Germany Day 2- The day of castles

 On Day 2 we bought tickets for a hop on hop off boat cruise on the Rhine River.  The boat would stop at different little towns on the Rhine and you could decide where to get off and then catch another boat later.  The Rhine has a ton of castles, we saw 20 or so castles on this day.  Most in ruins, but cool none the less.

 All the towns are along the river in fact they seemed to be only a couple of streets deep.  They would have the docks then the railroad and then the town, so all of the towns had these tunnels under the railways to get into the town.

 Our first stop was in a town called Bacharach.  Small and pretty.

 Tyler got to try his first cookie with chocolate.

 We stopped again at a town called Oberwesel.  This town was surrounded by a city wall that we walked around.  Tyler lost a pacifier off the wall, we decided to leave it.  We had currywurst for lunch and somekind of danish with icing and golden raisins that was delicious.

 The wall went through the outside of this church.

 This rock was called the Loreley.  Ancient legend said that a Siren lived there and lured sailors to their deaths.  In actuality it was  some low laying rocks that would crash the ships.  It was so famous they played us a song that someone famous had wrote about it.

 Our next stop was St. Goar to see Rheinfels castle.  It was quite the hike up so we took this train up.  While waiting for the train we did some shopping and we spent a lot of time in one little shop and the owner loved Tyler.  When we were done, and had made some purchases from her she gave him a little stuffed animal bear wearing lederhosen.

Rheinfels castles was completely in ruins and had a ton of places to explore.  You could spend all day in the nooks and crannies.  

 While we were walking around I tripped on the cobblestones, while carrying Tyler.  Luckily I was able to fall well enough to protect Tyler, but not to break my fall.  It felt like I was falling in slow motion.  Even though Kevin was next to me, a couple near by got their first and helped me up.  I was quite embarrassed and ruined a good pair of jeans.

On our way to the last stop!

Germany Day 1

9/29-9/30  We left Salt Lake City at 11:05 am flying through JFK and landing in Frankfurt Germany at 9:35 am (which is 1:35 am in SLC)  It was a good flight with Tyler sleeping most of the way.  Once landed we took a train from Frankfurt to Bingen.  We stayed in a hotel right on the Rhine.  It was beautiful.  The vertical lines on the hills are vineyards.  The Rhine valley is known for their wine and castles. We walked around Bingen and made our way up to Klopp Castle.  

 We took the ferry across the river to Rudesheim.  There is a famous tourist street here called Drosselgasse which looks likes a scene from Disneyland, unfortunately we couldn't get a good view of it with our camera.  We ate dinner here and this is where we tried Schnitzel with noodles.

Back to the ferry to go to our hotel.  We were in bed at 8 pm having been awake for 28.5 hours.  We didn't sleep at all on the plane.  Tyler woke up at 1 am and thought it was morning so I took him down to the hotel lobby where I met a very nice hotel clerk.  He fell asleep again at 2:30 so back to bed, unfortunately he tossed and turned all night and I finally gave in at 7 am and turned on the lights to start day 2.  

Rocky Mouth Falls

Today we took a short hike to this waterfall.  We had never been there before.  The hike itself was only 1/4 mile round trip, but it was straight up.  You also couldn't park at the trail head but had to park down a hill a good ways away.  We had fun, and it will be cool next year to go at the beginning of summer and see if the waterfall is bigger.

So my baby is 6 months old

Tyler is now 6 months old :(  it's going by too fast.  I told Kevin he was in trouble the other day for teaching him how to sit up.  I want him to stay a baby.  I will admit I am spoiling him more and definitely enjoying him as a baby.  I am much more likely to let my kitchen stay messy and just sit and hold him then I was with my other babies.  He can sit up and he can roll.  He only has one tooth.  He loves to gnaw on my chin and give me kisses.  When we were at the Dr.'s office Tyler was sitting on my lap and playing with the Doctors hands, but as soon as he realized he didn't know him, he tried his hardest to turn around and grab me.  He is very aware of his surroundings.  He loves to watch his brothers and sister run around.  Such a cutie.

Here are all 5 at 6 months old.  Tyler is my smallest.

 17 lbs 7 oz.  26"

 Derek 20 lbs 1 oz.  27 1/4 "

Isaac 18 lbs 27 1/4 "

Logan 17 lbs 10 oz 28"

Haley 18 lbs 6 oz 27"