We had another wonderful chance to escape to the Bavarian Alps for a holiday weekend. This is at least our 6th time there and while sometimes I feel like there is so much more I want to see in Europe, the views never get old and the "comfort" of an American hotel in Germany keeps us going back. The hotel itself is pretty pricey, but it has 4 restaurants, an indoor pool, gym and spa. We've been fortunate to go on 3 retreats that are paid for (and one business trip that we tagged along with Leevi that was paid for) and the other times, we've found an hotel in Garmisch that is run by an American couple who have great rates and large family suites. This time our church put on a retreat and for only a $100 suggested donation into the offering plate at church, we stayed for 4 days and 3 nights! It was wonderful and relaxing and loads of family time was built in (and time for a massage that Leevi booked for me by surprise!)
The resort sets up a carnival of sorts during the warm weather holiday weekends (Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day) and they had plenty of things to do for the kiddos. When we pulled up after the F-I-V-E hour drive, the kids immediately (after a potty break...we didn't have to stop once on the drive down!!!!) headed to the bounce houses while Leevi checked us in...it was too perfect and well deserved fun!!!
This little courtyard was right outside our hotel room back door...of course we brought a ball for Luke and this was the perfect area to play. One of Kailee's good friends from church had a room at the corner of this courtyard, so they had some extra play time together! And the hotel put on a fireworks show Saturday night and we had the PERFECT view (somehow Luke and Kailee stayed asleep through the whole thing! We have a white noise app on our iPad that we use when we travel since we all are used to sleeping with fans on for noise.)
The girls' most favorite thing about the resort are the pool and hot tub!!!!! Luke definitely enjoys it too!!!!!
I LOVE the hotel lobby!!!!
This river runs next to the resort and is always a favorite place to walk to and throw rocks...the water is FREEZING though coming fresh from the mountains!!
More festivity fun!!!
My empty beer stein kept Luke busy for awhile...he'd put his pacifier in and "drink" it out!
Sunday morning after breakfast, Kai and I were snuggling in bed while we waited for church to start and before long Hailey joined us and then Luke piled on!!
Our official sessions of the retreat were on Friday night for 2 hours and Saturday morning for 4 hours. The big kids had lessons of their own and Luke went into the nursery (our sessions were at the Garmisch Chapel) Luke did ok in the nursery for a bit but after he realized that I was gone he had a fit! Krista, our chaplain's wife, was working in the nursery and went to get Kai to help with Luke. Kai was in big sister heaven because Luke wanted only her. Hailey wanted to stay with the big kids, but Kai offered to help since there were some pretty awesome toys in the nursery. Kai ended up starting in the nursery the next day and ate up every compliment about how wonderful and helpful she was with Luke (she even got him down for a nap!!!)
Sunday we had church with the Garmisch congregation and Sunday night we went to a worship dinner hosted by the Garmisch chapel. The dinner was an awesome buffet, wonderful music and a great end to an awesome weekend! We woke up on Monday and let the kids swim one more time before the long drive home!!!
And just some random fun.....the picture on the right is of Luke eating yogurt in the hotel room that weekend at Edelweiss and the picture on the left is of Kailee doing the same in the hotel in Heidelberg when we first moved to Germany! Kai was 20 months and Luke was about to turn 17 months.
And one more...Kai on the left and Luke on the right at the same age as above!
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