Regensburg

We decided to take a trip to Regensburg for the afternoon.  It is a beautiful town about 1.5 hrs away. They have a beautiful church there where most of these pictures are taken. 



  We recently broke the lense on our camera and had to send it in for repair.  Hopefully the warranty will cover it.  They still haven't let us know about that.  In the mean time we bought a lense that has a higer zoom.  It is really nice for getting closeup pictures of things far away.  The only problem is it is difficult to get picutures of either large things, or things that are close.  The easy fix for this is to just use the "foot technique" i.e. walking away until the picture looks good.  The problem with large things, as we found out today, is sometimes you have to walk a long ways away.  This is one big church. 

The day wasn't too cold, although we did need these jackets in the shady areas, which was alot of dowtown Regensburg.  Here are some pictures of the boys running along the outside of the church. 

I just want to point out the capri pants Connor is wearing.  They are not supposed to be capris but he is such a small child and has such a small waist that when he wears long enough pants the waist is too big and the pant fall off.  So all winter long he has been wearing "capris".  And yes he is not wearing any socks because we went to a birthday party at the bowling alley in the morning and Brecon didn't put on socks, so we stole Connors socks to put on Brecon so he could wear bowling shoes.  The no sock look is a good one anyway with capris, especially when it is cold enough to wear a big winter coat.  

Here are some pictures inside this church.  I always feel weird taking pictures inside these buildings, because people are worshipping and praying, but everyone is doing it so I don't think it is discouraged.   Cael wants to light the candles every time we visit these churches. 

Here is the family outside the front of the church.  This was from as far away as I could go across the street and I still couldn't get much of the building in the picture.   

This is how far we had to walk to be able to get the whole church in the field of view with this lense. This is taken from a beautiful stone bridge crossing the river.  It was a fun afternoon, that ended when we realized we had a boy with a stinky bum and no diapers with us.  You would think after 3 boys we would have learned how to prepare for a trip by now. 

Monster Baby

Monster Baby

(A Platt Family Movie)

We had recently seen some pretty bad movies and Cael decided he wanted to make some movies of his own.  So we gave him a camera and here you go. I think he did a great job with the camera.  The only problem now is that is all he wants to do.  He even cried last evening when we told him no more movie making for the night.  Big crocodile tears.  He was a little tired.

SKI TRIP

We were able to go on a family ski trip while Ben had a little vacation time. We were really excited because there had been SO MUCH SNOW and we were ready to hit the slopes.

However, January brought a crazy rain and there hasn't been snow on the ground where we live since that time.

But back in December we had rented some ski equipment and we were amazed at how quickly Cael was able to manuever on the street and go down a little hill. Brecon surprised us by putting the ski boots on in the first place, and when he would laugh about crashing- we felt pretty good about his "ski-attitude".

So we had our time off and decided that we just needed to go. On the drive to the mountain it was raining. Oh great- I thought- This is going to be the shortest ski trip of all time. There is no way we will be getting out of the car let alone getting on the ski hill. To our great surprise, as we began to ascend up from the valley into the mountain the rain turned into to big white snowflakes. Also of note, the higher we went (which really didn't feel that high) a big blanket of fog covered the mountain top.

Ben took the first round with the big boys while I camped out in the van with a book and a sleeping baby. About an hour later when Connor woke up I miraculously found them and took Brecon so Cael and Ben could actually go up the T-bar lift. Brecon needed a break, but he didn't want one. I somehow managed to get him to the bathroom and back out to the van, but not without much effort and a sweet woman who carried him up a flight of stairs for me. (I also was holding baby Connor at the time). SKI DAY ONE... over!

We found our hotel, had the best dinner down at the ADAM BRUNN plus a hot apple strudel for dessert. A group of older locals were sitting in a corner booth and I am sure they were quite entertained with our "happy" children. After dinner we began to hear a small dog barking and the boys were very curious where the sound was coming from. After turning their heads up, down, and all around they could not find the small furry animal. However, we did notice that the 'grandpa' would often cup his hand around his mouth and THAT was when we knew... HE was the source of the barking sound. The boys also did their best dog barks, but it just didn't match up with the man from the corner.

