Aying, Germany: Need I say more?

It was absolutely gorgeous, and one of the highlights of our trip. Our dear friends were kind enough to invite us over for dinner a few times while we were in the area. Needless to say, we were blown away by their village, home and garden.

When I say "garden," I'm not referring to tomatoes and carrots. I'm talking about straight-out-of-a-magazine beautiful cobblestone pathways and bridges over streams flowing from a waterfall, all surrounded by lush trees and flowers. The most incredible part? That they designed and built it all by themselves! I told Matthias how impressed I was and he just shrugged it off, explaining nonchalantly: "Well, I'm an engineer." My dear husband, I do believe the standard has just been set.

We took the obligatory picture under the rose arbor, because "that's what you do when you're in love," according to our friends. Since we're in love and all, it was a bit of a no-brainer.

The Steinmuellers were such incredible hosts. Matthias's mom Christine, who should probably be a professional gourmet chef, cooked us multiple-course traditional German meals and went out of her way to make us feel at home. Christine also heard I have a little (okay, enormous) sweet tooth and thus stuffed our bellies with delicious desserts as well. And let me tell you, they were worth every single pound I gained!

To top off their amazing hospitality, Christine gave us a spaetlzehexe to bring home so we could make our own spaetzle (my favorite German side dish). It's already been put to good use a few times! In fact, last month I went all out and prepared an entire German meal: spaetzle, schweinebraten, gurkensalat, bretzn, and homemade Spezi.

And you thought I wasn't domestic.