Well as I emailed some of you I participated in my first run on Saturday the 24th. I was nervous, not to win but to just finish it and run the whole thing. I thought a fun run for cancer awareness would be a great way to start. With thoughts of my Dad in mind, I originally started running for my health and always keep my Dad in my thoughts to get me up the hills, I got up early and went. Cody decided to come and give me support and brought his bike and a thermos of Hot Chocolate. We got our tshirts and numbers and lined up. After the horn we took off and Cody being the supportive son he is took off in the lead with his bike and never looked back finishing second with the first runners coming in. ( What a guy!) I took off at a steady pace and found my rythum and got my breathing evened out. I was passed right away by the running nuts and the pack of about 100 thinned out after the first 1 K. I actually started passing alot of peeps and was keeping pace with the other slow runners. Up the slope to the turn at the 3 K mark I was feeling great and knew it was in the bag. I came in with a 5 K time of 33 minutes right about in the middle of the pack. I was really proud of myself and how far I have come. Though I havent met my goal weight I set for myself last Sept I have far exceeded my fitness goals. I run about 10 K now about three days a week sometimes more If I have the time. The other two days I got to the gym and take a class and use the weights. My body has settled in at a size 10-12 and I guess for now that is where I have to be satisfied. I see a huge difference in my body and my tape measure still goes down every month. Vainly I think I have a better a#$ then I had at 20 and I know I am going to keep up this for life which is the most important change of all!

Choos!

Jenny

Our 9th Anniversary

For our anniversary Greg and I went out to a great place called Boleros. A spanish eatery with some great in house wines. I had a curry mango chicken breast with spanish potatoes and veggies. Yummy!!! Greg had steak and after trying steak in several different places has decided he will not get a good steak till we go back to the states. It was good but beef is not one of Germanys finer points. After some tiramisu and wine for dessert we walked around our city of Bamberg, stopped in an Irish pub for a beer and then headed home. It was a really great night and I am so happy to be married to this guy! (today anyway LOLOL)

Love to all

Jen

Taumbach Park

Only in Germany a Beer Vending machine! at a kids park LOL



Falconri show with several diff birds that they demonstrated how they hunt! It was really cool they had the birds swooping over the audience and their tail feathers brushed our heads. As you can see they are huge and UGLY.

Taumbach Residence. We didnt go inside.. next time.. second pic is a wild pig and the third in this row was one of a herd of sheep with four horns, never even heard of that but was really weird.

Kids, even the teen had fun feeding the goats. They were so cute and jumped all over us.

We recently went to Taumbach Park. A wildlife park and castle near us. Cody had gone there last year as a field trip and I thought we should go back all together. It was alot of fun and a great relaxing family day. We toured the park which included trails and a part of the park that is all open and the kids run free with the deer and cows. They are just walking around us and it was amazing. In the afternoon we had lunch at the bier garten then we went over to a falconri show. The trainers show how eagles,hawks, and vultures hunt and they had them flying all around us right over our heads. I thought it was cool that they dont just fly off but they are well trained! It was a great day.... This weekend we are heading back to Burg Frankenstein for the annual Halloween fest we are soo excited to go back we had such a great time there last year.

Love you all

Jenny

Octoberfest 08

Well we braved Octoberfest 08 in Munich. The worlds largest drinking fest. It was a cloudy day out but we went anyway. My mom wanted to have a beer there and we toasted her birthday. The wagon is the cart that kicks off the fest by bringing in the fest beer. The last picture is inside one of the many beer tents you can drink eat and be merry! oh and get beer spilled down your back, inhale second hand smoke of EVERY variety, climb across tables and benches on your hands and knees, slosh thru puddles on the floor of beer and liquids I dont want to consider since the bathrooms are way far away and you cant get out. At one point we had to stand up and squeeged the tables and seats into a bucket under the table. I have some more pics to find of MOM drinking a beer and eating a pretzel the size of your head. Take care and Choos!

New Family and Old

The picture that started it all My Greatgrandmother Jennie Banera Willberg
The second picture is of my Great Great Grandparents Johanna and Bengdt Willberg
The third is of my swedish cousins family!

