WeilThings Archive

A Little of This and a Little of That

31.Mar.07

Over the past few weeks we haven't taken reams of pictures from any stunning sightseeing excursions but we have taken a few here and there.

	Each year an old couple drive a herd of sheep across the city (don't ask us why) and their route goes through the field and down the trail behind our house. Jen and Kathleen took the boys back there to see them this year and took a couple shots. The dogs were working pretty hard but seemed to be having a blast.
	Although Bastian is supposed to stay out of Jazz's kennel, he sometimes gets the biggest kick out of throwing all of Jazz's toys in and then going in after them. Joe took a quick picture of him. Doesn't he have a guilty look on his face?
	The weather was great here recently so Joe took advantage of the sun last Sunday afternoon and went on a motorcycle ride to visit a couple of semi-castles in the area.
	Later that afternoon we took Bastian on a walk down the trail to the bridge over the train tracks so he could watch the trains go by. Trains are second only to cars on his favorites list.
	This morning we took Bastian, Austin, and Dylan to the animal park with Austin and Dylan's Grandma Judy (Oma). That big buck was still there guarding the entrance and this time nobody got bit by any geese.
	Then this afternoon we went to an event called "Kunst am Ei" or "Art of the egg" downtown. It is an Ostereier-Börse which is basically an Easter egg market. There were stands with people selling real eggs adorned with different kinds of artwork. It was held in a building called the Gürzenich. The building was built around the ruins of a church called Alt St. Alban which was severely damaged in WWII. The exterior wall of Alt St. Alban is actually inside the Gürzenich building. Joe took a couple shots of the church ruins which are currently under restoration.

Finger Painting for Grampa

19.Mar.07

Bastian had fun covering his hands in finger paint last weekend to add his personal touch to a T-shirt Grampa sent him to make. A very cute idea and we managed to keep the paint off of most everything else! Click here for the pictures.

Valentines Gifts and Karneval

19.Feb.07

Bastian scored big with autos in Valentine gifts this year. We took a couple of pictures, one video of him opening the gift from Grampa and another of him opening the gift from Gramma.

Karneval is in full tilt here this past weekend. Our friends, Hil and Matt, and their 1 year old, Carleigh, came up from Stuttgart to visit for the weekend. On Sunday we all dressed up in costume to take the kids down to the neighborhood Karnevalszug (carnival parade) for children. The kids collected a ton of candy thrown from the floats and we got a few good pictures of us all.

Playdates, Drums and "The Knack"

9.Feb.07

Last weekend we went to the Gelfand's pad for dinner. Bastian had a great time playing hockey with Liam and bangin' around on Peter's drum set. Joe took a couple pictures of the boys and one short video clip of Bastian and Liam playing drums.

We also posted this hilarious short video clip called "The Knack" that Joe personally identified with. We wonder what's in store for Bastian...

Celebrating Jen's 32nd Birthday

29.Jan.07

Yesterday Joe baked a lemon cake with lemon cream cheese icing and after a nice dinner we celebrated Jen's 32nd Birthday. With lots of help from Bastian and Jazz, Jen managed to open all of her gifts. :) We also took a video of Joe and Bastian singing "Happy Birthday" and Bastian helping blow out the candles (Joe managed to catch most of the spit).

On Saturday Joe was playing with his new wireless webcam when Bastian discovered himself in the computer monitor. He spent the next 30 minutes or so entertained from watching himself on camera. It seems Bastian really needs that little brother to play with ASAP.

Geese bite but deer are nice

15.Jan.07

First of all, happy new year everyone. We hope 2007 brings you many blessings and happiness. Although this is our first post of 2007 it is actually for some pictures taken in the last few days of 2006. The first set is from another weekend visit to the animal park. It proved to be both a high and low for Bastian as he got to hand feed a real deer but also got his finger munched on by a mean goose. Lessons learned I guess. We also posted a few pictures of Bastian opening his Christmas present from GG and Aunt Sissy. He seems to find endless enjoyment from cars and bulldozers.

