Weindorf

So this weekend we went to the annual Stuttgart weindorf or winefest. Even though Brad and I are hardly the alcohol drinkers we really wanted to see what the fuss was all about and experience the culture. We kept it pretty low-key but had so much fun! Here are some pics from our afternoon!

Wilhelma

Wilhelma is this awesome place that is like a zoo/botanical garden. We bought season passes back in the Spring because it's one of our favorite places! We went there this evening and brought a blanket and some snacks and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Here's some pics!

I love this little guy with his fu manchu.

Around the neighborhood

I don't think I've ever shown you around our neighborhood. Want to take a little tour? This is our evening route for our walks.

Here's the biergarten aka beer garden down the street. Biergartens are like Starbucks in the states. They're on every corner and make business of their locals.

Here's the local church. Catholic!
Should we have a large amount of visitors this hotel is just down the street. Hotel Waldhorn.


Local restaurant.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Another weekend

Thought I'd share another weekend.

Actually I was just trying to learn more about my camera the past couple days which resulted in... a lot of pics!

This is our dining room. Every Sat or Sun night we host game night with some friends (our old bowling league actually). Usually it's a little poker, Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples. Fun stuff except when you have to sit on the floor. :)

Tree climbing!


This is downtown Stuttgart. We like to take the train down here on Sunday's so Brad can get his Starbucks and then lay in the grass. You should hear him order. When it comes to his starbucks....he's fluent German!
You'd think we'd have this mastered (ordering tickets for the train). The one time Brad tried something new we get stopped and of course we did something wrong. They let us go. Normally it's a 40 Euro fine.

Miles does so great on the train. He has his own little train that keeps him happy.

When we went back to the States we took Miles up the escalator at the mall and got so many looks. Oops! It's very common here. This little escalator is right outside our house. You just ride up to the top and we are to the left!

Weekend

I've been trying to get used to my new camera. So I did a little experimenting this weekend.

We took a little trip via train to Stuttgart's sommerfest. It was pretty fun. Lots of food, drink, live music, things for kids. The Germans seem to always have a fest going on downtown. We love it!

Brad and his mystery meat Doner Kabob. Hmm... No thanks. I tend to stick with vegetarian when it comes to schnitzels and kabobs. I have this thing with needing to know what I am eating! :)

Riding the train back home. 2.50 Euro one way. Not bad seeing that the train station is literally right outside our house. No parking, no hassle!

Our silly pool on our porch. Gotta keep the Michigan vibe alive for as long as possible!

So we have some traveling coming our way! We're pretty excited about it all!

Here's what we have planned so far:

Next weekend: Strasburg, France (only a 90 minute drive away!)

Labor Day weekend: Madrid, Spain

October: Salsburg, Austria

January: Venice, Italy (with our playgroup)

It's booked!

We're so excited! We booked the blind flight!!!

Went online...entered the dates, followed by credit card, waited 2 minutes...

Found out that for Sept 4-7 we are going to....

MADRID, SPAIN!!!!!

The first thing out of Brad's mouth was that we are going to a bull fight.

Blind Booking

So check this out...

Brad and I are thinking of doing what's called a "Blind Booking".

It costs 19 Euro bucks and you basically book a flight through German Wings not knowing where you are going!

The only choice you have over where you go is the category. You can choose between Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Culture, Party, and Beach.

All for 19 Euros!!! (per leg)

How exciting does this sound? I can't believe we are just now catching on to this when several of our friends have been hooked on this long ago.

So Brad has a 4 day weekend coming up in about 2 weeks. Which would you pick?

Here are the cities within each category:
Culture:
Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Dresden, Istanbul, Krakow, Leipzig, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Vienna
Eastern Europe:
Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Dresden, Krakow, Leipzig, Sarajevo, Warsaw, Zagreb
Western Europe:
Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Reykjavik, Rome, Vienna
Party: (keep in mind we'll be in bed by 8 with Miles)
Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Hamburg, Istanbul, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Reykjavik, Sarajevo, Vienna
Sun and Beach:
Antalya, Corfu, Corsica (Bastia), Crete (Heraklion), Faro, Ibiza, Izmir, Lamezia Terme (Calabria), Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Split, Thessaloniki, Zadar (Croatia)

One of the things we do while Daddy is at work...

finger-paint!!

I got this stuff in the States and it's great because the paint is clear until you put it on "special" paper. No messes!

tech stuff

So over a year later, we finally broke down tonight and got AFN (American TV). So long British TV! Just when I perfected my British accent too...

It will be nice to catch up on all our old shows and to stop throwing so much money down the drain with iTunes. That's the one thing that stinks about living overseas is big stations like ABC, NBC, FOX etc won't let you watch anything on their websites.

I hope this doesn't make me look like a TV junky, but I do have my favorites that I have been MISSING! I couldn't even tell you what happened in American Idol last season. :(

OH and we bought a camera tonight! Wasn't the Nicon D40. I think that will take many months to save up for. So, I talked Brad into a plain old small thing to hold us over. Couldn't leave you guys without pics for too long!

So that being said... hopefully pics to follow soon!

family pic

I'd been wanting to share a family pic of ALL of us from our recent vacation but never had my camera at the right time. Luckily my Uncle shared this today via facebook.

Here was the whole shabang (25 peops) in Michigan minus my cousin Hannah who came a couple days later. We are still missing so many family members that didn't make it this year. I just love the family reunions every year!

We celebrated my Grandparent's 88th birthday. My Aunt put 88 candles in each cake. By the time she lit the second cake the first one was a melted wax-cake. Another thing to look forward to when you get old :).

Home

So we're back home in Deutschland. What a day for traveling! I can say that flying to the States is way easier than flying back here. I hope the next time we get on a plane for 11 hours it is permanent.

Brad and I actually stayed awake for 30 hours yesterday. We were so delirious by the time we got home. I remember towards the end we were laughing hysterically at things that didn't even make sense. People must of thought we were nuts. We all went to sleep at 9pm last night and woke up at 12:30pm this morning!

My camera broke while I was home. We suspect sand got in it while at the beach. So I'm afraid my blogging will be lots of words and no pics until we can get a new one. Brad wants to go all out get a nice one. We are eyeing the Nicon D40 which means it may be a long time before I have pics on here!

I guess that's it for now. Nothing exciting planned for a while. We are laying low until we hear our special news in November! That will determine A LOT!