Johannisfest

here we are logging the Gutenberg-Cache with 2 other cachers we ran into by coincidence - we had so much fun getting this very boldly hidden cache.. lol.. in the middle of the FEST!!! There were Muggles everywhere but quick action from the guys put the cache in our hands and it was really fun :-D

Johannisfest.... one of the greatest fests Mainz has to offer!! Every year there are 4 days dedicated to party, rides, eating, drinking and Johannes Gutenberg - the Millenium Man. Coincidentally he was born in Mainz so we have all the right to party, right? :-DD
This last weekend in June is always fun and this year was no different. We even did some Geocaching in between.. lol..




I´m an old fart :-D but sweet!

yippeh!

yay yeah!

what better place to sit, play and listen to live music than in the shade of the Dom?

1000 years old and still there... the Dom - we didn´t go inside the museum this time but it´s definitely worth it!
Isa ALWAYS has to go inside and light a candle "for the poor children in the world".. can you tell she´s going to a christian Kindergarten? lol


some small fries...

we´re flyyyying!!!

bye then, I´m off to fly around - he wasn´t scared like Isa and had a blast! Isa lost her fear after a couple of minutes in the air though.. but I got diiiizzzyyy and a bit nauseous.. lol

nauseous? yup, this guy, too.. he he

FINALLY - no training wheels

YEAH! Finally we could convince Isa to take the training wheels off.. yup, the child that every circus would be proud of that climbs on every tree, jumps from high places and fits monkey description at times had refused to take off the training wheels forever and ever and ever... you get the pictures..
Her friend Leoni just gave her her own bike again today and she simply took off... Yippeh!!
And afterwards I actually caught Alex working (doing the lawn.. lol) worth a picture any day :-D

Lost Place - Safariland

Oh yeah - what a day! Yup, it´s father´s day and after torturing Daddy with a window painting and new Salsa CD´s we took a geocaching trip across the river to a lost place...
I remember going to Safariland when I was quite young - they used to have an area where you could drive through with your own car and the monkeys would play on your hood, the lions would walk across your path and all that good safari stuff. An ostrich poked me right between the eyes when I was there one time which I still remember.. lol.. the first and only animal that didn´t take to me right away - wonder why!
So today was the day to drop by and pay a visit to the "contemporary witnesses" that were forgotten in the middle of the woods when they disassembled the place 15 years ago or so. The places you get to visit through geocaching are wonderous sometimes.. lol.. I really enjoyed this and so did the rest of the Clan, even our chief!






Good thing we had Army backup.. lol





Isa had her first find and was waaaay excited.















After checking for ticks we stopped at a nice area with a water pump that delivered crisp and cold water - quite refreshing!!















































Nearby there was a flock of sheep with their shepherd and dog that were really nice and let the kids close and we had a nice sunday walk on top of it.




















On the way back over the Rhine there was a really really nice old cool Harley Davidson next to us and I had to take a picture, what a bonus!!
After a quick stop at the ice cream parlor we fired up the grill and rewarded ourselves with ribs and bratwurst.. what a perfect sunday!!!

Beach day in Oppenheim :-D

Yeah yeah yeah... german children must turn out horrible because they grow up in such freedom.. just strip your clothes and hop in the water without people giving it a second thought..
I see nothing wrong with it, if you do don´t read on please.
Well, there´s actually not that much to read about, just wanted to share the fun time they had at a bikeride to the local fleamarket by the river that turned into a beach outing..



poor Juju being chased..
















today´s children.. I love this picture :-D

























the overseer... guess the bikes are alright
















makeshift blanket made from mom´s shirt so they can sit.. lol..

















the overseer is still doing a good job




















this is great!!














I´m a water rabbit..
or frog

or something












friends Kyra and Leo

Senckenberg Museum

Absolutely awesome Museum of Natural History - the Senckenberg Museum conveniently located right next to parts of the University of Frankfurt.













T-Rex outside sporting a Galaxy Jersey - the World Bowl is coming up on June 23!!!
P.S. -he has a micro geocache hidden as well :-D my little reward for dragging the monsters through FFM.. he he










oops, what did I do this time? The vulcano is smoking.....
















Hi Baby Triceratops, I´m Baby Jujusaurus!!! :-D


















Juju on his busride through Frankfurt









Can I throw him into the Dino pit now?









aaaah! He´s gonna get me!!!!

















well deserved break upstairs..












and a cooooooool off at home afterwards!

Graduation... Class of 007

subtitles should read SOB SOB, SNIFFLES - WAAAAH!!!! Our baby has graduated!!!!
We only have a handful of pics available right now because of battery issues (ehem..) but the graduation ceremony was great, yet looooongggggg
OK OK, I admit publically that I cried when they walked in.. sniff.. good thing I had Juju on my lap and all eyes were on the Seniors - oh yeah and Juju had a shirt to wipe my eyes on.. grin..
Enough of that though - it was great. They had prepared some James Bond music and the band did really good, the partial drumline was great and they had even prepared a rap/song piece while a short movie about the year was shown.
One of the good things was that this time I had no nursing toddler with me that cried "mommy I want boobie" during the turning of the rings and tassles.. ha ha ha..
Supposedly the whole ceremony should have been online since last night but I haven´t found it yet. I will post the link as soon as I can!
And of course, I will add pictures, too!!!!!






ok, let me pose as if I´m actually cool.. he he

















yeah man, I can´t believe it either.. they actually let us graduate!
lol

Medieval Festival (13 May 07)

Do they bite???????

