Stateside Adventures, Hunt Style

This is what Matt and I woke up to this morning.

Crazy, but absolutely wonderful. I put up all my christmas today and the snow went perfect for my outside decor (since I don't have anything for outside...yet).
Our poor tree out front needed a little help.

He was just so loaded down with snow, it was sad. So Matt took our trusty blue broom and went to work.

Then after a turn around the tree, he looked a lot better.

Matt went to help out our neighbors palm tree.


I don't know if it will ever bounce back. I don't like palm trees for many reasons and now I can add another reason to my list.
Here is a picture of our house. Above our house you are supposed to be able to see the Sacramento Mountains, but I guess they are hiding.

Today is Matt's birthday and I think snow was a perfect present. And a great way to start the countdown to Christmas.
Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Well it has been awhile since I posted, but we are now settled in New Mexico. So far we like it. There are mountains just behind us and a huge valley in front. The White Sands National Monument can be seen from town on clear days (which is often), I do wish there were more clouds, but you can't have everything.
We found a place to stay. We didn't want to buy right away so we are just renting for the moment. It's a nice 2 bed/2 bath house that is brand new, so no wierd smells or strange stains on the carpets. We came from Germany with no furniture, so we have been having a time accumulating a house full. We got most of everything that we need now, we are just waiting on our bedroom set. We do have a mattress, but we are just rough-in it on the floor for the time being. We also now have our major appliances so I think we should be good to go for a bit. I must admit that I am sick of spending money now. Oh... and... we got a truck, too. So yeah, definitely done spending money in massive quantities.
So I haven't taken pictures of everything yet, but you can see what I got so far.

There are several more European adventures that I never had posted. So in the next month or so I will post our last trips around Europe and then we can start with our adventures in the good 'ol USA.
It's great to be back.

All of our belongings are gone. Leaving us with nothing but bare walls and a very meowy cat.
The past few weeks have been crazy fun and crazy busy. My sister Heather and her lover Danny, finally decided to head east and see the European sights. Matt and I toured them around our area hitting as much sights as possible. Then Heather, Danny and I hopped on a few planes and spent a day in Rome and 4 days in Ireland. It was awesome. I wish that I could post pictures, but they were packed. I think Heather is planning on posting some, so hit up her site for pure awe and beauty. Just a day after they left us (I know they are missing Vaako's vocal renditions), the movers came and took all of our stuff away. Now we are living in a very empty apartment that now has an echo in the back room.
Now we are out-processing from the base, deciding how we are going to get Vaako to the states and enjoying our last few weeks as much as possible.
Tchuss

Hello everybody. Matt and I are finally going to be moving back to the states. Yeah!! We will be stationed at Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM.
We are leaving the beginning of October. We plan on spending a few weeks with my parents in Moapa, before we arrive in New Mexico. Hopefully, I will be able to catch up with old friends and have family finally meet Matt. My parents are going to throw a welcome home party for us and I would like to invite you all. I don't know all the particulars so I am going to ask you to e-mail me your addresses so we may send you an invitation. My hotmail address is bijoux_du_table. If I don't here from you, I will harrass you individually :) So, you are hereby warned. I am really looking forward to being home again. Europe has been great, but I miss family and friends.

Matt and I went on a very fun vacation the last 2 weeks of June. We drove through the French Alps, on the Route des Grandes Alps, then spent the last 5 days lounging on the beach in Salou, on the Costa Daurada in Spain. We had so much fun, saw so many things, drove for ever and ever, and enjoyed every minute of it.
The Alps were breathtaking. So beautiful. I didn't want to leave them behind. The Spanish riveria was so relaxing. Nothing to do, but lounge in the sun. I have officially learned that I do not tan, my freckles just get darker. Matt on the other hand, tans. Well, burns a little, then tans.
I am sure I would bore you all with a day by day account of our trip. So I will bore you with pictures instead. Prepare yourself, there are lots of pictures. And I only included a tenth of the photos that we took.
Enjoy.

I have fallen in love with Holland. It is beautiful and the people are great. There are bike paths everywhere. We went to a cheese and wooden shoe maker, Clara-Maria and to the Keukenhof...ah so many flowers.
At the Clara-Maria, they had a kitty who looks just like Vaako. Since she was a girl, I named her Vaakotina. It was great watching how they make the wooden shoes. I don't know if I could wear them regularly, though. The cheese was so good, especially the herb & garlic. They even had some with alcohol in them and let me tell you, they were good.
After Clara-Maria, we went to the Keukenhof. It was amazing. Unfortunately, their fields of flowers were no longer in bloom, but the gardens were enough for me. We walked around, stopping every couple of feet to take pictures. We had strawberries & cream with some tea. The weather stayed beautiful and turned out to be a very relaxed day. I hope you enjoy the slide show.

