The Professor and Mary Ann

Jeff and Saydi invited us up to Bear Lake to see them after their adventurous six months in London. We met up with them in Park City to caravan and we switched around people until we had two cars: McShums and Waylanders. Everyone behaved so nicely on the trip up -- makes me wish we could always sprinkle in a few cousins on car rides! When we arrived, as we were unpacking things and stowing food, Rob helped Emmeline conquer the spiral staircase. It is steep and metal and I thought that she would be stuck on the first floor for the duration, but she got all the way up, and Rob put one Jelly Belly on each step which was enough to motivate her back down. She had no problem with it the rest of the weekend!  That Bear Lake is almost unreal. It is clear, has a sandy bottom, incredible colors, and while we were there it was 71 degrees. In the water! Essentially a giant inflatable pool.  Maddie got to try out the new paddle board. She'd just learned how a couple of days before...

For anyone who didn't get a hard copy, this is what we sent out this year (with a bonus picture for my blog readers!): Greetings from the McFarlands! We hope this letter finds you all well and ready for a long winter’s nap. We’ve had a full year of fun and adventures, visiting Goblin Valley and Capitol Reef over spring break, leading a study abroad to Berlin and Tübingen over the summer, and jaunting out to California to see Mary Ann’s brother John marry Clarissa Lyons over Labor Day. We’re happily settling in for the holidays here, with plans of sitting by the fire and not much else. Here is what we have been doing: Maddie (13) is in her second year attending an accelerated program at the high school here. She says “Just because I’m a nerd doesn’t mean I have no social life!” She lives, eats, drinks and breathes ballroom dance. She has found her niche on the swim team, doing distance freestyle events and is close to making a state cut. She still loves Shakespeare, and got to s...

Over Labor Day weekend we had a whirlwind trip out to Berkeley for John and Clarissa's wedding. It was held at the Berkeley City Club, another beautiful Julia Morgan building. It was an intimate, personal ceremony and we were glad we got to be there to see it. Aside from that, we played hard, we ate well, and we fell apart before the dancing began! Here is more of the occasion in pictures: bride and groom with nieces and nephews reading an e.e. cummings poem during the ceremony Shumway siblings McFarlands were here oooh! nice eyebrow! Joss banged it into the door of the rental car that afternoon and it would not stop bleeding. the cousins snuck off for some pictures in the courtyard flower girls dance with the bride parents of the groom give a toast during Clarissa's mother Barbara's toast Sebastian talking to Grandpa Each table was themed with a spot from Manhattan Milkshakes used for toasts (John's friend Will said the next morning: "So it really is true -- yo...

Our Itinerary: Stuttgart to Atlanta and Atlanta to Salt Lake. It was a good schedule, flying out at 11:00am and getting in at 9:00pm on the same day (flying back across 8 time zones too, so about 23 hours of travel door to door). German taxi driver: A+. cheerful, knowledgeable, efficient and with candy for the kids Stuttgart airport: C-. inefficient, poorly-designed, and not very helpful; had to show our passports 5 times in 5 different places. took 1 1/2 hours to process us from curb to gate. ugh. Delta: B-. The flight attendants all looked "rid hard & put away wet" and the bare bones service just can't keep up with their [government subsidized] European counterparts with their dewy-skinned attendants, steaming towels, toys for the kids, and gourmet meals instead of astronaut food served in foil pouches. They got us there and did it on time, but it feels more and more like riding on a bus with a lot of rules. German Family With Four Kids Who Sat Next To Us On The...

On our last day in Tübingen, we decided to go on a stocherkahn up the Neckar. The seats are made by these three boards -- one across and two on the sides. Just what the professor needed. University students hanging out Maddie tried out the stocherkahn So did Sebastian, but it's a pretty high stakes game with the river so full of boats. Joss wanted to stick his fingers in the water and "make bubbles". Our great guide Felix. He gave us the wine, women, and Hölderlin tour of Tübingen. Goodbye Tübingen!

The kids went back to their day camp on Monday and Rob, Joss and I headed up to Schwäbisch Hall for another meeting with an internship provider. My mom has liked doors since she first came to Europe, and we've followed her lead and taken a lot of pictures of doors. I think this one is the Door With The Mostest 2011. This is where Rob stayed when he came in 2005. He said you could drop a ball at one end of the room and it would roll to the other, it was so off kilter. As I recall, I had three kids in Vienna while he was away visiting his interns. I bought myself a great pair of shoes as payment. This is where they have summer performances. Rob got to see one while he was here in 2005, but I am just imagining actors falling down the stairs in mid-dance. Original Bratz dolls? Who knew? I have heard that when Rob's mother came to pick him up, she had only one german word under her belt: niedlich , which means cute. She could have gotten pretty far here on niedlich . It was all ni...