Festivites and Festivals

Well hello lovely bloggers! How was your Thanksgiving? I hope you all had a blessed holiday and it was spent filled with family and friends. Even though we are away from our families, we were so blessed this year to spend Thanksgiving with friends. It was a wonderful time!

Our cousin Matt just returned from a tour in Iraq and was able to spend all day Saturday with us, so I made a huge Thanksgiving lunch for him. We were so thankful he was able to spend the day with us and thankful that he made it back from Iraq safe and sound.

There is a huge Christmas festival going on right now in our town so of course we took Matt to see the festivities and to drink some Gluwein.

The Christmas Festival

Drinking lots of Gluwein, as you can see by my purple teeth! ;)

Pretty ornaments they had for sale.We are so glad we got to see Matt and spend some time with him!

We also had a chance to put up our Christmas decorations this weekend. We went to a tree lot, picked out a great tree and decorated it together. This is the third year in a row that we've decorated together so it has become a tradition. And every year I get to put the star on top of the tree ;)

2007, 2008, and 2009

A BIG THANKS to S&D for having us over for Thanksgiving! It was wonderful!!

I hope you all have a fantastic Monday!

Another Weekend Update

Well hello lovely friends! How was your weekend??

Ours was busy busy, but fantastic. We had a great weekend filled with lots of food, wine, and good friends.

And sadly, I didn't take even one photograph. If you've been reading for a while now, you know I (Steph) am a HUGE picture takin' fool, and somehow, capturing our weekend with photo's completely slipped my mind. Oh well, I can still give ya'll a little update:

Friday we went to the wine festival with Sarah and Deaner and had a great time. There are over 120 wine vendors at the fest, loads and loads of different German foods, and desserts. YUM! Jon and I had mini pancake thingies with powdered sugar on them and S&D had sugar and cinnamon crepes. Holy goodness, they were fantastic. After a few too many drinks we all headed back to the house and crashed. We may or may not have stopped at an alley or two on the way home to take a little bathroom break. But you can't blame a girl, when the line to the restroom is outrageous and you'd rather pee for free! I mean come on ;)

Saturday after struggling to get out of bed, we finally made it to the farmers market. I bought loads of fresh fruit and some very interesting cheeses. I also bought the prettiest bouquet of flowers.

Then we ran a couple other errands and made it home in time to crash out for an hour before I had to prepare for a birthday party we were hosting for some of our friends in Jon's office.

We had some great appetizers: cheeses and crackers, olives, brushetta, fruit, vegetables, cheese fondue and we also made chicken bites, steak bites and pasta salad. The food was a hit and we had several people bring extra goodies for us to enjoy. I SO wish I would have taken a picture of all of the food, it was enough to feed an army.

Sunday we were both pooped and I don't think we even left the couch the entire day. We watched several movies and enjoyed relaxing and spending some QT together. We've been really busy the last several weekends and I think that was exactly what we needed. Pure bliss!!

Today, I started back to walking/jogging with my friend Tara. I went to my doctor a couple of weeks ago because my shin splints were getting out of the control. He told me that the problem was my feet and that it definitely explains why I have been having so much pain, so they took a mold of my feet and custom made insoles. YAY! I tried them out today and so far so good, but I'm definitely taking it slow. Hopefully tomorrow morning I won't be buckled over in pain from shin splints. I have a good feeling that these insoles will solve the problem, and I can finally get into running again!

And lastly but definitely not least, my sweet blog friend Stevy at The Rest is Still Unwritten gave me the awesome Fabulous Blog award! Thanks so much girl! I'm so glad you think my blog is fabulous!!

There are 2 rules once you receive this:

1. You must list 5 current obsessions.

2. You must pass this on to 5 people.

1. I am obsessed with True Blood on HBO. The second season is fantastic and I can't get enough of it!

2. I am also obsessed with the Sookie Stackhouse series that True Blood is based on. The books are great if anyone is looking for a fun serious to get in to.

3. Fondue: I am totally obsessed with fondue right now. I LOVE cheese fondue and chocolate fondue! We're going to purchase another fondue pot so we can start cooking with the fondue oil, similar to the Melting Pot, (one of our favorite restaurants back home!!)

4. My new iPhone! Love it, can't put it down. My husband may or may not be getting a little jealous of the time I spend with my iPhone and not with him ;)

5. Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade, YUMMMM! Obsessed with it.

I am passing this award onto these 5 lovely bloggers:

Grand Pooba
Learning to be a Wife
Brown Girl Blogs
Satisfy My Soul
Tales of the Trees

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday!

Another Weekend Update

Hello lovely friends! How are your weekend???

Ours was fantastic, but didn't last long enough, that's for sure. It seems like that is how all of our weekends are these days, and I guess what they say is true, "time flies when you're having fun."

Here's what we've been up to:

Friday Jon took the day off so we could get some things done. The most exciting part about our day was that my awesome husband bought me an iPhone at the base! We set up a new cell phone account and with the new account an iPhone only costs 1 €......YUP, you read that right 1 €! So needless to say I have a fun new gadget on my hands, that cost less than $1.50 American dollars, and I cannot put it down. It's amazing! Now I know why Sarah and Deaner love theirs so much ;)

After running errands all day we met some friends out at the Rinegau Wine Festival. It was just as fun as last year, but I might have enjoyed myself a little too much this year. We had lots of great wine and some yummy food. My favorite food there is fresh potato chips, they're so good it's bad! Here are some pictures from that night.

