Joy in the Journey

Rothenburg

When we were done with Dinkelsbühl we made our way to Rothenburg. It is another beautiful village. You should see it at Christmas. Wow!! There is also the most spectacular Christmas store there.

This village is one of my parents' favorite places to visit. They would show it to everyone who came to visit them. Now we are doing it for them. I have so many memories of this place.

I love all these pictures of David interacting with the girls.

What is the biggest bear you have ever seen? I think these take the cake. I love the one of the girls sitting on the bench with it.

If any of you have seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (the one with Dick Van Dyke) you may recognize this. They filmed it here and you see this view of the city a couple times. It is a great place.

What do you do when you a tons and tons and tons of marshmellows and no camping trips planned? You break out the bbq and roast them!! And that is exactly what Grandpa did. No one wants old, hard marshmellows.

Does letting your daughter be outside in her pajamas make me a spontaneous, wonderful mother...or a negligent one?

Dinkelsbühl, Germany

This is the exact spot where a picture was taken that my Grandma did a gorgeous painting of. This painting has been around ever since I can remember. When my grandparents were here for our wedding they found the village where the picture was taken. So when David came for a visit we went to the village and found the spot. It was amazing to see it in person. The funny thing is that we learned that the tower is where they used to put prisoners to rot. I doubt my Grandma knows that.

And there were swans on the pond that the girls loved. I like how David and I are standing the same way. Anne didn't have any clean pants so she had to wear her pajama pants most of the day.

This was my girls' first chance to really be with their Uncle David and they warmed up to him so fast. This is also one of the most beautiful villages in Germany I have ever seen. There are no modern building in it at all. I love it. It is like going back in time.

And to end it all...believe it or not, this is the actual remains of a saint. He has been dressed in armour and all sorts of clothing. That is just gross to me, but I couldn't pass up the chance to share it with you all.

This was just the beginning of our day with David. More to come.

Would You Believe It?

I turned on Dumbo for Anne and Alicia the other day. They loved it. But I ended up in tears. Such a sad movie. Poor Dumbo is separated from his mom and is mocked and bullied the whole movie. Jared would have been proud of me though. He wishes that I would get more emotional during movies. Perhaps I am.

Pancakes Anyone?

This is how our girls make pancakes. It looks like quite the production to me. Not sure how their system works.

There was a fun parade in our town the other day.

Look, Look!!!

I was in the bathroom for just a couple seconds putting something away and found that my baby had learned something new in those few short seconds. Oh boy, how time flies!!! She was holding onto the bars of the gate we have in front of our stairs going down. And the best part of all was that she was standing. I was both panicked and excited. Panicked because of where she decided to try her new skill, but excited to see she could do it.

I put Katie in her bed while the Anne and Alicia were cleaning their room. She had to most fun of all I think. She kept going up and down, up and down, over and over and over again. Each time I got the camera out to record it she would giggle and giggle. I am not sure it will be easy to get her to sleep anymore.

I just thought this one was cute.

Mexican Birthday

I finally got these picture from so long ago off Jared's phone. And because they are from his phone they are blurry. The light wasn't very good.

Anywho, this is from when we went to our favorite mexican restaurant for our friend's birthday. And here they are:

Goofy picture, but it was all I had. This is Ben and Jenny. Jared grew up with them. Ben was one of his best friends. If I were to show you some of the pictures I have found of their times together as kids, you would all wet your pants from laughter. Jenny has been the best thing for me being away from my family all this time. I am so grateful for the friends they have been to both of us.

It was Ben's birthday so we treated him and Jenny to dinner at the El Mexicano, our restaurant. By the way, they have the best chocolate mousse I have ever had. So worth it and Katie loved it too. She was frantic for every bite of it she could get. Of course, so was I. This restaurant is the best mexican we have found here. The Germans tend to germanize all the mexican food. But this one is pretty good.