Kotor, Montenegro

Kotor, Montenegro  (Black Mountain) is found after going through fjords.  The approach to the small city is beautiful.  It was weird to think to myself, I'm just hanging out in Montenegro.  Think I'll go for a hike.  We really liked the small part of Montenegro that we were able to see. 

 

Going through the fjords



Davis researched the city for us and informed us that the MUST DO in Kotor would be to climb the 1000 stairs up the mountain to St. Ivan's Fortress.  I'm sure it was a must do, but it was also 100 degrees in the afternoon and all I could see while looking up at the mountain were the tight switch backs that looked like a large zipper on the mountain.  We also had the not-so-small issue of 5 children to get up the mountain.  I knew that the boys were part goat and wouldn't have any issues, but that little girl wants to be carried or pushed through every city we go to.  The mountain wasn't stroller friendly and there was NO way I would be able to carry her.  I was wondering who was going to carry me.  Darin dug deep and found his creative bone and turned a borrowed bed sheet into a sling that would carry 30 pounds up a steep mountain. 

 

From the backside.
  Every time I thought that I was too tired and hot to make it, I just looked at Darin trekking along with sweat dripping from everywhere.  Anya also had sweat dripping from everywhere.

Finally!   

We all look hot and tired.  We only had 2 bottles of water and 2 packs of Mentos.  It didn't last long.  The only reason that the water lasted was that I was carrying it and I was the last one up.  The kids were much faster and then had to wait until the top to get a drink.

Checking out the Fortress at the top.

Clearly 'glowing' with backpack sweat marks.  I only post this picture to show that I actually made it to the top.

Looking down at the Bay of Kotor

Heading down was much faster and easier on all of us.  Anya even decided to take a little nap.

Switchbacks!

Christian said that he counted only 998 stairs, but he may have been off by 2. 



 

Looking down on the kids.

 

Still sleeping and now it is my turn to carry her.

 

Looking at the city walls from the way down the mountain.



 

She takes the opportunity to splash in EVERY puddle of water she ever finds.

 

City Walls

In front of the Communist gate

Christian spends a fair amount of our vacations being Anya's horse.

 

Davis' Ambitious Summer List

Whenever I see Davis on YouTube I know that there is something in the works.  He made a summer list of things to accomplish.   You can teach yourself anything while watching YouTube. He is grand in his thinking for this summer and has spent many hours annoyingly learning to annoy us more than ever.

His list includes things like:

*Learn to whistle really loud. [not too successful]

*Learn to make 3 different bird calls using only hands. [way too successful]

*Play Amazing Grace on the harmonica. [actually not as bad as it sounds]

*Juggle [still on the list]

*Learn to make music with a plastic cup.  I know that he calls it something, but really it is just a lot of clapping, banging, tapping, and flipping of a plastic cup for at least 10 minutes at a time.  [passing fad?]

*Throw a playing card hard enough to stick into a potato [marked up the potato, and at least one brother]

He has also done the following with his summer:

*Read at least 14,000 pages!  (This is not a joke, I totally gave it a good estimation.)

*Spent a week at International EFY near Ulm,Germany.  He even went to his first dance and danced with girls!  from Iceland, Romania, Maldova, and our ward. [There were kids from all over Germany and Eastern Europe.  Even one from Afghanistan.]

*Scout camp for a week in Bavaria.

He has managed to :

*Avoid doing his chores until lunchtime.

*Master various games on the Wii.

*Babysit Anya while playing computer games.

*Re-watch all of the Harry Potter movies.

*Lazily lay around the house.

I think this kid is ready to start High School!  What more could a kid cram into one summer?  I don't think I want to find out.

 EFY

Argostoli, Greece- Perfect Beach Day

Now THIS was the Greece I was looking for.  We took taxis' to the best beach in the area and we were thrilled with what we found.  Clear, blue water, sand, beach chair, sun-what more is there?  Nice cold drink with ice maybe, but ice doesn't exist in Europe so really nothing more could have made me happier.  This was the day that the kids loved the most on our vacation.

 

Look!  My skin is the color of the sand. 
I must be living in Germany where the sun usually hides behind the rain clouds.

 

 

 

Overlooking the beach umbrellas.

 

Leslie and I found our yellow chairs and plopped ourselves happily down for the day.  We got there early enough that we beat any crowds that would come later and got our pick of chairs.

 

My family in Greece.  Wouldn't be a family picture if Davis wasn't making a dumb face.

 

Leslie and Mia

 

Jag showing off his muscles.

 

All kids instantly went into the water.  It was actually much colder than I would have liked.  I am kind of picky about my water temps and this was too cold for me, but the kids didn't even notice.

 

Christian would beach himself in the sand and then wait for the waves to take him out.

 

 

Cousins!  These 3 loved playing together. 

 Jag said that our trip was made much better by being with family.

 

 

 

 

Noah spent a large chunk of his time doing this over and over again. 

Roll in the sand then run and swim in the water.  We were cleaning sand out of everything for a long time.

He said that he was making strumpfhosen (boy tights that the Germans wear all winter long with or without pants over the top) and laughing.  He hates the things and never would wear them. 

 

Darin throwing me into the water!  OK maybe he was just saving me from the wave that was trying to knock me over.  I was clinging to him like a cat in the water.  It does look like he was about to toss me.

 

 

Check this off my bucket list.  Hubby and Greece.



 

Leslie enjoying the beach and her book.

 

What was I thinking?  Sand, wind, hair, dum dum sucker.

 

Anya and her daddy.

 

TOES! 

I have a confession, I hate toe pictures.  I hate it when people post pictures of their ugly feet enjoying the sun and the sand.  I always look at the pictures and think, "Really?  You want everyone to see those toes?"  Then I'd think to myself, "At least my toes all line up right.  I could show my toe pictures."  Well I was wrong about a few things.  Toes just really want to be photographed when they are at a beach!  You almost can't help yourself...see I did.  Second, toe pictures never look good.  Look at mine, I kind of look like I'm sporting "cankles" here and my feet aren't pretty even if the toes line up.  Now I get the toe pictures...you just can't help it despite the fact that feet aren't pretty.

 

Sorry if I secretly judged your toes.

 

 

Speaking of feet, I once had this biker dude follow me around a grocery store (scared me to death) finally to stop me and tell me what beautiful feet I had.  True story.