Touring Deutschland

Two weeks and about 12,586 miles later Eric and I have been to Germany and back...and all in one piece! :) We were so very fortunate to be able to tour all over Germany with Eric's grandparents these last 2 weeks, meet some really amazing people, eats delicious food and of course chocolate, and see the most beautiful views; which, will always be an unforgettable experience for both of us.

Day 1

Day 1 was traveling day. We got up that morning and headed to the airport in Salt Lake to find our plane had been delayed for about an hour. Just as a side note, not only had I never left the country before, but I had never flown on an airplane so today was a big day for me and I was a little nervous just because I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out, everyone set me up for nothing all that terrifying...meaning I made in all the way to Germany on two different planes without hyperventilating. Lol. We had a layover in Chicago just long enough to board our other plane and flew 8 1/2 hours over night to Frankfurt, Germany where we arrived to start a new day.

Day 2

Because the time difference in Germany of about 8 hours from Utah, we pretty much skipped our night so jet lag was a killer. However, regardless of how tired we were, after checking into our hotel and taking just a little nap (which actually made us more tired) we went and did a session at the temple in Frankfurt. We were really grateful that the temple was in walking distance of our hotel. For the first time we were the one's with the headphones, but the experience was just as rewarding.

After having some trouble renting the temple clothes and trying to figure out what the menu said at the restaurant we ate at before going to the temple I felt completely dependent on Eric to communicate to people what I wanted or needed. I hardly let Eric leave my side the rest of the trip!

That night we had dinner at the hotel with everyone on the tour. It was so interesting to see all the different people that were on the tour. We were expecting a lot of people from America, but we were the minority. We had people from Australia, Wells, United Kingdom, Africa and New Zealand. Eric and I were also some of the youngest there after an 8 year old boy and 15 year old girl. We didn't mind one bit though since we seemed to get along with everyone there.

Day 3

This day was the start of the tour of Germany. We started the day going on the Rhine Cruise from Oberwesel to Boppard. The countryside and little towns we passed were beautiful views and everything was so green! Something that you don't seen in Utah or the desert of Nevada. It was a really chilly day so we sat inside the boat for most of the cruise and I went out for a couple of minutes here and there to take some pictures.

Next we headed to Cologne and saw one of the most impressive Gothic cathedrals we've ever seen. The building of it was started in 1248 and wasn't completed until 1880 (632 years!). We could believe how something like that could be build back then with so much detail. I've always loved the Salt Lake temple, but compared to this cathedral it seemed extremely small. We climbed over 600 steps up the tower of the cathedral to see this view and even though I was really sore the next day it was very worth it!

On the way to the hotel we stopped at the original 4711 store (a perfume store) where when you walked in there was a fountain that you could wash your hands in cologne. Let's just say the tour bus smelt very strongly of cologne after that!

Day 4

We had an early start by traveling to Hamelin. Hamelin is known for it's legend of the Pied Piper concerning the departure or death of a many of the town's children in the Middle Ages. For those of you who have not heard the story, the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation. The Pied Piper promised the townsmen that he could get rid of the rats and the townsmen promised they would pay him if he did. The Pied Piper played a musical pipe to lure the rats into the nearby river where they all drowned. The town did not pay him despite his success and so in his anger while all the inhabitants were in church he played his pipe that attracted the children of Hamelin and led them away from the town where they were never seen or heard of again.

We ended the day in Hamburg. Eric was excited to be back and that night show us the center streets at night. Something I was not aware of, but learned was that Hamburg has more water canals then Venice does! I thought that was very interesting. The city center was one of the most impressive building we saw in Hamburg and Eric also got to have his first Donner (his favorite food that he talks about all the time). I really liked them as well so I didn't mind eating them again on the trip anytime we had the opportunity. Eric was a little disappointed, however, that he didn't get to see anyone from his mission there or that we didn't get to spend much time there either.

Also, one little last note about this day was that it was our 1 year anniversary! We didn't really do anything special, but just being in Germany with the man I love was enough for me!

Day 5

This day we traveled to Lubeck, which is another city that Eric served in. This was one of my favorite cities that we had been to so far into the tour and enjoyed hearing some of Eric's memories of it. On our free time we walked around the center of the city a little bit and went into some of the shops and had some really good ice cream (the ice cream in Germany is really creamy and flavorful).

