Sunday night with our peeps!

Sunday night we got together with some of our friends here in Germany for dinner. We went to a very famous German restaurant called the Hirsch in the village next door. Michale and Caro, Mark and Lisa, Stefan and Matthias and I.


Michael and Caro are some of Matthias's old friends.



Mark and Lisa. Mark is the golf pro at the club here where Matthias plays and is from England. His fiance Lisa is from Scotland and runs the Pro shop. My English speaking buddies with a great accent of their own!!

Sunday Day!!

We started our day at Lautertal outside of Ulm, which is a beautiful valley. It was full of joggers, bicyclist and hikers. There is also a small beergarten here and of course it was full of people enjoying the 70° weather and of course their Hefeweizn. We had lunch and then drove to Herrlingen to visit Hanspeter and his family.
The picture above is in back of the beergarten...

Herrlingen is a small village very close to Matthias's village. One of Hitlers highest genaral Tank commander in the Second World War is from here. His museum is in the bottom of the Villa where Hanspeter and his family live. The picture above is the villa. The other rooms are used for meeting rooms, wedding rooms and a kitchen for the school nearby.


Rooms in this 1900 villa. Built and used as a summer home for a family who were big in the metal industry, today the company is over 600 employees. These are a few of the rooms in the villa. The room above was origanally a bowling lane room, now used as a photograpy groups meeting room.

The outside of the picture above.

Hanspeter, Gudrin, Matthias and Ava...

The outside was once private land for the owners of the villa, with a beautiful park, horse stables and maids living quaters...now it is open to the public.

Ravensburg Germany

On Thursday evening we drove to Ravensburg Germany to meet with Stefan, who also works for NDSatcom and his girlfriend. Ravensburg is a really old town about an hour away from the alps. Its small but full of young college students. The night we were there we ate at a great mexican rest. called Gypsys. The food was what we call "Germ-Mex", not quite like "Tex-mex" but clöse. We had a great time visiting and at the end of the night there was a great big band playing out on the steets so "THEY" had one more beer and we watched Ava enjoy the music....

The Wiblingen Monastery of Ulm.

A view from the gate coming into the Monastery.

Inside of the Church at the Monastery.



On Friday morning we visited a Monastery which was built in the 1100's, is that old or what...so very cool. The church which still holds mass today was unbelievable. And the actual monestry now has it's on museum and some type of medical school with in it. The library in the picture above had the origanal books in it from the 1700's. This is all right outside of Ulm...

Uncle Stefan!!

Oh and our Uncle Stefan...When he's not working he likes to play lots of golf(4 out of the last 5 days)he's been playing for about a year now and loves it. Other than that we like to call him Mr. Ulm, he's very popular and always know where the hippest places to go are. When my babies are older, maybe more like, when I'm to preganat anymore we'll ´let him take us out on the town....
This is a picture of us at dinner with Stefan. Greek food was outstanding and service was great.

It's funny with Ava, she has 4 uncles and can't keep them all straight so she calls them all just "Uncle"...

Tuesday in Münich...

I was so impressed with Münich. It's the 3rd largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg, something like 1.3 million. The history will blow you away. We started in the middle of the city and strolled the walk ways which are lined with so many shops(no shopping though its way more expensive here than in the US so we window shopped) churches, city hall and of course some huge beergartens. Then after lunch we hopped on a sightseeing bus and took and hour tour of the entire city. WOW, is all I can say the buildings all range from the 15th century to present day, the landscaping is unbelievable. When my babies are older my plan is to stay a few nights here so I can take it all in. For me it was the Ausin of Germany very green and hilly and lots of water everywhere. I would love to live here if, I we're german.

Monday was Omi and Ava day!!

Monday was all about Ava and Omi...We rode the train into the city and the tram back to the park went to the aquarium/zoo and played at the park. The park close to the village is huge, with so much to do with little ones, its great. A very relaxing day for us and Omi's last day off before school starts. Matthias and Stefan played golf again and Ava and I helped with dinner...Spetzle and lentils...yum.....Tomarrow we go to Münich!!

Sunday at Cousin Hanspeters weekend house...

