Uberraschung! *Surprise*

For those of you who didnt know, which should be mostly everyone except for you special people who are shaking your heads saying I KNEW I KNEW...Leroy and I are taking guardianship of our neice Hayden. Some traumatic events have happened recently and she needed a stable place to get everything she needs..and we are the ones who can provide this. So as of Tuesday we are her new guardians and Hayden is moving to Germany! While I am not there and cant give first hand experiences, I will blog pics of whats going on back home. Also if anyone wants to hang with Leroy feel free to send me a message on FB.

Yesterday mom, Leroy and Hayden met up with aunt Terry and Liz and went to Eckerts to pick apples and possibly pumpkins as well? I heard it was a wonderful day and looks beautiful out! They also rode the ferry accross from the IL side which has always been one of my fav things :)

Bad Durkeim Wine Festival 2011

Bad Durkeim is the largest wine fest in the entire world. Spanning over two weekends, its alot like the oktoberfest of wine. Last year, shortly after we arrived here in Germany, we went with some friends and were introduced to some really great people. One of the couples we met (Wernkes) have become very good friends over the last year and our second family.
Meggan Wernke and I were able to celebrate our 1 year of friendship as well as celebrating our wonderful new friends that we have found in the Cokers :) There were tons of rides, tons of people, and tons of different wines to try.

Candace Meggan and I waiting for the train

pretty man at the festival

Maddie eating a chocolate covered apple

Maria

Sean eating chocolate covered strawberries

Chocolate covered marshmellows, Perez

Meggan and I ran into Heather!

The Cokers

Weekend in Dachau and Munich

Two weekends ago, Leroy and I decided to take a mini trip to Dachau Concentration camp as well as a stop in Munich. Since we have some big changes coming up and it is such a sobering experience, we did this before.
Dachau the town is actually quite lovely. It is very old-school Germany and homey feeling. It is a small town and the people all seemed very friendly. There were pumpkin stands and flower fields everywhere...I love seeing the big "BLUMEN" sign and knowing that if I wanted to I could go pick sunflowers bigger than my head. Picturesque is the word. Anyhow, we stayed in a hotel called THE SAFARI HOTEL..























It was quite the experience! We had the zebra room and that big skin pictured second was our wall decor. The hotel is family ran and they were super sweet. Loved Saki! Best part about this hotel was it was only two streets from the concebtration camp.
It is said that the people of Dachau claim they had no idea the camp was there. Insane. There is no way possible that is true. Dachau was one of if not the only camp that lasted the entire war.

































































This is where the people were shaved down and inspected to see if able to work or be experimented on.































All of the different ethnicities of people inside of dachau.


















Below is the rememberance room.






















The view from one corner of the camp.


















Bedrooms and rest rooms






























And then we entered probably one of the most haunting places.


























It was a great day though and such a wonderful experience. You shouldnt visit Germany without a trip to such a peice of history. Best part of the trip was meeting up with an old friend ( leslie) and her new fiance! Cannot wait to do this again!




















More adventures to come......