Bayerwald Weekend

After having a few years of 'employer friendly years', 2012 is an 'employee friendly' year, since the (Bavarian) public holidays fall on weekdays for much of the year (different than the US standard, if a holiday falls on a Saturday, there is no shifting the holiday to the weekday.  The last two years, even the 3 days for Christmas / New Years fell on the weekend :-( ...but I digress)

 We took advantage of Labor Day (the first of May) to take a long weekend in the Bavarian forest.

 We had great weather, and went on some nice hikes...and did some caching.  this was the first time that I didn't schlepp Emily on my back.  This was great for my back, but Emily wasn't thrilled about having to walk.

 We found some cool caches along the hiking paths, and the kids wanted to hold the Garmin (GPS).

 Emily likes pushing the buttons.

 This cache was in a very cool ammo container.

 A few from one of the watering holes along the path.

 Of course, Emily had to touch the water.  In these situations, I'm petrified that Emily will get everything wet, which is not great when you do not have any spare clothes.

 The kids really seemed to have a great time together.

 No great mountain hike would be complete without a Biergarten at the top.  Yes, the kids get ice cream as a reward for their hike.

 There was a great boulder near the Biergarten...that the kids climbed on.

 After the Biergarten and hiking down the mountain a bit, we took the summer bobs down the rest of the way.  This is always the highlight for the kids.

 A view of the countryside.

 I love Emily's face here!

The weather was perfect...super sunny and very warm.  Quinn did a great job hiking:  he's really getting into it, and tried to get us to hurry up a bit (Emily and I were slowing things down).  He even mentioned a few times that he wanted to go on different trails, deeper into the forest where the path is much narrower.  Seems like he is really internalizing and enjoying hiking.  Maybe it is the ice cream in the Biergarten that helps the most.

Emily did great for her first time hiking with her own two legs.  Over the 2 hikes that we went on, she did maybe 3km on her own.  Not bad for those tiny legs.

We had a great time at our 'normal' B&B:  the food was great, and the kids really like the playroom in the attic...which allows Eva and I to also have some peace and quiet while we eat.

Most importantly: we had some great family QUANTITY time.