Luke & Melissa

Plants, trees, and flowers

2011-05-22T04:49:00.002+02:00

Prison Puppies

2011-05-22T04:41:00.003+02:00

Oh the joys of having a pool gate!

Dogs

2011-05-22T04:32:00.003+02:00

The dogs LOVE the pool. Well Duke loves the pool, Rudy loves being outside and Harley loves chewing on rocks!

Getting Settled

2011-05-22T04:08:00.003+02:00

We have been in our new house nearly two months now. Progress has been slow, but it's getting there! Mainly waiting on contractor availability. We are loving our yard (especially the pool)! There is always more to do, we are realizing how easy we had it buying a brand new house in Colorado! We have gotten the gas grill working, which is awesome! Luke has patched the patio roof, the whole exterior of the house was painted this past week. We pulled out most of the bushes in the backyard because they shed into the pool. We have replaced them with cacti. A little bit concerning if there are kids around but Luke believes that they will only have to touch them once :-) A little evil, although that philosophy doesn't apply to dogs, as Duke has stepped on, sniffed, ran through them a few times without noticing. Question is, is it because he is a dog or a blonde? Rudy and Harley tend to avoid the cacti...interesting.

Pictures of the exterior will show up when I decide to go take some pictures of the paint job.

Arizona....here we come!

2011-01-10T16:06:00.004+01:00

So Luke has accepted a job with the VA in Phoenix, Arizona. So after only a year and a half in Colorado we are packing up the house, selling the house, and moving again!!! Not thrilled, but it is what it is!

2010 Motorcycle Trip

2010-11-26T02:28:00.006+01:00

California

Oregon

Washington

Idaho

Montana

Wyoming

Luke's Homecoming

2010-11-26T02:06:00.003+01:00

Well these photos are really old, they are from when Luke got home from his deployment in August.

And a video from when the dogs greeted him. In one of the above pics, Rudy was sitting at the door waiting before I left to the airport to get Luke.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T01:27:00.002+01:00

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving here in Colorado Springs. It was just Luke, Kelsey, and myself and lots and lots of food! My only wish would be that we had some snow to make it feel like winter, instead of these sunny, cold days!

I think that what I am most thankful for is opportunities. The opportunity to spend lots of time with family and friends. The opportunity to travel and live in comfort although many others aren't. The opportunity to pursue all my crazy ideas without Luke going insane!!

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Pictures

2010-03-22T03:03:00.005+01:00

Well I haven't posted in awhile obviously. With everything going on there really isn't much to post about. These are some airport pictures I had from January and some with the dogs.

For Valentine's Day, Luke had sent me these beautiful flowers!

One thing Duke loves about being in Nevada is being able to go and swim at the spring with my parents Labs!

Christmas Pictures

2010-02-08T23:29:00.003+01:00

We spent Christmas in California with Luke's family. Here are some pictures from our time there. I especially love the one with Luke and Duke on the couch!

2010-01-04T01:16:00.000+01:00

Update coming soon!!! Things have been busy but I anticipate more time in the future so I will catch the blog up!

Snow!!

2009-12-16T18:24:00.001+01:00

Before Thanksgiving we got our first big snowstorm, it dropped enough snow that we actually had to go and buy a snow shovel! There has been another storm since then but it was too cold to go and take pictures.

A Christmas Carol in Denver

2009-12-16T18:19:00.003+01:00

Two Sundays ago Luke and I went to Denver for the day, one of my early Christmas presents. We picked Kelsey up and did some wandering (getting lost) in downtown Denver then had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We took Kelsey home, then we went and saw A Christmas Carol at the Denver Theater of Performing Arts. It was so much fun, although i did take my camera I didn't take any pictures because it was too cold!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-16T17:51:00.003+01:00

For Thanksgiving my parents and Kelsey were here. We went to the Denver Broncos game on Thanksgiving and then just did Thanksgiving on Friday.

The Evolution of a Box

2009-11-29T18:21:00.003+01:00

So I sent Kyle a Christmas box. But the box looked boring.

I had seen pictures of boxes people decorate to send to deployed troops that are themed around holidays so I decided to give it a shot!

Update

2009-10-27T20:35:00.005+01:00

Nothing much has been going on here. The weather can't decide if it wants to be winter or not. We had snow last week and it is supposed to snow the next few days. We haven't gone anywhere since we came back from Reno.

We just got a new kitchen table delivered today. So we won't be eating on the floor for Thanksgiving :-) Rudy insisted in being in one photo. He was not moving for anything!

We got a new exercise bike so we won't have to go walking in the snow, we can exercise from the warmth of our own home!

We got the grass put in last month. The dogs are loving it although they don't get to spend much time on it.

Street Vibrations- Reno

2009-10-05T22:13:00.006+02:00

We just got back last week from Reno where we met my family and Luke's family to hang out at Street Vibrations, the yearly motorcycle rally. It was fun we got to see family and hang out and relax for a bit. It was crazy how many motorcycles there were, especially on the runs.

On the way to Reno we stopped at the shoe tree in Nevada. This tree has been around forever, I remember stopping at it when I was little. Luke had never seen it before, so it was cool to show him.

On Saturday we went to Virginia City with my parents and Jeff. It was so crowded, it took forever just to drive through.

Wednesday we went out to Aunt Cyndees and had a barbeque with my family and relatives we hadn't seen in awhile. We had homemade peach pie and everything!

All the bikes in the parking lot!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-07T18:36:00.005+02:00

This weekend was a four day weekend for Luke, so we got a lot of riding in. Friday we went out on 24 and went through Woodland Park. We headed north and ended up getting lost (my fault), I choose a wrong road and we ended up on a dirt road for about 15 miles! Luke didn't want to turn around because we had already driven an hour before we got to the dirt road. So we went along the road and eventually for to 285 which took us into Denver. We stopped for lunch at this great pub type place in Castle Rock, not sure if I would call it lunch though since it was at 3pm! We headed back down to the Springs and ended up spending about 8 hours out and about.

Here are some pics of when we hit the dirt road and were trying to figure out what to do.

Saturday we hung out at home, did shopping. Luke went and got a new helmet and ordered some highway pegs, so hopefully he will have a more enjoyable ride to Street Vibrations!

Sunday we got up early and went to the Balloon Classic at Memorial Park. It was pretty neat to be on the launch field with the balloons going up around us. We hadn't been to Memorial Park yet, it is pretty nice, lots of green spaces and a lake, although the town around it isn't the greatest.

After the balloons we went to breakfast and then headed out to Palmer Lake for a farmers market there. We hadn't been out there yet, it was really pretty although the farmers market was only like four booths. We did get some fresh corn and some jam.

Today Luke took the bike out for a longer trip, not sure exactly were he is going, but hopefully he will bring some pics back from wherever he goes.

Luke's New Toy

2009-09-02T15:52:00.005+02:00

So for those who don't know yet, Luke got a new toy recently.

It's a 2009 Harley Road King Classic. He is loving it and rides it to work whenever he can. I have been on it a few times, not my favorite thing but I am getting used to it.

This past weekend Tom was here on his bike, so we went down south to the Royal Gorge Bridge on the bikes.

Luke also got the chance to ride his dad's bike around the block a few times.

Kyle's Farewell

2009-08-15T19:12:00.001+02:00

The end of July I went to Pioche for a few days to spend some time with my brother before he left for Albania for two years.

Here are a few pictures after church the Sunday before he left. He spoke at church so we all went.

These are pics from Provo, at the MTC before we dropped him off

Finished Yard

2009-07-15T16:26:00.001+02:00

Our yard is finally finished. The patio is sealed. We have the dog run put in. When Tom was here this weekend putting in the A/C we put in a doggie door and a fence in the garage so the dogs can come inside. The dogs are a bit spoiled since they have their own couch in the garage!

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-11T21:43:00.003+02:00

We were lucky on the fourth we got a few hours of hiking in before it started pouring rain. We took the dogs up to Garden of the Gods. It was beautiful there but much more touristy then Palmer Park.

We got home and we were going to BBQ but since it was raining we got Smashburgers instead. I did make my fourth of July cake to be a little festive, it was really good too!

Landscaping

2009-07-08T15:48:00.004+02:00

They are almost done with our landscaping. Today they are putting up the dog run, putting capstones on our retaining wall and staining the patio. So everything will be done but the grass which is going to go in the only open dirt space in September when we get our sod permit.

Landscape Post 3

2009-07-04T17:01:00.003+02:00

Yesterday they came and did all of the edging for our berms and for were the grass will be installed! We also went and bought the perennials we are putting in and some cute planters for the front of the house so at least it looks like someone lives here now!

Landscaping Post 2

2009-07-03T20:13:00.002+02:00

Here are the pictures with the concrete poured.

Landscaping Post 1

2009-07-03T16:49:00.002+02:00

The landscapers came this week to put in out patio, walkway, steps and dog run. Here are some pictures of the edging they did the first day.

Around the house

2009-06-24T16:27:00.004+02:00

Here are some pictures from around the house, as many people have asked for.

Some of the dogs at the house and just random pictures taken.

Pictures from moving day! Pretty much everything is put away except for the room with all the boxes, which is my office/junk room. All of the boxes pretty much got dumped in there!

Here are some pictures from the stuff that we have started putting away. We finally got out blinds up but I think I took these pictures before they were put up.

Hiking in Palmer Park

2009-06-24T16:21:00.002+02:00

This weekend we went up to Palmer Park. It is a huge park, but not really the types of park we are used to. We think of parks as areas with lots of grass, Colorado thinks of parks as places with hiking trails and picnic tables, although there are a few softball fields so it does have grass! It was really nice to be hiking and everything smelt like pine. The views from the hike were great too! We didn't take the dogs because we weren't sure how busy it would be but next time they will definitely come with us.

Final Germany pictures

2009-06-11T23:31:00.008+02:00

Fienchen meets the cows

One Final Bike Ride

Getting the house ready

Walking to Ubach-Palenburg with Marita and Christian

Cute Cattle

Germany Sunset

Random pictures from our walks around Gillrath

The mustard fields! I love how yellow they look when they bloom, just fields and fields of pure yellow.

Gillrath- the town we stayed at before we left...also the location of the infamous Il Genios!

Il Genios- Our favorite pizza place ever! No pizza comes close here although Papa Murphys Chicken garlic pizza comes pretty dang close!

