Kidney operations

We are very happy to hear that Maria and Dennis' mom both had successful kidney operations!  You are always in our prayers.  We love you.

Love your cousins in America

Thank you so much for the birthday package!!!

Thank you so much Svenja and Maria and all my other cousins for the wonderful birthday presents...I love schleich animals sooooo much!...and the boys do too.  Also thank you for das kindmusic, we listened to it today while driving in the car.  And of course, thank you so much for the wonderful picture of all 8 cousins!   It was fun to tell the boys all of your names.   We love you!

Last year we spent 6 months in St.Nazaire,France. Dennis was working over there and everyone spent the summer holidays at our place. had a lot of fun!!!

Dennis & I in our favourite restaurant"la plage"

Jannika, Dennis & myself

Petra(Dennis' Mother), Jannika at the Beach next to our apartment

Capital of Bretagne: Rennes

Tobias, Svenja & Gina, a friend of mine

Dennis

la plage

Svenja & Moritz

with Svenja at la belle ile

Dennis Mum and me at the beach next door

We had a nice visit from Tobias and Svenja all the way from Germany!

Tobias and Isaac

Tobias and Theo

Svenja and Isaac, Tobias and Theo having some fun.

 Mareo, Emilie, Luci, and Cobi drove all the way up from San Diego to see Tobias and Svenja (thanks to Luci who out of the blue mentioned that she wanted to see her Theo :)

And here is the happy reunion of Theo and Luci--best cousins.

Cobi crawling

Isaac wanted in on the love too :) --Isaac also loves to give big hugs and kisses.

 Tender moments

Sweet Luci

Adorable Oscar

Messy Isaac

Tobias and Luci reading a story by Stan and Jan Berenstein 

called "Junk Food".

Isaac and Svenja were pals :)

Svenja pushing Cobi and Isaac 

Beautiful Svenja

Mareo flying Oscar at the museum

Svenja, Omi, and Tobias at the museum

Svenja and Omi at the museum

Tobias treated us all to an Indian food restaurant called The Bombay House.  

It was delicious!  Thank you, so much Tobias!  

Leaving the restaurant...can you spot Tobias?!

Svenja and Tobias at the Great Salt Lake.

Tobias, Omi, and Svenja

Mom (Birgit), Tobias, Omi, and Svenja

Tobias and Geromy

I asked Svenja if I could take some pictures of her--because, well, she's so beautiful :)

Christina and I both agree that we see a lot of Barbara in Svenja.

Tobias with Oscar

Mom and Svenja doing Omi's hair

Easter egg hunt time!  The kids found the eggs and put them in a little shopping cart and at the end after following the string all the way around the backyard they were led to their Easter baskets.

Me (Annamaria) and Isaac opening up an egg

Theo and Luci running around the path

Luci found her East basket first :)

Isaac finding his Easter basket

Theo finding his Easter basket

Oh my!  Someone stole the children's shopping cart and eggs!

It's Tobias!--get him! (I'll upload the video soon :)

Sweet Oscar laughing--Tobias took these next few photos.

Omi and Oscar

Svenja and Oscar

Precious Luci

Christina drawing a rainbow with the egg chalk the kids got in their baskets...Christina always drew rainbows when she was little.

Tobias and Theo

Tobias, Mareo, and Geromy

Svenja, Oscar, and Great Grandma Elisabeth

After the Easter egg hunt we went inside to enjoy Mom's cheesecake...it's so, so good!

Omi and Tobias

Mom (Birgit) giving Tobias a hug--Mom really appreciated that Tobias and all of us LOVED her cheesecake!

 

Theo, Isaac, Oscar, Luci, and Cobi (Luke and Ezra would have liked to be here too).

Annamaria, Svenja, Christina, Geromy, Mareo, Tobias....hopefully in the near future we can get a picture with all of the cousins together!

 All of the same people with the kids and Omi and Mom (Birgit).

Annamaria, Svenja, Christina...our last picture together before we said our good-byes.

After Tobias and Svenja left with Mom, Geromy and Omi and Mareo and his family left I was able to get some fun pictures of Oscar and Theo :)

Happy Oscar 

Joyful Theo

Theo getting a horsey-ride on his Dad's (Peter) back.

And here is Isaac enjoying the sunlight and soft, new carpet.

Thank you, so much Tobias and Svenja for coming all the way to America.  It is such a wonderful thing to have a positive and healthy relationship with family.  We hope to continue our relationship and to get together often.