Chicks on the train to Hamburg

I realized that I could post a blog on here for the girls, cuz they probably won't get to write everday in Hamburg. They rode the train today for the first time and the first time I spoke with them during their travels today they thought it was all pretty easy. Meaning they made the first two transfers without any problems. Then I got the next text message saying to please call them. They had made it to Hamburg, but there was supposed to be a track 7a and they only saw 1-6. (Now that really is a problem.) However, they had already figured out how to read the arrival and departure board (we had had a quick crash course on it waiting for the train to come in this morning) and had found the underground headed for Pinneberg. So they arrived at a slightly different time than was arranged, but they arrived well in Hamburg and were met by Rolf, so all is well. Thought this would be awaited information for all mom's at home. Signed-Quinn

We're back from Coni's!

the LST band thingy

Hey everyone! It really sucked not having computer access while we were away! Here's what we did:

Monday: We packed our stuff, went to the store, met Florian at Ikea (by the way, he was really REALLY cute!), and drove down to Germersheim with him. Once we got to Germersheim (where Coni lives) we ate dinner (spaghetti) and went swimming. It was an outdoor pool and it was only us girls. Unfortunately there were NO cute guys! How sad is that? It's dumb. Coni has two little girls: Kaylee and Pilou (pee-loo). They are so cute! You should have seen the looks on their faces when we gave them the gifts we brought. It was hilarious. They wanted to put their dresses on right away! It was cute.

Tuesday: We woke up really late (10:30 or 11) and got ready quickly. After we got ready we went to Heidelberg Castle. It was way cool! We took lots of funny pictures but we can't show you yet because the card reader isn't working. Their idea of art is disturbing. Naked people everywhere! Nasty Europeans. The swim team is better than they are!!! After the castle we went to this way cool place and painted pictures. There isn't a good way to describe them but we have pictures so we will show you soon...I hope. That night for dinner we had a German/Turkish dish: Döner. It was REALLY good. Then we went shopping and before going to bed we watched Tarzan. It was fun!



Wednesday: We went to France. Strasbourg, France is a really cool place. There is a really cool-looking Cathedral that we walked through and we got cool little coins. The first thing we saw when we got to the Cathedral was some cute guys that were pointing at us and grinning (ooh la la!)...but we didn't get a picture because we were too chicken. The windows of the Cathedral are gorgeous. We took lots of pictures! After that...(drum roll please)...SHOPPING!!! We love French clothes! The biggest problem with them: they were EXPENSIVE! OMG they costed a TON! But then we found two awesome stores with good sales and we got shirts. They are sexy! After the stores all closed (kicking us out) we got ice cream and it was DELICIOUS! On the way back to the car we saw this guy doing portraits so Kali and Kaelei got their portraits done and Lisha got a charicature. They are so cool! For dinner that night we had cold cereal cuz we had spent so much that day...JUST KIDDING, MOMS! We just ran out of time...it was late. Then we stayed up joking with Coni till at least 1 a.m. She is so much fun!

Thursday: We went to Ludwigsburg Castle and the Fairytale Garden that day. Ludwigsburg was cool, but we didn't get very many good pics cuz flashes weren't allowed. When we finished with our tour there we went to the Fairytale Garden. This is where the real fun started! Who knew we could have so much fun in a kiddie park?! There were rides and scary looking character statue thingys that talked to us and scared Kali when they jumped out at her during a "relaxing" boat ride. Let me tell you right now: it was NOT relaxing...for Kali. Lisha and Kaelei had fun on that one teasing her and making her turn red...of course. What else does Kali do? Our favorite ride was one that we THINK was from Alice in Wonderland. It was REALLY fun. It made us feel like we were spinning upside down and all sorts of crazy stuff was "falling" on us. Kaylee made us go on it 5 TIMES! We felt really sick after that. When Pilou went, she had a TON of fun laughing and smiling at our scared-looking faces. The VERY best part came after everything was closed and we were playing in a little kid park. There was a round swing that Kali went and layed on, and soon Kaelei joined her, and after a couple minutes of them laughing, Lisha decided it looked fun and went to join them. We had so much fun laughing and taking pictures on that thing! We still aren't sure what was so funny, but we were laughing a lot. We had dinner at Coni's parent's house that night where we met Tobi (Coni's BROTHER not husband) and her sister and her parents. The dinner was yummy...it's a Turkish dish called maultaschen that's just noodles with meat inside of them. Kind of like ravioli. We got to bed late that night.

