Thursday, January 16, 2014
Oktoberfest in Boise
Schlapka's annual Oktoberfest party. Lots of beer and pretzels and under age individuals.
Yes, we made these! The secret is to dip them in sodium hydroxide before baking them.
The older kids set up a "restaurant" under the swingset and enjoyed serving each other pretzels and water.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Balloon Festival
Boise hosts a hot air balloon festival during the first weekend in September each year. Last year we ended up out on the street in our pajamas along with all of our neighbors to see all the balloons flying low over our neighborhood. This year we were better prepared and were already dressed and having breakfast in the backyard when the balloons started flying over.
One balloon landed at the park/school around the corner. Actually it landed in the street next to the park, and then, with the help of many neighbors pulling on various ropes, flew over the park fence. Then the hot air balloonist proceeded to fill the basket with kids who wanted to go for rides. Anna had no interest (she was freaked out by the noise the balloons make), but Noah took a ride (just up 30 feet or so with folks on the ground holding onto ropes -- see blonde head sticking out of basket in photo above). Then the balloonist got the balloon back over the fence and onto the street, and everyone helped pack it up and load it into a truck.
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Germany visit
At the end of August we headed to Ortenberg, Germany to visit Oma and Opa and Onkel Thomas and Onkel Matthias. There are more photos of Noah on this post because he and Papa arrived first and Mama and Anna came a little later (they hit Tyler and Elise's wedding in Seattle first and then visited Orcas Island with Nana -- but Papa and Noah had the camera)
Prost!
This train came home with us and has become a bigger project -- we'll post photos of that in the future.
Here are some shots of Noah doing adventurous things -- all before Mama arrived.
Swimming/kayaking at the Gifiz with the Ablers
Here we are visiting Opa's hometown, Gaisbach, hiking up to the ruins of Staufenburg (if you look very closely you can see it just over our heads in the background).
We got to the top in time for sunset.
and got ice cream on the way back down
We also got to help celebrate Onkel Willi's birthday. He made some very delicious Paella. We didn't tell Anna that she was eating Hase (rabbit).
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Other fun summer pictures
Boating on Tripod Reservoir. We invested in a rubber boat this year (unfortunately, we couldn't find a red one so that we could sing the song: "Wir...haben...ein...knall...rotes Gummibot..."). Noah spent many happy hours paddling it around -- sometimes with passengers and sometimes without.
Couch fort
Cooking in style
Popsicles on the front porch with friends
Sacked out
Farm visit! Baby pigs and (stationary) tractor rides.
Camping in the Sawtooths
Our neighbor Jeff organized a really fun camping trip in the Sawtooths. One night at a campground on the shore of Redfish Lake in Stanley and the second night on the other side of Redfish Lake (accessible only by boat). We got there in our canoes!
Good morning!
