Germany, and Catching Up.

Guess that goes to show you what having kids does for you. I have literally tens of thousands of pictures of F+F, stored in purchased iCloud space somewhere I don't completely understand and cluttering more than one iDevice. 

And yet I spent five days in Germany, managing to drink some German beer and squeeze in a quick Bad Tolz road trip to see old friends, and I took like four. And two of them were of food. 

It was a whirlwind of awful travel and a worse conference schedule- involving daily bus transit and way too much spaetzle- but still nice to get back to a place I've loved since I was a kid. (My only other stops there since high school having been either on my way to a war or returning from one, neither being a time for much fun.) Plus Army travel routed me through Atlanta on Super Bowl weekend, making for a real "there's no place like home!" moment when I finally made it.

Luckily, Grandma Jayne came to save the day

and the kids had a blast skipping school in favor of snuggle time. If I hadn't brought home kinder eggs, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have known I was gone.

I got back just in time for ballet and a trip to the children's museum (this is Ford "stopping a bad guy," because he is almost always Dash Incredible these days),

and to make the little heathens go pick up trash with Jayne and I at the Cape Fear Trail. Which was a real sh*tshow.

Seth had been smoking meat for days upon my return (I'm not sure they ate anything else in my absence), and we threw a wild kid Super Bowl Party

at which they acted terrible with their friends and mostly eschewed pants.

Since then it's been a frenzy of work catchup, sprinkled with a birthday party or two

holiday prep (slash cleanup),

and a farewell to Grandma that involved tears (mine) and a couple summer-like days warm enough for- if not the pool- the hot tub, before she had to go back to subzero North Dakota temps.

Plus a wild night at Chuck E. Cheese (Seth & Jayne's pick)

and lots of snuggles.

All in all, I'm behind on almost everything (including this blog) but the Niemans are having a lovely, unseasonably warm, Grandma-brightened, February.

Photo of the week, since I neglected to take any of either Jayne or Germany, is this one of, you know, your everyday Sunday night with F+F's posse. They like to dress (mostly) for BBQ night.