A Little Bit Like Writing In My Journal...

Well I am sad to report that this blog has started to turn out like my journal writing. I always buy these cute journals and get super excited to write in them. Don't get me wrong, I do write in them, but only for about a week or two. After that months go by and each new entry starts with "I'm sorry I haven't been a great writer, this is what has been going on..." OOPS. Anyway, I will try to keep posting every week.  The past two weeks have been pretty exciting. Here’s a look at what we have been up to lately! (It goes in order but it starts at the first of the post...) 

To get home we used this website pretty much called Carpool.com/hitch-hiker.com I was so terrified to see who was taking us home. We had the option of going with some guy, but he said something in his profile about taking a dog box with him and Tommy and I got a little scared he might just try to make me ride in the dog box... Luckily we found another option and we got to ride back home with this cute girl Stefani. She was great and safe. Tommy and I were so tired we practically slept the whole way home (6 hours). 
The view...
The whole Adler Family... 
Cute Carolin and Yannick at dinner...
Later that evening we went out to dinner with the Adler family. They were so fun to be with. We had such a wonderful time being with them. The food was amazing. It was the best German food I have had. The scenery was also amazing. I took a few pictures but couldn't quite capture just how beautiful it really was. Thank you Adler family for such a great night, it was the perfect end to our vacation! We also are so grateful for Carolin's family they were wonderful and so nice to let us stay with them. Saturday we were able to spend some time with them in their yard. Thank you to them for letting us stay at their place and taking such great care of us! Lastly, thank you Yannick and Carolin for such a fun weekend! We are so lucky to have you as friends! 

Walking around the streets of Bielefeld. It was their annual city fair. It's called the Leinenwebermarkt... Literally the linen weaver market. Bielefeld is a city that is heavy in the mercantile industry, particularly in clothing and mills, etc. I guess you could sort of compare it to the Weber County Fair or 24th of July Rodeo/Demolition Derby...


On Saturday morning Yannick and Tommy went and played soccer with some of the ward members. Tommy had a great time. He came home filthy though. Notice his dirty head and ear. I can only imagine what happened...

In Bielefeld there are these huge salt water walls. We were told they are good for you. We took a few big sniffs! They were everywhere!
Slightly embarrassing...Happy I didn't lose.
That night we went bowling with some of the Adlers friends. Here are a few action shots... 
In front of the Hermann Denkmal (monument). The statue is of a man name Arminius who led an "Army" of northern German tribesman against the Romans in 9 AD. They slaughtered the Romans repeatedly which ultimately caused Ceasar at that time to rethink his foreign policy and ceased the Roman Empire's northernly expansion efforts. Yannick stated, "If it weren't for him, we would all probably be speaking italian right now."
Total tourist picture...
While walking to see the Hermannsdenkmal we saw a bunch of old Cadillacs. Tommy was so excited! He loves old cars. We took a lot more pictures of other cars but i think this one was great for the blog. Can you just tell Tommy is in Heaven?


The pool...
Tommy and Yannick...
Friday we decided to go to see what Bielefeld was all about. First we had to show you just how beautiful Carolin's parents yard was. We spent all day Saturday there just relaxing and eating fresh strawberries. It was amazing, and they don't even have a gardner - they do it all themselves! Hopefully we will have a yard like this someday. (you can even swim in this pond. Unfortunately it was too cold while we were there).
This is a Kletterpark. You get the idea...

Oh Tommy, You're such a stud...

The Adlers...
Definitely can tell there is a little fear in that smile... 

Thursday, after breakfast we decided to go to the Kletterpark and swing through the trees. We weren't allowed to take the camera with but here are a few pics before we started! It was so much fun. Can you tell i was terrified? That night we barbequed with some of the Adlers friends. It was a blast. We had a bunch of delicious meats and bratwursts, salad, and grilled potatoes with some yummy sauce. After dinner the girls watched Germany's next top model and the boys went over to the church to play a little fussball. 

Some pretty flowers in front of the Adlers house...

Carolin made us a delicious breakfast the morning we arrived... 

Yannick's dad has some very nice automobiles. Yannick picked us up from the airport in a sweet Audi. After a phone call to Yannick's dad, Tommy was in the driver's seat and loving every minute of it. At one point Tommy was going 260 KMH (that's 161 MPH!) I was in the back covering my eyes... SCARY! Lucky we lived. This picture is not the car Tommy was driving, but we did get to drive around in this lovely automobile all day Thursday. Thanks Detlef for making my husband so happy! 

