Monday, August 27, 2012

Wild Life










Wild-Life, is what we found at the Henry Doorly Wildlife Safari Park.














It took on many forms, from crazy faced kids and moms to Bald Eagles, Pelicans, Ducks, Turtles, Cranes and Elk.













Everybody had a great time.


















Where else can you see all this stuff from the comfort of your car?

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Made in Germany...

For one afternoon,while in Germany, Daniela and I decided we needed to do a little shopping.  So we kindly left Matt back at the hotel to take a nap.  We looked all over to find my kids the cutest little traditional German attire.  This is what we came up with.  All the while not knowing what size to buy because they use a different sizing method. It turns out they fit just right. Maybe now we will need to have our very own Oktober Fest!!
Isn't he cute!!

pretend I am not in this picture.


Our blue tongues after eating the Lebekuchen. 

Marcus and Molly with their own Lebekuchen from Daniela.

Here goes!!

Molly was more specific. She wanted a heart shape cut out of the middle of her heart shaped cookie.






















Again... I cannot figure out why the pictures will not turn the right way...

...it's easier for you to turn your head!

-Kalee







Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Summer Fun

Marcus and Molly spent time at my parents and Kalee's parents too, while we were in Munich.  Kalee's rents put in an above ground pool this summer, just in time for all those consecutive 100+ days.  They haven't been the only ones to enjoy the pool.  Kalee's brother's kids live about 15 minutes away and get to take a dip pretty regularly.

Turns out that Marcus is learning how to hold his breath under water, and all it took was some time at Grandma Mickie's house.  He really likes the dive masks, I think because they keep the water out of his nose.  Molly prefers a more aunatural approach to swimming, and just keeps her eyes open the whole time.




Even with all the hot weather, the water was still pretty cold.  I could only stand it for a bit and then I switched to taking pictures instead.  It was fun to catch the kids as they jumped in and capture the happy looks on their faces.

Glick, Chuckie, and Rocket joined us on Sunday for some swimming fun.  Can't wait to go back.





Monday, August 6, 2012

Munich 2012!

Munich (or München to those who speak Duetch), Bavarian city of Art, Music, bicycles, beer, sausages, and pretzels.

Kalee and I arrived at Flughafen München on Sunday, July 29th.  From there we took the S8 München Bahn to Hauptbahnhof, only it doesn't stop there on Sundays.  So we blew all the way across town to Pasing, and took the S6 back.  Once we got to the central station (literal translation of Hauptbanhof) it was a two block walk to the Art Hotel, where we stayed all four nights.


That night we had fun hunting for a restaurant, because being a tourist town, Munich is closed on Sundays.  We found this cute little place, that was showing the Olympics and serving typical Bavarian food.  We weren't the only expats there and ran into an Aussie/Kiwi couple and talked about Windows 7, the Olympics, beer, and world travel.

I gave my presentation on Efficient Quasi Group Block ciphers at ICCCN Monday morning, and Daniella, Kalee's friend met us that night and we had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus that evening.  More vinegar and salt, yum!


Munich is a great city.  It is both modern and Gothic at the same time.  Much of the Gothic architecture isn't truly from that time frame though, as it was constructed in Munich's golden age in the 18th and 19th century, with a good portion coming from (Mad) Konig Lüdwig von Bayern's pocketbook.  Like the rest of Europe, turns out that imperialism was a good thing for the pocket book and with Lüdy being from Bayern (Bavaria to us Englush) Munich prospered too.

I mean where else can you surf 450 km from the sea.

As a tourist town, there was a lot of shopping, and Munich is an art city, has been for a while.  We visited the Alte Pinakothek, which has the largest collection of Peter Paul Rubens paintings in the world.  So whether you're looking for a pair of 12€ jersey jini pants, or multimillion dollar 14th century art, it's the place to go.  Not to mention the weather was awesome.  Highs of about 24 every day, sunny and no rain.