Because driving to Germany is actually an option here...

This past weekend JP and I went to Germany!

It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision, but the great thing is Germany is closer to us here than California is to us back home! 

Weird. But awesome.

And we were on a mission this road trip: 

to find the original farm that the Brummer's (JP's family/our last name/my family now too) originated from!

JP's dad had been there many many years ago, but only briefly and no one was home so he couldn't go inside.

So we packed up a rental car on Friday and drove through Paris (which might have been the most terrifying thing I have ever done. It is every man for themselves out there.) and out into the countryside on our way to Menslage, Germany (oh yeah, the Brummer farm is in the tiniest little provincial town in Germany, where maybe like 1/10 people speak any English, if you're lucky, aaaand neither JP or I speak any German. So this had to be a success, right? Right.)

We drove through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and on into Germany! (JP was loving the autobahn, despite our somewhat pitiful car that couldn't go over 110 mph) 
We discovered our car had a USB port and it was the best discovery ever and from then on there was a lot of broadway musical sing alongs happening.

(JP and I are terrible singers, which is unfortunate. BUT I have to say it is way more fun than one of us being good at singing and the other one being not-so-good... this way we just get to sing as loud as we can off-key together!) 

Les Miserables and Beauty and the Beast are our current favorites, in case you were wondering. 

Anyways, we arrived and spent the night at the only hotel in town and the next morning met up with the president of the Menslage Historical Society!

He was the cutest little old German man and he was so pumped that we were there to learn about Menslage/our family. 

He spent the entire day with us and took us around to everything.

He even bought us enormous ice cream sundaes because he "had a feeling we were the type of people who enjoyed ice cream"

hahaha so classic. 

Oh, and on a side note, I love animals. Love them. 

JP on the other hand, not so much. Partially because he's allergic to most of them and partially because he has no soul, but I'm working on it.

So, being surrounded by farm animals all weekend was a definite highlight for me, and I fed them every chance I could. 

(you'll see below...)

^^^ just look how happy he is! He is one of my favorite people I've ever met.

 ^^^ Menslage had one of the most beautiful cemeteries I have ever seen.

 I have a strange love for cemeteries. I say strange because while they are such sad places, I love the peaceful and solemn melancholy you feel in them!

Germany was amazing, but now that we're back in Paris time is somehow almost gone: 

We leave France in 1 week from today! 1 week!