Garmisch

The day after Christmas we headed down to the German Alps for some winter fun! We spent a couple of days in Garmisch, eating some great food, skiing (yes!), shopping (double yes!), and visiting some of the local sights...

We ended the trip dropping the family off at a local airport hotel last night, everyone had a flight out this morning. It was a wonderful visit and we are looking forward to many years of holidays spent with our families!

Christmas!!

Here is our Christmas tree! Basically it's "The tree of almost 1000 lights" Matt did a great job getting all the lights up, you can see that we only have 2 ornaments... our collection will increase as the years go by I'm sure!

We decided to do our big Christmas dinner before heading to church on Christmas Eve, it was yummy!


Christmas morning was spent sleeping in, eating a pancake breakfast, opening gifts, and just spending time with each other.

Let the Holiday's begin!

Last night we welcomed Matt's sister Katie, and his Aunt and Uncle, Linda and Bruce, and you can see the feast we enjoyed! Poor Katie had ridiculous delays getting over here and basically was up for 48 hours before finally being able to go to bed last night! She sure was a trooper! We are excited everyone is finally here.

The day after Christmas we will be heading to Garmisch for a couple of days for some skiing and other winter type adventures, we will take lots of pics to share!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Engagement Gifts!!

We opened some gifts tonight in celebration of our engagement. We got some collectibles that will be a great reminder of this special time in our lives. We are so thankful!

Welcome Bill, Susanne, and Baci!!!

Matt's parents flew in today! We are looking forward to this holiday visit. It's only been their first day and we've already strolled through the Schweinfurt Christmas Market. We waste no time on the festivities, that's for sure! We are also looking forward to his sister, aunt, and uncle flying over in just about a week. It is going to be a GREAT family Christmas in Germany!

The first of many...

We wanted to start this blog so we could update our friends and family on what is going on in our lives.

This first entry will start with the announcement of our ENGAGEMENT!!!

Yay!!!

Matt and I got engaged on Wednesday the 5th of Dec. at the Vienna State Opera House. So here's the events leading up to the big moment!

Pre Matt's return from Iraq...

Matt had a couple of things in the works before he returned from his deployment which are part of our engagement story. He began to hint to me that we would be going on a trip shortly after I welcomed him home, as much as I tried to coax trip details out of him he wouldn't budge and kept telling me it was a surprise (this was COMPLETELY frustrating!!).

About a week before I was leaving for Germany to welcome him home he told me that I was to go to a local Nordstrom's Department Store, and meet up with a lady there who had all the details on an outfit I needed for the trip. When I showed up at Nordstrom I spent the next couple of hours in a dressing room surrounded by formal dresses, shoes, jackets, furs, jewelry, and other accessories. My job was to pick out a dress and all the accompanying items for a "very formal event." I had a ton of fun sorting through everything and trying things on, I ended up finding a dress that I absolutely fell in love with, it was a completely amazing experience!

So basically that was it, that was all the info I had, I was going on a trip and there was a "very formal event" involved.

Our surprise trip!

We started off our trip in the Tirol region of Austria for some skiing! I absolutely LOVE skiing so this was the perfect way begin this adventure. The weather was amazing and the scenery was beautiful. We had the best day!

Our next stop was Vienna! Vienna was actually the location of the very first trip that Matt and I had taken together some 3 years ago, so it was wonderful to be back there. While in Vienna we spent the days and evenings walking around the city, visiting

palaces

museums

and, of course, the Christmas Markets!

Our last night in Vienna was a night at the Opera (yes, the night we got engaged!). Matt was able to get tickets for the best seats in the house, we had box seats and were front and center! He wore his tux (an looked incredible) and I wore the outfit I got at Nordstrom. He also surprised me with a pair of opera glasses which were really fun! After the show ended Matt waited for everyone in the house to leave then he surprised me with the best surprise of all and asked me to marry him! It was so romantic and perfect and the ring is incredible!

The final stop was Salzburg, Austria! This was a gorgeous city and we stayed at a beautiful little Schloss (castle) just outside of the city. Ok...our room in this place was unbelievable! It was a suite and had a music/game room w/grand piano, a bedroom/bathroom, and a salon. The picture below is panoramic of our music/game room so you have just an idea of what it was like.

We had a great time walking around the city visiting the fortress, churches, and again Christmas markets!!

So! That was our trip! It was wonderful, romantic, and fun!

Keep checking back every once and a while for our updates, we are excited for the life that God has in store for us!

P.S. I promise that future posts will not be this long!! There was just SO MUCH to cover!