Normandy, France

Hello everyone! How are y'all on this lovely Thursday? I'm great, seeing as how the weekend is just around the corner! Boy, my posts have become totally sporadic! But I'm going to try to be better about blogging. Not only about our adventures but our everyday life, so that in the future I can look back on this blog and remember the Adventures of Jon and Steph.

Jon, myself, and a coworker of Jon's took a road trip to Normandy a couple of weekends ago. We spent four nights there, Friday through Tuesday. During our trip we had the chance to visit some incredible sites from World War II and learn so much more about the war itself. It was such an awesome opportunity to see where our soldiers fought against the German soldiers, and learn the history behind such a devastating war.

The first day in Normandy we visited Longues sur Mer, Arromanches, The US Cemetery, D-Day beaches, and Pointe Du Hoc. Here are the pictures from the first day of our adventure to Normandy. I linked each site to Wikipedia if you'd like to learn more.

It wouldn't be a normal "Steph" post if it didn't involve a ridiculous amount of pictures...

Longues sur Mer was our first stop. This location houses several abandoned German artillery batteries used during WWII. As you can see from some of the pictures, there are several gun holes from where our troops attacked the batteries.

From there we visited Arromanches. This is where our troops built an artificial port for bringing all of the tanks and ground equipment ashore.

From Arromanches we drove to the U.S. Cemetery to see the museum and visit the 10,000+ graves of our fallen soldiers. Here are MORE pictures!
We saw several fallen soldiers from Oklahoma.

From the U.S. Cemetery we walked down to the beach and explored yet another German artillery battery.


We hiked back up the hill, where we then drove to Pointe du Hoc. Pointe du Hoc was such an incredible site to see. This was a point of attack for the US Army during WWII. This was another area the Germans had taken control of and built 6 artillery batteries. This point is in between both Omaha Beach and Utah Beach where our troops landed, and these batteries could defend both beaches. This area is covered with bomb craters from the attack by the US Army. It was completely unbelievable to be standing in these craters. The pictures DO NOT do Pointe du Hoc justice.

Jon standing in one of the bomb craters.
Look at the ground covered with bomb craters!
Me! Look at the size of this crater!!
The beautiful view from Pointe du Hoc.

The first day of our trip was an awesome adventure. I am so glad we had the opportunity to see such amazing sites from WWII and learn so much in one day! It was definitely an experience I will never forget.

Tomorrow I will post MORE pictures from our trip to Normandy.
The second day of our trip was spent at Mont St. Michel! I can't wait to share our pictures with you guys. Here's a little sneak peak...


I hope you all enjoy your Thursday!

White Trash Bash 2010

Hey everyone! How are you guys? I hope this post finds you well.

Things here at The Adventures of Jon and Steph are going great! I can't believe it is almost Friday. This week really flew by, and I am so happy that it has, because I always look forward to the weekend!

Jon leaves this weekend for a business trip for two weeks... but luckily I will be joining him a week later! So off to the Middle East I'll be going next Thursday or Friday. I'm not so much looking forward to the heat there, but I do look forward to all of the American food we get to eat. There is a Chili's, Macaroni Grill, they even have COLDSTONE!! I can't wait to gorge on American food!

Back to the title of my post... (This post is LONG overdue!)

Jon and I had our first annual White Trash Bash a couple of weekends ago and it was a HIT! We had such a fantastic time and a big turnout. We had everyone bring a "fixin" and you wouldn't believe what we ended up with... anywhere from homemade beenie weenies, to corndogs, to twinkies, and spam! Not to mention the entire home redecorating we had to do to have a trashy atmosphere. It was awesome. Everyone dressed up in their best white trash garb and we had a grand ole' time drinking Boones Farm and Natural Light!

Here are pictures from our White Trash Bash:

Jon and Damon

Me and Sarah

Jon and me

Christiane and me

The swimming pool full of beer!

Jon, Deaner, and Sarah

Christiane and Damon

And the group got larger and larger...

All in all, it was a fantastic night! Everyone had a blast.
We look forward to next years White Trash Bash!
I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Canopy Tour

Hey Everyone!!

Happy Thursday! I can't believe the weekend is almost here! So exciting. I have been looking forward to the weekends more and more lately. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the weather is finally cooling off here in Germany, and you can actually be outside for more than 3 minutes without profusely dripping in sweat... ya, I think that's it!

One fun thing I have been wanting to share with you guys was of a canopy tour we did while we were in Costa Rica. My brother, Jon, and I took an afternoon tour with a group called Canopy Safari. Jon and I did this exact same tour when we were in Costa Rica during our honeymoon and we really enjoyed it so we thought we'd try it again. Come to find out, they had actually put up a couple more canopies and one of the highest lines they had was over 300 feet above the ground. Thats 3 football fields y'all!! Thank goodness I am not utterly terrified of heights.

Here are some of the pictures I wanted to share. There are quite a few so bare with me...

Me getting ready for the first zip line.

Jon gearing up!

And away we go!

What a goof!

High up in the canopy

Can you see me?

Jon lovin' life!

Look how little we are!

This was one of the highest canopies.

We were really zooming!

High up in the tree tops!

My brother, Jon, and me.

If you look very closely you can see Jon.

And me.

What a wild ride that was! It is definitely something I will do again!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!

One more day til Friday!!

Is This Thing On?!?

Hello......

Is anyone out there?!?

WOW! Has it really been almost two months since my last post? I can't believe it! Time REALLY does fly by... even when you're not doing anything exciting! And we have NOT been doing anything too exciting in the last couple of months, which explains my lack of blogging.

How are you all?? I hope everyone in blogland is FANTASTIC!

Yesterday I went shopping with one of my buds. We stopped by the thrift store on base in search of some "not so classy" white trash wear.

You see... Jon and I are throwing our first annual WHITE TRASH BASH this Saturday and to attend you must come dressed for the part. Needless to say the thrift store did not disappoint! We made out like fat rats, with Power Rangers sheets (to cover the furniture of course) and jean vests in tow! Yup you read the right... Jean vests!!

But what was even more awesome, was that I met a blog follower of mine. It was so neat to meet someone in person who actually reads my blog and finds it interesting enough to continue reading. So on her behalf I decided to get back on the ole blog and update y'all on what is going on in our lives! Which sadly is a whole lotta nothin! (You see, I'm totally getting into this white trash talk, so that I can be ready for our bash on Saturday.)

Since it has been a while I'll fill you in on what we've been doing here at The Adventures of Jon and Steph.

May

Jon and I went to Munich with several people from his office. There we saw the Passion Play which only plays every 10 years. It's really an awesome thing to see because the entire town of Oberammergau, Germany is involved in the play. The town suffered many deaths during the 1630's black plague, and made a vow to God to perform the Passion Play every 10 years if God would spare them from the plague. This was their 41st production.

They did an absolutely fantastic job re-enacting the Passion of the Christ.

We also had the chance to visit the downtown area of Munich.

(Click on the picture to see photos of our adventure to Munich in May)

June

My parents took us on a family vacation to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. We have gone as a family for over 14 years now. Sadly last year was the only year I wasn't able to go, so it was a real treat to be able to be there with my family this year.

We had an amazing time sitting on the beach and hiking through the forest.

(Click on the picture to see our adventure to Costa Rica in June)

July:

Workin, workin, workin!!

And of course this weekend will be a-whole-nother adventure with our bash! Which of course we'll have pictures to share after the big event.

For now I am getting back to what I do best and that's cuttin' some hair!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday.
Glad to be back to blogging and hopefully we'll have some exciting adventures to blog about soon!

In Memory of Cohen

Click on the picture to read Cohen's story.