The Viking Museum Denmark

On the way back from Sweden we stopped at a Viking Museum in Denmark. It was really cool and I want to take the boys back there soon. We watched a video that showed how they raised the ships from the sea and preserved them sometimes taking over 20 years to get the water out of the wood before reconstruction. Got some great souviners there and then got in the car and heading home. I missed my boys all four of them.

Our Roots

Downtown KarlshamHotel of Hope

Karlsham the first port where Immigrants left from Sweden. They erected a statue there to commerate and remember those who left to see a new life. It sits on the Baltic Sea!


An original Swedish cottage Viking Rune Stone
As some of you know My mom's dream has always been to find her roots. Her grandmother Jennie Banera Willberg immigrated with her family from Sweden in the late 1800"s. One of her goals while over here was to go to Sweden and find the town they came from and see where they lived. The only thing we had to go on was a picture of Jennie as a baby taken in Christianstaad Sweden in Skane region. I started doing some research and with the help of a great friend and the Library I found some emails from a family in Sweden looking for family of Jennie. I contacted her and spent two weeks emailing her back and forth and getting info for our trip. Near the time we were leaving her family invited us to stay with them and show us around the area. We had a great time and got to see the city they left from. The hotel of hope is the place immigrants stayed in while waiting for passage. It is really cool to find out we descend from Swedish Vikings and sailors. Maybe that explains the Wanderlust I have as well as my mother. We learned a great deal and I am now embarking on tracing my roots with passion. I dont want my kids to wonder where they are from and have no one left to ask like I do.

Coppenhagen Denmark

The famous Little Mermaid Windmill park in Coppenhagen

Church made of flint/ Causeway on the Baltic Sea

On our way to Sweden we stopped in Coppenhagen Denmark. What a historic city that sits on the coast between Denmark and Sweden. Didnt see a whole lot as we were on a schedule and it was 6 pm when we got there so we spend about an hour on the harbor near the little mermaid statue. Hope you enjoy!

The hills are alive with smell of strudel......

Ahh the strudel These three were taken at Mondsee (LOVED IT)

Site of boat scene in movie Salt Fortress She is 16 going on 66....
Doe a deer.... What fun!
View of the Mountains and Lakes region and in the distance Mondsee where the church scene of the wedding was filmed

One of the funnest things we did is go to Salzburg Austria and take the Sound of Music tour. Our guide was a 50 year old version of Jack on Will and Grace and was hilarious. On the bus they played the soundtrack and did a verbal tour of all the great scenes from the movie. I have really wanted to go here but for some reason my boys (greg included) just didnt want to go. Though I really want to bring them back to see the palaces and the Salt Fortress that sits over the city and the historic district. After the scene tour of the city we went into the Lakes and Mountains Region. The bus came down the mountain into a absolutley wonderful town called Mondsee(moon city). I loved it here. In this town was the church that Maria got married in which we got to go inside, so majestic and fabulous. We walked to a cafe and had Apple Strudel with vanilla sauce and hot chocolate....yummy! Alot of interesting facts on the tour one of them being that the boat scene where all the children fall in, Gretel almost drowned, and was filmed behind one house but the actual lane where they were in the trees and the patio and ballroom scenes were at another house all together. Anyway the only thing we didnt get to do is run up a hill and sing the hills are alive becaue the hills she did that on were wayyyy far away, but we did sing alot!

My Town of Erlau

Above are pics Mom took of my town. The yellow building is the bier garten and resturaunt. The middle pic is of a typical house in my town and the last is my house!

Rothenburg OTB

I think my Mom's favorite place or one of them was Rothenburg OTB. I went there with Greg and the kids when we first got here and said to myself that I KNOW my Mom would love this place and I was right. It is the oldest walled city here and absolutely German!

Amy and Martin see Bamberg

Amy and Martin getting Eis (ice cream) the view of the Cloister and Monastary from the Rose Garten in Bamberg

Altenberg Castle

Right above my town in the mountains is Shloss Altenberg. I can see it every morning on my run and have always wanted to get up there and see it. While my Mom and Sister were here I made it up there with my camera in tow. The view was beautiful and the castle it self was fascinating. Built in the 1400"s with a moat and tall turets. Amy, Martin, Greg and the boys paid the one euro and climbed to the top. They were all panting by the time they came back down.