Deutschland (through my phone)

I had an incredible opportunity to visit Germany and a husband who insisted I go "because he's got this." Serious, props to him for making this happen (and of course my neighbor Liz who helped anyway she could).

I don't have the good photos yet, Carrie has those on her camera, but I wanted to document before I forgot, so for right now you are stuck with my phone photos. 

We went the first week of May, it was rainy but beautiful. 

We started and ended in Munich. From Munich we traveled to Salzburg, Austria.

From there we spent the day in Berchtesgaden. 

*Austria and Berchtesgaden have to be the most beautiful places my eyes have every seen*

From Berchtesgaden we stayed in a little town called Eibsee. 

From there we headed to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Castle and it's neighbor castle (I can't ever remember the name of it and I don't feel like googling it). 

It was Fussen to Lindau and Lindau to Rothenburg - which was the coolest town I have ever been in.

And then it was back to Munich to come home.

 Here I am at the Marienplatz, in Munich. This is the famous clock tower with the figures that spin around on the hour. (However, it's not every hour). The figures were buried deep in the ground during WWII so they would not be ruined.

 

One of the open markets, in Munich.  Loved it. 

 While in Salzburg we did the Sound of Music Tour.

 I would recommend it to everyone and anyone. Unfortunately, most of the places in the Sound of Music are privately owned so you can't get close, like the above picture. That is the back of the Van Trapp Mansion where Maria and the kids fell out of the canoe. However, the tour takes you through a lot of Austria and it was breathtaking, so I say do it!

The famous gazebo. You can no longer go in it because too many people were jumping around the benches in it, imagine that?

 Beautiful Austria.

 And beautiful Carrie.

 Berchtesgaden, is in the Bavarian Alps.

There are no words to describe the alps. I thought our mountains were beautiful (I still do). 

But the Alps are majestic. Not only are they huge but they are green. 

It's like my two homes combined ;)

 We took a gondola in a ski resort. It just kept going and going. It took about 40 minutes just to get to the top. Also the birds sing. They sing here too, but nothing like in the Alps, I have never heard anything like it.

 

And my pictures are out of order. Here we are back at Salzburg. The above picture is a typical shopping strip. 

 And do you recognize this church? It's wear Maria walked down the aisle.

 Getting festive.

 We took a boat ride in a Lake in the alps.

 Our inability to drive manual actually paid off, the Range Rover was our free upgrade because it was the only car they had that wasn't manual. Ha!Ha!

 Oh, you know just a castle we passed on the highway.

 And the gold castle next to Neuschwanstein. A lot of buildings and castles are gold in Germany it was a big royal color back in the day.

 The Neuschwanstein.

 This castle was the first thing I ever put on my "bucket list". It wasn't an actual bucket list, but when I was kid and I first saw this castle in a magazine I thought, "I have to go there one day." And I finally did. It was magical. The bridge is over a waterfall, so while looking at this beautiful structure you hear the birds and the waterfall and it's a "pinch me" moment.

 Rothenburg, is a medieval city, best known for being the Christmas village in Germany. 

It still has the city wall that was built around the 16th century.

One of the houses still has the original foundation from 988.

 These are Schneeballen, that we saw all over Rothenburg. Not my favorite, but glad I tried it. It is scraps of pastry dough deep fried into a ball and then covered with either, powder sugar, chocolate, nutella, or cinnamon and sugar.

 This hot dog, was the best hot dog ever.

 One of the streets in Rothenburg. The original wall.

 A garden area.

 The wall.

 A play ground just outside the wall.

 

While in Rothenburg, we took the Night Watchman Tour, hands down one of the best tours I have ever been on. This man dresses up as the Night Watchman and takes us on a walking tour of the city and tells us the stories and the history of the town.

 And here we are back in Munich.

The food.

 This is the famous German dish, WeiBwurst (that B is actually a german letter that looks like a B but actually sounds like an s - I don't know how to type it in the blog). And it is only served until lunch.

 White asparagus everything. I loved the soup.

 This mustard on everything. 

When I asked the server for it she said, "But that is only for white sausage." 

And looked at me as if I was crazy.

 

A chocolaterie, cutest bag I kept. 

 The English Garden in Munich.

 But you didn't know they had surfers in Munich? On our first day we saw a kid in a wet suit with a surf board and we thought, "What the heck?". Well, we figured out where he came from.

 

And I brought home these dresses for the girls. They had them everywhere, and I saw them all week, and on the final day I finally bought them. 

Great trip.

 I missed my little family like crazy though, so their hugs when I got home made me cry.

I Blinked and now She is 4

When I was pregnant with B, everyone said, "You blink and they grow up." 

Well, I blinked.

She is at such a fun age, though. And I feel like every year I say, "Time just stop right now" 

But I really mean it now.

