Germany 2008

We finally made it back to Germany this summer. It's been three years since our last trip. It was good to see family and friends again.
We also had a(nother) ceremony. We are officially "married" in Germany now. Of course, here in Utah our vows are completely meaningless... Anyway, it was a small gathering--just our immediate families. Becky, Kevin, and my parents flew out for the ceremony. It was my mom's first trip to Europe! Our families were all together for the first time. Nicki and Martin were in Utah in May of 2007 for our other ceremony, so they already knew most of my family--except for Kevin. Everybody seemed to get along just fine.
The first week of the trip was spent taking care of business for the ceremony. Then my parents flew in and then Becky and Kevin came by train. We had the ceremony and then the next day we had a bbq with some friends. It was good to see people and fun to just hang out.
We tried to teach American football to Karin and some of our guests at the bbq. It was a little bit confusing at first...but it seemed to go well in the end. We got a pretty good work out and had a lot of fun! The "field" was a little bit small, but it worked out.
After a few days of hanging out in Thalingburen and Heide in northern Germany, Ulli and I joined my parents and Becky and Kevin on a trip to southern Germany. We visited the concentration camp Dachau, the castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, and spent some time in Munich. It was quite the adventure!
After a few days of traveling with my family, Ulli and I began our Oma-tour. We visited Ulli's three grandmas and one grandpa. We ate a ton of food and sat a lot. You have to eat a good breakfast, then a big lunch, coffee with cake in the afternoon, then dinner with dessert, and before you go to bed you have to have some snacks to munch on while you visit. I gained about ten pounds, but it wasn't just because of the time spent with the grandmas--I also ate a lot of Schoko Bons...
We spent the last week or so visiting other friends and going through Ulli's things she had stored at her mom's house. We ended up bringing back three 50 pound suit cases and one 35 pounder. There are still two boxes of things that need to be brought to the states, but Ulli's family will bring that stuff with them when they come visit us next summer.
It was a good trip, but it's strange being away from YOUR house. We worried about the cat too. We only lost one fish here at the house and Squeak is fine. My fish at school...well, that's something for a totally different entry!