Halloween!

So sorry. I finally got some photos of Halloween to Post!
Brian went as a One Night Stand and I went as Operation the board game.


Our friends the Zotters went as a cop and criminal
(Pam and Chris are leaving next month! Gotta love the Army! They're heading back to Ft. Rucker for a few months so Chris can complete the Captains course and HOPEFULLY! they'll be back in Germany by next summer. We'll miss them dearly - they have two male dogs, Ollie and Piper who give my girls a run for their money and they have really grown to love their walks together. We'll miss you Zotters!)



and here are some of the guys trying to see how much stuff they could put on Brian's night stand. (Brian Vega, Brian Smit and Chris Zotter)

Dublin, Ireland.

We got some great tickets to Dublin for Thanksgiving weekend. Brian and I are both flying round trip for $161.00 - our hotel won't be nearly as cheap, but it's cheap for Dublin. We didn't really have plans to go anywhere for Thanksgiving, it all just kinda happened - as many of our trips do. With great rates we called Josh and Derrek and they'll be going too. We used to refer to Josh and Derrek as 'The Schillings' - Josh's last name, ever since our trip to Croatia when the hotel had a reservation for 'Mr. and Mrs. Schilling' well they are 'the Schillings' no more. Josh is back in Alabama this week getting married to Victoria. The wedding was on Saturday and we're super sad we missed it, but super excited for Josh and Victoria.

Here's a photo of the four of us from the boy's graduation last year


We get back from Dublin on the 30th and go straight from Frankfurt Main to Ramstein to catch our Space A flight to the states for a few weeks. I'll be in Virginia from Dec 1 (I hope) until the 10th when I fly to Michigan. Brian will be in Virginia for 2 days before he flies to Savannah on the 3rd and from Atlanta to Michigan on the 7th. We both fly from Michigan back to DC on the 16th and from there will hopefully catch Space A back to Germany.

Brian is going with our friend Stevel Clavel to Birmingham for some much needed "jeep time" from the 4th to the 7th. He'll be attending an event at an off road shop called Blue Torch Fabworks which used to be located near us in Alabama and recently re-located to Birmingham. They had an event last year that Brian helped out with and when the chance came up for him to help again he jumped at it. This year they will be working on the Jeep of a Army Reservist who had his Jeep vandalized while he was deployed to the middle east. I just hope it gives him his 'jeep fix' so maybe he forgets about the go-cart he really wants to buy. He'll also get to do a little four wheeling with Clavel.

Our favorite pond.

Well after a long week of rain, rain and more rain. Mother nature made up for it on Saturday with 60s and SUNNY. Not a cloud in the sky. Today, it's so foggy you can barely see your hand in front of your face. So anywho. Brian, the girls and I headed for our new favorite pond only to find that it's been partially drained for winter.

Our favorite pond two weeks ago:


Our favorite pond last week:


Both dogs still went swimming and had a great time chasing field mice. Overall the weather hasn't been too bad this week. Sunny and cold during the day.

Sommerrodelbahn or summer rodeling.

This was our second time summer rodeling. Brian and I went during our adventure to Salzburg, Austria/Berchtesgaden, Germany in June. We had an AMAZING time and since we were so close to the place we went rodeling on our recent Austria adventure we thought we'd take Josh and Derrek too! You can either hike to the top or ride a ski lift and then of course hike to the bottom (heck no!) or take the sled (ohhh yes!). THe most fun you can have for 8 euro.

Getting to the top. Josh and Derrek


Left to Right: Derrek, Brian and Josh at the top.


Brian and I


Old school summer rodeling?!? I think these actually required snow.


Brian


Some famous guy...


another view from the top


Even little ones can go!


Brian


Josh


Derrek:


and a video of my trip down the first part of the mountain

A year comes and goes...

I'm taking a break from posting about our recent trip to Austria (I still have to post summer rodeling photos) to post about our first year in Germany. Well...Brian's first year. So one year down and two to go...if only I could convince him to stay a little longer.

The past year has been amazing! We've met so many wonderful new friends, German and American and had so many wonderful adventures.

In the past year we've been to Germany (of course), Austria (too many times to count), Italy (twice together), Croatia (everything I expected Italy to be...that it wasn't), Slovenia, Spain (dry, hot, and sandy) and Egypt (dry, hot, sandy...and they have camels!). I also traveled to Rome, Italy with my friend Shannon from the states and Poland and Prague, Czech Republic when my Aunt Chris was visiting last month. Overall it's been amazing, and even though Brian will deploy sometime in 2009 I hope we will continue to travel as much as possible until the day he leaves.

