October in Germany

This is Kate's new friend Colton. We traveled all the way from Baltimore with this cute little family. We love hanging out with Kelli, Raymond and their boys. These two hiked up to Kallmunz Castle ruins in this picture.

We celebrated Bryan's 32nd birthday with some pumpkin pie. The candles were supposed to make the number 32, but doesn't look as good as I thought it would.  Kate LOVES ice-cream. She knows what ice-cream shops looks like and can point them out very quickly!

 Kate and I got tatoos- she thought they were stickers, so I had to show her how to put them on.

 Bryan and I in Prague.  The weather was perfect at the beginning, and then got a little chilly towards the end of the day.  I would definitely go to Petrin Park if you ever get the chance to visit this super crowded city!

 We made it to the Kuhstallcafe for lunch one afternoon.  Kate loved seeing the cows while we ate our milkshakes and cheese above them.

 Fire Safety Week: Kate and I went up on the lift after story time with the library.  I don't know if they would ever let you do that in America??

 Jerry's Pumpkin Patch- an American owned pumpkin farm about 20 minutes from our house.  It was fun to pick out pumpkins with the little one.  Most of the pumpkins were green or rotted from the lack of sun and moisture.

 BMW Welt in Munich. This is the i8. Someone in our town owns one of these little babies.  

 Olympic Park- Munich

Such a cool view of the entire city.

 The Munchen Marathon.

This is by far the biggest race we have ever been to. Bryan asked if he could take a stroller and no one responded to his email, so guess who ran with us! 

Kate!

We only ran a 10K because the 1/2 marathon was booked with a max of 7,000 people.  The marathon had 3 heats.  Tons of people in this city today!

 The best part of the run was finishing in the Olympic Stadium. The food afterwards was awesome.  Beer, pretzels, smoothies, bakery goodies, and apples/bananas.  Tasty!

After we showered, we took Kate to the Sea Life Aquarium which is underneath the Olympic Park. Really neat and she enjoyed looking at all the fish in the big aquarium.
We will definitely be going to Munich more often- way too much to do in the time we had there.  Plus, it's only 1.5 hours away.

September in Germany

After our little hiking trip in the Alps with friends, we parted our ways to go visit Neuschwanstein Castle.  I am standing on a bridge that overlooks the castle which wooden planks "feel" super unstable.  Usually I am not scared of heights, but this little bridge got me. I look pretty nervous. 

We went up to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to visit the Walker family. We went to the Linderhof Palace, which Kind Ludwig II had built, as well as the Neuschwanstein Castle, but lived in the palace the longest.  Eight years I think?

This is the Christmas Store in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a little town that Pinocchio was designed after. This store is opened year around, super cute!

 Rothenberg ob der Tauber

A wall guards the entire city.

The town has a mechanical clock portraying a drinking scene. Goes off every hour.

Beautiful scenes of the Tauber River.

The Christmas Store. 

And we went to the Medieval Crime Museum, which had witch killing devices and chastity belts.

 Celebrating my 30th birthday.  My mom got me some scarves and warm clothes, so I'd fit in the the crowd. Kate looks good in my scarve!  Bryan got me a purple Garmin watch, so we could use it with all our hiking adventures and races.

 For my birthday we hike with a group of friends to the Zugspitz, the tallest summit in Germany.  We started at the Olympic Stadium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, walked through the Partenkirchen gorge where Kate lost her boot, and hiked a little over 9 miles to Knorrhutte. We spent the night with 16 other people in a room full of connected bunk beds.  Amazingly, Kate did awesome! Went right to sleep!

The second day was rough. Only 2-3 hours of hiking, but only going a distance of 900 meters. Lots of up. This is me on the ridge. I am standing on both Germany and Austria.

 This is Bryan at the true summit, 2962 meters. You have to get a picture with the golden cross to say you did it! The true summit is a little more challenging.  Kate did not go.

 One of the many beautiful pictures of the hike.  

The first couple weeks in Europe

We left for Germany on July 21 after a couple weeks of visiting with family. I drove all the way from Louisiana to Utah with Kate, while Bryan out processed at Fort Polk.  We stopped in Waco to visit Grandma Adams and Julie, Dallas to visit the Merrell family, Colorado Springs to pin Captain on my sister Kristi and visit my bestie Dara, and then drove the last 9 awful hours to Utah.  It was a long drive.  Bryan drove to Oklahoma, sold his truck to Adam and then flew to Utah.

 Here we are boarding the plane to Germany. Kate did awesome. Slept the whole way. Plane left at midnight, and instead of letting us sleep, started serving breakfast.  Odd.

 We took a trip with MWR to Milan, Italy the second week we arrived. It was our first trip around Europe.  Definitely cheaper to do it your own way. The bus left late at night so we'd arrive in town early in the morning, but we got very little sleep on the bus.  Seats were so uncomfortable. We didn't get the opportunity to see "The Last Supper", so we might have to go back...

Just chilling out in the hotel. 10 days was long, but not long enough. We should have taken advantage of the free wifi (as we just got internet after 3 months of waiting). We bought a red VW golf about a week of getting to Germany and moved to Parsberg, which is about 15 minutes from Hohenfels. It is one of the larger communities around the base, with several grocery stores within a 5 minute walk and a train stop.

Our first train ride to Straubing. Also our first Fest. Definitely not something we will do often, but something you have to experience. 

 We went to the Audi Museum in Ingolstadt. Bryan and Kate are in a 180,000 euro car. Don't scratch anything Kate! We walked around the town and across the Danube River.