Graduation Day

2009-06-11T23:23:00.002+02:00

May 9, 2009

Before we left Germany I had my graduation! We left for Heidelberg at 4:30 a.m. graduation day, leaving Geilenkirchen behind for good. We arrived around nine and got signed in. Neither of us had been to the base in Heidelberg before so we wandered around the base for a good hour...and let me tell you walking an hour in heels is not the smartest idea!! I wish that I knew that I would be standing two hours prior to the ceremony just waiting for people to get lined up then maybe I would have rethought the long walk. The ceremony was really nice. The speakers kept things short and to the point. After the ceremony, Psi Chi, the honor society I am a member of had pictures with the university President then it was time to eat! WE had some food and headed to Frankfurt where we stayed the night at the Sheraton at the airport since our flight left the next morning.

Getting ready for graduation, nothing like getting dressed at the car!

Posing Pretty

Graduation Stage

Walking In

Getting the fake diploma

Psi Chi photo

As one door closes....

2009-05-30T16:58:00.000+02:00

As our time here comes to a close here is a list of the things that I will miss from Germany.

-The emu’s that live behind us
-Outings and walks with Marita & Christian
-Witnessing German traditions (Karneval, May day)
-Having bike paths and trails to walk on right in our backyard
-The goats, deer, emus and other assorted animals we pass walking around the neighborhood
-Our adventures with Marita & Christian
-Shopping and sushi with Elizabeth
-The small German touristy towns like Ahrweiler and Monschau
-Cobblestone pedestrian streets
-Boutique type stores
-Italian Eis in Heinsberg
-Il Genios
-Market days
-European clothes and style
-The ease of hopping a plane or train to anywhere in Europe
-Extra money we get from COLA
-Bike rides behind Haus Hamacher
-BBQ’ing
-How pretty it is when everything is in bloom
-Brotchen
-Riding through the strawberry fields when they are ripe
-Walking through the fields at dusk with Luke and the dogs.
-Sundays when everything is closed and you aren’t supposed to do any yard work, it is a day for relaxing and spending with friends and family.
-Once a week shopping trips to Schinnen.
-Getting hot chocolate at the Bookmark
-The mustard fields in the spring
-Taking classes with Professor Bill at GK
-cheap lunches at Cam Nguyen

Crazy Times

2009-05-25T16:40:00.001+02:00

I have some posts finished but they are on the laptop. Since we are currently STILL living in a hotel we only have one computer hooked up to the internet!! So once we get settled in our new house I will post everything. We are looking to close on our house Wednesday!! But out household goods aren't being delivered until June 5 :-( And internet is being set up June 6!

Kings, Queens and Strawberry Fields

2009-04-26T23:03:00.000+02:00

April 26, 2008-

Today we went with Marita and Christian to Laffeld for their king and queen celebration. Every year each town gets a king and queen that represent the town in parades. They have to dress in formal clothes and have parties, it is a really neat tradition that Germany has had for awhile. Marita and Christians friend and his girlfriend were king and queen. It was nice to see, there were marching bands from different towns and they go to the king and queens house and get them and then march them around the town.
After we went to Laffeld we figured we were already halfway to Heinsberg so we might as well go and get ice cream! So we rode there through all of the strawberry fields. Unfortunately they hadn’t started ripening yet so they didn’t smell great! Usually when they are ripe you ride through them and all you smell is strawberries. So we had some ice and then rode back home. It was such a perfect day for riding, it was warm but overcast so the sun wasn’t beating on us. It was sad because it was our last bike ride with Marita and Christian here in Germany. I will definitely miss being able to ride my bike anywhere I want. The movers come and get the rest of our stuff Tuesday and we move over to the hotel :-( Can’t believe it is two weeks from today....really sneaks up on you!

From around the town...

2009-04-15T14:16:00.006+02:00

Some scenery from our beautiful sunny days!

Can you see the rabbit?

What I see every time I look out towards the backyard.

Daily encounters.

I love Germany around this time of the year because everything is blooming and beautiful! I love this tree when it is blooming it is gorgeous!

Ahrweiler, Germany

2009-04-15T14:09:00.004+02:00

Saturday we went to Ahrweiler with Marita and Christian in our pursuit of wine. We have to get at least 100 bottles of wine if we want to ship it back to the states with us. So the past few weeks we have been buying wine like crazy. We are up to about 65 bottles so in Ahrweiler we finished buying our wine, topping out at 105 bottles! Ahrweiler was beautiful, places like this make me sad to leave Germany. We left in the morning and had lunch in Ahrweiler and walked around town and along the river. In the afternoon we did some wine tasting and bought a bunch of wine (35 bottles!). It is nice when we go out with Marita and Christian because they can communicate with the locals :-) We will miss them the most when we leave! Here are some pictures of Ahrweiler and one of Marita and Christians new puppy, Fienchen, she is a 4-5 month old Westie.

Moving Day....sort of

2009-04-15T14:03:00.002+02:00

March 23-24

The past two days the movers were here bright and early...8am! To start packing our stuff. Two guys packed the whole house, including wrapping and packing the big things, in two days! I don't think I could pack our whole house in two days. It was sad to see all of our stuff leaving...well Luke was sad, I was trying to be sad but failing miserably. I am excited to go back to the states, but I will miss some things about Germany, but not enough to make me sad to leave. So now all we have in our house is a table, coffee table, two chairs and a bed, all rental stuff from Schinnen. Having nothing in the house makes the house have an echo as everyone who calls us mentions :-P Here are some pictures from the moving process. Here's hoping all our stuff makes it to Colorado in one piece, especially my kitchen hutch i got in Tongeren!!

Dublin- Day Three

2009-03-12T20:50:00.003+01:00

Dublin
Day Three
March 11, 2009 (Wednesday)

We had to be up early today because we had a 10am tour scheduled. So I think we were up at like 7:30. Today we took the tour of the Northern Coast and Malahide castle. The tour guide wasn’t as interesting today, but the scenery was pretty. The castle wasn’t too big, it reminded me of Castle Hoensbroek in the Netherlands by our house. The grounds of the castle were huge though, lots of grass, the dogs would have loved it! We took a short tour of the castle. It was interesting, it was owned by the Talbot family for hundreds of years, the last heir and person who lived there had just died about three weeks ago. After the tour we stopped and had some fish and chips that were pretty good.
Then we went and looked at the Christ Church Cathedral. It was a nice church, nothing to special about it, i think if you have seen one church you have seen them all. Most look alike here, with the exception of the Mary Magdalene church in Rome, I loved that church it was gorgeous! After that we went and had pastries at Queen of Tarts since it was on the way back to the hotel. We stopped at the hotel and dropped off the backpacks that we took on the bus tour. Then we went to Trinity College to explore. I think in a bit we are going to get dinner at an Irish pub that is in the Frommers book, we saw it this afternoon, it looks cool. It is bright yellow...so thats positive!
Back home in Germany! Long day, the flight was late. Weather in Germany is rainy, the weather in Ireland was much nicer!! Nice to be home though!

Dublin-Day Two

2009-03-12T20:45:00.002+01:00

Dublin
Day Two
March 10, 2009 (Tuesday)

There is nothing like being woken up in the middle of the night by a drunk man screaming obscenities. I now feel like I have truly experienced Ireland! Twice last night the same guy woke me up yelling and screaming...it was pretty funny except I was tired and just wanted to sleep. This morning we got to sleep in! Yay!
This morning we got to sleep in until 8! We got up and met for breakfast at nine. We had a Southern Coast bus tour scheduled to depart at eleven, so that gave us time to enjoy the morning and move at a more leisurely pace. The bus tour was a lot of fun actually, our guide was hilarious and the Powerscourt Estate was beautiful! We got lots of pictures and walked around the gardens. When we got back we did something.....trying to remember what it was. I think that we may have went to drop our bags off and have a quick break at the hotel. Then we went and got dinner at this little 50’s diner called Eddie Rockets. The food was alright, typical diner food but we couldn’t understand our waitress, she was Japanese with a heavy accent...that made things more difficult, when you are going “what,what, what” over and over again.
After that we did the ghost bus tour. It didn’t start until eight and ran two hours. It was a theatrical performance where they take you on a tour around Dublin and tell you about the myths and creepy history of the city. It was interesting I like all that historical stuff. We stopped at a graveyard and they did a fake body snatching demonstration, which I thought was kind of lame. It was an interesting tour and fun and different thing to do. After that we headed back to the room and crashed. Luckily the crazy man decided not to grace us with his presence so we were able to sleep peacefully.

Dublin-Day One

2009-03-10T08:27:00.003+01:00

Dublin
Day One
March 9, 2009 (Monday)

Our day started at 3:00am....which is never a way I like to start my days, I prefer starting them at like at least 8! Our flight left at 7am so we had to be at the airport by 5:30. We had not used the airport before so we left earlier in case we got lost. So we headed out but as soon as we got in the car the GPS decided not to work....it’s Murphys Law, if something can go wrong it will. I think that might be the motto for our week! What with the truck having something wrong with it and deciding to cause problems when we were supposed to pick up the parents! Not a great week.We got to the airport around 5-ish. Got all checked in and through all the security and customs. This was the first time Luke and had flown RyanAir so I was a little anxious. All I knew is that they were cheap and charged for everything. The flight turned out to be pretty good. It was only like an hour and a half to Dublin. I think my favorite part was when my dad ordered a four dollar soda and they brought him this tiny four ounce can that barely filled a cup! The look on his face was priceless, like “you have got to be freaking kidding me!” So we arrived in Dublin at 7:45 am. By the time we got through passport control and our baggage it was nearly 9, so that was good that we burned some time. We took a shuttle into the city center and got checked into our hotel. Our hotel is pretty nice, right by Trinity College which is convenient.
So after we checked in we were all starving so we headed out in search of food. We ended up at a trendy breakfast shop but the had really good food! I had a sausage, ham and egg sandwich which was fatty and delicious. There bacon is more like ham here but a bit saltier, which I like! After we finished breakfast we decided that it was nap time, so everyone slept for a few hours....well except for me of course!
After we banged on my parents door, twenty minutes after we were supposed to meet, and woke them up we decided to head to a tourbus office to make some reservations. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to do a 4 1/2 hour tour to the south of Dublin and into the countryside then tomorrow night we are going on the Ghostbus tour, which is a creepy tour of the dark side of Dublin. Should be fun I love that kind of stuff. I want to a walk, called Walk Macabre that was a walking tour kind of like the Jack the Ripper tour in London but focusing on Dublins violent history. We got all set up for that and began the long hike to the Guinness Brewery! I think we walked more today then we will the rest of the trip because the Guinness Brewery was all the way across town. I think we saw most of the other sites on the way to the brewery!
The brewery was actually really cool. I am not a big beer drinker but we are in Ireland so we HAD to go to Guinness! The tour was a self guided tour and had a lot of interesting information. Everyone got a free beer at the end at the gravity bar which overlooked the city. I choose to save my ticket because I knew I wouldn’t drink a whole beer. I tried some of Luke’s though, it wasn’t too bad compared to other beer I have tried. We did some shopping, I think Luke bought out the store. I got a cute pink and grey beanie and a green Guinness shirt. I keep calling Guinness...Guineas because that is what my mom says instead of Guinness and I was making fun of her for it and now it is in my head!
After the factory it was dinner time. We found this pub called Legend. It was pretty good. I had fried garlic mushrooms and fish and chips, they were good, the mushrooms were fresh and the fish was good. Luke got a penne pasta with chorizo it was excellent! The atmosphere was nice and the service was great! After dinner we went to The Queen of Tarts, a pastry book mom had found in her Frommers book. Luke and I shared a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache and creme. It was great. Normally anything with chocolate in the name more then once is heavy and makes you miserable. But our cake was really light and well balanced and we were able to easily polish it off! So we were all sufficiently miserable by then so we staggered slowly back to our hotel.
Now I am exhausted, I have been up since 3am and it is 9pm now and I have had no sleep! I am surprised that I had so much energy today, usually I am not a fun person to be around when I don’t get sufficient sleep and the past three days I have been up at 5am or earlier! I really am liking Ireland. There is a real diverse population here and everyone has been friendly. The city is pretty clean, not as clean as Munich but definitely cleaner then Rome. One weird thing here is that they drive on the opposite side of the road. So when you cross the street you look right instead of left. Of course a few days ago I read a story about a guy who got hit by a car because he looked left and stepped into the street without looking right. That would be a horrible way to die....just by doing something stupid...so I have been careful to look both ways, because I refuse to die being stupid! At least my death should be interesting not something someone says, “Wow serious blonde moment!”