The next day on the mountain was sunny and relaxing and we could see improvement with Brecon after a few more times down the bunny slope. Cael and I went even higher up the mountain and I couldn't believe how well he handled the steeper parts of the hill. I remember crying when I was little and the mountain was steep (yeah COKEVILLE... you make me cry) But this child of mine is fearless. If he fell down, he got right back up. No complaining or whining at all. He is a crazy boy that is for sure. We made 4 good runs up to the top and then called it a day. After loading up the children, all the equipment, we took off for home. We are ready for our next ski trip!

PRAGUE, CZ

This city is simply overflowing with amazing architecture, sooty-aging statues, cobblestone streets, sidewalks, and bridges AND we were able to see it all together (minus our three little ones) THANK YOU dear friend who watched our children. We got lost at night, climbed to the top of 2 towers, sampled some authentic "pork knee", took 500 pictures, laughed, and walked and walked and walked. It was a great get away!

Dinner Conversation

After enjoying a yummy dinner with some friends from church, we all were quite entertained by the wrestling and torture Dusty (the Dad friend) was dishing out to Cael and Brecon, especially Cael who loves to play rough. They were lovin' it of course and having a great time. Then Dusty asks Cael "What kind of hair gel do you use?"

Cael: "COOL WHIP"

Dusty: "Oh yeah, I use REDDI WHIP"

(the group discusses why REDDI WHIP is convenient and would actually make a good hair gel)

Cael: "AND... I use DUSCH CREME"

*silence* Immediatly followed by a mother who is laughing/crying and oh so embarrased. Thankfully the group was laughing as well.....

Well let me just show you a picture:

in German SHOWER=DUSCH

And obviously our 6 year old who is able to read will see this product in the bathroom and take it to mean a hair product. We didn't explain the English translation, I hope that conversation is never brought up.

Winter Klondike Scout trip

BEN POST

If you didn't know, they called me to be the Young Mens President when I first got here. We have a new scouting program that started in this ward a few months before I arrived. We are still trying to work out some of the kinks, but the boys are still having fun (I hope). We went on a trip to Switzerland for a winter campout and it was beautiful. Becky was extremely jealous, but I had to leave her behind. No girls allowed. It is definitely a place we will be going back to in the summer for some of the beautiful hikes and scenery.

Me and my first counselor, Ben Campbell. We went on a hike up this canyon with a river running through it. There was a trail that we could walk up away from the river, but of course the boys were walking UP stream with frequent crossing, and many wet feet by the end of the hike. Not the smartest thing for a well trained Boy Scout to be doing in the middle of winter, but they had fun.

Boy Scout Troop 420, TransAtlantic Council. If you look closely the small boy 4th from the right is wet up to his waist. We saw it coming and instead of yelling at him to be careful I pulled out the camera to try to get it in picture, but the setting on the camera was wrong and in the end all I had was about 10 pure white pictures and a very wet 12 yr old. That was the point we turned around and started back to the cars. No toes were lost.

It was a great trip with beautiful surroundings and some fun scouts and leaders to hang out with.

Will someone look at the camera?

well.... not exactly.... "It's okay brother... this will all be over soon"
In an effort to capture the boys after church ... We realized why we are so happy to have digital cameras. As you can see, someone (BRECON) was feeling rather tired and sad that he needed to keep his clothes on for five minutes longer. Then you can see the "evolution" - if you will - of how the emotions transfer from one boy to the other, poor Connor by the end was finished. Thankfully Cael was smiley and happy for this little photoshoot. There is one shot that could have been really cute... but of course there is one person who is just not paying attention (thanks a lot baby Connor). They just all looked so cute in their new sweaters- I couldn't help myself! I love my boys so much!