America!

So last weekend was the 4th of July. In case you forgot. 

In order to celebrate we got together with some guys from the barracks & other couples from the company for a BBQ. There was SO much food, lots of drinks, and lots of sunshine (which of course led to Rob and I getting sunburned -_-)

oh why didn't I sunscreen.

After the BBQ we all loaded up a cooler with fest-fun necessities and headed down to the little festival happening on post. But, only naturally, the getting-everyone-to-the-festival and cleaning up the BBQ goodies took forever. Intoxicated people get distracted easily and move slowly. I played mother hen to make sure the mess wasn't left because I was sober and smart for the day :)

Franklin on the other hand... lol

Our walk over to the festival was flat and short *bonus* and we had a good group of people that we went with.

P.S. don't mind me with the blue t-shirt on my shoulders in like every photo. It was Rob's and, after getting it wet in various coolers full of ice cold water, I realized it felt awesome on my sunburned shoulders and blocked my skin from continuously getting burned at the festival. #winning

I finally managed to start taking photos at the end of said
BBQing on our walk to the festival.

 

Organizations and FRGs all sold goodies and fundraised
These were the funnel cake makers!

They had a long menu to pick from!

For our small post a lot of people came

my super awesome cherry funnel cake - so delicious!

Lots of the guys ended up getting their faces painted. It was free and, well, why not.

We ran into some other people there from the company and the group grew. Pretty sure our group was the most fun at the festival.

Rob and Adam loved showing off their purses. :)
Rob carried mine because the strap was killing my sunburned shoulders
He's so nice! lol

more face painted faces!

two lovely ladies twinning in their free "Military Brat" t-shirts

As one of the types of entertainment there was a U2 cover band that performed and they also had a "Rheinland-Pfalz Idol" contest.

Pekarski's shirt. I found it funny.

One of the guys really wanted to show off his shorts.
He was jelly because I wanted to take a picture of Pekarski's shirt.

oh and we all ended up getting randomly sprayed with Ronas' water spray bottle
(which felt amazing with the heat) and it eventually escalated to full scale
water dumping on one another.

man dancing + Megan

Megan was kicked out for making it weird.

And then the saga continued on.

Then when the band performed a bunch of the guys headed over to watch. I missed out on this part and am bummed I did. Apparently the band loved the EOD guys and when I heard him mention them on the microphone I knew I had to run over and see what was going on. Apparently I missed Franklin being on stage even! - like I said, major bummer. But I did manage to snag this gem-

photo with the band!

 I also ran into a girlfriend there, Joelle, with her amazingly adorable lil man Mayze!

I mean look at his face. How is he not the cutest guy ever?!

I'm pretty sure he was over me trying to get pictures of him.

Pretty sure Rob has bratwurst in his mouth here BUT I still think it's a good picture!

because Spiderman.

More of the painted faces!

And then there was that time that Pekarski decided to ride Rusher
around the festival. Only natural.

Megan dumped her cup of ice water on Ronas.
He was the one spraying everyone with the water bottle
(which mainly everyone appreciated!)
He was a bit caught off guard you could say.

It was a great day and I loved our way of celebrating. Everyone had a great time and I only suffered from being burnt for about 3 days. Still peeling, but the worst is over. Hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July!

Trier on a Toasty Friday

So, as promised, Friday was a little fun outing for us. We snagged our international licenses in Birkenfeld (because I lost mine and Rob never had one and we need them for Italy) and then headed to Trier for exploring! Rob hadn't been yet and I didn't explore everything when I'd been before.

One step closer to Italy! Only two weeks away!

Trier was a nice little day trip but boy it was HOT! We both of course got sunburned but it was a nice little walk about. The drive wasn't far, only about 45 minutes. While there we walked a good amount and saw the Porta Negra, cathedral and the Basilica of Constantine, or Aula Palatina.

The Porta Negra
An old large Roman City Gate, the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps

we were hungry and didn't want heavy food- we instead got a
pretzely thing with cheese and ham on it.

the Dom (cathedral), the oldest in Germany.

The cathedral construction was started in 326 AD. It used to be a lot bigger but was severely damaged over the years and some parts were rebuilt.

the church was beautiful!

that ceiling tho! so much detail!

this is a post card of the cathedral - such a beautiful view.

this one emphasizes the detail on the ceilings

this is a map of the cathedral

The organ was immaculate. So stunning. It just looked to have hung there.

Burials of what seemed to be past bishops

Next we headed downstairs to a lower level chapel and other burials of bishops.

The bishops of the church

dating back to 250 AD

and still being added.

the ceiling at one end of the cathedral

Next we went out into the church's garden.

Next location - the Basilica of Constantine (Aula Palatina) was built in the early 300s and is now a Lutheran church. It was Constantine's throne room and this is the largest surviving single room structure from the Roman times. The organ there is magnificent and has a 7 second echo. There was an organ player there when we went and it was beautiful to listen too.

Here is video clip with music from the organ. I'm know the quality isn't good but you can KINDA hear the echo (obviously not as good as in person).

 

Artwork lined the walls of the church (almost as a weekend art exhibit). Very beautiful pieces.

The church was expanded in 1614 and 3 wings were added. This garden is outside the basilica today.

part of the building that was added

After we saw the basilica we walked around a bit more but our feet were sore and we were HOT! I was told there was a super yummy potato restaurant in town but we didn't want a heavy or warm lunch. We'll head back there for dinner one night. We found where the restaurant was but decided to pass.

This fountain was outside of the restaurant.

random street in Trier :)

"I wish I was pretty but I'm only a wall."

On the way home I tried to snag a pretty picture of the vineyards we drove past on our way there - along the Moselle river.

Once we got home it was so hot so we decided to relax, enjoy cold margaritas, and watch some parks and recreation. I'm debating on making a homemade AC unit today because I'm dying!

The heat is even getting to the doggies.

It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and I'm happy we got out to explore a bit - if only I wasn't sunburned!