Dogs back to the States

2009-02-10T19:37:00.001+01:00

Duke and Rudy flew back to San Francisco to stay with Tom and Kriss until we get to Colorado and get a house. It was really sad to see them go, it will be a long three months until we get them back. But it also made everything else seem more real, we will really be leaving Germany in a short time.

The dogs made it to California in one piece. They are adjusting to life with new dog friends and being spoiled rotten! I know that they will have a blast on their vacation! I wish we could leave earlier so we could get settled and be all back together.

Hopefully soon I will post some winter pictures. I am not a bad blogger, I am just a bad picture uploader!

Bastogne Walk

2009-01-31T23:03:00.003+01:00

In the beginning of December Luke and I got up ridiculously early and drove to Belgium to take park in the historical Battle of the Bulge walk in Bastogne. It is a reenactment that takes place every year I think this year was the 64th. It was really neat to see the reenactment I guess lots of the years there are actors who were in show Band of Brothers but I wouldn't recognize them! Here are some of our pictures from that day. Yes, there was snow on the ground and yes it was freezing!!! Unfortunately we were only able to do the shortest walk because we had to be at a Christmas party that evening. There were some walks that were 20 kilometers long!!

Election Dogs!!

2009-01-21T17:26:00.001+01:00

I have to post this pic just because it is fun!

Even the dogs are big Obama supporters!

Christmas came late for the dogs!

2009-01-21T17:25:00.002+01:00

Here are some pictures from the dogs enjoying their Christmas toys! And then worn out after a day of playing!

Rest of the Holiday Pictures

2009-01-21T17:16:00.004+01:00

Here are the rest of our pictures from our winter vacation. Maybe I will put up some pictures from Luke's birthday although he forbid me from doing it!! But I know he doesn't check the website....hmmm....very tempting.

Munich-Fischen

2008-12-30T18:18:00.003+01:00

Day Three
12/22/2008
Fischen-Munich

Today started out hectically with our alarm not going off. Luke got up at 8:10 and was like “oh shit!” because we were supposed to meet Marita and Christian for breakfast at 8am at the hotel. So we jumped out of bed and threw on some clothes and ran down. Then after we made breakfast we headed to the train station to catch the train to Munich. The train trip was two and a half hours and it made lots of stops. So we got into town at about noon and walked towards the Marienplatz, were the Christmas market was at. It was nice walking through Munich there were market booths all throughout the city!
We were going to go to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch but they didn’t have french fries and we wanted french fries well at least Marita and I did so we ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe. After we had a good lunch with great french fries we went back across the street to the Hofbrauhaus so the men could drink their big beers. After they drank their beers we went to Dallymar to get some special Christmas chocolate and Luke got a coffee tin. Then we went to Starbucks to get a hot chocolate for me and some special Christmas coffee for Luke. After that it was getting later so we headed back towards the train station.
We got back to Fischen about 6 and just hung out in the hotel room. We had a kitchen so we made some soup that Marita and Christian had brought and watched Christmas movies.
Picture one is the beginning of the beer, pic two Luke drinking and pic three a completed beer! The last two pics are from the market in the Marienplatz in Munich.

Fischen-Kempten

2008-12-30T18:11:00.002+01:00

Day Two
12/21/2008
Fischen

Today began with the alarm going off at 6am!! 6am!! What is Luke crazy? No the cell phone just hadn’t switched with daylight savings time so we got to go back to sleep for an hour. So when the real 7am rolled around we got up and got dressed and went and met Marita and Christian for breakfast. The breakfast wasn’t bad, it was typical German with rolls and cheese and meat and jellies. Now Marita and Christian went to church so Luke and I are just relaxing in our room. The weather is not so nice so when they get done with church we have to decide what we want to do. We might go to Austria or try to find a Christmas market near by who knows!
So I guess that the weather was bad everywhere so we decided to stay closer to Fischen by going to Kempten. In Kempten there is a Christmas fair, we thought that it would be small but it was actually rather large lasting a few streets. We had lunch there, Luke, Christian and I had gyros and Marita had pizza. The gyros were really good, usually they aren’t my favorite thing but they were close to perfect this time! After we ate we walked around the town a little but all of the stores were closed so there was not much to do. We stopped at an italian eis shop and Marita had ice cream while the rest of us had warm drinks. After that we headed back to Fischen. It had been raining the entire day even when we were in Fischen so we couldn’t really go hiking without getting soaking wet. So we decided to take a break and went to our rooms for a short (two hour) break. Which meant napping for Luke, and watching the Ipod and doing homework for me. So now Marita and Christian are here and I think that we are going to walk through town for a bit and then decide where to eat. Then probably walk a little bit afterwards and then maybe play a game.
So we went to this German restaurant here in Fischen and like usual I ordered the the wrong the thing. I ordered this noodle with a local regional cheese, a lady sitting next to us had it and it looked good kind of like macaroni and cheese but with white cheese. I was wrong the noodles weren’t typical noodles they were like between a noodle and a gnocchi, they had weird texture that I didn’t care for. So I ended up eating part of Luke’s meal which was good, Schweinehax and a dumpling. The restaurant was nice there was a person playing accordion in the background. After eating we walked for a short bit then went back to the room and played Taboo, drank wine the Marita and Christian had brought and then watched Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer.
The first two pictures are from Kempten where we went to the Christmas market there. The other two are at an eis cafe in Kempten where we stopped for ice cream and for hot drinks.

Gangelt-Rothenburg o.t.b-Fischen

2008-12-30T18:05:00.003+01:00

Today began our exciting holiday trip to Bavaria. Even though looking back I don’t think I would use the word exciting to describe day one! It would be more like want to rip my hair out frustrating. We left our house at 5:30 am dead set on beating all of the other winter travelers. All went well until about 8:30 and the dreaded rest stop, it all went down hill from there. We stopped at a rest stop to get coffee and when we stopped our GPS said it was only about an hour and a half to Rothenberg we were making good time should get there by 10:30. Well we get back on the autobahn and get stuck in traffic, traffic and some more traffic. I really can’t remember being in this bad of traffic before, it was like traffic jams but there was no cause so it never ended. After it turned to 12:30 we decided maybe we should get off of the autobahn. We had already extended our trip by at least two hours just sitting in traffic and the GPS said we still had an hour at least to go! So we ended up driving through towns on the Romantic road, which was nice and probably got us there quicker then staying on the autobahn. Oh and had I mentioned that it rained the whole trip, didn’t let up at all. From the time we left Gangelt to the time we arrived in Fischen....rain!
So finally after seven hours (which normally would have been only 4) we arrive in Rothenberg. We stop to get some lunch at Burger King because we are all exhausted and starving (did I mention that Marita and Christian were with us...probably not). After that we ventured into town to go see the famed Christmas store. We crowd through the store which is packed but we did make out with a few things. I got a winter smoker, they are really cute you put incense in them. Mine is a little egg with snow on it and a bird nest on its head. And we got a Christmas ornament made of glass with a dog bone and a heart. So after we finished wandering around it is about 3:00 and we decide we should head to Fischen because we weren’t sure if the traffic would be bad or not.
The trip to Fischen was actually nice because there wasn’t traffic jams although the rain was coming down heavier then before. We made it there in about two and a half hours. So now we are in our room which is huge! It has two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen! We are getting ready to go and get some food! I will be glad to get to sleep it has been a long day. I know Luke will be glad to sleep too he was such a trooper driving the whole way and not being grumpy at all!
We went to eat at an Italian restaurant here in Fischen, we knew it would be good because Marita and Christian always talk about it every time they come back from visiting here. I had spaghetti carbonara which was pretty good, wasn’t the best I have ever had but it was above average. We wanted Tiramisu but unfortunately they were out of it! Luke got another animal, a swan this time. When we first got here like the first time we went out to eat with Marita and Christian we went to Il Genios in Birgden and Luke ordered a calzone and when he got it it was in the shape of a fish! It was so funny and no one has ever had anything like it since, we have ordered calzones but never gotten a fish. Then last night Lukes food came out wrapped in a tin foil swan, so it must just be something about Luke and animals and Italian food! So after dinner we walked around the town (which is beautiful BTW). We walked to the train station to check times for Munich, walked to where Marita and Christian got married, walked to an ice skating rink. Then we got home and al went to bed because we were so tired from the long day. Although the day was frustrating with the driving and everything it turned out to be a pretty good day.

The pictures with the snow and mountains are from our hotel room in Fishcen. The rest are from Rothenburg.

