Week 154: The Gilcrest’s are Here!

We got off to a tired start this week after Brooklyn and I returned from the UK last Sunday night. We made it through all of the regular afterschool clubs and sports, but still have no internet! We are going on 35 days now without it and its just insane since everyone who lives around us still has internet service. We are the only ones affected by this mysterious outage!

The weather is still acting wintry, we had snow and hail on both Tuesday and Wednesday, but by Saturday it would be in the high 70s. The weather and crazy pollen is wreaking havoc on all of us. Normally, Matt is only affected by seasonal allergies, but this year we are all suffering.

By Tuesday, we were slightly caught up on sleep and Matt and I played in a Parents vs. Players softball game. The coaches umpired the game. As we approached the end of the game, the Players were up by 20-something runs. The Parents then miraculously made a comeback (thanks to a few questionable calls from the umpires) and won the game, causing the team to need to run several miles at practice the next day.

On Wednesday night, we crossed another milestone when I took Ryan to High School Orientation. I can’t believe that I will have two high schoolers next year! Of course, Ryan allowed no pictures to be taken of him at the event. He spent a lot of the time just trying to avoid me and look cool for his friends- haha! It was a great presentation though. The whole night included an informational session, meeting all of the ninth grade teachers, and a tour of the school.

On Thursday, Matt’s dad, Matt Sr., and Cindy arrived! We picked them up from Stuttgart Airport and brought them home for a much needed nap after their long journey. The dogs absolutely freaked out to see them; they were jumping up and down and making these weird barking/whining noises. They have only ever acted like that when we have picked them up from a long kennel stay. Matt Sr. and Cindy said they could probably smell their dog on them, but I think they were just genuinely happy to see them.

After a long nap, they discovered that they had left their medications at home- oh no! We called our doctors office and they told us to come in the following morning with a list of what we needed and pictures of the prescriptions. Once we had procured those from their doctors back in the US, we took them to dinner at the Brauhaus in our town.

Friday morning, we were up bright and early to get them to the doctors office. They were in and out in just a couple of minutes and left with prescriptions in hand. The total doctors visit was about $25. The German medical system really does work well sometimes. They dropped the prescriptions at the pharmacy and while most were available, we were advised to return first thing in the morning for the rest. The prescriptions actually ended up being cheaper in Germany than in the US and we jokingly suggested they should have gotten a longer prescription and stocked up.

With the medical business behind us, we set off to see Brooklyn play softball. Because the school’s prom was Saturday, the softball games were moved to Friday. Luckily, it was my scheduled day off so all four of us made the three hour drive to Vilseck, in Bavaria for the games.

Both games were so fun to watch, at least for our team because they really ran up the score. The first game was 23-0 and the second game was 17-1. This brings Stuttgart’s record up to 10-2, with a 10 game winning streak. A reporter from the Stars & Stripes newspaper, a newspaper for military members, came out to write an article on the team’s recent success and to take pictures. The article came out later on Saturday and spoke very highly of the team and how they had the best chances in the division of beating Ramstein High in the European Championships. Ramstein has won the European title for something like 10 years in a row and is always the team to beat. The final article is here: https://www.stripes.com/sports/europe/2024-04-27/dodea-softball-stuttgart-vilseck-13674575.html

We drove back to Stuttgart after the games and had time for a quick pizza dinner at Da Gianni’s in our town before picking Brooklyn from the softball bus shortly before midnight.

On Saturday, it was Ryan’s turn to play. After two cancelled games, his team finally got their chance out on the field. It was an absolutely beautiful day: 75F and sunny! I actually had to borrow sunscreen from someone because I started to burn while watching the game. Sadly, Ryan’s team lost and Ryan took it really hard but he is looking forward to practicing more this week and playing again next weekend.

When everyone was finally home, we headed to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Corners in Sindelfingen, for burgers. It was a gorgeous night out on the square and the weather was so nice, the accordion player even came out for a bit.

Sunday, we decided to take Pop Pop and Cindy out for a day in the Black Forest. We drove to Bad Wildbad and took the cogwheel train up Sommerberg mountain. It really is a great place to take visitors since it is so close and has so much to see and do.

At the top, we stopped for some snacks of pork neck sandwiches and langos, and then went to the Treetop Walk. We walked the whole boardwalk and then climbed the Black Forest Tower to take in the views across the Black Forest. We ended the visit there with a slide down the giant slide to the bottom.

After the slide, the kids asked to go play on the playground. We almost said no, but we are very cognizant that the days of them asking to play on playgrounds are very short so we paid the entrance fee for them and let them go wild. The adults decided to grab an ice cream and take a break. Unfortunately, Cindy tripped on a tree root and stumbled. Luckily, it was not a hard fall and she was able to save her ice cream! She did catch herself with her wrist though so we decided to keep an eye on it.

When the kids were done playing, we took the cogwheel train back down the mountain and came home for dinner at the house. By that time, Cindy’s arm was starting to swell so as a precaution, the Matt’s took her to the emergency room. They X-rayed the arm and thank goodness there was no break, but she did bruise the cartilage and was given a brace to wear. Matt Sr. and Cindy are really testing out the German medical system while here and are luckily, finding its quite efficient!