Oktoberfest Colorado Springs 2013

Our first Oktoberfest since living in Germany.  We both didn't have very high expectations for what we would expect for Oktoberfest.  Really can't get any better then the real deal in Munich or Stuttgart Germany.

We gave it a shot and had a good time!!

Oktoberfest in Colorado Springs was the last weekend of September and held in a parking lot of a mall in town.  There were carny games, food, booths, music, and of course Paulner Beer!!

Sam Photo Bombing a nice picture of our friends Molly and Marshall.

We heard of Oktoberfest by luck.  We have a trip planned with the local ITT for haunted houses in Denver Sat Oct 26.  While purchasing our tickets saw a sign for Oktoberfest, worked out well as we got these tickets for free.  Got to enjoy some good German beer, and German food (with an American twist to it).  Sam and I also got to get out the Lederhosen and Dirndl to wear!!

The frog is a win of one of the carny games, and we must thank it for Sam's luck in winning a beer mug!!

Welcome Logan

We have had Brooklyn for about two years and love her to death.  She is the best little companion to have around and a great lap dog.  Sam and I have been talking for the past few years about getting a larger dog, we were ready for the second pup.  

Arriving here, I located a local shelter that rescue's Puppy Mill Dogs, and finds them good homes.  I have been volunteering there about a month now and have gotten to interact with many Pups.  Many are skittish and timid and don't understand play or treats.  Many are afraid of males.

There were a number of large dogs available, but choosing the right one that works with us and works with Brooklyn was the challenge.  We were down to three.  Two Siberian Huskies and a Labrador/American Pit Bull Mix.  Our choices went down quick as the first Husky was adopted just the day before.  The Pit Bull Mix was a great friendly dog, but had injuries that we were not sure would work in our house.  All the hard wood floors and stairs would not make his adjustment easy.

We found Lobo (Now known as Logan).  He was very timid when we first met, even more timid around Sam.  At just a year old he still a puppy and years a head of him, we wanted him and Brooklyn to meet.

Brooklyn being the submissive dog she is, did not have any issues with him and vice versa.  He was going to be ours.  We are coming up on a week having him at home and overall things are going well.

Being from a puppy mill, these pups have very little human interaction no playtime, limited exercise, and really no training.  He has done amazing with potty training, he does do some marking in the house, but our house is protected by the Belly Bands he gets to wear when inside. Short amount of time a day the belly bad comes off inside and he gets watched closely.  

He has learned sit, shake, and working on lay down!!  Yesterday, he made it down to the basement on his own.  Besides potty training, the biggest issue we have is walking him.  He and Brooklyn go on about three walks a day.  He being the husky likes to pull, A LOT!!  This will be the biggest challenge I believe in his training, in addition to meeting strangers

Brooklyn and Logan are a bit indifferent to each other.  Logan likes to play,  Brooklyn not so much, she tries to stand up for herself against him to tell him no, but the message is mixed as he still wants to play.  One day he will get it.  Still no aggressiveness towards each other, just wanting to play.  

I will post periodically about his progress, it will be a project which will require a lot of persistence and patience.  We are both very happy to give hime a new home.

We will have a new family picture soon!!

To learn more about Puppy Mills, and the rescue where we got logan check out the link National Mill Dog Rescue.  

Our time in Colorado

Our time in Colorado has been pretty interesting.  We have done and seen a lot since we moved here the beginning of June.  We have also had some bad luck and new experiences we were not expecting so soon to our arrival.

The week we moved into our new house, the Black Forest fire began.  The black forest is about 10 mins from where we live.  Our community was not touched by the fire but were affected.  A number of homes were in the pre-evac area including ours.

Due to being in the military precautions were taken and we were told to evacuate.  For the next four days we stayed at a friends house.  Great to know people when we moved here.  We really did not have much at all to pack up in the house so easy to make those decisions.

These photos taken from our backyard looking North towards the Black Forest.  There was horrible smell in the air and did not want to have windows open at all during this time.  

While staying in our friends house, Sam and I took turns staying with Brooklyn and going into work.  Thursday I was unfortunate enough to get into a minor traffic collision with an older vehicle.  I was of course in our new 2013 Audi when this happened.  There was minor damage to the driver side fender and mirror, but sure startled me.  The driver claimed the breaks went out on the vehicle causing the erratic maneuver through traffic. We found out about a month later that the vehicle was not insured and our insurance would be covering the repairs.  This was unexpected expense upon arriving to include settling in.  

To continue on our unfortunate and unexpected, our home was struck my lighting or surge of lightning to cause damage to a number of electronics.  Including the garage door, PS3, dishwasher, and list continues.  Once again unexpected, but being homeowners we are prepared with savings but not always liking the unexpected.

Sooo with the summer coming to an end lets see what the fall and winter bring us here during our first here in Colorado.

I didn't do so well posting during the week last week but my next post will explain our new four legged addition to the family.  

Moscow and St Petersburg

  Has been a few months since moving to Colorado and even longer from our final European vacation.  Our final huge trip we embarked on was visiting not Europe but a neighboring continent: Russia.  We did not go this trip alone, little daunting.  On my trip to Kiev I meet a number of great people who also enjoy traveling an the idea came up to plan a trip to Russia.  The on base tour service planned all for us to include travel to throughout and back.  We had guides throughout the trip.  THe trip was a bit pricey but well worth it.  Possibly a once in a lifetime experience.


Since it has been some time since the trip, I have to refer to our itinerary we were given prior to the trip.  thankful for archived e-mail to store these things.  I would say %60 of the people on this trip were also on the trip to Kiev, a total of 22 individuals.  A great group of people ranging from civilians to Army and Air Force active duty members.

One of the first things we did when arriving was take a tour of some of Moscow's elaborate Subway stations.  very unique part of a tour but gave us a great basis of how we could get around on our own in the city.  We made our final stop with the group near the Red Square.  This is one of the first pictures I took in Moscow.  We were able to tour the Kremlin with a tour guide, and our final night in Moscow we saw a Russian Ballet in the Kremlin theater.  Sam wasn't too thrilled about the Ballet, but when in Russia.

They are everywhere.  We also saw and had Starbucks and got our Hard Rock glass in Moscow!!

St Basil's Cathedral, a beautiful cathedral  with many differences to those in the Ukraine.  Sam and I decided we would skip seeing the inside as there were a number of cathedral's  on our tour itinerary, and since being in Europe, after so many  cathedral tours, a number  of them start to look the same.

A picture of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown.  I was very surprised to see this, very similar to the ceremony done in Arlington Cemetery for the Tomb of Unknown.

Additional sites that we saw in Moscow was Lenin's Mausoleum, GUM, Tverskya Boulevard, Cathedral of the Savior, New Maiden convent, Sparrow Hill and Lomossov University.

During the trip I learned a lot about the  Russian Royalty throughout the century's to include Peter the Great.

I had to take a picture of this tree, this has become a tradition in recent years in Moscow.  On wedding days, the Bride and Groom will attach locks to these trees.  It is very neat to see as Sam and I have seen this in many countries and continents.  To include Tokyo, Japan, Seoul Korea, and Prague Czech Republic.  

These pictures are of the Summer Palace.  This Palace was almost completely destroyed during World War II but has been magnificently rebuilt to look almost exactly of what it did when it was used by Royalty.  We also toured the Winter Palace in the St Petersburg, which housed the Hermitage Museum.  

We made our trip to St Petersburg via train, that left Moscow about Mid-Night arriving in St Petersburg at 7 30 am.  My first overnight on a train, defiantly an experience.  Our hotel was at the end of one of Moscow's busy streets, easy access to all sorts of food and stores.  And many sites.  

A photo of the World War two memorial in St Petersburg.

Other sites that we saw in St Petersburg include the Palace Square, Peter I Statue, St Isaaks's Cathedral, Nevski Prospect, Smolny Institute and Convent, artists Square, and the Field of Mars.  Additionally we spent a morning in the Peter and Paul fortress where the city of St Petersburg began.

That is a brief overview of our trip to Russia, defiantly a once in a lifetime experience and soo happy we did this in our last couple of months before leaving Europe.  A bit bitter sweet knowing that we would be leaving so soon, but with so many memories!!

If anyone wants to see more photos of our trip let me know I have a lot!!

Graduation

It was a few months ago, more like 8 months, way back in February when I official completed my Bachelor's degree.  Since completing my Bachelors degree all online via distance learning from my school here in Colorado Springs, there wasn't much of a thought of graduation.  It worked out so awesome that we were moving to Colorado Springs and that my graduation ceremony was scheduled for the weekend after arriving.

My official diploma was mailed to me while still in Germany.  Graduation Regalia was mailed to my Aunt here in Colorado to ensure it made it here and did not get lost on it's trip to Germany.  Also saved me some room in my luggage.

The weekend was very exciting my parents flew down from Wisconsin to join me in the great celebration. As part of the graduation weekend I was given a ticket to the Rockies game and discounted tickets for my guests.  We enjoyed the game, hotdogs and beer on a beautiful Sunny evening.  

I have more pictures, not all sure where they are at but this is one of me with all the graduation get-up.  I wore two cords, one for honors, and second for Military Service.  There ceremony was quite long, starting with the doctorate, master, bachelors, and associates degree presentation.  It was well worth it and was very happy to have the opportunity to participate in my graduation ceremony.

All three of my degree are now frame displayed proudly in my office in our new house.  Happy to be done with my Bachelor's but I am seeing that school never ends and always new things to learn.  Before starting on my Masters Degree, I want to spend more time studying for my next rank as well as take a Photography course or Personal fitness certification course.  So many options out there.  

Colorado Here We Are

It has been a long time since writing on the blog.  Honestly can say I forgot about it for a while!!

With moving in, starting our new jobs, discovering all that Colorado Springs has to offer, safe to say we have been Busy!

We arrived in Colorado Springs on June 7, after our flights from Germany and our very short stay in Texas, where we picked up our Car and Brooklyn (Spent a month with Sam's parents during our move).  We made the long very boring trip from Dallas to COlorado Springs in a day, with our house keys waiting for us!!  It was great to be able to move right in, no hotels!!  My House hunting trip really paid off!!

Happy about the really easy move in, but we did have to wait almost two months for our TMO to arrive from Germany!!  We have been in our place with all our stuff about a month now!! Today all the boxes were unpacked, and 95% of the pictures are hung!!  Small steps at a time.

With our move to Colorado, we have been privileged to meet some great people and as well sooo many new places to see.

In the coming weeks I will do my best to begin posting on my blog consistently to catch up for all the things we have done.

Happy Labor Day!!