S P R I N G break

It's Spring Break- yeah! Here, it's time to grab your passports and GO! The colors are changing!

I LOVE the pots on this ledge. SO pretty.

It's still crazy to me the places you can go and the places our friends are this week.

Several families we know {including Justin's girlfriend} are on a cruise out of Italy visiting amazing countries including Greece and Croatia.

Others are staying in Italy. One friend is in Egypt- visiting the Red Sea. Spain? Myorka? Ireland? They're everywhere!

It's not if you're going, it's where you're going.

With a zillion destinations, we opted to go South to check out the Black Forest region of southern Germany with good friends of ours- the Harness Family.

After a long search for a hotel or house, we ended up with reservations for three nights at a ranch house centrally located between cuckoo-clocks and black forest cakes in the middle of miles of winding roads.

Booked for three nights, we had to cut our stay one night short.

Jim found out last week he had to be in London this morning.

So, we left the big boys with our friends {who were gracious enough to keep them} so they could finish out our fun-filled itinerary.

Easter Sunday, we headed out. First stop: Strassbourg, France to see the Strassbourg Cathedral about an hour and a half south of our house.

Little did we know that we would end up inside the cathedral as the Easter Sunday mass was going on.

It was a pretty incredible experience in a cathedral larger than anything I can describe. Enormous.

I couldn't stand back far enough to capture a picture with the entire structure in view. At 466 feet tall, it was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874.

Today, it is the sixth-tallest church in the world. Construction began on it sometime around 1176. It's old.

As we walked along the cobblestone streets from the parking garage, we turned a corner and there it was smack in front of us. It was cold and the boys weren't thrilled to be walking.

All at once, the mood changed as we all took in this massive piece of architecture. I think we were all in awe {boys included}. It was breathtaking.

We finished up our mass-attending, picture-taking time in the square and headed in search of lunch on the way back to the car.

With most places closed on Sunday {especially being the holiday} we were lucky to find this bakery/chocolate place open and purchased a couple little pizzas to go.

France is a beautiful country. The country side makes for a nice drive. The store window displays are incredible. These funky trees are just part of the detail and character around every corner.

That being said- after only a couple hours there we were already happy to cross the line and get back into Germany.

I like the guy in the background in this family picture. Justin was wearing flip flops {he forgot his shoes} and it was freezing. I'm thinking he might have thought we were more than a little crazy.