First Day of School

 And at least one of them had a proper haircut!

East Germany Forests

Another year, another Breuer family holiday in the remotest regions of Germany. This year we ended up in the Erzgebirge Region of East Germany because it was the closest spot to Chemnitz that offered the solitude that the Breuers love in a vacation yet close enough to Chemnitz to make travel easier for Regina and baby Erbste. 

A few fun facts and ruminations from the trip:

Martin took the kids over a week early since that time worked best for his family and I still had to work due to our quarterly earnings call and filing. Looking back, even though I had to work, those few nights at home by myself felt more like a vacation than the actual vacation

Germans strongly believe in personal responsibility and liability. There were so many things we were able to do that have long since been shut down in the US due to potential lawsuits: platform diving at a local lake, water slides with no supervision, Bobbahn (aka mountain roller coaster) where you controlled the brakes, the tube slide where Alva face planted giving herself a nasty scrape on her nose and an old mine tour where the USSR used to mine silver then uranium and you still could give the drilling machine a try inside the caves. 

Germans also love to tell you no. No, we were not allowed to bring in an ice cream cone to the outdoor patio restaurant where we were hoping to order coffee and cake. No, we couldn’t bring Alva’s bottle of juice out of the restaurant after dinner. No you don’t need a properly marked trail to hike back to the actual path when you have an app that says it really is a trail. And no, you shouldn’t skip on coffee and cake each day. 

And after 2 weeks of the German lifestyle I think the kids might need a sugar and shopping detox. In just one day the kids enjoyed: ice cream, poppsies, afternoon cake, apple juice for lunch and another sugary juice with dinner. They also had the urge to buy something, anything, everywhere we went (the mining museum, the space museum, the city wide celebration, the library). We will definitely need to reinstate the Disneyland rules for all future travel in Germany and Europe: $20 to spend on the entire trip and only two freebies for snacks or treats per day.

Seattle

Went to Seattle for a hot minute. Caught up with Jo and finally got to meet her daughter Bryce! It was weird to be back downtown after my stint at DocuSign. Same same but different. 

Alva Turns 6!

Alva is officially six and the celebrations can be summarized in two words: Harry Potter. It was a Harry Potter event that spanned weeks. Her birthday party with friends was Harry Potter themed, her school cone (which she got three weeks after her birthday was Harry Potter decorated) and her presents definitely slanted towards the Wizarding World of Hogwarts including a Hermoine Granger time turner necklace, Hogwarts cloak, a new wand with carrying case, a stuffed animal Crookshanks, Harry Potter mini figures, a Harry Potter magical coloring book, Harry Potter stickers, a Harry Potter cookbook and a Harry Potter Lego set. 

I must admit it is so much fun seeing her so dedicated and excited about something!