Fambly Visit

This week the House was FULL!! On Wednesday, Brad and Debbie received visitors from Cadence Headquarters. Gene and Anne P., Carolyn, Matthew & Jill B. and their kids Eli and Emma all came to spend some time with Brad and Debbie and to see the House. On Thursday, my parents and Elisabeth arrived, effectively filling every bed in this whole huge house. Since I'm normally the only occupant of the third floor, it was quite a change to be running into someone every step I took, but having that many people here was pretty fun. We had to caravan our trips and used four tables for dinner on Friday night.

Having my family here was great! This was Elisabeth's first trip to Europe, and I'm glad she came this time. They were in Germany for almost 2 weeks before coming to visit me, and traveled all over. Thursday night, we had dinner just ourselves and Gordon, as all the others were out eating elsewhere. On Friday, we picked Justin up from the base and spent the afternoon in Idar-Oberstein, hiking up to the castles, eating Doener, shopping for gemstones, and enjoying some ice cream. That night was Bible study, led by one of the chaplains from post as a 'guest speaker.' It went really well, and it was cool having such a large group of people.

On Saturday, we piled into a wide assortment of vehicles and headed off to visit Trier. I have been there many times, but I still enjoy visiting, and most of the people had not been there before, or at least not for a year or more. We saw the Porta Nigra (an old Roman gate), the double-cathedral, Constantine's Basilica, and Karl Marx's house. I thoroughly enjoyed a bratwurst and brotchen, along with a mass of Pommes (french fries) with mayo, and some pineapple ice cream. I'm going to miss Germany!!

Sunday saw all of our visitors off, my family to go back home, the Cadence folk on to the next House. That afternoon we enjoyed more bratwurst and just relaxing and hanging out together at home. Justin had a new Wii game that entertained a number of people, some played Nertz upstairs, others of us enjoyed the ancient tradition of the Sunday Afternoon Nap. Dinner was grilled quesadillas and chips and salsa, followed by a short devotional reading from Brad, and trips back to the base. My last weekend at the Festaburg is now over...