Bruchmuhlbach, Germany

Nate has a great friend that deployed mid-April.  

He was extremely generous and offered his house up to us while he was gone.  It didn't take much convincing for us to say YES!  The temporary furniture we were loaned was horrible!

His village, Bruchmuhlbach, is bigger than Erzenhausen.  His house is on a pretty busy street.  It is next to a bakery and we have enjoyed pastries for breakfast!!  It is also in walking distance of a grocery store.  I took this picture of this cool German house after a quick walk to the Penny Markt.

I have to drive almost 30 minutes to drop the boys off for school and pick them up each day.  I am not loving the amount of gas I am purchasing, but it is a nice drive. 

 This church is in the neighboring village of Hauptstuhl.

This pretty farm is also in Hauptstuhl.  

Burg Lichtenberg

We decided to have our last nice German meal at the very first castle we visited when we arrived.  

 Burg Lichtenberg is only about 20 minutes away and it is free to visit.  

We've taken lots of guests here!

 We let the fellas climb all around and they did not want to stop to go eat.

 Ethan was very excited to have schnitzel one more time before we left.  

This boy ate his weight in schnitzel these past three years.  

On the other hand, Lincoln is SICK of schnitzel.  He opted for smoked trout and potato pancakes. 

 He ate a bit of my ravioli and Nate's salmon too.   I think he is over German food already!

I am super happy we were able to slip this castle dinner in to our busy packing/cleaning weekend.

Menaggio and Argegno, Italy

 We woke up to a Sunny Sunday! 

 We walked down and bought some homemade croissants!

 And then proceeded to sit in the hot sun and wait for our bus.......the buses aren't 

any earlier than the ferries.

 Lincoln was smart and brought his book today.  

 We made it to Menaggio. 

 We walked around this village until lunch time.

 The boys tested out the temperature of the water.  It was cold!

 After a yummy lunch, we enjoyed some gelato.  The sun went behind the clouds and the gelato chilled us a bit!

 We decided to head back to the apartment and relax before dinner.  

 I found a restaurant at the top of Argegno and wanted to try it.  When I say the top of Argegno, I mean STRAIGHT up hill.

 Lincoln was not happy with me!

 We made it to the top and the view was amazing.  There was no restaurant though.  Oops!  The boys were furious, but thankfully it was all down hill now!  

Some yummy pasta and tiramisu made them forgive me.  

 I think we awoke to the prettiest day, but sadly we had to drive home.  I did read that there was supposed to be rain today!  At least we saw this gorgeousness before the rain.

 Goodbye Argegno.

Goodbye Italy!  

Lake Como, Italy

 We decided to make our last European trip to Lake Como, Italy.  We had a rough start.  Our six hour trip turned to 10 hours due to horrible traffic in Switzerland.  I guess if we had to sit in traffic at least we had amazing views!

 We stayed in a little village called Argegno.  

 The streets were tiny so we decided to park our car and take the ferry on Saturday.  

 We had an hour long ferry ride to Bellagio, but we were thoroughly entertained by this 

guy drawing people on the boat.

 I have not been to Vegas, but Nate said the hotel reminded of the village!  They did a good job.

 First stop:  FOOD!  My guys ordered spaghetti and clams.  I noticed a lady looking at them while they were eating.  At the end of their meal, she said that she was from England and that kids in England would not eat what they were eating!  Nate and I have done something right with these guys.

 Nate loved his trout and I had some amazing ravioli.

 After exploring and buying some souvenirs, we waited for our ferry.  These ferries start LATE (11:00) and then take hours between.  The Italians are not in a hurry!

 We decided to hop off at a village on our side of the lake and walk for a bit.  Ethan found his car!

 I was so glad we walked.  We saw some really cool things.

 This is the house from Star Wars episode II.

 After a two mile walk, we hopped on the ferry and head back to our village.  We thought we would sit at the front of the boat, but it was cold.  Ethan started screaming.  

The goofball caught his hair in his zipper.  

 Argegno.

 Our apartment was in the bright yellow three story house.  

 The gardens were massive.  The boys loved running and exploring.  

 We enjoyed walking this path to find food and fun everyday.  

Of course, we had to end the night with PIZZA!