Germany

I figured we're ready for some pictures, so in no particular order, and with no pictures yet of the funeral and wedding we attended, here a few snap shots from our trip (which was very fun, by the way, and for which my amazing kids sat on the airplane like little saints. Seriously, they were so good, and obedient, and well behaved, and  just overall good, even when on the way out we didn't have a seat for Alba, which meant I put Alba in the car seat in Sophia's seat, and Sophia sat on the ground to our feet. The kids were just my great little travelers, and even handled the 9-hour time change pretty well, and then continued sleeping like the good sleepers they usually are. Did I mention that they really behaved like little saints? Good.)

Now the pictures:

This is Schloss Marienburg - a castle somewhat close to my home in Germany. Sophia had been wanting to go be a princess in a castle in Germany, so I figured we'd take her to a real castle. She really enjoyed it, and we did a full guided tour. Did you know that back in the days, the little boys wore pink and the little girls wore blue? It had to do with religion, and the notion that red/pink were colors of the priests/bishops etc. while blue was the color of Mother Mary.

Of course, the only proper outfit for a castle visit is a dress. Sophia really loves this dress. I'm not a big fan, but she loves it because the skirt part spread out nicely when you twirl. And she loves showing off her twirls in that dress (the other day when we went shopping in Redding, she stopped people all the time in the stores to show them her twirls in that dress).

Alba and Opa admiring the castle

Our own little "Heidi" - you can't really tell in the pictures, but we're up in the mountains (or as mountaineous as it gets in Hessen).

This may have been some of the most fun we had in Germany this year - alpine coasters. Don't mistake these for some sort of slide. It's way better, because you're going superfast (click on the picture to see the flying hair!) and you're going for quite a while, sort of like bob sledding just on a summer version. Way fun!

Alba wasn't allowed to ride the coaster unfortunately (I'm sure she would have loved it), so she hung out with Aunt Mariella and Opa

Alba really took a liking to her Uncle Levin - no surprise, of course, he's a pretty fun uncle

Alba also seemed quite fascinating with babies, in this case, her niece Mavie. She constantly tried to pat her/touch her. Unfortunately, her touch wasn't as gentle yet as most babies would want.

Sophia and Amelie

Alba really enjoyed the zoo

This picture isn't really doing reality  justice. One thing I love about summer in Germany is all the different ice cream places. You get some awesome ice cream, and find a cozy spot in the pedestrian area of the town, which are usually pretty nice and lovely places, and then you just enjoy summer. We did just that, but we happened to sit in front of a house getting renovated. So, you can't see the market place, with the flowers, and the little water fountain, and all the peace and happiness that was actually taking place right then and there.

Well, maybe this picture will give you an idea of the happiness...

The next pictures are just fun things we've done...

like lots of cool play grounds

or horse back riding

or going to a kid's amusement/theme park

where you get to ride crazy fun rides that make your Oma scream!