Maastricht Christmas Market

2008-12-12T15:09:00.003+01:00

Last weekend we went with Marita and Christian to Maastricht to their Winter Wonderland. We had never been there and neither had Marita and Christian so it was an adventure for all of us. We drive through Maastricht when we go to the Antiques market in Belgium but we have never stopped there. It turns out that it is a really nice town, with lots of little shops and cobblestone streets (which is common for Europe). The actual Christmas market wasn’t that big, the area was more geared towards kids. There was a huge Ferris wheel and an ice skating rink. There was also lots of food especially sweets. Luke, Christian and I rode the Ferris wheel and were able to get some good pictures. Then we just walked around Marita and I tried to talk the guys into ice skating but the refused, so we will just wait until Munich then they shall skate!
We stayed at the market for about an hour or so. Then we headed back towards home and to dinner! We ended up stopping at a restaurant in Waldenrath that was so good! I rarely ever eat everything I get but even Luke was surprised that I ate everything and had desert, it was that good!

Crafts with Marita

2008-12-12T15:06:00.002+01:00

One of the things I love about Christmas is the decorations and every year Marita and I always do some sort of crafts, which she is much better at then I am! She loves Christmas as much as me if not more. We made some paper crafts and ate way too many cookies! It is sad that this is our last Christmas here because Germany does Christmas so much better then the states.

Local Christmas Markets

2008-12-12T15:01:00.002+01:00

A few weekends ago the local towns, Geilenkirchen and Gangelt had their Christmas markets. The towns are small so they only do them one weekend of the year rather then everyday like the bigger towns. On Saturday I went with Elizabeth and her daughter to the market in Geilenkirchen. I hadn’t been before because I have always had classes on the weekends the markets were. The market wasn’t great compared to others I had been too, it was really small and there wasn’t too much Christmas stuff to buy. It is what I now refer to as the ghetto market. I did however get a wreath and a table decoration.

Sunday Luke and I rode our bikes to Gangelt. Gangelt always has a really nice market; we were able to go the first year that we were here. The only bad thing is that it is crowded! The market runs through the town, in and out of the little alley ways. It is nice to look around and we bought a Christmas candle holder. My favorite part of the market is the food I think, we had some Rubekuchen, which is so good, it is like a potato pancake. Unfortunately it started to rain while we were there so we didn’t get to stay too long. We got on our bikes and rode home in the rain, by the time we got home it was pouring!

Breaking News

2008-11-06T05:07:00.002+01:00

So we got our new assignment yesterday morning. Next spring we will be moving to......I feel like there should be a drum roll here......Bellevue, Nebraska. Yeah Nebraska, not too sure how I feel about that yet. They do have a good liberal arts college with Master degree programs so that is good.

On another note, we are stoked about the outcome of the election. We are able to come back to the states now!! I spent election night in a McDonalds here in Kanab with two of the other interns in front of the television chowing down on fries and mcnuggets, definitely a memorable night!

Pictures

2008-10-31T03:49:00.002+01:00

Here are just a few pictures. I know I have been slacking, have just been busy and don't have the best computer connection where i am staying.

Best Friends Internship

2008-10-14T03:11:00.001+02:00

I am here in Kanab, Utah doing my internship. I know I have been remiss about my posting. I just have been so busy and loving every minute of it. I just completed my first week as an intern. I work 8-5 Tuesday to Saturday and I have been finishing up my classes. So hopefully later this week after I get classes done and things start to settle down I will do some better posting and post some pictures.

Birthday & Anniversary

2008-09-19T14:38:00.002+02:00

So this week was busy. Luke and I had our 3rd anniversary on Wednesday the 10th and then I had my 25th birthday on Saturday the 13th . 25! I know I am so old, like a quarter of a century old but I will always have the comfort knowing that Luke is older :-P

We didn’t really do anything on Wednesday for our anniversary. Luke was flying that day so he had to leave the house by like 5:30 am and didn’t get home until 7:00pm so time was short. I got up (at least for a few minutes) before he left and we opened gifts, on his insistence. Just because he wanted me to have something new to watch while he was gone! He got me the last season of Gilmore Girls which I needed to complete my series and I got him two more seasons of Family Guy (which I get to enjoy too!). So after he left I just tried to get back to sleep with no avail! So up hours earlier then I usually get up, I took Duke walking and did chores oh and made brownies which I then preceded to eat out of boredom. Luke got home and we ate leftover enchiladas and opened cards and such we had received. Pretty lazy, boring, normal day.

On Saturday, Kyle called me at 7am!! Who calls a person that early on their birthday!! Crazy kid! So I grudgingly dragged myself out of bed and talked to him and since I was awake and drug Luke out of bed, because if I had to be awake so did he, I got to open gifts! After that Luke made me breakfast and then later we went to base to go to a huge sale they were having there. Luke cleaned the house since we were having friends over; I supervised and helped (very little). I pretty much cooked all day so we would have things to snack on when people came over. I made some lumpias and bruschetta! We played Settlers and Cranium and our friends brought their kids over so the dogs got to play with them which was nice, it wore out the kids and the dogs! It was a fun day although I think I worked harder on my birthday then I normally do, that just isn’t right!

Pics of my new hair cut, Luke playing on the new mac and some of the pups.

Hail Hurts!

2008-09-03T15:05:00.004+02:00

I think that is the lesson learned this weekend. The weather was supposed to be good all weekend. It was like summer had finally arrived. Saturday it was in the low 80’s which was super hot compared to what we are used to. Saturday Luke and I went for a bike ride. We rode through Breberen, Susterseel, Gangelt and back around to Langbroich. It was a nice ride, although a bit exhausting. I don’t ride enough to be used to these long like 15 mile rides.

Sunday started off nice. We were planning on going walking with Marita and Christian but put it off until the evening because it was so hot during the afternoon. So seven o’ clock comes around and we are getting ready to go and we look up and the clouds have gathered. We figured we would go walking anyways at the worst we would just get a little rain. We got to the other side of the fields about 20-30 minutes from home and it starts hailing on us! Not just rain but big pea size hail pounding us. I am not sure if I have been in a hail storm before but if so I don’t remember. The hail mixed with the wind was not a great combination, it really hurt, I think I have bruises from it! So we run home and there are people hanging out there windows laughing at us! The sad thing was that by the time we got to our house the sun was out and shining again and the hail was gone. Luckily none of us have gotten sick….yet.

Random pictures of a rainbow after one of our many storms. It was pretty so I took pictures.

Past Few Weekends

2008-08-30T13:50:00.003+02:00

We have had a busy past few weekends. On August 15 Marita and I drug Luke and Christian to see

I don’t think that I have laughed so much at a movie in a very, very long time! The music was alright but the movie was beyond CHEESY! It was like they through a bunch of actors together, gave them alcohol and just filmed what happened and tried to find a story in it. We were all nearly in tears by the time we left the theater. Luke was speechless because there really was nothing to say to describe the extreme awfulness of this movie. Sad thing is I would so go and see it again just for a good laugh. It was fun! And very little complaining from the guys.

Saturday the 16th we went to a wedding at Schloss Burga (a castle). One of Luke’s coworkers married a German girl. It was a really nice wedding and we got to see some of the German traditions that go on in weddings. It was different than going to an American wedding, our weddings don’t normally have magic shows!

Last weekend we went down to Spangdahlem, the air base south of us, so that Luke could get his fancy new 24” Imac. He pretty much spent the weekend setting it up and playing on it. I didn’t see him too much last weekend :-P

Duke being his lazy self.

The Dark Knight

2008-08-10T15:44:00.007+02:00

Luke and I and a bunch of friends went and saw The Dark Knight the first weekend that it was out here at Sittard in The Netherlands. I have never been a fan of Batman but I have always enjoyed Heath Ledgers work. I love, love, loved this movie! If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading this post and go see it NOW! It really isn't a typical "superhero" movie, it actually has a story and plot lines you have to think about! Definitely hit my must buy list after I had seen it, am anxious to see it again when it finally makes it to Brunssum. Wish I could have seen it in IMAX though, I bet it was amazing. And I do have to agree that Christian Bale is hot, but his voice as Batman makes me want to rip my ears off!

And on a more somber note, Heath Ledgers performance was absolutely amazing. I was quick to doubt people who said how good it was because a lot of hype as it being his last performance following his death but he really did make the movie. Absolutely amazing and terrifying, it is hard to see the acting in the character, it really is as if he truly becomes the Joker and he is truly believable. A new facet to his abilities and it really makes me sad that we will not see anything else from him. I have been a fan of his since I first saw 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knights Tale. A sad loss for the acting community and all of us who enjoyed his movies.

States Pics

2008-08-10T15:16:00.006+02:00

Here are some of the pictures I took when I was in the states in June-July.

First are some pictures from out at Echo Lake with some of the dogs.

Some pictures from the fourth of July in Caliente, mainly the softball games.

Some pictures from the spring with Nash and Abby.

Some pictures heading to Tuacahn in St. George, Utah. We saw The Sound of Music there at the outdoor theater, it was really nice. Although it was so hot! The show got done at like 10pm and it was still warm out!

2008-08-04T15:35:00.001+02:00

Sunday August 3, 2008-

Today started out sunny and warm and slowly deteriorated into rain and wind! We planned on going for a bike ride with Marita and Christian in the afternoon. We met up at 2pm and head out only to be hit with a major rainstorm and wind. After facing the wind for a few minutes we turned around and headed back to the house. By the time we got back to the house the rain had subsided. We really wanted to go for a bike ride so we decided to ride to Schierwaldenrath to the Selfkantbahn to get coffee and cake at the restaurant there and then decide if we would go further. We sat outside and watched the Steam train drive by for awhile. The weather had cleared a bit so we decided to ride a little further. We headed over towards Gangelt and the evil hill. There is a hill we go down the is fatal to bikes. The first time we went down it Christians tire popped, then another time the light fell off my bike and then this time Christians chain came off! This hill is just not good for us and bikes! So after sitting on the side of the road for a bit and fixing Christians bike again we headed towards the Netherlands. We rode over to a field were they fly these planes without engines. Seems crazy to me but what do I know. Since the weather was bad there weren’t any planes out flying. There is a cafe were you can sit and watch them take off and land! After we made a stop there we headed back home. Overall I think we rode about 10 kilometers even though it felt like more since we were riding against the wind most of the time. Now we are heading to Heinsberg to find something for dinner! We are thinking either Greek or Italian, then some gelato after.

Back from dinner, it was interesting to say the least. We went over to Heinsberg and decided to eat at a Greek restaurant in the square. We sat outside since the weather was nice. It was lucky that the weather was nice because we ended up waiting over an hour for our food! AND we couldn’t get gyros! The food wasn’t even that good, well I guess the french fries were good and Luke’s hacksteak was good. I ended up eating Lukes food because mine was kind of gross. I was supposed to get steak in a mushroom sauce but it was like steak and mushrooms in some weird red pepper sauce, definitely didn’t go well together! I think the highlight of the meal was this bee that kept flying around our table, it would not go away. Then after we ate we walked down the street to get some eis. The bee followed us! Well after spending way more time at dinner then we had hoped we headed home for the evening and it was too late to go walking. So another restaurant that goes on the “do not eat here” list.

