Back to Work....Uhhhgggg!

Well our trip has finally come to an end. Shawn tried to talk me into staying an extra week so that we could go visit some of the other countries surrounding Germany. He even offered to have Steve flown over for that next week as well. That was so tempting because it would have been nice to have made some memories with my sweetheart over here. Steve did not have a passport at that point so he was unable to come. Shawn is pretty thoughtful though! He knew how much I missed Howie and that we really have a great time with Ape and the kids. It is nice to have a pilot in the family!!! Maybe next time!

We got back to base and we were in a bit of trouble. We accidently left for our week excursion with the visitor pass. That is TOTALLY against the rules here. It is EXTREMELY tight as far security goes here. YIKES! We goofed and I was sure worried for Shawn, but things got all worked out when we returned and we learned a BIG lesson!

Shawn ready to go back to work.....

The vacation is over :(

A few last minute shots before heading home....

They had piles of lumber all over the place like this one

There were also lots of these teeny tiny cars driving around. This picture is pretty blurry but you can see it okay. We need more of these cars around here with the way the gas prices are!

We also got a kick out of the EXIT signs here.....

At least it's not GAS that is exiting! April thought her dad would appreciate these signs.

The time had finally come to head out to the airport. After we dropped Shawn off at work it was time for me to go.

Half way to the airport Karah realized that I was actually leaving to go home. I looked back and she had this poor pitiful look on her face as she began to cry. Giant crocodile tears streamed down her face as she said...."You can't leave me Grandma "T" I love you too much. I will be sad if you go!" It just about broke my heart. She is my little buddy and I adore her. I climbed back into the back seat with her and we gave each other hugs. I seriously had to fight back the tears myself.

We'll be together again very soon.....

Leaving Gemany and heading home.

Back to work and the real world.....

It has taken me so long to catch up on all of the photos from this trip but I finally made it. YEAH!!! Now I can start posting some of the more recent fun times spent with family and friends.... Thanks again Shawn, Ape and Steve for the wonderful time I had. Love ya!

Last Stop on Our Trip....

We left Strasbourg and headed to Belgium. Shawn had wanted to stop by to see the cemetary in Luxembourg. This is the place that General Patton was buried. As we started to drive we came to Moselle France and just by chance we stumbled onto this American Memorial Cemetary. Shawn decided to pull over and go inside to check it out.

He found out that this was The Lorraine Memorial Cemetary. It contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II totalling over 10,489. We decided to check this one out instead of going to Luxembourg. It looked pretty impressive.

This is inside the memorial sight....

I love the sayings imprinted on these walls. I love our military men and women. I love how they so freely give of their time, talents and efforts to give us the freedoms that so many of us take for granted.

This is the outside of the memorial....

The cemetary covers 113 acres of land. When I first walked outside of the memorial building and took a look at these thousand and thousand of white crossed I almost started to cry. It is hard to capture it all on a picture because it is so spread out. It seemed to go on forever.

The view off to the left.....

The view off to the right......

I love our american flag. Each time I see one flying in the wind it always reminds me of a good friend of mine who passed away suddenly. He was my bishop, my neighbor and my friend, Lee Wheelock. I miss him :(

This is the visitor lookout at the far end of the cemetary. Karah and I decided to take a walk and see what was up there. We enjoyed looking at the flowers and spending some alone time just the two of us.

It was such a peaceful evening ......

These were two of the plaques that were up on the look out point...

As we were up there looking out at this beautiful sight and trying to capture it on film, I got the idea to video tape it on my camera. This way I could scan around to show how vast this area truly was. As I turned on my camcorder and began taping some beautiful bells began to chime. I was looking through my eyepiece of my camera and still scanning when I came across April in the midst of these white crosses. I was pretty emotional.

After the bells came the sound of the trumpet playing "TAPS" over the loud speaker ( I think that is the name of the song ) It was pretty overwhelming to be there while this was playing.

It gets pretty up close and personal when you have a loved one who is in the military. Times right now are so scary and unsure in this world of ours. So many young husbands and fathers are losing their lives to defend our freedom.

God Bless the USA!

Karah says the cutest things sometimes. She has really been interested in Jesus especially lately. She told us one day not too long ago about how the "Mean men stuck Jesus up on the STICK in his white shorts" She was talking about when he was crucified.

(I thnk that is the way she said it. Maybe she said he was in his white underwear. I can't remeber. Something is seriously wrong with my memory. Maybe just old age!)

Well today while we were getting ready to leave Karah was just leaning against this headstone and was stretching out her arms just relaxing. Then she announced to everyone......"Look, I'm just like Jesus!" From the mouth of babes.....What a sweet heart!

I love this picture of Shawn at the gravesite of an unknown soldier. He has been in the military for about 10 years (I think). He began as a marine and now he is in the Air Force. He has been to war several times and has experienced first hand the tragedy of war. I am proud to have Shawn as my son-in-law and am very grateful that he has been watched over and protected each time he has been out serving his country. He left today (Wednesday) to go out again to war. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. We love you Shawnster!

Alyssa is bookin' it out of there. She is ready to go home, eat and hit the sack! We had a nice trip. And now it's back to Landstuhl......April and Shawn, Thanks for the great travel memories. Love ya!

Strasbourg France......

This was probably the most pleasant day as far as weather goes so far. Up to this point each day has been very cloudy, rainy, windy, snowy, or cold! I can't believe how beautiful it was. I think it helped me enjoy out trip to France much better.

Strasbourg is such a pretty town with the Rhine river running right through it. Well at least I think this is the Rhine river. I may be wrong!

I love the way each of the places we have visited throghout our trip all have a unique feel to them. The landscaping, the architecture, the people, and the way of life. Here are a few pictures of the city of Strasbourg.