Christmas Video Clips of Bastian

2.Jan.07

Below are a few of the little video clips we took of Bastian while Gran and Grandad were here and opening Christmas presents:

	Bastian "helping" Gran bake cookies
	Bastian testing out his new 'Cars' electric toothbrush from Gran and Grandad
	Bastian enjoying the OU dishes from his Aunts Peg and Deb
	Bastian playing with the huge stickers from the movie 'Cars' that he got from Gran and Grandad
	Bastian and Gran having fun eating Bugles

Also, since we couldn't make it to the US for Christmas this year we used the webcam to stream video so Gramma and Grampa could watch us open all the gifts from Joe's side of the family. I saved that file in case someone on Joe's side wanted to see it. It can be downloaded here. Warning: It is a little over an hour long, about 75 megabytes and it's not very good video quality since it was a live video stream using a webcam.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

29.Dec.06

07 - Cologne Christmas market at the Dom.jpg

This year we stayed in Germany to celebrate Christmas for the first time. Jen's parents flew over and we had a great time watching Bastian open all his gifts. While they were here we visited the Christmas market near the Cologne Cathedral and attended midnight mass at the Cathedral on Christmas eve. The mass was really a memorable event with the imposing pipe organ, huge choir, brass orchestra and the overall atmosphere in such a huge old cathedral. We also visited a nice castle just north of Cologne called Schloss Burg. See all the pictures from John and Sudie's visit here. Pictures of Christmas, the gift openings (Weil side was on the 24th and Little side was on the 25th) and midnight mass are here. We also have several videos that we will post soon.

Getting into the Christmas spirit

23.Dec.06

Christmas time is upon us. The last month was spent wrapping up the Christmas shopping (mostly online since we can't travel home this year) and decorating the house preparing for Christmas. To get in the spirit we put the tree up and decorated the house at the end of November. Bastian really had fun "helping" and making faces in the reflective Christmas tree ornaments. Then the first week of December we joined our friend, Bernd, and his family at a nice Christmas market in their home town, Würselen, near Aachen.

Bastian also had some fun building forts with the sofa cushions, cooking with Momma, and hanging out with Rachanee, our nanny.

Visitors, new babies, and video clips

3.Dec.06

Well, we've fallen behing again so this is going to be a bit of a catch-up post.

First, the big news in the family, Mitch and Jen have adopted a beautiful baby boy! His name is Gabriel Joseph and we got a few pictures of his first weekend with the family.

Next are some pictures from the time we got to spend with our friends John, Carrie, and their daughter, Ava, while they were in Europe on vacation. We didn't make it to Normandy with them since we were all sick but they did spend the following weekend with us here in Cologne.

Last are a few videos clips from the last month:

	Bastian at the animal park feeding goats. We also shot a few pictures.
	Bastian crashing through a small tower of blocks with his Polizei Bobby Car.
	Bastian practicing his ABCs.
	And Bastian spelling his name.

Halloween at the Cologne Zoo

1.Nov.06

While in the middle of their European vacation, our friends John and Carrie and their daughter Ava joined us at the Cologne Zoo for Halloween. We dressed Bastian and Ava up as a Bavarian "Prince and Princess". We met up with our neighbors Pat and Kathleen and their boys Austin and Dylan dressed as a giraffe and lion. The four kids were pretty cute together. After the zoo Ava and Bastian spent some quality time together playing with autos.

We will have more pictures of John, Carrie, and Ava's visit next week. We plan to spend a long weekend with them touring the beaches of Normandy, France, this weekend and then back in Cologne next weekend.

Bastian is going to be a big brother!

18.Oct.06

Exciting news! We are expecting again. Looks like Bastian is going to be a big brother. Due date is late April. Click on the thumbnail for the first pics of New Baby Weil.

Video Clips and Motorcycle Rides

16.Oct.06

Joe caught up on editing a few of the video clips we took of Bastian in the past couple months and got them posted.

