Adventures in Cologne

Hello lovely blog friends, how is everyone today? Wonderful I hope!

I am blogging today from our hotel room in Cologne. It's a beautiful day here today, the weather is fantastic! But I needed a break from walking, so I thought I'd share some of the pictures I've taken so far from this trip. The forecast said it was supposed to be cloudy all day, but God has graced us with sunshine and no clouds today. He is good!!

Last night I arrived around 8:00 p.m. by train. It was my first time to take a train to another city (other than Frankurt) alone. But thanks to my friend Yve and the Kings of Leon, it actually wasn't a bad experience. The only frantic moment I had was when I arrived at the Frankfurt station and had to change trains, I had exactly THREE minutes to make my next train. So you can imagine the sheer panic I had when I saw that my train for Cologne had already arrived at the station and I was on the opposite side of the tracks. Luckily I just followed some random crowd and found a flight of stairs that took me across the tracks, to my train, where I jumped in the first seat I could find just in time for the train to leave. Whew. Good times!

When I arrived Jon was waiting for me, we dropped my stuff off at the hotel, and made our way to the Dom. If you've been reading our blog for a while, you've probably seen this cathedral in some earlier posts. But for my new readers and my faithful readers and my lovely picture lovin' readers; here is the Dom, once again (or for the first time), for your viewing pleasure.

After seeing this massive beauty, we went to a fantastic steak restaurant called Farmer's Steakhouse. Mind you, we haven't had good steak in forever, so let me tell ya'll, this was a real treat. My mouth just waters looking at this photo.

After dinner we walked through the town, window shopping. They have some awesome shopping here in this city. Too bad we're saving for our trip home, or we'd both be maxing out the cc's! ;)

Today we both got up early, as Jon had to be at work early, and grabbed breakfast at McDonalds. Oh ya, you read that right!! The McDonalds here is directly across the street from the cathedral. You can site see while you eat a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin and drink your morning coffee.

I walked Jon to work and then made my way back to the Dom for some picture taking.

I love the fall trees and leaves!As you walk across the Hohenzollern Bridge you come across thousands of locks. The locks symbolize love. Actually...... while I was on the bridge I witnessed a couple attaching a lock with their names engraved on it. It was pretty darn sweet, minus the make-out session they had afterward. Here are pictures from the bridge.

I was completely mesmerized by all of these locks, I must have read about 200 of them.
I just think it's such a neat idea.

I slowly made my way back to the center and planned on going inside of the Dom, but my camera battery decided to quit on me. (Only because I forgot to charge it before we left.) So here I am now waiting for it to fully charge so that I can take pictures of the interior and more of the front of the cathedral during the day, which I will post tomorrow.

Tonight Jon and I finally get our much anticipated MEXICAN FOOD fiesta! I can't wait. Talk about one happy-but-soon-to-be-chubby-from-all-of-the-chips-and-salsa-and-Mexican-beer wife! I hope ya'll will stop by tomorrow to see some more pictures from our adventure to Cologne (Köln to all the German folk).

Have a great Wednesday!

Venice and Murano

Good Monday morning everyone!

Boy, I was not ready for this week to start, but it is here, and I have a busy one ahead of me!!
How was everyone's weekend?

We dropped my parents off at the airport Saturday afternoon, of course I was sad to see them leave, but I will be seeing them in December! I also attended a baby shower for our friend Shannon who is due in November and later that evening went to a birthday party for our friend Josh. Sunday we spent the day relaxing and watching movies. Since it totally feels like fall here now..... my FAVORITE time of year ever, I made my FAVORITE chili. I can't wait to start baking and cooking for fall. I'm craving everything pumpkin right now and plan on spending a lot of time in the kitchen this week. I did grab some new fall decor for the house and can't wait to set it out. Other than that, it's time to get back into the swing of things. After visitors leave, there's always so much to be done!

A big thanks to all of the wonderful comments about my pictures! I LOVE taking photographs and love sharing them. So I hope you enjoy more from our trip to Italy.