Pictures and posts from the past month still in the works....

Update in the Works

2008-07-13T10:05:00.000+02:00

Having just returned...well returned last week....from the states, I am working on an update from my trip and from Luke's foray into Paris for the worldwide Invitational. Once school is caught up (just my luck that it is midterm week and I am beyond jetlagged) and I am back into the swing of things there will be some new posts and new pics! So knowing myself, it'll probably be a week or two at least.

Blizzard Worldwide Invitational

2008-06-20T17:48:00.001+02:00

We just found out we won tickets to go to the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris next weekend! Yay! I was totally bummed that the tickets were sold out before we could buy them (or before I could talk Luke into going). Yes it is dorky I know but I think it is going to be a blast! It is just luck that we got these tickets, one of the podcasts we listen to (World of Warcast) was giving away 3 tickets and we lucked out and won two. So next weekend off to Paris we go for the fourth time in two years. Should be a blast and I should have some pics to put up when we get back.

I am a bit bummed though that we found out on such short notice so I don't have time to get a costume and dress up. I so would have been a blood elf! (and I would have made Luke dress up too)

http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/

Bowling

2008-06-14T22:40:00.000+02:00

Last night we went bowling with Marita and Christian. I haven't been bowling in years, I think the last time might have been bowling at the Orleans with Pam and some guys from MonteLago, this would have been before Luke and I met!! Well it's safe to say that I was horrible the first game, I think I came in last place with Luke like doubling my score. But I came back strong and beat everyone the last two games!! The last game getting three strikes in a row (which is unheard of by me). It was so fun! The bowling alley was in Sittard and it really wasn't very big and it was packed with kids and families since it was Saturday night. I think we need to have monthly bowling, Luke isn't too hot on this idea he isn't too keen on being beat by a girl! Both he and Christian were baffled because I played SO bad the first game then I came back to whoop on them.
After bowling we stopped at McDonalds which is like the cool place to be here. Everyone hangs out at McDonalds like all the kids and stuff. It is funny because McDonalds isn't remotely like that in the states. But the McDonalds here are actually nicer than those in the states.
Nothing else going on, I started new classes again. Should be one interesting class (contemporary sexual ethics) but the rest look pretty dull (research methods, parapsychology) actually. Getting anxious for my internship, it is really sneaking up on me. Weather has been crappy the past week, I think it has been in like the 60's, it doesn't even feel like summer! And rainy so much rain, Elizabeth and I went to Aachen Thursday to have pizza hut and Starbucks and we got poured on the whole time, thankfully we had umbrellas but even with those we still got soaked.

New Pictures

2008-06-06T18:06:00.005+02:00

Here at long last are some of the pictures from Tom and Kriss's trip here. Hey, it only took me a month to get them up...not bad! I should have put them up earlier because I can't remember where a lot of them are from! Especially the castles and little touristy towns!

The first slide show has pictures from Bad Neunahr, Boppard, Rudesheim and our boat ride on the middle Rhine (which just happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site). The boat ride was long but the scenery and all of the castles and little towns were really neat to see! Boppard and Rudesheim were both nice towns, I wish we would have had more time to explore them, I love all the little kind of small, touristy towns with little shops all over. There were tons of castles that we saw, but as the pictures show, I do not remember the names of them so they are all labeled "Rhine".

This slide show has pictures from Moselkern and Cochem, which are both towns on the Mosel. We stopped in Moselkern first, to see Burg Eltz, one of the most popular castles in Germany. It was very interesting, but I think that I still prefer Neuschwanstein. After we finished the castle tour we headed to Cochem which is one of the popular towns on the Mosel, there is castle that overlooks the town but we did not get a chance to explore it. We wandered around that town, bought LOTS of wine and had a great lunch at a little cafe. After we were finished shopping we headed to Trier, our final stop for the day. We stayed in Trier and got up early that morning and went to see the Black Gate and to one of the museums that is there.

These last pictures are from Brugges, Belgium. Which I now think is one of my favorite places in Europe. It is beautiful, has chocolate stores all over and the people are actually FRIENDLY which is rare for tourist towns. Brugges is a big tourist town, but compared to other touristy places I have been, Brugges didn't feel all that touristy. It is much prettier than Amsterdam with the canals running through the city. It is clean and there is lots to see for everyone. Kriss and I did some shopping while the guys went on a tour of a brewery. I think we stopped at at least five chocolate stores and I have to say none of them are better than Godiva. The only one that was close was the truffle chocolates at the Chocolate Line! Brugges is definitely a place that I will be going back to before we leave, if i can!

Slacker!

2008-05-31T19:46:00.001+02:00

Yes I admit it...I am a slacker. I haven't posted in awhile. In the next few weeks I hope to post the pictures from Tom and Kriss trip here. It was a blast, we did a lot of traveling and saw a lot of things that we hadn't seen yet. I think Brugges is now my new favorite place in Europe. So much chocolate! It was fantastic.

Since then nothing has really been going on. I am working on school, down to my last to terms, starting to think about graduation, which will be spring '09, but I don't think I will be able to go. We will probably have moved on to bigger and better things, since we are scheduled to leave sometime in the Spring of '09. Today we went to the Italian Republic Celebration, which is kind of like the Italians version of the 4th of July. It was fun, I love everything Italian, the food, the culture, the music and much more.

Be looking for some pictures in the very near future......(I hope)

Fussen & castle pictures

2008-05-13T12:06:00.002+02:00

Finally....the last pictures! These are the pictures from when we were in Fussen and when we were at the Hohenschwangua and Neuschwanstein castles. In another posting I have more info about our days there...these are just the pictures. A little late....I know.

In other, more recent news. Kriss and Tom made it here last Wednesday. We haven't been doing much traveling yet. We have just been hanging around the house, Friday we went over to Heinsberg and had ice cream, then Sunday we went over to Tongeren for the antiques market. Luke and I didn't find anything that we just had to have but Kriss found some really neat stuff including a bowl made from St. Lamberts glass which is gorgeous. i love that glass but it is so expensive and I worry that it will break when we move back to the states. Tomorrow we are leaving for the Mosel region, we will spend a few days there then go up to Brugges, Belgium probably stopping for a day in Luxembourg City then spending two nights in Brugges. Should be fun, we are driving so we won't have to deal with the stresses of hauling stuff on and off trains!

Dachau/Paris/Amsterdam Pictures

2008-04-29T10:01:00.003+02:00

A few of the pictures from Dachau, Amsterdam and Paris. We didn't have too many in Amsterdam and Paris because we were about pictured out after Munich and Fussen. The last pictures I need to do are the dreaded castle/Fussen pictures! There are so many of them so I have saved them for last. I am hoping, emphasis on HOPING, to get them up here before Tom and Kriss get here next week. I don't want to get too far behind. But being that I am a huge procrastinator they may not be up for awhile.

Munich Photos

2008-04-21T11:08:00.001+02:00

The long awaited photos....at least the ones from Munich.

Vacation Pictures

2008-04-17T16:12:00.003+02:00

I know there are no pictures!! I will hopefully get them up sometime this weekend. Between all of our cameras we have over 1000 pictures!! I need to get them all uploaded and organized and then I will be putting them up here on the blog!!

Amsterdam

2008-04-17T15:56:00.002+02:00

April 15, 2008

Today was quite eventful. We decided that we didn't want to waste any vacation time sitting around so we headed to Amsterdam for a day. None of us had been there before so it was an adventure for us all! We got up early and left to the train station. We had to go to Schinnen instead of Geilenkirchen, since we needed to be on the Netherlands train line. The ride there wasn't too bad, only about two hours. We got into town about 11am. Then we decided we were hungry and of course we decided we had to eat at the Hard Rock. So we went out searching without having a map or any idea where we were heading. We stopped in a bunch of souvenir stores so that Blake and Katie could pick up some gifts. We headed in the direction of the Hard Rock, we only got lost a few times on the way.
The Hard Rock was fun. Blake frustrated the waiter and had the manager called, they were all screwing with him because he asked for a napkin. All the people working there were like Australian and Americans. The manager was from San Francisco, he said if anyone goes to the San Francisco Hard Rock tell the manager there, Austin, that Bobby T. says hey. The food was actually really good there, probably the best Hard Rock food we had on our trips.
After we ate we took a canal boat tour, which was pretty interesting, except that it went pretty slow and I almost fell asleep. After the tour we went to the infamous Red Light District. Even in the daylight it is gross, but interesting. I can't imagine being there at night, there were plenty of creepy people there during the day. It was easy to spot the people who were trying to sell drugs.
Then the train ride back,,,which was a nightmare. We got on the train back to Schinnen and we were going along just fine until we hit Herstogenbosch, where the train stops. I guess something had jumped the tracks we needed to be on to get to Eindhoven. So nothing was able to get to where we needed to go. So we sat at the train station for 2 hours until the tracks were cleared. Finally we got on the train and made it to Sittard. Unfortunately, someone...ok me....got us on the wrong train and we ended up in Maastricht. From Maastricht we had to go to Heerlen and than from Heerlen to Schinnen. So when we left we were planning on being home by 7pm but instead we got home at 1130pm!
Luckily we were able to get a hold of Marita so she was able to check on the dogs and let them outside. I thought that it was a pretty fun day, even the trains, but I know everyone else didn't agree with me. Especially Luke since he was supposed to be doing homework!

Fun stuff

2008-04-14T15:10:00.001+02:00

Paris

2008-04-13T21:52:00.000+02:00

April 12, 2008

Somebody made us get up at 6am this morning to see Notre Dame!! Well we were done looking at Notre Dame by 7:30am and there was nothing open for breakfast and nothing open period, even Starbucks was closed!! We walked around for awhile until we found a cafe to have breakfast at. Then we went to the Champs Elysees to find the Louis Vuitton store. Then we got some crepes at the Eiffel Tower, which were gross, way too sugary. I had one with whipped cream and chocolate! The gypsy beggars were bugging Blake, they walked up and asked him if he spoke English and he was like 'Yeah I do!!' both Luke and I looked away and tried not to laugh too bad at him. We warned him ahead of time about them! We left Blake and Katie in line at the Eiffel Tour (the line was huge!) and we are relaxing at the hotel (since we have already been to the top). The weather has turned crappy out, rainy and windy, being at the top of the Eiffel tower right now is not going to be too fun.

