? So, Danny bought 5 umbrellas (one for each short person who would complain without one) and we followed the tour guide. It wasn't our best tour- but we did learn some things. Did you know that:
* 5000 people were killed a year in the colosseum?
* There was seating for 70,000?
* Even children could be gladiators? (They would use 10 year old boys to help get the animals angry.)
* Years later when the colosseum was no longer in use, they pulled lots of the marble off of the colosseum to use in building other structures? (Churches, etc...)

Our tour then continued on to Palatine Hill (where the Caesars built their palaces) and the forum. We had a new tour guide here, a lovely English redhead (we are talking scarlet red hair) who was actually wonderful. (She was so good that Dawn and Cheri are going on a tour at the Vatican that she is leading tomorrow. Luckily they get an extra day in Rome, so they will be able to see more of the sights.) After this- our kids really had had enough, so we went and had a late lunch/snack (Dawn needed some lasagna). Our restaurant was excellent and we enjoyed our italian food. Then we headed back to the ship. The kids really wanted to eat dinner (not that we were super hungry...) in the Golden Pearl restaurant and see Nina and Peter one last time.

The return trip was much easier that our morning jaunt had been. We had a lovely dinner and packed everything up. The kids had a party with their friends in Camp Carnival (and Circle C) and the day ended. Tomorrow we return to the real world!