The Hill Family

Way back in May, we took a trip to Croatia and Slovenia.  I realized that this happened months ago, but late is better than never.  This is actually the third attempt to take this trip and we finally made it happen.  The first attempt was last year.  Simon's uncle was a mission president for our church in the region.  We had plans to head down while we were already visiting Austria.  Our sweet little Auburn because ill, and was in the hospital, so we didn't make it.  Last fall, we had the trip completely planned out with reservations and then the tickets prices to Indonesia (that we had been watching for over a year) dropped.  So we canceled the trip, without any charges - how awesome is that?  This year we finally managed to get this trip to work out and everyone was healthy. We were sad that we missed Uncle Dave and Aunt Dana, but we will have meet up in the states.   This is an area that we really had no plans to see when we moved ...

Auburn started a ballet class a few weeks ago.  She is so excited about it.  Thanks to Grandma for sending the sweet leotard/tutu and shoes.  Auburn puts on her ballet outfit multiple times a day and dances around the house.  The class is out for a two month summer break, but we will start again in September.  The class is actually in German, but the teacher is British so she can help Auburn with some English.  Auburn follows really well and comes home from class using some German from the class! practicing her courtesy  lots and lots of twirling

A few weekends ago we played tourist in our own city.  There was a holiday celebrating some Catholic holiday here in Bavaria and Simon had a Thursday off.  We headed to the Munich Residenz.  The Residenz is the former palace of the Bavaria rulers up until 1918.  A lot of the palace was destroyed due to WWII, but it was reconstructed. Simon and I at the Hall of Antiquities Conley  The jewels at the Residenz's treasury.  This was Auburn's favorite tiara. Cuvillies Theatre The next morning Simon had to go back to work.  When I checked my email first thing in the morning I found a little from Simon.  He had booked a room for us at Schliersee for the weekend.  It is the same apartments that we got to for Christmas.  He put in a request at work 8 months ago and never told me.  It was a wonderful surprise.  I packed quickly and we took a train out that afternoon. Here we are on the row boat o...

From Guilin we boarded our last overnight train to Guangzhou.  We only spent one night there before heading to Hong Kong.  Guangzhou isn't a huge tourist destination, but it broke up the trip and there was a soccer game that evening.   Guangxiao Temple Temple of the Six Banyan Trees We watched Guang Evergrande play a team from Japan.  We were rewarded with four goals. This picture has nothing to do with either of these cities.  It was actually taken in Beijing, but I just realized I didn't post any food pictures.  We essentially ate rice and noodles.  Lucky for us, our kids really like rice and noodles.  Despite the look on Conley's face was really excited to dig in.   After Guangzhou we headed to Hong Kong.  It was only a two hour train ride.  Simon's sickness returned.  We spent the first afternoon at some museums taking it really slow.  I brought dinner back and the kids were happy that...