The hotel and a trip to Eagle's Nest

Well, here is our view from our balcony at the hotel!

The girls and I spent a lot of time swimming in the hotel pool with our friends while the daddies were all at the conference. The big kids helped try to teach Hannah to swim. She made some progress, but we definitely need to get swim lessons going this summer. Hannah LOVED the attention from the big kids! Genna sat on the side of the pool while she warmed up a bit. By the end of the first swimming excursion, she was jumping off the steps to me and going under water. She enjoyed floating on her back (obviously with help) and jumping up and down in the 2 ft deep water holding my hands the most. I didn't get many good pictures since it is hard to take pictures while trying to keep a 2 and 3 year old from drowning. :)

Hannah is right behind Genna and me with her floaties on.

This is my friend (due 5 days before me) and I after lunch, before the Eagle's Nest tour.

For the Eagle's Nest tour, the conference provided childcare for this tour so the girls were not with us during this little trip. I don't know how many of you know what the Eagle's Nest is already, but I will explain briefly for those of you who are not history people. I sure didn't know what it was before this excursion. Hitler's Eagle's Nest or Kehlsteinhaus (in German) was a sort of diplomatic retreat for Hitler's guests. I believe they said it was the last strong hold to fall in WWII, or something like that. It is on the tip top of a very tall mountain and the roads were designed, as well as the house, to go with the natural flow of nature so that from below you can not tell there is anything man-made on it. Well, no one told me how incredibly nauseating this trip up the mountain would be. The bus weaved up this mountain while the tour guide reassured us every couple of sentences or so how often they inspect and change out these buses. Then you still have to go up this elevator to the very top to enter the actual house. Again the tour guide kept reiterating how many times the elevator is tested each season. I didn't actually feel unsafe (especially with all his reassurances), however, I was really concerned that my kase spaetzle that I had for lunch was going to end up all over the tour guide. On top of that I got an altitude headache once we were at the very top. So, all this is to explain the first picture where I don't look so excited, but am thinking about how I got tricked into this in the first place. That's what I get for sleeping through history classes all my life.

This is the entrance to the tunnel that leads to the elevator.

Here is Brian and I before going up the elevator to the very top.

This is a shot of the Kehlsteinhaus from the bus drop off before going up the elevator.


This is inside the Kehlsteinhaus with the actual fireplace that the American soldiers were chipping off souvenirs from after the take over.

Here I am resting and trying not to be sick while others enjoy themselves. :)

Here's my handsome husband at the very tip top.

Here I am, happy that they announced our time is up! :)