Change

Before the autumn break Daniel's teacher mentioned that she thought it might be a good idea to get Daniel's eyes tested as she feels he may need glasses. He couldn't read certain words or letters on the overhead projector and she'd even put him to the front of the classroom. As you can imagine, Daniel wasn't very pleased to hear this news although I am pretty sure he was aware that he couldn't see correctly.
I rang my opthalmist to make an appointment and was told that we'd have to wait 5 weeks to see the doctor. Wow! What a long time - although Daniel was quite pleased at this news.

Well, we finally got to see the doctor on Monday afternoon and guess what? Yes, Daniel is short sighted (-1.0 in both eyes) and he is colour blind! He can't see pastel shades of red and green! Well that shocked me! Apparantly I carried the X-gene through me from my father who was also colour blind. This I did know. My brother Keith is also colour blind but apparantly it only jumps over a generation meaning he couldn't have got it from our father, but rather from our maternal grandfather, J.Cecil Tullett. I called my mother and she confirmed that he was indeed colour blind. Wow! All of my kids have a 50/50 chance of being colour blind - nice!

This was the test that the doctor did on Daniel and he couldn't see any of the numbers except for the 25. The number 29 is Daniel's main problem - red and green.

This afternoon Daniel and I went to the opticians and looked at some glasses. After about 45 minutes he had made his decision and we ordered them. They should be ready in about 7-10 days and Daniel doesn't care how long they take! It will take a while to get used to them but hey, if you can't see then you need glasses! I know how he feels: I was 13 when I got my first pair of glasses and I cried!!!!

Anyway, photos will follow once the glasses arrive......

Hugs all,

Rebecca

A job well done

My mother deserves a certificate and it should say: "This is to certify that Betty Gray climbed and walked around the Lünersee in Brand, Austria. Well done!"

What an adventure we had! After a miserable Tuesday (weather wise), Wednesday turned out lovely just like Monday's weather. The hubster wanted to take us to a mountain lake in Brand, Austria (about an hour away from home) that he'd visited lately with work colleagues. He was so impressed with it he wanted to show it to us, so off we went. 

Brand lives off tourism. It's a ski resort in the winter (The hubster took the boys skiing there in February) and a walker/hiker's paradise during the rest of the year. To get to the lake we had to take a cable car up. The hubster wanted to walk up so we split off with Mum, Daniel and myself (Jordan is at Lake Garda in Italy with friends) taking the cable car and him walking. 

This was taken on the drive up to the cable car station. The leaves on the trees are starting to turn yellow and gold. Autumn is so pretty.

I took this photo from the cable car. The little white dot within the red circle is actually the hubster on his ascent up to the lake.

 The Lünersee cable car: (sorry it's a bit blurred)

 Waiting for Roland

 A wind swept and sun blinded Mum amd I

This is the left hand side of the lake looking out from the restaurant and the most strenguous part of the whole walk. The rest of the walk around the lake is flat but this bit you have to climb over. The hubster wasn't sure whether Mum would be able to walk it but he let her decide. Looking from the restaurant it didn't look too difficult and mum thought it wouldn't be too hard for her.

 The view looking to the right from the restaurant. Isn't the turquoisey green of the lake just gorgeous?

The sign at the bottom said it would take 1 hour to walk up but the hubster actually only took 35 minutes! So once we'd taken the short journey up we sat down at a table at the restaurant and played Yatzee until he arrived. (I soooo need to cut Daniel's hair!)

We decided to have lunch right away and then walk. Mum ordered "Schnitzel and pommes frites" and I've never seen such a large schnitzel before. Believe it or not, she ate it all!

After being fed and watered we set off on our adventure...... up and up......

 Mum having a break.........

 

The view back down to the restaurant. 

Daddy and Daniel......always ahead of us! Daniel had originally not wanted to come. Hiking is not his favourite pasttime especially without Jordan but we somehow managed to get him to come with us and as usual, he enjoyed himself. Here he is looking over the lake with the binoculars........

The view back down to the restaurant from the highest point of our hike:

 On our way down.....Congrats Mum, you did it!

 Just over half way....

 Nearly two thirds round the lake.

