20.10.2010

Now that's a pretty cool day for a birthday... 20.10.2010. :) Albeit, it's the European method of writing the date and not actually the U.S. method, but it was still pretty fun to say that my birthday fell on 2010 2o10 yesterday! :) And what a fabulous birthday it was! I spent the day with great friends and my wonderful hubby. And, to top it off, I spent the evening chatting away with my family in the U.S.... I was even given a very special birthday wish from my favorite little man, Kaden, which totally made my day! :)

I mean, really, how cute is that?! :) He writes pretty darn well for a 3 year old! :)

Overall, I had such a fantastic day yesterday... I am so very grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family... I felt so fortunate to be able to share my birthday with friends from here as well as with family and friends from home... I can honestly say that I'm one very lucky girl!

And, to top off an already spectacular day, my hubby proceeded to spoil me rotten... Not only did he take me shopping and let me pick out the George, Gina, and Lucy purse I've had my eye on for the past year and a half (love it!! :)), but he also ordered me a new hiking/skiing/winter coat that is currently enroute from the U.S. We even ended the evening with a delicious Mexican dinner (something that is not that easy to find in Germany! :))... Yum!! :) I definitely could not have asked for a more fabulous birthday! I am completely overwhelmed with gratitude to be surrounded and loved by so many wonderful people... Thank you for making my birthday such a truly special day! :)

I "heart" my new purse! :)

I can't wait to try this out on our next hike!! :)

And a lovely birthday bouquet courtesy of my friend, Eva... :)

Tales From An Amateur Photographer's Wife...

As the wife of an amateur photographer, you get quite used to doing ALOT of standing around and waiting for pictures to be taken... And, it's also common to help in the scouting out of photos, carrying camera equipment, switching lenses, etc... But, I can honestly say, that this most recent chain of events was a first for me...

While in Italy, Brian and I were taking a walk and exploring the area around the agritourismo that we stayed at. During our walk, Brian spotted a praying mantis on the ground. Ever determined to get the perfect picture, he asked me to stand guard over the mantis so that he could run back to the room to grab his fancy camera with the telephoto lens, so that he could get a picture of it... After staring at him blankly, and asking "Seriously?!" more than once, I finally agreed to watch the mantis... Mind you, the room was a good 5 minute walk away, which meant that I was lucky enough to have to stand in the middle of a field of dead sunflowers (the place we stayed at grows sunflowers, and by the time we arrived in mid-September, they were all pretty much withered and dead... lovely!) for a good 10 minutes (but felt much longer!), watching a praying mantis and hoping that it didn't fly away before Brian got back... The joys of being a photographer's wife! :)

Here's the field of dead sunflowers... I can imagine it's lovely to see in mid-August... Now, not so much! :)

And, when all you have to do is stare at a praying mantis (mind you, they don't really move much), you get kinda bored... So, I decided to capture the moment... Here's me standing in a field of dead sunflowers standing guard over a praying mantis... :)

Fortunately, I was intimidating enough to the mantis that it decided not to fly away. :)

Which meant that Brian was able to come back with his fancy camera and do this...

... to get a shot of this... Lovely! :)

Life As A Tour Guide...

Hallo dear readers!! Considering that it's been ages since my last entry, I hope that you didn't think I forgot about you! Things have been quite hectic on this end recently... We are currently on our 3rd batch of visitors this month... And we still have a couple more to go... As much fun as it is to have visitors, it does make for a very chaotic month! :) So, please accept my sincerest apologies... It hasn't been easy lately to even sit down at a computer, let alone type up a blog entry... Needless to say, I have plenty of stories and pictures to share with you about all of our recent adventures... I just need to find the time to sort through everything and get them posted on here. So, I'm asking you to please just be patient with me and eventually I'll get back on track with the blogging... :)

Until then, here's a quick peak into what I've been up to over the past few weeks...

Visited the Church of Birnau a couple of times...

Strolled through the streets of Meersburg on a few occasions...

Walked past this Meersburg landmark for quite a few photo ops... :)

Been to the Meersburg Castle twice in the past two weeks...

I think I'm now at the point where I could probably get a job as a tour guide at this castle seeing as how I could probably recite the tour by heart now! :)

Visited the city of Lindau...

Showed Aunt Sherri and Uncle Mike the sights of Lindau...

Spent a couple of days in Munich...

Saw the Neuschwanstein Castle from a variety of different angles over the past few weeks... :)

Posed for this gratuitous "Neuschwanstein Castle" photo a handful of times... :)

Soaked up the view of the countryside from the castle...

Drove by this hidden little gem a couple of times...

Visited Dachau as part of the Neuschwanstein/Dachau Day Tour one of our guests requested...

And, in addition to all of those landmarks, we've also been to Italy with Brian's parents, taken part in Oktoberfest 2010 in Munich, and tried to maintain some resemblance of our normal daily lives such as work, gym, and cleaning... Needless to say, it's definitely keeping us on our toes! :) But, it has been great to spend time with family and friends, so it has definitely been worth it! :)

And please continue to stay tuned for more updates from our tours! :)

Scenic Switzerland...

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go on our first big hike of the season (How sad is that?? Due to such crappy weather this summer, we finally got to go hiking at the end of August... Grrrr!!)... We took advantage of the incredible weather and headed to Switzerland to take on Mt. Hoher Kasten. We hiked the same mountain last year, and we liked it so much that we couldn't wait to go back! :)

And, what a fantastic day of hiking it turned out to be! Blue skies, perfect temperatures, beautiful scenery, and a great group of people to hike with... What a perfect way to start (and pretty much end) the hiking season this year! :)

And we're off...

I love walking amongst the Swiss cows! :)

Scenic Switzerland...

Brian (and his camera) on the way up! :)

Katrina and Benjamin on the way up...

Do I look like a tourist or what, with the camera hanging around my neck?! :)

Benjamin made a friend! :)

Taking a break near the top...

And we made it! :)

What a view!! :)

Posing for the typical "Made it to the top" picture! :)

We brought a picnic lunch to eat at the top while enjoying the picturesque view... Meanwhile, the crazy birds had other ideas for us! :)

(Notice all of the birds around us in this picture??)

These birds were crazy!! They flew around us and swooped down near our heads... And, they even got close enough to attempt to snatch the sandwiches out of our hands... Made for an entertaining lunch! :)

What a small world! On our way to the top we ran into some fellow American friends of ours that live in the same town as us... Crazy! :)

We opted to take a more scenic route back to the car... So, we headed towards Staubern-Bruilisau...

Breathtaking! :)

Taking a break and making sure we were going the right direction...

The view was spectacular!! :)

I love this boulder!!

(You know me and my boulder fettish! I saw this and had to get a picture on it! :))

Such a cute little hut! I wouldn't mind living here... Look at that view! :)

And, as typical of our hiking experiences, we somehow managed to get off the trail... Which meant that we had to search out another route in an attempt to reconnect with the trail that led back to the car further on... Well, this was the "trail" we managed to find... Yep, that's right... Not actually a trail per say... More like a muddy mess that we attempted to walk uphill in... Good times! :)

We made our way up the muddy and slippery hill at the back of this picture, and came into this area... So, we sent the boys in opposite directions to search for the trail that led back to the car... And, in the meantime...

... Katrina and I passed the time by taking pictures of course! :) And, after some searching, they finally came across our trail so that we could go back home and not have to spend the night in the woods... Yay! :)

And, this was our view on the way back down...

What a great way to end the day! :)