International Day 2012

Whew... what a week.

Cam's been gone for 2 weeks

We had our first guests,

the field trip and 

NOW

International Day.

Never a dull moment and the kids school likes to make sure of it. :)

I guess I wouldn't want it any other way though.

International day in any other school might not be that interesting. 

But when you walk into this school you tend to feel like you have stepped into the Olympic village.

Each grade hosted their own lunch provided with traditional food from their country.

It was foodies dream come true. I couldn't believe how much food and from how many

different countries there was. 

When I asked Mack what he wanted to bring he said Root Beer floats.

That seemed fairly American to me and it was easy to prepare.

A win win in my book. 

Coming across root beer though was a little bit harder and as all good 

things tend to be they came at a price.

Creed on the other hand picked chocolate chip cookies, again another win in my book.

1. they were easy and 

2. I already had the chocolate chips, we packed some in our shipment.

I had to spend the bulk of my time in Mack's hallway 

(that pesky room parent business)

but didn't mind because the 3rd grade parents meant business. 

There were a TON more delectable and interesting food items to choose from.

the Root Beer floats were a hit, but I did have a very concerned parent worried I was giving the kids actual beer.
Yep she caught me, trying to start the kids early. haha
 I love these cultural exchanges I keep having.

Third grade hall

I made an appearance to creeds hall and found my boy bravely experiencing corn dogs, 3 chocolate chip cookies, and a rice krispy treat. What a cultural experience for him.

The International parade at the end of the day nearly brought tears to my eyes. And I was not alone. It was very moving watching these kids from over 20 countries uniting together in friendship and singing about peace and love.
These are the moments I want my kids to remember.
These are the moments that make hard moves like this worth it.

look how happy he is to be an American!

So many flags, It truly had an Olympic vibe to it. I know it was an extremely smaller scale and pales in comparison, but the feelings of unity and  national pride were evident in these kids.

The kids from our gracious host country of Hungary

Any one else feel like America is seriously lacking in the traditional clothing category. I really need to figure out a way to step it up for next year. I honestly didn't even have a lame Old Navy flag tee shirt laying around for them to wear. Anyone from the States want to help my kids out and give us some great ideas for next year. Yes? Thanks.

Szentendre field trip

I am not sure how it happened but I got roped into being a room parent.

I have dodged the bullet for years so I shouldn't be surprised that it finally caught up 

with me. Especially considering the odds, there are only 13 kids in the class and

Mack is the ONLY American. So I should have guessed it would fall on me.

One thing I don't mind about being the room mom is getting to spend one

on one time with my child. And this particular one seems to really

enjoy all the time and attention he is getting. 

He was so sweet the whole day wanting to sit by me and be next to me through

every event. This isn't typical behavior for him so I kind of relished in it.

Szentendre is a city 30 miles or so outside of Budapest and is known for its craftsman work 

and artisans. Something I look forward to going back to see one day really soon.

They also have an working open air museum devoted to 

traditional hungarian villages and their way of life.

We started the day with threshing the wheat, taking the separated grain and getting 

it ready for one of the many mills to eventually be turned into fresh baked bread.

The kids enjoyed this interactive museum and learning about how it 

took a whole village and a whole day just to get bread.

threshing the grain

my turn

The entire class... ARE you kidding me??
Isn't it AWESOME!

silly boys kneading the bread.

I am not sure putting the boys all together in one group was the best idea..look at the ladies face.

Baking in the oven heated by wood then scraped out and washed out to make room for the bread.
The bread apparently cooks move even without direct heat. It worked because they were DELICIOUS!

Open For Business

The Shirley B&B is officially open!

Our first guinea pigs  guests came and went.

My Uncle and Aunt from Colorado along with two of my awesome cousins.

Last fall I saw them in DC while they were there visiting another one of their sons and 

they mentioned they would like to come to Budapest  

after they picked up my cute cousin in Romania.

She was there for 18 months serving an LDS mission and golly gee

Romania and Hungary happen to be neighbors. 

Yipee! 

I am soooo glad they were able to pop over so I could

smother them with my limited knowledge of Budapest

 (let it be noted though that I never once got lost or made a wrong turn. Not bad for my first tour guiding experience.) 

