Happy Memorial Day

 

One of my Day Lillies

 

Flag Dessert Pizza - Yes, I made that

 

Before Todd & Kristin's cookout

 

Micki & Shawn

 

 

Todd & Kristin's backyard turned into a dog park

  

Chris  and David

 

Virginia & Patrick

   

Ryan & Erin

 

Kristin "The Dog Lover"

 

Amanda & Chris

Our lovely hosts:  Todd & Kristin

Thank you to everyone who is currently serving and who has served in our military.  We're thankful for you.  

We've had a really nice weekend (except when I worked on Saturday).  Yesterday our dear friends Todd and Kristin hosted a cookout.  It's always a lot of fun hanging out with everybody.  Great atmosphere and great food!  I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of everyone, I thought about it after a few couples had left -sorry Adam and Julia, David and Lisa, Shaylin and Jenny.  We love all of you.  Thanks for a great time. 

Amazing weekend

The pictures are all messed up, and I can't figure out how to move them, so I am leaving them alone.

 --Brian and I had an amazing weekend!  Friday night we went out with our dear friends:  Matt & Sarah, Todd & Kristin, Chris & Amanda, and Adam & Julia.  We ate at Pazzo's Pizza Pub.  Of course my camera battery was dead, so I couldn't get any pictures.  Pazzo's was delicious and has a great atmosphere, but it was great just hanging out with everyone.  We're so thankful for these friendships that have really developed over the past year.  ---Saturday Brian went to his parent's house in Indiana and had a lot of fun catching up with them.  I stayed here and my wonderful girlfriends (Laura, Kara and baby boy, and Cheryl) drove down and spent the rest of the weekend with me.  We ate lunch at a great little local cafe and spent the rest of the evening at my house.  We talked and talked and ate dinner and watched a movie.  It was so amazing catching up and spending time with them.  --On Sunday, I couldn't wait to take them to Southland.  Jon's message was about our personal ministry and doing what we can and letting God do what only He can.  It was so great worshiping with them.  We then ate at Durango's and came back to my house.  I took the long way home to show off Lexington and how beautiful it is.  I think they all fell a little in love with the Bluegrass Region.  I was sad after they left, but so thankful for getting to spend time with them.  Then, I finally bought some annuals.  I have been looking forward to buying flowers for months and months.  But...of the two places we went the selection wasn't that great.  That's okay, though.  I'm happy with how everything turned out.  It will all fill in.  

---So...It was an Amazing weekend!  We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends. 

Just a few of my favorite things

 

Jesus

Brian

Family

Friends

Love

Summer

Walking on the beach

  Sunrises

Sunsets

Swinging

Fireworks

Bike rides

Flowers

Dresses

Travelling

Cookouts

Hugs

Babies

Hope

Pictures

Football games

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:10

Spring has Sprung

this picture was taken 4-4-10 - everything had just begun to sprout, but now...


Bright pink Knock-out Roses

Light pink Knock-out Roses

A lot of the plants were already here when we bought our house, but Brian and I have added the 3 rose bushes, the plant with white petals on the left and daisies in the back (not in bloom, yet) - we still have a few more holes to fill, but we're really excited with how it's looking - the main reason we haven't completed it yet is that we are cheap and buy everything on clearance at the end of the season so there's usually very little left and few choices.  
 

We got back from vacation and all of our plants exploded. I am so happy and in shock. I can't believe how much everything grew. I love spring and summer!! I purposely waited to buy annuals since I knew we would be gone for about 2 weeks and didn't want them to die just in case it didn't rain. I would go out and buy some flowers today, but the weather is kind of yucky. But...the first day it is nice, I will be at the nursery. I have been paying extra attention to my plants this year, I am doing everything I can to keep the deer away, and trying to feed them appropriately. All of the plants we have planted are supposed to be deer-repellant but when they get hungry enough, they will eat anything. I used to love deer, but they've eaten too many of my plants for me to like them too much anymore.


"Show wisdom by your good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. " James 3:13,17

Saturday & Sunday

Berchetesgaten, Germany

Edelweis
Halfway up the mountain - that's a museum -- there are a couple hundred miles of bunkers and tunnels all over the mountains in this area


One of the tunnels


At the top of the Eagle's Nest - 30-32 degrees, foggy and SNOWING!


This is the only picture where you have any clue that you are near mountains


This is what it looked like when we left - the weather kept getting worse and more and more foggy - you really can't see anything behind us - supposed to be amazing mountain top views

Well, on Saturday we took the train to Berchtesgaten, Germany to go up and see the Eagle's Nest, which was Hitler's 50th Birthday present from the Nazi party. We were both so excited to go, this was supposed to be our big grand finale - amazing ride up to the top of the mountain and amazing views of 14000-16000 foot Bavarian mountains. Well, it wasn't so exciting. Fog and drizzly rain had set in at the base of the mountain and when we got to the top it was 30-32 degrees and snowing and very foggy. We couldn't see more than 15 feet in front of us, as we were up there the weather continued to get worse. Knowing we were up there was amazing, but so disappointing that we couldn't take in the views. I was so excited, so I definitely felt let down. Then on our way back down the mountain a woman realized she forgot her purse so we had to wait 30 min for it and ended up missing one of the buses we needed and had to wait 2 more hours until the next one. Then when we got to the train station (we stored our luggage in a locker while we were gone) the storage locker was out of service so we missed a train while we waited for someone to fix it, and then finally got on the train to Munich from Salzburg. We finally arrived at our hotel sometime after midnight and were completely exhausted.
Thankfully most of our flight from Munich to Charlotte was a million times better than the flight out - plus Lufthansa is a much better airline. The only issue we had was about 300 miles from Charlotte we hit some turbulence and then dropped - I don't know how many feet, but we all raised up a little out of our seats and people actually screamed. The next 10 min were tense and turbulent. When we landed, we just kind of crunched onto the ground and people let out a mini scream. At this point, I was ready to rent a car and drive home, but Brian talked me into continuing with our flight. Thankfully our last flight was great!
We love, love, loved our trip, but are so glad to be back!!! Going away made us realize how much we love America!

Friday - Salzburg

Augustiner Brau where we had dinner

Salzburg Nockerl - dessert


Fun little shopping area

Our hotel - it looks much better from the outside, but thankfully they have free wifi

At the top of the Salzburg Fortress


Views from the Fortress






At Mirabell Gardens - one of the places I was really looking forward to going to in Austria

The Sound of Music- recognize the tunnel? I refrained from skipping through the tunnel

Pansies with the Fortress in the background

I know I look ridiculous with capris and tennis shoes on, but it rained last night and early this morning and I didn't want to get my pants all wet.

I'm amazed that wisteria grows so well here, I thought it did better in a little warmer climate.


This was a really pretty hydrangea greenhouse. They were gigantic




One of the entrances to Mirabell Garden

Today has been great, even though it has been cloudy and cool. We took the funicular up to the Salzburg Fortress this morning, we couldn't see as far as we were hoping, but we still had a great time. The Fortress was began in the 11th century and each ruler over the decades/centuries kept adding on. It really is gigantic. We also walked all over the old town. I took 3 years of German in high school hoping someday I'd make it over here, only to now forget 90% of what I learned. I can only read/recognize 1 out of every 8-10 words, so I'm pretty useless. Guess I should have done this trip 10 years ago. We ate dinner tonight at Augustiner Brau. We have to admit that we are not big Austrian food fans. We both had bratwursts, which were good, but could not stomach all the onions and sauerkraut and horse-raddish.