kehlsteinhause, salzburg und wurstmarkt.

While my siblings were here we fit in as much as we could... a trip to Austria to see Salzburg and the Eagle's Nest was one of the last things we did as a group.  It was a fantastic outing!  As you know, David & I love Austria as much as we love Germany, so any chance to go there is a yes for us. We found a fantastic apartment to rent and we all had our own rooms with a kitchen and two balconies, too!  What a beautiful place the Lord has made in the mountains of Austria, but so sad that here in the beauty evil plans were hatched.

The best view of my loves and the beautiful mountains behind them (from the deck of the apartment we rented)... which I know you can't see that well.  Aren't they wonderful!?

View from the Eagle's Nest, with an EAGLE!  How crazy.

The nest.  Crazy how Adolf Hitler was literally here (only a few times) but still, it was his (given to him on his 50th birthday).

Lovely ladies.

Here's to you, Hitler!

Uncle Aaron!

Playing with the new camera and capturing a bee hard at work. 

The village we ended up in (Lofer--where David now wants to retire), there was a fall festival that weekend with live musik and great big bretzels. It was fun to see an Austrian fall fest.

A park down the road from our apartment. The girls enjoyed it for about 10 min and then we got kicked out because it was owned by a restaurant we weren't eating in. Oops.  Great view again, though!

Blessed are the feet that bring good news... and joy to a Mommy's heart!

A day in Salzburg. This is the town where The Sound of Music was based and where Mozart was born!  We didn't get to do much sightseeing of The Sound of Music because of timing but it was neat knowing where it was filmed.

A beautiful cemetery.  In Germany & Austria, apparently, they take extravagant care of the grave site of their beloved's that have passed away.  This is likely tied to the fact that families rent the sites and if they stop paying rent the bodies are exhumed and the site re-rented.

On the way home from Lofer we stopped at an alpine slide!  David & I took Norah along for a ride.  Like a good German park, there were rules but everything is at your own risk. There was no one to help us on the lift and no one at the top to tell us how to use the slide or if Norah even had to ride with us!  The rules say you have to be 8 to ride alone and when you're 8 you may also take another younger rider with you! Those crazy Austrians.

Here we go!

Weeeeee....

One more event we squeezed in while the siblings were here was the Bad Durkhiem Wein Fest!  Biggest wine fest in the world. It was honestly strange. The wine tents were nice, like below, but the rest of the fest was like a trashy carnival with rides and loud noises. Not the classy wine fest we expected.

Most of the wine you drink there is 3/4 glass of wine and 1/4 mineral water. It was really yummy, like a wine spritzer!

Evelyn enjoying her bratwurst & her Auntie Kim & Uncle Nathan!

heidelberg.

While my siblings were here we took the opportunity to visit Heidelberg. It's a bit more than an hour drive from our house but we decided to try taking the local train for the whole German experience.  We had a great day exploring what we could of the beautiful village on the river and the historic castle.  There was more to see in Heidelberg and of the university there but we tried our best to smash it all in on our self guided walking tour :)

Sleepy on morning ride there.  I'll take any rest I can get when help is around with the girls!

Handsome husband.

Cuties, as always.

Nathan and Kim are very creative and tallented with their camera, I stole this shot of a lonesome street from them.

A view of the beautiful castel from down in one of the village squares.

We actually got a good shot of us!

So thankful for my siblings and that they took the time to visit us here!  I loved everyday with you guys (and Nathan too)!  

Kim & Nathan keeping us young with a jumping picture on the bridge over the Rhein River.  We had to try one for ourselves...

And Norah too!

Norah, Kim, David, Kelly, Aaron, Evelyn & Nathan

And, the girls did great for a long day out!  Even when it rained on us for a bit.

full heart.

Aaron, Kim & Nathan came to visit!!!  What a blast we all had - it was a fun-filled two weeks and we did and saw a lot.  Let me give you a rundown on our first few days together. Looking at these pictures of course makes me wish they were already back (but alas, we're so grateful they came at all).

The first full day they were here David worked and the girls and I took them to one of our beloved German pools for play and eating.

  Evelyn's getting so good and kissing!  I love it, even though it's quite sloppy :)

  Norah & Uncle Aaron on the swings.

  Nathan and his first Bratwurst here.

  Pretty spoiled and in love with Uncle Aaron :)

On their second day we visited Kaiserslautern. We walked by all the shops and part of the farmer's market.  Oh, and don't forget the cappuccinos!

  MEAT at said farmer's market.

Kaffee to keep us warm and awake!

 Great view, delicious food and awesome company!

Funny thing about this restaurant... it's known for having two pear trees that are over 100 years old and we are sitting under them.  Every few minutes a LARGE and scary thud would happen as a ripe pear would fall from the trees--it was quite dangerous!  Thankfully we were covered by a canopy.  It was very funny though, THUD!

 Sweet Norah girl out to dinner with the big kids.

 Sisters!

More to come...

norah=3 years.

Our Norah girl turned THREE at the end of September!  We loved that we could celebrate with some family and friends on her birthday and make her feel extra special.  We had a mini party with Aaron, Nathan, Kim, Diana & Ellah - what a special day for Norah!

These little princesses always have fun together!

 

Me and my girl.

 Norah loving her new bag that auntie Kim made.

Norah adoring her new Rapunzel cup!  Anything Rupunzel makes my girls silly these days.

On Norah's birthday we went to the zoo with some of her little friends and all of us girls had a great time (David was working and all my siblings were traveling).  Norah & Evelyn loved seeing the animals in person and trying to feed as many of them as they could with the seed/food we bought. It was a great day.

Honestly, this is the best shot... Ellah, Norah, Alani, Evelyn... and nope, there's no gorilla at the zoo :)

My big three year old enjoying the automated swing, what a special treat!

After hours at the zoo, on the way to the car... someone's tired!  But, what a beautiful walk.

A few fun facts (in her words):
Favorite book: ummm, ahhh, tangeled (that's not a book norah, that's a movie). ummm, i want to have all of them (pointing at the book shelf). we suggested to her that fancy nancy is her favorite and she agrees.
Favotire food: goldfish
Favorite toy: aauuuum, puzzles (i don't think she understands what "favorite" means)
Favorite activity: go to park
Favorite person: da blue one... umm, we mean people... finally we got aaaaa Ellah and Evelyn!
Favorite color: ah pink!
Favorite song: Twinkle Twinkle and all of dem.

And, just for memories sake, here are two pictures from last year in Spokane as we waited to finalize Evelyn's adoption!  So glad David was with us for Norah's birthday and that we're in Germany all together this time around!

Evelyn, literally attached to me at all times... look how young they both look!?

It's crazy and fun to see how drastically our family and my little babies have changed in one year's time. God is so good and we are so blessed by the little lives we get to help shape.

day 2 day.

A walk in our hills... to see the cows... in princess gear :)

Running freely in the backyard... many hours playing in the yard this summer.  So blessed!

Norah. The Climber, up on our fence.

Our typically happy littlest one.

Saying g'night to the neighbor chickens (about 3 houses down the road).

Cuddles & naps on Sunday afternoons :)

And, princesses watching princess shows (Norah & Ellah).

Lots of laughter.