Lainie's Day Out and Going Away Party #1

Friday, Feb. 22, 2013

Today is a busy one!!  Lainie is going with Anja and Antonia to Munich for an Outdoor Fair.  Not outdoors, but like a trade show for outdoor fun activities!  They had so much fun!  Anja was kind enough to take lots of pics and sent them to me!  I may not explain them all correctly, but here are some highlights!

Aw, how sweet!!!

Giant Lederhosen.  Why?  Because it's Bavaria!

Napping in the beach hut

In a SAUNA!!  Thankfully it's not the naked one.

Lainie under the Olympic Thingy

Luge?

Olympic pool

Antonia wouldn't let Lainie drive!

Katniss?  Is that you?

They had a terrific time!  We will miss these guys when we go home.  I wish they still lived near us!

We were then off to Going Away Party #1 at the Erath's house.  There were too many people for just one night!  We had a fabulous dinner!  Great food, great people, great everything!

This is new.  Not.

Father and son

Brad learned the Proper German Way to pour a wheat beer.

Karen is getting really good at the fancy coffees!

Mmmmmm brownies!

Karen  practicing her "Cocktail" moves.  See the bottle?  She was good, but let's just say, it's a good thing it was plastic.

Emma and Lotta with Lydia on top!

Friends!

Aw, Linus!

Andy and Johanna, Grampy, Grammy, Manu and Markus (from Kuka)

The American Babes

Emma and Lainie...it's like they have known each other forever!

Aw, Max!

Me and Johanna :)

Lainie and Emma in the hot tub

Can you see why Linus hung out with Grammy?  LOL!

Lea hugging Shawn

Emma, the Party Animal

Thanks, once again, to the Eraths, we had a terrific time!!  I've said it before and I'll say it again....what will they do without us to eat their food and keep them entertained?  I think they will have some serious withdrawals.  Poor Eraths.  (Poor Stulls!!!)  *sigh*  Parting is such sweet sorrow.

A Few Days of Fun!

Feb. 17 to 21, 2013

We have been taking it a bit easy the past few days!  But now I have enough "material" for a blog post.

So as I have mentioned, all stores are closed here on Sundays.  The Schaefer's were here and I managed to pull together a good lunch, but for dinner we were going to be left with 7 eggs to share!  And then a miracle happened: Karen emailed me with "tonight's menu."  Yay!  They always come to our rescue, even when they don't know it!

Guess what?  Udo barbecued!  (Surprise!)

This scene looks familiar, just with Grampy now!

It was c-c-c-cold!

Grammy and Lea hanging out!

A wonderful recital :)

Another fun evening with our German Social Coordinators!

What did we do Monday?  I can't even remember!  Like I said, we are starting to slow down around here!

Tuesday Grammy and Grampy went to Dachau to the concentration camp for a tour.  That evening, we were supposed to have the Erath's over here for dinner for once!  Since Udo had a work at home day and was in town, it was a great idea.  Except Brad had his German class and if we waited for him, it would be too late on a weeknight.  So we went out!  That's different....NOT!  We went to the City Center so Brad could walk over and meet us there after class.
The Rathaus at night is really beautiful!

We went back to Koenig von Flandern.  Great food!
They also have a teeny tiny beer.

Dude.

She only had a sip!

Christoph ruined my picture, LOL!

We had a very good time!

On to Wednesday!  The grandparents took a drive south to the beginning of the Alps.  Lainie went to SCHOOL again with Emma!  Lea wanted to stay home, and Karen and I headed out to Metro.  Metro is a membership only store that reminds me of a mix of Costco and Staples.  It was cool!  We are having 2 going away parties at the Erath's this weekend, so we bought some food for that.  But first we went out for lunch to an Argentinian steak house.  We had cheeseburgers.  Like American cheeseburgers!! This is something you just don't see over here very much.  They were SO DANG GOOD!  Good food, good company.  What will Karen do without me?  I just don't know.  (LOL, I will miss her immensely!)

Thursday!  We took a trip into Augsburg to show G&G the Altstadt (old city.)  It's a bit of a walk for Grammy because of her recent surgery, but we stopped to rest and she did just fine!  Here we are in that beautiful, old city:

We stopped at Bauerntanz for lunch.  Delicious!  Lea just had fries, but the rest of us had homemade soup.  Potato (Lainie is crazy and didn't like it!) and wedding soup.  It's not at all like Italian wedding soup!

Schwaebian wedding soup: liver noodles (really?), ravioli type things, pancake strips, a Knoedel dumpling and crunchy little balls.

Potato with bacon!

It was really good!  We walked around the Altstadt a bit more.

Have not eaten here yet....City Halls over here, Rathaus, all have this in their basement!  It is supposed to be good.

I just love the Altstadt.  *sigh*

We came home for just a few minutes and then went to have cake with Ursula who is Anne's mom.  It's easy to see how Anne got to be so wonderful!  And where she learned her fabulous kitchen skills.

Apfelstrudel...made by Ursula's dad!  It runs in the family.  He uses sunflower seeds instead of nuts!  Yum.

A yummy cake filled with fruit!

It was great to hang out with Ursula again, and have her meet G&G.  Anne knows them from our Niagara Falls trip when she spent the weekend with them!!  Lea played a bit with some Playmobil toys.  The people must have been in that bin for a LONG time.  They REALLY had to go.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

We actually stayed home for dinner tonight.  Sausages, salad, corn, potatoes.  Delish!

Tomorrow starts our last weekend in Germany.  It's going to be a big one, stay tuned.....