After we go and get them I think that Blake wanted to go on the Batobus, (boat bus), but with this weather we probably won't, unless it stops raining. Then tonight we are going to go over to the Moulin Rouge because Blake and Katie want pictures. They want to go too, but can't decide if it is worth the 90 Euro admission fee.

We rode the Batobus to the Notre Dame stop. We stopped by the hotel so Blake and Katie could drop some stuff off than we went to dinner at Breakfast in America. After that I went back to the hotel because I wasn't feeling great and Blake, Katie and Luke went to see the Eiffel Tower again and to the Moulin Rouge.

April 13, 2008

I felt better being able to sleep for a full night. We all slept in, getting up around 8am. We went to breakfast at Breakfast in America. Than we checked out of the hotel and went and hung out at the train station. We got home around 4:30, grabbed some Il Genios for dinner and settled in for a game of Settlers (which Luke finally won, it only took him 8 games). I think we are all exhausted, traveling so much really drains you. But it was so much fun!! Tomorrow we are talking about going down the Mosel to Burg Eltz (sp?). This all depends on how we feel in the morning. We have to go pick up the dogs bright and early, well at least Luke has to go pick up the dogs, he offered to go at eight.

Augsberg/heading to Paris

2008-04-12T13:58:00.001+02:00

April 11, 2008

Up bright and early at 7 o' clock. It is sad when 7am is considered sleeping in. Going to get breakfast at the hotel and than head over to Augsberg to look around a bit before we catch our ICE train to Paris. Should be getting into Paris a little after 9pm. Legs are so sore from all of the walking we did yesterday it will be nice to just be able to sit on the train today.

We made it to Paris. The trip wasn't too bad. We had changes in Augsberg and Mannheim. On both ICE trains we were in cabins so it was nice, except when there were other people in with us than it was a little bit awkward. The first train Blake and Luke got yelled out for being too loud!! Troublemakers!! We made it to our hotel and they have free Internet. Yay!! Grabbed some McDonalds down the street since everything else was closed. We are all so tired! I think I am coming down with a cold...sucky....hopefully it doesn't get too bad until we get back home. Tomorrow we are heading out bright and early at 7am to Notre Dame. Then I think we are heading to the Louis Vuitton store than I think we are going to take the boat tour around the Seine because that is what Blake wants to do. In the evening we will head to the Eiffel Tour so we can get pics at night and in the day.

Dachau/Deutsches Museum/Heading to Fussen

2008-04-12T13:56:00.004+02:00

April 9, 2008

We got up early this morning and headed over to the Deutsches museum. We wanted to be there right when it opened and we needed to be back at our hotel by noon for check out. Luckily there wasn't too many people waiting to get in. We spent about two hours there. It was alright, definitely more of a guy museum. I think my favorite part was sitting in the massage chairs while the guys looked around, I guess the planes and boats were cool too. The museum had a lot of technical stuff like

The camp was amazing to see, at least for me. I find WWII fascinating. I think that best way to not repeat history is to experience it and learn about it. That is what Dachau does, it humanizes the suffering that took place. It is easy enough to read about it and hear about it but to actually be in the same place and know that is were it happened...it is totally different.

Just a few pictures from Dachau. I will put more up when I get home, we have so many, I will have to make some slide shows.

After we left the camp we headed back to Munich to pick up our luggage and then we headed to Fussen. The trip was alright, except we had to stand for about 30 minutes because there were no seats. That is what we get for traveling during commuter hours I guess!! Got in to our hotel about 8pm I believe than had dinner at this good Bavarian restaurant.

Royal Castles

2008-04-12T13:56:00.002+02:00

April 10, 2008

Today we are in Fussen, well Wiesensee technically. We are heading to the royal castles, which have been high on my list of things to see since we arrived in Germany two years ago. Our day starts out with me being late, as always. We head down to the bus stop at about 6:30, to find that we aren't very good bus people. Today is a school day in Germany so all the kids were on the buses on their way to school. So the schedule said some of the buses were school buses so we watched a few go by as we sat there waiting.....and waiting....and waiting some more. An hour later we were like well this kind of sucks, so we asked the bus driver which buses went to the Hauptbaunhof and it was obviously the one with all of the kids on it. So after only an hour of waiting (when we could have been sleeping) and watching bus after bus drive by, we were finally on our way! It was quite embarrassing have to stand on the bus with all the school kids. We were like an exhibit...ooohhh look at the Americans! That wasn't as embarrassing though as when we were standing at the bus stop and two like 7 year olds walked by us and started pointing and laughing. What is worse than being laughed at by elementary schoolers!! It was bad.

So we made it to the train station (yay!) and now we had to get on another bus to the castles. Well Luke though that the bus driver said the bus number was 805, when she really said the bus left at 8:05, so instead of waiting for the bus we decided to wander. Not until we got back to the bus stops did we realize “oh crap, we missed the bus.” So we had to wait about 30 minutes for the next bus to arrive.

So we finally made it to the castles around 9 o' clock. It is pretty empty, not a lot of tourists, so that was good. We got our tickets for both castles and went on the tour of Hohenschwagua first. It was pretty interesting it is where King Ludwig II parents lived. We didn't get to see many rooms in either castle because they were closed off.

After we toured the Hohenschwagua we took a horse drawn carriage up to Neuschwanstein. Luke was grumpy because he wanted to walk but the carriage ride was alright, it was part of the experience. We got there and had about 30 minutes to wait until our tower started so we sat around. Pretty boring. Watched all the groups (because now the tour buses had shown up). There were some really obnoxious Italian students there. Katie got hit with a snowball and Blake almost got nailed in the face with a soccer ball. We toured the castle which was beautiful. The artwork was amazing I wish we could have taken pictures. The whole castle was dedicated to the operas of Richard Wagner, so there were scenes from the operas painted in the different rooms.

After we finished our tour we got lunch at a little fast food kind of place, just some brats and fries, it was alright. Then we headed down the road to go to Marienbrucke (sp?). We stopped and got these powder sugar covered dough balls that Luke and Blake have decided are the best things in the world. Fried dough, would have thunk it...So we walk down the hill from Neuschwanstein and than head up the road to Marienbrucke, not knowing that we are taking the long long way. We finally make it up there as two tour buses drop off loads of people! We did finally get some space on the bridge and we got some good pictures! The bridge isn't too scary, there were a few boards that you stepped on and you could feel them give a little, but if you avoided those than it was all good. It also didn't help that some kids were jumping on the bridge!

After we finished on the bridge we decide that we were feeling adventurous and we started hiking further up the mountain. About two hours later we make it to the top of the mountain. I can't even begin to describe how high we were. The Marienbrucke is 305 feet above ground and we were way above it. We were looking straight down at the castle. It was scary once we got up there. Some of the places it was like looking straight down. Katie and I totally beat the boys, we were at the top hanging out for like five minutes before they made it up! We got some really good and unique pictures. During our whole hike we only saw one other couple. This hike was not for the faint of heart, it was pretty intense. It was fun though, probably my favorite part of the day. It reminded me of when we used to go hiking out in Mt. Charleston, but so much better. The hike has some of the best views of the Alps out of any country (or so our travel guide said). It was absolutely amazing, I am so glad that we did it. We totally got our butts kicked from all the walking but it was well worth it! After we finished and made it back down we hit the souvenir shops, I got another charm for my bracelet because the swan symbolizes the area. Schwangua means swan and Neuschwanstein means New swan stone.

We got back to the hotel about 7pm and washed up for dinner. We went over to a pizzeria, I had spaghetti carbanora (sp?) which was actually pretty good. I also had tiramisu for desert which was good too. Now we are back in the hotel room, it feels so good to be off my feet. Tomorrow is pretty much a travel day. We are heading to Paris, we may stop and look around a bit in Augsberg but I don't think that there is to much to see there.

Munich Day Two

2008-04-08T23:32:00.005+02:00

What a long day in Munich!! We did so much walking. We were up and going at about 6:30, out of the hotel at 7:30. We walked around our hotel and the Marienplatz and Odeonplatz until things started to open. Stopped and got some coffee at San Francisco Coffee Company. We went to the Residence Museum and to the treasury. This was where the Bavarian royalty lived. We also took a bus tour, walked through the English Gardens, went to the Olympic Park where the 1972 (i think) Olympics were held, had lunch at the Haufbrauhaus and dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.

These photos are from around our hotel, around the Marienplatz. The second one is the Rathaus (the old city hall), the first I think is the bell tower that is down the street from us and the third one I am not totally sure, it is probably just a neat looking building.

The first two pictures are from by the Rathaus. The third picture is in the English Garden, which is one of the largest parks in the world, about the size of Central Park in New York.

Well I have a lot more pictures to put up, but I have to go and get ready to head out. There won't be any new pictures for a few days while we are in Fussen because we won't have internet connection. After Fussen we are off to Paris for a few days, should be able to post more then.

Munich Day One

2008-04-07T22:39:00.003+02:00

We arrived in Munich. After traveling all day we got into Munich around 7:00pm. The train ride wasn't too bad, about 7 hours with changes in Aachen and Frankfurt. Our hotel is in a great location right off Marienplatz, near the old square. We didn't do much exploring tonight since we were all tired. We found a beer hall to eat dinner at, it was really good. I had dumplings, potatoes and eggs, which was good but so heavy!! We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow!!

Here are a few pictures from our train trip. The first is from our short trip from Geilenkirchen to Aachen. The other two are in Aachen while we were waiting for our train to Frankfurt, we sat outside in the sun until it started raining on us. That is the weather in Germany sunny one minute, rainy the next!!

These are from the beer hall that we had dinner at. It was a really neat place. Most of the walls were made of a dark wood. The waiter was really friendly and funny. It makes a meal so much better when the waiter is at least semi friendly. I think everyone agrees that we had a great first meal. My dumplings were good and everyone else had schnitzel which they really liked, even Blake!!

Blake and Katie made it!!!

2008-04-05T23:07:00.004+02:00

Blake and Katie got here on Thursday. We picked them up in Dusseldorf and than just hung around the house the rest of the day because Luke had to go back in to work. Friday we went over to Schinnen to get some real "American" food and had some Burger King. Then we went to Heinsberg and got some ice cream and walked around the old church that they have there. It was a pretty nice day. Than last night we played Settlers of Catan (coolest board game ever!). Blake won on his first game, and unfortunately Luke has not won yet :-(

Today we got up early and took the train with Marita and Christian to Cologne. We got to see the Dom (Cathedral) that is there. We also went to the Hard Rock Cafe and we were going to go to the Lindt chocolate factory but it was so busy and the line was so long. It was neat to look around because last time I was there with Kyle we walked the wrong way into the dirty part of town. There was so much shopping where we were, I will have to go back. We got the newest expansion, seafarers, and played it tonight and Blake won again. So Blake has won two games in a row!! Crazy!!

