Hey Sleeping Beauty, are you in there?

Since Erick didn't have to work the day after Thanksgiving, we decided to go on a little day trip. This is where we went:

This is Neuschwanstein castle. It is only about three hours away from our house. Isn't that cool? But let me tell you about our entire day:

We got up this morning, and I tried to pack a lunch and some snacks for our trip. But there was something in my cooler:

Once we pried TJ out of the collapsible cooler and changed him out of his PJ's, we were on our way.

On the drive we saw some amazing views like this one with the mist rising from a valley:

We got really excited when we could see the Alps in the distance:

We got closer:

Then, suddenly there it was:

When we got to the base of the mountain, we decided to take a carriage ride up. The girls were thrilled. They were like princesses riding a horse-drawn carriage to the ball:

The view on the mountain was spectacular, but TJ preferred looking at the horses:

My favorite views were a little different:

The kids kept calling it "Sleeping Beauty's Castle." I didn't disagree. It looks just like sleeping beauty's castle to me.

Getting closer to the top:

I thought is was so interesting that the front entryway of the castle (to the left of Erick) was a reddish brick. While the rest of the building was covered in limestone.

Joey tried her hand at some photography so that I could be in a picture or two:

Then I took a bunch of close-up pictures of the exterior:

Above the entrance:

Entering the courtyard:

We were in the courtyard for about 15 minutes waiting for our tour to start:

It was a little chilly. Can you tell?

TJ spent most of the day on Erick's shoulders...

...playing:

We could not take any pictures inside the castle, but that's probably a good thing since I have already overloaded this post with too many pictures.

We learned that Ludwig II was obsessed with swans. So everything around this area is called swan-something. Even the castle: Neu = new, schwan = swan, and stein = stone.

The interior was covered in swans as well as paintings of his other passion, opera. He loved music. There were paintings in nearly every room depicting his favorite opera stories.

Other interesting facts: We learned that Ludwig II was insane. We also learned that an architect did not design this building, but instead a theatrical artist, that is, an artist that paints scenery for the stage.

There was a painting of a man slaying a dragon that caught TJ's attention, and later we saw a dragon sculpture. So TJ decided he needed to fight off the dragons that may attack Sleeping Beauty's castle. We complied and bought him a wooden sword in the gift shop.

From Neuschwanstein, we had a great view of Hohenschwangau, another castle, along side Swan Lake:

Here is TJ showing off the castle and sword:

Another view:

Here Joey is showing off the waterfall and our next destination, the bridge:

A close-up of the bridge:

Views from the bridge:

It's even more breathtaking in person. Don't worry, I will bring you here when you come to visit.

Beautiful Amberg

Today we took the family and drove to a city called Amberg.

There was an old rock wall surrounding the historical part of the city. We had to go on a bridge to get inside:

When we got inside, we were not disappointed:

The kids liked the ducks the best (crazy kids).

In the marktplatz (marketplace/city center) we saw lots of shops old and new (workers were putting up the Christmas decorations):

The kids played on giant lions:

We ate bratwurst from a street vendor. TJ loved it:

 

For dessert we purchased some delicious German chocolate (not shown here).

The rest of our time we just walked. We explored cobblestone streets, narrow alleyways, and bridges both old and new:

It was a good day.

**Happy Veterans Day. Thank you to all of you who have served our country!**

The newest member of our family

It's time to celebrate. Why? Because my car finally arrived. I really missed my minivan.

I can now go where I please when I please. I feel so free!

I can go all by myself and see beautiful tree-lines streets all over Bavaria. It's a good feeling.

But this post is not about my car. No, no. It is about the newest member of our family (at least for the next three years).

I'd like to introduce you to Laser:

He is Erick's Hooptie. A Hooptie is what the military guys here in Germany call an old, cheap car that still runs great. Most families buy a Hooptie for commuting to work everyday and use their car from the states for family outings.

Erick's Hooptie is a Beamer (BMW), and TJ and Erick named him Laser because he is "laser blue." (Personally, I think he's too dark to be considered laser-colored, but when it comes to this baby, I keep my opinions to myself.)

I like the old Beamer. He rides very smoothly. He will be a good car. However, there is one thing I don't like about Laser:

He can go really fast (and I mean really, really fast). When Erick drives him on the autobahn, I try not to look at the speedometer.

