Cassidy's Birthday

We celebrated Cassidy's birthday in Garmisch, Germany. We gave her the choice; we could spend money on a birthday party at home with her friends, or go spend a weekend in Garmisch. She had heard her friends talk about Garmisch and some of the activities there. So she opted for camping with the family.

We stayed in the Rustic Cabins. They were small cabins without running water. The bathrooms and showers were close by. The cabin had a living/dining room with a small fridge, TV and DVD player. In the bedroom there was a bunk bed and a double bed. Then above the bedroom was a loft with two mattresses. The first night the kids slept in the bunk beds. Thomas and Cassidy really wanted to sleep in the loft, but we weren't sure about Thomas getting down in the middle of the night. The second night they were really happy because we let them sleep up there. Thomas had gone up and down all day, so we thought it would be safe enough. But for an extra precaution Stewart put up a chair in front of the opening. Thinking that if Thomas wanted down, he would wake us up making lots of noise.

It rained a most of the time while we were there, but we were able to have fun. We played around camp. We played at the playground and found some basketballs to play with. We went swimming in the pool, quite a few times. This is the real reason Cassidy wanted to come, she knew they had a swimming pool.
We drove down on Friday after school. The few days before we came I was working and even worked Friday morning. So I told Cassidy it was going to be hard to go shopping for her birthday presents. I let her know that since we will be back home on her real Birthday, we would just have to eat the cake and open presents then. I also didn't let her know she had already received packages and cards in the mail. So Saturday after lunch, the kids were finishing up eating outside and playing in the rain. Stewart and I set the presents out and lit the candles on the cupcakes. (Cupcakes I made at midnight Thursday night after substitute teaching all day, and having to get up and work the next day too.) The picture below is Cassidy being surprised, and happy we tricked her. The boys were surprised too. We couldn't tell them about the birthday surprise because they can't keep secrets.

We had gone shopping earlier in the day and bought Cassidy a swim suit for the pool. She had outgrown last year's, surprise, surprise!! Well I am glad we opened her presents before we went to the pool, because Grandma Beaty had sent her one for her birthday. So after eating messy chocolate cupcakes, we washed it all off in the pool.




















We visited the the Olympic Ski Jump area. The IV Winter Olympics were held here in 1936. The Olympic Ice Stadium was built in Garmisch and the Ski Stadium was built in Partenkirchen Both stadiums are still in use, and very little has changed since 1936. We walked around and we took a hike along the Partnach River. We ate our picnic lunch and headed back for some swimming.






















We took a ride down the alpine slide. Cassidy had a great time, she loves roller coasters and anything that goes fast. Thomas didn't want to come with me, so I went solo. I thought I was going fast, but as you can see at the finish, the sled behind me caught up to me. So I am not a speed demon. I guess Cassidy gets that from Stewart.
















Garmisch is nestled at the bottom of Germany's tallest mountain the Zugspitze. So we had a beautiful view every way we looked. We took the scenic route there and back. We drove through Austria and it was magnificent. It took about 3 hours to get there, so we thought we would give Cassidy a final birthday surprise. about 2 hours into our journey home, the kids were either sleeping, or falling asleep watching a video. Thomas randomly said he wanted to go to Legoland (he says that a lot). So about 5 minutes later we pulled into the Legoland parking lot. Cassidy couldn't believe it. We had about 1 1/2 hours before it closed, so we ran in rode on the roller coaster she had always wanted to go on, then watched a 4D movie and headed back home. Cassidy said it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. I have to agree.