	This is a short video clip of Bastian opening a present from GG and Aunt Sissy.
	Next is a clip of Bastian walking to the beach during our vacation in Morocco. He's all ready with his shades, hat, pail, and shovel.
	Here is a clip of Bastian riding on our neighbors toy trike. Joe can already imagine him on dirk bikes!
	And last is a clip of Bastian counting to 10 in both English and German. We are wondering how many more months it will be before he knows more German than we do. ;)

Also, Joe took a nice motorcycle ride on Max last weekend. He hit three countries in three hours and took pictures of Max at each of the border crossing signs. First was crossing from Germany west into the Netherlands just north of Aachen. Then turning south and back into Germany on the west side of Aachen. Then west again crossing into Belgium southwest of Aachen finally returning to Germany a little later heading east to Cologne. He also took a couple shots looking east from the A4 toward Cologne about 10 miles out. You could already see the peaks of the Cathedral.

Vacation, Visitors, and Other Things

01.Oct.06

Ok, ok, you can all stop wondering why it's been so long since we've updated the website. The long excuse would involve stories of business travel, visitors, vacation etc., but the short excuse is that Joe is just lazy. In any case, here is our catch-up post.

	First we'll start with some pictures taken from an afternoon spent with our friends, the Gelfand's, at the Cologne Forstbotanischer Garten. It's a nice park with huge sand pits and a botanical garden area.
	Then in late August our friends Jay and Carrie visited us from the US.
	While Jay and Carrie were here we daytripped to Trier to see some Roman ruins and Boppard for wine tasting.
	On the way to Boppard we stopped at Stolzenfels Castle on the Rhein River.
	The following weekend we spent the night in Heidelberg. It's a cute town on the Neckar River with great ruins of a castle that can be toured.
	The next night we spent in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt. Jay, Joe, and Bastian enjoyed a festival called Lantern Fest while the girls got pampered in a day spa.
	On the way home from Bad Homburg we dropped Jay and Carrie off at the airport and then visited a small town called Limburg. They have a nice church on top of a hill and that day there was a sort of flee market street festival going on.
	Shortly after that Joe had to go to the US on a business trip. While in the US he was able to catch a flight back to St. Louis for the weekend to visit the family. Chris, Darryll, and Maureen hosted a wonderful brunch so Joe could see more of the family on this short visit. Thanks again! Sadly Joe didn't take any pictures from that trip.
	The day after Joe returned to Germany from the US we headed to Agadir, Morocco, for a week of fun in the sun vacation. It was wonderfully relaxing and Bastian had a blast playing in the huge "sandbox", in the ocean, and at the pool every day. We took a nap every day with Bastian and did a lot of nothing. One day we ventured away from the beach and took a camel ride. Bastian loved it but then fell asleep for the last 30 minutes or so. The Moroccan people are incredibly friendly and love children. It was quite refreshing to get such wonderful service anywhere we went after living in the service desert of Germany for the past couple years.

Of course we also have some cute pictures of Bastian that we took over the last couple months.

	First are some hilarious pictures we took of Bastian doing football poses (American style) in his OU outfit.
	While Joe was in the US, Jen took Bastian to a kind of touristy farm called Krewelshof where they have a pumpkin patch, play area for kids, restaurant and sell lots of fresh foods. Jen took a couple pictures of Bastian on a big pile of pumpkins.
	And in preperation for Halloween this year Jen found a great shop in downtown Cologne that sells children's lederhosen. We went down yesterday to have Bastian try some lederhosen on. He seemed to enjoy it and looked too cute.

Emrie Family Reunion

06.Aug.06

Last month was the annual Emrie Family Reunion Camping Trip. It was held again this year in the wooded surroundings of the beautiful Caton estate. Sadly, we had to miss it but I did get some great pictures from the Reunion and the rest of their StL visit from Deanna. I'm sure there are more great pictures to come from other family members (hint hint). ;)

Also, I finally took a few minutes to organize some of the pictures we took at the World Cup games we attended.

