The oasis

Last weekend we went on a church retreat, to a place called "Oase". It was a cool, rainy weekend, but it was great! The "oasis" is run by the Catholic Church and located in a tiny village that is completely "organic", meaning they raise only organically grown crops. The nice thing about our church retreats is that we have a lot of free time to spend with each other or to recharge in solitude. The kids loved exploring the place, so we spent quite some time out of doors.

Part of the "oasis"

Always a hit with our kids: tractors!

Ready for a walk

Lily is a good walker, but if transportation is available she's all for it!

Some of the cows had name tags, and we had fun calling them to the fence by name.


The "Peace Bells". There is a sign saying "Made to kill, now ringing for peace on earth." The "bells" are 2 US, 1 British and 1 German bomb shell from WWII. We hammered on them so much this world should be a lot more peaceful now. (And for the farmers among us, that is a field with really funny beans in the background, pesticide free of course.)

All Lily had to say to this was "Poor nake, poor nake!" (Notice the snake Mary is stepping on.)

Everything was lush and green, we really enjoyed our walks there.

And we had time, lots of it. No need to be anywhere or do anything, it was so nice! We watched this earthworm crawl all the way across the road. (When Lily saw him she exclaimed: "Look, a lormie!")

The food was very good, the rooms were clean and comfortable. Still, all four of us in one bedroom was a challenge. I've slept better and longer. :) Didn't help that we hung out with our friends after the kids were asleep, watching a movie and sampling organic beer. Both were good!

And this is for Grandpa. Next time you are here we know where to take you fishing. Forget Candle Lake! All you need here is a stick, a piece of bread and a net.

New

So what's new? Two things come to mind:

Our new patio furniture, courtesy of Oma and Opa (mostly)! Finally, a nice new table and four comfortable chairs. You can see them in the background here, behind that cute little cherry. :)

Aaah!

And this! Lily has been diaper free during the day for 2 weeks now. She is doing this potty thing very well, accidents are extremely rare. She is such a big girl already, I sometimes can't believe she is only 26 months old myself! (Most people think she is older.)

Our next big step will be to take her beloved "Schnullis" away, the pacifiers she keeps in her bed. I am planning on giving them to our neighbor Christine's baby, who will be born in September (not to use of course!). This was Lily's reaction when I told her we will give the Schnullis to the "babies that need them" soon.

Lots of colleagues and a grill

Every year Neil's department has a BBQ at the "Baggersee", a big (artifical) lake and park on the edge of town. It's always fun! Lots of food and drinks, some bring their families, some play beach volleyball, some even go swimming. We mostly stick to chasing the kids, eating lots and maybe throwing a ball here and there.

Firing up the BBQ

Enjoying some lemonade

They marvelled at how big the trees were and wanted to climb up to get sticks.

Finally they found some sticks lying around they could throw in the water.


Playing airplane with mommy ...

... and chase with daddy.

Lily took on the task of putting the empty bottles back in their cases. She figured out which went where pretty quickly. And wanted to take half empty beer bottles from the guys to put them in their proper place. :)

Summer fun

It has been a while since I updated. Here are some random July pictures.

Lily and Finn eating their favourite desert: jello ladybugs, made from grapejuice and chocolate.

I made four, thinking that if Neil or me wanted to eat one we could. Ha ha.

Here's Lily on her way to playschool. They were going on a field trip that day to see the donkeys on a nearby farm. (I just HAD to dig up Finn's old donkey outfit for the occasion! :) She wasn't sure what to think of all the people standing around outside at first, but ...

... when she learned she would ride in a wagon AND get a pretzel she was all for it!


Since Ulli is working in Munich right now we get to see her quite regularly. Every now and then, if she can get out of the office early (well, early for her), she will come by for a couple hours. And sometimes she even brings sushi! Which we discovered we now have to share with Lily. ("I like it! I like it!!")

Her favorites are Avocado Maki and the rolls covered in crunchy orange roe (fish eggs). She can eat quite a few!

All together now!

After four weeks of being apart the big day finally came - we went to pick Neil up at the airport! We were all so happy to see each other again.

Here are some of the things daddy brought back from the desert: a lamp just like Aladdin had, a scorpion picture ..

... and a box with beach treasures that he collected for Lily.

Now life is back to normal and we're a happy little family again. :)

Back in Karlskron

Our first few days here have been a lot of fun! Finn and Lily really enjoy being home again. They are rediscovering all their toys and loved to play with Oma and Opa (who just left this morning).


