Wine Wagon Fun....

This evening was too much fun... Oliver proved to be a WUNDERBAR Wine Wagon driver through the countryside near our house. You really can't go wrong with good wine, good food and good friends all mixed into one :-)

JP's Haircut...the first without sitting on Mommy's lap :-)

JP was quite the "big boy" when he got his first haircut sans Mommy. He loved checking himself out in the mirror and impressed the barber...too cute!

Labor Day in Belgium...

We had so much fun on this "local" trip...after stopping at the Eifel Zoo (about 45 minutes from our house), we spent the afternoon drinking beer with friends at the "Beer Museum." We then stayed at a great B & B and headed off on Sunday morning to continue exploring the Belgian country. After stopping at a few monasteries that serve great beer and cheese, we stayed at an awesome hotel that seemed like it was only open for us. On Monday, before heading back home, we rode a "rail bike" -- the countryside was beautiful (despite the rain...yeppo, I gave Matt a hard time about us even going, but it was definitely worth it) -- we had a great time and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick/easy/inexpensive getaway!

More pics of JP...

Here are more pics taken by our friend... You can tell in a few of the pictures that we were asking him, "Where is your tongue?" or "Where is your belly button (can you tell he doesn't ever miss a meal? :-)" or "Honk your nose!" This is such a great age...just when we think it can't get any better, he says something new or does a new "trick." We absolutely love it!

Pics of JP...

Here are some pics of JP that were taken by a friend of ours... She claims to be a novice and just needed little ones to "practice" with -- but if you ask me...she could open up shop tomorrow and start making a killing here with all the military families. My humble opinion...these pictures are keepers!!

Wittlich Pig Fest...

Well I'm embarrassed to say that we went to the Wittlich Pig Fest yesterday and I didn't even see one of the ginormous roasting pigs!!! However, while drinking a beer with friends, we did catch a few pics of JP clowning around :-)

Our weekend in Beilstein...

The first two pics are taken from the castle in the town of Cochem -- the scenery never fails to amaze us!

JP loves riding in the backpack...Daddy's little buddy :-)

Our child has "Osterkamp blood" that's for sure. Aren't children supposed to not like the taste of wine/beer. We sat down for a wine probe in Beilstein and JP enjoyed it as much as we did :-) (Don't worry...we actually cut him off pretty quickly!)

This is another picture of the Mosel from the castle in Beilstein...

This is a picture of our balcony -- JP had a blast playing up there and dropping flower petals over the side onto the people eating down below.

JP's favorite ride...

Here is JP's favorite car...his "Boppy Car" as Germans call it :-) He goes all over the backyard with it -- he feels like such a big boy!

Playing outside...

We're loving the summer sunshine here in Germany... JP takes every chance he can to go outside. Usually, he picks up the dogs tennis ball thrower which gets them all excited...running around the house. The only way to calm the dogs down is to take them outside at which time JP gets to go out and play too -- yeppo, JP is pretty smart :-)

He is starting to really enjoy "smiling" for the camera -- now we just have to work on keeping his eyes open!

Riding the dogs :-)

We knew it was only a matter of time before JP started riding the pups around the house :-) Unfortunately, Lucie is JP's "pony" of choice...too much fun!