Clarks in 2013!

How is 2013 treating all of you back home in the States?

We are cruising along. Autumn is getting unruly:

Autumn's hair is getting crazy

But that might've been because we had some crazy fun friends visiting for the very first time!
 Daniel & Heather Clark!

Silly friends!

We had THE BEST time hanging out with them for 4 whole days! Do not take for granted the fact that you have people in your everyday life who already know you, love you, and can speak the same language as you!

Daniel's sister got married to a German man last week, Norman, which took place just under 2 hours from where we live! So after the ceremony and their family time, we drove to Saarland and scooped them up for almost a whole week together!

We played lots of cards and drank tons of coffee: we participated in an afternoon's coffee tour of various coffee houses in Wiesbaden. Each shop was ranked based on 5 different categories until we decided on the top 2 places to go for coffee in our home city. Almost every day we walked around a different city, tried different food, and just generally enjoyed being together again.

Having friends come out to visit is the best. You should do it. COME VISIT US!

Jason started getting a little crazy too. We traveled to Rothenberg one day with the Clarks, literally driving into/through a castle to get there! Well I guess I don' know if it was a castle exactly, but we drive under a giant stone archway that seemed like it was built as doors to a castle and once we were through we were right in the most quaint, adorable cottage town ever!

Planking a castle!

We walked through the castle's gardens and
 were able to see the town below, in all its cottage-charm glory. 

Ridiculous warning sticker on in the parks of Rothenberg!

This was a sign we came across in the park, warning against... dog constipation?

The streets of Rothenberg

Rothenberg's big kirch