Family visit from Germany

We are very happy to have Sandra here, our sister in law and also her 2 sons, Julian (3) and Sebastian (6). We are having a wonderful time, they seemed to overcome the jet-lag really well (slept through the night in night #3 which is great!) and also seem to enjoy the "californien way of life". We already went to the pool twice, tomorrow we will visit "The City", beach on Friday and than (what a stressful life) Monterey on Sunday and hopefully we will see some whales on our whale watching tour! Look at the pictures and see it yourself - these kids are after all - no doubt - from one family!







Left: Julian on the first evening (doesn't get any cuter!)

Camping Trip to Big Sur in July 07

We packed our stuff (a little view on what our stuff is on the left) and drove to Pointe Reyes, this beautiful area north of San Francisco where camping is pure pleasure. We decided for a camping - light weekend (dinner next to the fire, breakfast at a restaurant) and we were delighted to find out that our campground was only 15 minutes from the city Pointe Reyes Station (with a very old-fashioned but nice restaurant for tired campers).


Andreas, who has proven his BBQ-ing abilities many times before, again magically made the most of our simple kitchen situation (and next to a fireplace under the stars chicken and corn tastes even better than usually)
Lucas ate so much that night - it was an almost scary sight!






A "happy camper" indeed he was, I think as most kids the pure exitment about sleeping in a tent fulfilled our little boy.
So we had the perfect weather, perfect campground and happy child!

We hope to get back soon when Sandra and her boys are here!

Potluck on Redoaks Drive

On July, 15 we live in this house since 2 years. It seems crazy but it's actually true. So we took advantage of this anniversary and invited all our neighbors to a block-party.
July, 15 was a Sunday, which worked out perfect and all our neighbors came over around 3pm. We had a lot of nice dishes on the table (which are the bavarian beer tables that we have brought from Germany by the way) and as we are very international on our street we had a nice mixture of dishes from all over (American of course, but also Russian, Asian, and our neighbor Nic from Jamaica). We had a wonderful time and Lucas was extremely busy as the teenage kids of our next door neighbors gave him a lot of attention and you could see the happiness on his face all afternoon.

Santa Barbara, April 2007

On: What a nice tradition!

For the second time now (and hopefully for many years to come) it is Andreas' and my tradition to drive to Santa Barbara for the weekend for his birthday. Santa Barbara is approximately 6 hours South of San Jose, very (very!) pretty, great chances to meet celebrities (I saw Ellen DeGeneres ;-)) and just hanging out in one of the most beautiful cities in California. We love to walk down the ocean coast trail and remember when we first fell in love with this place, way back in May 1997.

Above: People demonstrate in their own style against the war in Iraq.

Calistoga/Napa Valley in April 07

When Kira was here to visit we didn't want to miss out on the Napa Area so we took her to Calistoga. It was really hot, but Lucas was happy riding his bike!

It's a very nice time of the year to visit that area. Usually we enjoy driving through this beautiful countryside with an Eros Ramazotti CD to get the real "Toscana Feeling". :-)

Lucas 5th Birthday Party

Lucas turned 5 years on May, 30. Bad timing but Mami had to drive to San Francisco to give a presentation at the BTI office. So I had to leave the house really early and I was mad at myself for the rest of my trip. BUT: On Saturday, June, 2 we had a really nice party! All of Lucas' best friends have been there and we played in the backyard (our toilet-paper-game seems to become a tradistion) and the kids had a blast hanging out and playing the german-american mixture of games.

We had a great afternoon!

Lucas Graduation Party

On July, 15 Lucas had his last day in
Pre-School. We can't believe that this phase is over now, and our "Baby" is already going to Kindergarden soon. (Note for our German friends - Kindergarten = 1. Klasse).
We had a beautiful celebration, the kids sang songs for us, they were wearing the graduation caps and we were all standing there with a big frog in our throat. What a bitter sweet moment that was! And look at Lucas (can you find him in the last row?) also not sure what to think of that! ;-)

And a little later..... when we all felt a little more relaxed..... Mami got to wear the hat too!