Rothenburg ob der Tauber for Ben's Geburtstag

Since Ben always has the day off on his birthday (it's Veteran's Day) I decided to surprise him with a little relaxing trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We had been wanting to go for a while but Ben didn't want to drive back and forth the same day so I thought this would be a great opportunity to stay close by and enjoy some R&R. I found a vacation apartment at a farm and Thursday night after Ben got home from work we told him where we were going and loaded up the car and took off. Nyah was kinda grumpy in the car and kept whimpering and crying. Her molars have been coming in so I figured we would be there quickly and could comfort her better. It may sound mean but I knew that if we stopped and got her out she would NOT want to get back in her car seat and would start really screaming....she has been practicing and perfecting her screaming lately. That girl's got some well functioning lungs!! Anywho, we were about 10 minutes from the apartment when suddenly Laney screams, "She's puking!!!" and jumped out of her seat. oh joy! Anyway, we were there shortly after and got out to clean out the car and Nyah. The owner lady came out and we said 'hi' and i thought I motioned that I was ready for her to show me where to go. Apparently my motioning didn't work 'cause the lady just stood there and waited for the whole family. Finally I grabbed Laney and mumbled something to the lady about the others coming in a minute. She finally got it and showed us the very nice apartment. The rest of the evening was uneventful fortunately and the kids got really excited when the owner offered that the kids could come help out with the animals the next evening. (Finally I'm getting to the above picture. Sorry!) The next morning the kids got ready quickly and ventured out in the cold to play on the swings. Nyah still gets really upset when she sees people going outside without and so she climbed the bench in the kitchen so she could yell to the kids, repeatedly wave to them and watch them.

After Ben and I finally got ready we drove the 10 minutes to Rothenburg. This is just outside the old city wall. Ty is our resident tree hugger and loves all the pretty leaves right now. He's always collecting them and storing them all over the stroller. He is also very good at picking up rubbish he sees and always puts it in the stroller. Now I just need to train him to remove the rubbish from the stroller and throw it out. :D

The birthday boy and his peeps (as Ty calls everybody these days....).

We walked up on the wall for this stretch and we noticed that there were some plaques with names on them. After we came home I read that parts of the wall were destroyed during WW II and the names are people who donated money to restore the wall.

Some people say that the city is called Rothenburg (Red Fortress) because of all the red rooftops.

Just a pretty little restaurant.

Rothenburg is famous for it's Schneeballen (snowballs). They are strips of dough that is formed into a ball and deep fried and then covered in different yummy things, for example, powered sugar, cinnamon sugar, chocolate and so forth. The kids tried one each. Laney got a powdered sugar one and Ty tried the cinnamon. They are very delicious.

Ben in front of the rathaus.

 Ty LOVES nutcrackers. And I would buy him a gigantic one if they didn't cost 2 arms and 2 legs. But we stumbled on this ginormous one and we just had to get a picture of Ty in front of it eating his snowball.

 Then we saw this gigantic bear and since Ty was on this kick where he wanted his picture taken in front of everything.....well, then of course we had to have a picture with the giant bear too.

You know how you always got all these stuffed animals when you were a kid and didn't really know what to do with them? And then your kids started getting massive amounts of stuffed animals and you still didn't know what to do with them all? After they started taking over your bed and you were left with only a couple of centimeters to sleep on, you had to load them into a bag and finally give them away to some other person who then didn't know what to do with them. Well, that's not how it works in our family. Our kids actually play with all their stuffed animals!! I would even dare say that they play more with stuffed animals than any other toy. It still impresses me when I see them play with their animals. Anyway, outside the giant bear store there were the cutest little hedgehogs and of course Ty fell madly in love with them. He had to have a picture with one of the cute little things.

And yet another picture of Ty and some thing he wanted a picture with. This time a Knight's Armor.

 "Santy" as Ty yelled when he saw him. Of course Ty had to have a picture with "Santy" as well.

 I think you have to have a picture right here if you ever visit Rothenburg. It must be a law or something. There are so many pictures of this little square called "Plonlein" floating around on the internet.

 We were all so cold and freezing that it felt so nice to walk around in Kaethe Wohlfahrt christmas store. And it's so pretty. We felt like we were in a Christmas wunderland. :D Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside the store so I snapped a quick picture from the outside.

Cute colorful houses. Notice Ty's little noggin in the bottom of the picture. He ran up so he could be in my picture. Funny little guy.

Laney pushing and posing with Nyah in the stroller.

These next pictures are our "posing pictures". First up we have......"Brrrr we are freezing and are so cold we can't feel our fingers anymore."

Oh, tricked ya'.

Next one is....."Oh my goodness, we are sweating hot. Why we are wearing winter clothes and so many layers I know not. But man are we hot!"

And last but not certainly not least....."oh yeah, we are hip and cool and like to pose!" :D

Ben was showing Ty how to jump up on the wall but leave your one leg down so you don't actually go tumbling down on the other side. I came over and asked what they were doing to which Ty replies, "Oh Dad is just showing us how to get killed!" hahaha

This was on the road going to and from Rothenburg from our vacation apartment. Ben stopped on the way back so I could get a picture of all the pretty fall colors. All in all it was a great little vacation and I think Ben enjoyed his birthday.