Now if only Lily would get over her jetlag. While Finn is sleeping very well at night and usually only wakes up once or twice because he is thirsty, Lily is awake for a few hours every night. She goes to sleep nicely in her own bed at 8pm (noon and nap time in Saskatoon), sleeps for about 3 hours and then wakes up. She is inconsolable until I pick her up and bring her to my bed, where she happily talks and cuddles with me. The first couple nights she was awake until about 4am, now we're down to 1 or 2 hours, but since we are getting up at 7:30 to get Finn ready for preschool we're both lacking a bit in the sleep department. Hopefully by just sticking to our schedule she will adjust soon.


And Thursday morning we will go to the airport to pick Neil up! We can't wait!!!

Breakfast with Oma and Opa! Finn wanted scrambled eggs, just like in Canada (where Grandpa made them).

Outside fun! Lily was happy to have her trike back and she rides it very well now. I can tell she grew some by how she reaches the pedals.

The new, bigger sandbox that Neil built while we were in Canada. They love it!

Fun in the paddling pool with the green turtle. It gets pretty crowded in there though!

Opa having fun. Finn kept saying, "Hey, what was THAT?!". Took him a while to figure out where the water was coming from. :)

Opa and his little friends.

Yummy, berries!

We're home!

Well, we made it home safe and sound. I had to break the news to the kids that daddy would not be waiting for us in Germany, as he had to leave for a week-long business trip the day before we came back. (We obviously didn't know about that when we booked the tickets.) BUT - Oma and Opa came all the way to Bavaria to be with us for a few days and make the transition easier.

The flight itself went well, in fact it was better than the trip to Canada because this time both of them slept on the overseas flight. Getting on and off airplanes with four carry-on bags and two small kids requires some help sometimes, but we took our time and everything went fine. And I have to say, Finn and Lily were champions! They did what I asked them to do and were generally well behaved, even Lily who missed her noon nap. I brought a ton of toys and games and we played a lot on the flight to Toronto. They loved take-off and landing, and their cheers and screams of joy lightened up the mood in the cabin quite a bit. After touchdown Lily shouted, "More! More!", it was hilarious.

We had a couple hours at the Toronto airport and took our time getting to our next gate. We had some food and water (the wheelchair- and Finn-accessible low water fountains provided endless entertainment) and I made them run around some before we boarded again. As it was a night flight the lights in the cabin were dimmed after supper, and they both went to sleep relatively easily. Lily slept for about 4.5 hours, Finn for about 3. I had to wake them up for landing and getting off the plane. They were a bit groggy, but a lollipop helped to revive them. And while Lily fell asleep in the car on the way home and later had another nap Finn managed to stay awake all day on those 3 hours of sleep.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Our flight was delayed in Saskatoon, so they played and ran around for about an hour.

A last stop and Boston Creme donut at Tim Horton's (at the airport).

Here we are rolling through the Toronto airport.


We made it to Munich, hooray!

Waiting for the rest of our luggage. I managed to get all of this through the doors by myself!

And there he was waiting for us: Opa!

Oh Canada!

So that was it - our last day here in Canada! And it was Canada Day, what better ending to a great stay could there have been?

Kurt, the kids and I went to the Canada Day festivities in Diefenbaker Park this morning. It was fun! I like that THIS is the first thing you see when you get there. Gotta get your priorities right, right?

Finn and Lily sported moderately patriotic attire. After all, they're only half Canadians.

Other people were not so subtle. My favourite part was when this lady got out of her wheelchair and started dancing to the Metis fiddling going on on the stage at that point.

Proud Canadians.

Bored Canadians.

Then, finally, the Pipes and Drums were getting this show on the road! Lily decided to take a closer look. Men in skirts, how funny! Finn decided he didn't like all that piping, only the "clown in the middle with the drum" played good music. :)

As Kurt put it: "The weather was great, the crowd was good, and the speeches were boring - everything was normal!"

Finn was scared of this Cree Chief and all his feathers. :)

A bag of popcorn restored his peace of mind quickly, though. By the way, this is his favourite shirt, it's Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

The "good crowd".

And after Lily's nap Finn's wish was granted and we went back to the Kinsmen Park paddling pool. They had so much fun! Lily had to get used to not having water wings on; I had to pull her out of the water a few times before she caught on.

The Pelican slide! When we were there yesterday Finn took off and was halfway up (fully dressed) before I could get to him.

And after we came home they enjoyed playing with some nice prairie dirt while Grandpa was grilling burgers on the deck.

I guess the next post will be from good old Germany. I'm hoping for an uneventful flight and that they will actually sleep on the plane this time!