That afternoon, we traveled to the capital of Germany, Berlin. We went on a city night cruise along the River Spree that runs through Berlin. We had a nice dinner on the boat and enjoyed some live music (2 men on the accordion and the guitar). Everything was so peaceful going along the river. Lots of people were just relaxing along with sides of the rivers watching the boats go by and enjoying the beautiful evening. I loved how relaxed the Germans are and all the sidewalk cafes that you could go to and just enjoy the outdoors and the calm atmosphere.Our hotel room that we stayed in, in Berlin. Needless to say it was very nice...chandilier included :)

Day 6

We stayed in Berlin for the whole day which was nice because we got to see a lot more of the city. We had a city sightseeing tour with a local guide in the morning which took us all over Berlin and also to the Berlin wall. You would expect this huge, thick wall; however, it was only about 7-8 ft high and about 6 inches thick. Also by the wall they had success stories of how people escaped into West Berlin (the few that made it) and the unsuccessful attempts. It was crazy to think of not being able to see friends and family that were on the other side of the wall for 28 years.

Later we went with another local guide to the historic Potsdam where we toured Cecilienhof Palace and Sanssouci Park, which had a marvel of landscape gardening and architectural wonders. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to go in and see more of the Palaces that we went to, but what we did see was really interesting.

For dinner we went to Ziko's Grill where there was live music and good authentic German food. One of the workers would go around to each table and play pranks on some of the people, which was hilarious to watch. One was he would act like he was going to put catchup on a customers plate and then aim it at them. They would jump back and scream to later find out that is was just some red string that came out. Haha, it was pretty fun.

Day 7

We traveled southwest to Dresden, the old capital of Saxony where we took another city sightseeing tour with a local guide. What was most impressive abo ut this city was the city square which was filled with huge buildings right next to each other. It had been raining so much there that the rivers were too high for the boats to go under the bridges. After the tour I made the mistake of asking the tour guide if there were any donner shops around where we were. I might as well of just asked where a McDonlds was since a donner is not a native Germany food, but a turkish fast food.

We ended the day in Leipzig, where the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach lived the last years of his lived. To be honest, I can't remember too much of this city. We only had a little bit of free time to tour it or shop and well...I picked shop :).

Day 8

This day took an unfortunate and sad twist when we w ent to Coburg to see the Veste Coburg Castle, built in 1225 where Martin Luther stayed for awhile while he we translating the bible. The path up to the castle was a little steep. A man from our tour was having a hard time walking up it and stopped to take a breather. By the time he almost made it to the top we were all there to watch him fall backwards and hit his head on the cobblestone pavement. Luckily we had a man one our tour who was a policeman that was certified in CPR and with the help of some others they started CPR right away to revive him since he was not breathing. It took about 20 or more minutes for the medical help to come which continued CPR and electric shocks. After about 45 minutes with no results, we watched as they had to tell the man's sweet wife that he was gone. It broke my heart to watch that wife sit down by her husband and hold his cold hand and say good-bye so expectingly. It really brought us all back to reality and as traumatizing experience as it was, more so for that wife then for me , I felt so very grateful to have been sealed in the temple to Eric and know tha t no matter what happens we will be together again. It was also neat to see some many people from the tour reach out the the woman in her time of grief. We canceled what other plans we had for the day and went straight to the hotel. Luckily, the woman's daughter and friend was able to fly in from the UK and got there that night to be with her and deal with trying to get her husband home to be buried. They were in our thoughts and prayers the rest of the tour.

Day 9

After spending the night in Nuremberg we did a little sight seeing of the city and had some free time. There we went to a toy museum which unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of, but it was interesting to see all the toys from the earlier time periods.

While driving along the Romantic Road we stopped at one of my favorite places of the whole trip, which was the picture-postcard medieval Rothenburg. H ow I came to know it was on the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" which is was the city that didn't have any children in the movie. The town had curving streets with fun little shops along the way and one very popular one which most everyone went to and that was the Christmas shop (very big deal in Germany). They were also famous for their treats called snow ball. It was like fried bread shaped like a ball and covered in chocolate and nuts. They were bigger than me fist, but so very good. We ended the day at our hotel in Munich where we stayed for two nights.