I think I literally clung to them, 

being the first family I have seen since I left the states this summer. 

I can't believe how excited I was to have them come.

 I guess I didn't realize how homesick I really was.

They came in late one night and spent the next full day with Callan and I seeing 

Budapest's highlights  and left the next morning early. 

A quick trip for sure but hopefully it was worth their time. 

Mike, Marsha, Dan and Natalee at Fisherman's Bastion

the cute hedgehog we came across

Most people know how Callan feels about Grandpas. When he woke up and saw my Uncle Mike he jumped in his arms and gave him the biggest bear hug and called him grandpa all day and never left his side. My Uncle already having lots of grandkids had no problem "adopting" mine. What a great sport he was.

Isn't that just too cute.

Mike and Marsha 

the ever important silly picture.

As you can see it doesn't matter how much time you have there is fun to be had in Budapest. 

We look forward to our next guests....will it be YOU?

Little Candidate

Imagine our surprise when Mack came home saying he wanted to run for Secretary in the Student Council at his new school. We were extremely proud of him for sticking his neck out there--being the new kid and only a 3rd grader.

He really had a great attitude about the whole thing win or loose. He even strategized picking 

Secretary as his position over Vice President because he didn't want to split the American 

vote, there were already some of his friends running for that position. And running for President 

he said was too big of a long shot for him. What he didn't know when he signed up was that his

other American 3rd grader friend also signed up for Secretary. So unfortunately the vote got divided anyways and double since it was another 3rd grader. But luckily that boy won so Mack didn't feel so bad, knowing it went to his friend. 

He did a great job fulfilling all the requirements to run,

-Got past and present teacher recommendations

-Wrote an essay

-Wrote and gave a speech in front of the entire school

-Made posters

One of the biggest projects he has undertaken thus far in his short life. 

And we as his parents enjoyed watching the progress and growth that came from it.

We figured what is more international then McDonalds? Luckily for us it was an easy tie in. However,  I did get a little worried while making the posters that I would get a cease and dismiss poster from the Golden Arches themselves. But I figured we were probably safe with only 2 posters in an obscure school in Hungary.

The candidates before the speech.

Although there wasn't win, there was still a lot to celebrate. We went to McDonalds and he wanted to try his first BIG MAC. I warned him he may not like their special sauce but he ended up finishing the whole thing.
What a guy.

First of Many (i hope...)

We took our first European vacation over Labor Day. 

The kids school doesn't celebrate it but the government still does. 

Even better! ;)

We went just for the weekend to Lake Balaton and then on

Monday Cam, Cal, and I had a day in Budapest for us.

Worked out nicely.

Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Europe and it happens to be in Hungary

and just under 2 hours from our house. So hopefully

we will get to go back often. 

Unfortunately we chose a weekend with sketchy weather and the weekend after

the season ends, but it kept down on traffic and crowds and we 

were able to get an idea of where and what to do next time we go.

We kept telling our kids we were making "lemonade" out of our situation and after an explanation of

what that means and it has nothing to do with actually drinking lemonade they

seemed to feel ok about our make new plans on the fly kind of weekend.

a morning snack of Chocolate croissants and hot chocolate on Tihany Peninsula. It was pouring rain all around us but we stayed dry under the umbrella.

Tihany Abbey on the top of the hill which overlooks the entire lake.

Part of our "lemonade" included the afternoon at Adventure Park a ropes course through the trees.
The kids did great and had a ball.

Creed who is absolutely TERRIFIED at heights, to the point I can barely pick him up to hold him without his body going very tense,  got brave and ventured off the child course and started on level 1 of the adult course. He didn't make it all the way through but he tried his best!

That little monkey is Mack who conquered all 4 levels. It made me a little nauseous to watch knowing it was so high and so dangerous. But is was very good exercise in focus and patience for him. He knew if he didn't always have a caribeaner attached he was taking his life into his own hands.  Had Cam not been there I am not sure I would have let him go through all the levels, but Cam knew he had it under control!

look at how closely he is paying attention and focusing on his tasks. In fact he kept asking me to stop trying to take his picture it was distracting him. :)

the rain eventually stopped and a little glimmer of sun shine made it through the clouds and we had to at least try the Lake out. After all the temp of the water was warmer than the temp outside.

the "hot tub" 

On Sunday Cam was anxious to go to Veszprem. The first city he was assigned to as a missionary when he was here. He wanted to attend their church meetings and see if there were any familiar faces. There were a few, and they were able to give him updates on some of the others. 

