At the end of June, we headed to So Cal for one week of family fun. It was my first experience flying alone with Sophie over the pond, and it went surprisingly well! With some last-minute worries about getting seats on the flight, we finally were the last 2 standbys called, and we happily nestled into our business class seats…. 3 rows in front of the actor who plays Bree’s son on Desperate Housewives, and a class back from some Danish celebrity. Soenke had to fly out a day later, and he sadly was dealt a jump seat…

The day after we arrived, we got a surprise call from my Santa Barbara cousin Heather (and husband Zach) who were en route from San Diego - only minutes from my folks’ house - and stopped in for a short visit! Somehow I missed getting a photo of that (chalk it up to major jet lag) but they were still looking like happy, glowing newlyweds.

We bunked with my folks, who pulled out all the stops in terms of great food and an unbelievable selection of toys for Sophie (no kidding, my mom kept nearly ALL of my toys from when I was a kid…).

We also teamed up with my bro and his family, and made a Big Week out of it: a visit to a local airport where a whole lot of NOISY helicopters took off and landed, much to my nephews’ glee… a day at the beach… a big party & BBQ for my brother’s birthday… and a cameo visit from my cousin Steve & his wife Kim, all the way from Seattle! We had to leave the evening after their arrival, but we got a good day of grilling and playing in nonetheless.

Lots of holes in my photo sequencing, but there were a lot of cameras clicking and hopefully someone will fill in the blanks!

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I captured a few typical moments of Sophie and my sojourns in various airports:

Visiting the “cows” at the Marche restaurant in Hamburg airport

Sophie took great interest in my strawberry-banana juice

In Munich, riding the “peoplemovers” between gates kept us busy for a good 30 minutes

Upon arrival at my folks’ house in So Cal, Sophie got straight to work with the model horses (which were mine as a kid):

She LOVED this:

And was soon joined by the rest of her cousins!

One day, we all went to a small local airport for a picnic, and were visited by a very brave rabbit:

My favorite day was a visit to Crystal Cove Beach (in Laguna Beach), complete with milkshakes from the Shake Shack!

Sophie’s cousins get busy burying their brother, Seth:

Sophie steps out in her cute new swimsuit from Grandma:

Sophie’s cousin Levi gets nice and sandy:

Gina soaks up some rays:

Soenke just wonders when it is milkshake time!

While Grandpa joins Sophie in the icy cold Pacific waters:

Back at my bro’s house, my cousin Steve shows Sophie how to do bubbles:

Sophie sporting her darling 4th of July dress! (thanks Sally!)

Wow, how’d a pic of me get in there? Those are far & few these days…

And finally, my bro chills on the porch:

On May 30th, we celebrated Sophie’s 2nd birthday (which was actually on May 22, but we were living it up in the Canary Islands on that date!). I think I’m getting better at these things after observing Sally Deig’s party tricks over the years. For one thing, I delegated all the cake-making to the experts (Lisa Schnabel made her World Famous Carrot Cake; Brigitte made some very yummy cakes and cookies, and Soenke even tried his hand at a marble cake which was very interesting). I put together little goodie gift bags for our 5-years-and-under guests. I got some pretty flowers. And *most importantly*, the helium tank and 50 balloons! That was by far the biggest hit. Kids love balloons… particularly setting them “free” outside…

But, there was a little surprise in there for the grown ups. After the 3pm kiddie party (coffee, champagne, and cakes), we fired up the BBQ at 6pm and pulled out all the stops! Soenke morphed into the Grillmaster, and out came the burgers and accoutrements. It was midnight before our final guests departed. DEFINITELY a successful evening!

Photos commemorate the earlier fun (I think I lost the camera in all the wrapping paper by about 5pm…):

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Sophie’s birthday dress… Mommy went to Kirstan’s favorite hand-smocked dress store in Paris
for this one! (And Sophie cared a LOT, I can tell you… she even ditched the cute sparkly gold
shoes I bought in favor of her rainboots!)

Honored guests Aunt Lena & Uncle Ole

Honored guests Sally & Amin

Honored guests Kara & Erika

Honored guests Lisa, Saskia, Milla & Christian

Honored guest Oma!

I tried my hand at a little flower arranging

Sophie’s 4th of July dress from Sally & Amin

The helium balloons were a big hit with the kids (who worked together to release about 30 of them into the sky…):

Sophie & Opa watch another one go…

The driveway was an unexpected popular gathering spot

And out came the bollerwagen!

Here is a rear view of the gorgeous sweater that Brigitte hand-crocheted for Sophie!:

And finally, in other news, our first roses in our garden! (at the moment, that’s the only thing in our garden…)