Daddy's back!

 Nate made it back safe and sound Saturday morning!  He arrived about 7:00 am, so we planned a busy day to keep him awake!

Since we were unable to see the Falsenkirche (church in the cliff) and the castle ruins in Idar-Oberstein when Joe and Rachel were here, we decided to head back and see if we could tour them both.  

 It was a HIKE up to the church.  Legend has it that two brothers fell in love withe same girl.  Apparently, the lady they fell in love with was from Castle Lichtenberg (the first castle we visited).  Lady Bertha chose the younger brother.  In a fit of rage, the older brother threw the younger brother off the castle to his death some 450 feet below!  He fled for many years.  When he returned, Betha had died.  He built the church into the rocks as penance for his brother's murder.  

The boys loved hearing about the story!  We were able to go into the church.  It was very small, but you could see that many of the walls were actual rock from the cliff.  

 It was a HUGE hike up to the castle.  We are all sore today!

 Unfortunately, the castle was not open.  We were able to walk around part of it and take some pictures.

 Thankfully, Nate and I knew that there was an eiscafe (ice cream) back at the bottom!  We bribed both boys to pick up the pace and make it back down for some ice cream!

 Nate stayed awake about twenty minutes before I told him to close his eyes!  

Lincoln made it about twenty one minutes!  (Ethan took this picture for me)  We all thought he was joking when he said he was going to go to sleep so we should be quiet.  He wasn't kidding!