Tomorrow we might be going to eat cake and have coffee with Marita and Christian and than all 6 of us will be playing settlers. Monday we leave for our trip to Munich, Fussen and Bern! I will post pictures when I get them loaded onto the computer.

Best Friends Internship

2008-03-31T16:29:00.002+02:00

A few weeks ago I found out that I received a spot in the internship program at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah.

The internship is six weeks long. I will be taking part in the October/November session. So I will be flying into Vegas a few days early before heading to Kanab, which is about four hours outside of Vegas. The internship is defined as animal care. Pretty much the interns work with the different animals that they have there (dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds, farm) than they choose an area to focus on. While I am there I will also be able to attend a workshop that is taking place at the same time as my internship. It is about starting nonprofits, fundraising and a little more of the political aspects of animal work. Should be fun, I can't wait.

Blake and Katie will be here Thursday so I should have pictures from our trips up once we have gone. Munich, Bavaria and Switzerland.

Norway Social

2008-03-15T21:10:00.008+01:00

Here are a few pictures from the social that we went to. We went to the troll park which is a big deal around here. The largest troll in the world is here, it is 14km high. There is also the fairytale castle which tells of the Norwegian fairy tales and also we toured the ice hotel and had a drink at the ice bar. The glass that they served the drinks in were ice! You had to drink it fast or else the ice melted. Even more fun the drinking it was smashing the glasses on the ground when you were done. We had a three course dinner at a restaurant called TrollKavern. The whole place had trolls all around. The food was pretty good, we had smoked salmon with lemon and lime it was good lots of flavor, then we had reindeer (yes I ate rudolph :-P) it wasn't too bad, a different taste but not bad. Then we had cloudberries and ice cream. Cloudberries are rare and found more often in Northern countries, they are yellow and bitter. I guess they make good alcohol too but we didn't try any. It was interesting, it was a good thing we had Rune there to explain all the Norwegian stuff, like cloudberries!

Here are a few pictures of the fairytale castle.

Here are a few pictures of the trolls. The first one is of the huge 14km troll. I wish we could have gotten better pictures but it was snowing and we were being rounded up for dinner while we were trying to get pictures. The last two are from the restaurant where we had dinner.

The first picture is from this igloo that had a chess set in it. We were bored waiting for people get done with the fairytale castle tour so I was going to put Luke out of his misery with a giant chess pon :-P The second photo is of Hafjell Ski Resort, the 1994 winter Olympics were here in Lillehammer and this hill was were they did some events. We also saw the Viking Ship, which is were they had the Olympic speedskating event but I wasn't quick enough to snap a pic. The third one is the largest lake in Norway i just took the picture while we were stopped on the train heading back to Oslo. I thought that it was pretty.

Here are some pictures from the ice hotel. The first one is of the ice bar. I couldn't get a really good picture because it was so crowded. It was neat though the whole bar was made of ice and they had a huge bottle of liquor in an ice bottle sitting on the bar. The second picture is of wedding clothes that were in the ice chapel. The third and fourth pictures are of the chapel in the ice hotel. The last is a picture of Luke and Rune with their drinks...notice that the cups are ice. It was a good thing that they brought gloves.

More ice hotel pictures. The first is of Luke in what I call the man room. It had all sorts of power tools drilled into the wall, definitely geared more towards the male demographic. The second picture is the entrance to the ice hotel. The third picture is me at the ice hotel. It wasn't as cold as I though it would be, even sitting on the bed wasn't too bad.

The last picture is of the reindeer meat. I felt so bad eating rudolph! It was just weird to think of eating reindeer since it is so uncommon, but in Norway it is just as normal as eating beef or chicken. Everyone was making fun of me at our table because I was so apprehensive about eating reindeer, eventually we just decided that we weren't eating reindeer at all it was really elk :-P That was until Rune made the comment, " Yumm, Rudolph tastes fantastic!" It was a fun evening.

What Disney Princess Are You?

2008-03-12T08:41:00.000+01:00

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Norway Day 1

2008-03-11T14:55:00.009+01:00

I got around to doing some exploring this afternoon. I got up early and went down to breakfast with Luke before he left for his meetings. Did some homework down in the lobby, they have really comfortable chairs and sofas everywhere which is nice. The hotel lobby has a very homey feel. It was snowing this morning so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to go out to far and get pictures. But by noon the snow had stopped so I wandered down into town, which was quite far. Our hotel is on this huge hill that goes straight down. Now going down wasn't bad at all but going back up was horrible! The town is nice, there is one main street it kind of reminds me of Heinsberg. I stopped in a 7-11 because I thought bottled water would be cheaper there than at the hotel because it is 7-11! No I paid 57NOK which is one more than I would have paid had I got it here and it still was like $8 for two bottles of water!!
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Just a few of the cute houses that I saw walking into town. I love the wood and multicolors I think that it is just too cute.

A couple more cool buildings that I saw I think the second one is some type of school but I am not sure. I just thought that they looked neat.

Some pictures of the snow and of a church that I came across. I have a few more but I have yet to figure out how to turn them the right way.

Tomorrow is the social so we are supposed to be heading to the ice hotel, should be fun.

Norway

2008-03-10T17:47:00.002+01:00

Well we are here in Lillehammer! Our flights were good, we had a layover in Copenhagen, which is a really nice airport! Just got in to Lillehammer, lots of snow and cold! It is pretty here though, but our hotel is up on this huge hill so hopefully I will be able to make it into to town without falling on my face too many times. Hotel is alright, we don't have internet in our room which sucks. So I am sitting in the lobby and will probably be spending a lot of time here since i need to do schoolwork and use the internet! I will try to upload some pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Biking/Dusseldorf

2008-02-21T13:28:00.002+01:00

Just a few pictures from our biking, I think the ones here are from in the fields behind Langbroich and some are of a park in Ubach-Palenberg that we rode too, also an old windmill that is semi-near our house, we rode over too it, on accident we were a bit lost. Also a picture of the Rhine river and Dusseldorf. I need to remember to start turning my pictures the right way when I upload them, such a pain though!

We haven't been too busy lately. The past few weekends have been really nice so we have been doing a lot of short bike trips, usually only about 10km or so. A few weekends back we went to Dusseldorf with Marita and Christian, it was really nice there, I love Dusseldorf it is one of my favorite cities!

More Karneval Pictures...

2008-02-09T17:08:00.000+01:00

These are just a few with us in our costumes. It was SO cold, I think we all had on like three layers of clothes, luckily the costumes were a bit baggy so we were able to fit so many clothes! It was so much fun and I loved my costume...it was so comfortable to wear around. There is this great store in Heerlen, NL that has hundreds of cool costumes, I told Luke we will have to get some for Halloween. They had really cute Pirate ones but were out of them :-(

This was a really cute picture. My friend's daughter wanted to dance, but nobody wanted to dance so everyone told her to go bother Luke and Luke gave in and danced. After this she followed him around all day, knowing he would play with her!

Aachen Karneval

2008-02-07T14:33:00.000+01:00

These are all pictures of floats from the Aachen Karneval Parade. There aren't too many because after awhile I got bored taking pictures and decided it would be much more fun to get the candy with everyone else! Plus I was in the back and all of my pictures had heads in them anyways.

Here is a cute picture of Luke and Kriss. They were both so cold! It was a cold day out however. It didn't help that we thought the parade started an hour before it actually did so we were waiting outside for an hour listening to an announcer talking in German. The only word I recognized was "Alaaf" because that is the Karneval saying. Oh ya for my own future reference because I keep forgetting, Karneval is called Fasching in Southern Germany (couldn't remember that for the life of me this weekend).

I have a lot more pictures from Karneval of us in our costumes but they are all turned sideways at the moment and I need to go in and fix them and then i will post them. Hopefully soon!

Langbroich Karneval

2008-02-02T21:32:00.001+01:00

We had the big Karneval celebration this year in Langbroich. There was a huge parade and parties all over, it was a blast. The parade route went right down our street so we could watch from our windows if we wanted (which some of us did!) My friend Elizabeth and her two daughters came to our house to watch the parade and we sat outside and I brought Duke out with us. It was fun out and there was lots of music and the girls got a lot of candy and weird stuff like kleenex, dish scrubbers and even a carrot! We didn't get all the way dressed up today we just did crazy hats, tomorrow we are heading to Aachen for a big parade and we are going all out with the costumes. Should be a blast!

Cute picture! I like the black and white.

This was just a really good picture of Duke, he is so photogenic!

This guy was cool he actually posed for a good picture.

My pink hair is so cool! We only wore our hats today but tomorrow we are doing the full outfits.

This picture was too cute, you can tell Duke was enjoying himself at Karneval too! He loved the attention and it was a great socializing outing for him!

These two guys just came over and laid down next to Duke it freaked him out a bit at first, but he soon loved the attention. He was a huge hit all the people in the parade wanted to come over and pet him and play with him. (It probably didn't help that most of them were drunk!)

One of the floats from the parade.

Castle Hoensbroek & Tongeren, Belgium

2008-01-28T13:28:00.000+01:00

This is Castle Hoensbroek in the Netherlands. It is only about 30 minutes from our house but Saturday was the first time we had been there! I can't believe how close it was and we never went before. It is a very small castles compared to others that we have seen but the outside was really neat and it is a moated castle which you do not see very often. The inside was a little underwhelming, at least in my opinion, too touristy and more for kids, but it was still interesting to see and it had some information about the history of the castle and the area.

I thought that this was neat. It was in the courtyard of the castle and it has the directions (N,S,E,W) in the stone.

Luke and I at Castle Hoensbroek

Just me messing up people's pictures, I learned everything I know from Kyle! :-P

On Sunday we went to Tongeren, Belgium for their famous antiques market, it is one of the most popular in Europe and the second largest in Europe. We got there late and only really had about 2-3 hours to look around which was not even close to being enough time, most people show up at 7am and shop until 2pm. Well we did have some good finds. Above is our new kitchen hutch, we have been looking for one of these for nearly two years!!! This one isn't an antique...yet, it is only about 60 years old but it is in near perfect condition and beautiful, the picture doesn't do it justice. We were lucky that the guy gave us a really, really good price and then after we decided to take it he knocked another 25 Euro off the already awesome price. So this made my day! We also got a small antique bookcase that is dark oak and over 100 years old, it has some really unique, interesting carvings on the side which i really liked. There was a nice trunk there from 1880 that I may have to go back for in a few weeks :-)

I know this picture is the wrong way!! Eeek! But it shows the carvings on the sides of our bookshelf that I really like.

