Until the Cows Came Home

Our week in the mountains in southern Germany turned out to be a bit of a dud, partly because the weather was drizzly five out of seven days, partly because our plan to offload the kids over the day and go hiking backfired once we realized the baby childcare was only 9am - 12pm everyday. That pretty much cramped any plans to go for longer hikes (rain's not enough of a deterrent), which sort of turned this into a passive beach vacation -except there was no beach, no sun, and no umbrella drinks. The hotel itself was nice enough and had a lot of fun things for the kids, we just wished it worked as well as the other places we'd visited in the past.






Pig enjoyed the menagerie on site. He also enjoyed hamming it up in the two shows they put on. In the first revue he was a frog.

Later in the week the kids had the opportunity to dress up as Bavarian princes and princesses. Instead of a feathered tricorn hat Pig went for the glam instead.
The one stroke of luck we had was this week coincided with the local annual return of the cows from the alpine pastures down into the valley, before the onset of winter. The sound of hundreds and thousands of cows and cowbells was most impressive.

So were the super short lederhosen hotpants, which I suppose is sensible wear given the amount of cow doo-doo the cowherds trample through....




And of course, where would we be without the beer tent?


Ponchi making friends with a native.


Loden hats bought at the fair, destined to become part of our Karneval repetoire.


And, last but not least, we did manage some modest hikes, despite the elements working against us. Sure the pictures don't look too bad, but we weren't exactly whipping out the camera in the rain, either.






Did I mention Monchi is significantly heavier than when she first rode in the backpack at the beginning of summer? We're seriously worried that we'll manage to hoist her for any extended period of time next summer!

A Kong

Pig was playing on the floor two weeks ago when he casually said, "there's A-Kong," meaning my dad. He was pointing to the advertising laying in a pile, ready for recycling. Both Jochen and I took a look and just died laughing. The giggles lasted the entire night.


The ad was for a healthcare plan, and showed the unlikely fantasy of "A-Kong" doing yoga. More probably here he is earlier this year sharing a drink with Pig at the Gaffel Brauhaus.

Pig is a big fan of A-Kong!

20 Years

Of countless new addresses, job moves (Aimee), boyfriend changes (Hope), shared vacations/visits, and dog years of phone time but the threesome is still going strong. The reunion last weekend was beyond expectation on every level, particularly because there was minimal reminiscing and maximum catch-up on what's happening today. Also nice because someone new was thrown in the mix: I finally got to meet Aimee's Rob and, among other fine attributes, I'm overwhelmed by his manly lack of words, hehe. What, he's just like Jochen...what? Because I talk almost as much as Aim? I guess you think you're on to something there, you smarty pants!


The weather was absolutely gorgeous - so hot, in fact, the men were shielding their beers from the deadly rays.


Here we are in front of Burg Eltz.


And although she looks her cheery self here, Ponchi was whiny the entire weekend. She also broke out in little red dots all up and down her body, making me fearful that the house guests were going to leave with some transmittable souvenir of Cologne.

But Sunday morning Hope gleefully discovered 2 little teeth poking through Monchi's lower gums (and when I said I couldn't see them she told me to get reading glasses. That's 20 years of friendship for you!) Good grief, they took their sweet time to appear, and certainly will take more patience than I can muster to get a shot of them....


Finally, a guest appearance by Tiger Pig, who is pacing behind the new gate we installed to keep Monchi from tumbling head down on the granite stairs.