Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everybody! This is just an excuse to show some photos of Ian and Leah from their Halloween adventures earlier today.

Ian was an astronaut.

Leah was a witch.

We went to the "Trunk or Treat" for all the people that live off post. Catherine had a whole basket (German shopping thingy) chock full of candy. I thought we'd have enough for every kid to have two pieces of candy. She managed to convince me that one would do, and we gave everything away in 30-45 minutes. Crazy!

The kids made out like bandits. Man I love raiding the kids' candy stash . . .

just kidding : )

Tschuss!

Marc

Leah's Latest Hairdo

Leah had her hair done up super girly this weekend. That's really all I had ; )

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Not too shabby here in Germany. Tschuss!

Marc

Boo!

Ian had a soccer game this morning. It was 24 F when we left the house, and it didn't warm up all that much after the games were done. It was the last game of the season - and considering the luck we've had with rain, mud, and freezing temperatures it couldn't have come any sooner.

Ian couldn't have done better today. He ran after the ball, and even got an assist on a goal. I was so proud (still am . . .) of Ian today, he had a good time. Only way it could have been better was to have had warmer weather. Oh well.

Enjoy your day everyone. Tschuss!

Marc

Soccer

Ian had a soccer game this morning, and he did GREAT!

Some of the other games have been almost painful to watch as Ian did just about everything except play soccer.

Not today though. He played the whole game, and chased the ball around. He had a great time, which is really what counts.

Enjoy your day - I'm pretty sure ours will be colder than yours. We'll be lucky to crack 50. Tschuss!

Marc

Cochem

Last Monday we traveled with the local church group to Cochem, Germany. It is a wonderful little town on the Mosel River, home to some wonderful Riesling wine. As you can see, the castle sits on a nice hill, which has great views of the Mosel River valley.

We took a tour of the castle, which was pretty neat. It was rebuilt a while back, so not nearly as old as our local castles, but in much better condition.

After the tour we stopped at a little cafe for some ice cream, beer, and "federweisser" (new, partially-fermented wine).

We also toured the town of Cochem. Those old German towns are just amazing. Ian and Leah had a good time, especially at some of these older places. Like this place below, just a random tower in a vineyard near the castle. I have no idea how old this tower was, but it made a perfect "kids club". Just ask Ian!

Tschuss!

Marc

Ian

Surprise, surprise. Ian woke up early this morning, which means that I woke up early this morning. We played around upstairs to keep things quiet downstairs, which gave me some time to go through my photos of Ian from yesterday.

In no particular order, these were my top five picks:

Ian at the Frauenburg ruins. Local legend says the smaller tower housed Rapunzel.

I think my last post had another photo of Ian at Frauenburg ruins, so my next four are from Burg Lichtenburg - the castle that overlooks our house. The ruins are quite extensive, so none of these photos are from the same place/area within the burg.

This one (below) is just down the wall a ways from the one above.

The sunlight is a bit hot on Ian's forehead, but not a bad shot overall.

And finally, a shot where Ian isn't hamming it up for the camera.

Like I said, just some photos of Ian. Me out with the flash and camera trying to learn. Ian out with his dad, just having some fun.

Tschuss!

Marc

Another gorgeous day in Germany

Today was just another awesome day in Germany. When the sun is shining, this place is gorgeous. Definitely not the kind of day to stay inside.

On that note, Catherine and I packed up the kids for a nice outing. We drove to Frauenberg to walk around in the woods and to go see the castle. It was a busy day in the woods, I've never seen so many people. There was a couple at the bench overlooking the castle, there was a family enjoying a picnic at the Sonnenberg overlook, and a small group of friends at the cliff overlooking the castle. Plus random hikers out and about.

We're just past peak fall colors, or at least that is what Catherine and I think. Still beautiful out, and I don't want to think how close winter is behind it.

After our walk in the woods, we made our way down into the valley to go visit Ruine Frauenberg. I must admit that I had a bit of a hidden agenda with this trip. I've been wanting to work on my flash photography for a while, and figured the stone walls would provide some interesting backgrounds. So I lugged my extra "tripod" around, and luckily found a couple of nicer spots. I only wish I had moved Ian just a bit to his left.

Leah stood in the exact same spot, but she is just shorter than Ian, so no plants "growing" out of her head. I rather like this one of Leah.

We stopped at the Italian Eis shop (ice cream) on the way home, which the kids definitely enjoyed. Ian and I dropped Catherine and Leah off at home and then made our way to the Burg Lichtenburg castle. The view from the top of the tower was amazing! We spent a good hour and a half to two hours scrambling all over the castle grounds. Ian was quite the trooper as I had him stop just about every five minutes in order to take some more photos.

I got a bunch of keepers of Ian. It's about time!!! Ian is a tough kid to photograph - he can hardly sit still, is easily distracted, and is just too busy being a little boy.

But when it finally works, eureka! This isn't my favorite of the bunch, but it is close. The others will take a bit of work, and I don't know when I'll get to them. Tomorrow is a day off for me (thank you fellow tax-payers!), and we have a trip planned to Cochem. Hopefully more photos from that will follow.

I hope all is well out there. Tschuss!

Marc