Up here at the Landskrone they have the perfect background for a medieval festival - miracle this has only been the 2nd year!
Last year was fun, this year was more fun since we didn´t have to drag Juju all of the time, just part of it.. lol
There were swordfights, a hanging, lots of beer, food and wine, fun for the kids and so on.. This year we didn´t have to invest 40 € in a new medieval shirt for Alex though - wohoo!
wonder if they had forgotten him last year.. lol

our favorite - he was soooo much fun!

hmm... he looks in pain..


the FRO and the hemp... lol



snowwhite and her prince :-D

The first......

Our very first geocache was called "by the gate to eternal peace".. lol.. ok, hopefully geocaching will bless me with eternal peace, right now it is giving all of us tons of fun - that´s already good enough for me.. ha ha
During a doggy sitting weekend we went for an evening stroll along the outskirts of Oppenheim when it started poooooooouring rain! I had expected maybe a couple of drops but not this.. lol.. but we still had fun and the nice thing about rain is that generally nobody else is out.
We actually didn´t find the cache that day because my Neandertal-GPS was pointing us directly into the cemetary and I was pretty sure that could not be right.. then it pointed to the inside of a building and that sounded wrong as well.. so we looked around a while, found some interesting things and went home for the night.
The next morning we checked it out again and it all the sudden made so much sense to look where it was actually hidden - wohoo!!!!!
First find, first log, wohoo!!!!

Caching with the little ones...

If you´ve ever been geocaching with small children (in this case 5, 5, and 2.5) you´ll know what I´m talking about..well, actually it applies to most travels.. ha ha..
Are we there yet? How much higher do we have to climb? Can you carry me? Can you pull me? Can I ride on the dog? :-D
Once we made it to the top (yes, it WAS a steep climb straight up through the vineyards with 2 breaks) they loved it! They couldn´t get enough of the view and kept discovering new things on the horizon every second - begging me they could stay there all night.. ha ha..
As this was only a micro cache I thought it would take about 2 minutes to get it but.... we were totally misled by the many footprints up and down the slope until I was about to give up.. and remembered the hint in the listing of "Happy Birthday".. tadaaaaaa. The kids were all excited (yeah, me too.. lol) and we logged happily and deservedly.. grin..
The descend all the way down to Oppenheim was fun as well and the kids dropped into a deep coma once they hit their beds - mission successful on all levels! Wohoo.. grin

Geocaching with monsters :-D

On a beautiful sunday morning, a small group of Germaricans ventured out towards the unchartered country of Rheinhessen... a small settlement called Dalheim was the destination. Armed with a treasure seeking dog, bottled water, fruits, diapers, wipes, a cell phone and most of all - a BRAND SPANKING NEW GPS (!!!! - can you tell I´m ecstatic? lol), the small brother- and sisterhood made their way despite of the scorching sun. The goal was: Fuchsloch - our first family cache. Cache? Yup, after I´ve been reading and learning about geocaching for a couple of months now I finally hooked up our ancient PDA with the GPS unit that we bought in.. 2001?? OMG - in GPS terms that is more than ancient.. lol.. Neandertal..it´s generally off course about 50 feet which is alot..
Nevertheless, that combination got us up to Stage 3 of this cache last time but then ran out of batteries.. goshdarn.. lol.. so this time we were armed not just with a new GPS but also with spare batteries and Alex who was in school during the last attempt. He proved himself worthy because I made him find the first stages on his own using the GPS. Then we had a really hard time looking for the stage 3 micro cache where the final coordinates were hidden. So while Alex and I looked for it, Isa and Juju climbed around, picknicked and explored the vineyards in the area.. no grapes yet though.. ha ha
Once we finally found it we packed up and made our descend back to the valley. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that after the initial hike up to the ridge (5 minutes) we were able to just walk comfortably with a great view and hardly and elevation changes.

Half way down we had a muggle alert since one of the local farmers was picking off potato bugs from the plants... so we hung out for a while and played with the dog and talked to her - meanwhile Alex was searching the area for the location... (small user error.. lol) but we had a small climb ahead of us. After shaking the muggle eyes off us we went for the last stretch and while I thought it was somewhere else, Alex made a straight shot for the cache and found it within a minute!

The cache was in great shape and we retrieved a travelbug from it called "Oscar the great" - his destination is California but right now he´s hanging with us, enjoying a well earned small vacation with German Hefeweizen, BBQ and some good old Puerto Rican salsa! :-D

Right now Oscar and the rest of the Clan are gearing up to go find a new home for him... I´ll be sure to write about it!