Europe 2012 - Part 3 D-Day

Wednesday of our trip was June 6, 2012 - the 68th Anniversary of D-day, when the Allied Forces came ashore in France.
We began our morning headed to Omaha Beach, where we would have John's (my brother in law) promotion/pinning ceremony.  I can't begin to describe to you the beauty of the place, but also how humbling and overwhelming it is to stand in a place where thousands of men died for your freedom.

Omaha Beach - June 6, 2012

The promotion ceremony was wonderful.  My dad officiated, swearing John in, and most of the family participated.  John and Anji's oldest son, read the promotion orders, while their youngest son held the American flag.  Anji and "Sweetie Pie" did part of the pinning and John's parents did the rest.

When the pinning was over, we were able to get some family pictures as well.

Group picture

The boys collected jars of sand from Omaha Beach and walked down the beach a little bit.  These are some of my favorite shots.

After we finished on the beach, we headed up to the American Military Cemetery at Colleville.  Anji and John had been in touch with the supervisor there, and we had reserved seats at the wreath laying ceremony for the commemoration of D-Day.  While the ceremony itself was not particularly spectacular, the experience was amazing.  There was a fly-over of C-130 aircraft that brought us all to tears and recognition of the WW2 veterans that were in attendance.  The flyover was meaningful to all of us, as this is the same aircraft my dad, my father-in-law, and my brother-in-law, have all flown.

Our seats for the wreath laying

C-130 Flyover

We had some time after the wreath laying, to walk through the cemetery. Most of the men buried here were young men (late teens and early 20s) and had never seen combat before.  They really didn't know what they were getting into.  My dad, who is a history buff and had done a lot of reading to prepare for this trip, told us the youngest man to die at Normandy was 15 years old.  He had lied about his age in order to serve.  Wow!  This was a fairly emotional time for all of us.  G was particularly emotional, as I think the gravity of what happened here really hit him.

We had been invited back to the cemetery for the flag retreat ceremony at 5:15.  My dad and brother-in-law had been invited to participate in this and joined the World War II veterans that were there in folding the flag. Two of the attendees stood out to us - sisters (92 and 95 years old) that served at nurses in France immediately following D-Day.  They had gone back that morning and found where they were stationed.  What a precious time for them (and us)!

Sweet ladies - WW2 vets who were stationed in France at D-day

As people left the cemetery and closing time drew near, Anji and John had arranged with the supervisor to be able to fly their own flag at Normandy.  We had our own flag ceremony at this time.  John raised and lowered the flag over the cemetery.  As the flag came down, all of the kids had the opportunity to help fold this flag (we had a little help from some active duty guys that were there).  It was also at this time that we were able to get some photos of the cemetery.  They, however, cannot capture the scope or magnitude of this place.  It is so humbling to see all of those graves (almost 10,000) and to know that these represent just a portion of those who were killed in France defending our freedom.

Raising the Flag

My favorite picture from the cemetery - taken by G!

Europe Trip 2012 - Part 2

So after the party, Tuesday morning we packed up to drive to Normandy.  There were 13 of us in 3 cars, so it was quite the undertaking to get all of our stuff ready to go.

Cars being packed.

Older boys ready to go.

Younger boys ready to go.

Sweetie Pie ready to go.

The drive took about 9 hours, but we stopped several times along the way.  Most of the way we were on toll roads, so there were not many choices of places to stop.  Lunch was from the gas station and really not too bad - not like the gas stations in the US.

Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch.

The scenery on our drive was amazing.  These are a few shots I took while we were on the road.

We finally arrived at the farmhouse - Les Quatre Vents -  where we were staying (after a brief stop at the grocery store).  We were pleasantly surprised!!!  It was beautiful - amazing views.  The farmhouse was built in the 18th century - the one we stayed in actually used to be the barn!  The farm had been there since the 1760's - older than the United States!  What an experience it was for all of us.  And if you are wondering where we found this place - check out vrbo.com (vacation rentals by owner) - you can find cool places all over the world.

Farmhouse where we stayed.

Owners house across the courtyard.

The back of the farmhouse with the garden. 

Living room.

One of the bedrooms.

Kitchen window.

One of the views from the house.

Another view from the house.

The drive into the house was really cool - lots of old buildings and places along the side of the road that were fascinating.  Really wish I knew some of the stories of these old buildings.

When we were at the farmhouse, the kids enjoyed the time in the backyard - playing games, swinging, and just hanging out.

Europe Trip 2012 - Part 1

We just returned from an amazing trip to Switzerland and France.  I am still trying to process all that we did and saw, so bear with me as I try to recount it all for you - I am sure this will take several days and many posts. :)

My sister and her family have lived in Geneva, Switzerland for almost a year.  Her husband is in the Air Force and he has been attending a school over there.  Our "excuse" for going was that they were there, and her husband was pinning on Colonel.

