Gruneburg Park pics

Just some photos I took yesterday at Gruneburg Park.











Gianna and Bố on the see-saw (sometimes it's hard to get Dan off when it's time to leave).











This contraption is a merry-go-round.

"He loves me...he loves me not"

Everything is perfectly normal...but then zombies attack! Bruno comes to help.

Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, a city in Texas, and a public holiday in Germany. It was last Thursday. Dan had off from work, Gianna had off from school, stores were closed, and so we went to the zoo. I didn't take so many pics because we had been there before and how many zoo pics do you really need? And yeah, it's mid-June and we are wearing jackets. But today I'm blogging in shorts and a tank-top, go figure.











More random pics of G Mai in everyday Frankfurt life.













This third photo merits some explaination. She likes me to take photos of her eating, and I am happy to oblige. This particular ice cream is called "Afrikan Safari". Why? Because it features dark chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate fudge and dark chocolate candies. Although a large part of cocoa production is in Africa, that name wouldn't fly in the US. But just like the Germans at Dan's work that wanted to give a computer application the acronym "TRAMP" (because they thought it meant "hobo"), the Germans at the ice cream company that came up with this name probably thought they were being quite clever. Germans are many things, but clever isn't one of them.



And now as we leave for another day at Gruneburg park, I leave you with this conversation from yesterday as we gawked at mostly naked Germans laying out on the lawn like it was Belmar beach.

Barb: Germans are really white people.
Dan: They're trying to do something about that.

Cousins from around the world

...red, brown, yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight.

If only everyone in the world lived by the words of this children's song. Here are some recent pics of Gianna's beautiful cousins from Idaho, courtesy of Cary Burnett Photography. John and Bethel were adopted from Ethiopia and Elianna was adopted from China.



I can't wait for Gianna's hair to be as long as Elianna's! Right now, if I want to get a barrette to stay in, I have to coat it with pomade first.

Pastry of the day...

...Rhubarberplunder.
It was delicious. I ate most of it on the train ride home so this was all that was left to photograph. I used to hate rhubarb. What happened? Did it somehow get more delicious over the years?





Gianna has finally stopped pining over BàÔngCori and has moved on to Ông more beard instead. We've been spending lots of time at construction sites lately. She thinks Ông drives the tractors and keeps looking for him. Kids her age have no concept of time and space, but unfortunately they are still bound by it (as far as I know...). She thinks the grandparents must live in Frankfurt somewhere along with everyone else she knows. Well tomorrow she will get to talk to Ông more beard on Skype along with Bà, Nathan, Jim, Christina, and their new baby Hunter. She is excited to see Hunter, but sometimes it seems like what she really wants is to catch another glimpse of Ông's captivating beard...

OK, one last photo of food. Did bakeries in Frankfurt just start carrying muffins? I used to never see them, but now I see them fairly often. Gianna picked out this chocolate one and today I saw a batch that looked like corn muffins. Probably if I bought one, I would have been disappointed and regretted not buying the rhubarberplunder instead.

Dan's brat and beer diet

People have been asking "Has Dan lost weight?" You betcha! See above May 2008 (left) verses May 2009 (right). I like the chiseled 2009 version much better but do miss the love handles for squeezing. His secret? Chasing around a toddler, walking instead of driving everywhere, the unavailability of certain junk foods, 1 beer per night with dinner, a hearty German cafeteria lunch...hmmm no mention of expensive dietary supplements, fad dieting, or other ill-advised practices. Just good clean living! Way to go Dan!!

Everybody into the pool!

The last time Gianna was at a pool was at the Somerset Grand in Vietnam. The water was cold, and she probably thought these two white people were plotting to drown her. So we weren't sure how she would react to a pool this time around. There are a lot of city pools and thermal springs in and around Frankfurt. We chose Titus Therman, because the website specifically said they had a warm kiddie pool and it was on our local train line. Gianna has been depressed since Bà, Ông, and Cori are gone, but an hour in the pool really cheered her up! When we were in the locker room changing, she kept asking if we were going to get a bath. She was timid at first, wondering if she should get in the water, but soon was splashing around having a good time. So now that we know she likes the water, next time we will have to try out one of the more expensive thermal spas.

Hunter Cole

While we were traveling back to Frankfurt from Paris, my nephew Hunter Cole was born to my brother Jim and his wife Christina. She has set up a blog with some pics of the little peanut. Hunter has quite fair skin and hair like his mother and like both of my brothers when they were kids. In contrast, I came out with a frock of black hair and have ever since been a brunette. In about a month, my brother Jeff and his wife Nancy will deliver little Ryan. My parents went from no grandkids to 4 grandkids in just over a year's time (Nathan, Gianna, Hunter, and Ryan). It's a grandchild explosion! Let the spoiling begin. Still, Gianna is the only granddaughter on either side of the family, a beautiful pink rose in a sea of bluebells.