ITALY DAY 2:
After our day in Venice we decided to make a short day trip over to Murano. My mom was dying to see some Murano glass and we wanted to check out the town. It was one of my favorite places while we visited Italy. Such a cute town, no vehicles, only boats. We stopped by a wonderful glass shop and bought some things for family. While we were inside we met the owner and he took us upstairs to another area of the store, where he showed us some amazing pieces that cost more than my house. But it was still so awesome to see them. He then told us about a great restaurant that only locals eat at. It was adorable and quaint, and the food was incredible! Oh and of course we had our afternoon glass of wine ;)

Here are some pictures from Murano:

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

After Murano we headed back to Venice to celebrate my step dad's birthday! About a year and a half ago, Steve had a severe stroke and we were told that he only had a 3% chance of living. Well so much for the three percent, now he's traveling all over the world and enjoying life!

My mom thought it would great to take a gondola ride to celebrate Steve's birthday. We grabbed a bottle of wine and spent a QUICK 35 minutes enjoying the ride. The scenery was incredible. Here are a just few pictures:

We spent the rest of the evening walking around Venice and of course grabbed some gelato to help experience Italy.

Stop by tomorrow for pictures from our 4 nights in Florence.

Have a wonderful week!!

A Couple of Favorites

Hello lovely friends! How was your Monday? Ours was pretty good. Jon had a softball game last night, but when we arrived it started raining cats and dogs. (Who was the smart individual that forgot to bring the umbrella??? oh, that's right, it was me.) Luckily they canceled the game shortly after it began pouring on us. Anyway, there is a game tonight and Wednesday is the first day of the tournament. If we win Wednesday we play again on Friday, and from there I have no idea what the schedule is like. Let's just say it's going to be a busy week for softball. Should be a good time, just as long as it stays dry.

Anyway.....

A BIG thank you for all of the wonderful comments concerning my photo shoot of Addie and family! You guys rock!! The shoot was a lot of fun. I very much enjoyed working with them and Addie was such a good baby. I really hope to continue taking family photographs and portraits in the future. The practice will help me learn a lot more, and in turn, teach me to become a better photographer. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

P.S. Don't forget to enter our Picnic Pack Giveaway. The last day to enter is on Friday. I'll be announcing the winner Friday afternoon.

Another Weekend Update

Hello my lovely friends! How was your weekend?

Ours was a busy one, but a great one! We were definitely not ready for Monday to roll around so quickly!! Here's what we were up to:

Friday we helped a friend put together some furniture in his new apartment, which is located in our building. We spent several hours hanging out, helping him unpack a little, drinking some good German beer and eating pizza! Yum.

Saturday we headed for a day trip to Limburg, a town about 40 minutes away. Limburg is an adorable little medieval town and of course I captured a couple of pictures.

A wine festival was going on in Limburg this weekend, and as no surprise, we stopped to try some local trocken Riesling. This vineyard/winery Mohr had a very tasty wine, which we enjoyed for the rest of the afternoon.

After we left Limburg we headed back toward home, but stopped on the way so I could capture a couple shots of Jon. I was trying some new things with my camera in preparation for my shoot on Sunday. Here are some of my favorites.

Sunday was the day of my shoot with Georgina, Josh and their new baby Addie. I got up early, jotted down a couple of notes to remember while taking the shots and we headed out at 10:30 to meet up with them. It was a beautiful day outside and I was extremely happy for the great weather! We did several shots inside and then made our way outside to a near by park to take some outdoor shots.

I took over 450 pictures during the shoot and afterward spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening looking through them and editing them. For my first attempt at this, I was really pleased with the outcome. Althought I have A LOT to learn, I had a such a fun time and I look forward to taking more pictures. I can't wait to show them to Georgina and Josh! I hope they're very happy with their photographs.

Check back tomorrow, I'll be posting some of my favorite pictures from the shoot.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. This week is a busy one, full of softball games and tournaments.

I'll leave you with a sneak peak.

Isn't this the most precious face:

Have a great Monday everyone!