Summer of Outings

So my ward did had this great idea to do day trips to places within a few hours of here. I was able to go on a few and it made me wish I would have gone on more. It was great getting to see more of Germany. 

The first place I went was Idar-Oberstein. It's a large village that deals with gem stones. There were gem stones everywhere. If I was rich I would have gotten a beautiful gem stone bowl, but I'm just poor enough that extravagant decorations aren't in the budget.  One of the other amazing things about Idar-Oberstein is that it has a beautiful Cathedral built in the side of a cliff. It's still in use too!

There's also castle ruins further up the hill but it was a hot day and by the time I made it up to the Cathedral I was done. 

Another trip I was able to go on was to the Devils Table

This was an amazing park that had a trail that led up to this very cool rock. It also had a sweet slide that went from the top of the trail back down into the park. The park also had a splash pad, a zip line, and a maze. I still feel a bit like a creeper coming to parks without kids. Luckily I was there with friends with kids so it wasn't as weird as it could have been. 

Lego Land

Recently I got incentive to actually plan a trip! I know, right? Huge for me, but I really did it (with some help). I wanted to go to Lego Land for the 4th of July, but moved it to that saturday so that some of our friends could come with us! Everything is better with friends! We really enjoyed the day! 

Getting ready to go inside!

 We were all super excited!

 Getting to go on her very first ride!

 Ricky and my first ride of the day!

Ricky's 2nd ride!

 Face painting is awesome!

 2nd ride!

 The play grounds were awesome, and she didn't want to leave them!

 Camel riding!

 My turn!

 Ricky's turn!

 Thumps up for adventure!

 The aquarium!

I do wish there were more rides. Not that the legos were fun to look at, but it did make me miss Six Flags. I'm hoping that the other 2 parks around here will have more of that super awesome gut wrenching rides that I was hoping to experience. 

But even will the lack of rides it was a great day! I got a sweet Lego Batman Key chain! And Ricky got a lego batman set! (you can't go to lego land and not buy legos) Thank you, Guy and Alison and Evey for coming with us!

Fathers Day

Fathers Day wasn't nearly as big a deal as Mothers Day, but I did try to make it a little bit more special. I got Ricky a 3+ lb bag of Swedish Fish and made him a bow tie! 

Isn't he just so classy!

The tie turned out ok but Ricky didn't really like the colors.  :(  But he did say he would love a simple red bow tie! So as soon as I can afford the fabric I will be making him a new one!

Getting Out Of The House

Ricky and I are attempting to get out and do more. I mean we are in Europe! We should be doing more then hanging at home every weekend. I don't think we will be traveling every weekend but if we can find some inexpensive/free things to do we are going to start taking advantage of them! For instance, we recently went to a wildlife park not far from our home. It was nice to get out and walk around. The animals weren't very impressive but we did get to feed some deer!

Ricky feeding a Doe and her faun.

Ricky by the Buck (aren't they tiny?)

Me feeding the Buck.

 The biggest slug I've ever seen. It's kind of blurry, and he's kind of scrunched up, but still pretty cool!

 The most adorable baby boars I've ever seen. Ricky was laughing at me cause I couldn't get over just how cute they were!

I'm hoping to find more things for us to do soon!

Mother's Day

I know Mothers Day has come and gone but I wanted to share just how awesome my ward is. Instead of flowers or books, they gave us Ice Cream! 

Plus the Young Women did a fundraiser where they made gift bags with homemade truffles, sugar bath scrubs, and a flower and the Priesthood could sign their wives up to receive one and then make a donation to the Young Women's budget for girls camp. I thought both were great ideas!

Long Time Waiting

So I know it's been over a month since my last post. I also know I have a lot to post about. But the big thing I have on my mind, that I just have to share with the world is that Ricky and I have finally paid off one of our credit cards! It's taken about a year of hard work, saving, and finally selling an extra car to finally get it paid off! So yes the BMW is gone! I'm a little sad cause once it was fixed it was a really nice car again, but I love my awesome VW and there are no regrets! It feels amazing to get rid of a portion of our debt. And because we don't have to make payments on 2 cards, all that money can go to getting the other credit card paid off. So hopefully with in the next year we wont have any credit card debt! Here's to hoping to be debt free in a few years!

New Car

So thanks to my amazing husband who is constantly looking for cars online (whether we need one or not) we found the most amazing deal on the coolest car ever!!! 

This is Chuck! Or Charles if you prefer to be formal. 

 He is an 1988 Volkswagen Jetta. So in like a year it will be considered a classic car and can be shipped back to the states even though its German spec.

 The best part of it all is that it only has like 80,000 kilometers on it. That is ruffly 50,000 miles. That is nothing for a car this old! The original owner was a little old German lady who drove it once a week to market. The 2nd owners had to sell it quickly cause they were leaving Germany and after meeting up with them we realized that they were in the other Military ward here! It was so amazing!!! I love this car, and so does Ricky. It runs amazing! And it's Ricky's project car. When he's done with it, it's going to be pretty awesome!