After enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving meal, we went for a little walk.  There is a small refuge for storks in Kandern, that many of these birds call home.  There are even a few ducks living there and one very moody goose.  The storks are not caged at all, and are able to come and go as they please.  Here are a bunch of them hanging out on a roof at the refuge.

We are down in Kandern this weekend at Jason’s aunt’s and uncle’s place.  Because of work and such, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Sunday, and we spent this morning preparing some pies.  I rolled out and pressed the crust for the pumpkin pie below.  I’ve actually never made a pie before, so it was a lot of fun.  Aunt Leigh Ann gave Antje and I some great recipes, like pecan pie and poppy seed bread.  I’m excited to try them out!

Last month we took a quick trip to Kandern to spend the weekend with Jason’s and Tyler’s Aunt, Uncle, and cousin Joseph.  They are last pictured HERE, when they came up to Wiesbaden to visit us.  Jillian flew back to Washington to start her sophomore year at SPU, so we didn’t get to see her this trip.  Below, we are playing a fun board game called Niagara.  I was far from winning, but it was a good time.

On Sunday we drove about twenty minutes north of Kandern to a cute little town called Badenweiler.  Snickers came with us in Tyler’s car and really enjoyed the fresh air and changing scenery.  Antje took the picture of Snickers and me on the right.

As shown HERE, we climbed up the castle ruins for this amazing view of the town below.  I also took the opportunity to take a few family shots.  Yep, I married into some awesome, and not to mention good-looking, family ;-).  My favorite is the profile shot of Antje, with the view of Badenweiler in the background.

We will be heading to Kandern next for Thanksgiving, and then shortly after, I will be flying to Dallas!!  Only twenty seven days to go, not including today.  I shall leave you with this photo of Tyler doing what Tyler does best!

Today we spent the day at Badenweiler, an attractive little town just 20 minutes north of Kandern.  Fall colors bloomed all around us and the weather was perfect.  We walked up a path to the castle ruins, or Burg, and enjoyed a stunning 360 degree view.  I will share more photos from our day, but here is just one of many I picked for day fifteen.  Tyler, in the striped sweater was taking a photo of Uncle Laird, Aunt Leigh Ann, and cousin Joseph (and little Snickers too!).

This weekend we are in Kandern, visiting Jason’s (and Tyler’s) aunt, uncle, and cousin.  It has been raining off and on all day, but the clouds gave way a bit this afternoon and I grabbed a few shots of the apples in front of their home.  There is farmland surrounding the house, including fields of corn, some apple orchards, and green grass covering everything else–it’s so pretty!

Summer in Germany = awesome festivals almost every weekend.
A festival in Germany is maybe a little bit like the county or state fairs we’ve all been to, but that’s really an understatement. Each fest is packed with rides, music, artwork, and a delicious assortment of food and goodies–our favorites are the gebrannte Mandeln (sugar roasted almonds), the traditional Bratwurst, and a good Weißbier (wheat beer). So far this summer we’ve gone to the Wilhelmstrassenfest and the Johannisfest. The first set of shots below were taken with our point and shoot camera at the Wilhelmstrassenfest a couple weekends ago. This fest takes place on the Wilhelmstrasse (Wilhelm Street) in downtown Wiesbaden. The last three photos were actually taken right before we headed over to the festival, but I knew you all would love to see our beautiful faces, so I included them too ;).
Also, we just got back from our trip to Italy a few days ago. I’ll be posting some photos soon, but wanted to put these up first!

This week I was organizing all the pictures we’ve taken since we’ve been here, and I came across a few “outtakes” that I really wanted to share.  It’s easy, especially with digital cameras these days, for photographs to get lost in the infinite space of our computers.  Thankfully, Jason took on the task a couple months ago of creating a bit of order for our photographs, and now I just have to make sure I keep up with it!
This first picture was taken in Kandern while we were going on a little walk after dinner.  I thought this Polaroid border by Andrea Rascaglia worked pretty well with it.

These next two were both taken at Tyler and Antje’s place.  Their home is on a quiet little street lined with tall, colorful home fronts–each one unique.  The second below is a picture I took as Jason was walking up the stairwell in their apartment.

This was also taken during our walk in Kandern.  There was a small church and I loved how the light was shining into this window just so.

This picture makes me smile!  A few posts back a I shared a photo Jason took of a ladybug in the garden.  Well, I also took this photo of him taking that photo, and here it is.  I love the concentration in his face and that the little ladybug can be seen on the leaf there.

This post is dedicated to the things I love about Deutschland. Now, I am certainly no expert regarding this land and have in fact not even been here for a month yet (in addition to having hardly traveled outside the Bundesland of Hessen); however, there are some items already that I have come to call endearing. My first and most loved thing is the beautiful churches. These first two photographs are of St. Augustine’s of Canterbury located at Frankfurter Straße 6 in Wiesbaden. I have already gathered quite a collection of church pictures, as you all have seen in our previous posts, and I’m sure many more are to come. Jason and I visited this church last night for Die Nacht der Kirchen, where fifteen of the churches in Wiesbaden opened their doors for an evening of music, psalms, hymns, and many other presentations and activities.

The second of my favorite things here in Germany is the large quantity of cobblestone streets and walkways. I absolutely love that this method of paving is used so regularly here. Even many of the parking spaces and sidewalks are made of some sort of stone or pavers. Plus, it is just wet enough here for the grass and moss to grow up in between the stones, and give even the most common of spaces an enchanting feel.

This next photograph is a prime example of a Fachwerkhaus, which I think is very beautiful. Fachwerk means framework and is clearly the right name for this style of architecture where the frame of the home is left exposed.

Now the location of this photograph is more important than the content, well as far as my favorite things list goes. Geese are not my favorite thing, and this one wasn’t particularly friendly, but I do love the little town of Kandern in southern Germany. Jason, Tyler, Antje and I traveled there a week ago to visit some family. Jason and Tyler’s aunt and uncle, Leigh Ann and Laird, live there with their son Joseph and daughter Jillian (who’s recently gone off to college in Seattle!). We were only there for a couple days, but I was struck by the beauty of Kandern with its rolling hills of green. The town is also a sanctuary for many storks, and these large birds can be seen atop the roofs of many homes here. It is a unique and lovely place that I hope to visit again soon. And I promise to get some actual photographs of the place next time we are there…