Wait ...
hold on ... I need to
dust off our blog address before writing this post ... ok, that's better! It has been a whirlwind of events since our Mediterranean Cruise (yes, I know ... still haven't finished that re-cap yet!)
A few months ago Al gave me my birthday gift; he had arranged for most of my family to visit us in Germany ... a
reunion in June for my birthday! We spent a few months prepping the house for the additional 9 family members that would be staying with us! We converted bedrooms, bought more beds, stocked the bathrooms with enough matching linens, and so on.
It was a WONDERFUL reunion ... mixed with "go" days and "rest" days, hugs, laughter and tears. Now I'm sitting here in a quiet, lonely house browsing through almost 2000 photos capturing our short time together ....
My brother
Rick and my sister-in-law
Leslie were the first to arrive. Rick enjoyed the beer but we converted him to wine after our trip to the vineyard ...
Leslie and Kelty rocked it out on the guitars ...
A few days later my sister
Rachel and her hubby
Shawn arrived! We spent a few hours at the festival in Kaiserslautern ...
We walked through our village and ate dinner ...
Enjoyed great conversation ...
Enjoyed Gelato ...
Visited the wine village of St. Martin ...
Tasted wine, bought wine, bought more wine, and more wine ....
Enjoyed the village ...
... and more wine ...
Enjoyed our quiet evenings on the balcony ....
John took the train up from Stuggart for
Jessica and the kids' arrival. We shopped in Kaiserslautern and ate Doner wraps ... and more Doner wraps...
We invited our German neighbors over for some "southern" ribs! Shawn and John had a rib cook-off, Rachel made homemade mac-n-cheese ... I made BBQ pork loin, beans and salad.
John in the kitchen ...
We introduced
Heinz and
Evi to an American favorite ...
S'mores! They were a hit ...
Kelty rocked it out again with his guitar ... this time accompanied by his Aunt RayRay ...
Nana,
Jessica and the
kids arrived!
We enjoyed more walks through the village ...
We went to
ROME!
(Jessica, John and the kids headed back to Stuttgart for some quiet family time)
Kelty and Nana outside St. Peter's Basilica ...
Taking a break walking to the Vatican Museum ...
Al and Rachel ...
Hey, "Mr. Gypsy" ... please stop blowing bubbles in our photos in front of the Spanish Steps ... we don't want to buy the bubble gun ... and other "Mr. Gypsy" we don't want your roses! Poor Shawn, we thought he was going to EXPLODE trying to take this photo!
Rick and Mom at the Colosseum ...
Gladiators Rachel, Mom, Rick and Me
We played with Kelty outside the Colosseum while the rest of the family visited .... Al and I have visited twice so we explored the area around the Colosseum instead ...
We walked ....
We drank .... Cheers!
We celebrated Rachel's birthday in Piazza Navona ...
Cooling Kelty down during our visit to the Basilica (sorry it's out of order here!)
Mom and I (there was another gypsy driving a toy car into Al's feet while he was taking this photo)
We relaxed at the house ....
Jessica, John and the kids came back for a couple days!
Jessica, Rachel and Rick walked down to the market ...
... while Kelty played Twister with his cousins ....
and Kelty laughed at me playing Twister with his cousins ...
The sisters got silly in the kitchen ...
Rachel and I shared our birthdays!! I was born June 10th ... Rachel was born 7 years later on the 9th ... growing up we hated it but now we love it!
Rachel and Shawn left *sigh* .... that afternoon we visited Heidelberg Castle
(John Charles, Nana/Mom, Kelty, Madalyn)
We had a little snack outside the castle ...
We visited the birthplace of my Grandpa Lutz!! This was a very special trip and I'm working on a blog post dedicated to our trip to Solingen. This trip has a special twist, as one of the German documents our neighbors translated was my Grandpa's birth certificate ... and it contained the address of his home (which was where he was birthed!)
... and on the last day, we visited the village of Rothenberg ob der Tauber
and last but not least ... because I'm saddened that my family is gone, I have to wrap this up with a funny shot of .....
My brother-in-law, Shawn,
wiping is derriere ....
Our apartment in Italy ran out of toilet paper ... we had 1 roll to last 5 people two days. C'mon! So we did what any decent person would do ... stole toilet paper from restaurants and stuffed it in our bags. We were so excited to have toilet paper again!
So this was a little glimpse into our family reunion in Europe ... and truly a glimpse ... I sorted through 2000 photos to pull these out. I couldn't include all the great ones but I hope I captured the spirit of our time together! Thank you to my family for venturing out of your comfort zone, taking time out of your busy schedules and tolerating the exhaustion so we could enjoy the company of family! Love you!
Thank you sweetie for the most thoughtful and generous birthday gift you could have ever given!!
Daddy and Kelty at the start of our day
A full glass of wine .... this was so far beyond my tolerance level. Fortunately Al and Jeremy took one for the team and helped me finish my "glass of wine". Apparently Germans don't mess around with serving sizes!
We wrapped up our afternoon with a stroll and wound up in a great place for the kids to run, play and tackle each other.
This was our little surprise for the day! As we were driving through the German wine route to Saint Martin we stumbled upon a glorious site ... in the midst of the vineyards was a small section where you could pick your own grapes and pay "on your honor". A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Now, these are table grapes (tafel trauben) ... not wine grapes. Regardless, it was so cool picking our own grapes!
Don't ask. I didn't have to pee and ... well, who knows what face I'm making ... but this was the only photo Al took of me holding/picking grapes. Sigh ... I didn't really get the photogenic gene in the family.
