Missing Teeth, Dancing Princesses, and other miscellania

What a crazy week!!

We've had all of our worldly possessions that won't be carried in luggage disassembled and packed away for a transatlantic trip, followed by a transcontinental trip to the Seattle area, we are working on selling a car, I'm finishing up all of my administrative tasks, AND Ian keeps loosing teeth!

Once that boy detects the tiniest hint of wiggle in a tooth - he attacks it relentlessly with a barrage of waggling and constant requests of "can I have an apple, Dad"? questions.

I posted the photos in the wrong order, but above you can see him with two missing front (top) teeth, and the one here below with just the one missing. This happened within about a week of each other.

Leah decided to dance for me at the hotel where we are staying. That girl loves to dance.

Finally, just a little kiss to say buh-bye to Germany.

Have a wonderful day everybody!

Tshuss,

Marc

Easter Market in Sankt Wendel

So Sunday we all packed up and went to church at Kapaun. It was a packed service - we've never seen so many people at St. Alban's before. After the service there was an Easter Egg Hunt for all of the little ones - which Ian and Leah were dying to do!

I have no idea where Leah gets this, but when I ask her to look towards the camera, she comes up with these "vogue" style poses! She is just too cute in her Sunday best!

I found a nice shady place under a tree for Ian, here. His photo is post-egg hunt excitement. Leah's was pre-hunt.

Leah was so pretty that I decided I wanted a close-up of her, which has become one of my most favorite photos.

Ian couldn't escape the close-up shenanigans, and his turned out very well too. Such a handsome boy!

And finally, a group-family photo after we got home.

We are going to seriously miss the peace and quiet of this part of the world. Nothing but fields behind us and a gorgeous castle in front. Anything after this will be hard to beat. Can't wait to see what is out there waiting for us though...

More Bundesgartenschau

Like I said in the last post, more photos from the Bundesgartenshau.

Here Ian and Christina are posing with the flowers.

Ian almost knocked Nancy over in his eagerness to have his photo taken with her.

Then here's Leah and Nancy

These are some of my most favorite photos of the kids. Leah at the palace in Koblenz.

Ian at the palace in Koblenz.

Have a wonderful day!

Tschuss,

Marc

We're Moving

Well, things have been very quiet around here as our phone and internet have been cut off in preparation for our move from Germany to the States. We are going to (extremely) miss our time and friends here in Germany, but then again we're looking forward to new friends and adventures in the Pacific Northwest.

I might go through some of my newer photos and post them once we move into the hotel on Baumholder, but for now I'll post photos from Easter weekend.

That Saturday, while Nancy and Christina were here for a final Germany visit, we drove up the Mosel River to Koblenz so we could enjoy the Bundesgartenshau - think uber flower show.

No summer-time hijinks would be complete without ice cream!

Ian had his too, he just finished before Leah did.

The Bundesgartenshau was spread over 3 different areas in Koblenz. This one was at the confluence of the Rhein and Mosel Rivers (Deutsches Eck) at a pretty church.

Same place, different view.

I'll probably try to time delay the other photos over the next couple of days, so keep an eye out here for more photos.

Enjoy!

Marc

Another Fun Day

Another beautiful, if slightly chilly, day here in Germany. No random trips to foreign countries - but we did go to church and then explored the local area. I have no exciting stories - we just found a castle ruin that I had seen along the way from Freisen to St. Wendel last week, then explored the bridge over Oberkirchen, which was "re-discovered" last week on the way home from St. Wendel.

Below is just a random photo that I had been thinking of for a while. Not exactly what I was planning, but about the best of the bunch.

This one is the Liebersburg castle/tower that has been recently rebuilt. If you look closely there is a staircase that climbs the outside of the tower (on the left hand side) - it has some pretty nifty views.

And by now everyone should realize that I've been collecting ammo to break out in the teen-age years. Ahhh, good times...

This last one is from the bridge over Oberkirchen. 30 meters (roughly 100 ft.) tall - it has great views on both sides not just of Oberkirchen, but of the surrounding countryside too.

We are preparing for a move in the next several weeks. As part of that our phone/internet will be disconnected. The Germans like to run complete year packages - and we've been off-post for a year now. We'll be taking our computers to the library on post to connect from time to time - but look for posts to slow down shortly. And don't expect phone calls until we make it back to the States. It's not that we don't want to talk - we just won't have a phone to do it.

Have a wonderful day. Tschuss!

Marc

A quick trip to France

So what do you do when you feel like a pleasant day out? Go to France of course!

I love that so much about our time here in Germany. France, Luxemburg, and Belgium are all just an hour to ninety minutes away - an easy day trip. You could probably throw Holland in there too for the price of another hour's drive. We only have about a month or so to enjoy it, but then again there's always Canada if we feel the burning need to leave the country (for where we are headed).

This trip was to Metz, France. They have a fairly big market that was loaded with overpriced French antiques. I'll be politically correct and refrain from commenting on all of the old (dropped) rifles and swords that were for sale ;) After that we drove into the city center and had lunch at a nice pizza place. From there we hit up the huge cathedral and then headed home. Along the way we hit up the Cora (grocery store) where I scored big on beer - and we all scored big on wine and Champagne.

I managed to convince everyone to tour a castle near Homburg on the way home, which was pretty neat - but nowhere near as cool as the castles we have nearby - Burg Lichtenburg and Ruine Frauenburg. So . . . onto the photos, which are a random mix from throughout the day.

This first one is of Leah in Metz. There was a dragon symbol stamped in metal and fixed to the ground that led us around Metz in a completely random manner. We had no idea where it went, or what it led to. We eventually had to trace our steps back to the beginning.

Ian took a break on one of the thingys separating the road from the sidewalk area. The sun felt goooood!

Leah has become little miss model! It isn't like I direct her or have taught her, she has completely picked up on it all on her own.

So my two most difficult people to photograph are Ian and Leah. Neither really likes to be photographed all that much. Doesn't mean I won't keep trying though.

The last two are from the castle ruins in Homburg. The ruins are sprawled out over the top of a hill overlooking Homburg, which made for a nice photo spot.

As I've edited the photos from our little trips, I've noticed that Ian and Leah are the two I photo the most - nothing surprising there. But I also don't take good photos of anyone else that comes with us, like Nancy or Christina. The photos I do take are bad and end up getting binned. I'm going to try to take better photos in the future - so if you are around, you have been forewarned!

Have a wonderful day everybody. Tschau!

Marc

Easter Market in Sankt Wendel

I wrote about the Easter Market yesterday, which is the spring version of the wonderful and amazing Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets). No Gluhwein, but lucky for us plenty of sunshine!

The Germans like to hang Easter eggs on trees - and the ones on this bush are all hand painted by a local artist (I think).

Since I was carrying the kids' camera, they got to take turns taking some photos. Here Leah took a photo of me and Ian.

They had a nifty kinderplatz (kids play area), and both Ian and Leah took turns with the bow and arrow.

We had to practically drag Ian out of there - he had so much fun shooting at the dragon target!

St. Wendel is a pretty cool town. We had a great time there for the Weihnachtsmarkt a couple of years ago, and this Easter Market didn't disappoint this year. This is just an overhead view of the crowds looking up one of the streets where the market was being held.

Have a wonderful day everybody!

Tschuss,

Marc