Anniversary!

Oh my gosh! Eric and I have officially been married for five years now! Time definitely flies when you're having fun! 

The first picture of Eric & I together back in 2006

Silly photo booth pic from 2006

Our lovely wedding day

Honeymooning 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

 

Monterey Bay Aquarium 2008

Spring 2009; When we moved to Belgium

Vacationing in Bavaria in 2010

Top of Mt. Jenner in Bavaria in 2010

Venice, Italy in 2011

Eric's graduation ceremony in 2012

Eric is so...so incredibly loving and oh so supportive in any of my dream fueled ideas, regardless of how stupid some of them sound . He's my best friend (right after my Dad, of course) and always gives me level headed input after listening to me vent. Even after five years of marriage, he still knows how to surprise me with flowers to let me know I'm appreciated. I absolutely love how he's never, not once, tried to squash my independence. He can be extremely tired from work, and he'd be willing to help me in the kitchen while I'm making dinner. He was my comfort when I lost my Mother to cancer ...that alone I'll never forget. Has always been supportive of any sort of travel I've suggested..he just nods and lets me do my thing without question. The list goes on and all. All of this basically boils down to: I know everyone says this about their spouse... I have the best husband. I got extremely lucky to find such a loving, supportive and very considerate man who I get to spend the rest of my life with. 

I honestly couldn't imagine my life without this guy.

Read More

Fairy Tale Road Trip

Color me excited!! Wait, what color would excitement be if it were a color?? Anyway...

I'm already in the process of planning Eric & I's vacation for our fifth year wedding anniversary. Fifth!? Wow! Time flies! Yes, I realize it's not till July, but still...you gotta be on the ball when it comes to taking time off from work and making reservations where ever it is you're wanting to go, especially in Europe. 

So, we have about a year left in Belgium (sigh) and I don't wanna leave Europe without seeing some really beautiful, fairy tale style castles. Sure, I've seen various castles throughout Belgium and the Netherlands, a few there and there in Germany..but I wanna see the ones that'll make you stop dead in your tracks and stare in awe. After checking various sites, I found a hotel for us to stay at that's only 10 minutes away from three fantastic castles!

Neuschwanstein Castle

Whoever hasn't heard of this castle must be living under a rock. Word on the street is that Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for Walt Disney's famous fairy tale castle that you always see at the beginning of his movies. 

Then again, there's so many gorgeous castles throughout Europe..especially Germany, it wouldn't surprise me if he made a hybrid castle out of all the various ones they have. Here's some info on the place via Wikipedia.

Number two is a different style of castle I wanna check out is Hohenschwangau Castle. Obviously, it's nothing like Neuschwanstein, but hey, it's Germany :) What else would you expect? Info from Wikipedia.

 The third castle is Hohes Schloss Castle. It's not as high profile as the others, but it's still a castle to check out :)  It's one of the oldest standing Gothic castles they have for that area. 

While we're in the midst of all that greatness, I really wanna check out the Museum of Bavarian Kings. 

When Eric and I were in Berchtesgaden last year, we learned some pretty interesting things about the various mountains and lakes and the kings they were named after. So, I figured it'd be pretty interesting to see some of the actual things from the kings who owned these amazing castles and their history, aside from their fantastic homes.  Although if I remember correctly, it was King Lugwig II that built the majority of the massive castles in southern Germany. 

Last but not least...

Hohenzollern Castle

This one was actually suggested to me by a gal here since she & her husband had visited it. She even said that this particular castle is better than the previous two I listed! That says a lot since Neuschwanstein Castle is a pretty heavy hitter! Here's some amazing information on the castle provided by Wikipedia. 

We'll be hitting this one up on the return leg of our trip since it's about three hours from where we'll be staying. After looking through their site, I already know that cameras aren't allowed within the show rooms (which is everywhere I wanna be), so, I'll see what I can do in terms of getting some sort of pictures during the visit :) At least they offer guided tours! I figured it'd be for the best that we get there, go on a tour and take our time since it looks like a pretty large castle, chill for the evening then head out the next morning back for home since it's a five and a half hour drive. 

 Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED our trip last year when we went to Berchtesgaden (here's the second part of that trip) , but that was such a long long drive that by the time we got home, we were pretty spent. 

I'M EXCITED!!!! :D

Read More

Not Dead.

Sorry about really slacking on my posts lately. I honestly havent had all that much to talk about. Not to mention, I've been busy with work...which puts a damper on traveling too far from home for too long.

* As mentioned in my last post, Eric and I have been married for three amazing years. Thinking back, I logged into my ancient MySpace account (I haven't logged in for several months!) and found a blog I did for our one year anniversary:

"Three hundred & sixty five days ago, I made the best decision in my life. I married the man who is my soul mate, my better half, my best friend, my everything. Frankly, I couldn't imagine my life without him or how it would've been if we had never met.

Throughout this last year, there's been multiple up & down events, but he's always stood by me when I've needed him:

When my mother became extremely ill from her cancer, he understood that I needed to be with my family even though we were newly weds. For the first 3 months of our marriage, we lived apart while I attended to my Mom & helping my Dad. Once my Mom passed away, Eric helped me emotionally since I was a complete wreck. He instantly volunteered to help carry her casket without having to be asked.. I loved him even more for doing that because it meant the world to not only myself, but to my Dad. 