Bastian Turns 2

02.Aug.06

It's hard to believe but Bastian turned two years old last Friday. Time flies when you're having fun (and by fun we mean playing with toy cars, trains and motorcycles, or basically anything with wheels). Our family and friends out did themselves again by shipping tons of great gifts over for Bastian. We really appreciate you all having to fork out about as much for shipping as the gift itself. :) We opened all the gifts from the family on Friday and then had a birthday party on Sunday. 8 kids (and their parents) showed up for the party. It was totally fun chaos. And of course I can't forget to mention the fabulous Bulldozer cake that Jen made from scratch. She set a new bar for herself. Bastian loves Bulldozers, it was his first three syllable word, but never knew you could eat them! Thanks to our friends Pat for being the photographer again this year (maybe explains why he's not in any of the pictures) and Kathleen for helping with the cake and everything else. Click here for all the pictures.

We also shot a couple short video clips of Bastian playing with his train set and us singing "Happy Birthday" plus one of Bastian spelling his name with his "Name Train" gift from his aunts in Kansas.

Riverfront at Rhein Park

26.Jul.06

On Sunday we rode the bikes around downtown and across the Rhein river to Rhein Park. It's a large park located just downstream and across from the Cologne Cathedral. We stopped to let Bastian throw some rocks in the river and take a few pictures. Bastian slept in the bike trailer all the way home.

Uncle Curtis visits Bastian

23.Jul.06

Bastian's Uncle Curtis spent a couple weeks with us on the tail end of his Spain/Portugal trip. It was a great visit and Bastian got to spend a bunch of time bonding with his Uncle Curtis. The peak of Bastian's week was hanging out in the new kiddy pool that Uncle Curtis bought him for his birthday. Then on Curtis' last day we took a couple nice pictures of the four of us to be combined with the family picture taken at the family reunion that we missed. Click here for all the pictures.

Mitch, Jen and David visit for the World Cup

04.Jul.06

41 - Jen and Mitch in Bad Muenstereifel.jpg

It's been a while since our last update mostly because we have been wrapped up in World Cup fever here in Germany. It's been pretty crazy and watching 2 or 3 games a day has been a blast. I'll post a World Cup update later with all the pictures we took at the games and around town but I wanted to get some other pictures up first.

Joe's cousin Mitch, his wife Jen, and our friend David came to stay with us for a couple weeks during the Cup. We went to a couple games, watched a lot more, and had a blast the whole time. In between games we did some sight seeing around Cologne, visited Cochem and Bad Muenstereifel, and Mitch and Jen even spent the night in a castle. We really enjoyed their stay and were sad to see them leave. Click here for all the pictures.

After our visitors left we just had the weekend before Joe had to head off to China again. The weather was perfect so we went for a bike ride with our neighbors. On the ride we found this little animal farm and stopped to visit. Click here for a few pictures of the kids and the animals.

How Old Is Bastian?

11.Jun.06

Yes, we know Bastian is almost 2 but this little video clip shows that he knows how old he is right now. Click here for the video.

Paris, France

07.Jun.06

Last Monday was a holiday in Germany so we had a 3 day weekend. We decided the issues in Paris had settled down enough to take a roadtrip there for the long weekend. The weather was great and we really enjoyed the city. Sightseeing highlights included the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame. We were able to get some pretty good pictures of everything but cameras are restricted in much of the interior of the Louvre so the pictures of the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo are courtesy of Google Images. :) Bastian was a great traveler, as usual. He even hammed it up for a few pictures in his new sunglasses. Click here for all the pictures.

US Visitors and US Visit

30.May.06

28 - Blowin bubbles with his pants on his head.jpg

At the end April, beginning of May, our friends Brian, Beth, Greg, and Ginger came to visit. They stayed with us in Cologne for the first few days of their trip and then went off on their own from here. On their last day with us we visited a romantic village on the Mosel river, Cochem. Along with beautiful views of the vineyards over the Mosel river, Cochem has a nice castle. Click here for the pictures.

