Emily's hanging toy

At four months old, Emily has learned to roll over (with great difficulty) and reach for things that are immediately accessible to her.  The weather was nice this afternoon so I hung a hanging toy from her bouncy chair and spent some time outside taking photos.  In all, I took 235 photos.  Here are six of the good ones:

Christmas 2013

I made the children pose for photos before allowing them to open presents.  They were not happy about the delay but they learned quickly that arguing about it just lengthened the delay...

Back to School 2013

After a nice summer break, the boys went back to school.  Oscar started fourth grade and Calvin started first grade.  Like last year, I asked each of the boys pose for some back-to-school photos.

Photos of Sara

I took some photos of Sara in the back yard.

First day of school 2012

The boys started third grade and Kindergarten this year.  We told Calvin that boys and girls would learn how to read in Kindergarten.  He was excited to learn how to read but when he got home on the first day of school he was disappointed that nobody had taught him how to read; he thought it was all going to happen on the first day of school...

Church activity at the park in Groß-Gerau

We had a ward activity at the park in Groß-Gerau -- good friends, good food, good times...  I brought the camera and took some pictures.

Norschter Kerb

Each year in late August the town where we live hosts a small carnival -- the Norschter Kerb.  We walked to the carnival and let the children play some of the games and ride some of the rides.  They each got a small treat as we started to walk home.

Hofgut Langenau

Oscar's cub scout pack visited a Rhine River island in Trebur.  The island has some nice jogging and biking trails that are popular with visitors.  There is also a restaurant and a small "beach" area.  We had a short ferry ride to the island and then we walked to the restaurant.  Everybody had a great time.

HHamburg

At the end of July, I spent a week in Hamburg for work.  Hamburg is Germany's second largest city and Europe's third largest port.  Hamburg's official name (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg) reflects the city's  history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.  Hamburg is also one of three German city-states (Berlin and Bremen are the others).

The largest German cities generally use only one letter as the city code on their license plates.  For example, B=Berlin, M=Munich (München), K=Cologne (Köln), F=Frankfurt, L=Leipzig, and S=Stuttgart.  Although Hamburg is Germany's second largest city, H is used by Hanover and Hamburg instead uses HH as a reference to its earlier membership in the Hanseatic League (German: Hansestadt Hamburg).

My coworker Jamie also came on this trip and he brought his family.  In the evenings, we visited a fair at the Hamburger Dom and I got a chance to go to the harbor and take some photos.

Raingutter regatta and a water gun fight

The cub scouts held the annual Raingutter regatta (a regatta is a series of boat races) at the end of June.  The boys made boats out of plastic water bottles and raced them against each other.