My only regret is that I would have started this blog sooner...I feel like I have so much catching up to do.

On our way to Rothenburg, at the Colmberg fortress. Brian, Achim and Josh. (December)


Did someone say sausage? Our first Christmas Market in the famous Christmas City, Rothenburg.


On top of the world...ok ok ok...on top of Germany! The Zugspitz, Germany's tallest mountain. (December)


Visiting the Pope, while in Rome. (January)


They sure do have fancy TVs here. (marriage retreat with our church - February)


First BIG snow. While working in Garmisch, Germany during the spring we got a little snow...it took me 45 minutes to dig out my car for my 1/2 mile drive to work. The Germans of course rode their bikes. (March - the day after Easter)


AHHHH! Now this is what I'm taking about! Hurghada, Egypt. (It snowed the morning we left for our trip...I was never so happy to see the ocean! - April)


oh and I met a new friend.


We headed to Croatia with a few friends. Josh, Derrek, Jake, Catie, Brian and Nicole (Memorial Day weekend and our Anniversary!)


In June we headed for a little family va-cay in Bertchesgaden, Germany.


Then in July we headed down to Sacile and Venice, Italy to visit Derrek before he moved up to Germany.


For Labor Day it was off to Spain for one last fun in the sun trip for the summer.


In September my Aunt Chris came to visit. Here we're at the The Documentation Center Nazi Party Rallying Grounds Nürnberg. German: Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände



Needless to say it's been an amazing year!! We look forward to future visitors and more adventures. In the coming weeks and months I'm going to *TRY* to post summeries of our trips with more photos of each adventure. We'll see.

Cole

Mountain Animals.

Everytime we head to the alps it always amazes me how the animals adapt to the terrain. You would think these cows/sheep/horses were mountain goats. Some of the photos are a little fuzzy. Josh wouldn't stop the car.

We were on the train when we saw the chickens...but they are mountain chickens none the less, better than normal chickens. These guys make Oktoberfest the best!


Mountain Sheep. I got to get super up close and personal when we went summer rodeling - I'll explain in a later post.


Those crazy mountain ducks.


Mountain cows.


A close up shot of some mountain cows...zooooooooomed in.


A few more INSANE mountain cows during our trip to the Grossglockner Pass in Austria - June 2008. These cows really were crazy, what you don't see is the mountain drop off to no where...look at the mountain in the background...you get the idea.


Mountain horses. You have to trust me on this one...Josh wasn't slowing down!

...more Austria photos.

We rounded out our day of skiing and headed down the mountain. By 5pm we were down, packing up gear and heading for our hotel...40K or 25 miles away, but Bossy (the GPS) kept telling us it was going to take a solid 2 hours to get there. We were a little confused, but went with it. Within 15 minutes we had knocked out 24K and still Bossy was telling us we had 1 hour 40 minutes to go. Still confused we kept driving...then when Bossy told us to take a right...onto some train tracks, we figured it out. We had to drive our car onto a 'train ferry' to take us through a mountain. OHHHH. Silly us, why didn't we think of that earlier *insert sarcasm here*. Well it didn't take an hour but we didn't have to wait too long before the train came and we loaded the car up. Once on the train we had to get out and ride in a passenger car.

We finally made it to the hotel in Bad Gastein. In Germany and in Austria any city beginning with BAD has a 'therme' or spa located in the town. Well in Bad Gastein, ours happened to be right outside of our hotel. The 4 of us headed off for the therme to relax and recoop after a day of sking. We were more like kids in a candy store. There was a slide - which we went down about 40 times, a diving board - that Brian used to smack his face on the pool bottom, and awesome heated pools outdoors and inside and a sauna, that we didn't go in, b/c you had to be naked or have a towel - no bathing suits allowed.

After hanging out in the therme for a few hours we hit up a chinese restaurant across the street and heading home for some much needed sleep.



taking a break


the FOUR year old that smoked me


Derrek and Josh with their Dunkel (dark) bier


hanging out waiting for the boys


last 3 on the mountain..they look like little black dots (and I zoomed in!)


Bossy, Josh's GPS showing us the way onto the train




unloading


View from our hotel