Castle Illumination

The Johnson's had a big bbq dinner with all of their Ramstein friends two Saturdays ago.  We met in Sankt Leon at their place around 10 am.  The guys quickly set off for their 10:36 am tee time and the kids and wives settled in at the Johnson's playing and visiting.  It was amazing that even with 19 kids hanging out that it was relatively calm since they all played so well together.  When the guys returned, we had a yummy  bbq complete with shish kabobs, bruschetta, baked beans, warm artichoke dip, fruit salad, jello and more.

We caravaned over to the castles around 6pm.  This is a yearly tradition in the Heidelberg area.  The town with these four castles is called Neckarsteinach and lies on the Neckar River about 15 km. east of Heidelberg.  This little valley has four castles all visible from the crest of this big meadow.    One is occupied and didn't participate in the show, but it was still a great view.  

 The kids played in this meadow for hours waiting for it to get dark out side.   They ran around this field playing football and chasing the frisbee disc.  They also just hung out talking and laughing and playing with the Bowsers dog: Ellie.

I spent almost all of my time in this here chair since I was on crutches due to a Stress Fracture in my hip that I have apparently been walking and exercising on for 3 months.  That explains all the pain and suffering I have been enduring ughhhhh.  So I started taking random pictures of cute kids.....

Ms. Lucy

Ms. Karley

My littlest precious!

Uh Lisa?  Do I get any donut on my face?

It was a fun night with the Bowsers, Flakes, Johnsons, and Chuggs.

It was getting cold for the little ones so they ended up in the Flakes car playing i phones, and i pads.

The big boys.... waiting for the show.

The show was pretty amazing.  It started up with 3 of the 4 castles glowing to which lots of the kids wondered if they were on fire.  Then the fireworks show started.  It was really good.  Our kids were especially grateful since they missed all Fourth of July celebrations this year and hence hadn't seen fireworks yet this summer.  After the fireworks that lit the sky for over 15 minutes, the 3 castles somehow had a firework waterfall flowing down a side of them.  It looked amazing and was nothing like I had ever seen before.  Afterwards we had a very late night and long drive home.  Not a good mix for 9 am church!

Ice-Cream Truck

This is not like the ice-cream truck that came around in California and Vegas that I was scared of and almost never let my kids get ice-cream from.  This is like real gelato ice cream on cones with awesome flavors and a really nice man with a sign in English and German who will take euro or american money. He's getting to know my children real well.  He stops when he sees Jared and throws his hands up in the air as if to say where are my favorite customers if we don't happen to be home when he gets there.  He often arrives at the exact same time as Jared 5:25 pm. (every night right by our house). Oh yeah and did I forget to point out.... he also arrives at the exact same time as something else?  Dinner.  How can I compete?  We are having a lot of fabulous ice-cream appetizers these days.

Seiffen Germany

 This Miner and his "Angel Wife" are seen everywhere in the village of Seiffen.  They are symbols of the history of this village and how it came to be the modern day Christmas shopping hotspot of Germany.  Mostly they cater to tourists who come to get the unique to Germany wooden Christmas decorations.  Well, I guess our group fit that bill!  Lisa one of my best friends in the world, who happens to live an hour southeast of us now (boy is that fun to say and type!) invited me to tag along with a group of gals from her ward who were making a quick girl's trip to Seiffen so that one of them could buy Christmas presents early and take them back to the states on her summer trip to visit family.  For any English majors out there, forgive the run on sentence.
 Well I'm always up for a girl's trip and Christmas in July.....okay!  I was so glad I went not only did I meet some new friends; Emma, Mindy, Melissa, Megan, and Britany, I also took in some German culture and got to shop for Christmas early.

 This village is similar looking to others, but is nestled in a forest near the Polish border.  It used to be a mining town.  Once the mining industry dried up, the men had to find a way to make a living and support their families.  Looking to the other resource that they had on hand, lots and lots of trees, they started carving decorations.  This is where the Pyramid Christmas trees originated, Schwebbogan window sill lighted decorations, as well as Nutcrackers started getting carved here.  Today the town is filled with 12-15 different stores who all have the wooden pieces.  Some specialize in one item, but most have a little bit of everything listed above as well as several other collectables.  So off you run from store to store deciding what you want or like, and then run back to a different store to compare prices, styles, colors, etc....  Definitely a place for women to escape to.  Men would pull their hair out shopping like this!

