A Portrait a week: 30/52 - Little Miss Jet-Setter

Isabella is all packed and ready for her vacation!

Our week in Germany, seen from above.

While I'm editing photos of our weekend to show you, here's a video Andre put together of our week in Germany, filmed using his quadrocopter.


Around Eching and Back from Andre Mostert on Vimeo.

A Portrait a week: 24/52 and a week in Munich

Hot hot hot!

We had a really fantastic week in Germany this past week and was sad to have it come to an end. We were spoilt by my mom and stepdad looking after Isabella so we could have a night out on the town, but also helping look after her and entertaining her every day and getting her out of bed in the mornings when she woke up earlier than we would have liked to get up. It was lovely having a bit of a lie in! It was just such a relaxing, fun family holiday. 

It was really hot, between 31C - 37C most days so the hottest part of most days were spent indoors where it was cooler, but we enjoyed sitting under the trees in the garden in the late afternoon and going for strolls around the dam nearby after dinner in the evenings. Isabella handled the heat really well to our surprise, although she did manage to wake up with her first cold the morning we left for Germany. We had a few difficult nights but then she was back to sleeping through the nights, smiling through most of the days and just having occasional parts of the later afternoons where one could see she was just not feeling quite herself.

Waiting in 'The Park' to board our flight.

We were lucky to have a free seat so after
take-off Isabella could spread out a bit.

Cooling off in the pond.

With her Opa Jürgen.

This one has my name on it!

Perfect summer evenings for BBQs

A visit to the English Garden in Munich. So peaceful and beautifully green.

An evening stroll around the dam and past these fields.

What a lovely bed! It even has a little door!

Now this is a summer holiday! Swimming in refreshingly
cold water! Isabella only dipped her toes in.

And was exhausted after our visit to the dam,
getting a quick nap in on her daddy's shoulder
on the walk home.

Passed out after a fun afternoon.

Date night in Munich!

After some shopping we went for sushi and
cocktails. A stroll around the city and then
dinner at a Thai restaurant. Perfect!

Now why do you have so many teeth Ouma, and I only have two?

Isabella on her great-grandmother's lap. What a privilege to
have a great-granny.

Mommy-baby selfie while the daddy plays with his toys.

Andre flying his quadrocopter

There he goes!

Isabella enjoyed visiting beer gardens!

And inspected the benches up close, also
testing them as possible teethers.

This dress brings out the German in her!

A last lunch under the trees.

Waiting to board our plane back home. 

Isabella made an interesting friend on the plane- the guy in the row next to us told us he is the tallest man in Canada and has the second largest hands in the Guinness Book of Records. He was on his way back to Canada after filming a movie in Tunisia in which he plays Goliath. He was really sweet with Isabella, making her smile all the time. I so wish I had asked to have a photo of us with him.

Isabella received this puppet when we boarded the plane-
It's called Lu, the Lufthansa mascot.

Christmas 2013

We've had a lovely Christmas, our first Christmas with Isabella. Andre had to work Christmas Eve, but finished early. We had a little family Christmas photo shoot and so almost forgot to put dinner in the oven. I wanted to leave the photos as late in the evening as possible because I wanted to change Isabella into her Christmas outfit and wanted her to still wear it the next day. Well, at least it stayed clean for the photos which we took dangerously close to her bottle and bed time hence the faces in the last few photos. She then had her bottle which she spit up all over the front of her outfit... No worries, we wiped it and some baby lotion helped mask the smell.

Early Christmas morning we flew to Germany to spend a few days with the family. Isabella surprised us by being very cool and calm about traveling as though she's done it many times before. She did have two long flights behind her before birth. She decided to put my airplane nappy changing skills to the test when her nappy leaked and we had to have a complete outfit change including a whole body wipe-down in the airplane bathroom. So she arrived in Germany on Christmas morning wearing pink instead of red.

Waking up Christmas morning.

Tagged and ready to fly!

Enjoying her in flight meal.

Luckily her Aunty Simone was ready with another cute Christmas outfit when we arrived!

Santa baby!

Isabella enjoyed all the attention from the family and her parents enjoyed a little bit of a break from feeding and entertaining. She must have been a super good baby as she also got spoilt with loads of presents for Christmas!

Skiing at Kitzbuhel

26 February 2013

Kitzbühel old town

We drove to Kitzbuhel in Austria yesterday so Andre could go skiing. It's been three years since he's been skiing in Switzerland. We've been to Kitzbuhel before and like it because you can walk from the village to the ski slopes which means I can stand at the bottom of the slopes watching him or go for a stroll round the village and see the shops. It's an easy 1hr40min drive from my mom and Jurgens house, except that it was snowing all the way there and the roads were quite slushy so took a bit longer.

After renting the kit, Andre spent about two rounds on the beginners blue slope and then headed up a red slope which he enjoyed for the rest of the day. Both of these I can stand at the bottom watching him go up and down the slope. Or as I did later sit at a restaurant on this slope watching the skiers go past. He came skiing down to the restaurant for a lunch stop of goulash soup, one of our favourites in Germany, before heading off again.

The restaurant where we had lunch on the slopes to the right.

My view of Andre coming down the slope from the restaurant.

lunch break

We'd like to one year spent a few days there so he can explore some of the other slopes more, and I the village and shops!

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