Moran Family Fun

When we were planning our trip to Berlin Jared and I asked the kids what they would like to see or do on our vacation.  They all said the same thing - go to Tropical Islands.  Tropical Islands is a huge indoor water park near Berlin.  And when I say huge, I really mean it, the dome was originally built to be an airplane hangar for the Soviet military and is large enough to house eight soccer fields and is taller than the Statue of Liberty.  In fact, it holds a record for being the world's largest single hall without supporting pillars inside.  Inside the dome, where the temperature is always set to 80 degrees, there are swimming pools, restaurants, campsites and cabins, water slides, stores, a spa and sauna, an indoor rain forest, and over 6,000 lounge chairs. Anyway, our visit to Tropical Islands was much anticipated and lots of fun.  There's not much to tell really - we swam, played in the sand, enjoyed the warmth, and had fun on the water slide...

Day two in Berlin was the big day.  We were going to see all the sights and check the must see items off our list.  Instead of trying to navigate our way through the city ourselves we decided to take a walking tour with an actual tour guide.  We still looked like tourists, but at least we weren't constantly checking our map to find each sight and then our Rick Steve's book to find out exactly what is was we were looking at and why we should care.  Instead we followed our friendly guide around as we made our way from place to place.   The tour started at Pariser Platz in front of the Brandenburg Gate.  While we were waiting for the tour to get going we had some time to take a few pictures.  Don't you love the striped car in the background? These two guys in uniform would take their picture with you for just three euro.  The only reason we even took this picture was to break up a fight.  There was some crazy guy yelling at them ...

We never go anywhere - that's what we hear from our girls.  Their statement is pretty true, especially when  compared to many of their friend's families.  One benefit of living in Europe is the opportunity to travel and while we've gone and seen lots of really interesting things and traveled to many places, traveling isn't a huge part of our lives.  Compared to the people we know who go somewhere every three day weekend (or so it seems to our kids) we really do never go anywhere.  It's tricky when half the kids are in American schools and the other half are in German ones because their school breaks rarely line up.   This Spring Break the planets aligned perfectly and we were actually able to go somewhere.  We finally settled on Berlin after going back and forth between London, Prague, and Berlin.  London and Prague will just have to wait until another time.   The first day of Spring Break we loaded up the car and set off. ...

What's your favorite thing about birthdays?  Cake, balloons, presents, getting older?  Maybe it's a bit of everything, but presents are definitely a lot of fun.  I love the mystery of not knowing what they are and unwrapping them to see what's inside.  I learned how much Jared loves presents a few years ago when I took a class on the five love languages.  There are two things that make Jared feel loved: touch (no surprise there!) and receiving gifts.  Unfortunately for Jared, I stink at giving gifts.  I had determined that this year would be different and this would be Jared's best birthday yet. I started buying things that I thought he'd like and then hid them well because Jared is a big snoop.  The night before his birthday I got out all the wrapping supplies and got to work.  On the morning of his birthday, Jared woke up to presents waiting for him on the dining room table along with a little note.   Each present had a diff...