 This is the cute hotel we stayed in right in the middle of the Village.  It was cute and quaint and had awesome rooms as well as yummy restaurants.

 A huge Pyramid Tree outside one of the stores

 Apparently this is a very known church in Germany.... it is often replicated in the carved winter scenes that are sold at all the Christmas markets.

 This beautiful cemetary was located behind the church.  Ummm can I get buried here?

There are all the girls chatting and having such a marvelous time taking in the quaint village.  These light posts are all over the village

 Can you spot the Miner and his wife??  They are everywhere....the story goes that the wife would bring food down to the miners and they would call her an angel as she came down the shoot with the light behind her.  There are lots of wooden Miners and Angels that you can buy.

Wouldn't it be so cool to have this giant Nutcracker?  I was thinking it would be until I looked at the price tag.  He costs somewhere around 700 euro.  

 Some treasures I purchased from the nicest lady

 Schwebbogans (shveeboaguns) up top--believe me I had to practice saying this about 20 times before I got it just right.  The Pyramids down below.

Lisa got a Nutcracker that looks just like this guy, but obviously smaller.  Isn't it so cool?  What a great overnighter thanks for the invite Lisa!  

 These pretty red flowers are everywhere

 These smoker dudes are super cute too.  They come in the size of nutcrackers or smaller and you pull them apart in the middle and put a little flammable cone inside and then light it and they smoke.

 Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat..... well maybe not quite yet.

 So confession time.  I don't really love the Schwebbogans or Pyramids.  I really like the Nutcrackers and would like to collect a few.  What I fell in mad, deep LOVE with was these little girls.  They are called Blumenkind.  (Flower Children)  There are probably 45 different ones.  I contained myself --kinda-- and only bought five.  They are hand painted like everything else in Seiffen so they are not cheap.  Everything is cheaper here than at the Christmas Markets, which is why we all make the drive, but it adds up fast.  I had to look at the glass case for a while and line them up and make sure none of their dresses clashed or that I had too similar of flowers, or that they all had the same color of hair.  Okay, maybe I'm a little obsessive, but I already new that.  I am thrilled with the ones I picked.  I heart them so very much.  They sit on my window sill in my kitchen and they make me really happy.  I love their bright colors and chubby cheeks and arms.   The first one I fell in love with was the orange skirt with purple flower one.  And then I had to get a variety.  My other favorite is the blue skirt with red poppy because those flowers are so popular here.  Ohhh how I want more of these little precious'.

Ohh and yummy-- my dinner right before pulling out of town was this delectable pasta above.  Its apparently mushroom season here in Germany.  I love mushrooms and this pasta had a lot of these big ones which made me so happy and full as I recall.  Ahhhh, Good Times.

Luisen Park, Mannheim Germany

For another "Out and About" wednesday activity, we headed to Luisen Park to check it out.  I have heard from several people how great this park is.

This Stork was perched in its gigantic nest high in this tree right where we first walked in.  It was pretty cool looking at it all the way up there.  Hanna and Jake spotted the nest, so they were quick to point it out to all the other kids.

This park has a lot of variety.  Its beautiful......so a lot like a Japanese Garden, but it also has some fun kid areas, as well as a reptile house similar to a zoo.  There was a lot to take in.

The Crane who came traipsing through the park right where we had stopped to eat

This little boat ride was a highlight of our visit.  They sent our stroller behind us in a boat all by itself.  It was a little funny.  This is Bobbi Jo Bowser and her two girls....we would be lost without her.  She helped us get a house, has fed us, has given us several invites to go explore, and is a wealth of info after living here for 3.5 years.  We feel blessed to have them just down the street in our village!

These "lovely" fish are all over in the water.  They literally come over to your boat and beg for food or a kiss, I'm not sure which one, but those giant lips are open wide.  Ewwwe they are ugly!

A mama and her little ducklings came to say hi by our boat

Cole loved these little cars!