While Joe spent another couple weeks in China, Jen and Bastian went to the US to visit family and friends. Bastian, of course, got smothered with attention from the grand- and great grandparents while discovering the joys of whipped cream, chocolate pudding, and blowing bubbles with your pants on your head. Check out the pictures to see what I mean. :)

Easter, Sandals, and Hemsedal, Norway

02.May.06

Well, I'm playing a little catch-up with this post. We were planning to go to Paris for the 4-day Easter weekend but since the French weren't in the best mood due to the new labor law we decided to change the plans at the last minute. Instead, we jumped on a flight to Oslo, Norway, and then drove about 220km to Hemsedal, Norway, the self-proclaimed best ski area in Norway. The area was small compared to the Alpine resorts we have skied but proved to be really fun skiing. In addition to 4 terrain parks it had a lot of varied terrain, moguls, and tree skiing. Bastian even got to spend part of the time at the on-mountain daycare while Jen and I enjoyed skiing together. See all the pictures from Hemsedal here.

When we got back from Hemsedal Jen set up Bastian's first Easter egg hunt. It was so cute watching him find the eggs. Click here to see the video. Just to warn you, it is a big file (about 20 meg) but we didn't want to cut it down so the grandparents could enjoy the whole thing.

Last, but not least, is a short video of Bastian in his new spring outfit from Gramma. He was just too cute in the little sandals!

Monster Trucks, Motorcycles, and Stunts

10.Apr.06

Yesterday we took Bastian to a monster truck and stunt show in the area. It was pretty fun and Bastian kept repeating "auto" and "tuk" the whole time. Joe was most impressed by the motorcycle stunts especially the guy on the Honda street bike doing wheelies and endos. The most entertaining part about the trucks was the one they called "Bigfoot". The Bigfoot we know is a huge, professional, monster truck from St. Louis, but this one was a not-so-huge old Dodge! But check out the picture of the promotional poster for the event, you'll see the real Bigfoot! I wonder if Bob Chandler knows about this!?! Click here for the pictures and here for a short video.

All the stunts we saw at the show yesterday got Bastian pumped up to do some of his own so we set up a little stunt for him at home. Disclaimer: (1) no Bounty paper towels were injured in this stunt and (2) Bastian, like Joe, comes by it honestly. Click here for the video.

Boomer Sooner Bastian and at the playground

01.Apr.06

This has been a Bastian picture weekend. First are a couple of pictures and a short video clip of Bastian at the playground near our house. Then we dressed Bastian up in his OU Boomer Sooner outfit from Uncle Clint and Aunt Marcia and took a few shots of him in our little Sooner Schooner. We also got a cute little video of Bastian pushing the wagon.

Also, yesterday while Jen and Bastian were on the phone with GG Joe got a couple good shots of Bastian kissing the phone and saying bye-bye to GG.

And last but not least, Joe posted a couple pictures that Deanna sent of Anna Grace roller skating.

Val d'Isère, France

29.Mar.06

Last week we spent a wonderful week of skiing in southern France at a huge ski area called Val d'Isère. It was a much appreciated vacation after Joe's business travel and Jen picking up Joe's slack. We went with another couple, Peter and Dani, and their two boys, Liam and Sasha. Dani's sister, Andrea, also joined us. Liam is only a few months older than Bastian and Sasha is just 2 months old. We all took turns watching the kids and skiing or snowboarding. Getting there was an adventure. We took the train to Frankfurt, flew to Geneva, Switzerland, and then rented a van to drive to Val d'Isère, France. Map24.com took us through the Mont-Blanc tunnel into Italy and then over a mountain pass back into France. Near the top of the pass we discovered it is closed for the winter so we had to backtrack several hours. The rest of the week was fabulous and we even had some fresh snow and brilliant sunshine on a couple days. Val is a huge, high altitude resort with tons of wide open skiing way above the tree line. Peter found us a great apartment right in the heart of the base village so we really enjoyed the convenience and atmosphere. Click here for all the pictures.

China, again, and a care package from GG

27.Mar.06

Joe had to take another business trip to China. He got a chance to visit a couple more sites in Guangzhou plus spent the weekend in Hong Kong with a couple of his coworkers. Check out the pictures here.