We had a holiday this Thursday so we thought it would be a great idea to go visit Tommy's mission companion in Bielefeld, Germany. It is up north near Hannover. Sweet Carolin, Elder Adler's wife found us a great deal on BerlinAir for one way tickets to the Meunster airport. We had to leave at 4:00am to catch the train and get to the airport by 6:00am! The airport in Munich is pretty far away. We were SO tired! This is Tommy showing you it is 4:24 in the morning! We didn't sleep the night before we left because we were packing. BAD IDEA! It was a fun trip anyway, and the flight was only and hour long! We loved spending time with Yannick and his wife Carolin. They took great care of us and we are so lucky. We stayed with Carolin's family in a guest bedroom. We were definitely pampered! Thanks so much Yannick and Carolin! We loved spending the weekend with you and your families! We can't wait for Italy!

This is the view from the hill overlooking Olympia Park. The opposite side is a view of the city. Hard to tell but it was so cool. It reminded me of the pictures from my art history book that they take of Florence only we're in Munich of course. 

The soccer stadium was HUGE. We haven't made it over to the one they built for the 2006 World Cup. Too bad we weren't there for the real thing...and the Bundesliga, german professional league, ended this weekend.  Hopefully we can make it to some friendlies later in the Summer.

I tried to take the picture myself. This is the view of the entire Olympia Park...

This is the control tower from the 1972 olympic games. If you have seen the movie Munich you know the story... From what i have read, in 1972 the olympic games began as a celebration of a new democratic Germany but ended up in tragedy when 17 people were killed in a terrorist attack by a Palestinian group. 

Wednesday Brianna and I decided we needed to go shopping.  By the way, the shopping in Munich is incredible. They have so many great stores! We decided to check out H & M first. We ended up staying there the whole time. It was great. After shoppping we met up with Brianna's husband and headed up to Olympia Park and the Soccer Stadium.  On our way to meet Ryan we ran into this guy painting on the street. This is what he was painting! The entire image was full of detail. Everyone that passed it was in awe. I just had to take a picture. 

Tommy, me, Tate, and the Willeitners after dinner on Karlz Platz... 

Monday Tommy's friend Tate came and stayed with us. He has been all over Europe and decided to stop in and stay with us one of the nights! It was so fun having him around. We went to Nymphenberg Palace on Monday and walked around. Of course I completely forgot to bring my camera! I plan on going again don't worry. After we met up with Tommy and decided to have a German meal for Tate. Here we are eating at the Donisl. I guess Tommy's mission president loved this place so we did a little reminiscing. The food was great and filling of course. Tommy was so happy he finally got to eat his favorite treat, Semmelknudel. 

View from the picture below...

This is just one of the many courtyards and palaces. 

The door was incredible. It was carved completely out of wood... No mistakes...

My glance inside... 

In front with the Willeitners...

After church on Sunday we decided to go see Schleissheim. This palace, according to our travel book, was modelled after Versaille. It was built in 1701. Sadly, we didn't get to go inside. We got there just as the tour was ending. I could only see a little bit of what inside looked like through the windows. Hopefully we will go back and see it. I guess it is full of vaulted ceilings and frescoes. The outside on the other hand was enormous! I tried to capture just how big it was but it was impossible. There were multiple gardens and even lime trees! 

On Sunday we had Stake Conference in Erding. We had to leave our house at 7:45am to make the train and get to Erding for conference by 9:30am! As we were leaving our house we had an exciting suprise on our doorstep! The Willeitner's were in Germany from Logan, Utah. We were so excited to see they made it and were going to church with us! They made our long trip much more eventful and enjoyable! Stake Conference of course was fabulous. We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Oaks from the 70. (oh and I forgot to mention the meeting was all in GERMAN. Lucky for me they had a translator and headphones). These are a few pictures of Erding. The little town was darling. I just had to take a few pictures!

This is the Beer Garden where we ate dinner...

Out on the dock in Herrsching. Don't know why we are matching...
Sailboats
Had to take the picture. It was just so perfect.

The sunset was beautiful...

On Saturday, May 16th we had Stake Conference meeting. It was great. After the meeting a bunch of our friends from the ward decided to go out and eat dinner at one of the beer gardens by the lake. We all got on the S bahn and headed toward Herrsching. The ride was BEAUTIFUL! When we got off the s bahn the sun started to go down. It was incredible. Here are a few pictures we got. We ate dinner right next the lake. It was such a fun night with yummy food, good friends, and of course GELATO.