Time to catch up (Part 1 of 2)

So it has been a whirlwind couple of months (not like the previous ones were any less so) and we have totally neglected our blogging audience. So here goes:

Frankfurt Castle and Rhine River Cruise

After moving into our house (see last entry) we decided to get out and see a little bit of Germany. Our first real outing was to go up to Frankfurt on a Friday evening to see a nearby castle, stay the night with my Dad and Julie and then wake up Saturday to take a Rhine River cruise with my dad, Julie, and Grandma Haycock. The kids loved being on the boat and seeing the other boats and castles. We probably saw a dozen or so castles during a couple hour cruise down the river. Here are some of the highlights from the weekend.

Josh was excited to meet his first "real" knights. Notice that Josh dressed up appropriately for the occasion.

Sir Joshua (officially knighted at the castle) and his best buddy, Grandpa.

Some of the beautiful scenery from our cruise:





Here are some bonus pics from our "cruise":



At the end of the cruise we arrived in the village of St. Goar where we took a tour of the amazing Rheinfels Castle. Josh, as usual, was the biggest fan of the castle. He and Grandpa spent most of their time exploring all the nooks and crannies of the castle in search of dragons. Fortunately for us, all the dragons they found were already locked up behind closed door. The first few pictures are of the train/shuttle ride up the mountain to the castle.

Coltonhaus

Willkommen zu unserem Heim! Welcome to our Home!

We are so glad you could come. First things first, let us give you the grand tour. Come on in! We'll start on the first floor. Where you are standing now is our entry way. Our landlord lives downstairs, he has his own entrance around back, so we have this part of the house all to ourselves. On the main floor you will find the kitchen/dining room, living room, guest room and 1.5 bathrooms. Additionally, there are three bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms upstairs, we'll show you those in a minute.

As you walk through the door and take an immediate right, you come to a half-bath.

If you next walk straight in from the door, you will enter our kitchen/dining room.

First is the kitchen looking from the dining room.

Next is the diningroom looking from the kitchen. This is much bigger than we need for a dining room so we are thinking that we will put the kitchen tabel on the right and our computer desk on the left. Now, you may be wondering what kind of view we will be enjoying as we sit at our table for dinner. Wonder no longer...
If you look at the picture of the dining room above, if you were to turn to the right you would have this balcony.
We are hoping to put a BBQ out here.

If you come back inside and turn walk through the dining room you will be able to turn left into the family room, right into a full bathroom, or continue straight into the your room (a.k.a. the guest room). Let's take a look at your room first.

Of course you'll have a bed. And from that bed you will have this view to enjoy when you wake up in the morning...

From your room and from the hallway there is access to the guest bathroom. You may have noticed that even the bathroom has a stunning vista out its window. This is definitely a loo with a view.

Walking out of your room and turning to your immediate right you enter the family room. This is where we plan on putting our couch and T.V.

Next we will go up stairs. This is a picture looking down the stairs from the second floor.

When you walk up the stairs and turn left you will see the two kids' rooms, the one to the left is the biggest (first picture) then one to the right (second picture). Josh will be in the room on the left and the room on the right will be used as a nursery for Maggie now and for any future kids (no, we're not announcing anything).


If you go straight from the top of the stairs you will run into two bathrooms next to each other, the master bath (first picture) and the kids bathroom, a half-bath (second picture).


And finally, we enter the master bedroom. It is much bigger than we expected. We heard from multiple sources that we would likely not be able to find a house that would fit our King mattress so we decided to bring a Queen instead. Moral of the story... could have brought the King. Oh well.

Since I've shown you the views from every other room, I can't pass up showing you the views from our room. Along with the same back views other rooms in the house enjoy, we have a french patio on the side of the house looking out on this...


Well, we hope you have enjoyed the tour of our home and we hope to be able to show it in person to as many of you as possible. If you've ever wanted to come to Germany, now's the time! We hope to see you again soon!

Homeless no longer

After nearly 9 months of moving around, living out of suitcases, and not having a place to settle down, we have finally found a home in Reichenbach-Steegen, Germany.
Here it is! A beautiful 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house just 10 minutes from my office on the Base. We have been searching everywhere for something that size and close to the office and finally found one. It is two stories with the Kitchen, dinning room, living room, one bedroom, and 1.5 bathrooms on the main floor with the three remaining bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. We will post pictures of the inside once we move in (which we hope will be this weekend or early next week).