She is silly.

She is sassy.

She thinks she is 12. 

She is loving. 

She is enthusiastic. 

She no longer takes naps.

Her first gift was an apron.

She loves to help, so she got to help with breakfast.

Waffles. 

Then she opened up a few gifts.

She opened up the one gift she has been asking for since Christmas.

A choo choo train.

She said, "Mom look Santa brought my choo choo train I asked for!"

Umm no, child we are taking the credit for that one. 

Food!

 And she got sticker earrings.

They were all gone by dinner.

Everyone got to wear them, including the dogs.

 

Her birthday outing choice:

The aquarium. 

There is a rope bridge she loves to go on.

However,  she was wearing flip flops, and she got stuck. like really, really stuck.

and did I mention she likes to do things "by myself" now?

So I had to somehow get around 9 year old boys to get to her, while carrying another toddler.

It took skills.

Also this rope bridge is in the South America section. 

I was already sweating. 

She thought it was hilarious.

It was her birthday, so I was happy to make her day.

 My friend, and mother of one of B's best friends, started doing nails. So we stopped for lunch and got her nails painted.

She requested a Baymax cake.

After scrolling through Pinterest, we settled on Baymax cupcakes.

She was thrilled.

I don't look forward to the day when she isn't so easily to make her happy.

 What You're Like At the Moment

Vivacious, independent, silly, empathetic, sassy.

Favorites: Nightgowns, water, riding her bike, your dogs, "huggies", playing with friends, coloring.

Favorite Toys: Playing with blocks, in your kitchen, princess dresses, outside (yes everything outside), your bike

Favorite Shows: It changes every day

What you want to be when you grow up: A mommy, a vet, and a teacher.

Favorite Meal: Pink Pasta (Pasta in a tomato cream sauce)

Dislikes: Soda, jeans, pjs with the legs that ride up, worms 

It's Been a Good Month

It's been a good month for family visits and reminiscing with old friends.

First up, this girl. 

She and her little family have carved themselves a beautiful life in Alaska.

She brought her pregnant self to the main land for her sister's wedding, 

and I got to spend time with her. 

One of my favorite people of all time.

Then this family of sisters came into to town at the same time and we got to see them!

 My cousins thought it would still be ski season here so they came for what they thought would be a ski trip. They were able to ski but it was pretty pathetic snow. 

So we played at the pool.

Then Brad's sister came into town, and we finally got to meet this handsome baby boy. He's got dimples that will melt your heart.

 

"Baby"

Brad and his sister Janna.

Couldn't have asked for a better month.

I love family, I love friends!

My Ol' Girl

B's new thing is to take my phone and take a gazillion pictures. Now my phone screams at me daily that it's running out of storage space, so I have to go through my phone and delete photos of the dog's noses and paws, and pictures of plants and flowers, and let's not forget furniture. 

However, in this new found past time she did capture this one:

And I kind of love it. 

This was after Sydney had minor surgery. 

She has an incision on each side and one on her stomach. 

During a teeth cleaning we asked the vet to remove some fatty lumps she developed from age.

One was cancerous. I am glad we asked.

I may have taken it harder than I should have. 

I cried.

 Like just had to say good-bye to my mom after I had a baby cried. 

The cancer was removed, I am relieved.

But it was just a gut wrenching reminder to me that she is old.

 Her body is old. 

My very first dog.

My constant companion, my loyal friend, and my family's protector. 

I pat her a little more now. I hug her a little bit longer. I tell I love her all the time.

 I don't know if she understands, but after 12 years she must know, right?

Easter Ham

 

Happiness is giggles, curls and sassy little girly girls.

 The early part of the week of Easter we headed downtown.

We looked at the flowers, sniffed the flowers, and some of us tried to pick the flowers.

 

In the fountain picture my first born is taking her shoes off and had I not physically picked her up she would have gone swimming in there. The little one just wasn't quite tall enough or she would have happily joined in on the shenanigans. 

Who needs an expensive double stroller?

 

 

Then the awaited morning came, and the Easter bunny found us. 

In our house the Easter bunny went under new management. 

She isn't complaining.

However, due to new management there were 60 eggs for the Easter Egg hunt. 

Pfft. Show off.

 The littles thought it was the greatest. 

But in all honestly they think everything is the greatest.

Then we had our feast.

I made my first ham, and I will toot my own horn, it was good.

I used this recipe.

if you do try this I followed the suggestions. 

i didn't use whole cloves, only did 1/4 tsp  of ground cloves to the honey sauce

only used 1 cup of honey

substituted the corn syrup for brown sugar 

and at the end added brown sugar then set the oven to broil and let it form a crust

And the Easter bunny, under new management, did such a good job we will keep him.