The Schmidts

Thanks to some amazing friends - the Nathan and Jessica Larsen, we had a ward campout in castle ruins - the Manderscheid Castle. What a fun experience. Good outdoor fun -- climbing, getting dirty, having very few rules!  Owen is a great climber -- and Sam works hard to keep up.      A river to play in!  A rodelbahn for some more fun   And a beautiful lake we took a paddle boat out on after enjoying a picnic with friends.        

With the urge and kindness of our friends we finally took a trip just us for more than a night. It was awesome! We missed the kiddos of course but it's incredible the difference of traveling in Europe with and without kids. Every couple needs to do this once in a while. We went to Mallorca, Spain, which is an Island off Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. We booked through a travel agency - they booked our flights and hotel. We booked a day of adventure and left the rest up to what we wanted to do when we got there.       Waiting for our flight peacefully. Usually we'd be entertaining kiddos.  We found a church to go to. It was in Spanish -- took Justin back to the mission days. I felt the spirit.  View from our hotel -- not amazing but not bad eh?  Neither of us had ever been interested in just laying on the beach to tan, sleep or read, but we must be getting old because we wanted to and did. We also got a message on the beach. A day of relax

A few photos of our fun in the sun.  Yes Lenora knows what a tractor is and isn't scared to drive it!  Germany has some pretty awesome parks. This is Pirate Park -- yes there is a pirate ship in the middle with a foot of water around it with little boats you can ride around. A kid's paradise!  Friends at our park across the street - Sam Parish and Malcolm  Lake Ohmbachsee, 25 minutes from us. We went with a big bunch of ward friends      Owen Tracy's birthday party - homemade Volcanoes!        This was Sam after we had his friend over for a few days while his parents took a trip. He played hard! Never has he crashed on the couch like this.