SO... my parents, my hubby, kids, and I packed our bags and we were on our way!  John's parents were also going to join us - in all there would be 13 of us all together.

Crammed in the backseat, but excited to be on our way!

The boys, my mom, and me on the shuttle.

We headed to the airport on June1 and our check in and first flight went relatively smoothly.  We flew from DFW to Dullus International (Washington DC).  We were on schedule for our second flight (where John's parents would join us).  John's parents were delayed, but we were boarding our aircraft.  We got all settled in when a thunderstorm passed over the airport and shut things down.  As that passed, we were informed that one of our pilots had just gotten sick and we would have to de-plane as we waited for another pilot to show up. God orchestrated these events just perfectly, that while we were waiting on the pilot, John's parents caught up to us and were then able to catch the flight with us!  After a bit of waiting, we finally boarded and were on our way - only 4 hours late!

We arrived to a beautiful day in Geneva!!!!  We headed down to Lake Geneva to get some pictures and get the only view of Mount Blanc and the Swiss Alps we would have on this trip!  We then boarded the train into Geneva (Anji actually lives in Versoix) and went to a fondue restaurant.  Amazing!!!!

Family Picture at Lake Geneva with snow covered Mount Blanc in the background.

View from my sister's backyard - the Jura mountains in France.

Yummy fondue (and meat plate in the background)!

Our group at the fondue restaurant!

The next day, we loaded up and headed up to Gruyere, Switzerland.  We toured the Cailler Chocolate Factory, the Gruyere Cheese Factory, and the Gruyere Castle.  It rained off and on the whole day, but we still had spectacular views!
The Cailler Chocolate Factory was a huge hit with everyone - there is even all you can eat chocolate at the end of the tour!  Yum!

Cailler Chocolate Factory!  

Eating as much chocolate at they could get their hands on!

Our stash of chocolate!

The Gruyere Cheese Factory was very interesting - you can try Gruyere cheese here in the US for a price.  :)

The boys in front of the room where the cheese is aging.

The Gruyere Castle was fascinating and beautiful!

Church in the Gruyere medieval village with a beautiful little cemetery.

One of the views from the castle.

Another view from the castle - breathtaking even in the rain!

A group shot at the castle.

Our last day in Geneva was spent at Anji's house, preparing for a promotion/graduation party for John and his classmates.  We had a great time and it was fun to meet people from all over the world that had been in class with John.

A picture from the party.

The back of Anji's house and a shot of the party.

My sister and me.

Basketball

M decided he wanted to play basketball again this year, so we signed up for Upward at our church and off we went!

The boys took a few weeks to warm up to each other - they had some really good games and they had some games that we wondered if they even showed up.  :)

One of the really neat things they did this year was set up a tournament for the 5th and 6th grade teams.  At the end of the season, they played several games in a week.  The boys really came together during this time and played amazingly well.  It was so much fun to watch them play!  They won their first three games, but lost their last game by 1.  They boys were heartbroken and tears flowed, but I have never seen boys that age play so hard and leave their hearts on the court.  They had two amazing coaches that really encouraged them to grow as basketball players as well as godly young men.  We were very blessed!

Here are a few pictures from the year:

 The boys were perfecting "Tebowing."

Christmas and Baylor

I have decided I HAVE to be better about keeping up with my blog. I am making that a goal this year! I hope that even if I fall down, I will get back up and try again. So, here it goes...

The boys had the whole week before Christmas off, so we took off for the ranch (just outside of Del Rio). It was great hunting weather for the boys and I did not see much of them while we were there. They can be outside for hours - really quite nice - and I am so glad they are old enough to go out on their own!

G killed an Axis deer this year. For those of you that don't know, axis are native to Africa - they have spots and long, tall antlers. G was SO excited! Maybe one of these days I will have all my pictures uploaded so I can be current with those too. :) M also killed a VERY nice 8 point buck. Both of these will be gracing our walls in the not so distant future!

We returned to my parent's house in New Braunfels for Christmas and most of the week afterwards. While I have always been a Baylor fan, this year was more fun for us than most! We were thrilled in December when RG3 (Robert Griffen III), Baylor's quarterback, won the Heisman trophy. This was the first time in Baylor's history! What a class act he is! We were even more excited to find that Baylor would be playing in San Antonio in the Alamo Bowl. My dad was able to secure us tickets, so we got all decked out and off we went! We ended up having seats in the first level about 25 rows back on the 40 yard line! They were amazing. If you didn't see the game, the score ended up more like a basketball score than football, but Baylor pulled it out in the end with a 67-56 win over Washington. It was definitely a game to remember for all of us!

We were able to get up to Oklahoma for a few days at New Years. It is always so good to get to see friends and family, even for a short time.

After 2 weeks away from home, we were ready to get home and unpack! It is fun to get away, but always good to get back to your own bed and your own home!

 

Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thanks for checking in on us (hopefully I can give you a reason to check in more often)!

Here are a few pictures from Game Day!