Triberg in the Black Forest

Aside from one overnight camping trip in the Black Forest almost 2 years ago, we haven’t really explored the Black Forest at all.  Wednesday morning, which also happened to be the 4th of July, we headed away from the American festivities on base and headed straight for a German experience in a little town called Triberg… right in the heart of the Black Forest.

 

We headed straight for a little hike to see a cascading waterfall.

 

At the end of the trail we found a park and the girls happily climbed aboard one of their favorite German swings.  Ryan and Dad pushed them high and they loved it.

We wandered past this church and stepped inside for a peak.  I liked it a lot.  The front was pretty ornate but everything else wasn’t too crazy.  I loved the ceilings and the lights.

 

There’s a peak at our hotel.  We reserved two family rooms at the Sheraton.  Nice rooms, an indoor pool, (which we used that night), and a fabulous German breakfast to go with it.

  The Messner Cottage, (below) built in 1697 is thought to be the 2nd oldest building in Triberg.  It served as accommodation for the Pilgrim-monks and as the living quarters for the Pilgrimage priests in it’s early days.

 

The main street of Triberg had some really fun shopping.  Of course we had to go in ‘The House of 1,000 Cuckoo Clocks’.  We examined them quite carefully thinking we may walk away with one, but none of them really spoke to us – especially at that price.  They were gorgeous though – all handmade from woodshops in the area.  We did walk away with some German lederhosen for Luke and Matt, though.  Boy, are they going to be cute!

 

The one downer of our little trip to the Black Forest was the cake.  We looked up where to eat authentic Black Forest cake on-line and then got the same recommendation from several store clerks.  We were pretty excited to eat Black Forest cake in the Black Forest… can you tell?  But it wasn’t good at all… maybe that’s because of the Cherry Liquor flavor inside!  No wonder the waitress looked at us strange when we wanted a piece for the kids to share.  Yuck – sorry about that kids.  I think this Black Forest cake was a little too authentic.

Monastery Ruins and Hitler’s Amphitheater

Chris had to work today so we sent him off and had a lazy morning.  After lunch we took Grandma and Grandpa up to see Hitler’s amphitheater and the Monastery Ruins.  When we got back home, Chris and I and Grandma and Grandpa went out to eat at Dorfshank – our favorite German restaurant.   After flammekueche (better than pizza), spatzle and sauce, medium butter herb steaks, German salads and fried potatoes we headed over the Old Bridge onto the Hauptstrasse and went looking for gelato.  It was a great day.

 

Joint family party for Ryan and Katie

We decided to have a joint family party for Ryan and Katie so Grandma and Grandpa Johnson could be here to celebrate… so on July 2nd (a week after Ryan’s birthday and four days before Katie’s birthday we had a joint celebration and threw up some quick and easy 4th of July décor since we’d be missing that this week as well.    After hamburgers, hotdogs, Jell-O, snicker bar salad and yellow watermelon (Ryan’s birthday request) they started opening presents.

 

Cologne for Ryan…

A new baseball glove for Ryan from Dad.  Katie was surprised about a cute pink Fossil wallet.

 

BYU Wallet for Ryan.  Katie pleased with Ryan’s ‘coupon’ for any shirt off of the PS website.

 

I’ve been so excited for this girl to turn 12!  I’ve been planning a “Welcome to Young Women’s basket” for almost a year now.  Notecards, Value Journal, stickers, pencils, YW music, a Value bracelet and Theme/Value posters.  She’s all set for Young Women’s now.

 

The next ‘Adventures of DOD’ book that he wanted… and Legend of Zelda piano music.

 

Cute caterpillar card from the sisters… Katie is K-kind, A-awesome, T-top of Girls, I-intelligent, E-exciting, J-jolly, O-obedient, H-happy, N-nice, S-silly, O-organized, N-neat.   Megan gave Katie some black earrings since Katie will be getting her ears pierced any day now.

Both Ryan and Katie got $15.00 from Nikole and John in a stack of attached ‘ones’.  Pretty cool.

 

The Far Side for Ryan and new shirts for Katie.

New soccer balls from Dad.

GUITAR  Katie was pretty shocked about this next present.  She’s always said she wanted one but hasn’t mentioned it for quite a while.  She unwrapped the guitar picks and just stared at them until something clicked.  Then Chris came around the corner with her guitar.  It took her awhile to process.  It’s a 3/4 size which got great reviews online and seems like the perfect size.  She also got a few guitar lessons lined up with cute Lissie Allred in our ward to help her pick it up.

  

Grandma and Grandpa shocked the kids by giving them $100 each. Ryan also got some Jon Schmidt piano music and Katie some Taylor Swift guitar music.

Angel food cake with Trifle cream and strawberries for dessert.

A few days later Katie got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Walton with two new shirts and a scarf.  This girl loves clothes!   And Ryan got money and the new John Bytheway Book.  Awesome.