I've been MIA the past couple weeks.

But, I have a good excuse.

We've been partying nonstop with Grandma and Grandpa.

We hadn't seen them since Christmas, so there has been a lot of  excitement and anticipation for their visit.  

We waited on the steps for their arrival from the airport.

When you're thousands of miles away from family, you don't take them for granted, that's for sure.

And so, the next posts for awhile are going to be about all the fun things we packed in during their two week visit.  Don't be jealous, it's the payoff we get for living so far from home and having to deal with the military lifestyle.  It aint easy, believe you me! 

AND hopefully the pictures will convince you to come visit!!!  

Everything in life is so much better when you can share it with the ones you love!

Our first outing, after the day they arrived, was to the Pumpkin Fest at Ludwigsburg Palace, just a 15 minute drive from home.

I've mentioned it here before, but the Germans are crazy about their festivals.  They have one for everything in the book.  In the short nine months we've been here we've been to or heard about medieval fests, strawberry fests, cabbage fests, wine fests, fasching fests, oktober fests, volks fests, and now of course the pumpkin fest.  Because why not celebrate pumpkins?  Every year the pumpkin fest has a different theme.  Let's see if you can guess the theme of this year's.

Plotting our course at the palace.  The girls have been obsessed with maps lately

Meandering through the flower gardens, let's get to the pumpkins already!!

Now we're talking.  That thing was HUGE.

The Germans have a sick sense of humor

Here are some of the smaller pumpkin displays

Ok, now for the themed ones:

 

Have you guessed it yet?

Throwing back some cinnamon flavored pumpkin seeds 

And my own adorable little pumpkin

Life is good