The whole trip summarized with pictures!

Friday, we drove 5 hours to Garmisch, Germany. The drive was beautiful! We went through a piece of Austria to get there. The Alps getting closer and closer as we drove. The girls were a bit antsy towards the end, but we made it without any major incidents. Since we had such a long day we got settled in our tiny (Did I mention our room was tiny? The kids were tripping over each other! Tiny is cheap, so...) hotel room, and then went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dinner was good, but the kids were still antsy and also tired by this time.

Alps approaching!

Saturday, we took a train into Munchen (i.e. Munich to Americans) to see what this Oktoberfest was all about. It started out not looking so good, since we had to stand packed into a line to get into a tent for a long long time with the kids in backpacks (Hannah on daddy's and Genna on mine). I was thinking, why am I standing in a line when I don't actually care to get into the tent? Brian and the rest of the crew we were with cared....cared until, that is, we actually got in and realized there was ABSOLUTELY nowhere to sit. A kind security guard found us an unused corner at the exit to camp out for a while. We ate giant pretzels with roughly the circumference of a medium pizza. Then Hannah fell asleep in the backpack and Genna shared a carbonated mineral water with me. If you've ever had carbonated mineral water, it's pretty gross! However, if you are thirsty and you run out of the water you packed, you drink it anyways because the Germans have no other kind to offer you. Genna loved it though, and kept wanting more and saying, "Nummy" (translation="Yummy"). Strange child!
Once we left the tent, we went in search for Hannah's craving, ice cream! She woke up dying for it! She wanted pink ice cream, so we found her some and she lovingly shared it with her sister. We looked around, got a gift for my brother's birthday, took many many potty breaks for various members of the group (sorry, "Potty" has become a regular vocabulary word for me) and some people rode some rides. Then it was time to head to the train station so we could make our dinner reservations in Garmisch.
Well, since the group was big and apparently slow, we missed our train. It was only a big deal, because we were meeting other people there. So, we took the next one, an hour later, and went to the Mexican food restaurant next to the hotel. Mexican food here, typically, is pretty bad. It is usually comparable to a Mexican TV dinner. However, this place was different! It was really good food. It even had good salsa and rice, which are 2 things I use to gauge the quality of Mexican food. Here's where we had an incident though...
Genna fell off the bench (in between the table and the bench.) I thank God that a friend and I caught her with our legs before she hit the ground, but she did get a little banged up on the way down. No blood though! This is my theory, that the more kids you have the more things like this happen. And not just because there are more kids for it to happen to, but because you are often distracted by another child and so aren't paying attention to the victim of the moment. This would never have happened to Hannah, because I was so attentive to her every move! Poor Genna! Anyways, it scared me to death, but she was okay only minutes later! Good thing kids are resilient!

Sunday, we got up and headed out to comb the town for Holy Mass. We found a church, but it was locked with a sign we could not read in German. Then we found a chapel, but there was no one there and the sign said Mass was right about the time we were arriving there, so it must have been wrong. We prayed a bit in the chapel, and then we walked around the town for the rest of the morning taking pictures as we went.

The chapel that we stopped to pray in

Then we went to hike a gorge, again with Hannah on daddy's back and Genna on mine. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me! It was beautiful! We had a great time, and the kids played by the river at the end of the hike! Hannah slept on the way and Genna slept on the way back. On our way out we stopped at a restaurant to get a small bite to eat to tide us over until dinner. There was a mini play area in the outside seating area, so the kids played and came back periodically to grab a bite of food (except Genna who was still asleep). And here we have another incident...
Hannah starts crying and her friend, Alyssa, comes to tell us she has had an accident. I almost didn't believe her since Hannah almost never has accidents anymore, but she had one today (the one time I didn't pack a change of panties and clothes, of course!) Then one of our friends, says, "Well, she told Brian, but he said 'here eat another fry.'" Now I understood, she had told her dad and tried to hold it when she was not taken to the potty. Bless her heart! Brian was talking and never heard her. She kept telling me that she was "So sorry." I kept reassuring her it was not her fault and accidents happen. Then I told her to tell me next time, because I jump when I hear those 5 little words!
That night we went to a Bavarian restaurant with little boy dancers that slap their thighs and feet to accordion music. The kids enjoyed that!

The gorge that we hiked alongside

Genna and myself finding good throwing rocks

Brian helping Hannah get used to walking on the rocky shore without shoes

Monday, we headed back home! The kids did better, probably because they were exhausted! When we arrived home, Brian went to pick up Murray from the dog sitter AND my uncle from the train station for a visit. Our first official visitor from the states! Hannah's thrilled to have someone to give her all the attention she could ask for! I am thrilled to have a visitor in this house where we finally have the space for visitors. I am also thrilled to be in my own bed at night, as is Genna!