discovering gummy bears

traveling with the little ones

I feel like I have been writing blog posts in my head all day every day. I think about what I want to remember, how I felt, the smells (as we drove into Italy the smell of cows rushed in our car like my kids on the way to the pool) the people, what they looked like. I have to get up early to download my photos and just don't have enough time to write it all down, I have so many things I could write about.

But this morning as we get ready to head to Salzburg for an all day outing, I just have to take a minute to write about how it has been being here with the kids.

It is amazing and yet our kids are just the same as they were at home, happy, impatient, hungry 15 minutes after dinner, cranky, excited, sassy, laugh a lot, cry a lot - so if they are going to do that anyway, why not do it some where new, different and exciting.

We knew from the get go, they would not have the ability to totally appreciate where we are, what we are seeing or how lucky we all are to be here. So getting that emotion out of the way it lowers our expectations and dialogue of constantly saying, "do you have any idea where we are?"

When we were in Italy, Jeff pulled Annie Kate aside and said, "Annie this church was here before Chistopher Columbus even thought about going to discover America" She looked at him with big eyes and then said, "ok now can we get some of that ice cream?" (the best gelato I have ever had by the way and it was only 1euro) So, we laugh and then hope that someday in school or life the experience of this trip will kick in.

Eating last night in the Markplatz in Garmish and watching the girls each say "Danke" to the waiter as he brought his food, could have been worth the trip right there. Or watching Annie Kate get the courage to count her Euro's and go up to a food stand in Italy and order another marmalade pastry and then say Grazi, all by herself.

This really has been an amazing trip and the way I feel right now is that I would save every spare penny I have all year to travel with my kids each summer. I now want to keep my old couch and kitchen table if it meant I could come back here again.

The above photo is of Sally Jane with a hand full of gummy bears. She even slept with three all mushed in her hand the other night. My kids have eaten them everyday. We got Caroline a Happy Meal on our way out of Austria and into Italy and they came with two little McGummie bags and she was thrilled. I hope now when she sees gummy bears, she will remember she discovered them here.

I don't expect them to remember the name and year each church was built, or the names of the towns we have visited, but they will remember we were here, be it from photos or their own memory and that they saw a different way of life.

Yesterday we rented bikes for the day and rode along the river in town and had lunch in a large farming field. Life seems slower here, no one seems to be in a hurry to get here. All the houses are the same it is just the flowers in the window boxes that are different. It seems simpler here. It seems like more people are on bikes than in cars. And if I had a dollar for every woman over 60 that I have seen on a bike, in Germany, Austria and Italy, my trip would have been paid for three times over. I love seeing this women on their bikes with a wicker basket full of groceries.

It has truly been a blessing to be here and see all this part of the country has to offer. It has also been a blessing to see it through my children's eyes. Now that the fear of traveling with the crazy little girls is diminishing we are already talking of where we would take them next.