It is really fun to be able to come back to his mission and meet people

he has taught and see the places that he has talked about for all these years.

What a wonderful opportunity and gift our family has been given to move here!

some sort of boat structure erected in the square of Veszprems castle district. Not sure what is was for but it was very interactive as you could climb onto it and rock it back and forth.

The Statue of King St. Stephen and Queen Blessed Gisela

MY FAVORITE VIEW
I thought this city was beautiful. So peaceful and quiet compared to Budapest (which I have really grown to love) but something about this town really spoke to me. 

Add caption

as usual a photo of Callan is a pretty cute thing to end with.

15 years

Did you know that the 15th wedding anniversary is the Crystal Anniversary?

Neither did I until I looked it up. 

It usually goes down like this; the first part of August I scour the internet trying to 

find out what our upcoming anniversary is represented with.

Every year I rack my brain I always have 

 a hard time trying to come up with something for Cam, 

so as usual I did my own thing.

I think those traditional gifts are for girls anyways.

Cam is always able to find me something great within the traditional gift parameters.

This year was a super cute crystal bracelet, necklace and earrings.

Good job Cam!

Me on the other hand planned a full fun day out on the town for us.

I normally would think that 15 years of marriage would mean a great vacation some where, but since we sort of just moved to our great vacation destination and not really in a position to leave our kids for any great amount of time I figured exploring our new amazing city would fit the bill.

It sure did, we had a great day that felt like we were miles away from home.

First we rented bikes and rode around Margit Island to see all its beauty and treasures. Super fun and cool place right in the middle of the Danube river. It is about 3 miles around and houses hotels, spas, a water park, gardens, playgrounds, petting zoo, historical ruins and on and on. 

We will be spending lots of time there for sure!

with our super cool basket bikes. Manly I know!

in front of one of the gardens

 after our bike ride I booked us massages in one of the hotel spas 

they were absolutely perfect after our bike riding exploring

Prying ourselves off the massage tables was difficult, but what made it a lot easier was knowing we were going to one of Budapests most famous restaurants Gundel's for Lunch

Food and atmosphere were perfect.

My lunch some chicken yumminess and Cams traditional paprika chicken was sooo good!

We had to almost roll ourselves out of Gundel's and 

walk across the street to Varos Liget (City Park)

I would like to put this park and Central park head to head 

to see which one comes out on top.

They both are awesome and have a ton of things to do and see 

as well as have their pluses and minuses, so it would be a close race for sure.

Varos Liget has numerous playgrounds, lakes, 18th century castles you know the normal park stuff. ;) It also has a great zoo, a year round circus, an amusement park, tons of restaurants and is home to one of Europes most famous bath houses. 

Szecheny Baths

My eyes hurt from the continual strain on them to see all the architure, paintings and tile work surrounding its something like 30ish or so different types of "baths".

 I am also pretty sure all the European swimwear added to my eye discomfort. 

I must really want to show you this place if I am willing to subject my extremely white, swim-clad, haven't worked out in over a year body.

 Please oh please look beyond us and all the Europeans (eek), 

and look at this places grandeur. 

These photos are definitely not doing this place justice at all!

I kind of feel like the Pepsi endorsements on the umbrellas ruin this places authenticity a bit, don't you?  

aren't we cute all middle aged and stuff.

We spent nearly 4 hours soaking in different baths and their healing powers. Some were mineral, some were thermal, some were hot, some were cold, multiple steam baths and saunas. Because they were all called something different we decided would try to figure out the difference between them. I am not sure if we ever really did but what we did do was leave with our skin and bodies feeling refreshed, smooth and extremely relaxed.
Time for the last costume change and the final part of our day.
Cam wanted to be in charge of our dinner plans. Something I more than willingly handed over to him.

He reserved us a table on top of the wall at Fishermans Bastion overlooking Pest and all its glory. Watching the sun set, eating delicious food and spending time alone together discussing our goals and plans while in this city was beyond a dream.
I don't know if a movie or dating television show could have created a more perfect day.