October 24

For you Aunt Susie!

In Brussels today...heading home tomorrow! Woohoo!!!!

October 23

Laura took me over to a neat castle in the Netherlands today. I didn't go all the way in so I don't have many pictures of the inside. Not much planned for the rest of the day but we will head to Brussels tomorrow afternoon to explore. And then, I head home on Thursday. I miss my family! Can. Not. Wait!

October 22

We are having yet another gorgeous day here in Germany. I feel so blessed to get to experience some of Europe this way. Bradley and I took Dathan on a bike ride from Laura's village over to the Netherlands and back. I mean really, how cool is it that I can easily be in two countries in a matter of minutes?! We then came back and Laura took us over to the NATO base so she and Bradley could take care of some errands. Once Dathan woke up from his nap we drove back over to the windmill I showed y'all the other day. Today was much prettier and fun to explore the grounds.

I'm so glad I got to see my brother and so thankful for Laura's hospitality! Brad is heading out soon so it will probably be March before we see him again. Boo! Enjoy the pics!

October 21

Bradley and I headed over to Köln (We call it Cologne in the states) today. It was another old gorgeous city sitting on the Rhine River. Besides the river flowing directly through town, the Kölner Dom is probably the biggest attraction. The architecture, detail and size are breathtaking. Bradley and I climbed to the top of one of the towers; 533 steps that are in a circular staircase. Ouch! The view up top was spectacular, though! Köln might be my favorite city so far! Oh and I also had my first döner, a Turkish style sandwich. Delicious!

October 20

Hi there! Another warm day yet overcast here in western Germany. Bradley and I drove over to Heerlen, Netherlands to visit Ikea, about 10 min from Laura's house. I'd never been and talked Brad in to taking me. Wow. All I can say is wow!

After Ikea we headed over to Maastricht, Netherlands. That drive was only 15 minutes or so from Heerlen. What a beautiful historic European city. If I I was rich, I would have shopped nonstop in all of the wonderful stores around there.

October 19

What a beautiful day!! It was sunny and 75 today. We took a gorgeous bike ride throughout Germany and Netherlands this morning. There is an amazing trail system all through Europe that connects all of these countries. Europe is so cool!

The most exciting part of today came in the afternoon! My brother, Bradley, came to visit! He is in the army and stationed in Heidelberg, about 3 hours away. It's been so fun visiting with him. I think it's been nearly two years since I've seen him. Dang! We ate at a little German/Turkish restaurant in Gangelt tonight. We couldn't figure out which type of food it actually was! Either way, I ordered a very German style meal. Schnitzel and Frittes. Pretty good! I had always heard of schnitzel but never knew what it was. Turns out its nothing more than a flattened out, lightly battered pork chop. I think it's their version of our chicken fried steak. Try it sometime if it's ever available!

October 18

Today we drove to Roermond in the Netherlands. They have a huge outlet mall there. I didn't know Europeans loved a good outlet mall! It was packed! We then came back to Gangelt and walked to Il Genio's, a little Italian restaurant in downtown. It was sooo good!

On another note, I'm missing my babies and husband like crazzzzy! If you run into any of them, give them a big hug for me. Tschüss!

October 17

Much like back home, Autumn has arrived in Germany! We spent the afternoon in Monschau. A beautiful little village tucked into the hills. Laura described it as the German Eureka Springs. Pretty good description! Although, I would prefer to visit Monschau more often than Eureka! The leaves were so pretty there. They also have these amazing one lane cobblestone streets. It was straight out of a book! Oh, and I finally tried some German food and beer, yum! Enjoy the pics!

October 16

I forgot to mention that I tried a chocolate covered Belgian waffle yesterday. It was soo yummy! There was a neat little Oktoberfest going on in the Netherlands that we visited. Laura only lives about 2 miles from there.

Her little village is named Gangelt. The way the towns are around here is so interesting. They are all small and every one has a cathedral. Also, it's not like the Midwest back home. You know, you drive on a two lane highway between country towns and they are typically 10-15 miles apart and the town is stretched along the highway. Here, they are less than a mile apart and all very compact. It's strange driving right out of a village along a stretch of pasture and then right back into another one. Anyway, I've probably made more comments about that than anything else just because it's so different!

We also went to a city named Aachen today. We visited a really cool cathedral and did a little window shopping. There was a Starbucks right next to the cathedral so we stopped and had some coffee and a cookie. It was just as packed as a a typical Starbucks, made me feel like I was back home!

October 15

I made it! As nervous as I was, God took care of some neat details on the long flight. Well, all of the details were taken care of but I have two that I will point out. First, I was on an aisle seat in the middle section of the plane. Would you believe neither of the other two seats were filled?! A man from across the aisle moved over and took the other aisle seat but that was okay. Having an empty seat next to me was so wonderful! The second thing happened at dinner time. When it was time, I decided I would order some white wine. I was hoping to be able to sleep after. Well, the flight attendant didn't think the bottle was cold enough so he just gave it to me at no charge. How nice!

So, I'm here now and we've explored Laura's village (Gangelt) a little and I must say, I'm in LOVE with Germany so far...

OSU Game and Tulsa Fair

Special thanks to Kati and mom for keeping our kids while we attended the OSU Texas football game.  It was a bummer of a game but so fun to be back in Stillwater and see the town and campus.  We tailgated with our good friends Jacob and Dondee then headed to campus to buy tickets.  Daniel ended up scoring a pretty good deal and we had decent seats.  Too bad we lost, but at least it was a great game! 

On Sunday we headed back to Bixby to pick up the girls and then meet my sister and her family and Betsy at the Tulsa State Fair.  It's becoming a tradition to take the kids each year and I like it!

Mom and Keeli

 Never looking at the camera.

Sarah got to ride these rides with Uncle D and Buggie!

 Not so sure of the petting zoo at first...

 ...but soon warmed up to it!

 Hi goats!

 There was one building that was all for little kids.  My girls might have enjoyed this building the most.