 Ingolstadt, DE

Over labor day weekend, we went on a 9 mile hike in Switzerland with some friends. We stopped at the top for lunch at a little cafe surrounded by goats and sheep with bells. We spent the night in a hotel in Austria, while our friends slept in a barn on hay. I would have participated, but I didn't know how Kate would do...

 Sweet picture of Bryan and Kate among the Swiss Alps.

Things to do if you come to Fort Polk

I like to make a list of things I want to do and see when we get stationed to different parts of the world with the Army.  Most people will tell you Fort Polk is the arm pit of the Army.  We have really enjoyed our time here and have seen lots of different things we wouldn't have otherwise.  Louisiana is a party state.  There is always a festival going on for something; oysters, watermelon, mardi gras, and crawfish festivals. I hope this list helps others who might get stationed here. 

Things to do in Louisiana

1. The museum of West Louisiana
2. Hodges Gardens DONE
3. Kent Plantation Home, Alexandria
4. Alligator Park, Natchitoches DONE
5. Natchitoches- plantation tours, shops, and restaurants DONE
6. Blue Hole DONE
7. Alligator Lake DONE
8. Camping/kayaking at Toledo Bend State Park DONE
9. Historical downtown Leesville- shops, art galleries, farmers market DONE
10. Alexandria Zoo DONE
11. Hunt an alligator
12. Eat an ice box pie at Strawn’s Eat Shop, Shreveport DONE
13. Blueberry picking DONE
14. Anacoco Lake, Vernon Lake DONE
15. TREE House Museum, Alexandria
16. Leesville Race Track
17. Dixieland Water Park, Baton Rouge
18. Splash Pad, Fort Polk DONE
19. Bourbon Street, New Orleans DONE
20. Swamp Tour DONE
21. Grant's Christmas Tree Farm DONE
22. Eat alligator DONE
23. Audubon Experience, New Orleans DONE
24. Splash Pad, Leesville DONE
25. Book-Lewis House, Leesville DONE
26. Tabasco Pepper Sauce, Avery Island DONE
27. Cemetery Tour, New Orleans DONE
28. Shreveport Boardwalk
29. Steamboat, Mississippi River DONE
30. Creolenaturetrail.org- crabbing, shelling, crawfish hunting
31. Festival of Lights, Natchitoches (December) DONE
32. Mardi Gras Parade (January/February) DONE
33. Gonewildsafari.com (318-787-6902)
34. Suck crawfish DONE
35. Fish at Sunrise Catfish Farm, DeRidder
36. Biking/running trail near BJACH DONE
37. Eat at Tonk’s DONE
38. Baton Rouge Temple
39. Anderson Farm DONE
40. Sabine ATV Park
41. Old School House Mall, (Washington, LA) DONE

New Orleans (bachelorette style)

My neighbor, Jennifer, invited me to celebrate her best friend's bachelorette party in New Orleans.  It was a little different this weekend, than my family weekend.  Jennifer planned the weekend out to a "T" and it worked out perfectly.  Everyone had fun.     

 Jennifer's mother, Fran, and I went for a 5 mile run through the French Quarters on Saturday morning.  We didn't care that it was pouring down rain- we had a good run.

 Before we headed to the lingerie party, Fran and I made a stop at the Audubon Insectarium.  Check!

 The lingerie party was at one of the oldest residential houses in the French Quarters- one of Jennifer's friends.  The walls were cracked and the paint was chipping off from the ceiling.  The house was furnished in the old French style.  There was hardly enough lighting in the house and the kitchen was super small.  I loved it.  We had awesome food catered and played awesome games and showered Brandy with underwear.  I won the play dough shaping penis game.  Haha. Must be from all those penis's I see in my line of work.

After the lingerie party, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the bachelorette dinner and a night on Bourbon Street.  Some of the girls had a make-up artist fix them up. We ate at Broussard's Restaurant.  I had the Oyster Menage Tua and Ostrich.  So good.

Afterwards, we partied on Bourbon Street until 1 or 2 in the morning.  We had a petty cab (bike with carriage) peddle us home because our feet hurt from our heels. One buck per block per person! Holy money!

Jennifer did a wonderful job planning out everything! Thanks for the good time! Can't wait to do something like that again, Europe style!

New Orleans (family style)

We finally ventured to the Crescent City.  We had a wonderful time.

 We went to the Audubon Zoo first.  Kate enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the ones she has been working on the animal sounds (monkey, ducks, alligator, and BIG cats). We climbed around in the kids area and got wet in the splash zones.

 Cute picture of Kate on a duck statue. She probably could have played on that for an hour.

 Family picture at the French Quarter.  Lots of art work, food, music, and crazy people!

We went on the Natchez Steamboat. It cruised up and down the Mississippi River while we ate lunch and learned the history of the area.  Highly recommend!

 Waiting in line at Cafe Du Monde, a must! I think Bryan waiting for an hour in the to-go line for beignets.

We made it to the Aquarium of the Americas and an iMax show! Kate fell asleep during the movie so it was perfect.  The shark tank was being cleaned by 2 scuba divers and 2 other scuba divers guarding off the sharks.  We had lots of fun!

Crawfish Boil

One thing I wanted to do before we left Louisiana was a crawfish boil.  It is a lot of work and money. We invited our neighbors and friends.  I bought 35 lbs of live crawfish from Market Basket, along with red potatoes, mushrooms, corn, and onions.

We put the crawfish in a cooler full of salt.  It slows down their nervous system and makes them throw-up whatever is in their stomachs.  I was brave and picked up a couple to put in the boiling pot.  

Dexter, our chef.

 Kate even got friendly with the crawfish.