Day 10

The morning started off with a local guide taking a sightseeing tour of the city and ended in the big main square, Marienplatz. They had a square full of food stands and then on the other end lines of shopping.

We left the square in the afternoon and went to Dachau, the first concentration camp built which was turned into a memorial site and museum. That was a very somber site, but very informative. We started off by watching a documentary film on the history of Dachau and then were able to tour around the grounds where tens of thousands of Jews were brought. They had rebuild two barracks so you could see the living conditions of the people that lived there, as well as the gas chambers disguise as showers and cremation chambers. It was horrifying to hear and see what humans could do to other humans; how they stripped these people of their dignity and their lives and families.

That night was the Bavarian evening and dinner and the world famous Hofbrauhuas. The restaurant could hold 700 people and had local specialties fr om the buffet and the famous German beers (in 1 liter glass!). Naturally, since we don't drink we were a little out of place , but we still enjoyed the experience of live Bavarian music and dancing.

Day 11

It finally rained this day. Eric said that it rained a lot in Germany, but so far we hadn't really had any so Eric's grandma was excited to have to rain for a "true" German experience. We drove into the heart of the Bavarian Alps to visit the most famous 19th century neo-romantic cast of the world, King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle (which wa s also featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). The scenery was absolutely breath taking for all of us! You could go up on this bridge over looking the castle and Eric and I agreed that we had not seen anything so amazing before. The castle had over 200 rooms; however, only 15 were finished which we got the chance to tour.

We have the pleasure of enjoying some more of the green scenery while driving through the Black Forest to get to our hotel. There was had our last dinner together as a tour groups and all were sad it was coming to an end. All the people we met on the tour were so fun to talk too. I found it interesting to see what brought ever yone to Germany and a little about them. We were sad we didn't get to know everyone.

Day 12

Our last day in Germany we traveling to our last touring place which was Heidelberg and yet another one of the cities that was our favorite. While there I also rushed to get that last of the souvenirs that I wanted to get for everyone so sadly we didn't get to do much sightseeing. We ending back in Frankfurt that evening. Eric and I went out on our own and met up with Eric's friend that met on his mission. He took us to an African restaurant that was decorated like a tent in the desert. It has sand floors and you could sit on cushions low to the ground while you ate with your hands. It was definitely something unique and different from anything we'd eating in Germany. Eric enjoyed catching up with his friend and I enjoyed getting to know him. He was really nice and fun to talk to.

Day 13

We had to get up at 4 to get ready and make it to the airport to get ready for our flight at 8:30. We finally made it home to Salt Lake around 3pm, however it had been about 15 hours since leaving Germany....equaling an extremely long day of traveling. It felt so good to get home and be in our own apartment and bed.

I joke that since that was such a fast moving trip and a lot of traveling, I needed a vacation from my vacation so I'm definitely going to try and make good use of doing nothing for the next two weeks before school starts. :)

Overall though, the trip to Germany was amazing and we are so grateful to Eric's grandparents for helping us get there and to be able to do that with them.

Birthday Celebrations!- The Wedding Singer

July has been quite the popular the month to have a birthday! We've celebrated both Sara and Collin's birthdays and of course...mine. Over the 24th of July weekend Eric and I went to the Outlets in Park City so I could spend my birthday money and get some clothes for Germany. We both found some great deals, which as a girl, sales are something worthy of blogging about! Eric found some nice shoes for $10 and I found a pair of jeans at American Eagle that use to be $45 for $10.50! Talk about a great deal! We also went to the new movie "Inception" that everyone has been building up our excitement for and we definitely were not disappointed. If you haven't seen it yet...go and see it! It's a very original story line that keeps you interested throughout the whole movie.

