Frohe Ostern

Daylight Savings Time hit Europe on Saturday night, March 30th. We woke up much later than usual on Easter Sunday...but we woke to blue skies even though the breeze that was blowing was a bit cool. We could smell spring in the air and it was glorious outside. 

The Easter Bunnies, (that would be Steven and I) hid eggs for the kids. There were 23 to start out with and only 22 found. Oh, well. That's usually the case. Some animal out there got a free meal on the house. Anything we can do to help the wildlife.

Scott and I in our GG sweaters.

I take every opportunity I can find to hug on my monkeys.

While we were hunting, Elfie came outside and gave us a basket she'd put together for us. Steven got a shot of us with Elfie. She's wonderful.

Elfie and Kurt's oldest daughter, Simona and her husband are priests. They live in northern Germany in a town called Bremen. A week before Easter, they bring their two sons down to spend time with Elfie and Kurt and this year, the boys built houses for the "Easter Rabbit".

These houses even had telephone lines. Pretty cool, huh?

I made a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs with bell peppers, onions and mushrooms and then the four of us climbed into the car and headed to Hohenecken where we hiked up to visit the Four Corners Castle. 

The trail up to the castle goes past one of my favorite churches. I have a fondness for Hohenecken, the castle and this church. I think it's because this is really the first place we explored as a family after moving here. We pass this village every time we go to Vogelweh and you can see this church with the Four Corners Castle sitting above it. Seeing them there makes me happy. Perhaps I'm easily pleased, I don't know. I just know that I like them.

Rochuskirche or St. Rochs

This is a protestant church that was built after WWII. It's called the Rochuskirche or St. Roch's.  The church below is the catholic church. It was built back in 1748 and it's called Rochuskapelle.

The hike up to the castle isn't a long one but it's steep. I stopped often with the excuse that I needed to take pictures.

Like Scotty's Beatles 'do?

On our way back down we walked around St. Roch's a bit.

Before going home, we went to Ramstein and bought The Hobbit, then snuggled in and watched it together. I had a big meal planned for later in the day but we were all pretty stuffed with the big breakfast we'd eaten earlier so I saved the ham and all the fixings until Monday. 

We had a great Easter...Steven was off work, the weather was decent and I got to talk to my grandmother, (Mimi) who had, a week before, fallen and fractured the back of her skull. Last week began with her in the ICU at Littleton hospital with a brain injury and thoughts that the kids and I might be packing for an overseas trip back home. Mimi is fragile, but I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to have another conversation with her. For that I was very grateful.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Easter. Happy spring time to you!