14 Months!

So sometime this last week we hit our 14 month mark here in Germany and I didn't even realize until my Mom pointed it out as I sat down to seminary.  Weird!  Christmas is our halfway mark!  I don't know if I'm ready for that!

So what are we up to now?  Well I started school this last Monday, and this is my Week A schedule.  (We have a two week schedule that we follow)

 These are the new MacBooks we got to use this year and it is like heaven compared to the old MacBooks we had last year!  (I know, I'm getting so spoiled here)  I don't know what I'll do when I have to go back to Timpview with plain old paper and pen!  Haha, I think it will be good for me.

 This past week and coming week, president has been on the road doing interviews with the missionaries so I thought this was quite a fitting picture of him looking at the calendar, seeing when he will be around.

 Last night we were invited to a barbecue with some of the members of the international ward and it was so beautiful outside and the weather was perfect.  

And what wouldn't be fun with this crazy girl?

 She is a great friend.

 And we are very resourceful together.

 I even found a baby to hold!

 Here's is Tanner's mission plaque in the foyer of the church.  I can't believe he is Elder Kohler now (however you say that in Russian) and I can't wait to hear from him this week!!!

Good Luck Elder Kohler!

So this week we sent Tanner off to Provo for a few days before he will enter the MTC on Wednesday and begin his mission.  (See "No Shortage of Missionaries in Our Neck of the Woods")

So this is the beginning of the packing!

 Almost there!

 And here he is the morning of.  Luckily all of his suitcases were underweight and he looked ready to go!  He looks like a missionary!  Just give him a tag!

 So this is all three of our missionaries together!  Don't look at Tanner's tag too closely.  (It says Präsident)

 Saying goodbye at the airport was really tough.  We have seen a lot of missionaries come and go there, but never one of our own.  We were all having a hard time letting him go.

 This year Tanner has been a role model, a guinea pig, an older brother, a cheer leader, and my very best friend.  I know I always say this, but I don't know how I could have done it without him.  He has had a smile on this entire year and kept all of our spirits up.  He has never once complained and always looked for the good in everyone and everything.  He would help old ladies and walk down the streets picking up trash.  He would sit through endless zone conferences and training.  He would walk to school with me when I was mopey and joke around until I couldn't help but laugh.  He has had the best missionary training in the world I think and he will definitely be a ray of sunshine in Moldova.  Saying goodbye to him was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I know he will be great.  We will always be praying for him and we invite any of you to do the same.  Love you Elder Kohler!

Small Good Deeds go a Long Way

This last week for my birthday I received a surprise package in the mail with a ton of birthday notes and cards and a picture and sweet necklace from my Young Women back in the Edgemont 2nd Ward.  It made my day.  Reading all of them almost made me cry and I know it wasn't hard for them to write a few notes and send it, but it went a long way.  Thank you!

The Small Adventures in Life

This afternoon Sister Kohler said we had to go to the grocery store.  But Tanner decided we should all ride our bikes.  So we did!  Here we are with our backpacks and bikes ready to go.

 After we finished shopping and Tanner got a last haircut, he got a last Leberkäse before he leaves on Friday.

When we rode home it started sprinkling rain and it really made me respect Tosha for all her stories of riding home for hours in the pouring rain in the dark in Japan!

Sometimes little adventures are the source of great memories.

Climb Every Mountain...Unless it Rains

So this last Friday we took a trip as a family down to St. Gallen because my dad planned on speaking in the ward on Sunday and on Monday we were going to go hike a mountain called Säntis with a ton of missionaries, but right before the trip, the leader of the hike called us and told us it was cancelled due to a bad forecast.  But we still had to go to speak and we couldn't cancel hotels, so we went!

Friday we drove down and relaxed and Saturday we woke up and it was my birthday!!! (My golden birthday too!  I turned 15 on the 15th of August, 2015).  So before we headed out for the day this was President working at his funny little desk at the hotel.

 So we went to the church for the day so President could interview missionaries.  Woohoo!  It wasn't too bad though.  The Elders sang happy birthday to me and we got to chat with them and hang around.  It was a good time. 

After all the interviews we decided we would just open my presents right there in the church.  I got mostly clothes that I picked out.  But hey!  What more could a girl ask for?  But this was by far one of the best.  It is a T-shirt I designed of that same Korean dram I talked about in the last post.  So great!!

 And this is something they always say in the show and pump their fists.

 After that we went to a fun Raclette place for dinner.

 This was Sister Kohler enjoying her little Raclette stove.

 Here we are as a family.  (Don't mind the pharmacy behind us, we didn't think about the background of the picture.)

 After we took this picture I remembered an almost identical one we took exactly a year ago on my birthday in Konstanz (below).  We have both changed so much since then and we both are so different.  I don't know what I would have done without him this past year, and he will surely be missed when he leaves.

The next day, Sunday, we went to the St. Gallen ward for church and it was  VERY interesting in Swiss German...they tried to be accommodating, but it really is a different language.

That night we stayed at this fun hotel called the Hotel Schäfli which means sheep in Swiss German...we think.

We found these little treasures all over our room... 

 And this is how we felt about them.

 That night at dinner we saw these huge cowbells which they do actually use in some festivals.  You can tell how excited Sister Kohler is by her eyes.

 We had a fun time at dinner that night and enjoyed some fondue.

This is President the next morning enjoying the view while clipping his nails out the window.

 The view out our hotel window.

 That morning at breakfast he was in heaven with all the good cheese.

 Here are all his cheese trimmings.

 Then we rode a lift partway up the mountain even though it was a bit cloudy.

 Beautiful!

 That is Tanner's thumb next to a yucky slug.

 AMAZING mountains.

 Tanner on a rock...

 We made some friends.

 This is a picturesque little house in the middle of nowhere.

 Tanner pretending to drink out of a yucky trough...

 Sorry some of these are really redundant...

This is not zoomed in. 

 A pile of...

 An adorable bench...

 Me on the adorable bench...

 A little pony that tried to kick Tanner when he pet it.

 This was interesting because it was a modern church at the top of the lift in contrast to all the old churches one can see in Europe.

 Then we rode the lift back down.

 And I just wanted to put this on here because it was really weird.  After the lift we ate lunch back at the hotel and this was the toilet there....doesn't look very friendly.

Overall it was a good trip even if we couldn't climb EVERY mountain.