Happy Birthday TO matt :)

First of all, it is Matt's Birthday today!! Yay--the big 26 :) We celebrated yesterday because basically he had practice all day- we did get a 2 hour nap this afternoon when Colton layed down which was HEAVEN... And had some amazing German cake, but other than that it was pretty low key..

This weekend, I got to go babysit the Albrecht kids while they went to a dinner/dance (how fun!! too bad Matt had a game) Anyway, we played games, and had cereal for dinner (a very Non-German thing to do) and watched movies, then on Sunday Matt came up for church and we had dinner at their house! A genuine German meal--delicious! We had SO much fun with them, and We feel so blessed to have met them here! Anyway- they took us on a tour of Merseberg where there is a castle, and garden all over the grounds- way cool. And since pictures say a 1000 words--here are some of our day! First-- Here is Colton at the end of the exciting day!! Got to love it, even when I changed him into his PJ'S he was still sleeping like a baby.

Adorable little Hannah posing for the camera :)

Yes--we got all 5 kids up on that pole to snap one picture where everyone was looking!! OH, and Colton had a little accident in his pants upon arrival in MERseberg, so he went pantless-kind of cute with his chunky legs.

Our little family--the castle in the background.

The Albrecht family, Christian, Jodi, Hannah, Jentz, Max, and Heidi...Oh and if you will notice Christian's shirt, CHUBBUCK, and yes It is from the real Chubbuck, Idaho (he has a friend from there that gave it to him, so he wore it in honor of Matt, gotta love it)

Looks like a southern plantation

Don't stand in front of Colton when he is in his stroller or he will give you this sad face and reach his arms out..poor guy!

Love ALL the scenery!

So, there were berries along the way and the Albrecht's were eating them, so MATT tried them out and ruined his teeth for the rest of the pictures :) Oh well

The path through the gardens

Once again...I love the IVY on all of the buildings! Jentz wanted to be a part of our family :) They all say Colton looks like baby Jentz

There was a cage out in front with Ravens, and there is a story about how the king lost his ring and blamed it on one of his servents, and had him killed. He later found the ring in a ravens nest, so they put the ravens cage up in honor of the servant who died for no reason. Kind of cool

Rupunzel tower

The sign when entering the castle grounds!

They had a lot of cool doors..we liked taking pictures by all of them!

The cute kids...under a really short door!

Wishing well in the middle of the grounds

MORE IVY

And more... Anyway- it was SUCH a fun day with the Ablrecht family, and we look forward to many more!

Colton's new toy..the greatest thing in the world!! So...Colton is basically standing up on everything, ripping everything off of the shelves, eating everything on the ground he sees, etc. etc...I feel like I can't cook, shower, get ready and leave him in a room by himself---so we went and got a walker, he absolutely LOVES it. He can follow us around all day and play, but not tear apart everything in the house while he is in it..we will see how long it lasts!

So..my new goal is to walk/jog at least an hour every day! It was alittle chilly one evening last week, so I bundled Colton up--and we still went! It's been such Great weather, but it's definitely turning into fall, a really nice fall :)

Matt brought home this beanie...so we tried it on Colton thinking he would rip it off, but he kept it on all day-- so of course--I took pictures of it!

Colton at Matt's game--I brought my camera to take a bunch of pictures, but YUP-I took one! He loves going to the games though with all of the action going on in front of him.

Here he is...I caught him in action- and if you call his name..he will NOT turn around!!

So...we made another trip to my favorite EIS CAFE for KAtrin's birthday! This time I thought I would take a few pictures cause it's really cool..here is the bridge and the gate to the entrance!

The outside seating

Walking into the EISCAFE. Kind of a funny story though, the ice cream is all homemade and its soo good here...however, Matt decided to get a milkshake cause he had practice, and didn't want to eat too much. So MILKSHAKE he got, it was basically a glass of milk with some strawberry syrup in it, maybe they shook it up??? Who knows!

On one of Colton and I's lovely walks, I deciced to take some pictures of a few of my favorite places we pass by...

Colton on top of Weissnfels!SPORTING the Mohawk (fo-hawk?) If you can tell, his nose is a little red, maybe a little swollen...woops he fell again, this time off of a couch and smashed his face into a pole AT a team function. I can't control the little squirmer, so he is going to have to learn the hard way!

We went to the fanclub for a BBQ with all of the fans and the team..here is MATT with a few of the fans..they are all so sweet!

Matt's teammate, Radenko, from Serbia, and YES this is his first time holding a baby he said! I think he kind of liked it.

Katrin and her MAN, Colton and Matt at the fanclub.

Inside of the fanclub, they have a museum next to it with all the newspaper clippings, old shoes, balls, etc. from past players! Pretty cool..

