Our Last Days in Germany

We've have been very busy our last week here in Germany. Of course, there's the normal packing out, cleaning house, checking out stuff to do; we've also been saying good-bye to a lot of dear friends whom we will miss.

On Saturday, we went to a place called Sensopolis to say good-bye to a good friend to the boys. This place is a giant warehouse full of things for kids to touch, jump on, climb on, hang from... a child's dream!

They have a giant spaceship, a climbing tree house sort of thing.....

a castle with all sorts of fun things to explore. Elizabeth with fasinated with the sleeping king who had a bed in the clouds! lol

It was hard to capture those boys on camera, they were zipping and zooming all over the place. I finally was able to get them to sit for 1/2 a second to snap this picture.

For Memorial Day, we had our annual church picnic. This time we all drove about 45min south to a little castle. Castles are all over the place here. You have to watch the mountain tops and you usually will either see a castle or the ruins of a castle up there somewhere.
This castle is called Lichtenstein. (click the link to learn more about it)

Mrs Thornsley told me later, these little gargoyles under the bench here were there to "look" up lady's skirts..... : /

The boys waiting for our tour to start, that bridge there was a little riggidy... didnt give me a warm and fuzzy feeling walking across.

This armor here was just about the right size for the boys to fit into. LOL

A little chapel inside.

I missed what room this was but, like all the rooms, was decorated from floor to ceiling.

View from the window.

The Knight's Hall.

Everyone outside exploring after the tour was over.

After, we drove a little further out to have our picnic.

The adults all rested in the shade.

And the children all had a massive water gun fight.

Hohenzollern Castle

A couple weeks ago we took a trip to a local castle named
Hohenzollern
(as usual, click on the pictures to enlarge)

It was a beautiful castle sitting up on a mountain
(like a lot of the castles do here in Germany)

The view from the castle

The boys were playing in one of the turrets

Elizabeth joined them

It was a twisty turny path to get up to the courtyard in the castle

Princess Elizabeth

If you look real closely, the boys are standing in front of the cannon. ;)

We took a tour of the inside of the castle. The tour was entirely in German but we had an English guide book to let us know at least a little of what they were talking about. All adults had to wear slippers and all of the children wore capes like below.

While everyone was finishing up in the gift shop, Elizabeth played with the pretty blue flowers. :)

Tribute to Copper

We've had a bit of a sad week. Not only are we beginning to say "goodbye" to many friends, we've had to say good-bye to Copper. He missed his original flight out of Germany and because of a bunch of red tape and unforeseen circumstances we had to find him a new home.

He has a great new home now though, so we are taking a lot of comfort in that.

We will miss you Copper!

I just wanted to share with you all some of the joys that he has brought us through the years.

We found Copper on the internet 6 years ago - originally named "Little Red". We chose his name Copper as a play on words with that but mostly named after the famous Copper from Fox and the Hound.

He was born in the same town where Nana and PopPop lived, they graciously checked him out for us and brought him to where we lived in NC.

Here he is being potty trained by Summer. LOL look at his little belly dragging on the ground.
Summer is a Golden Retriever to compare their sizes there.

Copper loved to sleep this way as a baby - it was adorable!

He was the cutest puppy in the world.
He was all paws and ears.

Sean took to him right away.

Ryan needed a little warming up, though they became best friends quickly.

Copper could be a model for Hush Puppies shoes

Copper loved his family and loved his boys!!

He loved to sleep and laze around.

And he loved the snow!

We will miss you Copper!
We know you are loving your new family now!