The only thing that makes me feel better is that he is not going as fast as the cars that are passing us. :)

Tschüss! (Bye!)

Halloween and our awesome neighborhood

We were unsure of what to expect for Halloween this year. We decorated our house with what we had, and we noticed other Halloween decorations in our community.

Happily, Halloween was super fun!

Friday at school, the girls had a Halloween party. Only the kindergartners dressed up.

Friday night we went to a church party. We had dinner and then went out to the parking lot to "trunk-or-treat." - For those of you new to trunk-or-treating, every family decorates the trunk of their car or vehicle and the kids walk from trunk to trunk to get candy. - Sorry, no pictures. I forgot my camera that night.

It turns out that the Germans celebrate Halloween as well, so on Halloween night (Saturday), we dressed the kids up again and did the trick-or-treating thing in our neighborhood.

This year, Joey was an oriental girl, Bailey was a witch, and TJ was a fire fighter.

Erick took the kids around while I stayed at home to give candy to other trick-or-treaters. We had quite a few kids stop by. Most of them were German, but a few were Americans from the community.

Instead of saying "trick-or-treat," the German kids say something that translates into "give me sour." Erick and the kids went to a grumpy German man's house that said, "You say give me, give me. You must perform to earn your candy." I think he scared the kids, but luckily, they were able to perform a little Halloween poem they learned in school to "earn" their candy. Funny.

I had fun handing out candy and meeting the German families in the area. That is until I answered the door and a group of teenagers were on my steps. There were 6 to 8 of them all crowded together with scary masks. As soon as the door was opened, they all pointed guns at me (fake, I hope) and said with thick accents "give us candy fast or we kill you." That kind of took the fun out of it (especially with Erick gone with the kids). But that was the only group of older kids that I saw.

After the trick-or-treating, we went to a friends house to play games while the kids watched movies. We had yummy nachos and pumpkin cookies and lots of fun.

I'm changing the subject now to praise my awesome neighbors and neighborhood.

I have a rule that my kids must stay in the yard unless Erick or I go out with them. So the other evening my kids were playing and wanted to know if they could play in the front yard with the neighbors. I said no because I was in the middle of cooking dinner and Erick was not home. They came back a minute later and asked if the neighbors could come play in our back yard. I said sure, as long as my kids stayed in the back yard, I was fine with it.

A few minutes later, I went to the back door to check on them. They were playing so well and having such a great time that I had to shoot some pictures:

 

There were kids from three different families in the back yard (four if you include our family). I had expected it to be one or two kids from one family.

I just sat there watching them play and suddenly felt overwhelmed with gratitude for so many things: for wonderful neighbors with good kids, for a safe community, and for healthy and happy kids... I could go on and on.

I am so grateful that the Lord has brought us here. I know He has guided my family to a wonderful place at a wonderful time. 

I love my house: The laundry shoot

I have told you about my house of a million stairs, right? Well, we have found an advantage to our spiral-esque staircase.

First, take a look at all those stairs:

Bailey says our stairs look like a flower and the carpet on the stairs makes the flower petals. She's such a girl. :)

If you look closely, you can see TJ looking up at me from the bottom floor. (Hi TJ.) The bottom floor is where the laundry room is located. The bedrooms are all located on the top two floors. So, Voila, this stairwell has turned into a laundry shoot.

It makes it so much easier for me to ask the girls to drop down all their whites rather than walking all the way upstairs to pick up the basket and walk all the way back down.

Now all my lifting is saved for putting the clothes away. Love it!

I love my house: The bathroom

So, I must be honest. The first time I saw my shower, I wondered it if had been designed for someone with disabilities.  But it took only a day or two to realize how awesome it really is.

The height of the shower head is adjustable. Here it is at full height, which happens to be perfect for my 6'3" husband:

And here it is substantially shorter, which is perfect for me at 5 feet:

You may think it's dumb that I love this shower, but with Erick and I being so different in height, there is never a perfect shower height for both of us.

My two girls have even adopted showering over bathing. We lower the shower head to the lowest setting, and it is perfect for them. Not to mention the fact that they have their own shower in their own bathroom upstairs. Man, we are spoiled. :)

Now for la piece de resistance, my bathtub.

It's so long and deep, and we have plenty of hot water to fill the entire thing. Plus, it has that handy sprayer for rinsing soapy hair. LOVE IT!

Come visit, and I'll let you try it out for yourself. :)