Playing in the Snow and the Hexenagger Market

It snowed here this past week! Winter wonderland and I love it! It totally is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Our tree is up, decorations are out and low we have an amazing white blanket of snow everywhere. I just need to start busting out the Christmas cookies and fudge and we have it made!
Luke and I took advantage of the snow and played outside, sledding down our tiny backyard hill and making a snowman. And yesterday, all 3 of us ventured out to Hexenagger, a tiny town about 35 minutes away from us, that holds an amazing and magical medieval Christmas market.

"High above the Schambach valley there lies a knights (hunters) castle full of history which first was mentioned in historical books in 982. The Castle of Hexenagger has been part of the royal family Weidenbach since 1834. We, family Leichtfuß and our descendants run the castle along with our helpful "castle ghosts". "

They open the castle for various events through the year and during the Christmas season, "On the four Advent weekends we again open our gates, to give our guests from near and far a few unforgettable hours in a very special atmosphere, and with the help of our diligent "castle ghosts", to turn Castle Hexenagger into a Winter Wonderland!. The sweet smell of sugar-roasted almonds and mulled wine, over 30,000 lights, candles and torches, Christmas music, and the ambiance within the historical walls casts a spell over the visitors. "

We had a great time at the market, it was so beautiful, but we had dinner plans at a friends house so we didn't get to see all the vendors and see all the sites but we hope to go back next Advent weekend. Here are our pictures from our snowfall, playing outside and the Hegenagger castle market.

Brian at the Hexenagger Market

Luke munching on his pretzel, watching the Christmas pyramids spin round and round.

It's me! See those little sheds behind me? Those are some of the many vendor sites - they were beautifully decorated, heated with lamps or candles and scented with pine, cider or Christmas incenses.

A picture from one of the castle lookouts.

The view from the castle lookout

Mini ponies! Luke loved watching the ponies walk by with kids on their backs. Brian and I just thought they were goofy looking! :)

The Hexenagger castle

The walkway down the slope from the castle, decorated with lights and oil lamps, you can see the row of vendors below.

We interrupt the Italy posts with pictures from a walk around our neighborhood

Fall is here and it is gorgeous out. Luke and I took a walk the other day and since the morning fog had lifted and the sun was shining, I decided to take the camera with me. I promise to post the last post of the Italian series (Ceramics shopping in Nove) soon. In the meantime, I give you autumn in Parsberg, Germany.

It only took 8 months....

but I finally shook Hawaii. It is about time. For the past few months I have been torturing myself reminiscing about the beach, the sun, the sand, the fun, the food, the laughter and all my friends. Every time I start missing Hawaii, I try to reason with myself, reminding myself that I was ready to leave, that I didn't like that it was hot all the time, that sand sticks to your butt and gets everywhere in your car and that moving is just part of military life....and it just didn't work. I would give myself pep talks about Germany - "Look around! It is gorgeous here. What an amazing experience and opportunity to live in Germany and travel around Europe!" And that didn't work either. But today, in August no less, I woke up to a clear and crisp day and something felt a little magical about it. After I drank my morning coffee, I decided to get Luke dressed and head outside because it felt like fall. It was 60 degrees, cool, quiet, crisp and the sun was shining so although your nose and ears feel cool, the sun warms you up a little. We bundled up in fleece jackets and wandered around picking different leaves off all the trees. And as we were walking around I was flooded with memories from all the autumns I experienced growing up. I thought of soccer games, raking leaves, going to the apple orchards, drinking hot cocoa, lazy days in the neighborhood and laying on the floor at home playing Monopoly, watching football, running around outside until you felt your lungs would burst and your ears would fall off because they were so pink...and I realized that I really, I mean really, missed this. It has been 12 years since I have lived in this type of climate. Sure I still lived on the mainland from 1997 to 2003 but I was in the South and in the South getting a decent autumn is a crap shoot. Most of the time it is still hot until the end of September and then it gets freakishly cold, not much of an in between. Or, it is so mild that it seems that the trees and mother nature never really get a chance to showcase fall in all it's glory. Anyways, today I realized how much I love this weather and how comforting it is to me. This is the first time since we have been here that I have been truly content all day long and totally comfortable. After playing outside for awhile, Luke and I packed it on in and while I made a grocery list, he played with Play-Doh. We went to the store and I got all the ingredients I need for chili and I did a massive search for hot apple cider (no luck). As I type this up, little man is asleep, napping in my bed and I am enjoying this gorgeous fall (in August?) day and am wishing that the smell of cinnamon was wafting through my house. I almost want to decorate for Halloween! (I will, however, contain myself until September rolls around.) So bring on the fall weather - I'll take it! And Hawaii, I'm sure in the middle of the winter when it has been gray for days and days and it is so cold that I just can't take it anymore, I'm sure I'll miss you and your warm sunny skies and your gorgeous beaches but right now I have fall and pretty soon football, and you just can't beat that. Oh, and the leaves that Luke and I picked? I am going to iron them between 2 pieces of wax paper and if that isn't fall then I don't know what is!

