rettenbachklamm with 3 adults 6 kids and a dog (150/365b)

memories!
I was mad when i took this photo originally
but now it's my favorite of the day, by far

we three kindergarten driving group are reunioning today for fun. a nice hike up to the old (moved out of kindergarten) with all our kids on this perfect weather friday was just the thing. it just took a little while to get moving. "morning" turned into leaving at 12:30. And when jackie came to pick me up, i was just getting into the shower.

our hiking clothes

we found mushrooms, we walked slowly, had snacks in some light drizzle, were dazzled and scared by the sudden onslaught of very near thunder, and came back soaked from sudden rain. all in all, pretty good hiking.

im always a little sad that mine are too big to carry around
but also i don't envy the job of actually carrying around a sleeping child over slippery rocks and up steep hills

when we got back we were briefly locked out. it was no big deal. the kids had packed my backpack, and my keys were not something they thought of and neither did i. we used our few minutes to do some yard work. there are worse ways to spend time. dinner was just an egg on some leftovers, "that's all?" said the kids but then there were even leftovers of that. we don't eat nearly close to as much when brian the mega-runner is not here. 

preparing for school for a change (149/365b)

we spent so much time shopping and organizing... the two older kids both have long specific lists of school stuff they need before monday. lots of it we already have, but that meant specifically figuring out what we needed and going to the places that have those things. (not like the last two years where we got back from trips jetlagged on sunday night, when everything's closed, and winged it monday morning) it's not like we're very fast right now, with felix's foot healing and all. we didn't have to buy very much at all, but it just takes *so* *much* *TIME*. [i hate shopping]

since we were getting ready for school we might as well do haircuts too. they all wanted a haircut and i did the honors outside, and they sat on the broken bench that we keep intending to fix.

manuela visited us in the evening, and played games with us, some old, some new.

the nearly unending game of snakes and ladders between manuela and felix was somewhere close to 40 minutes
here's the put put boat i bought in berlin.
we put some beeswax in for fuel because the parafin stinks so much

theodore showing off his new game: "Border Patrol"
it's kind of cool actually, though, of course, the rules need work (to say the least)

Henry showing off his new pencil sharpener

the day in a nutshell:
school stuff by the ready in the back
lots of laughter
enthusiasm
closeness
lots of floor time

biking, there and back and there and back again (148/365b)

we nearly didn't make it out on time today - we left much much later than our intended time. and because of construction on the bike route to the train station we actually had a little bit of a weird way there too. but we still made it in plenty of time.

brian was packing and repacking his paniers and his stuff for the week, but for this part of the journey he took everything off again and carried felix on the bike seat. we made it the first 5km in pretty fast (for with kids) despite some stops (picture taking) hiccups along the way like...

always time to check out the view

short break before we get back in the saddle

theodore's chain fell off 1/2km from where we left - so cute, henry had a screw driver with him and wanted to help. it was even probably the correct tool, but nobody noticed him saying that he had one.
...and tara got stung by a bee *on her lip* 1km past that.

ice cream at 11am can also be medicinal

since we were making such good time we decided we might as well go on a completely superfluous 6km spoke, 12km all together, trip to thaler see and back, effectively doubling the distance we had planned. this was all very well and good but as soon as we left with the new destination in mind all the kids started saying they had had enough. but we decided the challenge was worth it. and it was! we made it and everyone was happy to get a little walk in on the way. i even found 2 eierschwammerln. (very funny to people like nina, who wrote to me she was looking for mushrooms today and probably filled a basket full, but i think it's pretty good in such a well-traveled spot to find anything) - i also had a cappucino all alone by the lake. it was €3.40 and not even the best cappucino ever. .....

better than the one i made of all of us, on a self timer which fell and smacked on the ground.

off we went back home, and the ride was relatively uneventful - henry hit a curb once and fell and scraped his knee and cried a lot, and i was very nervous because it looked really bad from where i was, but when i got there it didn't even need a band-aid (although of course we gave him one!)


At home again I cooked like crazy fast to get food ready so that we could eat before they all took off again. I don't know how but all the strudel was gone. I guess it was worth staying up half the night for. Shawn used his last few minutes in driveway to teach Henry a new way of tying a bowline knot with just one hand. It looks cool - like a magic trick - and Henry was very impressed and then proud of himself.

Brian's ausrüstung

Have a good trip!

We waved goodbye, and then, I guess the kids weren't even that tired from their 20km bike rides, they wanted to go out and play somewhere. playground was closed so we went to the soccer field across the river, but that was full of playing teenagers, so we shot basket ball hoops with a soccer ball, and played the game PIG with very strange rules. - Felix "won" ... his task was just to try to graze the hanging down part of the basket with the ball. I lost all together, which was impressive as the first ball i threw landed directly in the basket and after that i must have thrown 30 near misses in a row.

Tired and happy we meandered home for stories and leftover dinner.

coffee for instagram (147/365b)

nonchalant at suesse luisa

Figuring out how to meet when her kid is sick and we have company is not so easy, but our quintet keeps up our instagram (or Barbara does) and on wednesdays we talk about who we are. Except in the summer time we don't generate so much content but we still have to output what we say we are going to. this time (for the next 5 weeks) we are writing about our favorite coffee shops. Aww, poor us: we had to go get ourselves a coffee and a croissant.

