Germany

We're home! It was a whirlwind two weeks and I have 600 photos to go through to figure out which ones are the best to post here. It was a great trip, we had so much fun over there. I'm going try to go in order of our trip and right now I am only going to post the first few days.

Here is a castle called Vianden. It's emmense!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't it beautiful? It's so bizarre how you drive around the countryside in Germany looking for these huge castles, you can be so close to them and they are hidden so well. Unexpectedly, you turn a corner and bam..there it is!

Ian and I are getting ready to tour Berg Eltz. I enjoyed the times that Ian wanted on my back. This was the first castle that we were able to take a tour of and go inside. This castle is still owned by the original family and the family still lives in part of it. Can you even imagine that? I think this castle is my favorite. It looks like a fairy tale.

Here is a portion of a cute little town called Bernkastel-Kues. I loved this town. It was surrounded by vineyards and a lot of the houses had grape vines growing over their front doors. I can not tell you how tempted I was to just wander over to someones house and pull off a cluster of grapes. The town had this beautiful scent to it and we believe that it actually smells like freshly made grape juice. During our visit there a German band marched through town. This was definately my favorite town.

Notice the grapes! Looks tempting huh?

Here are some castle ruins above the town. It's called Castle Landshut. There is actually a restaurant inside this castle.

The view of the town Bernkastle from the castle.

I was going to go in order of our trip but this happened on the last night and I thought I would share. Yes, we met one of the Vergori's "little" friends. You can't really tell, but this one is 3 inches. There was a lot of screaming happening that night. Oh, and yes..that is a Tim Vergori hand. He came home the last day of our trip and we go to experience the homecoming. But, that's for another post! :)

My next post will be Rome! Stay tuned.

Finally...A Post

Wow! It's been a whirlwind of activity over here and today we have decided to have a down day.

The trip has been great. We arrived in Germany the morning of the 14th. The trip was surprisingly uneventful. I don't know what I was expecting - at least to be questioned by customs or something, but that didn't even happen. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get into the country.

The first day was just a matter of trying to stay awake. I fell asleep at 6 pm at the dinner table. Thankfully, Reese had not put dinner on yet. At that point I had been awake for 30 hours and it was time for bed. The first several days were difficult to get used to the time change as we are 9 hours ahead over here but I have gotten used to it and am finally sleeping well.

We have had a blast and have seen so many sights. We have gone to several castles, including whole castles and castle ruins. We have been to so many little German communities. The Germans (around here anyway) have beautiful homes with flowers decorating the outside of their homes and yards. It is so pretty here. They live in the middle of rolling green hillside, some of the country seems straight out of a fairy tale. Yesterday I rode a ski lift straight up the mountain next to a castle.

Holly & I left for Rome on Wednesday. Talk about culture shock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were times that I really hated Rome. But, now that I am done with it, I am thankful to have had the opportunity to be there. I learned and experienced ALOT! We even got "hit on" by several different Italian guys. I don't think they have any boundaries there..sometimes it was a little scary, but I get a good laugh thinking about it now :)

When we arrived on Wednesday we were very overwhelmed. But, we were able to find our hotel, drop off our stuff and then we saw the town on a double decker bus. That was really neat and helped us get our barrings. Thursday we walked for 10 hours. We saw so many things, including the Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Palentine Hill, Trevia Fountain and Spanish Steps. We saw sculptures by Michael Angelo and paintings by Leonardo De Vinci. Friday we mastered the metro and headed for the Vatican. We went through the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel and then headed over to St. Peter's Cathedral and even saw where Pope John Paul is buried. I am not a history buff so a lot of Rome was confusing to me. We had two different tour guides for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum so that was helpful. I am determined when I get home to read up on some of the things that I saw so that my trip to Rome is more meaningful.

I am so thankful to be back in Germany. When in Rome I was homesick and missing Oregon but here I feel "at home". I am having a blast with the Vergori's and being with them is being with family.

That's my trip in a nutshell so far. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show you. That will have to wait for when I get home. You can go here for some pictures though.

And, for those of you wondering about Reese's "little friends"...no, thankfully, I have not seen any!!!!

Tristyn Goes To School

Tristyn started school on Thursday. My baby is in kindergarten. Can someone tell me how that happened?

Here she is walking up the hill to her school. It was a very emotional day for both of us. She thought she was excited until the teacher blew her whistle for the kids to line up. Then she realized that I would soon be leaving and that was it for her. There were a lot of tears and I had to really hold it in check so I didn't bawl along with her. It doesn't help to know that I leave on Thursday and can't make sure she is okay every day.























This was the last picture I got before the tears fell. I knew in this instant that things were not going to go well. But, she does love her teacher and her class..she just doesn't love leaving her mommy!

How We Spent Our Evening

Tristyn's new thing is to lay down under Dan's desk. Whenever she gets tired, she goes there for a little quiet time. When Dan & I were gone for the weekend she went there and slept. For some reason it seems to be her safe place. She spent a lot of time there this evening. I think this week is going to wear the poor girl out.























Landon spent the evening doing homework..a lot of homework. He had to: read for 30 minutes, do 100 math problems and write the names of every student in his class 3 times. He probably worked for about 2 hours. I think he's going to have a great year and his teacher is wonderful, but the homework might kill us :)

He was rewarded with about 30 minutes of the Crocodile Hunter and then off to bed.

Leaving For School

Here they are. Before they headed off to school. Kyleigh is going into 7th, Landon into 4th and Tristyn is off to kindergarten. I think this is going to be a great year for all of them. Tristyn only went to school for about 45 minutes today - just long enough to fall in love with it and never want to leave.

I just have one question...where did the summer go???

One Year Anniversary

For some reason my post below did not include my comments. But, today is the one year anniversary of the death of Steve Irwin. Hard to believe it's been one year. Anyway, I thought I would post the video below because you will get a good laugh. I think most people have seen this..but, it's worth watching again!

Our thoughts and prayers are with Terry, Bindi, Bob and the Australia Zoo family today.

STEVE IRWIN Meets ROSS the Intern