Also, we got a very generous care package from GG (Mary June, Jen's grandma). Bastian helped open it and enjoyed the gifts while Jen and Joe enjoyed the food. Click here for the pictures of Jen and Bastian opening the care package (notice Bastian's cute Chinese pj's) and click here for a cute video of Bastian enjoying his new Mickey Mouse doll.

We just returned from our ski trip to Val d'Isere, France, but haven't had a chance to go through the pictures yet. We hope to have those posted later this week.

Köln Karneval - Kölle Alaaf!

28.Feb.06

This weekend we celebrated our 2nd Cologne Carnival. We are again amazed at how the city embraces this festival. Sunday there were parades for the children in various quarters of the city and then on Monday we joined some friends at their apartment for the big Rosenmontag (Red Monday) parade. The apartment was right on the parade route so we got to stay warm and still had a great view. This year Jen and Joe dressed up as Bavarian folk and Bastian was the cutest little cowboy. Our neighbors were all indians so we got a couple good "cowboy and indians" pictures.

	Click here to see the pictures from the Lövenich parade
	Click here to see pictures from the Rosenmontag parade
	Click here or here for a couple of websites with detailed explanations in English of the Köln Karneval

Bastian's Super Strength, Jen's Birthday, and China

16.Feb.06

Well, this is sort of a catch-up post. The first thing is a hilarious video of Bastian trying to demonstrate how strong he is. We won't say any more, just click here for the video for a good laugh.

Next, at the end of January Jen celebrated her 31st birthday. Pat and Kathleen brought Austin and Dylan and cake over. Click on the thumbnail to the right for a picture or here to see the video of us singing "Happy Birthday".

Last, Joe just returned from a two week business trip to Guangzhou, China. He had been to this city before but only for a couple days. This time he got to see a little more. Thoughts about getting sick from bad water, strange foods, or bird flu dwindled quickly when he came to realize the biggest risk in the city was the traffic. Click here for the pictures.

Gramma's trip to Germany

25.Jan.06

Our nanny, Rachanee, was in Thailand while we were in the US plus two additional weeks so we asked Joe's mom to come back to Germany with us and take care of Bastian. We really appreciated her willingness to come to Germany for a couple weeks in the winter when it's not the best weather. She and Bastian got some great bonding time together while Joe and Jen worked and then on the weekends we did some sightseeing.

The first Saturday Joe and Gramma took Bastian to Sealife. It's a huge aquarium and Bastian saw tons of fish. We forgot the camera but we did buy a print of our tourist shot.

The next day we all went to Aachen. It's a historic town about 45 minutes west of Cologne with a beautiful Cathedral among other things.

The following weekend we took a couple extra days off and went to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Garmisch is a big ski resort town in southern Germany. Gramma and Bastian played in the snow and walked around town during the day while Joe and Jen got some quality skiing time together. One morning we bundled Bastian up and took the cable car to the Zugspitze peak. The Zugspitze is the highest point in Germany. The weather was perfect and you could see for hundreds of miles all the way across the Alps into Italy.

Bastian already misses Gramma and we sure enjoyed the visit.

Christmas 2005

19.Jan.06

I know it's taken me too long but I finally went through all the pictures from our US trip for Christmas and posted them. They are separated by locale and you can click on the location below to see the pics:

	Bastian opening gifts here in Germany before we left for the US
	Our time in New Haven with Gran and Grandad
	Then Fenton at Gramma's house and Grampa's house
	The annual Christmas gathering at Tom and Cyndi's
	And also the one at Denny and Jan's
	The weekend trip to Hoisington, KS
	Our stop at Council Grove, KS, where Jen and her family lived a while back
	Lunch with Uncle Chet on our way back through Kansas City
	The JAC get together (Jen, AJ, Carrie) at the Falkenrath's
	The P&G Cape reunion at Mark and Tara's

It was a great trip as usual. In all we managed to visit around 90 family and friends while we were in the US! We took a few short video clips that will get posted later.

