Last Day in California ☹

It is our last full day in California, so we made the most of it. At lunch in Capitola with Sophie's one-time babysitter and our friend, Lalani, Sophie grabbed ahold of the camera:

 Beautiful Lalani

 Nanny "caught" finishing Sophie's quesadilla

 Sophie's eye view

 Oh my, the sun is so bright!

 Then we drove over to auntie Shirley and uncle Lynn's house where the grown ups enjoyed one more bottle of California wine while Sophie had some time to play fortress with her beloved second cousin Chase.

 Quick group picture with cousin Thomas, Chase, Nanny, auntie Megan and Sophie

 Another Sophie shot of the "twitter sisters."

Karen, Shirley, and Denise

 And we made one more stop at the beach. We had it to ourselves and were chasing after the foam that was blowing off the waves. 

 Goodbye Pacific...

 ...until next time.

Early Easter Egg Hunt

It was Pops' birthday today and unfortunately most of the party had to happen inside as the rain had really set in. During one break in the rain, we managed to go outside for a few minutes to go on a little Easter egg hunt for Sophie organized by Pops.

 They were eggs filled with princess and butterfly tattoos. A big hit! Sophie already made it known that she would like more of these for Easter. Only problem: I can't find them here in Germany (...but we have kinder surprise eggs). 

...warmer...

Found one more!

Au Revoir à Nico

The two weeks in California have flown by and it's time to say goodbye to Nico and Alex again after another afternoon of busy play.

 Sophie wants a little brother, too.

Big long hug. 

Nico was asking which direction it was to Germany. Now that he knows, maybe he'll come and visit us soon. It would be nice.

Children's Discovery Museum with Ciaran

Now that Daddy is back to work, our friend Elly treated us to a very special place - the children's museum in San Jose. We used to have a membership, when we still lived here, and Sophie quickly remembered her favorite spots.

 ... such as the fire engine

 The hat must go on like that

 Lunchtime after the water play.

 Face painting - a ladybug today

 Serving veggie pizza. 

(On another note: this room reminds me more than any other place of some very sleepy mornings trying desperately to stay awake after a busy nightshift)

In the story time tree.

Here is a link to Elly's blog on this trip for more pictures: http://babyblogging.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/the-cdm-with-sophie/

French Slumber Party

Drove back to the South Bay today. Sophie had a dinner and sleepover date with her friend Nico. While Andrew needed to have his chipped tooth fixed, the kids were busy playing. Time for Bea and I to catch up over some tea.

"I might have one more if s/he is at least 15 months old and as cuddly as little Alex (Nico's brother)."

 Bon Appétit!

 Post-dinner spa treatment

Personal story reader

... and then it only took Nico and Sophie a little while to fall asleep; they were so excited about the sleepover. 

Now let the wine flow!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

 With the weather slowly deteriorating, we tried to come up with a good indoor activity today. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is always a fun trip for Sophie (and the rest of us). Nanny had one more day off, so of course she came along. On the way there, we stopped at Moss Landing to visit Uncle Mick and see the real thing first. 

Uncle Mick had some fresh-caught crab for us. Yum yum.

Sophie was not too thrilled about the crab though. However, she enjoyed watching the seagulls fighting over some of the broken pieces. We also spotted sea otters and sea lions in the wild before we drove on to the aquarium. I hope this is not a total picture overload. I tried to pick the best ones.

Sophie enjoying the touching pool. Learning how sea otters eat abalone.

We could not get enough of the jellyfish exhibit.

A sunfish - odd looking creature.

Beautiful sea turtle

Sophie's favorite: the hammerhead shark

One more closeup of the sunfish

Little sea horse

Spicy ice cream treat after nearly four hours in the museum.

Carmel

Nanny took a couple of days off to spend more time with us (yay!), so we decided to take a trip to Carmel. The warmth and sunshine is slowly leaving us and the Bay Area seems to finally be getting some long overdue rain. We were lucky to be escaping the rain for one more day here. 

 (Auntie Sandra: note the jacket)

 Sophie's footprint (for some reason it looks like it's bulging on the picture)

 Looking for more sea treasures. Sophie is holding a piece of kelp in her hand.

 The only way to eat a hearty sandwich in the park.

When we returned back to Nanny's house, auntie Shirley and auntie Karen arrived to have dinner with us. Sophie is creating a bit of an Under The Sea atmosphere for them.

Weekend at Tahoe - Snow, Skiing and more Sunshine

If the snow is not coming to us in Düsseldorf, we have no choice but to go find it ourselves. The weather has been so warm and sunny and there has not been much snowfall in the Sierras, but we took a gamble as at least this weekend the roads were clear. We drove up to Truckee where our friends Elly, Jules, and Ciaran have a townhouse. We had joined them a few times last year before we left California and tremendously enjoy our visits there.

 We stopped in Auburn, where Andrew finally got to satisfy his craving for an In-n-Out Burger. Sophie was more interested in the stickers, ...

 ... but thought that Daddy looked pretty funny devouring his meal.

 We arrived at the house early enough to enjoys the last rays of sunshine for a bit of a snowball fight and a new game called snowball baseball.

 The next morning, we got up early to hit the slopes at Tahoe Donner. Sophie's first run on skis was a bit wobbly, but she quickly remembered to stick her bum out and lean forward.

 Done skiing for now. Ready for a well-deserved lunch in the sunshine.

 Soaking it all in.

 My first snowman of the season. 

 Pizza Dinner and a good time with friends. Andrew is cracking up about his "Donner Party of Four"-joke.

(Jules pulling both Sophie and Ciaran)

 On Saturday, we enrolled Sophie and Ciaran in skiing lessons at Boreal, especially since Sophie so enthusiastically wanted one. And it paid off! Both are now skiing without reigns and learning French Fries and Pizza Slice. In the meantime, the big people had a chance to take the big lift a few times and ski down the bigger hills.

 One proud Sophie. After lunch, we all skied a few more runs. There are no pictures of this because we were too busy chasing after the kids.

 One last sleepover at the holiday house.

It started snowing on Sunday morning, but we caught a window and rolled back down the mountain to Nanny's house. A wonderful weekend was had by all.