Kaylee:

Friday: We woke up really late on Friday because we had gone to bed so late the night before. It was like 11:40 or so. It was Coni's birthday so while we went to a waterslide park to swim, Coni went to her sister's house with her little girls. It was Friday the thirteenth so of course we had lots of bad luck lol. The normally 15-minute drive to Coni's sister's house from the pool took her 2 hours with all the traffic and detours. And Kali got REALLY beat up on the slides because she was too small to protect herself lol and she got slammed into the wall multiple times which Lisha and Kaelei found HILARIOUS! but Kali did not. IT HURT! Kaelei and Lisha got their own share of bumps and bruises and "hilarious falls" too. Kali and Kaelei met this weird hispanic kid who claims to have been from the U.S. but when we asked him what state he was from, he said Miami. So, we aren't really sure what the real story is. He was really funny. He said he was looking for girls who spoke english because it was driving him crazy when the German girls couldn't understand him. We got away from him as fast as we could lol. So, when we went home we had a little party for Coni. She had some friends come over and we gave Coni her presents. She was happy, but she asked for stuff for Kaylee and she was SO EXCITED! She modelled every single outfit we got her and gave us a hug wearing each one. It was way cute.

Saturday: We had to wake up early on Saturday (about 5 a.m. or so), even though we were up way late Friday night. The reason for waking up at 5 a.m. after going to sleep at 2-3 a.m. last night is we were going to the temple. We had to meet Quinn at the temple, and the temple is far away. We went with a crazy old lady who was in Coni's ward. She drove away while we were saying goodbye to Coni and the door was open and it was insane! We were trying to sleep on the way to the temple, but the crazy lady kept jabbering on about random stuff so it was hard to sleep. She wouldn't let Lisha sleep at all. Kaelei and Kali did though. We are so tired....The temple was fun. Baptisms took FOREVER though. The car ride to Hannover was awful. Tyler cried almost the whole way! But it was worth it. We got to Hannover and were going to the firework show at Herrenhausen Garten. It was so much fun. There was a crazy boy band and the lead singer was dancing all over the stage--it was hilarious! Then one of the guitar players was wearing a helmet made out of a disco ball! It was so cool! And we saw a cool fountain and took some funny pictures with Anna and Laura in front of it (while we danced around and acted like weirdos). It was a lot of fun. THEN we saw this other band called Lüneburger Schrott Trommler. They were all drummers and their drums were just metal or plastic barrels and stuff like that. We'll have to put up pictures...but ANYWAYS one of the drummers was SO CUTE!!! He was the cutest guy we had seen so far in Germany. So, being hyper and weird like we were, Lisha not included, we watched their final performance and went up to the hot guy and asked for a picture with him. So, as Kali was in heaven with his arm around her posing for a picture, EVERYONE in sight was watching because they thought it was so funny. Kali is pretty red in the pictures....We didn't get good ones because the cameras were being retarded. The only good one was really dark, so you can't see him very well. :( Lisha didn't think he was very cute but Kali, Kaelei, and Anna sure did! He was amazing! lol just kidding he was cute though. They have a website (in German of course). It's http://www.trommeltraum.de if you want to look at it. The pictures are at the top. The pictures aren't all that great but its the best we can do.



Today: Today we sang in the Hannover Ward. We sang Walk Tall, You're a Daughter of God. It was pretty scary, but apparently we did well because we got lots of compliments. It was weird. Young Womens was first, then Sunday School, THEN Sacrament Meeting. We skipped YW to practice our song for the first time ever. Class was way fun. There was a cute guy in our class and the teacher tried to translate the lesson into english for us, so that was cool. It was funny the way we got introduced to the kid. Quinn's brother-in-law, Steffen (shteffan) was talking to us and we told him about the cute drummer kid and then out of nowhere he was like Oh you need to meet my friend Tobias. And he turned around and it was the cute kid! So we were talking to him and it turns out he's 17, he's a convert, Steffen baptized him, and he's taking a trip to California this year. Then after we talked to him we tracked him down because we decided we wanted a picture of him. He blushed and was acting really self concious but we got a pretty cute one of him. It was awesome! We hope we can see him when we go to church again, but we don't know. He asked us if we would be there next week and when we said no he looked really sad. It was funny. After he left we were talking to Steffen and he turned to Kali and he was like so do you want to date him? And she was like NO! I'm only 15, sadly. She was so sad lol. But maybe we will see him next time. We sure hope so. Then he asked Kaelei and she was like I'm not 16 YET but I will be next month... hee hee. Then Kali was like NO WAY, LOSER! HE'S MINE! Then Lisha was like he's my age...but I have a boyfriend. So Kali said, "HA!" and we still fight about it. (jokingly, of course)
Well, the apple pie is done! Haha suckers you don't get any! BYE!

Vulnerable by Secondhand Serenade

No computer this week

Hey everyone we won't have computer access untill saturday because we will be at Toby and Connie's house and their computer broke. We are leaving for their house this morning and it will take about 4 hours to drive there. The guy we are going with is named Florian, but we still haven't met him. Lisha is the only one who has seen Uncle Benny. I hope we get to see him today. He's cool. Anyways, we are going to the temple this week and won't be able to get on the computer for a while. The humidity is driving us crazy! It makes us all sticky and sweaty and uncomfortable. Not to mention the fact that our hair is wigging out! Our hair is all puffy and curly and no matter what it won't stay straight. We love you all, don't forget to tell people to check our blog out. Talk to you soon!
Thanks! Kali, Kaelei, and Lisha

Stop and Stare, by One Republic (Kaelei and Kali's new favorite song)

Church with Anna and the BBQ

The first picture is of Pauline's house. She will be staying with Lisha's family. The second one is of Anna. She probably wouldn't like the picture, but it's funny. The third one is Kali with Tyler. The fourth one is just to get an idea of what everything looked like at Pauline's. The fifth one is of us in front of Anna's church. It was really bright, and that was the best picture we could get. Jeffrey is in that one with us. The last one is of Anna's church. It was really cool-looking on the outside, and even cooler on the inside, but we didn't get a good picture of the inside. Sorry. ;-P

Well, today we didn't go to the LDS church, we went to church with Anna, who goes to a Protestant church. It was cool-only an hour long. We had really great timing, Anna was performing on the flute for the hymns, and the mayor of the town of Burgdorf came to speak after the meeting. We got a picture with him! Quinn says she has lived in Burgdorf for 10-ish years and she says she's never even seen him before, so we really were lucky. We went to Anna's house for the first time and hung out with her and her family for a few hours and then went home to change out of our skirts before the BBQ. Again, did I mention we went to church by bike? Well, we did. Have you ever tried riding a bike to church in a skirt? I wouldn't recommend it, it sucks. Anna's house is way cool though, and we love riding bikes everywhere-it's so nice! The only thing that could make it better is if we had our cell phones, but we're happy anyways. Today after Anna's house we went home and changed into better clothes before we rode our bikes (again!) to the BBQ at Pauline's house. Her house is HUGE! Her back yard is ENORMOUS! It was a LONG bike ride from Quinn's house to hers, but it was so fun that it was worth it. At her BBQ we met Valentine and his family as well as Pauline and hers. We ate sausage and bread and french fries and noodle salads and all sorts of yummy stuff (lots of meat). The dessert was AMAZING! Quinn made it. It's called Quarkspeise. (kwark-spiza) There was a pool in her backyard (a tiny one) but we didn't know about that before we came so we didn't bring our suits. :( But Kaelei and I are going in the morning so it's all good. Lisha didn't want to go (for some odd reason...but honestly, isn't that what summer is for? To swim even more? Just KIDDING!!!) The pool isn't very far away so we will just ride bikes again at 6 a.m. We are very excited for Southern Germany tomorrow, we still need to pack tonight. The jet-lag is horrible! We have been so exhausted lately that we are completely crazy! It's hilarious! Anna is so much fun. We have missed her a ton. There was a soccer game tonight, and the city literally shuts down during games, and we went on a bike ride with Quinn during the game. The streets were empty. I think we passed a grand total of 3 cars and a couple people riding home quickly on their bikes. It was really quiet untill a passing train just about scared us out of our pants went by. There is a train station down the road that we pass all the time when we ride our bikes. Tomorrow, instead of going to Germersheim (Toby and Connie's home town) by train, we are going with some college kid who needed and extra seventy-five dollars and heading the same direction, so he's giving us a ride. Apparently they do it all the time in Germany, but it still makes me nervous to be going with some random guy who posted his car available on the internet, but whatever. There's safety in numbers, and there's three of us, right? Anyways, we need to pack. We miss everyone! Love you!
-the girlz

We got there, that's all that matters, right?

Well, we got here safely. None of us were able to sleep on our ten hour flight to Paris, France. We had a big, bright, STUPID(!) TV screen right in front of us and it was so bright that we couldn't sleep! And it's hard to sleep on the plane anyways.We were all laying there with our sunglasses on trying to block the light but it didn't work very well. So, our total amount of sleep on the fifteen hour flight was about an hour. Each. How gay is that?! So, we watched movies all the way to Paris. It was very boring. On our plane from Paris to Hanover, Germany, we were stuck in the plane for an hour and a half while waiting for clearance to take off. It was very boring! So our flight was delayed. When we FINALLY reached the airport, got our bags and all that fun stuff, my Auntie Quinn and Anna (my German buddy) and her family were waiting for us. Quinn said that her whole family wanted to meet us at the airport but there just wasn't room for all of us in the car. The kids were waiting at home and ran out to meet us. After we put our bags away and had dinner, we went to the "city" (Burgdorf) and got some groceries at a store called Aldi. After we finished getting stuff for Quinn, we explored the city a bit and had ice cream. Did I mention that we went by bike? There were six of us who actually went to the city. Me (Kali), Kaelei, Lisha, Tori (Victoria, my cousin), Anna (my German buddy), Laura (Anna's little sister). Quinn's last name is so cool...it's Schulze. Okay, this keyboard is driving me nuts! The z and the y trade places on the German keyboard and all of the symbols are in different places and there are extra letters. It's really hard to type. The past two days sort of blur together since almost all we did on Friday was sit in a plane, as well as most of Saturday. Anyways, I'm probably boring you. The point is, we're having a great time. We miss you all! Have an amazing summer! Love, Kali, Lisha, and Kaelei.