On my actual birthday, Eric made me my favorite breakfast, German pancakes. I had work, but it was a relaxed day as usual and Eric surprised me by leaving flowers for me at work. The people of work threw me a party at lunch which was a lot of fun to take a break and just visit with everyone in the office. I work with some real

ly fun people so we always have some good laughs. After work Tyler and Annelise (Sophia), Collin and Sara, and Eric and I went out to dinner at the Happy Sumo to celebrate both mine and Sara's birthday. We've seemed to make a tradition of getting together as family on each other's birthdays. I'm so grateful to have family around and that we are able to have such a great time together. It will be sad when they all have to go away to graduate schools.

To finish off the day Eric made me chocolate zucchini cake. I made a goal after the 4th of July not to have dessert until my birthday and to my and everyone's great surprise I stuck with my goal, so chocolate zucchini cake was the perfect thing to end my dessert "fast" with. So delicious!

Eric's present to me for my birthday was tickets to "The Wedding Singer" on Wednesday night at the Hale Center Theater. I have always loved the 1998's movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore (to be honest about one of the only movies I like with Adam Sandler) and we both love going to musicals so I was really excited to go. The musical was excellent and very entertaining! The foyer was decorated like a tacky 1980's wedding reception that was only the beginning to the play which featured a decade filled with neon, synthesized music, bad hairdos and shoulder pads. I absolutely loved everything about it; it was so fun! The performers where really great and energectic as well with fun choreography. We laughed throughout the whole musical. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance!

Our favorite characters where the grandmother (the old lady that Robbie Hart gives voice lessons to in the movie) and Robbie Hart's gay band member. They were hilarious!

All in all I had a fabulous birthday this year thanks to my wonderful husband who does so much for me, my family and friends. Thanks again everyone!

Now for my general updates, we will be in Germany in less than a week with Eric's grandparents and cannot wait, but still need to start packing for. We will also be celebrating our one year anniversary while there. One year of being married, holy moly!!! My family is coming up this weekend for Sophia's baby blessing so it will be good to see them before we leave. Oh and one of the biggest updates is that Eric got into the Information Systems program here at BYU! I am so proud of him! It is a really challenging program to get into and one of the best! He is really excited to start that this upcoming semester. One down side is that he is going to be really busy so I guess it's time to get out there and make some friends. We are also excited to go to Matt (Eric's cousin) and Hannah's wedding in August which is in the Manti temple. I am excited for the chance to go back to Manti which is where we were married.

I believe I've reached the end of my updates. My next post will be post Germany with lots of pictures!

There's no place like Ely, Nevada to celebrate the 4th of July!

Once again, Eric and I spent another fabulous July 4th in Ely with family and friends! This year, we were also lucky enough to have Eric's grandparents and little brother, Will and Collin's sister McKenzie join us for the festivities along with Pat and Grandma and Grandpa Bohn. The unfortunate part about the weekend was that since the 4th was on Sunday we missed the parade, the traditional ward breakfast was canceled, and we didn't make it to the live music and dance in the park the night before, which is alway pretty interesting to go to. However, regardless of missing the usual July 4th activities the weekend was still a huge hit with lots and lots of food and good company. Almost everyone arrived on Friday evening, when the party officially began. That night we took McKenzie to the train tunnel, a traditional Ely experience for visitors. (Those of you who have not had the pleasure of the train tunnel along with the rest of the "Ely experience" please join us for the ride down sometime!)

Saturday morning we were all up and crowed around the table (like savages as Grandma Bohn says) enjoying her famous plucking breads, which we continued to enjoy throughout the day because she made around 10! Later we went up to Cave Lake and took the patel boat and little raft that we had and took turns going out on the lake. Because we were up there later in the afternoon the fish started jumping and it really made Eric wish he had brought his fishing pole. (He has really enjoyed going fishing a least once a week this summer and has even brought some fish home to eat once.) Later I went to go see my friend, Leah's house that her family has been building and recently moved into. It looked fabulous and very unique, plus it was good to see her family again! Will have a fun time chasing their new puppy, Eddy and also being chase by it. Eric is still trying to convince me that we need pets because he say's every child needs a pet. I still have to disagree and am trying to really hold me ground on this one! :)

Once it got dark we went back up to Cave Lake to take Will crawdad catching. Usually if you waiting until 9 or 10 the crawdads will start coming up closer to the edge of the water

and we can just take a net and scoop them up. Will fell asleep on the ride up to the lake so it took him awhile to wake up to enjoy catching and looking at the crawdads, but once he did wake up he was really excited.