Anyway--I can't believe we have been here almost 2 months! My mom is coming to visit in 2 weeks and we are SOOO excited for some adventures with her! It is so funny, I feel like everything we do here turns into some kind of an adventure, but what would life be without adventures?? I'm keeping a list of little random things I notice about Germany that is soo very different from America--one of these days I will put it up here.

MAnIAc

So much to do in Deutchland

This place is in Germany-and I REALLLLY want to go there! We went to the HALLe, Zoo this past weekend while Matt was gone. There is a family in our ward and they aRE American! They're dad is from Germany, but they have been living in Utah for the past 10 years, and are in Germany for a few years for school. They have 4 adorable kids, and they all speak perfect English, and I think perfect German (I can't understand so I wouldn't really know) Anyway, they invited me to go to the zoo with them, and then I spent the night at their house so I didn't have the long drive to church in the morning. Colton LOVED them! They were all soo nice with him, and shared some of their stuffed animals with him (Even though he slobbered all over them)
I was also realllly proud of myself for driving everywhere, in my stick shift car (to Halle and back twice), with the crazy German signs, in the rain one time! I felt Really brave! Another great moment is when I finally got my IPOD to work in the car-- and I got to listen to some of my favorite songs (they play a lot of American music on the radio, just not really any country music) I sang the ENTIRE way to Halle (40 minutes) and was sooo happy. Colton seemed to like it because he didn't even play with his toys, just listened to me (not that it sounded good)
Here is a view from the zoo. It was probably the most beautiful zoo I have seen because of alll of the trees. We had a lot of fun

Here is another shot, I love this because the leaves are started to change colors a little bit. This is something I missed from living in Georgia!

Do the Tigers normally sit this close?? It was funny because all of the animals seemed really active, and I don't remember it ever being this way. Jodi said she noticed the same thing when they came to this zoo...they must give something special to their animals??

Colton peeking over the edge at the penguins. There was one penguin who swam back and forth in front of us for 20 minutes, and Colton would not keep his eyes off of him! Jodi is standing to the right with her cute little 2 year old girl, Heidi.

Another shot of Colton with the penguins

We went into the zoo store afterwards, and Colton was playing with this giraffe...I didn't notice but he must have put his mouth on it, because the store owner came over and grabbed it from him, and moved away and was saying stuff in German. After she left, I asked one of the boys we were with what she said, and he said, "She said you can't eat the animals, or you have to buy them!" I couldn't help but laugh.

After Matt returned from his long trip- 3 game weekend, he got 2 days off!!! Wahooo. We woke up Monday morning, and his back was hurting him really bad (he felt like he couldn't move). Talk about ruining our fun day!! It was nice though because Colton and I had a busy weekend, so we relaxed all day and Colton took two 2 hour naps!! Heaven!! That night we went and had a "game night" at our friends Sylke and Christian's house. They made us a yummy Mexican dinner..and then showed us a few of their games, and we showed them ours. I think the 2 hit games of the night were, Spoons (Laffels) and SORRY (i can't remember what the game was called in German) Anyway- we had soo much fun, and Colton sat in his high chair loving watching us play.

Matt's 2nd day off he got to go have a Wonderful massage on his back from his trainer, who also went to massage therapy school (I want my own trainer) Anyway, so he was feeling a little better, so we went to see the Mall in Leipzig (a little outside of Leipzig, only 15 minutes away from our house) Here is Matt and Colton ready to go

We found a TOYS R US in the mall...wahhoo! Colton got his first horse ride!!

So, my mother who is coming in a month showed us the Halloween costume she bought for Colton (a tiger), so Matt insisted that we take a picture of Colton with the tiger because he was going to be a tiger. It is so funny, because at the TOYS R US, they had a big row of Stuffed animals, called Animal Alley (all of them might have this, I don't remember) But Colton got SO excited when he saw it, so we walked by every animal and let Colton touch them (but not eat incase we got yelled at again). I think his favorite toys are stuffed animals!

Anyway, it has been another fun week! I can't believe we have been here over a month!! It has gone by fast some days, and slow other days. Hopefully we don't get too settled in, or I don't know if we'll be able to leave in 8 more months..hehe!

The people in our ward continue to be soo nice. Colton and I were invited to go have lunch after church this past Sunday with a family who has twin boys who are 1 1/2 years old. They spoke very good English, which is always a plus. We just continue to be so blessed since we got here and are sooo grateful for all of the people we have met here! The experience wouldn't be the same without all of them, and without eachother!! I LOVE and Treasure the time we can spend with the 3 of us right now! I don't think we will ever have this opportunity again in our lives.

ANyway-here is my little nerd playing on the couch (it's his mini-playground)