This is the front of the three story weekend house with a view of Ulm, they have had it for two years and is a work in progress, but a nice escape..

This is a view of the back of the house...It was Gudrins birthday and we spent the afternoon with her and her family and sisters family...

Out for a little walk behind the house, until we came upon a shooting range..lol!

Ava and cousin Andrea...

Omi the World Class German Cook!!

Your right my friend Avery...Weight Schmeight....It's just impossible with the cooking that goes on in this house. Tonight some kinda dish I can't pronounce, but beef, horseradish sauce, veggies in some kinda sauce, potatoes with exta horseradish sauce on top for me...you get the picture. Bravo!!!
We had a lazy Saturday, Lunch at the Golf club with Matthias's buddies and their girlfriends, napping in the afternoon and dining with the family at night. My brother-in-law has become a golf junkie, close to my husband. So, we have'nt seen him much. But, he promises tomarrow he'll hang out with us all day. Gerd, returned from a week bicycle trip today so it was great to have him here for dinner too(does'nt even sound like fun, huh Eric). We miss you all and wish you we're here with us...Ava's having a blast having all eyes on her 24/7, and we're enjoying having Omi's help...More tomarrow!
Time for dinner!!

A watch Gerd got for me to wear when we're here....USA time and European time...Perfect!! So as you can see it's after midnight...Time for bed, Good night!!

Friday night with the guys!

Matthias#s best friend Loreno, and his ex soccer coach Burnd.
Thomas our favortie beergarten owner is in the black

We met up with some of Matthias's friends last night after his golf win. In Thalfingin(the village were Omi lives) there's a local beergarten. Thomas is the owner and it was great to see him and meet all the locals. He made me some great non-alcoholic drinks... Here are a couple pics...

Day 2 in Germany

Outside of Omi's house!

In the city, 70° and beautiful

Loves the chocolate ice cream

The Münster which has the tallest steeple in the world, use to be catholic now in protestant

A big help in the kitchen, helping Omi make salad...training starts early for this little cook, hopefully she'll be as good as her Omi some day!!

So, we slept till 11am and feeling a little bit better today. Matthias was off to a golf tournemnt(which he won) with his brother Stefan. So we decided to spend the day in the city with Omi. We shopped a little, ate some ice cream and made our way back home to nap and get ready to meet up with Matthias and the guys. Ava is adjusting well and Omi is having fun watching her. Here are some pictures from the day.

Off we go to Germany!

Boarding at DFW!!

Ava's a little long for this bassinet, but we make it work

Frankfurt Airpot

Happy to see Omi for sure!!

Done Done, time for a nap!
So we made it just fine, thank goodness for direct flights. For me this was a very short 10 hour flight, only b-c our 20 month old kept us very busy(Matthias thinks different). For the first 7 hours we read all our new books, colored with our new crayons, watched our dvd's and played with our neighbor'a little boy. Quickly the sun was gone and for the next 3 hours we enjoyed watching Ava sleep in her bassinet, she was done. The sun was up quickly and we landed safely in Frankfort, Germany at 8am(1am US). Blue skys and high 70's. After a 2.5 hour drive we arrived at our Omi's(grandmother)house. WE ate and played, took a short nap and found ourselves up with Ava for the rest of the night. Finally we broke and loaded her up in the car and drove around for 45 min. at 3:30am(8:30pm US)till she fell asleep. Can you say "Jet Lag"!!

My Cousin!!

Today my cousin left to Kuwait, say a little prayer for he and all the men a women fighting this war!!

This is in May of 2005, we went to Schweinfurt Germany to visit him. He was there for a year before being deployed to Kuwait, his wife Amanda will stay in Germany while he is gone...We get to visit her while we're there!!

Bambino Update!

All is good, we're 15 1/2 weeks and feeling great! Went to the Dr. this week and everything was just fine. Babies heart beat was in the 150's and my weight gain(well we'll just keep that to ourselves...heehee).
But we're in great shape for our trip next week to Germany...We're sooooo excited to see everyone there, and excited for them to see Ava Lou! Here's a picture of us all from the wedding!!



More later!!