Well now the weekend is over and back to school, hopefully we will go some more interesting places next weekend if the weather stays nice. And Luke just got back from Toledo, Spain and I will put some pictures up from there soon.

Christmas & New Years

2008-01-10T17:06:00.000+01:00

Rudy is hiding like always. Every time the camera comes out he is running under a table or behind something, which is why there are not more pictures of him.

Duke with his favorite toy. He just loves this goose and carries it around with him everywhere.

Duke looked so cute in his reindeer ears, unfortunately he would rather chew on them than wear them, so they didn't last too long.

Yes I am a slacker, i know that. We had a good Christmas here in Germany. We got to sleep in and be lazy. I made a little bit of food, but not too much since it was just Luke and I. For New Years Eve we had a few friends over to hang out. We ate, drank and lit off fireworks, which are legal here. Everyone was setting them off all along our street at midnight it was actually pretty cool.

Ukiah

2007-12-30T18:46:00.001+01:00

I headed up to Ukiah about a week after I landed in Vegas so the exact day was like the 17, which was way to soon to be getting back on a plane in my opinion. Luke and Kriss picked me up in Sacramento that evening. The flight was nice and short and I had like mobsters or gangsters sitting on the plane next to me so I felt safe because they were very friendly mobster/gangsters. I had a really nice visit with everyone. Katie, Mona and I went and got our nails done, which was really nice since they don't have any place to do it near base here. We did Christmas for us while we were there and had a nice dinner with everyone. I know Luke was really sad to leave, it is always hard to leave family.

Just hanging out at Tom and Kriss's the night before we left.

Me, Luke, Katie and Blake at our Ukiah Christmas

Me, Luke and our cute little nephew, Darren! It was so nice finally getting to meet the little guy.

All the brothers and Darren.

In the end our trip was great. We both had a great time but like always it was WAY too short. Hopefully we will be back soon, or at least within two years. I know I will be back at the latest May '09 for Kelsey's graduation, but even that seems too far away.

Las Vegas

2007-12-30T18:40:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Las Vegas surprisingly in one piece and Luke made it to Tucson! What a hectic flight we had, it is nothing short of miraculous that we made our flights from Denver to Tucson/Las Vegas! My trip to Las Vegas was good. It was great being able to see family again except for the fact that you really realize how much you miss them when you are there with them. I got to eat a lot of great food, well maybe not great food, just plain old fast food, which was great to me since I don't get it anymore in Germany. I think Kyle had thought I went crazy when i kept talking about Del Taco like it was the best thing ever! Well Kyle put up with my craziness rather well even though he doesn't understand what is so fascinating about fast food and my old work and the fact that I am horrible at taking night pictures.
I had a chance to go out to eat with my good friend Pam who i hadn't seen in forever. That was a blast and makes me miss going out for sushi and just having a friend to talk to who knew me before I got married. I got to go and see people from the Las Vegas Valley Humane Society which probably made my whole trip. It was my top thing to do while I was in Las Vegas, although it was probably the worst thing to do because it made me so sad. I think that volunteering with them was one of the best decisions I have made and i miss it and the amazing people so much. What else, what else...I did a lot of shopping. It wasn't so great though because i was Christmas shopping so I had to shop for other people and not myself, even though I did cheat a little and got some clothes.
It was amazing how fast the time flew by, one week felt like just a day when I look back. There was not enough time to do everything but I think i did all i really wanted in Vegas. I did realize that no matter were I am Vegas is home, it is my favorite place to be (even with the heat!).

This is just a picture I took out of the window while we were driving in traffic. Which is another thing i miss, traffic! These were more for the benefit of our German friends who haven't been to Las Vegas. I will post more pictures when my lazy brother decides to email the pictures from his camera!

Winter in Germany

2007-12-06T11:59:00.000+01:00

So the weather has been horrible here! We are lucky if we get a day above 45 degrees! Lots of rain and overcast days. We have been busy getting ready to head back to the states. So much to do, so little time. Luke has started his Masters program and is busy busy keeping up with that and working. I am STILL taking classes, I am down to like 40 credits to graduate! The dogs are good, Duke is huge! Luke thinks he weighs between 80-90 pounds, and he is still stupid. He loves nothing more than running through every mud puddle he can find. Rudy is just as dainty as always, hates getting dirty. We haven't been doing much traveling since Italy, just relaxing at home. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.

Amalfi Coast

2007-10-31T15:44:00.000+01:00

On Friday before we headed back to Naples we drove down the Amalfi coast, through Positano and stopped in Amalfi for lunch. It was a beautiful drive, finally a place in Italy that I really liked. The restaurant we stopped at in Amalfi was great too, they had amazing spaghetti carbonara.
Unfortunately all the pictures are of me in my sloppy, travel clothes since we were flying out of Naples that evening :-(

More Sorrento Pics

2007-10-31T15:28:00.000+01:00

Sorrento was beautiful. We had a beautiful view from our hotel room! The sunset pictures were taken when i was coming back from Stabia. The hotel room picture was before the conference semi-formal dinner. Luke wouldn't let me take a picture of him though!

Castellammare di Stabie, Italy

2007-10-31T15:02:00.001+01:00

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OK wow that was a lot of photos! All from one day! Well this was from our Sorrento trip. On Wednesday while Luke was in his conference working, all the spouses went to Castellammare di Stabia and went to a spa and than went and saw the Stabia ruins. They were really amazing, we only got to see one villa that has been excavated. Stabia used to be the resort town for all of the bigwigs thousands of years ago. Than Mount Vesuvious (sp?) erupted and covered Stabia, Pompeii and the surrounding areas. Stabia is the lesser known site and has not had many sites excavated yet. It was amazing though, to see how old the things were and how well some things were preserved.

Sorrento, Italy

2007-10-23T13:16:00.000+02:00

We arrived in Sorrento last night after a full day of chaotic travelling. We left the house at eight in the morning to drop off the dogs and then we were going to get the train to Dusseldorf. We met one of Lukes colleagues at the train station and waited and waited but the German train drivers have been on strike the past few weeks so of course it affected or train (although they weren't SUPPOSED to be striking and the day we were travelling). So we had to call a taxi to take us to the airport! The flight from Dusseldorf to Munich was easy but in Munich they had overbooked our flight to Naples so they were trying to get people to wait for the next flight. Luckily we made it on the flight, although we did think 'hmm we should just hang out in Munich for the night, if only certain people didn't have to be at meetings the next day!" In Naples we rented a car and drove to Sorrento. The peninsula that Sorrento is on is a crazy drive, lots of small rodes and curves. And the mopeds here are crazy, they just zoom in and out of traffic. We learned the rule for driving in Italy, "You stop, you're done" because nobody will let you move again people come out of nowhere and just drive everywhere! Well we finally got to the hotel at seven at night. The hotel is really nice, our room has a gorgeous view overlooking Naples Bay and Mount Vesuvius (sp?). (Pictures attached are from our balcony) We had a nice dinner at the hotel. It should be a fun week, tomorrow there is a trip to a spa for the spouses and Thursday we are going to Pompeii and we are hoping to drive over to Positano or Amalfi on Wednesday night for dinner, so I will be able to take more pictures.

Oktoberfest!

2007-10-18T21:13:00.000+02:00

Important tip...when doing a blog it helps not to lose the password and username. Last Sunday we went to on of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations in our area, in Haaren. It was a really fun experience. Kind of like a carnival back in the states. The food was so good and the music was good. They had a German band playing and everyone dressed in traditional Bavarian Oktoberfest clothing. The dresses are so neat, I decided that i want one but I don't know where I would ever wear it after we left Germany. It was a very exciting week, Mona had her little baby boy! He is such a cutie, it is just kind of sad that we can't be there. But everyone sends lots of pictures so it is nice! We are getting ready to head back to Italy next week. I am tired of Italy (who thought that would be possible) and ready to go somewhere else. We will probably be going back to the states in a few months which will be SO nice. Being able to communicate with people and eat fast food again will be so great! Well other than that nothing much is up, i am on break from school for a few weeks. Luke is starting his classes for his Masters n November, which he doesn't seem to be as excited about as I am. I am just a weird person who actually LIKES school. Oh ya and my brother is a HUGE dork (and I hope he reads this, *Your story is in the works :-P*)

Latina, Italy

2007-10-09T14:14:00.000+02:00

We got back from Latina, Italy last Friday. It is so good to be home, I am so sick of flying and sitting in airports! Latina was really nice. It isn't really a historic town, which was good because there were not many tourists. It was really nice there, lots of shops and squares to just hang out in. We mostly ate at our hotel because the food there was SO good!! Finally we had some good Italian food! That made me happy. We are happy to be home and relaxing with the dogs. Duke has grown so much, he weighs about 70 pounds and will only be 7 months old on the 10th! We will be heading back to Italy again in a few weeks for the third time this month! Heading to Sorrento, which is supposed to be beautiful, it is right on the coast.

Rome Pictures

2007-10-06T19:21:00.001+02:00

Rome Pictures

2007-09-26T14:52:00.001+02:00

Roman Ruins

Roman Ruins

Statue of Romulus and Remus

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Statue of Marcus Aurelius at Campidolglio

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A statue at Campidoglio, not sure what it is but Luke liked it.

Campidoglio

Rome

2007-09-19T10:16:00.000+02:00

Our flight into Rome was interesting, we flew on this tiny plane, well it wasnt even a plane it was actually a jet. Luke was joking at the airport that it was going to be our plane but it wasn't as funny for him when it ACTUALLY was our plane. It only seated about 45 people and was so small inside that Luke couldn't even stand all the way up! It was a nice flight though only about two hours and the flight attendants were very nice which is a change from most flights in the states.

Rome is great so far. The food at least! We haven't been exploring much yet, since our hotel is kind of away from everything. The hotel is nice, VERY modern, it is interesting. I will put up pictures when we get back home. I remembered the camera but forgot the cord to transfer pictures to the computer.

We have eaten a lot of Italian food so far. I have liked everything but unfotunately Luke isn't as easily satisfied. He thinks the pizza in Germany is better than Italy! Crazy! Tonight should be good, we are going out to a five course meal with some Italians from Luke's meetings, so they should know the good place.