Looks like we're moving to Bend!

Congratulations Babe! Yesterday Stephen was offered a job at Central Oregon Community College. So it looks like we will be moving over there at the beginning of January. It will definitely be nice to get away from this weather, but will be hard leaving our friends and family. Everyone will just have to make sure they come and visit us.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Jason and Chelsea were able to come down to Corvallis on Saturday night and watch the Beaver game with us and we were also able to celebrate Jason's birthday. On Sunday, Stephen's brother in law and sister took us out to the Albany gun club where the boys were able to shoot targets and clay pigeons. We had a great time and are were so glad that they could spend the weekend with us!

Happy Halloween!

We had an exciting week leading up to Halloween. On Tuesday we carved pumpkins with some friends and it turned out to be a little more difficult than we anticipated. We didn't realize how hard it would be to use stencils. In the end they both turned out really well after several hours of carving. We also watched Saw 3 and 4 to get us ready for Saw 5 later in the week. Those movies are crazy and they just keep going!

Halloween we had some friends over before going out and ended up going to Platinum which was a bust. Jason and Chelsea were able to come down and they had some great costumes on. All in all before the bar was the best!

Oktoberfest!!!

This was by far the biggest drunk fest we have ever seen. The festival was packed with people and when you got into the beer tents everyone one was drinking and singing in German. It was quite a sight to see and experience. There were 14 massive beer tents and a huge carnival.

We of course had to stay in Jaeger hostel just for my brother. The trip to Munich for Oktoberfest was short lived. We were there for only a day because it was expensive to stay with the festival going on.

Next destination Prague!

Switzerland

Everything in Switzerland was so incredibly expensive! Thankfully we were able to stay with some family friends in Geneva and in the Rhine. They were so friendly and nice and welcomed us into their home. It was a pretty short trip in Switzerland, but it was well enjoyed.

The day in Geneva we spent walking around and enjoying the sights. Of course we saw the clocks and the famous fountain. We also walked through a park that had a whole bunch of people playing chess with life size chess pieces.

We only had about half a day in the Rhine and we saw the Rhine Falls which is the largest waterfall in Europe and also the family we were staying with took us to a wine festival.

This is Niko and was taken at the wine festival. He just loved all of the tractors, so we got a cute picture of him with one.

Next stop Oktoberfest . . .

Venice

We finally found a hostel that has free internet in Amsterdam! Our pictures of Rome are on the hard drive from the laptop that broke :( so we are beginning with our pictures of Venice and when we get back home, we'll get the pictures of Rome up because it was incredible. It was Stephen's favorite place.

So Venice is made up of 118 islands in a lagoon and we walked through about each one of them. It was such an interesting city and filled with so many shops. Definitely a shoppers dream . . . it was hard not to spend a lot of money. Unfortunately we did not go on a gondola ride because it would have cost us about $120 just for 40 minutes.

We went by ferry to two separate islands outside of Venice. The first island was Murano and that is where they make all of their glass objects and do all of the glass blowing. We watched them make a penguin and a carnival person. It was pretty interesting to watch the whole process. The second island we went to was Burano and basically every house was painted a different color.

When in Rome !?

Hey 'Yall.....well we have tons of pictures and stuff to write about on our blog. We had an amazing time in Rome and we are now in Venice and off to Milan in a couple days. Unfortunately there will not be a lot of those pictures or writing in this blog or for a while. My laptop broke on us the first day in Rome so we have not been able to get on and read emails or anything. We are paying big Euros right now in our Hotel so we can check emails and book our next destination. Hope all is well with everyone and we hope to be back and running our blog soon. Thanks for waiting.

Barcelona part dos

Today we visited where the 1992 Olympics were held. The whole area was absolutely huge with the various stadiums and fields. At the entrance they had the names and footprints of some famous athletes . . . Michael Jordan, Pete Sampras, Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer to name a few. Inside the the track and field stadium there were several gato negros (just for you Jason), so Stephen had to get a picture. From all of the walking around that we have been doing from the beginning of the trip it finally took a toll on our bodies and we were completely exhausted by mid afternoon. We could walk no more and so we decided to come back to the hostel and blog a little bit. While at the hostel, five wild boar came up to the restaurant area. There were four babies and the mother. They are crazy looking animals that sound pretty funny when they are snorting.


By the way, for some reason it is taking at least 15 minutes for each picture to upload! It is a bit ridiculous, but we are trying. We would have lots more pictures if it wasn't taking so darn long. Hopefully in Rome, the internet connection will be a little better. Until then . . . adios!

Barcelona

After a 16 hour bus ride we finally made it to Barcelona! It was a long trip to say the least. On our first day, we went touring the city and saw some incredible architecture by the designer Guadi. The Sagrada Familia is a cathedral that is quite a site to see. It won't actually be finished until 2026, but what is done so far looks absolutely amazing. We also went to Park Guell and walked around there for a few hours. It has the largest bench in the world and the design of everything there was very unique. The bench is covered in mosaic art and is beautiful.

There were lots of people walking around with their dogs and Stephen couldn't help but pet them all. He really misses the puppy! We've spent a lot of time down a street called Las Ramblas and it has lots of vendor shops and little eateries.

The street is really busy and full of life! Well our laundry is finally done, so we are going to enjoy more of Barcelona! We'll post more when we reach Rome!

PARIS

We have been in Paris for three days and have a couple left. Here are some pictures of the sites we have seen so far. Of course the Eiffel Tower.At night it is lit up by blue lights and every once in a while has a whole bunch of flashing lights around it.
Here is Notre Dame and the Pope will be visiting on Friday.
Some pointy thing that I forgot what it is.
The Louvre Museum was so huge. We have tons of pictures of paintings, statues and other stuff but of course here is us in front of the pyramid.

Of course the Mona Lisa was there.Us at a cafe after visiting the Louvre all day. The waiter knew we didn't speak French but insisted on trying to carry on a conversation.

Will post more later. We thought we would have internet in our Hotel but we don't so we have to come down to the Bar at night....Bummer!

We are off to Barcelona in two days.

Europe Bound!

We first stopped off in Chicago. We saw some interesting water fountains with peoples faces and got to eat some famous Chicago style pizza at well known Giordano's.Then after a very long 2 flights and 2 bus rides we arrived at our destination in London.
The first day we walked around for over 8 hours and saw many famous monuments like Buckingham's Palace, Parliament & Big Ben, Kensington Palace where Princess Diana resided, and we rode on the London Eye.
The second day we also spent walking for over 8 hours and got to see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge and other cool buildings along the Thames River.

Kelly loved the red phone booths and buses.