The house is situated between two small villages: Reichenbach-Steegen and Albersbach. Here is a satellite view of where we'll be living:


View Larger Map

As you can see, there is a wooded area just to the south of our house. Here is a view of what we will get to look at out of our back windows.
Our neighborhood seems very quiet and peaceful. There is also a great view looking over the neighboring village. Here is looking down our street toward Reichenbach-Steegen.
We will make sure to post more pictures once we start getting settled in and become familiar with the surrounding villages. Now that we've got a place to live, we look forward to having visitors. Let us know if you're ever in Germany and we would love to have you stay in our home!

While we're sharing pictures, here are a few from a trip Josh, Maggie and I took up to Burg Nanstein Castle, a short 15 minute drive from the base. Holly was not with us because she was studying for the very difficult United States Army in Europe (USAEUR) Drivers license test. As a side note, we both passed and are now in the market for a car.

Josh and Maggie at Burg Nanstein Castle

Josh standing in a doorway to one of the Castle's outer rooms.

The view looking down from the Castle towards the towns of Landstuhl and Ramstein.

Josh found a doorway just his size.

A medieval peephole to see what shady characters were outside the gate.

And just for kicks, here's a fun one of Josh and Maggie at one of the parks on base.

WE'RE IN GERMANY!!!

After several mishaps with traveling (wrong orders, passports misplaced by a cleaning lady, and a volcano over Iceland) we finally arrived in Germany a week later than originally planned on Sunday. The kids did great on the flight, Josh stayed awake the entire 9 hour trip, and Maggie only slept for 1 1/2 hr--so Dan and I didn't sleep at all. Josh loved having his own private movie screen in front of him and watched Disney cartoons most of the way. We arrived in Frankfurt very tired, got our 11 bags, 2 car seats, stroller and carry on bags and were greeted by a very delighted grandpa! We went over to Dad & Julie's house, we all took a nap and then headed down to Ramstein. The drive to Ramstein was absolutely gorgeous! We drove past rolling green hills of various shades of green dusted with bright yellow flowers beneath a beautiful crisp blue sky. WOW!!! The Base is huge, it is its own enclosed city. So far we have been to the mall (yes a real mall on the base) the commissary, the shoppette, and the park almost every day. I must say Germans definitely have better parks, they aren't as concerned with getting sued I guess. The weather has been great, in the 70's! Our apartment we are staying in on base is nice, better than the one in Montgomery, so we are very grateful. I have already made some good friends, they had a bunco night last night. I was able to meet some of the J.A.G. wives, they all are very nice and I can't wait to get to know them better. We are having a great time here. Oh and the food, oh my goodness, WOW!!! The dairy over here is amazing, they have the best milk, yogurt, and cheese... and the chocolate, they really know how to make chocolate. We are really enjoying our adventure in Germany so far!

What you missed not being in Alabama for the past 3 months

This sign is on the right side of I-85 N between Montgomery and Birmingham

Out of the mouths of babes...

Last Sunday was "fast and testimony meeting" at our church, during which people from the congregation can get up and bear their testimony (what they believe) to the whole congregation. Usually adults will get up, occasionally older children and bear their testimony of Jesus Christ and other beliefs that we share that have touched them. As we were sitting there listening to members of our faith stand up and bear their testimony Josh whispers to Dan and I, "I want to go up." Dan and I were surprised and said that we would "practice" on Monday during our "Family Home Evening" (One evening a week where we sit down as a family, sing songs, say a prayer, have a short spiritual or temporal need lesson, activity and treats) to which Josh emphatically said, "I want to go up next." We then asked Josh what he wanted to say. We explained that a testimony is when people talk about Jesus and what they feel about him. He said, "I'm going to say that Jesus can't get owies anymore (because he is resurrected) and that Grandma died and now she lives with Jesus and is happy." WOW!!! This was one of those great mom moments where everything about being a mom suddenly seemed so worth it! I got a little teary-eyed and said o.k. you can go up. So he proudly marched up to the podium with Dan and said "Jesus can't get owies anymore, and that we can have a great time, and ... um that we can have a great time...and in the name of Jesus Christ amen." Dan then got up and translated to the congregation what Josh had meant by "Jesus can't get owies anymore." I was so proud of my three-year-old son to have the courage to stand up in front of a large group of people and bear his testimony, demonstrating him simple and wonderful faith. This truly was one of my sweetest, proudest moments as a mom. Just 16 more years and hopefully Josh will be off to share his testimony to an even bigger crowd. I love that kid! He's going to be an amazing missionary!