It turns out i had missed a text message about a gig that we are playing on the 23rd. i sent brian a message to put it on the calendar, and got a text immediately back that i assumed was from brian, but it was actually a quite unrelated person saying that they want me to play a quite unrelated gig on the 23rd. Graz! You have to stop trying to double, triple, quadruple book me! I have lots of unbooked weekends, please just ask first!

when i got home i sat down and edited photos right away, which took a long time actually, because i'm just so far behind on photo stuff. tara tried to get the kids to go pretty much anywhere. she and shawn wanted to go out for dinner tonight, and she said she was planning on leaving at 4:30, but she would pretty much go anywhere and do anything before then. at 4:15 they weren't even properly dressed but they convinced her to let them show her the abenteuerspielplatz. we followed after and rescued her.

brian and i entrusted our 3 boys to the personel and went for a walk of our own - picked up henry's bow from getting rehaired, and picked up a package from the post office, and overall just had a nice walk together. our package was all books so we kind of got lost in them in the evening. and then just as i was getting ready to go to sleep brian asked if i still had any plans for the apples in the bowl.... oh

oh yes.

i was going to make an apple strudel, the one thing tara had asked for. i made the dough. everything was so very very very sticky! i don't know why. i've never made such sticky dough (except for everything with rye flour) .... the first one completely fell apart. i made more, added butter. it stuck too. not to the pan though. i think the the world is just so humid and hot and nothing is quite right. as soon as it baked it was perfect. really really perfect. it was also past 1am. i hope people like apple strudel for breakfast - we won't have any other time to eat it. brian and tara and shawn start their Mur River bike trip tomorrow, and we're doing the first few miles with them. Train leaves at 10:04. Better get to bed!

cast off! (146/365b)

SOOO happy that Felix got his cast off today! Brian took him in. The rest of us went hiking.

Up to the burgruine goesting.

I took zero pictures because of battery exhaustion, although i carried the heavy camera all the way up and back, slung over my shoulder like a highschool student. as tara said, she used to think "back pack over one shoulder = high-school. back pack over two shoulder = college."

henry wants to take a break at the first bench.

Admiring the view at the top: high yield hike

pointing out the train station and the schlossberg

me and henry looking over the wall

Theodore and Henry practice Henry's new "SUPER ZOOM" technique

shawn and henry discussing when the bus ticket might expire

theodore showing us the short cuts

brian waiting for us at home, with felix

still not comfortable to walk, but teaching shawn labyrinth is just fine.

Spent the afternoon with Michi and Raphi. Tara had work to do and Shawn had shopping to do. Michi and I sat in the full hot sun and watched the rain pour down right next to us. Strange weather we're having.

croissants for breakfast (145/365b)

Sometimes on a drizzly morning the doorbell rings and Nina is standing there with 2 huge bags of croissants. Doesn't ever happen to you? well, I guess we live a charmed life. It was a nice relaxed breakfast with very strong coffee and very calm conversation.

It was hard to get us motivated to go anywhere. First we thought if it cleared up we could go to Schloss Eggenberg, but eventually we decided to do all the nice little sites of Graz, which our visitors hadn't seen any of yet because of the weather. But I can't go anywhere easily with Felix. I biked him to the foot of the Schlossberg and took the bahn up. Carried him around everywhere, and then back down the same way.

At the top we found 2 figs. One wasn't that perfectly ripe, it was ok. One was perfect, and at the very top of the tippitiesttoppetest branch. I climbed up, lost a shoe on the way up, was scared for my life, grabbed the fig, tossed it towards felix and tara, was surprised at my own strength, and watched it fly past their heads over the wall into nothingness. Oh well, I tried.

next movie poster: everyday super heros unite!

We met up again at hauptplatz and went to the eisperle, yummy vegan ice cream.

ice cream for dinner
felix had the biggest one
(although i asked them to give him an extra small one)

This time we nearly beat the rain home. We started trying an earlier bedtime, in anticipation of school starting (yuck) next week. It wasn't hard, everybody's exhausted and cold and bed feels just right.

I met up with Jackie for a spontaneous birthday gathering at die Scherbe. It was nice, but I'm not a big fan of crowds of strangers or drinking. Still I was the last one standing. I brought a cake (chocolate peanutbutter, vegan and gluten free and so delicious), which i balanced on a porcelain plate on my left hand while biking with my right. I nearly dropped it when I was locking my bike, but nothing happened. the whipped cream was still piled beautifully on top. I had to wake up brian to let me in because I forgot my key like a soprano. Ooops.

And on the subject of cake... I was a little nervous about bringing a cake to a restaurant. I was discussing the etiquette of this with Centa. permission vs. forgiveness etc. Then Felix says: You can just smoosh it in someone's face and say "here's one think I learned from the movies."

RAIN?! (144/365b)

When we left to show Tara and Shawn the Farmer's market I felt a drop or two, and thought I'd take a rain jacket and umbrella "just in case" it rains. Felix's cast isn't supposed to get wet at all.

bundling up

unterwegs

Well, we hadn't been at the market more than a half a minute before it started to pour beyond belief, and it was a good thing felix was covered in my jacket and an umbrella (his cast still got a little wet, but not horrible) and I was left completely, very much completely, drenched, to the skin. Like i'd gone swimming. Brian got back and all the shopping bags, even the shopping bags inside shopping bags were completely soaked. But he had finished buying everything that we needed for the weekend.

So mostly we stayed inside after that. Card games...

felix won 11 games of rummy and centa 0
one man's grin is another's chagrin.

Chatting...

all kinds of politics and running shoe shop

Theodore and Henry came back from their campout, and they were very happy to find fresh hummus (I tried to recreate Berlin hummus, and got pretty close) and fresh veggies. They told us they "weren't tired at all" but that they had "stayed up all night."

I can't believe it's September. I'm not ready for the end of summer. I guess that's what this cold rain is supposed to tell us about.