Here they are... arriving at the Aachen train station from Paris.
The first night we hung out on the back patio to visit. Both Grammy and Paw Paw managed to crawl inside this little castle at the request of a certain little boy.
The next day we celebrated Independence Day at American Fest at JFC Brunssum, a NATO base that is nearby. They had live music, some games and vendor booths, and, most importantly, fireworks. We didn't get any pictures of that though, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Sunday we were off to explore Amsterdam. We took a canal cruise and half of us visited the Van Gogh museum. We tried to go to the Heineken Experience, but it is evidently closed for the next 6 months or so. I only took pictures during our rest in the middle of the day in a lovely park. Here you see Johnnie and Rusty taking a nap in the exact same position. That wasn't even staged. Like father, like son. :)
The kids enjoyed climbing in these letters. I failed to take a picture of the whole thing, but I think it said "I AMsterdam"... or something to that effect.
Another picture with the I Heart Life guy. :)
This is the everyone (except Cliff) outside the Van Gogh museum.
Monday we made the long drive to Edelweiss in Bavaria with the truck and car. Christian did pretty well. I hear the guys in the truck did a lot of singing and movie quotes on the way there.
Tuesday we did some sight seeing on our own. We wanted to go to the Zugzpitz (the highest peak), but we were told that the visibility was bad and we wouldn't be able to see anything. So we went to the Alpinespitz instead. This is us at the bottom of the mountain getting ready to ride the cable car up.
Here we are on the mountain.
Isn't it a beautiful view?
Enjoying the view.
Christian fell asleep on our walk back down. This is Paw Paw's proof that he carried him down.
Taking a scenic rest
This restaurant was near the cable car that took us back down the rest of the mountain. Cliff decided to rest there, because Christian was getting a bit heavy. Robyn, Glenn and I thought that sounded nice and joined him. It had a nice view, too. The rest of the crew waited at the cable car station.
This picture was on the cable car on the way down, I think. I love this picture. Cliff is such a good daddy. :)
Wednesday we went with a tour group to Berchtesgaden and Eagle's Nest. Ben was nice enough to share his beloved Nintendo DS with Christian.
We made it. It's such a beautiful area!
One of our few family pictures
Another attempt at a family picture with a different background.
So we took turns climbing to different rocks and taking pictures of each other far away. This was mine.
Here's Glenn. This was not Rusty's favorite part of the trip.
...and Cliff
I really like this picture of Cliff. Those of you on facebook might recognize it.
Ben is so handsome in this picture.
Rusty and Robyn
Glenn
This is the view from Eva Braun's room inside Eagle's Nest
This fireplace was a gift from Mussolini to Hitler for his 50th Birthday
We stopped to have dinner towards the end of our tour. The tour guide recommended the perfect restaurant. The food was good, and we had this lovely window seat at our table for Christian to nap on.
Thursday we went to Neuschwanstein. This is Jennifer and Christian at the foot of this gorgeous castle.
Here is a picture of the castle from a distance.
We made a short stop at Weiskirche (White Church) after Neuschwanstein. This is outside with Christian napping again. He fell asleep on the bus. Inside is beautiful, but we have no pictures.
We also made a short stop at a wood carving shop. I expected to see someone actually doing the carving, but it was just a shopping trip. The lady in the shop followed us around pretty closely. We thought she was worried about Christian breaking something, but she even reprimanded Cliff when he picked up a toy truck to see the price tag underneath it. We shouldn't have bought anything, but we did get Christian the toy train that he is playing with. The other little boy is his friend, Josh, from church. Josh's mom, Jennifer, also works with Cliff. They happened to be visiting Edelweiss at the same time as us.
Back in our room, Christian played photographer. This is one of his photos.
Christian with an apple juice bottle. Apple juice is his favorite drink. He can even order it by himself whenever the waiter or waitress comes to the table to take drink orders - apfelsaft.
Friday it was time to pack up and make the very long drive back home. Just before we headed out we stopped at this toboggan place. Christian played with his garbage truck on this playground while everyone else took turns riding down. Ben went way too slow on his way down the first time he rode by himself. They had to yell at him to press the lever forward so that he could make it to the place he was supposed to get off at. The next time he took their advice to heart and held the lever down a bit too much. He almost passed right through the checkpoint. Everyone yelled at him to stop, and he did manage to stop safely. Aside from the stopping, he did great and had a lot of fun. Cliff flew back the night before to be at work on Friday, so he missed all the excitement.
This was one of the restaurants off the autobahn. This was part of our several hour drive home. We hit the worst traffic I have ever been a part of. Robyn, Glenn and I rode in the car. Everyone else was in the truck. The next morning, it was time to say bye to Robyn, Rusty, Ben and Glenn. 
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