Budapest and Schloss Burg

06.Dec.05

Our friends, John, Carrie, and Ava, came to visit us during their European vacation over the last couple weeks. They spent the 1st and 3rd weekend of their vacation with us in Cologne and we met them in Budapest, Hungary, for the weekend in between. Budapest is a wonderful city with a beautiful cityscape and riverfront. It is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, split by the Danube river. We needed a couple more days to see it all so we hope to go back in the spring. Click here for all the pictures from Budapest.

We had a blast with them and Bastian was smitten with their daughter, Ava. He kept bear hugging her and trying to give her kisses. He finally won her over on the last day and got a couple hugs in return. The last weekend they were here with us in the Cologne area so we visited a castle called Schloss Burg about a half hour north. Click here for those pictures.

Got Milk?

01.Dec.05

Joe took a cute picture of Bastian while eating some yogurt the other day. Reminded him of the Got Milk? commercials. Click on the thumbnail for the pic.

Also, just before Jen took the Halloween decorations down she dressed Bastian up in his Lion costume one more time for a couple cute shots with the witch. Click here for the pics.

FC Köln vs. Bayern München

04.Nov.05

Last Saturday Jen, Joe, and our neighbor Pat went to the FC Köln (Cologne) vs. Bayern München (Munich) game. It was a win-win for Joe as he has always been a Bayern fan and has also caught FC Köln fever since living in Cologne. The odds were not in Cologne's favor so the 2-1 loss wasn't a bad showing. Hopes were high, though, as Cologne went into halftime up 1-0 with a goal by Scherz in the 28th minute. Bayern tied it up in the 2nd half with a goal by Lucio in the 54th minute and then took the lead for good with a goal by Jen's favorite, Ballack, in the 74th minute. Bayern continues to sit at the top of the table while Cologne fell to 15, only one position above relegation to the 2nd league. Click here for all the pictures.

Halloween

03.Nov.05

This weekend we celebrated Bastian's 2nd Halloween. He was dressed up in a great Lion suit from his Gran. He made everyone smile wherever we went. The twins next door were dressed up in Green Bay Packers outfits and the three of them together were too cute. Click here for all the pictures.

Trip to the Cologne Zoo

27.Oct.05

Two weekends ago we took advantage of the nice weather and went to the Zoo (yea, I know, I've been a little lazy getting the pictures posted). Bastian got to see a few animals up close and personal. Didn't seem to phase him too much. I guess growing up around a 100 pound dog helps makes a baby a bit fearless. Click here for all the pictures.

Bastian's 1st Haircut and Vienna, Austria

09.Oct.05

First we'll start with the trip we took last weekend to Vienna, Austria. We had high expectations from Vienna (Wien in German) from all of the great things we've heard. Although it is a beautiful city and was well worth spending a weekend there, we didn't come away with quite the impression we were expecting. I think you have to be more of museum-type people than we are to truly get all that Vienna has to offer. And if you plan to visit some of the great museums you better plan for more than two days. What we really loved about Vienna is it's truly amazing architecture. Unlike most European cities, we got the impression Vienna survived WWII more or less in tact so most of what you see is original and impressive. We were also very impressed by the church interiors. Our last stop was the Schoenbrunn Palace, summer palace for the Habsburgs. The size of this palace and it's grounds is unbelievable. It has 1400 rooms, it's own zoo, and fake Roman ruins among other things. There are a couple panoramic pictures but they don't do this place justice. Click here for all the pictures.

This weekend we took Bastian for his first haircut. Although his curly locks were too cute (per Jen) they were getting a little long for a boy (per Joe). Frau Spitze did a great job and Bastian went from a baby to a kid in about 10 minutes. Jen also did a great job holding back the tears while watching her baby grow up right before her eyes. Click here to see the pictures of this milestone in Bastian's life.

Bastian is walking!

26.Sep.05

Well, things are getting more interesting. This past weekend Bastian took his first unassisted and in-control steps! Yes, he's walking. We got a short video of it this evening. Click here to see it. I guess now the game has changed again. :)

Rocking chairs and video clips

24.Sep.05