On Sunday we all went to church and made up more then half of the Relief Society and Priesthood. Regardless of there not being many people at church that day it was still a really good meeting. Afterwards, we had the annual July 4th BBQ with just about every side dish you would find at a BBQ (Potato salad, dip delicious, deviled eggs, pistachio salad, macaroni salad, and bean). It's funny how most American's celebrate the 4th and the free country we live in by gorging themselves with way too much food or in most of Ely's case...Beer. So being the faithful American's that we are we all ate ourselves sick and had to all take a nap afterwards. The fireworks were the usual guessing game of which 2 or 3 fireworks being shot off

at

the same time was the finale, but at least Eric and I actually got to go this time. Last year we were the last to leave with Seth, but Seth is afraid of fireworks so he hid and we never could find him

so we just had to stay home. The minute the fireworks ended he magically appeared again. Funny how that works. :)

Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun and we were glad to get to see everyone that we did! As for life in general, we are now Uncle Eric and Aunt Hanna and loving every minute of it (I am at least)! Tyler and Annelise had Sophia Saturday, June 18th and she is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I have to go over every other day to get my "dose" of Sophia. Also we are all set to go to Germany on August 3rd for two weeks with Eric's grandparents! I even have my passport now already to go as well! Other than that, we are all moved into our new apartment and love all the space (still no pictures, sorry) and I also finished my Spring Semester with an A- in my first art class and now I'm just enjoying not having anything that I "have" to do after work. I've already finished 7 books this summer and am looking for some more to read.

The conclusion here...life is great!

In the Fast Lane of Life

Holy cow, I can't believe it's May already! Obviously it's been absolutely forever since I posted anything, but life has seemed to escape me these last couple of months as it has flown past! The general update is that Eric and I are still happily married, both recently finished our winter semester of school with good grades (marriage has done wonders for our grades as a side note) and are now both working full time at our jobs here on campus. Plus I'm taking a 6 hour art class twice a week. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I signed up for that....I'm starting to think I wasn't. My brief homework free days were crushed when spring classes started about two weeks ago. My real reason though for taking this art class is that it's a required class for the photography program I'm planning on applying for in the fall. Ok, so jumping from anthropology to psychology and now to photography doesn't really have any correlation, but I'm just fulfilling my duty as a college student in switched my major at least seven time as they say the average college student does. Plus I really have developed a love for taking pictures. Fingers crossed that this is the final choice for me though and that all goes as planned. (Hah, when as that ever happened?) At least, one of us in this family knows what they want and has been working really hard in getting it. Eric has been working on the prerequisite classes for the information systems program which he is applying for in June. He's really nervous about it, but I know he's going to knock the program reviewers dead with his mad skills in creating programs!

Another exciting update is that Eric and I are planning on moving at the end of this month. Yes, that's right we are slowly moving up into the world into a bigger apartment with a bigger kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and air conditioning and for any of you who have seen the apartment we currently live in you would know that is a definite upgrade! Visitors welcome! I will admit that Eric and I have both enjoyed the apartment we have now and with my crafty skills :) we got it looking quite cute (although I'm not sure if that's the word Eric would have used).

As for life in general, Eric and I are still playing on intramural soccer teams, which we both really LOVE! There's nothing like running for less than a minute and be on the verge of passing out from a short of breath and realizing how completely out of shape you are, but it seems all worth it to play the greatest sport ever invented. And as a resolve to that, Eric and I have started swimming three times a week in the morning before work. I must say I'm not a morning exerciser so it took us a while to get started but it feels good to be exercising. We have also started trying to eat healthier. There are big plans and hopes this summer for both of us to get back into shape. Another thing that we found we really enjoy doing together is reading. We started reading "The Testament" by John Grisham. So far it's a really good book that both Eric and I are interested in. We like to read it on our trips home, which helps the much traveled roads go back faster too.

Anyway, that's our life for the present. Updates and pictures to come shortly of our new apartment and our plans of going to Germany this summer with Eric's grandparents. Oh and updates to come of my "going to be" adorable niece, Sophia which should be arriving sometime next month!

