Wrapping up in Deutschland

A few more pictures from our visit in Germany:


We had good visits with all of Samuel's aunts and cousins. Last post we saw Aunt Marion and (in the video) Aunt Sabine. Today we see Aunt Regina and Aunt Margrid.

We wish Aunt Regina a Happy Birthday today on the 26th. Ironically, the picture of her was taken when she came over for P's birthday party on the 23rd, which was done up in full-family banquet style with particularly abundant deserts.


A few days before Christmas we also had a side trip to Nürnberg and Stuttgart. We saw a sign at the Staatstheater with a familiar title at the head pronouncing this season's premieres. We also stayed in a beautiful suburb (Fürth) courtesy of our friend Anja Schaller.



And finally, for all of you junkies out there, another video in honor of tomorrow's marathon 17 1/2 hour flight from Frankfurt to Seattle with "Ride" themed music.

Frohe Weihnachten & Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays, everyone!
Greetings from Germany, where we've had lovely, snowy, candlelit atmosphere...


...seasonal family music-making...


...trees, gifts and little boys...

Here's a video of Samuel's cousins Pauline and Jakob opening presents on Heiliger Abend (Christmas Eve).


We're "flattening" the movies in quicktime which should make them work better. Let us know if they still don't work properly.

Anyway, until next time, be well!

Kleines Familientreffen mit Goethe

Ja, ich weiss... lange ist es her, dass ich den letzten Eintrag geschrieben habe... mea culpa.
Am 8. Dezember gab es ein halb-spontanes kleines Familientreffen im Goethe-Institut Boston mit Oma Barbara, Onkel Tom und Peter, Karola und Samuel.



















Der Ort unseres Treffens war günstig gewählt: ganz in der Nähe von Peters alter Stammkneipe.


Dort hat es Samuel aber nicht so gut gefallen, also hat er sich schonmal auf den Heimweg gemacht.


Das war's schon wieder für heute. Bis bald!

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The gist would be: Yes, she knows. K has been slow doing posts but she did want to note a spontaneous family get-together when Samuel's Oma Barbara and Uncle Tom joined PK&S for a concert of K's music at Boston's Goethe Institute (spelled in German without an 'e'...and I don't mean Goeth.) Afterwards S and P went to the old watering hole.

Here's where things get sketchy. I think we're supposed to infer that Samuel got into some sort of heated disagreement having to do with a misunderstanding about Samuel Adams and then left the bar in a huff. It's not clear what happened to the critical part of the story though. I think the blog editors we hired were trying to keep the lead copy under 80 words for some reason. (Incidentally, I hope those editors get paid by the story and not with a flat monthly fee.)

Darmstadt, August 2007, und Mount Vernon, November 2007

Nun schreibe ich mal einen Eintrag, Peter muss nämlich komponieren.
Wir sind wieder in Cambridge gelandet, und zur Feier des Tages gibt es heute zwei kleine Filme, einen vom August 2007 in Darmstadt und einen vom November 2007 in Mount Vernon. Viel Spaß!

Samuel, Pauline und Jakob. August, 2007.

(gefilmt und editiert von Peter)

Samuel und Peter. November, 2007.

(gefilmt von Celina)

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Reading in-between the above lines a good translator would discern the hints that San Diego was lovely, warm, and full of eucalyptus trees and that the trip to Ohio to visit family was fun and restful. A good translator might then also note that K is a little long on tiredness and short on imaginative ways to fill up a blog-text. To fill this void we will apparently see two videos. One old and one new.

The new one comes from Thanksgiving vacation. The old one takes our summer-flashback series across the Atlantic.


Samuel's Flashback Travel Log Update
Boston, MA -> Darmstadt, Hessen (3677 miles • 5930 kms)
August 14th Totals: (63 days) 6051 miles, 96 m/day • 9760 kms, 155 km/tag

Next stop San Diego

Here's a little video of Samuel on the diaper table to fill the void while we're on the road. Don't count on a weekend blockbuster, though. Let's just say the film's budget cuts really hit the action sequences and the special effects pretty hard. The tagline is: "At least it's short."

(by the way, no sound on this one)

For Saturday night through Tuesday afternoon we'll be in San Diego, which looks nice from the Google satellite.

Thankfully, everyone we know there was uneffected by the terrible fires. For us, it looks like the weather should be perfect (70-55 fahrenheit / 21-13 celcius) and a nice break from the increasing cold in Boston.

Happy Five Months!

We are getting excited for an upcoming trip to San Diego next weekend followed by a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Ohio afterwards. Making sure to do his part to get ready, Samuel is actively filling diapers and enjoying being tickled. ...I mean, someone's got to do it and he at least looks good in the process (when Peter tried that route it wasn't so pretty!!). Um, what are we talking about here? On to the more interesting part of the post:

Flashback: Hayes House #2

August 8-9 * Richmond, Indiana.

After settling in at the Arb we were visited by dear old friends, Bill, Derek & Becky. You can see the Hayes House up there at the top of the hill.

The girls joined us at the fountain where they got themselves quite wet and where Bill and Derek caught up on their monument reading. Becky seems to have taken a more reasonable vantage point.


I'm not so sure what was so funny, but that may only mean that whatever it was came at my expense.

By the way, Kaela did get to hit the renowned Arboretum Badminton circuit in the end.


And as promised, we have a Video of Samuel Waking up in our bedroom there. It kind of goes on and on, so if you have somewhere else to be in the near future, keep that in mind.

As always, if you have trouble playing the video let us know. Special thanks to Diana Krall, who stopped in to help us out with this one.


Samuel's Travel Log Update
Richomnd, IN -> Boston, MA (925 miles • 1492 kms)
August 11th Totals: (60 days) 2375 miles, 40m/day • 3830 kms, 64 km/tag

Flashback: Hayes House #1

August 6-7 * Richmond, Indiana.

So here's the first in a two-part entry on this summer's visit to the Hayes Regional Arboretum. The grandpa of Samuel's Grandpa Ed started a park to preserve and protect the local forest. Today it has become the 466 acre (about two km^2) arboretum. You see here our very comfortable digs right in the middle of all of those wonderful plants and trees: the beautiful Hayes House:

Here are two shots courtesy of Tom, including Samuel's Cousin Kaela in the living room waiting for the rain to quit so she can get back to badminton on the front lawn.


Here's a VIDEO of the family at the Arboretum

That's Chris at the piano there. And here are some pics of the rest of the crowd (Cousin Celina, Uncle Tom, Grandma Betsy and Grandpa Ed) with a two-month old Samuel:



Next flashback, a visit at the arb from a few friends and another video.

Samuel's Travel Log Update
Mt. Vernon, OH -> Richmond, IN (155 miles • 250 kms)
August 6th Totals: (55 days) 1450 miles • 2349 kms

Chat Room

Chatting with Samuel is more and more engaging these days. If you want to hear for yourself you can CLICK HERE and get a bit of Samuel discussing going to the post office with his mom... or maybe he was discussing the proper way to integrate paprika into mexican cuisine... (it's a lot of the same vocabulary at this point). Here are some shots of the conversant youngster:


(People in this family should stop taking pictures of the top of Dad's head, but anyway...)

Samuel is also becoming more ticklish.



In the end Samuel became a bit more contemplative and then started pulling out old Shakespearian insults: "I bite my thumb at you, Sir." (He's on a Romeo and Juliet kick these days. Kids!)