A Saturday in the Life of Sophie (and her parents)

Today was shaping to be a beautiful day, filled with fun activities and lots of sunshine.

In the morning, Sophie played with Lina.

 Here they are taking a moment to read a story. Sophie is actually translating the book for Lina as it is a story in English.

 Then Lina had to get ready and head off to the airport to go on vacation. Incidentally we were also taking the bikes on the train to the airport in order to go to a birthday party nearby. We promised to look out for Lina's plane. This one here is a plane just like the one Daddy usually takes to and from Leipzig.

 There was a bike path right along the perimeter of the airport. Perfect for plane spotting. Of course, we ended up being late for the party. "Just one more airplane." We were so close we could hear the wake turbulence from the planes.

 Although impossible to tell from the picture, this was Lina's flight taking off.

 Sophie was invited to Lara's 5th birthday garden party. It was her first drop off birthday party. Judging by Sophie's statements afterwards, she had a great time.

And it was an opportunity for Andrew and I to "kill" a few hours in Kaiserswerth. We cycled past the nearby moat castle in Kalkum, on to the Rhine, had a drink at the beer garden next to the Kairserpfalz castle and a lazy picnic near the Rhine River shore. What a way to spend a sunny afternoon. 

Irrland in the Heat

One day of 80+ degree weather - off to Irrland (the amusement park near my mum's in Geldern) to try the warm weather attractions. Packed with a huge picnic enough to feed the people around us and then some. 

 Although the water play areas were very crowded, we found a nice spot in the shade.

 Sophie taking pictures of us.

 That is Sophie's finger. My mum was annoyed that she had not brought her bathing suit. 

 We took Sophie on the water slide nearby a few times, but the water they used to wet it with was brutally cold. Berit yelled out "bladder infection" as soon as she sat down in it for the first time. Of course Sophie insisted on sitting in our lap - stinker. So instead we organized some spray guns and checked out the huge water gunfight terrain with fill-up stations, a labyrinth, bridge etc. as obstacles. Berit and I, being the oldest warriors in the terrain, soon had a considerable number of enemies to spray. Sophie exclaimed at one point that she no longer wanted to get wet, but continued to happily spray us - little stinker.

 ...meanwhile a goat was born in the adjoining stables.

 Finally a couple of pictures of Irrland's latest project: a play airport. But we will save this for a shadier day (soon that is).

Now headed back to Geldern for a BBQ.

Back to Work

It was time for Andrew to go back to work and since Sophie is still off from preschool, we decided to get up somewhat early and join him on an outing to Duesseldorf airport.

At the airport, Sophie tried very hard to spot flight attendants.

 Sophie and I paid a visit to the giant giraffe and her baby courtesy of a car rental place when Daddy was checking his bag. He was flying to Leipzig this morning to then work a flight to Cincinnati.

After a small breakfast at the airport together it was time to say goodbye. We certainly got some stares. Yes, a pilot has a family, too. ;-)

Sophie and I wanted to look at some more stores (they have a proper toy store there) before returning home on the train. My shopper girl.

... and here is a picture of Daddy's airplane in Leipzig that afternoon. See you in a couple of weeks!

The Beginning of a Fantastic Holiday

Here we are. Finally on our way to see the Queen (and Kate). For the next two weeks we will be touring Britain from the coast of Dorset to the Highlands in Scotland. 

Cute pilot for our Easy Jet flight to Gatwick. 

 It has been a year since Sophie flew with Daddy. The flight was so empty that I had the row to myself in front of them. Although it was sunny in Duesseldorf we had to wait a bit for the fog to lift at Gatwick. That did not bode well. 

 Auntie Sandra fetched us from the airport and here we were in the middle of the New Forest after an al fresco ploughman's lunch and some tea.

 The New Forest is full of wild horses. We spotted some right next to the road.

 Then we walked down a path to look for the wild deer. They were hanging out in the distance.

 We found the truck with the Dorset ice cream. Spicy ice cream (mint chocolate chip) of course for Sophie and rhubarb custard crumble for the rest of us. Yum.

 After a long drive to Auntie Sandra's house in Bournemouth, we quickly stretched our legs at the playground.

- Flashback to March 2010 - 

England in Jubilee fever. Buntings and flags everywhere. All the papers were full of specials on the Queen. We kicked off our Jubilee celebrations in style with this Victoria sponge cake.

 Sophie had the Queen on her piece. 

California, Here We Come!

The big day is here: Sophie and I "hopped" on an ICE train to Frankfurt Airport in the afternoon and checked into a hotel to split up the journey. Sophie was so excited to be doing exactly what Daddy does at work. In fact, he had previously overnighted in the same hotel. 

We hiked over to a nearby Italian restaurant on a campground. Sophie confessed that she would not enjoy camping, because she was afraid of the animals, and would prefer to stay in a hotel instead. Daddy's girl, what can I say.

 Enjoying her pizza.

...and where exactly am I going to sleep?

 Luckily, the air traffic controller strike that had been planned for this morning, was averted at the last minute, and our flight took off only about an hour late. On good old United. Hey, it was on Daddy's airplane, that's all that counts.

 While waiting by the gate, I was becoming quite a geek, spotting my first 787.

 And the taxiways were teeming with A380s.

 A new way of stretching out.

This is not Sophie sleeping, but Sophie throwing a fit when she found out bad Mummy had traded our two seats by the window for FOUR seats in the middle. She kept complaining about not having a window seat throughout the flight, did not sleep for one minute either. At least she was past the age of wanting to cruise down the aisles and was happy to watch videos instead. We make an exception on flights for everyone's sanity. 

Pops picked us up and after Sophie had devoured her obligatory cookie, she passed out before we even got on 280. 

It's good to be back.

Airventure at Düsseldorf Airport

Found another thing to do every first Sunday of the month: the airport puts on an event for children with arts & crafts, plays, miniature trains, a discount to the viewing platform and free tours of the airport, etc. 

Even though Sophie had caught a little bug and was feeling a bit under the weather this morning, she absolutely insisted on going to the kids event at the airport. It was a nice day, so we gave it a whirl and hopped on the bus after a relaxing morning on the couch. And of course Andrew did not need much persuading.

 Outside on the viewing platform. It was a bit nippy, as Andrew was showing Sophie the ropes (tugs, steering bypass pin, packs, wave-off). Sophie was nodding politely, until suddenly she felt just too cold.

 Especially for all of you who had seen the 'youtube' video on bumpy landings in Düsseldorf recently - we do have nice days here.

 That's the type of airplane we flew in on from San Francisco in September (A 330).

 Back inside, in the dress-up section, i.e. Sophie heaven.

Spotted a creepy guy in the children's corner

 Pom-poms!

 Crafting a mask for the carnival costume. (There is that creepy guy again!)

 Topping off the afternoon with a train ride through the shopping arcades.