Both Austria and France had some wonderful stores which I could have probably spent thousands and thousand of dollars in them. Remember I am NOT usually a shopper but these stores had the cutest outfits, sunglasses, jewelry, purses and candy ever! Also GREAT food!

These trains looked pretty cool as they buzzed around town

The streets are exremely narrow and there are a lot of one way roads. Very easy to get lost here. Also once again lots and lots of bike riders. We need to do more of that here in the states. Especially with the gas prices.....

This was a candy store with some pretty incredible chocolates inside. I was going to take a picture to show Howie since Chocolate is his most favorite thing in life (Next to me of coarse) These ladies stood there for so long just staring, and staring and staring at the chocolates. I swear when the finally decided to leave there was probably a HUGE puddle of drool on the ground. That's some kind of window shopping! JUST GO INSIDE AND BUY SOME STINKIN' CHOCOLATES ALREADY!!! I have a feeling if my good friend Siri Holman or Howie were here on this trip with me it would be hard to pull them away from these candy shop windows as well! They are both "choco-holics" BIG TIME!

April and Shawn wanted to show me the Notre Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg. It was HUGE! While I was gathering my pictures for this posting I realized that I did not even take a picture of the whole cathedral from the outside. I found these two pictures online to show you how cool it is. It said when I was looking online that this was the worlds tallest building from 1647-1874. It remained the tallest CHURCH until 1880 when it was surpassed by Cologne Cathedral. This is that very cool cathedral April posted on her blog just a few weeks ago. That was even cooler than this one.

It also said it is now the 4th tallest church in the world.

This is a closer look at the detail work of this amazing place. It is fascinating to me how they would take so much time and energy to create this wonderful building. If you click on this picture so you can zoom in you will see what I mean. This is just one doorway area. It is like this all around the building as well as inside.

Very impressive! I think it would be very interesting to go back now that I am home and get online to research these places I have visited so that I can possibly learn what all this symbolizes. Many of these stone sculptures I saw looked as though they were telling some story. I'd love to find out more!

When I walked inside I was seriously awestruck! I could not believe what I was seeing. I have NEVER, EVER been in a cathedral like this before.

The wall murals were gorgeous

The pipe organ was cool

The stone sculptures were very impressive....

But the thing I think I loved the very most were the stain-glass windows.....WOW!

The ceilings were so tall and the windows stretched up to the very top.

Every pane of glass was so detailed and just like the outside of the building, they all seemed to tell a story.

I swear if I were by myself I could spend all day just admiring this work of art here in Strassbourg.

There is also an astronomical clock inside the cathedral.

April agreed to watch the kids while Shawn and I hiked up the stairs to the top of the tower. There were 332 steps to get to the observation point.

Along the way we stopped to snap some pictures of the building up close. These were the stain glass windows I was just admiring from the inside.

It was so awesome to be this close and see the detail work more closely.

The higher we got the more we could see of the city of Strasbourg.

I am glad it was a clear day so that we could take in this magnifient view.

By the way.... I have an awesome son-in-law. Actually both of my son-in-laws are great but I have been able to get to know Shawn a lot more since this trip to Germany. He has been a great host!
This was the highest point we could go. I wish we could have climbed to the very tip top of this tower.

On the outside of this tower were these names and dates on the brick wall.This is something else I would like to research (in all of my free time) to see who these people were. I am thinking they were probably great church leaders since this cathedral was built. Not sure but that's my guess.

The tower clock.....

This was the town center just outside of the cathedral.... Where is April?

Actually we spotted her on the way down the stairs. (She is the one in the blue coat pushing the stroller with my girls in it) I should have stayed with them so that April could have gone up to see it. . She said she had no interest in hiking up all those stairs. She was satisfied with just looking at the pictures instead. Problem is the pictures just do not do it justice. Got to be there on this one!

After we left the beautiful cathedral we headed over to Tanners Quarters. There is an area known as Petite France.



A cute little town right next to the river....

Me with my buddy "BOO"

April and Shawn wanted me to see the Locks which they had seen on a previous trip.

Cute family photo minus one of their little ones- sound asleep in the stroller

I loved the style of these buildings .....

This building was built in the 1500's. That's CRAZY old!

This was such a peaceful walk and like I had mentioned before the weather was FABULOUS!!!

Walking along this pathway I looked up and right above me was an authentic "French Chef". I had a friend at my old restaurant who did all of his training in France and I thought of him. The windows all had flower boxes or plants in them.

There was this wonderful artist along the street who had some pretty impressive paintings. I wanted one soooo bad but decided against that idea. I loved the one on his brown board on the left. It was so pretty. He is a very talented man. April and Shawn ended up buying some smaller prints from him.

We finished looking around this area and noticed a small park. We decided to stop by to let the kids play and undwind a bit. They had been so good up to this point. They are great travelers!


The trees were all blossoming and this park beautiful....







The kids really enjoyed themselves playing together .......

Mommy sneaks a hug from her Lyssi....

We were enjoying ourselves so much it was hard to leave.

Very relaxing! But it was time to go to our next destination

Family Hugs.....

Karah is either doing a little dance pose which she always seems to do when you get out your camera or..... She need to go find a bathroom PRONTO!

Heading home..... Karah is such a big helper!

This little family sure do love each other!



This has been a really nice day and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself today

Few last hugs before we leave France....

Last minute photos.....

On the way out we noticed under the bridge there was a little homeless man hiding under a tarp. What a sad way of life in such a beautiful place. Also while we were going under a bridge as we walked along the path there were two men PEEING on the wall. It did not matter that we were walking close enough to get "back-splash" from them! They did not care!!!! That is sick and wrong and boy did it ever STINK!

Back in the car ready to leave. Karah is showing off her new ring from France. (And the cool fork she got at lunch)

What an enjoyable trip so far!