The Nurnberg (Nuremberg) Zoo

I have been feeling pretty lousy the past month and a half - nauseous, tired, grumpy - but wouldn't you know that good ole sunshine and the great outdoors is a wonderful cure for all that morning sickness! We've been pretty active lately - going to Passau, Germany and Cesky Krumlov (a beautiful medieval city in the Czech Republic) last weekend, attending BBQs and hail and farewells at local Gasthauses, shopping for outdoor furniture in Neumarkt and today we ventured out to the Nurnberg Tiergarten (Zoo). It was a beautiful sunshine filled day and the temperature stayed around 74 degrees - perfect. We got off to a late start - Luke has taken up sleeping in later than usual so he didn't get up until 9:45am. Brian and I weren't much better, sleeping in until 9:00am. Anyway, we headed out the door around quarter to 11 and arrived at the zoo a little before 11:30am. We spent 2 1/2 hours walking around, sans stroller. Luke is at a wonderful age where he doesn't need a stroller, stays fairly close to Brian and I, and when he gets a little tired he let's us carry him, for a few minutes anyway. He can be a little pokey so our walk around the zoo was a little slow going at times but we had a great time looking at all the animals, wandering around the kinder (children) zoo (complete with a HUGE playground, pigs in sand and goats to hang out with) and stopping at the little garten for french fries and drinks. The Nurnberg zoo is nice, a good amount of animals but nothing compared to the St Louis Zoo or Milwaukee County Zoo but we still had a very nice time and I'm sure we'll go back again and again. We had a great time and have some pictures to show for it. I'll try to get our Passau pictures posted sometime soon but in the meantime, enjoy the pics of the 3 of us and some friendly animals.

The Prarie Dogs - Luke adored these little creatures - they are pretty playful and active so he got a kick out of watching them run around and scramble up the side of the logs.

See? On his tip-toes watching those Prarie Dogs.
Time for a shoulder ride! He realized he could see a LOT of stuff from this vantage point.
The playground in the Kinder Zoo
Fat pig buried in the sand.

The goats! You could pet them but Luke had no interest - he just liked to walk around.
This is as close as he got to these guys - he would not touch them (not that I minded at all - ewww, dirty goat!) ;)
Snack time!

There are wild horses behind us - exciting I know.

We are looking for seals. Luke had no idea what was in the water until a seal popped it's head up and snorted out water right in front of us. He figured out what was going on and was trying to find them all.
Spotting seals - he loved it!
A penguin parade

Hello!!!!

Hello! It has been crazy and hectic around here lately and I haven't had time to blog! Brian went to France for a staff ride earlier this month. He went to northern France to learn about Normandy. They had a professional photographer on the trip with them so hopefully Brian will get some great pictures and send them my way so I can share them with you all. He got back from France on the 16th of this month.
We had some sad family news last week. Brian's grandma Ledford passed away on Saturday, the 17th of May. He was able to attend the funeral and he flew into Atlanta on Monday, the 19th and stayed through Friday the 23rd. It was a sad reason to have to go back to the states but he is glad he did and he enjoyed being with his family, and his grandpa, during that time.
Since Brian has been back we have been enjoying the great outdoors! The weather has been beautiful (although if you have allergies I guess it's not that much fun!) and we have been trying to be outside as much as possible. We had a neighborhood BBQ on Saturday, we ventured out to a flea market on Sunday and the past couple of nights we have been walking on the trails in the woods near our house. Luke loves it and walks the entire time. Last night I brought the camera along with me and snapped a few pictures. It's beautiful where we live, huh?

Luke running on the gravel path

The forest right by our house
And the train tracks...
Walking up 1 of the paths
Wheat everywhere!
And little flowers too...

We stopped at the park on the way home to play for awhile...

Well if daddy can do it so can I!
Hmmm...how do I do this?
Hanging on!
I think I like this. :) (Notice his cool baseball belt? I made that for him!)
Every time Luke sees sand, it's in his hand and then thrown on something else.
Luke loves this thing and Brian went around so many times that Luke couldn't walk! I caught it on video, it that mean? :)
Fields of flowers!
A flower in Luke's little hand
He really didn't want to leave the park so we had to distract him by finding dandelion puffs for him to shake and when those ran out we found wild daisies for him to pick. It worked like a charm.

The End!