School + Classes + Homework = LIFE

Eric and I are now two weeks into the new school year here at BYU, going on to the third. We both have our share of difficult classes that are time consuming as well. However, after spending all day at campus going to classes and then going to work, I love nothing more then to come home to the man I love. Of course, the work isn't always done and most nights there's still a pile of homework to do, but for some reason it always makes the work load seem better after a wonderful dinner made by Eric and him just being there. I must admit that I exaggerated (as I often do) in that our lives don't only include school. We make an effort to keep the fun in it. We are both on intermual soccer teams this fall and are so excited for it, we have season sport tickets to the football games (Go BYU!), and we just resently attended India fest at the Muslim temple in Spanish Fork (I learned that I'm not a huge fan of food from india, or at least the stuff they had there).
On another note, something that is another change in the direction in my life other then recently getting married, is that I am switching my major from Anthroplogy! The more classes I've taken I started to realize that I didn't care for the way anthropolgists think, no offense to any out there, but they can be so wrapped up in the views which only they believe or have studied from a culture. Plus all this time of people asking me what I want to do with that major, I've come to find out that there really isn't to must to do with that. At least nothing that really interested me and would be a set career. I guess when I would tell people I was majoring into Antropology and I got looks of "Why are you going into to that?" they really new something I didn't and it wasn't for me. However, I'm not really giving up the idea of it altogether, I'm simple closing in on a more direct subject. Rather then anaylizing a culture as a whole, I want to major in psychology and anaylize people and see why they do the things they do. Of course, like most college students that is subject to change at any given moment, but I'm really hoping this is it. In dropping my anthropology classes I've added Human development which I really enjoy.
Eric and I are taking a marriage and family religion class together and besides the bonus of getting to see him during the day of school, I think it is going to be a really insitful class and help us strengthen our relationship. Something that our professor said I think both of us really liked was, don't get caught up in the things you do know from the things you don't know. A lot of us, me especially, see everything we have to do to maybe graduate or get through a class or whatever and think how are we going to do this?! However, if we know whatever we have to do will get us on the path to where we are suppose to go, the Lord will help us through it. Our professor also said that to many times we have the attitude of if I can just get through something I can be happy. For me it was when we finally graduate and get on our feet with a steady job and family, then life will be really good. But he told us to enjpy our life now and be happy with it now. I really liked that and it has helped my look at my life now and really enjoy it, even though we aren't the wealthiest, or have a big home, or that spend most of our days at school, I love it!

A Man of Many Talents

Ok, so the point of this post is not to praise my husband to win brownie points or get out of doing the dishes, but just to show how much you can learn about a person from living with them for a month. And may I mention that today is exactly one month since we were married!
This last month has been a huge learning experience for both of us and I think we are slowly starting to get a hang of this whole "married" thing. For example, I've learned that if you decide to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to make breakfast for your husband before he goes to work, don't turn on a gas stove while holding an egg. The result: the igniting of the flame on the stove will startle you and the egg in your hand will go flying in the air and land with a "splat" on your new kitchen rug. I've also learned not to lay even a finger on a hanging shelf in an attic apartment with weak walls, because it results in the entire shelf falling along with everything on it and flour all over the kitchen floor. (Just as a side note, even through all my "in the kitchen" mishaps our kitchen is quite clean) Anyway, through all my learning experiences, Eric has stepped up to his role as Super Husband and is the first to cleaning up my messes physically and emotionally. Also, over the last month he has unveiled even more talents to add to the list of his list of already many talents...
After a long day at work of trying to figure out computer type things, which is most definitely NOT my area of expertise and exhausted from working out (which was my stab at trying to get back in the routine of going to the gym daily) I came home racking my brain of what to make for dinner...something that was quite and easy. Low and behold, Eric had dinner ready and waiting and not just one of those box dinners mind you, but homemade Lasagna! Even I can put down some pride and admit that that differently passed up my Cheesy Green bean Casserole (my first casserole) that I made the week before.
So the conclusion of all of this is, I was very blessed to marry a man of many talents and I am so glad that he is the guy that I get to come home to after a long day and be with. After a month of being married we are still madly in love with each other and life couldn't be better!