One time, I was extremely upset about my Mother & her worsening condition that when I got home from visiting her.. I went straight to the shower & started sobbing. Eric came in to check on me, saw my condition... stepped into the shower with me (fully clothed) while the water was running & just held me. I was sobbing uncontrollably but he stayed in there..told me over and over again that he loved me & was there for me no matter what. 

I've had spurts of depression & went through rough patches...never once did he ever say anything negative to me. I gained weight while depressed & he always told me I was beautiful. Never once did he tell me to lose weight. 

Whenever I want to go for a walk, no matter how tired he is or how long his day was... he hops up and goes with me so I have someone to talk to. 

I always forget to grab a towel before I hop in the shower...by the time I'm ready to get out, there's a fresh towel waiting for me. 

If I have a migraine & he can hear how tired I am on the phone; he welcomes me home with a hug & kiss, a glass of water & Excederine.

He'll randomly come up & tell me, "You're so beautiful. I love you." and that will make my day. 

Last Christmas, he put up a Christmas Tree for me AND decorated it because I was so busy with work. He HATES Christmas and is a total scrooge... so for him to put the tree up for me because he knows it's my favorite holiday meant the world to me.

I love my husband. There's no other way to put it. I love & adore him beyond words could ever describe."

Just reading back on that old post... made me smile. He hasn't changed one bit, and I love it :) 

In other Erika news...

For our anniversary, Eric bought me a pretty badass little scooter! I'm sooo inlove with it!  It's a lil 50cc, white scooter that'll let me zip around town and even get me to work so I don't have to use my beloved, gas guzzling Xterra. Most days, my Xterra is very handy, but it's rather painful on my wallet when it costs (roughly), eight dollars a gallon. And here I thought that California was expensive! HA!With my scooter, it only costs about six euro to fill up! NIIIIIIIIIIIIICE! Sadly, I don't have a picture of it considering my camera is STILL without a charged battery (I'm waiting for my charger to come back from my dad..it should be here any day now). Once it's here and charged, I promise..I'll take pictures! Eric says I look so cheesy and goofy when I'm zipping around on it since I have a HUGE grin on my face. Never mind the fact I have a bright pink helmet I rock while ridin' :)

Lesse...what else...

It looks like I'll be heading to Antwerp later this week with some gal pals! I'm excited since I've been wanting to go there...but... it's also to get another Starbucks Mug. It's a sickness, I tells ya! It's like a personal mission to find any and every Starbucks within the country and try to get a beloved mug. How funny... I'm going to the diamond capital of the world..and I want a Starbucks mug. Hopefully my charger comes in before Thursday so I can get some nice pictures in Antwerp!! Otherwise, I'll have to rely on Eric's pocket camera..which I totally hate. HATE!

Next weekend, Eric and I will be venturing off to Brussels for the day since they'll have their famous Floral Carpet event. They make this amazing tapestry out of 800,000+ flowers! I'm so excited cause I remember reading about it in a travel book about Belgium that I bought when we found out we were moving here. Apparently it's only made on every even numbered year (2000, 2002, 2004, etc.) Here's some examples from past carpets:

I seriously can't wait!

I'm sure there's other stuff I should write about..but it's bordering on 10pm here and I'm rather tired. We hit up Aachen today to have a date lunch at our favorite sushi place, did some grocery shopping just to come home in time to clean the house (boooo!). Hopefully tomorrow will be a lil slower so I can relax a lil bits :)

Read More

Three

I can't believe that Eric and I have been married for THREE years already! Man! Time flies!

I know I know. Three years doesn't seem like much since I know some people who have been dating for 5+ years, but I'm still happy with the end result, lol. Some people function better in terms of dating, while others function well as married. I suppose it just depends on the couple.

Yesterday we had a "Date Day" and went up to Aachen, Germany since that seems to be a favorite lil spot for us. Luckily, the weather was nice! Lately it's been super humid and somewhat miserable because it feels like we're on the East Coast...and to be frank, West Coast peeps don't like hot/humid/muggy weather. So, we went up there, had some amazing sushi at a place called "Crazy Sushi", walked around for a bit and people watched. Tell ya what, Europeans are the most entertaining to watch aside from the people in Las Vegas International... they always have interesting outfits on or they're COMPLETELY oblivious to their surroundings (cutting someone off, almost causing accidents). Great stuff!

We stopped off at my favorite oil & vinegar place and picked up some more Walnut Olive Oil. Sure, it sounds weird..but it's AWESOME stuff! Whenever I make pasta's or even rice, the walnut flavor adds a lil more of a rustric flavor to the food. LOVE it!

Then we went over to the local Starbucks and chilled there for a bit since that's what we did on our first date. Yes, yes. Mushy stuff. But, it's "our" mushy stuff. On our way out, I picked up a Starbucks city mug for one of my friends here since she's been meaning to get one, PLUS, I picked up a "travel" to-go cold cup. Ya know the ones they use for cold drinks? Well, they sell a "permanent" style one with a screw on lid and a little stopper on the straw to keep you from losing it. You're probably thinking "You're so stupid for buying that!", but ya know what.. I collect this kinda stuff, so boo on you! I just have to make a point to tell John not to throw it out just incase he thinks it's trash, lol

Thinking back on all the things we've done together, some of the up's and down's we've experienced over time and such, I'm so grateful to have him in my life! I couldn't imagine my world without him :)

Read More