Week 9 - Bouillon Castle

On Monday it was President's Day, so we didn't have to do school.  But we decided to get ahead so that we could take a break on Thursday to go to a castle.  After school we went to a park with the Gilstrap's.  There was a huge metal slide.  Ashton went down and loved it.  The next time he went down face first.  He was going too fast and hit his head then came shooting out and crashed.  He was not a happy boy.  My mom got it on film.  You can find the video in the link for all of the pictures below.

We played soccer with the Gilstrap's in a sand field.  Ashton was our scorekeeper.  After soccer we had dinner with the Gilstrap's.

Our online school is getting better.  Jacob and Spencer can finish in 4 hours and I can finish in about 5-6 hours.

On Thursday since we got ahead in school on Monday, we went to Bouillon Belgium and saw a castle.  My mom was brave and she drove one hour to Belgium!  We stopped at IKEA to meet up with the Gilstrap's.  While we were waiting we went inside IKEA to get some ice cream.  We paid for the cone and went over to the ice cream machine.  You put the cone in and press a button and it fills up with ice cream.  Ashton wanted to press the button for everybody.  Ashton pressed the button before Jacob put his cone in.  Quick thinking Ashton stuck his hand in and gathered all of the ice cream.  He told us that he didn't want the ice cream to get all over the machine.  Smart Ashton!  It was a funny sight to see Ashton with a handful of ice cream in his hand.  You can find the video in the link for all of the pictures below.

The Bouillon castle was very cool!  It was a fortress, so it was different than any other castle we have seen.  The castle was where the military stayed.  There were tunnels and passageways all throughout the castle.

In the castle we also saw the torture chambers and prisons.

It was a very cool castle and we loved exploring all around it.

Ashton had the week off because of a holiday.  He told my mom that he likes school because he has something to do.  It was a hard week for him because we kept shushing him because we were at school.  He doesn't like to be shushed.  He created a little house under the stairs where he likes to go.  Ashton watched movies in his little house, counted his euros, spied on the neighbors, and drew lots of pictures.

This week Ashton said some pretty funny things.  On the way to church he was talking about cigarettes.  He has noticed that Europeans like to smoke.  He kept asking questions about what a cigarette was.  My dad said, "It is tobacco."  Ashton said, "What is tobacco?"  My dad said, "It is a weed that people smoke."  Ashton said, "Why would anybody want to smoke a weed?"  Then he asked, "Why do houses smoke?"  My dad told him, " Oh, it isn't the same as people smoking.  The smoke comes out of the house because the house is heating up."  We all had a good laugh.  On the way home from church Ashton told us, "I don't want to make friends here in Luxembourg because then I will have to leave them again and that is too much pain for me!"  We are still trying to convince him to learn French, eat food, and make friends.

Click here to see all of the pictures for this week.

-Emilee