This Year

A lot happened this year and I realized today the last time we posted was about christmas. 

Elden deployed to Africa the middle of January, so Riley and I took a Space-Available flight on a cargo plane with a friend to Washington state, we rented a car, dropped Erika off in Portland and drove down to my sister Penny's. We stayed in Oregon for a month and a half, and while we were there, Penny, Caylyn, Riley and I flew to Oahu for 10 days.  It was amazing!

Then at the end of February, we flew to Colorado to visit the grandparents. Riley celebrated his 2nd birthday on March 1st.

The giant tricycle that used to be my Granny's was a big hit! Riley would get anyone he could to take him on a ride. 

On our way back to Germany, we had to stay an extra day in Baltimore because the Space-A flight back was full, we got to spend the day with my good friend Rachel Young, and we went to the aquarium.

Every August in a town near us, is what's called Pigfest.  (if you care to know the history-here you go. http://www.mygermancity.com/wittlich )We go every year and ride the ferris wheel. This year Riley actually enjoyed it. We also took him on the pirate ship ride that just went up and down, but the video is too big. I've got to make it smaller and then I'll post it.

We have some friends the Cook's we travel around with occasionally, and after both the guys were back from deployments, we went to Cologne to the Lindt Chocolate Museum. Riley was super interested since he's related to me and LOVES chocolate!

Nate Photo bombing at the chocolate fountain where we got samples of the delicious chocolate.

We also went to Brussles with the Cook's to show them the chocolate factory we like, and then our favorite waffle place. This time, we also found the famous Manneken Pis...its famous because it's super old, and over the years people have donated clothes for it to be dressed in a few times a week.  Apparently the day we went was the naked day. 

The end of September Eldens Parents flew in for a visit. We let them rest for a day and then drove down to Rothenburg which is an old walled German village (with an awesome Christmas store).

The next day we drove another 3 hours to Garmish where we stayed for a few days.  I hurt my foot so I stayed at the resort for a massage and some alone time, while everyone else went to Neuschwanstein Castle.

They also went to Partnach Gorge.

After Garmisch, Elden and his parents went to Paris for a few days. 

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And then Elden's dad had to go back to work, but Luraly stayed and looked after Riley for a week so Elden and I could go vacation in the Canary Islands.  We went to the island of Fuerteventura. Just FYI- it's not a tropical island. It's a desert island, like all dirt and rocks!!  Meaning, it's not Hawaii. My mistake! But the weather was 80 and sunny, so you really couldn't beat that for it being October!

We were able to find a nice sandy beach about a half hour away from our hotel since most of the beaches on the island had a lot of volcanic rocks all over which made it hard to get in the water and not very pretty to look at.