X-Mas -6 and 6 Makes Twelve

Six kids and six adults makes for a great Christmas... Here are some highlights.
The girls are watching Tom and Jerry on the computer.

Chris' first real X-mas in CA. I think he has the hang of it...

Meghan is ready to shop...She asked Santa for "Pink Toys". I guess Santa is a good listener.

The boys anticipate a battle of water...

The battle zone...Plenty of weapons for everyone and every age. Sheesh.

Sean and Warren were never hard to find. If they weren't shooting each other in the yard with water guns, they were shooting each other virtually.

Here is the obligatory group picture of the kids...There will be another one next year - Kyle. That will make 7. Time to add on to the house.

Knott's Trip

Sean had another day off in early February. So we met up with his classmate Jessica and her mom and sister at Knott's Berry Farm. (Thanks goes to fellow Rotarian Don for comping us into the park.)

Boy's Day Out!

Sean had the day off from School. So we did a little work and a little play topped off by a lunch at the Hat store. Pastrami, onion rings, and Root Beer - the perfect lunch.

Sean's 6th Birthday

We had a bowling party for Sean's 6th Birthday. A good time was had by all. Thanks goes out to the parents for making Sean's day special.

Holloweeeeen!

Here is a picture of Sean and Jessica at his school for Holloween.

LA Natural History Museum Trip

Sean, Mom, and I went to the LA Natural History Museum. It was alright. They have some good exhibits; but nothing out of the ordinary. We went to the Discovery Zone and dug up fossils. We found this great gift in the gift store; but the polar bear wouldn't fit in our SUV.

Test and stuff

Uh, this is and test and stuff.

First AYSO Soccer game...

Sean had his first organized soccer game today. He had alot of fune and did pretty well, although I think he has a little too much Power Ranger in his style. Meghan cheered from the sidelines and shows off one of the side-effects of blue Powerade.

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend was a bit anti-climatic as we had just returned from Mahoney's European Vacation; but we did go get the clearanced slip-n-slide. The kids had fun in the back yard.

The last week in Europe...

So we are back in the US. Ahh, the comfort of my own pillow.... Anyhow, we spent the last week of our trip getting gifts for those back home and doing some touristy stuff in Berlin. The picture below is at Check Point Charlie. I usually am relagated to babysitting while the girls shop so I get to people watch. I bought an apple juice at "Snack Point Charlie" right across from Check Point Charlie. Heh.
Then I took the kids for some quality time at the Kinderspiel the evening before Silvia and I went to Poland.
The below photo is of a section of the main square in Cracow. The main square is the largest in Europe. Cracow is best known for the "camps" outside of town, but it was also largely spared by allied bombing and thus contains some of the best examples of early architecture in the world. The original seat of gov't, it contains amazing buildings and streets.
In direct contrast though, are many examples of 40 years of communist rule. It is amazing to see the contrast of pre-war buildings mixed with the soviet architecture (oxymoron) and the last 20 years of modern investment. There wasn't the huge investment of capital given to Poland after communism left that East Germany enjoyed. I think that Poland may be better off for it as the growth is more organic and without the huge debt to overcome. Cracow has a huge Gallaria Mall and is in many ways more accepting of Westernization.
The next morning we went to see the death camps. I could go on for hours describing the impact of the visit. The two biggest feelings you get are the efficiency in which things were done and the scale of the operation. The first picture is of Camp 1.This picture is of camp 2. It is 7x bigger than camp one. Truly a spooky place. The visitors do not give it the respect it deserves.

I have one point to make: It is important to not dehumanize those responsible for what took place here. Those reponsible were not aliens from another planet or souless monsters we see in movies. Those responsible were often family men and good soldiers. Those responsible were too much like ourselves for us to say, absolutely, that I would never have done such a thing. The true insidious evil of this place is that it could have easily been one of us on holding a rifle or holding a shovel. This place truly shows the depths to which our humanity can be lowered. A depth where only cruelty, pain, and dehumanization exists. 'Nuff said.
Ok now.. wow. Back to more mundane life.... We went to get the train to Warsaw the next day and I helped a guy carry his 50Kilo bags up the track. No good deed goes unpunished... I broke my camera doing it. So below is my last picture of our vacation... I missed about 4 days of photos. Bummer.

All in all, it was a fantastic time in Berlin and Poland. We went to Legoland in the Sony Center in Patsdamer Platz. We ate bad pizza and excellent schitzel and most excellent bier. I stole a couple beer steins...
The best part is that we were with family all the time. We shared the ups and downs. And we can laugh about it now because we're all ok.
School starts next week and I've got a ton of laundry to do....

Meghan's Birtthday...

We were going to go to Lego Land in the Sony Center but the line was long and in the rain...we we walked around in the rain instead. We passed by the Holocaust Memorial and saw the new US Embassy under construction. We ended up eating at a pasta bar and walking back to the Patsdamer Platz to come home.
There was a memorial to the wall. Sean is pictured here taking a closer look.It was also Meghan's 3rd Birthday. We had a cake and all the usual stuff.
Everyone helped open presents.The girls tend to coagulate together around the girlie toys.
Friday morning consisted of hide and seek around the flat. What may appear as an inoccuous clothes hamper is actually...sleeping quarters for two small waifs.
Today, I have a Rotary meeting at 1pm. Then some random shopping. We don't have a car anymore so our roaming is limited to public transportation. The difference is imperceptible.

Finally made it to the carnival...

The weather was finally nice enough in the evening to brave a trip to the carnival. Germany seems to be more accepting of the carnival event than some other countries like Sweden. As you can see, it is a very popular event with Germans. This one was the American/German Carnival. There were paintings of US States and American style music and food.Sean and Meghan were first up on the merry go round.
Of course there were many trips around on the pony rides...
After some hesitation and seeing his younger cousins participate, Sean tried the bungy jumping. It had been raining lightly but steadily for about an hour....
Waiting for the train back to Berlin, the boys are seen here tired and wet. It was a warm night (low 80's) even with the rain.
It was an excellent night out. I had a 3 foot long Wurst and a beer (I kept the glass). There was alot of American style BBQ and Chinese food. I did have a Miller Genuine Draft beer. But the German beer was much better.

It is raining this morning. We are supposed to go to Lego Land downtown. It is also Meghan's 3rd B-day and Silvia and my 10th wedding anniversary.

Wi: Stasi Trip

We went into old East Germany to see the Stasi museum. Our train took us outside Berlin where we got Wurst from the Human Wurst Stand.Then just outside the Stasi museum was another food stand. I had a horse meatball from the "Horse Ball Stand". There was even a picture of a horse on the menu. I was unable to resist.
This is a picture of the outside of infamous "Building 1" of the Stasi or East German Secret Police. The Stasi has a budget in 1987 of 1.3B Marks nearly 1.3% of GDP. There were nearly 61,000 officers and nearly 157,000 "unofficial" informants.
Preserved are the original offices and furniture of the high ranking Stasi officers including Erich Mielke. http://www.geocities.com/isanders_2000/stasi.htm