Birthday Fun~

On Tuesday,

November 3, 2009

Coreen another birthday.

Kim's visit~

My friend Kim's visit

was right on the heels of

the Reichman family's.

We had a great time!

The first day of Kim's visit was watching

Cody's volleyball games and shopping at a local

flea market. The following day we went to the

cathedral in Cologne. It was another great hike

to the top. The sign shows the details of our efforts.

Cody standing by an ancient Roman Gateway

once used in the city of Cologne.

On Tuesday, 20th of October, Kim and I rode a

ferry up the Rheine River. This ferry is named

Moby Dick because in the 70's a whale tried

to swim up the river and died even with efforts

to try to help it. So the owner decided to

remember the event by naming his ferry after

the whale.

Shots of some of the castles along the Rheine River.

The ferry took us to the the city of Linz.

We enjoyed shopping and a delicious

German lunch, sauerkraut included.

One of the best things about Europe is the

charming buildings along cobblestone streets!

On our way back to Bonn.

This was a stunning castle to see!

Wedesday took us to Cochem, Germany.

We hiked up to the castle in this well known

wine village. The owner of this castle makes

sure there are fresh flowers placed inside

every week for the visitors.

A great view from the castle grounds.

Looking back up to where we just were.

In a village near my home there are pottery

artists making original pieces.

Even though we didn't understand a

word of this man's German he was kind

enough to invite us back into his shop

and see a piece he was working on.

First Visitors~

While living in Germany we hope

to have many visitors.

Our first visitors arrived on

Saturday, October 10, 2009

It was great fun!!

Bishop Reichman, from our Broomfield Ward,

with his wife Robin and sons Ryan and Josh.

They came to Europe to pick up their son Brent

who served his mission in the

Czech Republic!

We took time to visit the amazing

Cathedral in Cologne.

About a 30 minute drive from us.

If you look closely you will see Adam, Noah,

Moses and other prophets above the entrance

to the Cathedral.

On the opposite side you will see Mother Eve

and more prophets.

One of the hall views inside.

Be careful of church candles....

I lit myself on fire standing to close

to them trying to get a

picture of one of the exhibits!

There were several colored

glass windows like these.

This one depicts Christs life,

it was so beautiful.

Other windows portrayed stories

from the bible.

We climbed the many, many steps to the top.

This was one of the great views.

There were so many church steeples

you would almost think you were

looking over the Utah Valley.

We saw Uncle Kirk's name and were wondering

when he had been here hmmm.......

Coreen with her Cody boy

Running Along the Rheine River~

It's great to run along the Rheine River!

These pictures are from a few weeks ago.

Next year I will have to take the pictures a

little bit later in the season.

With so many trees the colors are

just beautiful and everywhere you look

you get a colorful eyeful!

Since Cody's school backs up to the Rheine River

I take him to school then I enjoy my run viewing

some beatiful scenery!

These are the ferry's going back and forth all

day long transporting cars and people to each side.

It was a quiet, foggy morning this day.

Large shipping barges also use the river

all day long.

One of my favorite views

I see each day.

Germany Reunification Celebration in Bonn~

Friday, October 2nd was the Celebration

of Germany's Reunification.

My German friend Lissy's explanation of the day

was that this celebration will begin to fade

over the years, that people will soon forget

the significance of it.

For now the city of Bonn had a water, lights,

music and video show in the main square.

This is the beautiful church on the square

where the celebration took place.

It was an impressive show!

The words and images were lit up, via lazers,

through the water with music to set the mood.

We stood in the back partly due to the crowds

and mostly because standing too close would

drench you.

There were three segments to the show,

each 20 minutes long.

They needed to fill up the water tanks

in between each segment.

Each segment covered a different part of

Germany's history. They showed a variety

of video clips of events, politicians and

other popular bits of history.

One of the many colorful shows!

I've included 3 videos to give you a taste

of our evening we enjoyed.

The first is a tribute to Michael Jackson,

the second and third represent some of

the popular artists and songs during this era.

It's Raining Walnuts!~

We have a bunch of nuts around here,

besides Jim and Cody!

Our backyard hosts a walnut tree!

I've never seen one and it is interesting to observe

the end of the growing process.

Jim cracked a few open for me to put

into our brownies!

Mmmm...

In this pile of nuts you can see a dark shelled nut.

This is a husk that covers what we know as the walnut.

They begin to crack open, kind of like opening

a peapod and inside is the hardened shell

of the walnut.

Earlier this fall I began hearing loud thunks

around our house. It took a couple of days to

realize that walnuts were falling and hitting

the roof of the workhouse in our backyard!

It was quite loud and startling especially in

the early morning hours. This represents a

small portion of what ended up in our lawn.

Jim said we've had a barrels worth of nuts.

Fun Activities~

In our new home we sought new activities

right from the get go.

Having fun at a local pool and taking some

of the wards youth to a stake activity were

the first events we were busy with.

Cody had heard of a pool that supposedly

had platforms to dive from. So the real

adventure began trying to find the pool,

find the pool open, find a pool that

accomodated more than women's

swimming times, and get the times

down for when the boards were open.

It took us three Saturday's in a row

to get it right, much to Cody's aggravation.

We wondered why some adults had wet suits

on while in the water. Cody and Jim soon

discovered why, the water was freezing!!!

To keep warm they had a constant wresting

match going on.

Dad always won.

One of our first Saturday's in Germany was

to drive a few of the youth to a Stake Activity.

Here are Nash and Cody with some of the

other German youth from the ward.

Not sure about this one......

Okay, all back together again.

This is the ward building in Duisberg, Germany.