The Falls

On our way up to the castle we saw this and decided to stop on our way out.



This picture is straight out the camera no edits.  I love the color of this water.  It was so pretty.



We walked along the bridge overlooking the Falls and then we saw



this path through the woods that led down to



a little pebble beach.  The kids had a great time trying to skip rocks.



Brian had visions of  swimming in this water until he put his toes in and realized how frigid it was.



The girls of course had to follow suit and took their shoes off as well.



Silly girl.  Trying to pick up a heavy rock.  She loved that on our way out her Daddy brought some rocks up to the bridge so she could throw them over into the water.



Can you tell Sid was cutting her two year old molars?



All four of us are smiling and three out of four are looking at the camera - for us that is a successful picture.

Neuschwanstein Castle

On our first day in Bavaria we headed to Neuschwanstein Castle.



The kids were excited to see Cinderella's Castle.  Walt Disney based the design for it off of this castle.



You have to either hike, take a bus, or a horse and carriage ride up to the castle.   Feeling ambitious we decided to take the 30 minute completely up hill hike up the mountain.  We all felt like we got our workout that day.



But it was worth it.  This picture was taken from Mary's Bridge.



Below is Mary's  (scary, deathtrap) Bridge.  (Thankfully my friend Julie let me borrow this picture because I didn't get one of the actual bridge that day.)



Brian and Carolyn not scared a bit on this bridge.  I tried not to look down and tried to keep Carolyn within mine or Brian's arms.  No Fear.  But it was worth going on it for the pictures.  Unfortunately it was really cloudy that day.



Neuschwanstein Castle was built from 1869 - 1886 by "Mad" King Ludwig when he inherited the throne at the old age of 18.  The castle in the picture below is Hohenschwangau Castle and was Ludwig's childhood home.



We did take a tour inside the castle but they don't allow pictures.  Sidney had to leave the tour early because it was nap time.  Castles are just too exciting for her.



And also there was some pretty peaceful scenery.  I sometimes wish someone would stroll me around Europe where I can nap whenever needed.



And of course we had to attempt the Family Photo.

The Van

Before I start with our trip pictures I feel like I must share our method of transportation because it was as much a  part of the trip as the places we went.  Brian as you can see was very excited to be carting us all around in Big Blue.  Really the only time Brian lost it was when Seana and I started singing "Doe a Deer a female Deer..  " If you have heard my singing voice then you can imagine why that might have put him over the edge, but we were in the Alps.



Please ignore my face in this picture.  It is the only one I had of the inside of van.  Due to safety reasons with hooking in the car seats we had to put the two little ones beside each other.  Luckily they didn't figure out until the later part of the trip that they could hit each other.  But most of the ride home Sidney was saying "No Austin" whether he was touching her our not.  Seana sat beside Austin.
And I was in between the two older ones with constant questions of how much longer and request for snacks.  The men were navigating up front in their own little land.



As much as we were on the road on this trip though we could not have asked the kids to have done any better.  We rented Big Blue from the Army base here.  The other day we were on base and Carolyn saw the van.  She goes "Mommy, Mommy there is OUR van."  I definitely think she has some great memories from our big road trip.

Monschau

I am so behind on blogging.  I am trying to catch up on all my pictures.  Before we headed on our big adventure down to Garmisch country we headed over to Monschau, Germany for the day.



This is one of our favorite little towns near us.  The kids were most impressed with the Ducks in the creek though.



Carolyn calls Covey her best cousin friend Covey.  What makes me laugh is she can take this angelic picture with Covey but



when it comes to a family picture we still get this.  Although she did fall down right before we tried take this picture.



Sid's face in this picture cracks me up.  They look like trouble. :)

Lucky

I am very lucky to have this GQ man by my side.



And even luckier that he is the amazing Father to our girls that he is.



We had a typical Father's Day filled with watching boxing, eating nachos and staying in our pj's all day long.  Love it!!

Together Again

Loving having these four together again.



And they have been having fun together going to  the Wildlife Park.



Feeding the goats??  I think they were some sort of goats.



Chasing each other and copying whatever the other is doing.



Getting stuck in a big hamster wheel.



Heading to Thorn, Netherlands to check out the Pannekeoken House.



And most importantly painting our nails together.



Austin decided that he wanted his nails painted like Carolyn and Sidney's and of course being the good Aunt I am I obliged. (with screams from my brother of don't do it Austin they will show the pictures at your wedding.)



Tomorrow we pick up our big 9 passenger van so we can head down to Garmisch for a couple of days.  One thing I am sure of is we will not have a quiet drive.