Saturday afternoon I met up with my friend Tara and we did a little shopping at Ikea. I needed a new book shelf and some little things for the house and she also needed some things for her home. Afterward we headed downtown and found some gifts for a housewarming party we were attending that night.

Jon and I got ready and headed out to the party. It was a wonderful party and of course, we had a fantastic time. Good food and good friends, what more can you ask for??

Yes, that is Jon sticking his tongue out!

Sunday we spent the entire day lazing around watching movies.

We finally were able to see I Love You Man which was great. I just love Paul Rudd! We also saw Watchmen which was pretty good if you like that kind of comicy movie feel and we watched another silly movie called Miss March. It was really funny!

Sarah and Deaner just moved into their new house and invited us over for dinner to barbecue, that night. Let me just tell you, it was AMAZING! We recently got into trouble from a neighbor because she doesn't like the smell of barbecue and she asked us to not bbq anymore. REALLY???...REALLY!!!..... With that being said, we've been sans barbecue all summer, so it was a SUPER huge treat and very sweet of them to invite us over. They made buffalo burgers (my personal favorite), grilled corn on the cob and a fantastic salad. It was so awesome. Thanks S & D for the delicious food!

Afterward we came home and crashed. It had been a very busy weekend, but I was sad to see it end.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

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!

Our Weekly Weekend Update

Wow, where did the time go? I feel like I have been away from blogger for so long! I have slowly been reading and catching up with all of your blogs! Sorry for the lack of posts and commenting on your blogs, I must have needed a little break from blogger.

I'll catch you up on what we have been up to. And what better way to post about our weekend, than with lots of PICTURES ;) This weekend went by in a flash! and I think I say that every week, but that is because they really do go by in a FLASH!

Friday Jon and I met our friends Sarah and Deaner at the Wilhelm Strasse Festival in our town. It's a really great festival that is on Wilhelm Strasse (hence the name), they shut down the entire street and have several tents and vendors set up selling lots of food, drinks and alcoholic beverages. They also have vendors selling jewelry, art, paintings, clothing, etc. Definitely my kind of festival! Here are some pics from the fest.

We hadn't seen S&D in what felt like forever so it was so good to catch up with them!

They're always a blast to hang out with!

After several drinks, good food and good chat we decided to call it a night! S&D had to get up early to leave for Cologne and we had a full day of festivities the next day.

Saturday morning Jon and I lazed around and I made breakfast. We ate our weight in pancakes and bacon and watched a new movie, New in Town. It was really cute, but I am biased, I just love Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr.

After watching the movie we got ready and headed to Hofefest, a festival put on by the firefighters in a nearby town. Our friend Georgina's husband is a firefighter and was working at the fest. The afternoon was really a lot of fun. They had fire fighting demonstrations and showed us why you never put out a grease fire with water. BIG EXPLOSION! It was so neat to see. They also had a fun little fashion show where each fire fighter showed off a different uniform that they use. And not to mention, they had a huge barbecue, so Jon and I had a cheeseburger.... YUM! We also got a tour of the fire station which was very interesting to see, as I don't recall ever being in a fire station before. Very cool stuff!

Later we all headed down to Wilhelm Strasse Festival. We walked around to several vendors, the guys drinking beer and Tara and I drinking Prosecco. (Which is a type of sparkling wine.) If you've been reading along for a long time, you know my love for wine. How cool that this wine was served in a mug!

Tara and I felt so classy ;) We met up with several of our friends and spent the remainder of the evening listening to a live band in the park.

Funny story, the lines for the bathrooms (which are small trailers with maybe 10 toilets) were RIDICULOUS! Once we decided to head home, I told Jon there was no way I could make it, I had to tinkle so bad and our house was a little over a mile walk away. We stopped by each trailerpotty on the way and everyone was PACKED. I couldn't hold it any longer so, that's right ladies and gents, I jolted to a nearby alley hidden by shrubs and plants and pee'd in the alley. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go. And I didn't have to pay .50€ to pee.

Sunday we headed out in the afternoon and met up with our friends Tara, Ben and Sampson (their Golden Retriever) for a hike. The weather was fantastic, we couldn't have picked a better day to get out and enjoy the wilderness. I love living in this city because there are so many hiking trails. It's like a hikers paradise! Here are pics from our day.

I love these little thumb nails!

Click on the picture to enlarge.

While we were hiking we came across a ropes course. Jon got super excited and grabbed a pamphlet for this course. Looks like we'll be doing this in the near future!

Tara and Ben took us to see the Russian Church. It's absolutely beautiful.
I love that it is tucked into the woods.


Continuing on our hike we got to see a great view of the city.


We stopped at a cafe for lunch and some refreshing Trocken Riesling.
After lunch Ben and Tara took us through the woods to a beautiful meadow.

We ended up doing a little over 6 1/2 miles. Not too bad. The last time we got together for a hike we did a 10 miler. Of course the best part was stopping for a glass of wine and lunch ;)
It really was a great weekend and we were blessed with good weather for the festival and our hike! Sunday night after we arrived home it POURED down rain and all day yesterday it rained buckets. Thankfully this weekend mother nature was on our side.

I do have another movie recommendation. We watched Defiance, with Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber.
It was a fantastic movie about two Jewish brothers that escape "Nazi occupied Eastern Europe" and hide with thousands of other Jewish escapees in the Belarussian forests. Definitely add this to your next movie to see list! It really is an incredible true story.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and I sure hope your week is as equally fabulous.