Not so many weekends ago, Matt and I went on a Saturday drive and ended up at yet another castle. Castle Saltzvey to be exact. This place is pretty cool. It looked exactly how Hollywood depicts castles from the middle ages, with the food market and shops all within the castle walls. We went on a non-event day, but they have jousting and music festivals all summer long. Hopefully we will make it back to see everything in action.
After our castle stop we went to an animal park. Somehow I have not gotten sick of the plethora of castles or animal parks that we go to. It's always a new adventure.
No lions or tigers or bears, but lots of deer, cows, bunnies, goats, and asses. And the walk around was beautiful. I must admit that I will miss all the green when we leave. But we still have 132 days to go for me to soak up all the green I can.

At the beginning our journey, the bottom of the water bottle took a turn for the worse. Thus, we revolutionized the way of enjoying a good bottle of water. During the discovery process, the car and myself got a bit wet. Okay, I have deciphered all the castles we were able to capture. There are a total of 18 castles along the stretch of the Rhein we travelled, and I think we were able to get pictures of at least half. We did this all in a day, so we only visited two. The first one, Schloss Stolzenfels, had the most beautiful path leading to the top. Most of the castle pictures were taken, unfortunately, from the comfort of our car, but everywhere you looked, another castle. Burg Maus and Burg Katz are opposing castles, but on the same side of the river. Get it, cat - mouse.(chuckle) The Die Pfalz was built in the middle of the Rhein river, on a tiny island, to collect tolls on passing boats. Greedy, greedy, greedy. The other castle that was graced with our presence was Burg Sooneck. I loved this one. The courtyard was covered in roses. It was absolutely beautiful and smelled so good. Perfect place for a wedding. We ended our trip at Kloster Eberbach. A lovely monastery that makes superb wine. After sampling around 8 wines we settled on a few 2007 Steinberger Riesling Spatlese. Ohhh, so far the best wine ever. I have learned that sweet/rieslings are my preferred wine. Dry wines...yeah, no. Not for me. Finally, Vaako was so happy to see us back home, he celebrated with wine, too. Okay it was the wine bag, but he had fun.

Last year, when Matt returned from his deployment, we went on a driving tour of the Rhein River. So many castles, so litte time. Along the route I got caught up in taking pictures of flowers or random things I thought were interesting. I never posted our trip, so I thought no better time than now. So, I will first post my "pretty stuff", and then, once I identify all the castle's in my photo's I will post the good "stuff."

The weather in Germany has been questionable since January. The sun has been non-existant with a plethora of freezing rain. So much fun.
This past weekend the sun finally made an extended appearance so we went for a nice Sunday drive. There are so many side roads, farm roads, and tiny villages scattered through out the german countryside you can always find something new. With a bottle of water, baby carrots and Reese's Pieces for snacks we transversed the narrow roads and countless switchbacks. Along our journey we had to stop by this little pond and do some fashion photos of our newest baby.



She drives like a dream and is so luxurious. I am so glad we decided to adopt her. I know she will be sad in October when we leave, no more autobahn. As for myself, I know I will miss the autobahn with no speed limit. I tried going 75 mph once, but it didn't last very long. 100-120 mph, now that is a nice cruising speed. When we get back to the states, cruise control is going to be my protection against speeding tickets.

I know that I have been back a few times since we have been living in Germany, but it all doesn't add up to too much. I miss them, especially now. I would like to give my whole family a huge hug. I love and miss you all! Won't be too long now before I can start harassing you a lot more, once we are back in the states. So, until then, I thought I would post a family portrait. Dad is behind the camera as usual, but are we not a very dignified looking family?

Well much to my mother's dismay we do not have any kids yet. But we do have a very cute kitty. Well he isn't much a kitty anymore, but we love him just the same. I went to take a shower and this is what I found in our bathroom sink.
He is too cute. And even now as I am posting this, he is the sink, curled up, fast asleep.
Vaako even enjoyed getting into the holiday spirit. He walked around the house for a good hour playing with his pretty bow. After the hour it was in pieces all over the house...maybe he didn't like getting into the holiday spirit.

Baking Extraordinare!
I don't claim to be a culinary genious, like my little sis, but I am proud of my Grasshopper cake.

The mint shavings on top took forever and if I touched them with my hand they would melt instantly. I am just that hot! Okay...no.

Christmas time in Germany is wonderful. All the little towns decorate their streets and Christmas markets spring up everywhere. This year we just went to the one in Trier. It was packed.
It was cold, too! But we toughened ourselves up by having some Gluhwein, hot wine. I don't favor the red, but the white was really tasty. I just sipped some from Matt's cup.
My favorite attraction at the market was the mushroom stand. OHHH, the sauteed mushrooms in cream sauce with potatoes is sooooo good.

This year we tried the dampfnudel. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it, but it was absolutely delicious. It's a steamed dumpling with a creamy center topped with something sweet. I got one with nutella on top and yeah, mmm mmm good.
One of the souvenirs I want to leave Germany with is a Weihnachts Pyramid or Christmas pyramid. This one here is a tad bit too big, but something along those lines. They remind me of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Each little outdoor store went all out in their decorations. I love this bell.

Simply, its a perfect way to spend time before Christmas comes. A bit cold and crowded, but a wonderful time.