Camping Photos

Well we had a good time camping. Matthias seemed to like S'mores. We pretty much spent the weekend avoiding the rain and keeping the fire going, but it was nice to just relax and hang out with the family.

Matthias building a sand castle:


Lucas destroying it:


Matthias checking out a bike at Walmart:


Lucas in new favorite toy:


At the camp site:

Camping for the Weekend

After I head into work for 2 hours tomorrow Matthias and I are going to head off to Ohio for the weekend. We're driving so we can bring the bikes along. It's been a long time since I've made the drive from Maryland to the Cleveland area. We going camping with Andy and his family out near Sandusky. We'll spend Sunday evening and Monday morning in Cleveland with my parents before driving back. I'm not sure what exactly we have planned for activities. We'll definitely make S'mores and ride the bikes. Given how hot it's supposed to be we'll probably want to jump in the lake at some point.

I wrote "camera" on my packing list so with any luck there will be pictures posted next week.

They Followed Me

I survived two weeks in Kansas during tornado season. I'm in Maryland for 5 days and what happens? Yep, tornadoes. We had to shelter-in-place at work on Wednesday afternoon because of a tornado warning. They're investigating 3 tornadoes in the D.C. area. Craziness...I think the tornadoes followed me home!

Kansas - May 19 to 30th

So I spent two weeks in Kansas for work. I did get to come home over the weekend, thankfully. I didn't end up getting to see much of Kansas, and specifically Lawrence, because I was working crazy hours. My coworker and I explored downtown Lawrence along Massachusetts, had some great food and browsed the shops. I took a bike ride one day thanks to a bike-loaner program at the Holiday Inn Express I stayed at. My coworker and I also took a trip to the Kansas City Zoo. The zoo is absolutely huge and very nice.

And that was about all I had time for. I didn't even get to use the hotel pool or go to the movie theater that was 100 yards away. We were so busy at work! Oh well, it was a good trip all-in-all. No tornadoes!!!

Cleveland - May 11th

For the weekend, Matthias and I flew up to Cleveland to get the grand-slam of spring celebrations. We missed Andy's 30th Birthday and Dad's birthday in April but made it up for Lucas' 1st birthday party and mother's day. So, everyone was happy to see us because they all got presents. Mom, Dad, Matthias, and I took a quick trip to the Cleveland Zoo. Unfortunately, it seems to be undergoing a lot of renovation and upkeep and a lot of animals were not on display. Some photos from the weekend...

Cuckoo Clock

Here's my clock! I bought it from the House of 1000 Clocks. It has 12 melodies and you'll see the parts that move. Fortunately it has a light sensor so it doesn't chime at night. I don't recognize all of the songs but it plays Edelweiss, Sound of Silence, and Oh My Darlin', Clementine.

Making a cake out of a molehill

On the list of things to eat in Germany was maulwurfskuchen, or roughly translated molehill cake. It's called this because it looks like a molehill...plenty of which I saw in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molehill

We didn't eat a maulwurfskuchen in Germany but we bought the cake mix and made the cake today. It's basically a chocolate cake with the middle carved out and filled with bananas and cool whip and then covered with chocolate cake flakes. It's yummy.

Here's our attempt: