Germany Trip

In August I got to go to Germany to visit my sister for 9 days!! Her husband was in the states for the whole month, so I went to "help" with her 4 kids. This was the first significant time we have been able to spend together in 2 years...and it was WONDERFUL.

This view from the plane looks like it could be Portland or Seattle...did I really just fly that long only to be home?? Nope, it's Frankfurt!

The first day was a daze...I got there at about 10 in the morning and Christina wouldn't let me sleep AT ALL. We went and did things all day so that I couldn't go to sleep...all the kids helped in the quest to keep me awake. Aliya was especially good at sitting and talking to me and asking me questions when I seemed ready to fall asleep. It was a LONG day, but it really helped in getting over the jet lag quickly!

They bought this great house that looks tiny from the outside but is REALLY big! There are three levels, including an apartment downstairs where I slept - when I was finally allowed to sleep. :) Oh, and that big bear in the picture above...

That's Juna, the 7th member of the family, and the nicest dog I have ever met. For anyone who knows me, this is really saying something, because I am generally in the anti-dog category. However, this dog is really awesome. She is HUGE, but so sweet and soft. And my allergies didn't act up at all (they have a cat, too, but no problems!).

This is a yummy little cafe around the corner from their house where we had brunch one day, and ice cream on another day.

Me with Aliya, 9 (left) and Emma, 12 (right)

Christina with William, 5 and Jordan, 7

William is so funny! He is making a silly face in most of the pictures I have. He definitely kept me entertained!

These next pictures are from Berg Nanstein...a castle that is about 5 minutes from their house.

We came to this castle a couple of different times. One of them we met up with their friends who have a little girl named Mairin - pronounced the same as our Maren and she is the same age...oh, and the mom's name is Jen!!

Almost every day we took Juna for a walk in the woods behind their house - it's more like a hike up a big hill (on a trail) and then back down. It was great exercise!

We dragged Emma along with us because school hadn't started for her yet. She goes to an American school on base and the three younger kids go to a German school in their village. They were in school during the day while I was there. Emma turned 12 while I was there! So fun to be there to celebrate this HUGE birthday with my 1st niece!


A beautiful view was the reward for getting to the top. :)

These next pictures are from Baumholder - the Army base in the area where they lived for about a month when they first got here.

I love all the colorful buildings and cool doors...

Cute, fun kids!

These next pictures are from a trip Christina and I took to Trier - for the afternoon/evening without the kids!

This entrance is called the "Black Gate" - it's really, really old. Sorry, that's a far as my history goes. :)

This cathedral is also really old - 1700 years old in fact. It's beautiful inside and we had approximately 2 minutes and 49 seconds to tour it before it closed.

So after our super-fast viewing of the cathedral we took shadow pictures of ourselves on the door. I'm not sure why I wanted to do this, but I actually really like the pictures! What you can't see is that we are laughing hysterically in this picture.

This was a cool robot thing in a little glass building that was translating and writing out the Bible! It was just writing away by itself...I wonder if it's done yet.

Our yummy soup and cheese platter dinner...oh and wine, of course.

This was such a fun outing!

And here are a couple of random pictures...

Jordan's self portrait at school.

Aliya's picture of Juna helping with her homework - drawn while she was supposed to be doing her homework... :)

William...I mean Batman, showing off his moves on the trampoline.

Jordan with her robot head (a school project). Emma and Jordan are wearing their shirts that we made one afternoon using iron-ons!

These two are like twins. They are the same height and they play and act silly together all the time. William is over 2 years younger, but he is TALL and actually weighs more than Jordan!

And finally, two more of my favorite things from this trip:

This was my breakfast every morning. The cheese and salami are on a yummy fresh roll, and yes, I had my coffee in this mug every day! This is what I had to look forward to after our morning walk!

And scrapbooking with my sister! There are SO many things I miss about having them close by (or at least within flying distance for a weekend), but this may be one of the biggest. We took over the living room and scrapbooked almost every night while watching movies and eating snacks. Doesn't get much better than this.

Thank you for a wonderful trip...I miss you all SO much!