The hubster decided to walk ahead of us and then walk back down. We took our time and went down with the cable car and joined him at the bottom. I am so proud of my mother and I believe she is too! Since her fall last December in New Zealand, she hasn't done a lot of walking and even though she was tired by the time we got back to the car, I think she is glad that she attempted and succeeded in walking this lake. Way to go Mum! By the way, she was asleep on the sofa at 7.30pm........

I now have a sun and windburned face and look like a panda bear......way to go Rebecca for not wearing any sunscreen.......

Til next time.

Hugs,

Becca

Meersburg and Affenberg

As the weather decided to stay lovely for another day we decided to take the opportunity and go on a day trip. When my mum and dad visited us a few years back we took them to Meersburg, a small old town on the German side of Lake Constance and looked around the old castle and walked up and down the quaint old streets. Well my mum decided she wanted to visit it again (she remembers not being very well that day and the trip is rather blurry in her memory) so off we went. We drove the 40 minutes to Constance and took the ferry over to Meersburg. The journey across the water only takes 15 minutes and you can either stay in your cars or get out and enjoy the view.

The name of the town means "Burg on the Lake", the former referring to the castle which, according to a tradition from 1548, it was built here in 630 by the Merovingian king Dagobert I.

 

  

There are many hotels and restaurants considering the size of the town's populations of approx. 5600.

  A lot of the architecture in the town have the same step like roof features

Daniel, Mr. D and mum sitting on a wall with the lake behind them

 

Mum at the viewpoint on to the lake 

 A part of the old castle

We had lunch at a hotel restaurant called Hotel Bengel which we thought was appropriate as "Bengel" means "rascal" in German and Daniel was being a little rascal as he was losing his patience with us while we were trying to decide which restaurant to eat at :)

Look at the signs behind my mum's head "Today's Fine Food" and "Open" - what country are we in again? Germany? So funny!

 Mum and myself after lunch

 

After lunch we made our way to Salem, a 15 minute car drive away from Meersburg to visit Affenberg, a monkey sanctuary.

More than 200 Barbary Macaques live freely within a forest area of 20 hectares. A footpath guides the visitors through the monkeys' home range where you meet the animals from eye to eye, without any physical barriers. Specially prepared popcorn is distributed free and can be fed to the monkeys. This concept not only provides  fascinating contact with the monkeys, but also offers excellent conditions for observing, photographing and filming. Furthermore the park has proved to be an ideal field for behavioural studies and it also contributes to the conservation of the endangered Barbary Macaques. Entire groups have been reintroduced to their native homelands in North Africa.

We really enjoyed ourselves in Affenberg. We fed them and interacted with them at close quarters. We got to see the keepers feed them fruit and veg and then gave us a 15 minute "view" into their lives. He explained that the 200 monkeys are separated into three groups and live quite separate lives. He told us about his group of 80, showed us who the matriarch and patriarch of this group were and how that all works. There were some really cute babies! It was very interesting and well well worth the visit.

After Affenberg we went to Friedrichshafen quickly to do a bit of grocery shopping as the Euro is so low and makes it worthwhile for us to buy across the border. After that we drove back to Meersburg to take the 5.50pm ferry back to Constance. The weather for the day had been superb and had been cloudless up until about 5 pm. What a day!

 Constance

Well that was our Monday. We're off to Austria on Wednesday so we'll see you here on Thursday.....

Hugs,
Becca

Enjoy the sun while it lasts!

Conference weekend is always a highlight of my year; I just love it! I love the inspirational talks that motivate me to improve myself and nudge me to do better and as President Hinckley once put it to try "to stand a little taller". This weekend was no different and I have a mental list of things that I want to work on.
My mum is visiting us at the moment and we both went to the Relief Society meeting on Saturday afternoon and watched the first half of Saturday morning's session (live) at the chapel before our backs started complaining. So we went home and I watched the second half on the internet. I really enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk about choosing the better part and that sometimes slower is quicker.

On Sunday morning while the boys were at Priesthood, Mum and I went to visit a friend of mine in hospital and then after lunch we took a ride to the lake and walked from Goldach to Rorschach and back. The weather was superb and the people were out in droves taking advantage of the warm autumn weather before the cold and fog set in.

 

It was cool to see this old steam train pull into the station. We were lucky to see it last time we walked along the lake but I didn't have my camera with me then. This time I did!!

Here's to more sun-filled days.......

Becca x